Faerie Winter Read Online Free Page B

granddaughter had died of a fever, and not from trying so hard to control her fire magic that it had burned her from within.
    “Council meeting’s at my house tonight,” Matthew said. “We have to take him to your place, Liza. Gram will join us there.”
    I doubted we could keep this stranger secret from the Council for long, even if we wanted to, but there was no sense asking for trouble. I helped Matthew lift Ethan into a fireman’s carry over his shoulders. Ethan whimpered as his hands fell free. They were covered with weeping blisters. Had his firestarting slipped beyond his control, and was that how Ben had died? Would it be safer to leave Ethan in the forest after all?
    I kept the thought to myself. I was done casting magic out if I could help it. I followed Matthew and Ethan to my house, picking up the firewood along the way. Kyle trailed behind me.
    Mom and Kate met us at the door and urged us all inside. I set the wood by the fire and helped Matthew settle Ethan on the couch. Mom brushed the tangles back from the stranger’s face. I saw no sign of the pain that had made her bend over earlier.
    Matthew’s grandmother, Kate, knelt by the boy’s side, her hair pulled back in its usual efficient gray bun. Once her knees wouldn’t have let her kneel, but Allie had healed them before she and Caleb left us. Kate frowned as she put her soft weaver’s hands to the boy’s forehead. “We need to bring his fever down. Matthew, get him upstairs into the tub. Liza, start filling buckets. Use water—snow’s too cold.”
    Kyle tugged on my sleeve as I headed for the door. “I can help.”
    “Buckets are too heavy for you.” Surely Kyle knew that, just as he knew ants couldn’t be allowed in the woodpiles.
    Kyle stuck out his lower lip. “I
can.
”
    Kate and Mom exchanged looks. “Let him go with you,” Kate said softly. “He’ll have to go home soon enough.”
    I sighed, but I didn’t stop Kyle as he followed me out the door. I grabbed a wooden bucket from around back and carried it toward the well. Kyle dragged a second bucket through the snow behind him.
    Another boy from our town, Seth, was there drawing water, one hand extended over the well shaft, the other absently turning the crank. At seventeen Seth was a year older than Matthew and me, with close-cut hair and a lazy look that made him seem half-asleep. The bucket moved toward him, but the rope was too slack for his cranking to be lifting it; he must have been using his object calling. He tensed at the sound of Kyle’s and my footsteps, as if the habit of hiding magic hadn’t wholly left him, but he kept using his magic to float the bucket out of the well. “Hi, Liza. Kyle. What’s going on?” He unhooked the bucket and it drifted to the ground beside him.
    Kyle let go of his bucket and said, “Liza found a firestarter.”
    How had Mom and Kate ever kept magic a secret with Kyle around? I hooked my bucket onto the rope and lowered it. “A boy,” I told Seth. “Found him just outside of town. Water’s to get his fever down.” Liquid sloshed into my bucket. As I started cranking it up again, I watched Seth’s half-lidded eyes, gauging his reaction. Like me, Seth had once helped turn strangers away from our town.
    “Firestarting. That’s rough.” Seth reached out a hand, and the tension left the crank. My bucket rose out of the well to hover in front of me. I nodded my thanks as I unhooked it. The bucket drifted gently to the ground.
    Kyle grabbed his bucket and held it out to me. I sighed, took it, and lowered it into the well. I lifted the full bucket out—Seth helped again—and set it down in front of Kyle. He’d see soon enough that he couldn’t carry it.
    Kyle pressed his lips together, looking determined, and reached for the bucket with both hands.
    It came up easily in his hold. Kyle grinned. So did Seth, who had his arm stretched toward it.
    I rolled my eyes. “He’ll never learn that way.”
    Seth shrugged. “Why make