The Fire Sisters (Brilliant Darkness 3) Read Free Page A

want to go for Eland. I couldn’t save him. I can still save these children.
    Everyone has done so much for us. How can I sit here, enjoying the protection and comforts they secured for us, hoping someone else will help?
    I can’t.
    I’ll go, and I’ll do whatever it takes to find Kora and the others and bring them home.

Chapter Two
    Peree and I rush along the path back toward the village to pack. Others move with us, but no one is in any mood to chat.
    Koolkuna is eerily quiet for a warm and sunny afternoon. I hear none of the familiar sounds of hammering, sawing, laughter, or snatches of gossip as we pass the kitchen, the workroom, and the compact, comfortable homes that I know sit around the central part of the village. Ghosts might as well inhabit it.
    A woman wails from the trees where more homes nestle. The sound of her anguish settles into the pit of my stomach, a physical thing.
    Peree and I pass through the village and reach our home on the outskirts. I shut the door quickly to block out the woman’s cries, then collapse against it. I’d love to lie down for a moment, but there’s no time.
    This is the same home Peree and I stayed in when we were in Koolkuna before, but we haven’t been able to spend a lot of time here since we returned. We’ve been busy helping the other Groundlings and Lofties settle in. The place feels empty, shadowy, and too still now. Not much like home at all.
    Peree gathers me in, pressing my cheek to the intricately stitched shirt he borrowed for our partnering ceremony. It smells pleasantly of greenheart wood, as if it's been kept safe in a wooden chest somewhere.
    I’m still wearing my own finery, a dress made of the softest leather, with feathers and fur strategically sewn here and there for adornment. It belonged to Nerang’s partner, Yindi, who died years ago. The elaborate hairstyle Arika carefully arranged for me is drooping around my face. It doesn’t matter now.
    Peree laughs a little and smooths the mop out of my eyes. “Today was a disaster.”
    I rest my chin on his chest. “Complete disaster.”
    “The children. Frost. The Fire Sisters, whoever they are.” He pauses.
    “Our partnering ceremony.” My chest aches.
    It feels selfish to even think about this now, but Peree and I had plans . We’d been deciding whether to live on the ground or to build a home in the trees near Moon and Petrel. We’d talked about what our duties in the village should be, all the things we wanted to do for the others and ourselves now that we don’t have any rules imposed on us about spending time together. These are the hopes and dreams planted between us that will have to remain dormant.
    He rubs soothing circles across my back. “We’ll have an even bigger and better party when we get back with the children. Bigger than the Summer Solstice celebration. Better than the Feast of Deliverance.”
    “But if we fail, if the children—” I smother the terrible words. I can’t even think them.
    I tell him what some of the anuna said while he was gone, about how we brought the ill luck to Koolkuna. “The anuna might let us stay, but will they ever accept us?”
    Peree’s hand freezes. “How could they think we had anything to do with what happened today? That’s ridiculous.”
    I run my fingers through his shoulder-length, wavy hair. It’s the color of daffodils and sunshine, I’ve been told. He plans to remove the feathers he wears and cut his hair after we partner, as is the Lofty way. I want to respect his people’s traditions, but I’ll be secretly sorry when he does.
    “The feather Calli found," I say.
    His fingers brush mine. “This? If this is what’s making them so suspicious, then it’s easily solved.” There’s a tearing sound, as if he rips out the strands of hair the feather was tied to. I wince. “Done.”
    I cup his freshly shaved cheek and smile. “I wish it were so simple. I just hope we can find them. I can’t stand the thought of the children