Aster Wood and the Blackburn Son Read Online Free PDF

to pass before speaking again.
    “What happened next?” I breathed, curious and terrified.
    He sniffed again and wiped his face.
    “He raised his scepter. And that was it. The adults all fell. They screamed at first, and rolled around before they died. I shook my ma after she lay still, but there was no life left in her. I ran for Cait and we hid in the little closet behind the pantry in our house. We stayed there for a while, listening, and I thought that the man had gone. Then I smelled the smoke.”
    My breath caught.
    “He burned the whole village down,” he cried. Suddenly, his sobs were coming hard and fast. “Cait and me made it out of the house just in time, just before he set it on fire, too. And we ran. But he caught us. And he hit me.” He put his hand to the back of his head and rubbed it, remembering the blow. He bowed his head against my chest. I held him there, hugged him, as he mourned the loss of his whole world.  
    When his tears slowed, and finally dried, he looked up at me, deadly serious.
    “I have to save Cait. I just have to. There’s nobody else.”
    I imagined Jade. Lost and hopeless. Somewhere out there she faced the Corentin. Alone.  
    “Let me help you,” I pleaded.  
    Finally, with a big sigh, he nodded.  

    He was on my back again. With all of the fires burned down to ashes, and no other way of making light, we decided he would accompany me into the tent, quietly calling for Cait. It was a bad plan, I knew. But all we needed was to get a grip of her little hand and we would be in the clear.  
    I crept towards the tent, the canvas covering the opening flapping slightly in the breeze. Through the fabric I could hear the snores of men, though how many I still had no idea. Rhainn’s hands gripped hard, wrapping around my neck.  
    “Rhainn,” I whispered as loudly as I dared. “You’re choking me.”
    His hands released, but only for a moment. As soon as I slipped beneath the door flap, his fingers twisted back into a tense knot.
    The inside was completely dark. The soft breathing of children joined the loud, grunting snores of the guards, but everyone here slept. I nudged Rhainn with my elbow and knelt down to the floor, crawling across it with the link in my fist.
    He stayed silent. I nudged him again, but he still didn’t speak.
    “Call her,” I breathed, moving silently on all fours across a carpet laid over dirt.
    “Cait,” he whispered.  
    Nobody answered.
    I crawled on through the sea of little bodies, warm and seemingly peaceful in their slumber. I was glad nobody was awake to confuse my focus, to beg to be rescued alongside the little girl.  
    “Cait,” he called again.  
    The sound of someone’s breath catching in their throat nearby cut through the quiet.
    “Cait?” he asked.
    “Rhainn?” The voice was tiny in the darkness, unsure.
    Before I could stop him, Rhainn flung himself off my back and launched towards the little girl, all but blind.  
    “Rhainn!” I hissed.
    I could hear the shuffle of their bodies as they found each other, their muffled sobs once they were in each other’s arms. I moved towards the sound, and as I did so realized that the other sounds in the room had quieted.  
    They were listening.
    Suddenly, I was desperate to reach them. The absence of snores set my brain on fire with alarm, and I opened my mouth, intending to throw caution away and yell out for them.
    But too late.
    The world turned upside down, and I felt myself flying through the air. I landed with a thud on hard ground, and all the air in my lungs was sucked away with the force of my back against the dirt. Stars twinkled down at me. How far had I been thrown? Rolling over, I stretched my mouth wide, searching for cool air that would not come.  
    “Aster!”  
    I heard the cry, so desperate and urgent, and impossibly far away. Rhainn was still inside the tent.
    I pushed myself upright, lungs still empty. But as I got to my feet, I was thrust backward again as