Ignite (Legacy) by Rebecca Yarros Read Free Book Online

I pled. It was shitty enough having the hermit, drunk dad who everyone talked about, but public embarrassment? That was a new level of hell I hadn’t had since I’d had to pull him off a barstool at the Golden Saloon when I was sixteen.
    Now I worked there.
    “She said you’re doing well on these meds, but your pain has you uncomfortable, Jim,” Dr. Stone answered. “This isn’t a punishment. We’re looking for a long-term solution for you to return to feeling fully functional. Physical therapy is going to help strengthen your back muscles and maybe lose a little of that weight. It will be good for you. Good for the girls who are taking such good care of you, too.”
    Dad grunted.
    Because the truth was he hadn’t cared about us in such a long time that I wasn’t sure he knew how to anymore.

    * * *
    “ O h em gee !” Adeline squealed and danced around me, acting every single day of her thirteen years.
    “Shhh!” I said as we made our way out to my car.
    “You can’t shush me!” she said, taking the passenger seat as I climbed into the driver’s side.
    “I can, too.”
    “No way! You and River! Finally!”
    I could practically see the hearts dancing above her head. “Stop!” I laughed. “Look, I only told you because I need to make sure that you’re okay with Aunt Dawn coming up next weekend to stay with you.”
    “Absolutely. Dad will be on his best behavior with her in the house.”
    She chatted on, stating easily a dozen times that she couldn’t believe it took us this long to get together. I reminded her every single time that it was just a kiss and we weren’t together.
    “Yes, you are. You’re going away together!”
    “I’m going with him to check out his home town and see where he’ll be living. He doesn’t know how soon he’ll have to move.” Too soon.
    “You should go with him,” she said, playing with her phone.
    “What?” I said, my hands tightening on the wheel.
    “You. Should. Go. Get the hell out of here.”
    “Don’t swear,” I said automatically. “And that’s a huge thing to even think about.”
    “Why? Because life is so great here?” She snorted. “Seriously. If you have a chance to get out, do it. I’m leaving the first chance I get.”
    “You’re not happy?”
    She shrugged, her eyes still on that damn phone. “Sure. But it’s not like I have a ton of friends. Everything is”—she shrugged again—“stagnant. Nothing changes. It feels like one of those ponds that just grows crap and mosquitos.”
    “But there are good things, too, right?”
    “Yeah, of course. You’re here, and it’s nice to see Aunt Dawn when she comes around. But I’m not going to stay here. I’m leaving for college, and then once I’ve seen what’s out there, maybe I’ll come back. But I don’t want to feel like I stayed because it was the only option. You’re not mad, are you?” She looked over at me.
    “Not at all,” I said as we turned onto her friend’s street. “I had those exact thoughts at your age.”
    “But then Mom died.”
    I nodded slowly. “Then Mom died.” And my entire future went with her.
    I pulled into the driveway and put the car in park, quickly touching Adeline’s wrist before she could open her door. “Addy, if it was your choice, would you go? If you were me?”
    “In a heartbeat,” she said without blinking. “Dad puts you through hell. Once River leaves…I just think you deserve a chance to be happy. Both of you do.”
    My heart stuttered, knowing I needed to ask her. I couldn’t make these kinds of choices without her. “Okay, and if there was a way for you to come with me? Would you? I know it’s more complicated than that, and that you have friends and a life, and Dad, but just for the purpose of this conversation, would you?”
    She tilted her head in a way that reminded me so much of our mother. “I’d pack a box tomorrow. In theory.”
    “In theory,” I repeated.
    She lunged across the console of my SUV and kissed me