Reckless (Free Preview) Read Online Free Page B

of.”
    Witch-berries.   Jacob looked
at the oven door on the wall.   “The Witch
in the
Hungry
Forest
was a child-eater, wasn’t she?”
    “One of the worst.   I once looked in her house for one of them
combs that you put into your hair and they turn you into a crow.”
    “I know.   You sent me
in there first.”
    “Really?”   Chanute
rubbed his fleshy nose.   He’d convinced
Jacob that the Witch had flown out.
    “You poured liquor on my wounds.”   The imprints of her fingers were still visible
on his throat.   It had taken weeks for
the burns to heal.
    Jacob threw the knapsack over his shoulder.   “I need a packhorse, some provisions, two
rifles, and ammunition.”
    Chanute didn’t seem to have heard Jacob.   He was staring at his trophies.   “Good old times,” he mumbled.   “The Empress received me personally three
times.   How many audiences have you
clocked up?”
    Jacob closed his hand around the handkerchief in his pocket
until he felt two gold sovereigns between his fingers.
    “Two,” he said, tossing the coins onto the table.   He’d had six audiences with the Empress, but
the lie made Chanute very happy.
    “Put that gold away!” he growled.   “I don’t take no money from you.”   Then he held out his
knife to Jacob.
    “Here,” he said.   “There’s nothing this blade won’t cut.   I have a feeling you’ll need it more than I
will.”
           

6
    Lovesick Fool
     
    Will was gone.   Jacob
saw it immediately as he led the packhorse through the collapsed gate of the
ruin.   It lay as deserted as if his
brother had never followed him through the mirror and all was fine and this
world was still his, all his.   For one
moment he caught himself feeling relieved . Let him
go, Jacob.   Why not just forget he
ever had a brother?
    “He said he’d come back.”   Fox was sitting between the columns.   The night turned her fur black.   “I tried to stop him, but he’s just as
pigheaded as you.”
    Another mistake, Jacob.   He should
have taken Will with him to Schwanstein instead of hiding him here at the ruin.   Will wanted to go home.   Just go home.   But he’d take the stone with him.
    Jacob led the packhorse to the other two horses already
grazing behind the ruin.   He walked
toward the tower.   Its long shadow wrote
a single word on the shattered flagstones:   Back.
    A threat for you, Jacob, but a promise for Will.
    Ivy grew up the scorched walls so densely that its evergreen
vines hung like a curtain over the doorway.   The tower was the only part of the castle that
had survived the fire nearly unscathed.   The
inside was swarming with bats, and the rope ladder Jacob had installed years
earlier shimmered through the darkness.   The
Elves always left their dust on it as if to remind him that he had once come
down here from another world.
    Fox looked at him apprehensively as he reached for the ropes.
    “We leave as soon as I get back with Will,” Jacob said.
    “Leave?   For where?”
    But Jacob was already climbing up the swaying ladder.
    The tower room was bright with the light of the two moons,
and his brother was standing next to the mirror.   He was not alone.
    The girl stepped out of his embrace as soon as she heard
Jacob behind her.   She was prettier than
in the photos Will had shown him.   Lovesick fool.
    “What’s she doing here?”   Jacob felt his own rage like frost on his
skin.   “Have you lost your mind?”
    Jacob brushed the elven dust from his hands.   It worked like a sleeping potion if you
weren’t careful.
    “Clara.”   Will took her
hand.   “This is my brother.   Jacob.”
    He said her name as if he had pearls on his tongue.   Will had always taken love too seriously.
    “What else has to happen before you realize what kind of a
place this is? ” Jacob barked at him.   “Send her back.   Now.”
    She was afraid, though she tried hard to hide it.   Afraid of the place that could not be, the red
moon