A Stranger in the Garden Read Online Free Page B

slain. You promised—”
    “That is not what I promised and well you know it,” the Grue said through Charles’s lips. “You alone heard my last words before all of you sent me from this world.”
    She clenched her jaw. “You promised me that you would return to have your revenge.”
    “You did not believe me.”
    She shook her head. “I did not think it possible. And then I too was cast forth for aligning with you, even though I had repented of it. I had more pressing issues to concern myself with.”
    “You should have come with me as I begged,” the Grue said. “We could have started anew in the land of our birth.”
    “You know I would never. You have sundered us from the Eternal Light with your darkness. Despite what you made me, I will not join you in it.”
    “And yet, you used Darwin for your own purposes, much as I did this boy,” the Grue said.
    “I was weak and foolish,” she said. “I have since learned my lesson.”
    “Not well enough, I think,” the Grue said. He was thinking of the innumerable things he would do once he forced her to take him back. Charles shuddered, almost slipped his control, but the Grue got him firmly in hand again.
    Do it, he said to Charles. She cannot resist me then. Charles’s gaze fell on Gwen, asleep on the stone.
    He lifted the shears up, aiming for the girl’s throat.
    Corinna’s hand was on him again, and her freezing touch shocked him enough that Charles was out of the Grue’s reach for just a moment. He was completely under her control. If he had thought the Grue’s powers were vast, they were nothing compared to hers.
    Her eyes were filled with sympathy. “He is a cruel master, is he not? He was ever so. You took on a burden far beyond any your kind should take.”
    “He offered me power,” Charles said through stiff lips. “Enough power that I could rid myself of the magic forever, if only I could just get here.”
    “Dealing with the devil is never a good idea,” she said. “You do not belong here. For better or for worse, you are grounded in the magic of Fairyland. Without it, you will wither and die, even as my people have. Earth magic is very different. It cannot sustain you, since you have been so long in Fairyland.”
    Charles felt the Grue shrieking impotently inside him. He lunged, but she caught him just before the shining blades dove into Gwen’s throat. With Corinna’s touch, the memories came flooding—the whipsnap of magic breaking Catherine like a doll on the riverbank, the trickle of blood from her mouth, her dead eyes following him everywhere. And his mother’s voice scolding him again, “Charles, don’t bother the baby!”
    “I killed her,” he whispered. “My sister died because of my magic.”
    “Yes,” Corinna said. “And that is why you keep trying to flee it, and become ever more entangled.” He looked into her eyes, trying to understand.
    The Grue was incoherent with rage. If he could have, he would have torn out through Charles’s skin and devoured Corinna. But he was cognizant enough to know that he was still far too weak to take her on directly. He had to wait for the moment when he could seize her down in the dark after her bloodfeast.
    “Magic is in you, as I have said. You can no more flee it than you can the death of your sister. The Grue may have suppressed that memory and turned it to his own ends, but the knowledge of what you did is still raw inside you. You do not care what you do because you think there is nothing worse. And you are correct. Nothing you will ever do will erase it or surpass it. But that does not mean you cannot attempt to redeem what you have done.”
    “How?” Charles whispered.
    “Take this girl back to her grandfather. Beg him to take you with him to Malvern. I think you are strong enough for the water cure there. It is anathema to our people, and will rid you of the Grue. You can begin again. But you must get back to your world. You cannot long be separate from the magic of