Winter's Dream (The Hemlock Bay Series) by Amber Jaeger Read Free Book Online Page A

straight,” I said, trying to keep anxiety from my voice. I glanced over at Minnie who seemed totally oblivious to the conversation. “You are being tricked. You are just a means to an end. I tried to tell him not to interfere, but I really have no say in what he does—”
    The nicer one, Hazel, turned around in her seat and locked her steely grey eyes on mine. I could see fine smile lines around her mouth but she definitely wasn’t smiling then. “What are you talking about?”
    The wind from my cracked window was freezing the moisture from my eyes into my lashes. “Those papers were blank. Someone was trying to help me get out of there. And I appreciate it, really. But I don’t belong with you, I need to go home. ”
    Now it was Viola’s turn to glare at me over her shoulder. “First off, don’t ever believe anything one of them tells you. Second, we are not just a means to an end, we are cousins of your great-aunts and you do belong with us. If we had any idea your mother was gone and your grandma was too ill to train you we would have come for you much sooner.”
    “Train me?”
    “Oh my word,” Viola muttered. “All this time that town has had no protection, no one watching over it.”
    “What town?” I asked, the hairs on my arms starting to stand up.
    “I don’t know what you call it,” she snapped. “You dream about a town, right? Go back to it all the time?”
    I nodded, my goose bumps going down my legs. “Nightmare Town,” I whispered.
    “Well, you were supposed to be guarding it. And I have no idea what mess we will have on our hands since you haven’t been. My word, Hazel, she probably doesn’t even know who she is!”
    My throat was dry but I managed to push out the words. “I’m a Gatekeeper.”
    “See, Viola,” Hazel said pleasantly. “Her mother or grandmother must have told her something.”
    I shook my head. “No, David did.”
    She turned back around; her eyebrows drawn in tight over her eyes. “And who is that?”
    “A jinn.”
    The car swerved and then jerked back into our lane, snapping all our heads from side to side.
    “Well, damn it,” Viola said. “This is going to be an ever bigger mess than we planned for.”
    You have no idea, I thought.
     
    Chapter Five
    T he remainder of the drive was filled with silence. My panic turned to cold calculation to numbness as we continued on. Every mile took me further from my home. At least we seemed to be sticking close to the big lake. I tried to remind myself my chances of finding Linc and freeing Grandma had risen considerably but the distance wasn’t the only thing making silent tears slip down my cold cheeks. I really thought my dad was going to come through and get me out of that hellhole. I had thought I would be going home, to my house, and be able to patch my family back together right away.
    The aunts never pulled onto a main highway, just kept driving down old two lanes. We passed through a few towns with one traffic light then veered off even further into the country. Neighborhoods disappeared and the houses became fewer and fewer. The land was overtaken by miles of frozen, churned dirt, and occasionally we would pass a worn down barn. Eventually we turned onto a dirt road and very far out I could see what looked like an Amish community.
    The tears came heavier now and were pushed back into my hair by the thin, cruel wind cutting in through the cracked window. The idea of having to wait longer to find Linc, to wait longer to apologize to him was killing me. There was no way I could just walk home from here, wherever “here” was. I hadn’t even seen any traffic in case I got desperate enough to hitchhike. No buses or cab services would come out that far from the last town we had been through. My chances of finding my brother and seeing my grandma had doubled when I left juvie but had been cut by each mile I was taken away in the old, dusty car. I cursed Jordan again for interfering. He could never make anything