Read Ethereal: An Illumine Series Novella (The Illumine Series) for Free Online Page B

freaks out there, and I’m supposed to accept that on a whim?”
    Examining his nails with disinterest, Tegen kept his face down. Only the edges of his mouth, tipping upward in a petty attempt to fight a grin, were visible. Humor colored his voice. “Perhaps.”
    “Because that’s what you’re doing. You, the person I know absolutely nothing about,” she brought her hands down over her face, pressing her palms into her tired eyes. “Are trying to get me to believe that the myths and fairy tales are true. Are you high?”
    A sliver of laughter slips from Tegen’s tightened lips. “Well, when you put it like that, I guess I am trying to get you to believe. But something tells me you already did before I came along.”
    Rinae’s hands slid off her face, revealing narrowed eyes as thin as knife slits in a bed-sheet. Saying she had believed in magic long before him would give him a smug satisfaction. Saying she didn’t believe at this point would make her a liar. Neither settled well with her.
    Tilting her head up to the sky, she let out an exasperated breath. “Great. Next you’ll be telling me unicorns live in the park.”
    “Actually-”
    Her head snapped down instantly, anger blushing her cheeks. “Don’t. Don’t even go there.”
    “Alright, I won’t. But you will regardless, you’ll think about all of it every minute,” he pressed, watching her with wary, sympathetic eyes. “I’m only trying to help.”
    Rinae did her best not to sneer, but failed. “I can’t trust you. I don’t even know you.”
    “Try.”
    He made it sound so simple. As if it were possible to throw countless years of distrust out the window in a single shot, and welcome a stranger eagerly into her life.
    Shaking her head, she took a step back. “I can’t.”
    “You mean you won’t,” he said, sighing. Sadness streaked his face, bringing a bitter touch to his features. “It’s your choice. I won’t follow you, but when you’re ready, you’ll know where to find me.”
    She opened her mouth to protest that it wouldn’t happen, but Tegen had already turned on his heels and started back into the park, vanishing under the waves of darkness surrounding them. Rinae couldn’t help but wonder if she had just made the biggest mistake of her life, or if she had just opened the biggest door to a world waiting for her.

CHAPTER THREE
    JUST GETTING BY
    “Delphine, you’ve got to sit down.”
    “No, Loyal, I’ve got to go back out and find him. He’s waiting for me-”
    “The baby-”
    “To hell with the baby!”
    The argument was starting, again, just as it had been for the last several weeks. Delphine was growing restless at home, sneaking in and out of the underground to go on what she called a ‘search’ for the man of her dreams, the one who fathered her child. Like always, Loyal had stayed glued to her side, insisting she keep calm for the child.
    Because that was working so well.
    Rolling back on her side, Rinae winced and sucked in a painful, sharp breath. It had been days since Rinae’s nighttime attack, and since she had refused to leave their underground home. Scratches and scrapes of raw skin covered patches of her body, and her ribs had been brutally bruised. When she returned home that night, Rinae had made it just in time to a nearby corner and barfed the orange juice she had downed. By the concern of Jake, she had been keeping quiet in his bed, wrapped in various blankets and shrouded in a corner of darkness.
    And yet, all she could think about was Tegen, the boy who had said words that could free her soul, free her spirit, and free the power that tied up her insides.
    A sigh escaped her lips, and Rinae forced herself to sit up. She shuffled out of bed, grateful Jake was not here to enforce her to get rest, and peered around the curtain hiding her from the commotion in the main room.
    It was something straight out of a war movie. Bits of broken wood and cloth covered the floor, mixing with bits of candy