B00JX4CVBU EBOK by Peter Joison Read Free Book Online

excited looks and nodded.
    ‘Goodness! It all makes so much sense!’ said Aunt Lani. ‘Tell them. Tell them, dear.’
    ‘Well,’ Chloe began, ‘you know how I mentioned Great Aunt Rhea’s writings? In one of her journals she wrote about a letter from one of her sisters that talked about meeting a certain Ring. I thought that phrase was kind of odd: “meeting a Ring”. So while you were out Skorn hunting, I checked the entry again and the date it was written. I asked Aunt Lani where any letters from that time might be …’
    ‘That’s where I come in,’ said Aunt Lani. ‘I thought that any old letters from or to my Aunts in the 1920s would be in the old Captain’s chest. And I was right! It was like being in a detective novel.’
    Ember was amazed at the transformation in her Aunt. For years she had been going downhill without her own sisters around, taciturn and detached both mentally and physically, living alone in the old chapel beside the manor house, reading and gardening. Whatever she’d helped discover today had brought back a bit of the old Lani.
    Chloe continued. ‘The letter was from Great Aunt Ira. In it she talks about ‘meeting’ the Ring of the Paris Vordene. OK, Aunt Lani …’
    ‘Oh? Oh. Yes.’ Aunt Lani opened an old letter on her lap, its paper brown and dry. She read, ‘And although by unspoken agreement we must never talk of this Ring, I will say it here, I will never forget the look on that boy’s face. The face of a human Ring …’
    Chloe’s face shone. ‘The Ring of the Paris Vordene was a boy called Phillipe. An eleven year old boy!’
    Ember was gobsmacked. And going by the look on her sister’s faces, so were they.
    Celeste stood and ran her fingers through her hair. ‘But Rings are animals! Spirit animals. They always are. Always were.’
    ‘Yeah!’ said Brooke. ‘Your Ring, Aunt Lani, was a spirit wolf. Every Vordene around the world that has a Ring, has spirit animals. The London Vordene with their fox, the Anglesey Vordene with their eagle …’
    Ember was confused. ‘But why didn’t we know of this? Wouldn’t it be something handed down from Vordene to Vordene?’
    ‘I don’t know, dear,’ said Aunt Lani, ‘Aunt Rhea never spoke of it. Nor any of my other Aunts. There must be a reason why not.’
    Celeste paced around in a small circle; her shoes clacked on the wooden floor. She stopped and looked towards the door. ‘Wait, so you’re saying …’
    Aunt Lani clapped. ‘Yes!’
    ‘You’re saying that guy. That man in there …’
    ‘What? No!’ said Brooke.
    ‘He’s our Ring? Our protector? Our … familiar?’
    ‘Ugh, I hate that word,’ said Aunt Lani. ‘Witchy words. But yes, he’s your Ring. A human Ring.’
    Ember stared at her knees. Of course, it all made sense now. How he could stop things around them, how he was immune to the Vordenes’ powers. This was huge. Huge . Chloe and Aunt Lani were both beaming. Celeste stood in the same spot, her gaze on the door. Brooke shook her head, over and over, mouth open. And Skye, the little girl who wasn’t, sat in the large chair, her gaze darting from one woman to the next.
    Ember’s mind raced. She wanted to sing, to dance wildly around the room. Our Ring. Our protector. Our shield. And it was him . Him!
    *
    It was around 10 o’clock. Brooke left her sisters in the Great Hall. They were driving her crazy with all the human Ring talk. Ember especially seemed over the moon about having this guy enter their lives.
    Brooke walked across the entrance hall and waved her hand at the locked door. The door opened with a loud creak, and she looked back over her shoulder to see if any of her sisters had heard. When no one came to investigate she entered the room, and silently stepped up to the man quietly snoring on the sofa.
    The room was dark, the sofa and the sleeping man no more than darker areas of black, but Brooke could just make out the guy’s face. He didn’t look special. Why a man? Why? Her