Othermoon by Nina Berry Read Free Book Online Page B

out of the parking garage, everyone but Caleb ducked
     down below the windows, in case there were other objurers keeping watch on the exits.
     In the Tribunal’s car, we shouldn’t get as many suspicious glances, but better safe
     than sorry. And as an extralegal, ultrasecret organization, the Tribunal wouldn’t
     report the theft of the car to the police and risk exposing their own operation. That’s
     why, when in doubt, we stole from them. Plus, they deserved it.
    We kept an eye out for tails for the next few miles, but by the time we hit the freeway
     we felt sure we’d made it away clean. Caleb got off the northbound 15 and headed south
     toward the 95. Amaris pulled out some bottles of water and chips, and a contented
     munching sound filled the car.
    “Okay, so that was cool,” November said after about fifty miles. “But it would’ve
     been way cooler with Arnaldo there.”
    “Hell, yeah,” said London as Siku grunted in agreement.
    “What’s going on with . . . all that?” Amaris asked, her voice a little low and timid.
     “I mean, why do you have to go get him?”
    “His dad has cut him off from the world,” I said. “His father is . . . he drinks a
     lot, and he really hates shifters from other tribes. We don’t know exactly what’s
     going on there, but after those Tribunal raids on our houses, we need to be sure he’s
     safe.”
    “And we’re going to steal him from his parents,” London said, then glanced around
     as the rest of us looked uneasy. “Well, that’s what’s really going on here, right?
     And only if he wants us to. I mean, most shifters don’t like other tribes. Like my
     parents—they think you all can’t be trusted because you’re not wolves, but they’ll
     still let me go back to school with you. But Arnaldo’s dad is locking him away from
     the world.”
    “He hits Arnaldo and his brothers,” November said baldly. “It’s bad.”
    “Where’s his mom?” Amaris asked.
    Silence for a moment. “She’s dead,” said November. She didn’t say that the Tribunal
     had killed her, but I could tell from the sudden tightening of Amaris’s face that
     she was thinking exactly that.

CHAPTER 6
    Arnaldo’s family’s house lay next to the still, blue-black water of Alamo Lake. The
     sun had set not long ago, and in its place the sky thrust up a wall of red-orange
     topped with fading lavender and indigo.
    The building’s black silhouette was low and unremarkable except for a narrow tower
     made of haphazard iron bars and wooden planks that emerged from its center to loom
     at least five stories up. At the top was nothing but a wooden platform.
    To me, it looked like an observation platform, a good spot for an eagle to watch from,
     to look for prey, and to take off for the hunt. Nothing moved on it now, though for
     all we knew it held a camera that was even now pointed right at us.
    Siku, November, and I had done our best to sneak up to the edge of the backyard, leaving
     the others in the SUV about three hundred yards back. Now we waited for a signal,
     keeping an eye on the rusty swing set, the ragged vegetable garden, and the stepping-stone
     path that led up to the back door.
    Probably the kitchen door , I decided, peering at it again over some acacia. But I couldn’t be sure. There was
     so much we didn’t know. We’d assumed Arnaldo was here, at the only address Caleb could
     find in Morfael’s files. But no one had heard from him in weeks. He could be thousands
     of miles away for all we knew, maybe a prisoner of the Tribunal.
    Or, and I didn’t let myself think about this long, he could be dead. We were flying
     through the dark with no moonlight to show us the landscape.
    A sprig of acacia snapped off in my hand with a crack. November glared at me, and
     I mouthed “Sorry.” I was tense. Coming here had been my idea. I’d looked for signs
     of a setup, just as I’d told my mother I would. I didn’t find any, but that didn’t
     mean it was safe.