Spring Rain by Lizzy Ford Read Free Book Online Page A

to
practice their craft in the forests so near the Light school seemed
… off.
    Beck navigated an area of slush and ice to
reach the second cave. He stepped in front of it – and froze.
    A familiar, dark, cold, Light sapping chill
washed over him. He stepped back instinctively and peered into the
cave. Sunlight wasn’t able to penetrate its depths, and the
unnatural shifting of shadows alerted him that he had found
whatever the Dark witchlings had been doing.
    He texted Decker with one hand, not about to
take his eyes off the Dark.
    “A cave what?” Decker’s voice materialized
with his form a moment later.
    “I was trying to type Dark cave,” Beck said
with a glance at his phone. He hadn’t bothered to check the message
before he sent it.
    Decker approached without hesitation and
stood in the mouth of the cave, looking around it. “It’s not just
here, either,” he observed. “The valley reeks of it.”
    “What is it?” Beck asked.
    “There’s a Dark ward here, placed by an air
witchling. I’m immune to it but …” Decker motioned to the front of
the cave then stepped into it. He disappeared, swallowed by the
Dark. “Yeah, what I thought. It’s keeping the Dark magick inside
and impossible for me to sense.”
    “Bartholomew’s magick. I’d recognize that
taint anywhere.”
    “I’d say so.”
    “Someone’s collecting Dark magick.”
    “One guess as to who.” Decker emerged from
the cave. Black fog clung to him. “How did you find this
place?”
    “Amber said some Light witchlings noticed
magick out this way.”
    “It’s all over the place. Undetectable until
I’m in the middle of it.” Decker swept his arm around to indicate
the canyon.
    “What do you think she’s doing?” Beck had an
idea, but it didn’t seem possible. Or maybe, he wasn’t ready to
admit yet how great the threat was to the Light source and school.
“You don’t think she’d hurt the people she grew up with, do
you?”
    “Absolutely.”
    I don’t want to believe
it. Beck said nothing aloud, troubled by
how little he knew the woman who was about to become the mother of
his daughter. “I should be able to do more to prevent things like
this from happening.”
    Decker’s Darkness pooled at his feet and in
the space between them, whereas Becks’ Light wasn’t visible. Decker
was considering the fog at his feet. “You’ve always been the good
one. Maybe that’s the problem.”
    “Meaning …”
    “Meaning … the first thing I learned as a
Dark Master is that I don’t have to follow rules. Maybe you should
try to buck them as well.”
    “I’m not going out there and killing
everyone I don’t agree with.”
    “I’m not suggesting you do,” Decker replied
icily. “I’m saying, maybe to understand the Light, to protect it,
you have to become more a part of it.”
    Beck studied his brother and followed his
gaze. Light had never responded to him the way Dark did to Decker.
Decker had barely recovered from his dive into the Dark and needed
his counterbalance to prevent him from losing control. The Light
was nowhere near as dangerous, yet Beck didn’t think he was ready
to lose himself to something too great for him to control. He
wasn’t even certain the Light could connect with him like the Dark
had defined Decker. Decker and his Dark were intimately
intertwined.
    The Light seemed too fragile still, and he
feared losing it as much as he did failure.
    I’m not worthy of
partnering with the Light like that. Beck
thought. “Interesting idea,” he said finally.
    “I uh … heard … there’s more
than Dawn threatening the Light,” Decker continued with some
discomfort.
    “Heard. As in, after you stabbed someone to
death, you learned their secret.” It was a gift each Master shared
with his respective flock – the ability to see the memories and
thoughts of those who died.
    “Yeah. Dawn’s managed to stir up a small
rebellion of people who aren’t happy about being cut off from