Read Clash (The Arinthian Line Book 4) for Free Online Page B

mumbled, weeping. “A useless cripple …”
    Bridget strode over and gave Haylee a gentle hug. “You’re not a cripple. You’ve got a bad leg. Doesn’t mean anything. Look at Leland. Little tyke is blind, mute and in constant pain, yet he is as happy as can be and never complains.”
    Augum took a seat beside Leera.
    “Poor thing is really struggling,” she said to him quietly, chin resting on her hands.
    “She is.” He watched Haylee retrieve her cane under Bridget’s compassionate supervision. “Your friendship means a lot to her, you know.”
    Leera’s brows rose. “Really?”
    “Yup.”
    “Huh.”
    “I think it’s helping her get past the murder of her parents. And … maybe it’s helping you too.”
    “Maybe.” She idly kicked at the ground. “I’ve been thinking. Would you still … you know, like me if I suddenly got older?”
    “Where’s this coming from?” but he knew exactly what she meant—he’d been thinking about it too. The side effect of Cron was instant aging. Every successful casting of the spell aged the caster. What did that mean for them? How much would they age? Would they suddenly turn old like Mrs. Stone? Would he miss out on the entirety of his life just to defeat his father? Was that really what all of this was coming down to?
    “You’ve been thinking about it as much as I have,” Leera said. “I know Bridget has. I can tell. You know she woke up the other night screaming?”
    He glanced at Bridget, who was now whispering something to Haylee. The rings under her eyes looked darker. “Thought I dreamed that.”
    “Nope. That was Bridget. Fess up, you’ve been thinking about it, haven’t you?”
    He rubbed his face, ran both hands through his hair, and expelled a long breath. “I have.”
    Leera turned her head to watch him, chin still resting on her hands. “Could you imagine? What if we, you know, became old suddenly? Old like Mr. Goss. But we’re still us. Fifteen-year-olds trapped in forty-year-old bodies.”
    She was a month away from turning fifteen, but correcting her right now, even jokingly, didn’t feel right in this moment. But would they even get to her fifteenth? What if the Legion found them before that? And then, if all worked out and they learned Cron, they’d skip a whole bunch of birthdays all at once. Or is that even how it worked? What was the difference between getting captured and dying, and dying from old age very fast? What was the point?
    He took his birthday necklace and absently placed it between his teeth, chewing on it in thought.
    Leera returned to idly kicking at the dirt. “Feels like my dreams are dying. Like I have no future.”
    Augum’s heart sank. That’s the darkest Leera had ever sounded. Wait, did she mean no future with him, or no future in general? He shoved the thought away. He was being paranoid. Besides, it was best not to overthink it.
    “Maybe the point is to …” He sighed, allowing the chain to fall from his lips. What was he trying to say? What would Sir Westwood say? Or Mrs. Stone? “Maybe the point is we’re to enjoy it while we have it.”
    She leaned her head on his shoulder. Suddenly she snorted. “That all you got?” She was smiling as their gazes met.
    “You two make me want to puke sometimes,” Haylee said, wiping her tears, voice full of envious affection. She had flung her cane to the stream once more after yet again failing at some spell Bridget was trying to teach.
    Bridget patiently retrieved the cane. “You and Chaska are just as bad, and you know it. Now let’s practice together.”
    “I wish we were,” Haylee mumbled, accepting her cane and straining to stand.
    Leera slapped Augum’s knee. “Come on, I’ll hide something for you.” She jumped up, picked a rock from the ground and disappeared behind the cabin, soon returning and taking a seat. “Well?”
    Augum strolled behind the cabin and extended his palm, concentrating on that subtle tug that told him something was