Rising Fury (Hexing House Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

with that, but it won’t interfere with your duties in any case. And won’t it be nice to take the weight off it and fly?”
    Yes, actually, it would. But at what cost?
    Thea exchanged a look with Aunt Bridget, who gave her a small nod. The command in her eyes was unmistakable.
    For a moment, Thea rebelled against it. Of course she wanted to find Flannery. Of course she wanted to do whatever she could for Aunt Bridget, who had always done more for her than she deserved. But this was an awful lot to ask. She’d have to give up everything. She’d have to give up being human .
    Or maybe she wouldn’t.
    “How long does it take?” she asked. “For me to turn into a fury?”
    “It varies. Average is three months.”
    Three months to investigate, find Flannery, and bring her home, before anything irreversible happened. It might be a small chance, but it was possible that she could manage it, and that both her and Flannery could come out of it unscathed.
    But why did he want her so badly? This thing that had (maybe, probably) already taken her cousin? Thea couldn’t believe he’d really been overwhelmed by some latent power in her. She had no idea what he really intended to do with her. For all she knew, he was just going to fly off with her and kill her, dump her body in to some pit on top of Flannery’s.
    It was completely unfair to put her in this position.
    Because your current position is so nice, is it? Twenty-seven million dollars in exchange for a meaningless life of terror?
    Thea wasn’t foolish enough to trust any of this. She certainly didn’t trust Graves or most of what he said. But he was right about this much, at least: she was weak.
    She was a prisoner, locked in by bells and packing tape.
    “Fine,” she said at last. “I’ll do it.”

“He can’t really have meant the Spencer School.” It was the eighth time, by Thea’s count, that Aunt Bridget had said this.
    “He did. Pull over.”
    The Spencer School, less than ten miles from Bridget’s farm, had been abandoned for at least fifty years. Once an upscale private campus, now it was a crumbling, kudzu-choked ruin that the locals liked to say was haunted. Nobody knew why someone didn’t just knock it down, build a nice housing development there.
    Aunt Bridget got out of the car and pursed her lips at the gate that, despite being rusty and crooked, was still locked tight. “Well, how are we supposed to get you in?”
    “We’re early. Don’t worry about it, Graves will be here.”
    It had taken Thea less than a week to put her affairs, such as they were, in order. She transferred a sizable chunk of money from her bank account to Bridget’s, and found a housekeeping service to maintain her apartment for the time being. She made Aunt Bridget promise to look after Pete, and assure him that they had private investigators—plural—looking for Flannery.
    He wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t be fooled for long by these imaginary investigators who never came and asked him a single question. But maybe it would keep him calm for a little while, at least. Apart from that, the best Thea could do for him was leave him in the hands of the highly regarded and equally highly priced lawyer she’d hired to get the charges against him dismissed.
    She had only one suitcase. Graves had told her she wouldn’t need much in the way of clothes; before long she’d have wings, and have to have her clothes made specially anyway. She hoped she was packing light for a different reason, and that she’d be long gone before wings became an issue.
    Graves made quite an entrance when he arrived, swooping down from above on his bat’s wings, brushing some stray leaves from his suit as he landed. He greeted Aunt Bridget like an old friend, with kisses on each cheek, then without ceremony asked Thea if she was ready to go.
    There wasn’t much left to be said. She hugged and kissed Aunt Bridget, and whispered an assurance in her ear that she’d find her daughter, and that