Free Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan Page A

Holly whispered. “I think there might be something bad happening at Hallow’s Field.”
    “Then we have to go down there,” Angie said decisively. “I’ll go wake Rusty.”
    “I’ll call Kami,” Holly volunteered.
    “We’ll meet you outside the field,” Angela said, and paused again. This time Holly heard her sharp, hesitant breath. “Holly?”
    “Yes?” Holly whispered back.
    “Don’t worry,” Angie told her, and hung up.
    Holly felt a little steadier as she called Kami’s phone.
    “What news?” asked Kami’s voice, fearless and curious, and Holly was able to tell her and keep her own voice calm.
    Holly told Kami the plan, and was surprised when Kami did not answer immediately. Instead there was only silence, and a quiet creak.
    “What is it?” Holly asked, the skin on her shoulder blades crawling, wanting to turn around even though she was sure the sound was coming from the phone.
    “Nothing,” Kami answered. Her voice was the one that shook now. “It’s just that I looked in my parents’ room. My mother is gone too.”

Chapter Seven
    Hallow’s Field
    Kami could not get the image out of her mind of her father lying asleep, one hand flung across the bed, reaching for her mother who was not there. Kami could not believe her mother had gone.
    She put her head down against the night wind and charged on. She was farther from Hallow’s Field than the others. The wind tossed her hair into her eyes and screamed in her ears as she ran. She almost didn’t notice the rattle and hum of the motorcycle on the cobbles until it turned into a screech beside her. The motorcycle wobbled into her path, and she looked into Jared’s face.
    “You’re going to Hallow’s Field on your motorcycle ?”
    “Want a lift?”
    “No,” said Kami. “I mean, you’re going into a situation where something really bad might be happening, and you’ve decided to make sure they can hear you coming? Better hope being a tavern wench works out, because you, sir, will never be a ninja.”
    Jared’s bike was resting at an angle, the heavy metal frame leaning against Kami’s body. He was looking up at her, his gaze steady and his voice less harsh than usual.
    “Come on,” he urged. Kami could not tell if it was a challenge or a plea. “Come with me.”
    Kami wished for the thousandth time that she could read his mind. She thought of her mother, who had lied to her all her life and left them all tonight. She felt as if she could not trust anybody in the world.
    She said, her voice a whisper, “I don’t want to go with you.”
    “Fine,” Jared replied, leaning away and kick-starting his bike.
    Kami walked on. By the time she reached the place outside Hallow’s Field where they had agreed to meet, her hands and feet were numb with cold. She walked through a ditch to reach the chain-link fence where the others stood. The ditch water bled slowly through the canvas of her shoes.
    The fence cut up Hallow’s Field into a hundred steel-framed triangular pictures. Kami could only catch glimpses of chaos in the night: flickers of fire, silhouettes of people, sharp bursts of laughter, and sounds she couldn’t identify. They didn’t even sound human.
    Hallow’s Field was not surrounded by fences on all sides: there were barns at the far end, and on the side of the field that ended in the looming shapes of barns ran the dark scribble of a blackthorn hedge.
    Holly, Angela, and Rusty were huddled together by the fence, on the opposite end of the field; Jared stood a little apart from them. Kami only caught a glimpse of Holly’s face, but she was pale as moonlight.
    Ash and Lillian weren’t here yet. This meant the only one here who could do magic was Jared, and he’d known he was a sorcerer for about a month.
    “Let’s go take a closer look. We need to see what Rob is doing,” said Kami, and set off at once so that no one would have a chance to stop her. As she circled the perimeter of the field, she kept seeing flares of