Free The Water and the Wild by Katie Elise Ormsbee Page A

vial, however, that remained unstopped and unbroken. The vial marked
Otherwise Incurable
sat inside the glass case on the mantel of the darkened fireplace. Lottie crept closer, staring at the anxious red liquid in the medicine vial. She found that if she looked very closely, the liquid almost seemed to be looking back at her, like it was waiting for something to happen, waiting for her to do something.
    She reached for the glass case.
    â€œLooking for something?”
    Lottie’s breath hitched. She turned around. There, on Mr. Wilfer’s desk, sat Adelaide Wilfer, blue eyes cold as windowpane frost.
    â€œCome to steal Father’s medicine, have you?”
    â€œI—” stammered Lottie.
    Adelaide jumped from the desk and approached Lottie with frightening speed. “You’ve got a lot of nerve,” she hissed. “I knew you were no good the moment I set eyes on you!”
    Lottie backed away. “I just wanted to look around!” she insisted.
    Adelaide’s eyes narrowed. “You could be charged before the Southerly Guard for snoopery and attempted thievery!”
    â€œI’m not a thief!” Lottie shouted. “And so what if I’m snooping? What would you do if your best friend was—
dying
?”
    She’d done it. She’d managed to say the word.
Dying
. That’s what was happening to Eliot. Now that she’d said it, though, Lottie didn’t feel any sense of accomplishment, just a sensation like her heart was being shredded by a cheese grater.
    â€œ
I’d
act with a little more dignity,” said Adelaide. “That’s what I’d do. Father has shown you nothing but kindness. Who’s the one who sent you all those birthday gifts? Who promised to help your stupid friend? Who welcomed you into our house? Who’s putting his life in danger for you? And how do you repay him? By stealing. Disgusting! Do all humans have as little self-respect as you?”
    Lottie searched for words, but none came. She’d told Adelaide the truth, and even if she could come up with another explanation, Adelaide wouldn’t listen.
    â€œYou followed me,” Lottie said, remembering the brush of cool air on the stairwell. “How could you have heard me? I was so quiet.”
    â€œNo,” Adelaide said. “You weren’t.”
    Neither she nor Lottie said anything more. Adelaide only took Lottie by the arm and, with a grip much strongerthan Lottie expected, pulled her back through the house, all the way up to the guest bedroom.
    â€œJust because Father trusts you doesn’t mean I do,” hissed Adelaide, pushing Lottie into the guest bedroom and slamming the door shut. “Just try stealing from us now!”
    Lottie heard the telltale
click
of metal slipping against metal. Adelaide had locked her inside the bedroom. Even though Lottie knew that pounding her fist against the door would do nothing to unlock it, she still pounded, each time harder than before.
    â€œAdelaide, let me out! I’m not a thief!”
    Adelaide did not answer.
    Lottie began to feel an all-too-familiar tightening in her sides. She was getting a bad spell. She sank to the ground, setting her head down between her knees, and hugged her ankles tightly, willing away the white splotches that appeared on the insides of her eyelids.
Fight it
, thought Lottie.
Don’t give in. Fight
 . . .

CHAPTER FIVE
Fife

    THWOCK .
    THWACK .
    THWOCK .
    Lottie opened her eyes to a room full of pale light. The first thing she became aware of was that her arm, the arm she had slumped atop when she had drifted to sleep on the floor the night before, was horribly sore. The next things were that a window was open, its shutters were
thwack-thwocking
in the wind, and on the window ledge sat a boy who was grinning at Lottie.
    â€œHallo,” said the boy before somersaulting onto the floor.
    A shock of black hair, green eyes, and a mad grin were now just a foot from