Firewalker by Josephine Angelini Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t know, Rowan. It’s never happened to me before.
    I’ll kiss you in private, then.
    Promises, promises.
    I’m good at keeping promises.
    â€œDo you want some help, Rowan?” Juliet asked, unknowingly interrupting Rowan and Lily’s telepathic flirting.
    â€œNo, you just sit,” he said with a warm smile, and began serving the turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, and green beans.
    â€œWhy are we having Christmas in January?” Lily asked, helping herself to only the vegetable part of Rowan’s feast. She was still vegan, and after letting Rowan cut her hair to avoid drinking squirrel blood, she fully intended to stay that way.
    Lily ran a hand through her hair, checking the length. It had been short to begin with and more of it had burned off in the pyre. Lily wondered how much she had lost. She ran the strands through her fingers and found it to be longer than expected.
    â€œBecause you missed it,” Samantha answered, smothering her mashed potatoes with gravy. Lily forced herself to stop touching her head and tried not to worry too much over her hair.
    â€œAnd I like turkey,” Rowan said. “Haven’t had wild turkey in years,” he added quietly.
    â€œ Wild turkey?” Lily asked.
    â€œYeah. I went hunting yesterday.”
    â€œWhy?” Lily asked, confused. “There’s a grocery store right up the street.”
    â€œIt was Juliet’s idea that I needed to relax. And hunting relaxes me,” he replied with a shrug. “Took me forever to find this bird, too. Not many left out here. Had to walk through the woods to this little stead called Hop-king-ton to find one,” he said, sitting down and tucking into his meal.
    Juliet’s jaw dropped. “Please don’t tell me you went to the bird sanctuary out there? Right on the border of Hopkinton and Ashland?”
    â€œWhat do you mean, bird sanctuary ?” Rowan asked, alarmed. “Is turkey sacred in this world?”
    Juliet shook her head, and Lily made a mental note to explain to Rowan later about endangered species and the shrinking wild—something he’d never encountered before.
    â€œNo, they aren’t,” Juliet said, and Rowan relaxed. “Go on with your story.”
    â€œIt was a long hunt, but that small area was strangely plentiful,” he continued. Juliet nodded resignedly. A bird sanctuary would seem strangely plentiful to a hunter like Rowan. “After I moved to Salem my dad and I would hunt turkey on the weekends and I grew to love the taste. We spent summers out west where I was born, though, on the Ocean of Grass. No turkey out there.”
    â€œWhat did you hunt when you were out west?” Juliet asked carefully, hoping it wasn’t another protected animal.
    â€œBuffalo, of course,” Rowan answered. His face suddenly darkened. “When we weren’t overrun by Woven. Western Woven are much smarter.”
    â€œSo how far west did you get?” Lily asked, trying not to think of huge Woven chasing her across the open land of the Great Plains.
    â€œInto the flatlands, past the Misi-Ziibi, but not much farther,” Rowan answered.
    Juliet and Lily exchanged a confused look. “Do you mean the Mississippi River?” Lily asked.
    Rowan laughed out loud. “In Algonquin, Misi-Ziibi means ‘Great River.’ So it’s like you’re saying Great River-River. Forget it.” He waved it off. “I’m not making fun of you. Your accent is actually kind of adorable, Lily,” he said, taking her hand under the table and squeezing it. “My tribe spent a lot of time hunting on the edge of the Ocean of Grass, but no one’s made it across to the far river, the Pekistanoui, since before the Woven Outbreak.”
    â€œI think the Pekistan-whatever-he-said has to be either the Missouri or the Colorado River,” Juliet said in an aside to Lily.
    â€œHe means the Missouri,” Samantha