Storykiller by Kelly Thompson Read Free Book Online Page B

direction.
    “What?” Tessa asked, looking down at herself and then back at Snow.
    The woman named Tal really looked at Tessa for the first time and let out a breath of shock, “Yae Simane.”
    Snow nodded, “I know. She’s The Last.”
    Tal turned to Snow, “Does The Court know?”
    “Not yet.”
    “We must get her there.”
    Tessa was fed up. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here!” she shouted. Neither Snow nor Tal paid her any mind. Tessa looked at Brand and Micah, “You guys didn’t see a giant grey wolf anywhere did you?” They both shook their heads. Tessa returned her focus to Snow as she began talking about Brand and Micah again.
    “What about her minions?” Snow asked, jutting her chin at Brand and Micah, who didn’t seem to like being talked about either but were arguably even more freaked out than Tessa.
    “Well, we can’t take them to Story,” Tal said, her tone suggesting it was out of the question.
    “Yes, but then what do we do about them?” Snow said, her teeth gritted, “They have seen far too much.”
    Tessa had just about had it and so she yelled at the top of her lungs, “Knock it off!” When Tal and Snow finally looked at her, she added, “And nobody is going anywhere.”
    Tal looked at Tessa in a bored way. “Kid, you’ve killed a 300-year-old Story, your Advocate is dead, you’ve got two mortal witnesses, and you’re The Last Tovaien Scion. There’s no way you’re not going to Story.”
    Tessa opened her mouth to protest again and Hecuba, who had rejoined the group, growled at her. Tal looked at Snow. “Leave the Mortals here. Maybe Morgana can whip something up to free them of these traumatic memories later on,” she said, casting another glance at Micah and Brand. Micah spoke up this time.
    “Um…that sounds a lot like brainwashing or something. I’d like to vote for no brainwashing.”
    Tal ignored her and turned to Snow, “Hecuba says the house is clear. I’m opening the doorway.” Snow nodded almost imperceptibly and stepped back. Tal reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small blue pebble made of glass. It looked like an average marble any kid might have. She held it between two steel tipped fingers and then threw it into the air a dozen feet in front of her, shouting, “Yonep ge rupto!”
    Tessa was starting to think they were making up these words. They sounded made up.
    The pebble froze in midair (very unlike a kid’s average marble) and then blue-white lightning snaked out of it, leaving behind a flickering blue doorway of light in the middle of the room. Snow stepped through the doorway and disappeared. Tal gestured to Tessa. “C’mon.”
    Tessa shook her head. “No freaking way.”
    Tal sighed slightly, like she had been here before. “Don’t make me threaten to hurt your friends, okay?” Hecuba cast a growl at Micah and Brand, her eyes sparking even more brightly in her face.
    “Fine, fine,” Tessa said, raising her hands and realizing she still had the axe. She set it down, and it promptly disappeared. Tessa suddenly wished she wasn’t covered in blood as she headed into whatever lay beyond that door. She stepped forward half a step and then looked at Micah and Brand. “I’m really sorry I got you guys into this. Really.”
    Brand shook his head. “What are you talking about? You saved our lives.”
    Tessa smiled weakly. “You guys are nice.” She stepped forward and, after a glare at Tal, walked through the doorway. Tal followed, Hecuba on her heels. No sooner had the dog disappeared, then Brand stepped toward the doorway.
    “We’re going, right?”
    Micah bit her lip, unsure.
    “C’mon, Mike. If for no other reason than Tessa’s the first friend we’ve made in, like, a million years, and she saved our lives, and she’s in there alone.”
    Micah nodded and grabbed his arm. The doorway was already shrinking as they jumped through.
     
    Tessa opened her eyes to find herself in a hallway that actually seemed more