Firewalker by Josephine Angelini Read Free Book Online

Sergeant?”
    â€œOh, yes,” another soldier replies immediately. “S’not great, but it’s still tea. You must be icy cold, Lady Samantha.”
    â€œThat’s great,” I enthuse. “We’ll go have some tea in the guardhouse and tomorrow Rowan will arrange a meeting with the shaman.”
    We all stare at my mother as she tries to make sense of what we’ve said. Her hand wavers over Rowan’s outstretched palm.
    â€œI am rather cold,” she admits, and takes Rowan’s hand.
    He leads her down off the edge and my Walltop men sweep in and take over. They shower her with promises of too-strong tea and too-dry biscuits as they unobtrusively surround her with their burly bodies and form a jovial barrier between her and the edge. I’m near to tears, and Rowan knows it. It kills him to see me cry.
    â€œIt’s alright,” Rowan says, pulling me close to his side.
    â€œIs it alright?” I ask, my voice shaky.
    â€œI’ll make it right. I swear it. We’ll make her better,” he promises …
    â€¦ That was the beginning of my journey down this path, Lily. I met the shaman and I shouldn’t have. There was a reason witch magic and shaman magic were kept separate, although I didn’t know it then. But I did it for Mom.
    *   *   *
    Lily awoke to the homey smell of roasting turkey. She rolled over and felt a body next to hers.
    â€œBe careful. Rowan will strangle me if you reinjure yourself,” Juliet said. She stowed the book she was reading and slid down on top of the covers, laying her head on the pillow next to Lily’s.
    â€œWhere is he?” Lily asked groggily.
    â€œCooking dinner. He’s an amazing cook,” Juliet said.
    â€œI know.” Lily grinned. “Wait till you see what he can brew up in a cauldron.”
    â€œOh, I’ve seen plenty of that while he was healing you, although he had to settle for one of Mom’s old stockpots until he ordered a real cauldron off the Internet.” Juliet bit her lower lip as she thought about what to ask. “I’ve seen Rowan do a lot of strange things. Is he really from a parallel world like Mom said?”
    â€œMom’s not crazy,” Lily replied quietly. “There are countless other versions of the world. I’ve been to one of them. Mom sees all of them, all the time. That’s why she seems crazy—because she doesn’t always know which world her body is in when her mind is in so many.”
    Juliet’s luminous brown eyes rounded with sadness. “We just pumped her full of drugs,” she whispered.
    â€œWe were wrong.”
    The two sisters cuddled closer to each other, silently giving the other permission to forgive herself.
    â€œAnd everything Rowan told us about witchcraft and willstones and mindspeak?” Juliet asked, still trying to absorb it all.
    It’s all true, Jules. Magic is real. He’s what’s called a mechanic and I’m a witch. This is mindspeak.
    Juliet’s eyes widened for a moment when she heard Lily’s voice in her head, and then they darted down to the three faintly glowing willstones hanging from a chain around Lily’s neck. “I guess I should be more surprised, but I’m not,” Juliet said, a dreamy look stealing over her face. “I think we’ve always been able to read each other’s minds a little.”
    I think we have.
    â€œYou gotta teach me how to do that,” Juliet said, grinning.
    â€œDeal,” Lily agreed.
    â€œSo,” Juliet said, her eyes narrowing teasingly, “are all the guys in this other world like Rowan? And if they are, can you get me one?”
    â€œNo, they are not all like Rowan,” Lily replied, laughing.
    â€œDamn.” Juliet sighed and rolled over onto her back. “I guess I’ll just have to keep imagining a gorgeous, intelligent badass who lives and breathes for