The Breakers Ultimatum (YA Urban Fantasy) (Fixed Points Book 3) by Conner Kressley Read Free Book Online Page A

of the Council members- who were no doubt watching me right now.
    And even if I did manage to get out, what good would it do? I was trapped inside the Hourglass; surrounded by people- my family included- who would never understand why I had done the things I did. I was better off in here, better off away from them. At least this way, locked up like an animal, I couldn’t be used to hurt Cresta. But, as the door slammed shut, leaving alone again, something deep inside told me that the Council would never leave it at that.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5
    The Strangest of Places
     
    I didn’t see anyone for days after that. The sun would come up and it would go down. I would go to bed, get up, and go back to bed again. Sometimes I would beat on the door, demanding justice, or family, or an explanation. But never mercy; no matter what, I would never ask them for mercy.
    The doors never opened, of course; save for three times a day, when it would creak open, revealing a covered plate that sat unattended on the floor. The door would stay open until I grabbed the dish. No matter how long I waited; a minute, an hour. After a few days, I made a game of it, inching the plate through the threshold a bit at a time. But I must have pissed off whoever was watching because, after a few minutes, a gust of frigid air blew the door closer and the covered plate on my lap; splashing its contents, chicken pot pie, all over me.
    I never saw Mulva again. She had said what she needed to, I guess; telling me how wonderfully screwed I was, and how I was never going to get out of this place – not unless I did what they wanted me to. They were going to smoke me out with solitary confinement, I supposed. Because no one came. The door swung open, leaving me my food, and then it closed. Sometimes, I’d get a fresh pair of clothes with the food. On those days, the room would morph and a shower would appear in the bathroom; which meant that not only was I not able to see the room as it really was, but that someone was very likely watching me bathe.
    All I could think of was how much I wanted Cresta around, and not for the obvious reasons. Okay, well not only for the obvious reasons. If she was here, she’d be able to look through this shade. She’d know what was going on, and she’d probably be able to get me out of it. Although, if she were here; the Council would very likely be trying to force me to kill her. So, I guess a couple of Breaker peeping Toms weren’t the worst things in the world.
    I wasn’t sure how long I had been there when the dreams started; a couple of days, a couple of weeks. It all started to blur after a while. They were soft at first; a gentle calling that I shrugged off as nothing. But after a few days, the noise became louder, and then it became cleared. It was a Monday, I think, when I finally recognized it. A person, a man was calling my name over and over again. I called back the next night, finding myself standing in a large stone tunnel. No one answered though, and then the dreams stopped completely.
    As I lay here now, watching the stars twinkle from my barred window and cursing the new moon and what it meant, I realized how much I missed those dreams. It was laughable really. I had no idea what they meant; probably nothing. They were very likely just the products of my under-stimulated mind. But that was the thing; the dreams, those echoes and yells, they were the voices I ever heard. It was the closest I’d come to a conversation since Mulva left. Though, no matter how lonely I got, I couldn’t manage to make myself wish she’d come back.
    There was a time when I was never alone, when even my mind was shared with someone else. But I hadn’t been able to hear Cresta in there since I’d sacrificed Merrin. She was awake now. Or she was last I’d heard, at least. I wondered if she hated me. Fate knows I’d hate her if our roles were reversed. She was my perfect, the one person in the world that I