Entangled by Amy Rose Capetta Read Free Book Online Page A

anger at being left on Andana, and her fears about crossing the universe to find him.
    What she got back from Xan was complicated. Flashes of white—the first images that he’d ever sent. Their connection was getting stronger, and with that came more senses. The whiteness was paired with a sterile smell. Firstbloom. And then—a flood of dark feeling and fire, gasoline ignited and charging through Cade’s veins. That was Xan’s take on the scientists and what they’d done.
    But then his thoughts turned to something new. Here was a flash even more familiar. The face of a baby girl with light-brown skin, dark green eyes. And with that came the strongest feeling yet, breaking over Cade shiny and hopeful, like the yearned-for chorus of a song.
    Even if entanglement
was
a curse, this was the way Xan felt about her.
    It made perfect sense to Cade.
    The old woman bobbed up from under her table and started to unload more wares, but Cade put a hand out to stop her.
    â€œLet’s get right to it.”
    Cade slid a coin onto the table. A not-kidding-around coin. The old woman waved a hand at her soul tray, inviting Cade to pick one.
    â€œI’ll pass.”
    She didn’t need any more souls to worry about. Not when she already had Xan’s on the line.
    The old woman picked up the coin, brought it to her lips, but seemed to remember the nature of her teeth at the last second and settled for sniffing it. After a deep nostrilful of copper, she nodded.
    â€œNow,” Cade said. “About Lee.”
    â€œThat will take more than coin,” she said. “It’s not the sort of information a person passes out so easy.”
    â€œBut I just . . .”
    â€œProved you were serious, is what you did. But this will require something more . . . personal.”
    Cade didn’t have much on her, and what she had, she needed. She leaned over the table, shoulders first, and tried a bit of intimidation, but the old woman raised her knotted eyebrows and stood her ground.
    â€œWhat do you want?” Cade asked.
    â€œPart of you,” the old woman said. “For the shop.”
    Cade leveled a glance at the woman, and stuffed in as much contempt as she could fit. “But I’m not dead.”
    â€œYou go there,” the old woman said, pointing up, “you’re as good as.” She leaned in and whispered, voice coated in age like layers of dust. “The customers, all they want is the tragedy. And that’s thick on you, isn’t it?”
    Cade’s stomach flashed cold.
    â€œI might have asked for your hair on another day,” the old woman said, with a glance that inspired Cade to gather it up and tuck it behind her shoulders. “Decent locks, nice shine to them, but I’ve got plenty at the moment. So . . .” The old woman rattled around with one hand, not taking her eyes off Cade, until she flourished a pair of pliers. She nodded at Cade’s mouth. “I’ll take one of those.”
    â€œYou can’t be . . .”
    â€œSerious? But that’s just what we are, you and I.” She slapped the pliers down on the table.
    Cade grabbed them. Made another frantic round of the market, but no one would slip her one word about Lee. So she stopped at the booth that sold splinter-thin vials of moonshine. Bartered for two of them and took her strange armload of items to the nearest bathroom. It had a mirror, which was good. Not because Cade wanted to see what she was about to do—but it would help her be precise. She uncapped the first bottle and poured the white-hot moonshine straight over the chosen tooth, second from the back on the bottom right-hand side. Then she opened the other bottle and rubbed the fire into her gums until she couldn’t feel them. With each slide of her finger, her stomach clenched. The pliers went in cold, and her tongue fought back. But she reached in the prongs, clamped them down.
    Cade