Bound by Prophecy (Descendants Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

upset. Always pretending everything was fine. But she just left…”
    She was questioning now, and I could give her that answer at least. “She wanted to keep you safe.”
    Her low voice came tremulous now from the darkness. “From who?”
    “Morgan,” I said.
    She repeated the name, as if committing it to memory.
    “He wants your sister.”
    There was a long silence as she built up the courage to ask, “For what?”
    I sighed. “You won’t believe me. It’s more of that crazy person stuff.”
    She didn’t question me again, didn’t demand that I tell her, didn’t try to convince me she would believe, and I felt oddly that she’d accepted that answer. Accepted it much too easily.
    And then I wondered instead if she was just imagining what crazy people did with their hostages.
    “He won’t hurt her,” I said. “I promise you that. He needs her alive.”
    Emily swallowed hard, but she didn’t sob.
    The room fell silent again and eventually, after a very long while, her breathing became even and subdued.
    I finally relaxed. It was the first time in days.

 
    Chapter Four
    Heights
     
    Sunrise was still hours away when the metallic tick of a key meeting the lock echoed across the room. I leapt to my feet; we had only seconds before they would see us. I reached for Emily, meaning to cover her mouth and sweep her from the chair, but she was already standing, apparently too on edge for real sleep. Her eyes were wide in the darkness and I was struck again by the resemblance to her sister.
    The key turned and I grabbed Emily’s wrist. I’d secured the door, but they would see in soon enough, and I didn’t want them to know how close they’d gotten.
    I slipped through the window first, perching awkwardly on the thin metal framework that surrounded it as I pulled Emily through behind me. She automatically began to climb down, but I stopped her. She glanced at my grip on her arm and then back at me questioningly. I shook my head and pointed up. It was hard to tell in the dim light of the distant street lamps, but I was pretty sure her face went pale.
    I stood, releasing her arm to climb higher, and trusted that she would follow. Paint cracked beneath my fingers on the wrought iron, flaking down to the alley below. Seven flights. Eight. I looked back for Emily.
    Her hands were shaking as she reached above her head for another piece of railing. She froze when the solid thud of someone shouldering into an old wood door sounded below. In our room.
    “Faster,” I whispered, wincing at my shoulder as I reached again for the balustrade overhead. We had three more stories before they were to the window. And only moments after that before they realized we weren’t on the street below. If we could make it, we’d be safe.
    A quiet gasp and the squeak of rubber against metal seemed to fracture the air and I pushed away from the wall to see Emily hanging by a tenuous handhold while her feet dangled beneath her. I started to shuffle back down but she regained her footing and pulled herself once more to the relative safety of the railing.
    I watched her climb until she was only two flights from the roof.
    The railing didn’t reach far enough, so I clung to the block where I could find dips, edges, anything to grip, but I was barely able to secure my footing. The last few feet were a credit to the soles of my shoes and sheer luck, and I knew Emily wouldn’t be able to follow on her own. As soon as I had hold of the ledge, I looked for her, and for the window below.
    Emily was a flight down, still climbing.
    A dark shape leaned from the window of our room.
    I pulled myself up silently, and immediately hooked my foot behind a roof vent to lean back over the ledge. Emily was frantically searching the wall for her next handhold and I reached out, motioning for her to take my hand. Her expression went incredulous for one moment, and then, as if remembering why we were scaling a twelve-story building, she looked for the window