Lies and Prophecy by Marie Brennan Read Free Book Online Page A

does she hate him so much?”
    â€œShe doesn’t hate him,” I said, knowing it sounded defensive. “I mean, she’d never call him a—a changeling or anything. She just doesn’t approve of me associating with him. It’s a social issue.” One plenty of people shared. Robert had once let slip that he wasn’t the first person the University asked to room with Julian, though he refused to say how far down the list he’d been. It could have been a terrible pairing, with Robert all impulsiveness and extroversion, and prone to planting his foot in his mouth. But it had worked out well in the end, dragging Julian into enough of a social life to keep him from self-destructing out of sheer isolation.
    By way of Liesel, as it happened. “Your mother takes it further, though,” she said, fetching her hairbrush from the bathroom. “I mean, I understand the basic problem. Robert invited me to dinner that first night because of my empathy; he trusted I’d at least be nice to Julian. But you were the one who turned it into friendship. Without you, I might not have gotten that far. He’s very … off-putting.”
    â€œThat’s a polite way to put it.” I dropped my shoulders firmly, trying to relax them, and scrubbed at my eyes. “He makes people’s skin crawl. His Krauss rating’s got to be through the roof.”
    â€œAnd everything about them is so secret,” Liesel said. “At least in Germany. All I really knew, growing up, was that wilders are dangerous, and that’s why the government handles them.”
    â€œThey aren’t dangerous, not once they’re trained.” I could hear the frustration in my own voice, and tried to moderate my tone. Venting at Liesel was not going to make the world get over its stupidity. “That’s the whole point of them being wards of the state: the government can keep the wilders from torching themselves and everybody else while they’re learning control. But once that’s done, they’re fine.”
    Liesel nodded, then stopped so she could twist her hair into a bun. “I understand that, intellectually, but on a gut level it makes no difference. Julian still feels like he could take the roof off Wolfstone if he wanted to.”
    I wondered briefly if he could. He could survive both Combat Shielding and Power Reservoirs at once, while still taking three other courses. And passing them all. “Anyway, my mother just doesn’t like me being friends with him. It’s a mild social taint among her peers. I frankly don’t give an iron damn.”
    â€œWhat does your father think?”
    I shrugged. “Who knows. He’s wrapped up in his work. He does less of the high society thing than my mother does.”
    Talking about her wasn’t making my mood any better. I brooded at a small stain in the rug while Liesel plugged in her port and woke her screen to check for messages. Then she said, out of nowhere, “Grayson was going to assign the first big practical yesterday, right? Have you tried that yet?”
    Either her tact had just failed in spectacular fashion, or her empathy told her I needed to talk about this whether I wanted to or not. My head fell against the back of the couch with a thump. “Yes. And it was … weird.”
    Liesel perched on the armchair and listened to my description of the previous night, and the guys’ verdict on my athame that morning. I kept it as clinical as I could, not to hide anything from her—a lost cause—but to help myself think through it. When I was done, she mused, “So they said you did it right. The athame, that is.”
    â€œYeah.” My failure with the circle had dominated my thoughts, but that was something to be proud of, I supposed.
    Liesel had on what I thought of as therapist face, attentive and kind, which meant her mind was whirling behind those big hazel eyes. “This was a