Coal to Diamonds by Augusta Li Read Free Book Online Page A

of our lives. As I already pointed out, we have no food. I personally don’t want to risk getting struck by lightning or impaled by a tree branch on the way to the supermarket. I’d like to go back to work soon. What we need is a permanent solution.”
    The idea of staying, of waking up every morning to Bobby cooking and Cam wrapped in his soft robe made Cole smile even as it opened a fissure in his heart. They didn’t want to remain in the backwoods of Greysport, Pennsylvania, barely populous enough to be called a town. Unlike Cole, they had lives away from here, important careers in cities with recognizable names. As soon as it was safe, they planned to claw their way to the top of this pit and run, even if that meant leaving Cole at the stagnant bottom again, as they had ten years ago.
    “I could do it, I think,” Cole whispered, looking over Bobby’s head and out the kitchen window. The branches and sky appeared monochromatic and faded, like an old photograph. Last night’s rain had evaporated, leaving behind a mist that fuzzed the edges of things. “I think I can kill him.”
    “Cole, no!” Cam said. His fork dropped from his hand and chimed against his plate.
    “I don’t think we need to go to that extreme,” Bobby agreed. Cole could see in their eyes that they still loved Darius Thorn, the mysterious man who’d appeared not long after they’d returned to Greysport six months ago, and who’d seduced each of them in turn, and Cole too. He’d showed them glimpses of power beyond their wildest imaginings. Even now, with Thorn threatening their lives, the idea of him gone forever saddened them.
    “Maybe we can talk to him,” Cam offered softly. “If we apologize, and ask him to stop—”
    “Talk to him!” Cole spat. “Cam, do you remember how he reacted when we wanted to stop holding ceremonies with him? And what the fuck do we have to apologize for? We’re somewhere between tools and toys in his mind. If we’re not working properly, we can be replaced. He made it perfectly clear that it’s his way or nothing. We can go back and bow down in front of him, do whatever he says, or we can wait for him to figure out how to kill us. That is, unless we get him first.”
    “Cole, that’s enough. Killing is not an option,” Bobby said.
    Cole didn’t like Bobby’s tone, the careful calm one used when speaking to a crazy person with dynamite strapped to his chest. Bobby feared Cole would snap, do something rash. Maybe he would. He didn’t need Cam’s or Bobby’s permission to kill Thorn. But Cole also knew the action would sever his bond with them as certainly and permanently as death. “Killing is the most natural thing in the world,” he said, trying to win their support. “It happens thousands of times a day, all around us. Animals do it. They defend themselves. Even plants kill. Weather kills. Time kills.”
    Now Bobby and Cam looked at him not with nervousness but with a trace of disgust. “I’m not a monster! Thorn is the monster,” Cole said, standing and then slamming the back of his chair against the table’s edge, making the coffee ripple in the mugs and the silverware rattle. “I’m not asking either one of you to do it. All I want to do is protect you, and you look at me like I’m Hitler!” He grabbed his leather coat from the peg where it hung, went outside, and slammed the door.
    The previous night’s downpour had left the naked ground pitted with frosty mud puddles. It had stripped the trees of their remaining leaves. Vixen shuffled through the damp piles around the trunks, coaxing out the maple scent. Cole paced back and forth, smoking. Bobby and Cam were probably talking about him, asking each other if he was dangerous, or insane. While they found Cole’s dark tendencies sexy at times, they were quick to clutch their lights when the shadows grew too long. Maybe they wanted to replace him with Darius Thorn. Three was the most potent magical number. Four was cumbersome.