Ignition Point by Kate Corcino Read Free Book Online Page B

your family living in the Kennels.” Lucas repeated the line his mother had told him, using the colloquial term for the Spark village that was set apart. She’d told him her version of the truth on one of her rare visits to faraway Zone Six where Lucas was fostered. And as if telling him the truth had set her free, she’d never returned. Even as a boy, he’d justified her absence for her. It was a long journey from the Pacific Northwest to the far side of the Great Plains.
    Only Grandfather had ever made the trip after that.
    “If I could not bear the sight of you, Lucas, then why did I travel there twice every year, at my age and in my health? Why spend weeks with a caravan just to see you?” Grandfather wore a soft smile.
    “But….” Lucas found himself shaking his head. “When you brought me home last autumn, you told me I should never use the Spark. Never mention it. I thought—I thought you were ashamed of me.”
    Lucas had violated that secrecy. He’d told Meredith.
    She was the first person who’d ever loved him. She loved him even after he told her. She’d been shocked, of course. A thing like that? Your secret boyfriend, the grandson of your Councilor, is a Spark ? But it hadn’t taken more than a few minutes for her to smile up at him, green eyes glowing with her belief in him, and tell him that he was still her Lucas. She felt no shame toward him.
    And now…Grandfather, too?
    “Lucas. I have never been ashamed. I have been proud every day that my grandson was chosen. Where others will see a mere Spark, I see a flaming sword of righteousness.”
    “I don’t understand,” Jacob dared to whisper.
    Grandfather returned his gaze to Lucas’s brother. “Lucas is not a curse, Jacob. Lucas is a blessing, a tool, given to us to show favor.” Grandfather looked again at Lucas. “And that is why you must go away again. I arranged this position for you at the Zone Three Post-Secondary Training Facility so you could be fast-tracked into the mid-range Agent branch. Zone Three is our next target, and I am counting on you to lay the foundation for us. Do you understand?”
    Lucas nodded, but he knew it was slow. Too slow. His grandfather’s eyes narrowed, prompting a verbal response.
    “I do. But I—are you certain I’m the one to do this?” Panic fluttered in his chest. He couldn’t leave. All the way to Zone Three, across the Rocky Mountains and south, deep in the high desert? That was even further than Zone Six had been. It was a month of travel by caravan. What about Meredith? Lucas grasped at the first logical argument he could. “Couldn’t Jacob go? He’s been trained for this sort of thing.”
    It was a mistake.
    “Fool.” Grandfather spat at him. “Only Sparks are permitted to be Agents. You were created for this. You will not disappoint me.” Grandfather took a deep, calming breath, and his snarling lips trembled back into their usual ascetic expression. He leaned forward, his eyes steady on Lucas’s. “You are the only Spark born to our family. The only Spark I would trust with my fortune, with my future, with my life. Or is that a mistake?”
    Lucas’s head shook quickly now. He had no idea he was so important to his grandfather. “No, sir,” he whispered, “it’s not a mistake.”
    Grandfather settled back again. He turned his gaze to a report before him. Lucas was too tall and too far back from the desk to read the scrawled words upside down.
    “I believe you, grandson. But this mission is too important for you to go without demonstration of your devotion. Are you ready to prove yourself?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “As devoted as your brother Jacob?”
    “Of course, Grandfather.”
    Jacob shifted restlessly beside Lucas, but Lucas couldn’t turn his gaze from his grandfather now. He was going to give Lucas a trusted mission, meant only for him, one only he could achieve. Lucas struggled to reign in his quickening breath.
    Once I’ve proved myself, I can ask to marry Meredith.