Spirit Ascendancy by E. E. Holmes Read Free Book Online Page A

Fairhaven to go back to?” I asked. I’d been sure that it would have burned to the ground or, like in the dreams I kept having, just continued to burn endlessly without ever consuming itself, like some kind of magic torch.
     “Yes,” Hannah said. “The Caomhnóir were able to contain the fire to the east wing. The Grand Council Room was destroyed, and the East Tower, but most of the castle is still standing.”
    “So what happened when Lucida went back? Did they buy her story?”
     “Yes, thank goodness. She concocted some wild alibi about what she’d been doing that night, and they had no problem swallowing it,” Hannah said.
    “Where did she tell them she’d been?”
    “Paris,” Savvy said, grinning. “Said she’d hopped the Eurostar and taken the Chunnel with some friends to spend the night partying in some underground Parisian speakeasies.”
    “Won’t it be easy enough for them to check that story out? What if they find out she was lying?’ I asked.
    Finn shook his head. “They won’t. She called in favors and set up a false trail. She knows what she’s doing.”
    “She’s got real flair, that one,” Savvy said with a chuckle. “From what she said, it sounds like she’s well acquainted with the Paris nightlife, even if it was just a cover story this time. I’m making her take me along when she goes back. It sounds fierce.”
    “Samesies,” Milo piped up.
    I ignored this. Clubbing was just about as far down my list of priorities as lighting myself on fire. “Did she say when she’s coming back?”
    “No, and we have to be very careful about contacting each other now, since she is the one who is heading up the search to Track us.”
    “You’re kidding,” I said, forgetting to chew the Danish in my mouth, and nearly having to choke it down.
    “Nope. Marion put her in charge the minute she got back. It’s not that surprising, though. Like she said, she’s the best Tracker they have,” Hannah said, shrugging.
    “So Marion’s okay, obviously, but what about everyone else? Didn’t she tell you if anyone got hurt or…?” I trailed off as my heart seemed to lodge itself into my throat, choking off the end of a question I was half-scared to know the answer to.
    “I forgot you didn’t know! You were out of it for so long,” Hannah said, shaking her head. “Everyone’s okay. Or at least,” she amended, “no one is dead.”
    Her face suddenly took on an expression of guilt that must surely have been mirroring my own, and she didn’t go on. Without even looking up from his notebook, Finn picked up the thread. “Everyone made it out. Some people are injured, of course.”
    “Olivia?”
    “She’s fine. So is Peyton.”
    “So do we know who’s—”
    “Fiona is in the hospital wing with some bad burns, along with quite a few others. Lucida didn’t go into too much detail; she was a bit distracted by the fact that you were teetering on the verge of death. But we know Seamus is in really rough shape, and so is Bertie.”
    Savvy shook her head sadly. “Stupid prat. Never would have thought he had it in him, but he ran back into the castle when he saw I was unaccounted for. Two of the other Caomhnóir had to go in after him to pull him out, and he didn’t go quietly. Sort of makes me feel bad for treating him the way I did. Mind you,” she added, scowling around defensively, “he is generally useless, I stick by that. I don’t know what he thinks he could have done if he’d found me in need of help. I must outweigh him by about three stone. But still, it’s nice to know he would have given it a try, eh?”
    “That’s his job,” Finn said, bluntly, as though it were understood that Caomhnóir would run headlong into burning buildings to pluck us from the jaws of death. I tried to picture him doing the same thing for me, and realized with a pang of guilt that I didn’t doubt for a moment that he would, no matter how much he loathed me personally.
    “Maybe, but it’s