Witch & Wizard 04 - The Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

Watch,” I say suddenly and certainly, my voice louder than everyone else’s in the chamber—even Bloom’s.
    The Book Keeper raises a cottony eyebrow. “There is no one else strong enough for the police force. I thought I made it clear that these are dire times—”
    “We’ll handle it,” I snap.
    “With all due respect…”
    “I said, we’ll handle it .”

Chapter 8
    Pearl
    “YOU WILL BE CLEANSED,” echoed the voice on the loudspeaker, over and over.
    Pearl wasn’t sure who the voice belonged to, or what the phrase meant, or how long she had been in the dim room crowded with sweltering bodies. At this point, the noise was all she knew. The noise and her hunger. She hadn’t slept since she’d been taken.
    “YOU WILL BE CLEANSED,” the voice boomed, again and again, until Pearl was delirious from her throbbing head, her ringing ears, the heat and the gnaw of her stomach.
    “I’m clean,” she sobbed. “I swear I’m clean.”
    When the door opened, Pearl thought she was hallucinating. Or dead.
    But the delicious cool breeze on her skin felt real, and so did the ground beneath her feet as Pearl stumbled out into the open air, blinking against the sudden light of the sun. The air was so crisp it burned her nostrils, and she could smell food cooking somewhere.
    “YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED,” another voice echoed somewhere, and she believed it. She thought she’d gone to heaven.
    And then they were herded into a rough pen.
    She didn’t have a coat or shoes, and as the cold crept into her bones and her teeth began to chatter, she almost wished for the sweaty warmth of the death cell again.
    Almost.
    “Are you hungry?” a giant man with a matted nest of a beard yelled at them.
    Pearl felt her eyes bulging from her head, her tongue swollen. All she could do was nod.
    “Then run !” he screamed.
    Around and around the pen they went. As several of the other kids stopped to catch their breath or winced as sharp rocks cut into their bare feet, Pearl was grateful for her gutter-kid soles, thick with calluses. Because if running meant food, she was prepared to run all day.
    So she ran. And ran. And ran. At least it was warming her up.
    Finally, just before Pearl thought she would keel over from exhaustion, a horn sounded, and the runners stopped to wait for the next instruction.
    “You did well for your first day,” an older kid with sticklike legs and arms roped with veins whispered to her. “You didn’t even slow down.”
    “I’m glad someone noticed,” Pearl said.
    “They call me Eagle. Around here, it pays to keep an eye out.”
    “Where I come from, it pays to take an eye out,” Pearl answered, reaching for the handle of her hidden blade as a warning that she wasn’t to be bothered, then realizing it wouldn’t be a good idea for Eagle to know she still had it.
    Pearl jutted her chin up toward the tower. “Who’s the old guy?”
    Eagle squinted against the sun to look at the man standing on the castle balcony. “The King. They call him the Snow Leopard.”
    The old man was wrapped in rough furs and had a yellowing beard that tucked into a ruby-encrusted belt at his waist. Above him flapped a banner with a giant white snarling cat on it. His face looked carved from stone.
    “So he’s who stole us.” Pearl narrowed her eyes and memorized the look of the man she should save her blade for.
    “He saved you,” Eagle said defensively. “He saved us all. For something greater.”
    “I don’t feel saved,” she snapped. “I feel hungry.”
    Eagle shrugged. “There’s plenty of food around here. Just follow my lead.”
    “How was your run?” the bearded giant interrupted them. “Tell your king everything you saw. Were there any Failures?”
    Eagle raised his hand immediately. “That one there. The scrawny one. He stopped running. I don’t think he wants us to win.”
    The King watched carefully from the tower as a blond boy was dragged to his feet and brought to the center, where everyone