The Sorcerer Heir (Heir Chronicles) by Cinda Williams Chima Read Free Book Online Page A

“Here. Let me turn up the—”
    “Can I start over?” she asked, looking down at her hands. “Can I change my story?”
    “It’s your story, Emma,” Childers said. “All I want is the truth.” He paused, then continued, “Just so you know, you don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to.”
    “That’s all right,” Emma said. “I’m not guilty of anything, except for being stupid.”
    And so she told the truth, or most of it, anyway. About Rowan DeVries cornering her in the gazebo, and her smashing his nose, and Jonah intervening, and then each of them going their separate ways. She didn’t mention anything about her father’s death, the kidnapping, the rescue, any of that. In fact, she left out all references to murder. If they jumped to conclusions, they could do it on their own. Childers kept quiet through most of it, just asking the occasional question, tapping notes into his computer.
    “How do you know DeVries?” the detective asked when Emma wound down.
    Here’s where she had to lie and make it stick. “I don’t.”
    “You’d never met before tonight?”
    She shook her head. “No, sir, not that I recall.”
    “Any idea why he might—?”
    “No, sir.” Childers just sat there, looking at her, questions all over his face, so she added, “I’m just guessing here, but, you know, some people make assumptions about a girl in a band. I usually have no problem setting them straight.”
    “So you’re saying that he—?”
    “No!” Emma said. “Nothing like that happened. After I hit him in the nose, things went south in a hurry. And then Jonah came.”
    Emma realized that it sounded very much like Jonah and Rowan were fighting over her. As if that would ever happen.
    “How would you describe your relationship with Jonah Kinlock?”
    “We’re in a band together. We both go to the same school.”
    “Did DeVries hurt you at all?” Childers leaned forward. “If so, it’s really important that we get it on record.”
    Emma thought about it. He tried to hex me, but his hex didn’t work. “Not really. I did fall and twist my ankle.”
    “He didn’t push you?”
    “I don’t really remember,” Emma said. “I was just trying to get out of the way.”
    “No other bumps, bruises, injuries we should make a note of?”
    “No.”
    “So DeVries was the first to leave?”
    Emma nodded.
    “And nobody had stabbed anybody up to that point?”
    “No,” she whispered. “As far as I know, he wasn’t hurt, except for...except for his nose.”
    “Where you hit him.” Emma saw the chief’s gaze drop to her hands, looking for damage.
    “I hit him with my head,” she said.
    “What did you and Kinlock do then?”
    “I left,” Emma said.
    “You didn’t talk?”
    “To tell you the truth, I was pretty mad at both of them, so I walked back up to the house alone. That’s when I thought I heard someone following me.”
    “Did either of them seem angry enough to—to want to finish the fight later? At the end, I mean?”
    Jonah had been ready to kill Rowan DeVries, until Emma talked him out of it. At least, she thought she had.
    Emma shrugged, extending her hands into the airflow from the heater. “I can’t say. I guess I’m not a very good judge of people.”
    “Emma? There you are!”
    This time the voice came from outside the car. Emma looked up to find Gabriel Mandrake, flanked by Natalie and a man Emma didn’t know.
    “What the hell is going on here?” Gabriel yanked open the passenger door, motioning to Emma to get out. She complied.
    Ross Childers opened the driver’s side door, unfolding out of the car to his full height. He spoke across the roof of the car to Gabriel. “I’m Ross Childers, chief of police, Mr.—”
    “I’m Gabriel Mandrake, head of school, and Ms. Lee’s guardian,” Gabriel said, the words sliding easily off his tongue. “This is my lawyer, Matt Green.”
    “You always travel around with a lawyer?” Childers rubbed the back of his neck as if