Baehrly Alive Read Free

much of your dad.”
    I blinked at her. I could feel a lump grow in my throat. “I do?”
    Gwyn nodded. “He was always on a crusade to save the world, too. For what it’s worth—I think he would be very proud of you right now.”
    I blinked back tears. “Thanks, Gwyn.”
    She shrugged. “I won’t pretend not to know what sacrifices you’ve made to keep me and Thomas safe. I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong—but surely there are other ways?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Gwyn reached down to scratch Petunia behind the ears. My pink miniature mastodon let out a sigh of pure bliss. “Oh, so then you aren’t marrying Kodi so that he’ll take care of us if something happens to you?”
    I blinked at her. “Doesn’t sound like me.”
    Gwyn sighed. “You know, you can talk to me. You don’t have to face all of this alone.”
    I raised my eyebrows and grinned as cheerfully as I could muster. “I know that. Thanks for the soup.”
    Gwyn’s brows drew together as she picked up my tray. I could tell that she wanted to say more, but knew that she had been dismissed.
    “Just,” she said quietly, standing in the doorway. “Just don’t make the wrong decision for the right reasons, okay? You don’t have to sacrifice your whole life for me and your brother.”
    I looked down at the heavy book I had been reading. “Maybe I do,” I whispered.
    She was already gone, but she wouldn’t have heard me anyway.
     
    Nights were the worst.
    The rest of the time I could pretty much pretend that all was normal.
    Night was a whole other story.
    I wondered if this was how it felt to be possessed.
    Even my bear cowered in the background in the small hours of the night, when I lay awake and wondered if this was the night that would be my last.
    Voices filled my mind in these dark hours—gibbering, wild voices with no reason, and no sanity in them. They crept through my blood and bones with icy hooked claws and tore me from the inside, shredding the delicate fabric of my soul.
    Sometimes it felt like Death was sitting there in the corner, watching me from under his heavy hood—waiting for the balance in my soul to shift so that he could take me.
    Even in the midst of a flood of darkness, I clung on and faced his specter with determination. “No,” I moaned. “Not yet. I have too much to do. You can’t take me yet.”
    Of course, Death didn’t answer. Why would he? I was just a simple mortal creature, who had cheated him too many times.
    I was marked.
    And I knew it.
    I tried the whole tossing and turning thing most nights, but tonight I couldn’t bring myself to stay put. Petunia and Silas were snoring on either side of me. Every time I wiggled, one of them would open a slit of eye grouchily.
    I slid out of the bed, trying not to disturb either one of them. Icy sweat coated the back of my neck and behind my knees. My skin felt cold and clammy—I tried not to compare it to the flesh of the Lake Horse outside. In the moonlight, streaming through my window, my skin looked mottled and pale… gray-ish and inhuman.
    I shuddered.
    How long did I have? No one could tell me.
    I had been bitten literally hundreds of times by vampires. My soul, my Magic—everything had been affected.
    The only thing we couldn’t figure out was why I was still alive.
    I made my way from the master suite, where I slept, toward the kitchen. The new house was huge. I still couldn’t get used to having so much space. The kitchen alone could have easily held my old cottage inside of it.
    Not that a big house like this didn’t come with issues of its own.
    It was a good thing that a lot of Brownies owed me big time—or this big drafty barn of a house—that actually had once been a barn—would scarcely be habitable.
    As it was, I wished I had slid my feet into my slippers before leaving my room. The house was drafty and my feet were already icicles.
    A huge form lurked outside of the fridge, gobbling leftovers