Read Online Wordless by AdriAnne Strickland - Free Book Online

Swanson had to do with it all—I didn’t even know what his official position in the Athenaeum was. But the fact that Drey had worked there … “That’s why you’re so smart. And that’s why they hurt you. They thought you put me up to this!”
    Drey smiled, and blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. “You’re smarter than me—too smart for your own good.”
    “I’m an idiot!” I shouted, tears finally overflowing my eyes and running hot down my face. “I sneaked a Word out of the Athenaeum and they did this to you! Aren’t you even mad?”
    He shook his head, more of a single jerk against the shelf. “I understand why you did it. Believe me.”
    “But look what I’ve done … look at you … ” I glanced down at his stomach, then back up at his face as soon as possible.
    “You can’t save me, boy,” Drey said, still managing to sound gruff. “I’m old and I have lung cancer, anyway. You know it, so don’t look at me like that. I could have gone to the Words for a cure—maybe Swanson would have helped me, after everything—but no, I don’t think we should have the power of the Words. Not meant for us. Only for the Gods.”
    “Then why did you get me a job there?” I demanded.
    “I wanted you to see … he needed to see … ” Drey’s voice grew faint. His eyelids fluttered.
    “What?” I lifted a hand as if to shake him, but I left it hovering over his shoulder. “Who needed to see?”
    “They’re probably coming … ” His focus drifted, his eyes wandering up to the garage’s high ceiling. “I always thought of you as my son, not … ”
    I’d never noticed quite how blue his eyes were before, like the sky in that postcard he’d given me. Blue as the sky over the Alps.
    Those eyes snapped back to me, suddenly as sharp as they were clear. “You need to run. See this shelf, right behind me? To the left you’ll find a backpack strapped underneath. Yes, there it is. Don’t open it now. Use the back exit out of here. Get to the river, to Jacques. You know Jacques, the captain of the trash barge.”
    I knew, but I didn’t move from my knees as I clutched the brown backpack in my arms. “Khaya. Khaya can heal you.”
    He didn’t acknowledge what I’d said. “Promise me you’ll stay far away from Herio.”
    It actually hadn’t occurred to me to do otherwise. I couldn’t do a thing to the Word of Death, but maybe I could still help Drey. “I can bring Khaya here—”
    “Don’t even think it. That’s exactly what they want.”
    “But—”
    “No!” Drey shouted, shoving me with one last burst of strength, toppling me over backwards. “Go, get out of here! Now!”
    I stumbled upright and leaned against the front of the truck, shaking from head to foot.
    His blue eyes were almost angry as he stared at me. “If you ever wanted to do anything for me, son, do this. It’s my last wish. Now get the hell out.”
    His head dropped back against the shelf, eyes closed.
    “Goodbye, Drey,” I said. Like I hadn’t said the last time I’d seen him.
    I still didn’t move. Here was the man who’d raised me, who’d taught me everything I knew, who’d made me the person I was, and I couldn’t think of anything more to say than goodbye . No wonder the Gods had made me wordless. At the time I needed to say the most, words deserted me.
    Drey deserved better. I turned back to tell him everything I felt and had never said. But I stopped when I saw his slack face. He couldn’t hear me anymore.
    But I could still hear his last wish:
    Get the hell out .
    He was probably right—they were coming.
    I was a worthless, powerless nobody who couldn’t do or say anything to save the closest thing I had to family. But I could run, like a coward. I could get the hell out of here, for Drey.
    I swung the backpack over my shoulders and left the garage by the back exit, into a narrow alley, and was soon lost in the twisting and turning maze of alleys. I wasn’t even sure how I was moving; I