Sable Book 1 of Chaos Time (Chaos Time Series) Read Free

continued down the hall. She scrabbled back to her feet and rushed after him, making one final attempt to grab his hand. But he shoved her off.
    She knew if he got to the front door, it was over. She wasn’t physically strong enough to stop him.
    “Please, Michael,” her voice broke. She let him hear the tears, the panic and fear. “I need you with me. Please.”
    His hand was on the knob and for a moment she thought he’d come back. They could work it out. Get counseling. Nothing was impossible. Together, they could be a family again. Her heart fluttered.
    He didn’t say anything. Simply pulled open the front door, gave her one last look of disgust and then he walked out.
    Heart trapped in her throat, she clutched her hands together, her mouth opened and shut like a fish flopping on land gasping for air. The familiar rev of his Dodge blared loud through the open front door and then quickly faded as he turned down their street with a peal of tires.
    To go from shouts and the rumble of a speeding car, to complete silence, was shocking to her. They lived on a cul-de-sac, the sound of an engine would be his. She craned her head, listening with all her heart for that familiar rev but all she heard was the steady tick, tick, tick of the hallway clock.
    She waited.
    And waited.
    For what felt like an eternity, she waited.
    But he never came back.
    Dragging her feet, feeling a thousand years older and wondering what she’d say to Aleric, she crept to his room. A soft golden glow stole out from under the door. She knocked quietly.
    "What?" he asked with antipathy.
    She licked her lips and slowly opened it. "Aleric, your father and I—"
    He shook his head, but didn’t look up from where he sat at his desk. “Don’t call me Aleric anymore. That’s not my name.”
    “Of course it is, don’t be silly.”
    “No. My name is Dragden,” he said in a soft little voice.
    “Does James call you that?” She clutched the doorframe.
    He didn’t answer her. Just continued to sit and stare at the book in front of him. He looked so innocent and young in his robin's blue pajamas with fluffy clouds on them. The red desk lamp was the only light on in the room. She shivered. She hated coming in here, hated the smothering feeling of fear that overcame her and made her feel she couldn't take more than two steps inside without choking on black terror that froze her limbs in place.
    And now he was calling himself Dragden. Her back tensed, and for a moment, anger replaced her fear. She would never call him that.
    Aleric turned a page in a book. It was a copy of an antique Brother's Grimm storybook she used to read him as a baby. He'd loved the pictures of trolls and wolves and witches and all the other fantastic creatures within.
    "Where have all the beasties gone?" he asked quietly.
    She frowned. "Aleric, you know they aren't real."
    He looked at her, his stare deadpan and the look in his eyes made her think of a picture she'd seen once of a shark. Soulless. Lifeless.
    God forgive her, but she should never have let him have that surgery. Aleric should have died two years ago.
    He put his book down and picked up a syringe she hadn't seen on his desk—it was filled with a greenish blue fluid, he stared at it with an unblinking gaze. "Where have all the beasties gone, Mother?"
    "Aleric, what is that?" Instantly her mouth went dry, like she'd been sucking on cotton for hours.
    "An experiment. James showed me how to make it." He finally looked at her. "Would you like to see it?"
    She shook her head. "No, Aleric. Mommy's tired." Her eyes were twin saucers as she backpedaled.
    He smiled, but it never touched his eyes. "Don't worry, Mother, it won't hurt. James promised."
    She turned on her heels. There was a whizz, and then something painful pricked her neck. "Ow." She smacked her flesh, thinking it must have been a bee sting, but instead she felt a tiny glass dart sticking out of her neck. "Aleric?"
    “Mother, I’ve told you, call me