Read Online The Silver Pear by Michelle Diener - Free Book Online

feathering his fingers along the back of her neck. She grabbed his wrist, gave it a squeeze.
    “I can’t leave her enchanted.” It was as simple as that. Kayla had barely been able to walk away from Ylana after she’d trapped the witch. It had been one of the hardest decisions she’d ever made, and she didn’t want it on her conscience any longer.
    She had hated Eric for enchanting her and Rane, and hated even more that he’d put her in a position where she had had to enchant Ylana. The thought of it scraped at her, making her feel raw and bruised.
    She took a step into the cleared land around the cottage, waiting just a moment in case Ylana had set some kind of trap, and then walked forward, drawing a ball of wild magic with her.
    The door of the cottage was shut, just as she’d left it, along with the shutters over the windows. There was an air of anticipation, of waiting, as if the forest and even the house itself was holding its breath.
    She gave herself a moment to push down her fear and then grabbed the doorknob.
    The handle turned easily under her hand, the door swung open, and Kayla peered carefully into the gloom of the closed-up house.
    Ylana stood beside the kitchen table, exactly where Kayla had left her, absolutely frozen in place.
    Her eyes were still just as alive, fury snapping from them at the sight of her. Kayla saw the moment she got a view of Rane, too, standing as close to the doorway as he could.
    He had an affinity to the strange and wonderful things wild magic created. But there were so many packed onto the shelves covering every wall in Ylana’s cottage he wasn’t able to enter the room without falling seriously ill, pulled in too many directions at once.
    Ylana dismissed him with a contemptuous blink, and focused back on Kayla.
    Kayla lifted her hands up in an offering of peace. “I’m sorry for enchanting you and leaving you this way. I was afraid if I let you go you’d take the golden apple, and we needed it to rescue Rane’s brother.” She chewed on her lip as she saw the malice in Ylana’s eyes when Rane’s name was mentioned. “I wanted to believe you wouldn’t, that you would help me, but I couldn’t take the chance.” She dropped her hands back to her sides. “I came back as quickly as I could to free you.”
    Ylana’s eyes sparked then. Kayla imagined her drawing on her power, the earth magic embedded in the forest around them, to strike as soon as she was set free.
    Kayla pulled the wild magic closer, let it loom over her shoulder. Let Ylana see the size of it.
    Last time she’d been here, she’d drawn wild magic from where it hovered between the trees near Ylana’s cottage, and she had managed to get the best of Ylana then, although she knew that had more to do with the fact that Ylana had trusted her, had been taken by surprise.
    She pressed the point home. “This is only one of a hundred balls of wild magic which have followed me here. They are all around your clearing. And I am even more adept at using it now than I was before. I can see you are thinking of harming Rane or me when I release you. I want to warn you, if you try, I will retaliate.”
    Even though Ylana was held frozen in place, Kayla could see from the way her eyes lost their spark that she had abandoned her decision to retaliate.
    She looked back at Rane, to let him know she was going ahead, and he lifted his knife in salute, widened his stance.
    He didn’t want her to do this. Had argued against it ever since she told him what she planned, but he was here, helping her anyway.
    Even though this wasn’t the time or the place, she let the swell of love she felt for him rise up and show in her eyes. She blew him a kiss and he lifted a brow, his face impassive, but there was heat in his gaze as he waited for her to free the witch.
    She looked back at Ylana, let the wild magic brush up against her back, let its light halo her as she concentrated on reversing what she’d done.
    She looked down at her