The Wild Ways Read Online Free PDF

Highness.”
    “Still not going to happen.”
    “You fear the old women, Highness.”
    “Well, duh.” The aunties could send him back to the UnderRealm. Okay, he wasn’t sure they could do it without Allie—they’d needed Allie to send his mother and his uncles back—and Allie didn’t like to do what the aunties said, but they were all so stupidly weird about the sorcerer thing—even though he almost never used it—that they’d probably send him back anyway as soon as he turned fifteen and their rules said he wasn’t a child anymore, but . . .
    “They are keeping you a child, Highness.”
    Was it reading his mind? No way was that allowed. Jack reared back. “You want me to roast someone? I could always roast you.”
    The Brownie turned slightly green. “Highness!”
    Snorting out a cloud of smoke, Jack watched the little weasel scurry away, sent a silent apology to weasels because they were actually pretty cool, and thought that maybe if he was gone long enough, his mother would clutch again and he wouldn’t be able to go back. He’d have to stay.
    If they let him.
    Why weren’t there ever any easy answers? Questions sucked.
    He spread his wings and launched himself into the sky, a sweep of his tail knocking the head off the concrete Apatosaurus.
    Crap .

     
    When the charm jerked her awake, Charlie blinked at the familiar shape sneaking past the end of the sofa bed. Blinked again as the night-sight charms sketched on her eyelids kicked in and Jack came into focus. “Have fun?”
    He spun around to face her. “I didn’t destroy anything!”
    The sudden billowing cloud of white smoke seemed to argue differently. A wave got rid of the smoke although the scent of dragon lingered. “I didn’t say you did.”
    “And I only ate a goose. It tasted like old french fries,” he added sounding disgusted. “Even the food here sucks.”
    “There’s a reason no one eats those things. And remember . . .” She sat up, legs crossed, sheet pooling in her lap. “ . . . if you’re not happy here, you can go back to the UnderRealm any time.”
    “I never said I wanted to go back!” Jack’s eyes flared gold. “I like . . .” He waved a hand, searching for the words. “. . . you know, stuff.”
    Charlie liked stuff, too. The band. Allie. Family. Calgary. They wrapped around her warm and comforting. She twitched.
    “You okay?” Jack saw fine in the dark without charms.
    “Yeah, I’m good.” Nothing wrong with warm and comforting. “So what brought on today’s rebellion?”
    “They won’t let me do anything.”
    “At all?”
    “Nothing . . .”
    Charlie thought he was going to say fun —obvious response—and was a little surprised when he shrugged and didn’t finish.
    “I want to do something,” he said after a moment.
    “What?”
    “I don’t know!” Another small puff of smoke. Charlie let this one dissipate on its own. Jack glanced toward the double doors leading to Allie and Graham’s bedroom and lowered his voice. “It’s just . . . it itches under my skin.”
    Fingers curled to scratch at her shoulder, Charlie dropped her hand back into her lap and didn’t ask him what itched. Or if he could also call it a buzz. “The job at the newspaper . . .”
    “Is lame.”
    About to explain that pretty much everything seemed lame at fourteen, Charlie reconsidered. It wouldn’t help. And Jack was . . . well, more than just fourteen that was for damned sure. “No promises, but I’ll see what I can come up with.”
    “Vague much?” Jack snorted.
    “Butt munch!” Charlie shot back.
    “That makes no sense.”
    “What does?”
    He stared at her for a long moment. “You used to be cool,” he muttered and stomped off to his bedroom, the faint whisper of wings following behind him.

     
    Amelia stared at the pelt draped over Paul’s arm. “Is that . . .”
    Paul nodded, holding it out toward her as though he was handling a dead animal instead of just the useful, external bits. “It was on