Scryer by Sinden West Read Free Book Online

gave it the finger before throwing his cigarette out his window and
onto the ground. With a hiss, the gates swung open as if pushed by phantoms,
welcoming us to our fate. He didn’t put the car into gear right away, though,
instead he sat there thinking. I could practically read his mind.
    I gently touched his shoulder. “Danilo,
we have to. They’ll come after us if we don’t.”
    “I know,” he said as he stared straight
ahead.
    “If we don’t, they’ll just lock us up
and use us as they wish like in the old days. At least they’re sticking to the
agreement. It’s only twelve times a year, and we have our freedom—”
    “Since when are you their fucking
cheerleader?” he snarled, and I removed my hand instantly from his shoulder, feeling
like I’d been slapped. “Because of that asshole, Lincoln, Luck?” he continued.
“You fell in love with one of them. How pathetic.” His face had turned
to an ugly, accusing sneer. “How typical of your family.”
    “I didn’t know.” I managed to keep my
voice even. I knew he was only acting like this because of the withdrawal, but
still, it hurt. “His name’s Lake,” I said in a quiet voice, not sure why I needed
to clarify it.
    “Whatever,” he muttered. “It’s a stupid
name.”
    I wanted to say that I thought his name
was beautiful; that the name reminded me of crystal clear water where you could
jump in and safely see the bottom without fear of sharp rocks or monsters
lurking in the deep; that every time I used to think of his name it had given
me a refreshing feeling like I had just bathed in the purest, most unpolluted
waters. But of course, I said nothing like that. I stayed quiet.
     Roughly, Danilo put the car in gear and
slammed his foot down on the accelerator.  We jerked forward through the gates,
picking up speed as we approached the mansion, and for a moment, I thought that
he would drive us right into those stone walls.
    “Danilo!”
    He hit the brakes, and we skidded to a
halt just outside the elaborate stone stairway that led up to the entrance. “Relax,
Ivy. I know what I’m doing,” he said, scathingly.
    I opened my mouth to tell him off, but
he was already out of the car and slamming the door shut behind him. I took a
few breaths to compose myself before unsteadily getting out the car and closing
the door behind me. I ended up having to slam it a few times to get it to close
properly, and it felt good to perform a violent action.
    A slim man in a dark suit came down the
stairs to greet us. “Wonderful driving skills, Danilo,” Felix commented and
Danilo just scowled at him and tossed the keys to him. Felix ran things here.
Well, it was really the Corins who ran things, but Felix acted on their behalf.
Felix would no doubt move the car so it was like we weren’t even here, and in
the morning when we had completed our duty, it would be waiting out front for
us. There would be the vehicles of other scryers here as well, but we rarely
saw each other. There was no point. We were loners by nature. I was thankful
for that, because what my mother had done had made her a traitor to the others.
It was good not to have to see the condemnation in their eyes.
    Felix gave me a nod. “Ms. Scryer. How
was your journey?”
    “Terrible.” I grabbed my bag out of the
trunk of the car.
    Felix stretched out his hands. “May I?”
    “No.”
    He pulled his hands back to his body. It
was the same every time. Refusing their assistance always felt like a small
triumph to me, albeit an empty one.
    “I have your accommodations ready.
Please follow me.” He turned and led the way back up the stairs, while Danilo
and I followed. The huge oak doors were pushed open to reveal an expansive
entranceway. Large, cold flagstones created the floor, while the walls were
paneled with wood stained dark with oxblood. An occasional piece of art work
infused color into the enormous space, and most of it was red, whether by
bloodied battle scene or fire. Red was