Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1) Read Online Free

else will do it? What’s the alternative? Let Flannery disappear forever so you can stay home with your bells?”
    She was right. Aunt Bridget and Uncle Gary had saved her life when they took her in. Thea believed it was nothing less. But her presence in their house had changed Flannery, and not for the better. She owed them this, Bridget and Flannery both. If there was anything she could do to get to the bottom of this and bring Flannery home, she needed to do it. Even if it meant going undercover, like a character in one of Baird’s movies.
    “I’ll listen with an open mind,” she said. “I promise.”
    And she did, although she continued to think she might be hallucinating all of it from a drug-induced stupor in some hospital. It gave the whole thing an unreal quality that, maybe, made it easier to be brave.
    Graves was purple, all right, now that she saw him in full light. Not just the purplish-gray skin and the deep purple wings, but his lips, mouth, the rings around his eyes. It was like his blood was purple. His eyes were brown, though, and the brows above them gray. He wore another expensive suit, charcoal pinstripe with two precise slits in the back to accommodate his wings.
    He thanked Aunt Bridget, whose presence did not seem to surprise or bother him, for her hospitality. Bridget stiffened when he pulled out her chair for her, but she only nodded her thanks and sat.
    “Before you say anything, I’m putting a deal on the table,” Graves said. “I’ll try to find your cousin and lift the hex, if you accept my job offer.”
    Thea didn’t trust this, and she wouldn’t leave Flannery’s fate to him, no matter what he said. But it was an interesting offer. “Wouldn’t that be against policy?” she asked.
    He didn’t seem to notice her sarcasm. “Yes, but it’s not easy to recruit good talent. There just isn’t that much talent to recruit. Consider it a signing bonus.”
    “And what exactly is this job? I have to be a purveyor of justice and righteous vengeance?”
    “You get to be a purveyor of justice and righteous vengeance. Or do you like living the way you do now? A powerless little coward?”
    Aunt Bridget made an offended noise, but Thea only stared at him, wondering how he knew. He didn’t have to know about the bells, though, to know that much. She’d fainted in his presence only the night before.
    Graves leaned toward her. “I can feel your power, but I can also feel the fear. It’s stifling you. You’re weak, and you’ll choke on that weakness if you aren’t careful.” He put one hand flat down on the table and spread his oddly thick fingers. Three-inch claws (purple, of course) sprang from the tips, just where fingernails should be. “We can cure you of that.”
    “How?” Thea gestured at him. “Do I become a purple person like you?”
    “A fury like me. Yes.” He retracted his claws again and smiled at her.
    Thea wouldn’t have admitted it, but there was something attractive about the prospect of having claws like that. And wings. “And if I don’t like it, can I change back?”
    “No.” Graves took a scone while he let that sink in, then said, “You’ll live in the colony with the rest of us. Room and board are included, along with health care and all your educational needs. If you should marry another fury and have children, they’re raised at the expense of the colony. Your salary depends on what job you’re offered after your transformation. You can still visit your family and come and go as you please on your days off, although we generally discourage our members from alarming ignorant or nonbelieving humans. Any questions?”
    Thea’s mind was blank. He made the whole thing sound so regular. Like he really was offering her a job, instead of asking her to become a monster. Finally she said, “I have physical limitations. A bad leg.” She glanced at Aunt Bridget. “From a skiing accident.”
    Graves dismissed this with a wave of his scone. “We can help