Darkness Descends (The Silver Legacy Book 1) Read Online Free

accident, nor walked a step, though doctors could find no reason why she couldn’t walk. She would be confined to whatever hell existed in her mind and to the metal wheelchair for the remainder of her wasted life.
    It was a fate as frightening to Denny as anything she could conceive, and she and Quick had made a pact to never allow the other to live under those conditions.
    Taking Gwen’s hands in hers, Denny marveled at how thin and frail they were. For a forty-six-year-old woman, she had the hands of a seventy-year-old. They were cold and bony, and had age spots the size of dimes. It was as if her mother had been caught up in some sort of time warp that quickly aged her.
    “You look beautiful today, Mom. Did you get your hair cut?”
    Princess smiled and nodded. “She no need color this time.”
    Holding one of her mother’s thin hands between hers, Denny closed her eyes and said, “I’m going to see Quick, Mom, so I came by early to see you. I...I just wanted you to know. He sends his love, as always.”
    Denny spent the next fifteen minutes telling Gwen about Sterling’s new project at the church and Pure’s new love interest, but she avoided sharing anything about her own life. She just couldn’t envision saying, “I’m dating a ghost,” though there had been several times over the years when she’d wanted to. It just didn’t seem fair to drop something like that on someone who could not respond.
    If Gwen had ever seen Rush in the house, she’d never said anything to Denny. Every time Denny asked Rush if Gwen had ever seen her, Rush only shrugged.
    “Mom, I can’t let him rot in jail and pretend he doesn’t exist. I know what Sterling wants. I just don’t think it’s what you’d want. So I am going. I hope I do so with your blessing.”
    Denny didn’t wait for an answer that would never come.
    ***
    A little over two hours later, Denny sat across from her brother in the cold visitors’ room. Everything in the room was gray—walls, chairs, tables, even the pallor of the guards appeared gray and wan.
    The young man who entered the room was pewter, and thinner than Denny had ever seen him.
    When Denny looked at Quick, her heart picked up a beat. He was the mirror image of their father, with his brown curly hair, puppy dog eyes––perfect smile. Quick had once had so much potential.
    Had.
    “You’re thin,” Denny said. Quick’s once tan face now held the same gray pallor of the room and the guards. The family used to joke that he could get a tan at midnight. Not so much now.
    “And you sound just like Mom. If you had to eat this shit, you’d lose weight, too.” Quick leaned forward, elbows on the table. “How are you, Goldy? Long time no see.”
    Denny wanted to move his bangs off his forehead. “I’m good. My grades are good.” Denny shrugged. “I can’t complain.”
    Quick leaned forward. “Got a girlfriend?”
    Denny shrugged. “Sort of. It’s...complicated. Too complicated to go into right now.”
    He grinned the same Pied Piper smile that got other kids into trouble. “It always was with you. How’s I.C?” I.C. stood for Immaculate Conception, Quick’s nickname for his diametrically opposed sister...or "icy", for her cold demeanor.
    “Busy saving souls, I suppose, and no, she doesn’t know I came. She would have handcuffed me to a cross or made me bathe in holy water.”
    Quick nodded. “No shit. What about Pure? She keeping good grades?”
    “She is, but she thinks she might want to go to college out of state. She’s in love with California.”
    Quick shook his head. “Don’t let her. You need to keep the family together. It’s very important that you keep the family together.”
    The irony of that statement hit Denny in the face. Together was a relative term when one of the family was behind bars. “I don’t really have that option, Q. Pure is as stubborn as they come and will do whatever she damn well pleases.”
    He nodded, sighing loudly. “We are a stubborn