A Circle of Ashes Read Free Page A

it.”
    “News flash,” I said. “Pleasure isn’t the same thing as happiness.” I felt bitter and angry that my life was entwined with the Treize at all. It wasn’t that I hated Axelle—I didn’t. But I didn’t trust her, and we had nothing in common.
    “Ooh,” said Axelle, finishing her orange juice and vodka. “Such wisdom from one so
young
. But Thais, tell me you aren’t happy to know you have a family, a background, a history. You know who you are and where you’re from. Isn’t that better than being a little boat adrift at sea?”
    I didn’t answer as I ate my toast. She had me. My whole life, it had been just me and my dad. When he’d died, I’d had no one—just a family friend, a neighbor who cared about me. But no family. It was true—I’d felt lost. Then Axelle had brought me to New Orleans, and Clio and I had found each other. Discovering that I had a sister and a grandmother was like winning the lottery. I belonged to someone. I wasn’t alone.
    Then I’d found out they were witches. I’d never taken witchcraft or Wicca or any of that stuff seriously—I’d thought it was all a joke. The disappointment that they were involved in it had been sharp and immediate. Now… I was more used to the idea. I accepted that it ran in
my
blood too. But it hadn’t been what I wanted. And after last night’s explosive spell, my doubts seemed justified.
    I’d found my family, and they were witches.
    I’d found my soul mate, my true love, and he had betrayed me.
    And all of this was woven into the unbelievable, movie-plot background that Petra, Axelle, Luc, and a bunch of other people were infact still experiencing a spell that had been set into motion in 1763, more than 240 years ago. They were immortal.
    Now they wanted to make me and Clio immortal too. And we had to decide.
    I felt Axelle’s eyes on me and hoped my feelings weren’t transparent. Immortality. Luc was immortal—he would never age. If we had stayed together, I would get old and die someday, and he wouldn’t, ever. But if I were immortal…
    It wouldn’t even matter, because we wouldn’t be together, because he was a lying, cheating bastard.
    I heard footsteps on the wooden stairs that led to Axelle’s attic workroom. Great. Now I had to deal with Daedalus or Jules, who practically lived here.
    “Is she back yet?”
    The voice came to me in the kitchen and sent chills down my spine.
    “Can’t you call Petra?” Luc went on, crossing the dimly lit room.
    Axelle waited till he was in sight, then wordlessly pointed to me, a small cat’s smile on her face.
    Luc stopped short when he saw me.
    I glanced at him for a second, just long enough to stop my heart and sear his image into my brain. Luc. Unlike Axelle, he did look like he’d been up all night. He was in the same clothes as yesterday. His face was darkened by a day’s worth of beard. His eyes, the color of the sky at twilight, were upset, shadowed.
    Good.
    “Thais.” He took a step closer and I saw him run a hand through his disheveled, too-long dark hair. I turned and put my plate in the sink, unable to swallow.
    “I was worried,” he said, and it sounded like getting those words out cost him. I was all too aware of Axelle’s black, interested eyes following this exchange like a tennis match.
    I tried to wipe any expression from my face and turned back to him.
    “And this matters because… ?” I said coolly.
    He frowned. “Are you okay, then?”
    “I’m fine. I mean, my heart hasn’t been ripped out and stomped on
today
.” I was surprising myself—it was like I could channel my inner bitch all of a sudden. I’d never spoken so coldly to anyone in my life.
    Luc flushed, which of course increased his gorgeousness level to about a forty-seven on a scale from one to ten. “That isn’t fair,” he said in a low voice, and I saw his hands clench at his sides.
    “Unfair?
You’re
talking to
me
about unfair?” I felt my cheeks heat with anger. “Are you
nuts
?