Darkbound (The Legacy of Moonset) Read Online Free Page A

figure out my next move.
    After the morning’s class, I didn’t see any point in showing
up for the second. It was just going to be the same BS all over again. It wasn’t like the adults were forcing me to show up. I’m sure they would all sleep a little easier if there was one Moonset witch not being trained in volatile new magics.
    Kevin suggested I find something else, something that gave me an outlet the way that he had football. A chance to laugh and tease and joke around with normal kids my age. Making friends at a new school had never been hard for me before, the hard part was keeping them from getting too attached. But after the wraith attack, and then everything that happened with our move to Carrow Mill, I’d forgotten how to be the easygoing friend.
    The stories all said that Moonset had a disciple, a man they’d trained to continue all their works after they were gone. A man named Cullen Bridger. The name was whispered around for years, a phantom who laid claim to acts of terrorism that paled in comparison to Moonset’s works. But when the wraith attacked, it had used Bridger’s name. There was a psychopath out there looking for us, and the others weren’t concerned at all.
    Maybe Jenna and the others thought I was a pain in the ass, but they were all obsessed with magic and the Covens. It was all they ever wanted to talk about, all they ever seemed to think about. Justin and Bailey had always been a little more on my side, the ones who at least attempted to have an outside life. But Luca ruined that too. Now Justin’s focus on magic was fevered, and Bailey was wilting away, and I didn’t know how to deal with either of those things. Problems in the coven were Justin’s area. He played mediator. He’d always been good at it.
    As I hit the three-way junction that led to the main hallway, I passed a wall of posters, advertisements for fundraisers, school clubs, and a couple of local advertisements. But one of them caught my eye.
    The school didn’t have a woodshop program, which had bummed me out when we first enrolled. I always liked the idea of working with my hands, of being able to see what you’re actually creating. Unlike magic, which just forced change into the world whether it liked it or not.
    There was a school play, however. And a school play meant sets. I instantly changed directions, heading for the auditorium where the drama classes were held. This could be my fresh start. No more witch drama. Just drama drama.
    So of course I walked into the auditorium in the middle of a fight. Not just any fight, but a three-on-one beat-down. Because that was my life now.
    At first glance, all I saw was three guys surrounding a younger, smaller guy. The three were obviously athletes, basketball players if I wasn’t mistaken. They certainly had the height for it, although a couple of them also had the width for football.
    “What’d you say, you little shit?” one of them growled.
    Two of them were just enforcers, I could tell even as I approached. They stood at either side to keep the kid from running. It was the one in the middle, the sullen-looking kid with all-American hair and the viper eyes that was the ringleader.
    Their victim wasn’t such a wilting flower, though. First impressions weren’t what they used to be. “Is there even a step below remedial?” he sassed. “Because I don’t know how to dumb it down for you anymore. Get out of my face, Cauley. And take your goons with you.”
    “Is that right?” Viper boy smiled. “I saw you at lunch, Hamilton. You really think that’s smart, flirting with my girl? I warned you before.”
    “How about I warn you?” I squared my shoulders and finished striding across the auditorium floor. The four of them were so engrossed in each other that they hadn’t even noticed my approach. “Three on one? Those are shitty odds. Three on ‘I’m going to kick your ass’ is a whole lot better, don’t you think?”
    Viper barely inclined his head