Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) Read Online Free Page A

good family. And he’s—”
    “—not a scrawny little halfbreed,” I finished for her. I was losing my ability to keep my anger under control, so she got a full-forced glare when I turned back to face her.
    Her expression went totally blank, and I saw her blue eyes go wide. Anyone who didn’t know her well would think she was just surprised, but I’d been around Katty long enough to pick out those faint traces of guilt in her expression. I’d hit the nail on the head.
    Even if I wasn’t puny-looking, I doubted she would ever see me as more than a friend because I was a halfbreed. She was willing to be seen with me, to associate with me, but only as a friend. She had drawn the line at that, but had failed to let me know about that little detail. I’d never be anything more to her, and I was just now figuring that out.
    I took a few seconds to breathe. I was trying to keep my temper in check as best I could before I said anything else I’d probably regret later. It didn’t work.
    “Well, I’m glad we’ve finally cleared that up. Now I know where I stand. Just get out, Katty.” I growled at her again.
    Her eyes went steely, and she recoiled a little. I guess she was waiting for me to reconsider or apologize because she kept standing there, staring at me.
    I couldn’t stand it. I hated knowing that every second we had spent together was basically a fraud. I already had to fight to earn any acceptance and respect from the other riders at Blybrig; I wasn’t about to do the same thing for her attention. If she wanted Bren so badly, then she could have him.
    I left out the front door without saying anything else. I already felt bad for letting my true feelings show. I hated that I knew how she really felt about me now. I felt like a fool for ever thinking I had a chance with her.
    Katty didn’t try to talk to me again. I caught a glimpse of her storming toward her house as I ducked into Ulric’s workshop. I’d known her so well before, or at least that’s what I thought, but now she looked like a stranger. It felt like the Katty I used to know was gone… and I’d never even gotten to say goodbye.
    I didn’t know what else to do with my frustration, so I went to work. There was a lot left to do, anyway. Ulric’s shop was basically empty. There wasn’t anything left downstairs except for some scraps of leather and a pair of wooden sawhorses. It still smelled like the oils and hides he’d worked with, and I couldn’t shake a sense of tension in the air as though his presence had left an invisible stain on the place.
    My stomach was churning as I climbed the ladder up to the loftroom where I had lived like a stowaway for three long years. All the old crates and boxes being stored up there were still sitting around, right where they had been before. My cot was there, too, with the same old quilts piled on it and a candle burned down to a nub. It was drafty and cold because of the cracks in the walls, and as I stood there staring at my old room, I started to think about my mother. So many nights I had lain awake in that bed, missing her. Now, she felt further away than ever. My memories of her were beginning to fade. I couldn’t remember her smell anymore, or the sound of her laugh. It chilled me to the bone.
    There were rusted old garden tools, rakes and shovels, and old scraps of wood leaned up against the walls in the loftroom. Long-forgotten pieces of furniture were pushed into corners and covered with sheets. One by one, I started going through the storage crates. They were stuffed with moth-eaten clothes, a set of cast-iron pots and pans that looked like they were several generations old, and odds and ends that were probably worthless to anyone else. But these were my treasures. They were the only things in the world, except for the clothes on my back, that actually belonged to me.
    What interested me more than anything else I found was an old carpenter’s toolkit in a solid, handmade wooden box. I had