Rivulet by Jamie Magee Read Free Book Online Page A

Gavin do it so it would come as a bigger surprise. In the past, moving trucks were too easy for her to see coming. I was going to do this nice and slow. What can I say? I learned torture from the best. Rasure herself.
    “Pretty old stuff, too,” I muttered, glancing to the stone wall behind us. I’d found a lot of books that made no sense, journals in another language. I decided to hide them, maybe find someone to decode them for me. Until I figured out who, or if I even wanted to, I hid them in the wall in my sacred room.
    Mason yawned, then hooked his leg around me. “You’re pinned down, sleep without fear.”
    “You’re just looking for an excuse for Jewls to break it off with you,” I said under my breath in a weak protest. “You should go.”
    “Too tired to go,” he said as he closed his eyes and gripped me tighter.
    I adjusted the blanket to ensure that it was keeping him warm and took in the sensation of the vision that I saw when I embraced this cloth. It was the blanket that rested on the couch in our playroom when we were kids. Each time I touched it, I could see my sisters, my parents, hear the laughter, the absolute bliss of our family.
    I dreamed for the first time ever, but I wish I hadn’t. I must have fought that ice, that lake, a million times over. Each time, I never made it back for my camera. I never saw any of us get out of the ice water. It was so real to me. I could smell the freezing water, feel the emotions that no soul should have to.
    Then all at once, the dream vibrated, my body vibrated. I woke with a gasp to find Mason’s phone that was clipped to his waist going off.
    He stretched and pulled it off its clip so he could see it. “Damn, it’s like, two.”
    “In the morning,” I said as I sat up and tried to wake up, to push my dreams away.
    “In the afternoon.”
    “What? Crap! I have a paper due in, like, now,” I said as I bolted up from the couch, then took the stone steps two at a time, stumbling more than once.
    Gavin was sitting on the edge of Cadence’s bed. He had his phone in one hand and held out my laptop with the other. He must have been the one who sent the wake up call.
    “Thanks,” I muttered as I took it from him and sat on the floor next to him.
    At the speed of light, I opened the files I needed and then attached them to an email to my professor. While it tried to send that file, I fumbled through the calendar, making sure I was not late on anything else. Winter Break was a few weeks away. I’d managed to comp out of most of my midterms. All I really had left to do was take a few pictures for my portfolio, and that was more so for the finals.
    This past summer, I’d finished my Bachelor’s in business, a basic degree I chose to appease Rasure. I was more interested in the arts and photography, a skill that Rasure thought was belittling. Nevertheless, I found classes to take and escape from her for a few hours every day. That and the coffee bar were the only time I wasn’t forced to share space with her.
    “Email’s jacked up,” I muttered, seeing that my file was still sending. The laptop fell off my knee. I picked it up, only for it to drop again. That is when my dream instantly came to life around me. When everything turned to ice without warning and I felt death clawing its way to me—I lost it.
    I shoved the laptop across the floor, balled my fists, squeezed my eyes closed, and thought of a raging fire, warmth. In that beat, Gavin’s strong arms were around me, holding me through the breakdown. I doubted he’d ever seen me create this much ice. I’d always had that scarf to deflect this damnable curse.
    When I felt my breath and heart rate slowing down once more, I cautiously opened my eyes. The room was normal again, but I was falling apart.
    Gavin whispered, “I won’t let anything hurt you. No fear.”
    He pushed a small pillow into my arms, the one with the ‘F’ on it, my quick and easy vice. The visions were immediate. I saw my