The Ballad of Aramei Read Online Free PDF

den where Rachel and five of her minions meet us halfway having come from outside. Rachel sneers at me as I pass, but I ignore her as usual. She really isn’t worth my time and now that I have to discipline my anger more than ever, I probably should just stay away from her altogether. I’m not scared of her. I’m scared of the transformation.
    Isaac takes me past the kitchen and into the back hallway where the door leading into the basement sits. I catch the scent of funky moisture and mildew and rotting wood before Isaac even opens the door. I hate it down there. It’s like being locked in an eighteenth century dungeon, complete with shackles and rats and thick rock walls dripping with filthy water and every creepy-crawly one can imagine.
    The wooden stairs creak and moan underneath our steps as we descend into semi-darkness. The air is always cooler down here, but I would take the sticky heat of a Georgia summer over this dank, raunchy air any day. It’s not until we make it down the last step that I realize it’s not as dark as it should be. There’s an out of place swath of light coming from somewhere in the large basement far behind the staircase, bathing the partial stone and wooden floor in a dense, eerie gray glow.
    Daisy comes around in front of us and smiles at me sort of…apologetically. But before I have the chance to make my impatience known any more than it already is, we step farther into the room and I see where the strange light is coming from.
    “What the—?” I start to say, but I just cut myself off and stare out at the massive hole in the back of the basement, the massive hole in the so-called thick rock wall that I always thought of as the equivalent of reinforced steel. The hole is…well, probably about my size in werewolf form and leads right outside into the back area of the house. It’s the only spot in the basement wall not surrounded by earth.
    I look at Isaac and Daisy back and forth, my mouth slightly hung open.
    “I’m just going to assume I’m the one that did that?”
    Isaac’s eyes crinkle around the edges and his mouth stretches marginally into a hard line. “Yeah, you sort of did that,” he says carefully.
    I cringe. “ Sort of did it?” I say. “There’s nothing sort of about that.” I point at the hole as if they don’t already know that it’s there. I let my hand drop to my side and walk over to the new basement exit, stepping around chunks of rock scattered all around the floor.
    At least the view is nice. It’s a beautiful summer morning and the breeze is cool filtering through the trees that surround the house. The sun is shining and only a few white cumulus clouds hang in the sky.
    After studying the jagged edges in the giant opening and letting the stun fade from my head I turn around to face Isaac and Daisy.
    Isaac is grinning faintly again, enough that I can detect it, but it’s almost as if he’s trying to hide the fact that this somehow humors or delights him.
    “And what’s so funny about this?” I say looking directly at Isaac.
    Daisy is smiling too, but at least she’s trying to be understanding because clearly I’m not finding anything about what I did humorous or delightful.
    “Well, it’s not exactly funny ,” Isaac says, his lips lengthening into a smile even more evidently. “It’s just that…well, it’s hot.”
    My head feels like there’s a spring in it as it jerks inward and my eyes crease under wrinkles of perplexity. “Hot?” I say. “Hot as in hot-hot or sexy-hot?”
    Daisy is suppressing a giggle behind me, but I don’t take my eyes off Isaac who has some serious explaining to do. I put my hands on my hips and I’m sure I look like my mother did when I was little, but I don’t care.
    “Sexy-hot,” Isaac says. He moves in close and places his hands on each of my shoulders, cocking his head to one side. Oh great; there’s that irresistible grin of his that causes me to fold every time. “Obviously, this is how you