Evan Burl and the Falling, Vol. 1-2 Read Online Free PDF

try?"
    "It's just tricks Henri. I can't do real... sapience." The thing inside me said, liar .  
    "It is real."
    "Stop saying that." I put my hands over my ears, trying to block out the voice of the monster inside me. And it was Dravus too. He told me just yesterday that I was special. That I could do sapience. Why did he say that yesterday, after all these years of saying nothing? Just hours before Little Saye died?
    "I've always believed it's real." Her whispers rolled inside me like shouting.
    "Why?" I said, "Why do you believe?"  
    She paused. I held my breath.  
    "Because you're not a bad person..." she said. "You'll only become a monster if you choose to become one."
    "You've seen the book, haven't you?"—the book I couldn't remember stealing from my uncle. The book that lodged in the eaves of the castle's tallest tower the night Pike died. It was a year before I climbed back up to get it, sure I wouldn't find it there. Sure it was destroyed. But the book was there, just like I'd left it. Like I'd left it there a moment earlier and was pretending a whole year had passed.
    She nodded. My face tingled; my head wasn't getting enough blood.
    Voices echoed in the hall.
    Henri was so close I could hear her eyes blink.  
    "It says I'm becoming a monster."  
    "It says your father could be wrong about you," she said.
    "But if I have sapience, that proves he's right."  
    She put her hand on my thudding chest. "You can be a sapient and a good person."
    Footsteps echoed down the hall. I waited for them to pass. "My father doesn't think so. That's why he left—"
    "You don't know that."
    "—he realized I wasn't worth sticking around for." I smoothed an imaginary crease in my pants.  
    "Don't say that."
    "That's why Mazol hates me too. He knows what I'm becoming."
    "He hates you because of Pike."
    "Only a monster would let Pike die."
    "You're not evil and you never will be," she whispered so loudly it came out like a growl.
    "What if I can't tell what's real anymore?"
    "You can always do what is right."
    More footsteps outside the door. "Wait," said a low voice. "Heard something."
    The door handle rattled.
    Henri gasped.
    In the key hole, a single, ugly eye appeared.
    "Look at this," said the voice. Uncle Mazol. I imagined him grinning at Ballard and Yesler, the other two wards, or Warts as the Roslings and I called them, who kept us working day and night on steam operated clanker machines. "Found our dear little Henrietta."  
    The eye dissolved. Feet scuffled outside.
    "Evan," Henri begged. Her face was almost touching mine. "Please, just try."  
    The door rattled again. Banging.
    I rubbed my eyes, suddenly itchy and wet. "I'll just hurt you."
    "I believe in you."  
    The air charged with static. I pulled at the collar of my ragged shirt. It seemed like everything in the tiny pantry pressed down on me.  
    I heard metal clinking. Mazol, trying different keys.
    "Hurry, Evan. I know you can do it." Henri's voice was different. Stronger.  
    Mazol yelled from the hall. "Ballard, get over here and help me with this lock!"
    I clenched my eyes shut as a message grew stronger inside me. Insistent. Impossible to ignore.
    Help her.
    A single thought moved in a way I'd never felt before, from my mind to a place deep in my gut. Or was it the nightmare trying to escape?
    I lifted my hand, fingers trembling.
    On the other side of the door, something slipped into the lock. But it didn't turn. More keys rattled.  
    My hand hung in the air—as if acting on instinct—waiting for the cue to begin. My cheeks flushed, suddenly I felt thankful it was so dark. Maybe Henri hadn't noticed.
    Dust sparkled in a sliver of light shining through the key hole. Like watching a thousand fireflies waltzing. The particles slowed to a stop, hanging frozen in time, watching to see what happened next.  
    My hand began to move.  
    It felt like—sapience.
    My mind cleared. The constant pain in my leg was gone. In the dim light I saw Henri's eyebrows rise