Breaker (Ondine Quartet Book 4) by Emma Raveling Read Free Book Online

Belicoux assigned me.”
    “There are three chevaliers here.”
    He looked pained. “I have to follow orders.”
    A crash echoed from the cottage followed by a string of expletives.
    I sighed. “Come on.”
    He followed me inside and we headed into the formal dining room.
    “Left! Not right, left!”
    “That’s what I’m doing! You’re not lifting your end high enough —“
    “Yeah, let’s see you turn when there’s no room to maneuver.”  
    Alex and Cam carried both ends of a massive dining table. They’d managed to shift it an entire three inches to the left.
    Cam grunted. “Okay. New plan. We push it back first then edge it out this way.”
    I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms. “Put your legs into it.”
    “Shut up, Irisavie.” Cam wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Jeeves said we’d get out of Calculus for helping you and Ian move, but I’m demanding more.”
    Alex nodded. “At least three classes.”
    Morgan marched over and lifted the table. Cam and Alex stepped back.
    The selkie’s back and arm muscles bulged. “Where do you want it?”
    Cam pointed to the open sliding doors. “Outside.”
    The gardinel shot him a dirty look, but diligently took the table out.
    I looked at them. “I didn’t ask for it to be moved.”
    Alex shrugged. “We want to put in a ping-pong table.”
    “You know these are my living quarters, right? Not a bachelor pad.”
    “Oh, come on.” Cam stretched his arms, exploring the available open space. “Were you really planning on using that table?”
    Eh. He had a point.
    “I thought you wanted a place where we could all hang out.” Alex wore a sweatshirt the color of muddy water with “100% Badass” printed on it in bloody font. “Isn’t that why you chose to live here instead of the Governing House?”
    Not exactly. “I like it here.”
    Cam settled on a chair and shrewdly said, “Because you like being an outsider?”
    “No. I just didn’t want to live there. Not yet.”
    Moving into Rhian’s former living quarters didn’t feel right. It didn’t matter if my grandmother was gone. That space still belonged to her.
    The guest cottage was a compromise. Technically, I was still within Governing House grounds, just not in the actual house. Its location provided me with a sense of autonomy as well as sufficient privacy away from prying eyes and gossipy mouths.
    I glanced around the first floor. Cam and Alex had left most of the cozy furnishings in the living room in tact, though an obscenely huge flat screen TV now hung on the wall. Judging by the connected gaming equipment, they planned on spending a lot of time here.
    “How did you guys pay for this stuff?”
    “Connections, Irisavie.” Alex leaned against the wall. “The more important question is did you pass your test?”  
    I grinned. “With flying colors.”
    He gave me a fist bump.
    Cam scowled. “How do you get out of the rest of the year just by passing a test? We’re inducted chevaliers now. We should be excused from academic coursework for the rest of the year, too.”
    I clucked. “You need your education.”
    “My friend, the Governor.” Alex shook his head. “Talk about the ultimate hook-up.”
    “True.” Cam’s eyes lit up. “You could get us out of the rest of the school year.”
    “Nah, I don’t think it works that way.”
    “Come on.” Cam stood and put an arm around my shoulders. “We’re fellow elites, inducted together.”
    “Don’t embarrass yourself.” I shoved him off. “Did Blaise and Ethan help?”
    Alex nodded. “They complained the entire time about the amount of electrical equipment Ian had. He took them out for lunch to make up for it.”
    “Weak,” Cam scoffed.
    “And yet you couldn’t lift the table,” Alex pointed out.
    “I told you. No room to maneuver.”
    Mm-hmm.
    The garden filled most of the view from the bay windows, but I could just make out the second floor windows of the Governing House.
    Tristan’s room was at the end