Speed of Light by Amber Kizer Read Free Book Online Page A

messing with Custos’s mind.”
And mine
.
    We’d been here since January. With each passing day, Tens became less a lanky young man and more a full-on muscled man. In another year, his body wouldn’t be the same as the boy I met. It was like his frame finally figured out he needed to be built like a bodyguard rather thana swimmer on a restricted caloric intake. It didn’t hurt that he ran and worked out as if he were training for the Olympics.
Actually, it aches a lot
. He was under the impression I needed to join him. I wasn’t born an athlete and hated every minute of prepping. That was what he called it.
Prepping
.
    He grunted in answer, his head on a full swivel. I half expected him to sniff the air.
    “Tens?” I tried to shove him to the side, as my short stature made it nearly impossible to see around him. A piece of rope, or cable, on the doorsill caught my attention. I leaned down. “Tens!”
    “Merry, be patient.” As he stepped farther out, his soles crunched on something.
What?
    “You’re standing on something.” Quickly, I flipped on all the front lights.
    “They broke Rumi’s Spirit Stones.” Colors of shattered glass littered the porch. Not a single orb we’d hung survived.
    None of the pieces glowed, even as I picked them up. Their magic was gone. Some were slick with dark blood. “What’s that?” I pointed to a piece of rope where he stood.
    Memories of Perimo’s followers flooded me. Perimo’s Believers trashed Auntie’s porch and left mutilated animals as warnings.
    Tens moved off it as I bent down. “Don’t pick it up—”
    It was still warm, and I quickly realized it wasn’t a piece of trash.
    The roughly haired tail was pink as I held it up to the porch light. “It’s a tail.” Where the tail once attached to a body was jagged and bloody. “Someone yanked it off.”
    Dead rats often appeared at my doorstep, along with possum, bats, and feral cats. They, too, sought out my window to the Light. But none knocked, vandalized, or left bloody tails behind. My thoughts turned immediately to the Nocti.
Is this a warning like the desecrated animals Perimo left for Auntie in Revelation? Is it starting again?
    Tens reached for his knife. “Stay here.”
    Custos yapped and took off galloping down the street. In the distance, a cat’s howl was abruptly silenced.

CHAPTER 6
Juliet
    “K irian, I can’t understand you. What did you say? No, wait! Come back!” I awoke soaking wet with stinking sweat, repeating the same phrases over and over. “Come back. Come back.”
Please come back. Let me save you
. My voice hoarse, my throat parched. Tangled in a nightshirt and sheets, I noticed the streetlights from Main shone brighter than a night-light. Tony’s condo was within walking distance of Meridian and Tens in one direction and the littlies from DG, Bodie and Sema, in the other. He’d picked the location for me without my asking himto.
I wish he’d ask me what I want instead of assuming. Maybe I want to move to Sydney or Honolulu, nearer the turquoise water of my good dreams. Everything and everywhere here extends my nightmares
.
    This bedroom (calling it “mine” tasted foreign) was much bigger than the closet, with its toilet paper and cleaning supplies, under the stairs at Dunklebarger. But while that felt like a cave, a den I escaped into, this one felt almost too abundant, too much, with its high ceilings and bright colors.
Who is the girl who lives here? She’s not me
. Its saving grace, though, was all the food aromas drifting up from the restaurants on street level. The charred, grilling meat and the greasy coating of waffle-cut fries from the burger shop across the street. Or garlic and tomato, mixed with the baking crusts, of the pizza parlor downstairs. A doughnut and frozen custard place opened recently and woke me in the wee hours with the scent of hot coffee and frying dough. I knew hours, every day, based on the food whiffs in my room. There was a rhythm, a