Sword Sisters by Alex Bledsoe, Tara Cardinal Read Free Book Online

is to fall on your back at the appropriate time.”
    Her smile was the most vicious thing I’d ever seen.
    I know I must’ve stood up, turned, and run for the hall. I had to have opened the door, pushed it aside, and made my way past anyone else in the corridors. But none of that registered to me. I kept hearing her words over and over, echoing, mocking, and destroying what little hope and belief in myself I still had.
    You will be the mother of the Red Reaper. Your job is to fall on your back at the appropriate time.
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    I huddled in the corner of my room under a pile of my own dirty laundry. Vikki no doubt intended to return for it while I was out, but I’d locked every door between me and the castle proper. I wanted to be alone.
    And I was, mostly. My mouse friend, Little Gray, watched me, but I couldn’t tell if he was concerned. Maybe he just knew my schedule by now and wondered why I was here instead of off doing whatever I did all day.
    I couldn’t get Eldrid’s taunting words out of my head nor her smug attitude and absolute certainty of my ultimate failure. What if I wasn’t destined to be anything? What if all of this work, all of this training, all of this pain, was for nothing? I was only meant to be someone’s mother? What do I know of motherhood? I had only one example: pop out a kid, pretend to be dead, trade them in for what I really wanted a few years later…
    Or worse, what if I did it—train and track and swear my soul for the humans just like it says in the prophecies—and no one cared?
    I knew humans would hate me. They’d hate me no matter what I did. If I walked away, they’d hate me. If I gave myself to them, they’d hate me. Some would hate me for how I serve them. That’s been true of all the Reapers. We’ve always been feared and despised by the humans, even those of us who’ve never harmed a soul. So why go through all of this if they’re going to hate me no matter what I do? Why dedicate my life to them at all?
    Because it’s the right thing to do, said a voice in my head.
    I knew that of course. But I was no martyr. A masochist, maybe, but martyr? Not so much. If I was supposed to live forever, how can I do it alone, serving the ones who hate me?
    “So, Little Gray, I need your advice,” I said to the rodent. He rose on his little hind legs and looked at me as seriously as if I were made of cheese. “If you were in my place, what would you do?”
    He didn’t say anything. Typical. Maybe Eldrid was right. That mouse would have answered my mother in complete sentences.
    I could run away, forsake this whole life, and disguise myself so no one would know I was a Reaper at all. I could pass for human if I cover up my demon skin. That was one of the first tricks I ever learned. But where would I go? What would I do? Become a tavern wench and serve drunk old men?
    For that, I might as well just stay. I’d still be serving men who hate me, who see me as an object and a tool of their whims like my Demon father. If I’m to serve, I’d rather do it on my feet than on my back.
    If I’d inherited my mother’s magical talent, I could learn the arts and charms, like she did. I could talk to the trees from my painted wagon. But the humans despised her too and drove her into exile. And yet she serves them still, living hidden away, alone, transcribing prophecies until her fingers bleed from exertion. And for what? So the humans can know what is to come before it comes? Where’s the fun in that?
    Also, learning magic would be like starting over entirely. And I hate magic. Give me a sword and something to cut any day.
    “Maybe you and me, Gray, we should just run off together. Find ourselves some real work. You’re smart, and I’m tough; we’d make quite a team, right?”
    The mouse dropped to all fours and sniffed along the edge of the wall for bits of discarded food. He had his priorities in order.
    Maybe my real destiny was to mother the real