Beautiful Redemption by Kami García, Margaret Stohl Read Free Book Online Page A

and that’s what matters. I suppose I owe you, Ethan Lawson Wate.”
    “You don’t owe me anything, ma’am.”
    “I hope to repay the debt one day. Returning my locket meant the world to me, but I don’t think you’ll see much gratitude from Ethan Carter Wate, wherever he may be. He always was a bit stubborn that way.”
    “What happened to him? If you don’t mind my asking, ma’am.” I’d always wondered about Ethan Carter Wate—after he came back to life for only a second. I mean, he was the beginning of all of this, everything that had happened to Lena and me. The other end of the thread we pulled, the one that had unraveled the entire universe.
    Didn’t I have a right to know how his story ended? It couldn’t have been much worse than mine, could it?
    “I don’t really know. They took him away to the Far Keep. We couldn’t be together, but I’m sure you know that. I learned it myself, the hard way,” she said, her voice sad and far away.
    Her words caught in my mind, snagging on others I’d tried to push off until now. The Far Keep. The Keepers of
The Caster Chronicles
—the same ones my mom refused to talk about. Genevieve didn’t look like she wanted to elaborate either.
    Why didn’t anyone want to talk about the Far Keep? What were
The Caster Chronicles
really about?
    I looked from Genevieve to the lemon trees. Here we were, at the site of the first big fire. It was the place where her family’s land had burned, and where Lena tried to face off against Sarafine for the first time.
    Funny how history repeated itself around here.
    Funnier still how I was about the last person in Gatlin to figure that out.
    But I had learned a few things the hard way myself. “It wasn’t your fault.
The Book of Moons
sort of plays tricks on people. I don’t think it was ever meant for Light Casters. I think it wanted to turn you—” She shot me a look, and I stopped talking. “Sorry, ma’am.”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. For the first hundred years or so, I felt that way. Like that book had stolen something from me. Like I’d been duped…” Her voice trailed off.
    She was right. She had gotten the short stick.
    “But good or bad, I made my own choices. They’re all I have now. It’s my cross to bear, and I’ll be the one to bear it.”
    “But you did it out of love.” So did Lena and Amma.
    “I know. That’s what helps me bear it. I just wish my Ethandidn’t have to bear it, too. The Far Keep is a cruel place.” She looked down at her grave. “What’s done is done. There’s no cheating death any more than you can cheat
The Book of Moons
. Someone always has to pay the price.” She smiled sadly. “I guess you know that, or you wouldn’t be here.”
    “I guess I do.”
    I knew it better than anyone.
    A twig snapped. Then a voice called out, even louder.
    “Stop following me, Link.”
    Genevieve Duchannes disappeared at the sound of the words. I didn’t know how she did it, but I was so startled that I felt myself start slipping away, too.
    I clung to the voice—because it was familiar, and I would’ve recognized it anywhere. And because it sounded like home, chaos and all.
    It was the voice that anchored me in the Mortal realm now, the same way it had kept my heart bound to Gatlin when I had been alive.
    L.
    I froze. I couldn’t move, even though she couldn’t see me.
    “You tryin’ to give me the slip?” Link was stomping around behind Lena, trying to catch up with her as she made her way through the lemon trees. Lena shook her head like she was trying to shake Link.
    Lena.
    She pushed through the brush, and I caught a glimpse of gold and green eyes. That was it; I couldn’t help myself.
    “Lena!” I shouted as loud as I could, my voice ringing across the white sky.
    I took off running across the stubbly frozen ground, through the weeds and all the way down the rocky path. I flung myself into her arms… and went flying to the ground behind her.
    “I’m not just