Red by Alyxandra Harvey Read Free Book Online Page A

the standing stone.
    It wore a dress of moss now, the tiny gray and green spots filling the engraved letters spelling out Summer Kirihara . I hadn’t been here in a while. At first I came every day, then once a week, once a month, and now I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been here. Probably in July with the other Cabal kids to pay our respects. In the early spring the whole field was carpeted with lily of the valley and purple periwinkle flowers.
    It was nearly four years now. I couldn’t remember the exact sound of her shy laugh, or the wicked gleam in her eye when she knocked my crossbow bolt out of the air with her own.
    But I still remembered the feeling of her blood on my hands. We’d found it smeared on the grass and the birch trees. We’d never found her body, just her torn clothes and some of her hair in a summer grove somehow thick with frost.
    Not enough to mourn.
    Just enough to know she was lost.

Chapter Five
    Kia
    I woke up early, as usual, at least an hour before my alarm clock. The light was different here. It didn’t fall in bright harsh squares across my bedroom floor. Instead, it sneaked in like smoke, slowly and softly. The sky went pink, then orange, burning through the horizon as if it were paper. At home I would have heard delivery trucks and the creaking of the apartment building’s old water pipes. I called Dad, just to be obnoxious. He’d sent me away to live with a woman I barely knew. He didn’t deserve to sleep in.
    “It’s barely six thirty in the morning,” he grumbled into the phone. “Are you dead?”
    “No.” I couldn’t help but smile. I knew he was sprawled on the couch, rubbing his unshaven face. “You fell asleep on the couch again.” He mumbled something incoherent through a yawn. “Love you, too, Dad.”
    “Are you all right, kiddo?” I could hear him sitting up, trying to sound awake. “How’s the house?”
    “Big.”
    “Just give it a chance.”
    “I didn’t say anything!”
    He snorted. “Your tone, daughter of mine, is hardly inscrutable.”
    “Yeah, okay,” I muttered. “Go back to sleep, Dad.”
    “Love you, Kia. Get out of your own way.” He’d been telling me that for months now. It was his parental catchall phrase, which loosely translated meant: don’t be a smartass and don’t antagonize people. Also, don’t set them on fire.
    And he didn’t even know the full extent of it. He thought he had a budding arsonist for a daughter and that I’d just been playing with matches.
    Sighing, I hung up and headed to the kitchen, grateful for the servant staircase for once. I didn’t have to get dressed, I could pop down in my T-shirt and skull pajama bottoms with a sweater for warmth.
    Sara was already at the long counter, her hair in a braid wound around her head like a crown. “Coffee’s on.” She nodded to a coffeemaker on the end of one counter. “I like it plain, none of that fancy espresso and foamed milk.”
    She poured muffin batter into pans lined with gold-edged paper cups. I was glad she hadn’t suggested I drink hot chocolate instead; adults usually accused me of being over-caffeinated. “Even the muffin papers have gold on them?” I asked.
    Sara nearly smiled. “Mr. Blackwood wants the best. Why do you think he hired me?” She wiped flour off her cheek with the cuff of her sleeve. “These won’t be ready for a half hour. You can test the first batch.”
    “That’s a job I will happily do.” I took a sip of coffee. It was strong enough to buzz in my veins before I’d even finished swallowing.
    “Those girlfriends of Ethan’s are afraid of muffins and bread.” She shook her head, disgusted. “It’s not right.”
    “I’ll eat their share,” I promised. The dawn light was pink and gold at the windows.
    Sara followed my glance. “I could do with some fresh apples from the orchard for the apple cake. There are boots by the door. Later, you can drop it off at Brontë’s Café after school. As my delivery girl,