Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles 4)

I took a deep breath, and it stopped immediately. Get control of yourself.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

I composed the words in my head, even if I wouldn’t let my pen write them.

bent

like the branches of a tree

broken

like the pieces of my heart

cracked

like the seventeenth moon

shattered

like the glass in the window

the day we met

I closed my eyes, trying to silence the words that wouldn’t stop coming.

No.

I ignored them, forcing them out of my mind. I wasn’t Kelting them to Uncle Macon, and I wasn’t writing a word until Ethan came back.

Not a single word.

“Amarie is expecting us. We should go.” Uncle Macon slipped on his black cashmere coat. “She is not a woman who appreciates being kept waiting.”

Boo lumbered behind him, his thick fur blending seamlessly into the darkness of the room.

Ridley opened the door, fleeing as fast as she could. She unwrapped a red lollipop before she even made it down the steps of the veranda. She hesitated for a second near the flower bed before pocketing the wrapper.

Maybe people could change—even the ones who made the wrong choices, if they tried hard enough to make them right. I wasn’t sure, but I hoped so. I had made enough bad choices myself in the last year.

I walked toward the only one that had been right.

The only one that mattered.

Ethan.

I’m coming.

CHAPTER 29

The Hands of the Dead

It’s about time.” Her arms crossed impatiently, Amma was staring at the opening in the old stone wall when we stepped through.

Uncle Macon was right; she didn’t like to be kept waiting.

Marian gently put her hand on Amma’s shoulder. “I’m sure it was difficult to round everyone up.”

Amma sniffed, ignoring the excuse. “There’s difficult, and then there’s difficult.”