Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
So I tell them everything. Well, most everything. I don’t tell them about Raptor, because I don’t know how things are between us and I don’t feel like having my friends hash it out. Instead, I tell them all about someone dropping an artifact into my bag to frame me and then the subsequent search of Master Jay’s nest. I tell them about the message scrawled in the books, and how the others are staking out the library to see if they can catch whoever it is.
“Why do you think they’re targeting you?” Mereden asks, worried. She steals a piece of cheese from Lark’s plate, her gaze locked on me.
“Gotta be the tits,” Lark chimes in.
Sparrow hesitates. “Truly, it can’t be just that…can it?”
“What else could it be?” Mereden asks.
I glance over at Sparrow. I’m thinking what she is—that someone might have it out for me because of my mancer ability. Is it safe to share my secret with them? She shrugs, leaving it up to me.
Do I trust Mereden and Lark with my secret…and my life? Because I’ll be killed if it gets out.
I look at my friends’ worried, earnest faces. I haven’t even told my mother about my ability because I’m afraid to write it down. Blurting it aloud feels terrifying. The only reason that Sparrow knows about what I can do is because of the situation with the corpses last year. Otherwise, I’d have kept it a dirty secret, known only to me. “I…”
The words don’t come out.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Mereden reassures me. “We’re your friends all the same.”
“Are you in trouble of some kind?” Lark pushes her fist against her flat palm. “Do I need to bust heads?”
“No one’s busting anyone’s head,” Sparrow frets, even as another cat jumps on the table. This one’s a tabby, and she gives it a quick pet before pulling it off. “Not now, Buttons.”
Mereden points a badly cut wedge of cheese at me. “Is this about your dowsing?”
I go still.
“You think?” Lark mulls the idea. “It didn’t work for anyone else. Heck, it didn’t even work for us. It kept pointing us right at dead guys. You…”
Her eyes widen.
Mereden gasps.
“That’s the problem,” I whisper, hugging Squeaker tight even as cat hair wafts into the air around me. “I think I might be a mancer. Worse, I think someone else knows that, too.”
Thirty-Four
Gwenna
Ididn’t say anything. I swear,” Sparrow says immediately, a worried expression on her face. “You know I would never speak of it. I haven’t even said anything to Hawk.”
“I know you wouldn’t,” I reassure her, but the tight clenching in my gut doesn’t go away. Perhaps I’ve been too careless. Someone’s been watching me too closely and they’ve discovered my ability and want me gone.
“It’s true?” Mereden’s mouth forms an O. “You really are a mancer?”
She and Lark exchange an uneasy look.
“I don’t know.” Squeaker jumps out of my lap, and I hug my arms tight to my chest, as if I can reassure my body somehow that everything will be all right. Strangely enough, I wish Raptor were here to hug me. He’s so big and strong and reassuring that he’d give the best sorts of hugs. I’ve never been a hugger before, but I wouldn’t mind him holding me close. I hate that Mereden and Lark are gazing at me with distrust. Like I’m something they’ve never seen before.
“We can’t say anything at all,” Sparrow reminds them gently. “Not to anyone. This is a dangerous secret.”
“Of course not,” Mereden replies, composing herself. She smiles encouragingly at me.
Lark just stares, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You really are one?”
“Why would I mucking lie about it? Who in their right mind would want to be a mancer?” I hiss.
Lark considers that. “Can you mance anything? Can you heal my ankle?”
“It’s very specific magic. Actually, I’m not even sure if it’s magic. I just know that I can hear the dead. I can feel them when they’re around.”
“Ew.” Her expression changes from worried to relaxed. “That’s a shitty power. You’re right. No one would want that.”
Mereden keeps her composure, nibbling on a bite of cheese. “Have you always known you could do this?”
I shake my head. “It all really started when we went down in the caverns and I picked up the divining rod. I felt something then, like my skin was crawling. Like I had jitters. I thought it was just nerves because I was frightened.”
“We were all frightened,” Lark agrees. “I was shitting myself.”
“You were not,” Mereden chides her demurely. “Be nice.”
Lark looks over at me and mouths, “Shitting.”
My lips twitch with amusement. “Anyhow, after it happened the second time and it led us to another dead guy, I started to wonder. Then a few months ago, when I was doing repeater work cleaning a house, I noticed that I could feel something coming from the alley. It felt like it did down in the tunnels. Like my skin was jumping and my nerves were lighting on fire. I went out of the building to see what it was, and there was a dead man in the alley.”