Read A Time to Die (Elemental Rage Book 2) for Free Online Page B

betrayed.  After
rescuing her sister last night and sacrificing her own sleep and the game for
her, Raven didn’t even have the decency to back her up.
    “This is the first
I heard about an outing,” Jade said, “So, I’m going with Zach after volleyball
next week, and that’s that.”  It was funny.  If Aunt Bertha had brought up the
family outing first, Jade might have canceled with Zach.  She sometimes had an
authority-pleasing mentality.
    She recognized it
within herself even as she heard Bertha say, “We’re going camping next week.
I’ll send notes for you girls to get out of school Monday and Tuesday.  Raven,
we’ll let your sister go on her date.  If we can wait a week, we can wait a few
hours.”
    “What if I can’t
wait a week?” Raven said. 
    Jade frowned.  Why
was Raven so frantic about this family trip? And why couldn’t it wait? 
    Aunt Bertha waved
her finger to the empty plates on the counter, “A little help please.” 
    Raven pushed up
from the chair like a lobster just pinched her butt.  She wasn’t to be
dissuaded. She said, “What if I can’t wait a week?”
    Aunt Bertha
gripped the chair, and Jade could see that it was a struggle for her to stand
upright.  She put the plates she had just grabbed down and went to help Bertha
to a chair.  Bertha smiled at Jade gratefully.  She said, “It’s a full moon
next week and preparations must be made.”
    What she said made
no sense to Jade, but must have made sense to Raven because Raven nodded with a
pained expression on her face, “Okay.  I can wait a week.”
     
     
    ~~ Mindy ~~
     
     
    It was Saturday
night. 
    Jade was home safe
from her game. 
    Raven was cold and
wrong. 
    Claire was
Claire. 
    Mindy stared at
the ceiling.  The shadows scared her.  The feeling of being watched frightened
her.  She wanted to wake up Claire and ask for help.  To say, “Please, help
me.”
    Even though Claire
no longer teased her like she had before, Claire still didn’t respect Mindy,
not enough to believe her when she asked for help.
    Earth heard her.
    Mindy asked for
help.
    The Void waited
outside.
    The Void waited for
Raven, guiding her steps.
    Raven turned the
doorknob.
    Mindy screeched
and then immediately clapped her own hand against her mouth, her heart beating
wildly.  She was seven years old.  She wasn’t a baby anymore. 
    She couldn’t wet
the bed.  She wasn’t a baby.
    Earth said, I
will hide you.
    Mindy rolled off
the bed onto the carpet and crawled underneath as Raven stepped into the room. 
Her eyes were open, but she wasn’t there.  Mindy reached her arms out to Earth
and let herself sink, sink, sink, under the carpet, under the floorboards, down
through the basement, down through the Earth.
    She couldn’t see
what Raven was doing, but Earth could.
    Raven tore the
garlic down, throwing it to the floor.  She grabbed handfuls of silver and
sage, bringing the curtain rod down with her. 
    Claire sat up,
“What are you doing?”
    But Raven never
answered.  She just kept tearing at the curtains, mumbling, “Have to find time.
Have to find time.”
    Mindy sighed with
relief. Raven didn’t sense her.  She was safe inside Earth.  The Void couldn’t
see too far into Earth’s depths.  The Void and Gravity didn’t get along.  The
Void could skim along the surface, but couldn’t stay for long and couldn’t go
too deep. 
    When Claire
started screaming, “What are you doing?”  Jade came running.  She turned on the
lights.
    That woke Raven. 
Raven blinked twice and then looked down at her hands.  A thing trail of blood
ran down her palm. She shook her head, a confused look on her face.
     
     
    ~~ Raven ~~
     
     
    Seeing the blood, Raven’s
first thought was that she had killed someone in her sleep.  “Jade? I don’t
know what happened.”
    She felt lost,
confused.  Claire sat on her bed, wide-eyed and staring at Raven like she had
grown a second head.  Jade stood in a long t-shirt and pajama