Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2), B.T. Narro [digital book reader txt] 📗

the same wild manner that Charlie’s dense mop of blond hair sat on his head, but lighter, a silky texture to it as the wind played with it.

Her clothes were always loose and baggy as if she meant to hide behind them. Even though she spent most of the day working with fire and sweating profusely, she still seemed to be more comfortable with the extra fabric.

She was short, like Eden, but there was more tone and strength to her shoulders from what I could see. I had witnessed Remi improve greatly with the sword. She was naturally agile and a quick learner, but even Michael, who wasn’t learning as fast, could still defeat her easily in duels. She still had a ways to go to stand up against any decent opponent, her size being her worst enemy, if she did continue with sword training as I hoped she would.

Sometimes I wondered if a smaller weapon might be better for the talented fire mage, but I had enough to worry about without getting involved. I skipped Leon’s sword lessons, opting to practice my sorcery instead. I was sure after checking on a few lessons that Leon couldn’t teach me anything my father hadn’t already, and I was too experienced with the sword to get anything from practicing with my peers.

I had always admired Remi’s determination. And yet, there was something about her personality that made it hard for me to completely trust her, especially watching her train by creating balls of fire that hovered in front of her and then exploded upward into the sky. It was an unnerving sight.

“I understand,” Remi said. “What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with who’s your husband?” Michael asked.

“No lies,” Eden added. “If we find out later that any of us lied about anything, that’s as much an admission of guilt as a running away from this conversation.”

Remi’s gaze wouldn’t lift off the ground as she breathed quickly.

“Just talk,” Reuben told her angrily.

She still wouldn’t.

“Speak!” he yelled. “Only liars take time to think. Tell us who you are married to!”

“Gerald Ryler, like Charlie said!” she shouted back. “My family promised me to him when I was ten.”

“Oh god,” Charlie said in disgust.

“No, we didn’t marry when I was ten. I was fourteen when we did.”

“Oh god,” Michael echoed. “That’s not much better.”

“There was nothing I could do about it!” she shot back. “I tried to talk my parents out of it, but they wouldn’t listen. I never liked Gerald.”

“Then why did your parents make you marry him?” Michael asked.

“Because his family offered, and they were worried no one else would marry me. I was…an odd child, and there weren’t many boys around my age.”

She stopped at that.

“Keep going,” Reuben said without sympathy.

She told the ground, “Gerald turned out to be much worse than I thought. So I…ran away soon after we were married.”

“From where?” Reuben asked.

“From where I grew up. Granlo.”

“Never heard of it,” Reuben said skeptically.

“It exists,” Kataleya told him. “It’s a small village about five miles northwest of Newhaven. Keep going, Remi.”

“I had to get away, but I didn’t know where to go.” She paused. “I ended up running to Newhaven.”

“How old were you?” Reuben asked.

“Fourteen.”

“And how old are you now?” he asked.

“Seventeen.”

So she was one year younger than me. I didn’t know how much older Kataleya was, but I highly doubted she was seventeen like Remi.

Reuben continued his questioning. “Where did you spend the last three years?”

“In Newhaven.”

“What did you do to stay alive?”

“I’m…getting to that.”

“No. What did you do? Answer!”

“I did many things!”

“Say them!”

“I begged! I performed jobs, any job I could. I had no home. It was horrible!”

“What jobs?” Reuben pushed.

“I washed clothes. I swept floors. I moved goods.”

“You’d rather do that, with no home, than live in a house with your husband?” Reuben shouted. “You really expect me to believe this?”

“I don’t care what you believe, Reuben. You don’t know what it’s like to be a fourteen-year-old girl who is forced to marry someone much bigger and stronger, who thinks he has the right to do whatever he wants to you.” She broke out in tears as she collapsed and put her hands over her face.

“He was big,” Charlie added, in monotone. “And definitely not fourteen.”

Kataleya bent down beside Remi and put her hand on Remi’s back. “I’m sorry for Reuben. You’re right that he doesn’t understand, but we do.”

“We do,” Aliana agreed.

“I’ll give Gerald a swift kick between his legs if we ever meet him,” Eden said. “That’s a promise.”

Remi stopped crying and slowly rose to her feet. She wiped her tears. It was hard to believe this was an act.

“It gets worse,” Remi said coldly. “But…I really don’t want to continue.”

“You have to,” Reuben said.

“My life is finally good now!” she replied with sudden anger. “I would never do anything to jeopardize what I have. Every day I think about how lucky I am that I’ve come to the castle. I don’t care that we have to fight. The kind of danger we face is not anything compared to what I’ve faced already. Now I’m strong. I can stand up for myself. Why would I throw all of this away and work with Cason? There’s nothing for me to gain out of it.”

“Unless all of that is a lie,” Reuben muttered.

“It’s not a lie!” Remi shouted, her face red.

“How did you end up in the castle then?” Reuben asked. “You have to at least tell us that. How did you learn magic if you were homeless?”

I added, “And how much does the king know about this?”

She answered me first. “He knows everything I’ve told you and more. He knows my birth name. He knows my past. He allowed me to divorce Gerald without seeing him again. I’m not legally married anymore, but my legal name is still Veronica Ryler. No one can change their surname outside a marriage. He said it would cause too many problems with the record keepers, and he wasn’t going to