Read Online The Rift by Katharine Sadler - Free Book Online Page B

knowing that a hugely powerful, and cruel reaper was
hanging around. I’d hesitated before, but I’d been wrong. Thad’s
and Jed’s warnings had made it clear we all needed to be on the
same page before we spoke to any wolves. Tucker was the only one
who didn’t look surprised, and I suddenly wished I’d told him about
Houston alone, so I could find out what he knew.
    “And you didn’t tell anyone, because…” Jed
said.
    “I didn’t want to get sent back to Varius,” I
said. “Because if I leave here without completing the therapy, I’ll
be under an even more intense house arrest than I was before. I
didn’t want to run because of one stupid reaper who makes a habit
of screwing up my life. And it’s not like he did anything or made
any threats, he just showed himself and left.”
    “So to satisfy your own whim, you put us all
in danger by not telling us that a super-reaper was hanging
around?” Jed’s harsh tone made me flinch.
    “Hey, Jed, ease up,” Henry said.
    “My whim?” I asked. “Do you want me to
apologize for thinking about what I want when I’m enslaved to
Varius? Do you have any idea what it’s like to be stuck there all
day every day with everyone studying the minutiae of my life and
reporting it back to your mother? Not to mention that I am so
fucking bored I’m about to lose my mind. And why am I even there in
the first place? Did my whim make me sign that contract—?”
    “It was your choice to sign that contract,”
Jed said, his teeth clenched. Angelica and Henry had flattened
themselves against the seat cushions like they were trying to
disappear, and Tucker looked bored. “And now that it’s done you
need to accept it and move on. If you’d be more compliant—”
    “More compliant? She wants me to delete, to
destroy, reapers on her whim. She wants my blood and tissue.
I don’t even want to think about what she might do with those. I
don’t want to wake up one day and see fifteen Kelsey clones running
around.”
    Jed opened and closed his mouth like a fish
out of water, before he relaxed and smiled, then laughed. “You
think she wants to clone you? Kelsey, we’re nowhere near having
that kind of technology.”
    His laughter grated on my nerves. “I don’t
know what kind of technology you have. The bottom line is, I don’t
trust her.”
    Jed sobered immediately and looked at me with
something like sympathy. “Do you trust me?”
    I wanted to lie, but I couldn’t. Jed had
never lied to me. “I trust you to keep me safe here in this house.
I trust you to have my back when we go into the town. I just think
that ultimately your loyalty is to Varius, to your mother, and if
she asks you to…clone me, you’ll do it.”
    Jed dropped his gaze to the floor and shook
his head. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You have no
idea what she’s asked me to do.”
    “So tell me,” I said. “Please, Jed, tell
me.”
    He looked up at me and opened his mouth, then
he looked at Henry and Angelica, and shut it again. “We should get
going. Let’s all meet out front in ten minutes.”
    I walked back to my room, feeling angry and
hurt, and scared of what Jed wasn’t telling me. Henry followed me
into the bedroom and shut the door behind him. “Wanna tell me what
that was all about?” he asked.
    “It should have been pretty
self-explanatory.” I dug through my dresser for clothes that were a
little spiffier than the baggy t-shirt and jeans I was wearing. I
pulled out my newest pair of jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt, laid
them on top of the dresser and started to get undressed.
    Behind me, Henry whistled. “Kelsey, I think
it’s time you stopped hiding your light under a bushel.”
    I turned to find him holding a pretty, tiny
sundress. “What? You want me to wear that? Then everyone will
know…”
    Henry nodded. “That you are built like a
brick shit house, toned to within an inch of your life, and ready
to kick the stuffing out of anyone who messes with you