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Back The Poison Season Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. About the Author
  4. Dedication
  5. Map
  6. Prologue
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. Chapter Fourteen
  21. Chapter Fifteen
  22. Chapter Sixteen
  23. Chapter Seventeen
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. Chapter Nineteen
  26. Chapter Twenty
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Chapter Thirty-Four
  41. Chapter Thirty-Five
  42. Chapter Thirty-Six
  43. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  44. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  45. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  46. Chapter Forty
  47. Chapter Forty-One
  48. Chapter Forty-Two
  49. Chapter Forty-Three
  50. Chapter Forty-Four
  51. Chapter Forty-Five
  52. Chapter Forty-Six
  53. Chapter Forty-Seven
  54. Chapter Forty-Eight
  55. Chapter Forty-Nine
  56. Chapter Fifty
  57. Chapter Fifty-One
  58. Chapter Fifty-Two
  59. Chapter Fifty-Three
  60. Chapter Fifty-Four
  61. Chapter Fifty-Five
  62. Chapter Fifty-Six
  63. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  64. Acknowledgments

This boat must have taken incantu children to the mainland. From what Lupin had told Jaren, the poison in the lake destroyed outsider vessels. Why this boat hadn’t been pulled back to the other side of the lake, he couldn’t say. He had drifted to the center of the lake now, and if there had been oars in the boat at some point, they were gone. He was entirely at the mercy of the wind, and it seemed to be nudging him toward Endla.

A sudden gust jostled the boat even more, and that was when he heard a sound that chilled him to his bones: sloshing. The boat must have scraped the rocks when he shoved it back into the water. And now it had sprung a leak.

Jaren peered through the waning darkness to the shore, wondering if someone was waiting for him even now. Would they spare him, if he somehow managed to make it across? He doubted it.

He glanced down to see the water level rising in the floor of the boat. He lifted his feet onto the bench where he sat, then looked back to the shore. He wasn’t going to make it, he thought hopelessly. The water was rising faster than he was traveling. He tried not to think of the rose, of his sisters, of his poor father, and failed.

Chapter Nineteen

Leelo knew she should be sprinting toward home, not the shoreline, but her only coherent thought right now was of Tate. If there was a wolf across the lake in the woods where her brother and the other children had landed, he was as good as dead.

He has to be far away from here, she told herself as cold tears of terror streamed across her cheeks. Because what if this was her fault? What if her assault on the pine tree had somehow caused the Forest to retaliate?

She hadn’t brought her bow and arrow with her; all she had was the knife, which she’d finally managed to dislodge from the tree by bracing her foot against it and pulling so hard she’d gone flying backward when it came loose. But just as it had been worthless against the tree, she knew it wouldn’t help her fight a wolf. Still, she had to try.

When she finally reached the shore, she froze among the trees, listening. The wolf had howled intermittently as she ran, but it was silent now. The only sound was the wind whipping through the trees. It had picked up again, blowing from the mainland toward shore. She couldn’t see the wolf from here. All she could see in the moonlight was the dark expanse of the lake.