Aster Wood and the Blackburn Son Read Free

seemed to remember their old tricks. My strides increased, my legs moving faster and faster until the world around me blurred. I laughed. I couldn’t remember the last time I had laughed, and this realization made me laugh harder. It felt so good to be out. To be alone and away from all of the evil I had seen. I had forgotten the feeling that running gave me. I felt joy. And awe. And power. I pushed harder.
    Tears, stolen from my eyes by the stinging wind, streamed down my cheeks. I urged my legs to move faster, and they did. I moved so fast that I could barely hear the wind in my ears, barely feel my feet touch the grass.  
    Then suddenly, without warning, an image flashed into my head. Jade’s face, eyes dark, mouth open in a snarl.
    My stride faltered. I pushed the thought of her away, shaking my head to rid it of the memory.
    And then again, a flash of malice in my mind. Almara clutching at his throat, trying to speak.
    I faltered again, almost fell.  
    The images started coming in a rush, raining down inside my head like an avalanche of horror. I slowed, gripping my hands over my heart, sure that it was splitting into two at that very moment.  
    Cadoc’s sadistic snarl.  
    The faces of a hundred prisoners, drawn and gray.
    The Torrensai knocking me down inside the Fire Mountains as Almara ran for the ledge.
    I wanted to fall. I wanted to hit the ground, burrow into it, hide from the demons that tormented me.
    No.
    Anger flared in the back of my throat, burning as it mingled with the sobs I was choking on.  
    I didn’t fall. I moved faster and faster. I held nothing back, took no care, and instead I poured my fury into the flight. The tears were no longer from the wind, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t stop. I wouldn’t be held down by this anymore, I couldn’t be.  
    NO.
    I was pure instinct. My legs moved too fast now for me to control. I was a symphony of movement, no longer able to concentrate on the details, only on the whole. I screamed out my rage as I ran. The burning spread to my chest, my arms, and I gasped for breath. But I didn’t stop.  
    I ran faster.  
    She’s gone.
    I pushed body harder, sobbing into the wind.  
    The little girl beneath the mountain. The one who depended on me.
    I shouted incoherent, angry protests. And when there was no more breath for me to yell, I simply let my feet pound the grass beneath me.  
    Gone.
    I wondered if I would ever see her again.
    Finally, after a long, long time, I hit the ground as I tripped over my own, exhausted legs. My body rolled across the grass as it slowed from great speed, dry stalks scraping at my arms and face as I tumbled, finally coming to a stop. I lay on my side, panting and gasping for air, anguish still threatening to close my throat entirely. The air barely made it through my clenched body, and I was forcibly reminded of my asthma attacks back on Earth. Mom would hold me, comfort me as we both waited for the medicine to open my airways again.  
    Breathe slow. Breathe calm.
    Blades of grass scratched at my cheeks.  
    Breathe slow. Breathe calm.
    Slowly, my throat opened bit by bit. I rolled onto my back.
    The sun was bright, and it stung my eyes, but my tears were drying as the air moved in and out of my lungs. Above, puffy white clouds drifted lazily across my view, and I relaxed into the earth as if it were a feather bed. The terrifying images drained away, and my body melted against the ground. My breathing slowed, and my misery trickled out of me like the sweat on my back until I felt nothing but the beating of my heart.  
    And all was quiet.
    Around my body, the tall grass rippled. I was hidden deep within it and watched the blades from below as they gently swayed back and forth. I didn’t think anymore. I had run to the point of exhaustion, and now I simply lay there, unmoving, an observer.  
    But I didn’t sleep. For hours I watched the sky from my little pocket, my mind all but blank. The afternoon sun gradually sunk low,