Read Night Season for Free Online

Tash. She's a half-half?"
    "Uh-huh. That's what they call them, all the ones who aren't just one thing or another. Half-halfs."
    "Who's 'they'?"
    "Gnomes. That's who I know about, anyway, but I guess everyone in Edge calls them that. There's a lot of half-halfs in Edge because of all the magic."
    "You been to Edge?"
    Gan nodded, preening. "I can still cross." That was rare—hardly any demons could cross between realms without being summoned, but Gan could. She hadn't lost the ability when she started growing her soul, either. This made her very special.
    Cynna Weaver recognized that. Gan could see the admiration in her face and hear it in her voice. "I wish I could cross like that. Is it harder to do now?"
    "Well, I don't have as much juice, but… hey, do you have any candy? Chocolate candy."
    "My, you have changed. Not gobbling live bugs these days?"
    Gan sighed. "I can't eat ymu anymore, so I have to eat dead things. But chocolate's different. I like chocolate."
    "I think I've got some." Cynna Weaver pulled her big bag up into her lap and started digging around in it. "You've been staying with the gnomes."
    "Uh-huh. What kind of chocolate?"
    "How did you know that the councilor and the others were coming here?" She pulled out a candy bar. Gan tried to grab it, but Cynna Weaver held it up too high. "Answer the question first."
    "I'm stronger than you. I can just take it."
    "Do you have money?"
    Gan's forehead scrunched up. "Huh?"
    "If you have money, you can buy your own chocolate. If you don't have money, you'll either have to steal things—which can get you in lots of trouble—or get someone to give you what you want. I might give you more chocolate later if you don't make me mad. If you make me mad," she added, "I might zap you."
    Gan eyed her. Cynna Weaver was bigger than her, of course, but that didn't mean much. Even big humans were pretty puny. But she'd seen Cynna Weaver kill a red-eye with a spell. Red-eyes were tough to kill. "Lily Yu wouldn't like it if you killed me."
    "I have more than one spell. My zap spell hurts but doesn't kill. Usually."
    "Yeah?" Gan perked up, interested. "Show me. Not on me," she added hastily. "On the half-half, maybe. Or the councilor."
    "Not now. How did you know the Edge people were coming here?"
    "I'd like to know that, too," Lily Yu said.
    Gan looked up at her. It made her feel funny to see Lily Yu again. Good-funny and bad-funny all mixed up.
    While Lily Yu was in Dis, she had died. Well, part of her had, since she'd accidentally gotten herself split in two—which wasn't Gan's fault, or not all her fault, anyway. Being human, Lily Yu had a soul, so the part that died hooked up again with the part that lived, which was the Lily Yu sitting beside Gan now.
    It was complicated, but Gan more or less understood what had happened—as much as she understood anything about souls, anyway. The confusing part was the way she felt right now, as if she'd eaten something bad, something she couldn't quite swallow all the way. "Most of you doesn't remember me, huh?"
    "Some of me does."
    The way Lily Yu said that made the tight, unswallowed feeling in Gan's throat feel better. "You recognized me. Even though I look a lot different now, you knew who I was."
    "I did, right away. Are you going to answer Cynna's question?"
    Gan stole a glance at the candy, but Cynna Weaver still held it out of reach. She sighed. "Some of it I can't tell, but—"
    The councilor tried to interrupt, but Lily Yu told him she wanted to hear what her friend said. The councilor made a huffy sound. "Little orange one is being mostly demon still. Not is friend."
    Gan liked the way Lily smiled at the councilor, as if she might hit him in a minute but wanted it to be a surprise. "Really? I wonder how you would know who my friends are." She looked at Gan. "How did you know about this?"
    "The councilor is a Harazeed, see—that's one of the gnomish people. So the Hragash—they're the ones I've been staying with—knew he'd be