THE VERY LAST UNTOLD SNIPPET

Originally published at Sarah Rees Brennan. You can comment here or there.

Untold’s out next month, which is very very soon, so here, my lovelies, is the last Untold snippet…

“The way Jared talked about having a source,” Ash said softly, “it sounded nice. Never being lonely again. Having someone to support you.”

Kami was becoming familiar with the feeling of desolation that came upon her now, turning her cold even while her cheeks still burned. She wished she had never learned to understand loneliness, and that Ash had not brought it up.

Where are you? she asked Jared in her mind, sending love and loneliness and fury at him, contradictory emotions that she could not express in words. They used to be able to understand each other, even when they made no sense.

Sometimes she could not stop herself from speaking to him like this, even though he would never hear her again.

“‘Nice’ is not exactly how I would describe it,” Kami replied, and was horrified to hear her voice shake. The corners of her eyes burned, and she was even more horrified to see a teardrop fall on the brown cover of her book.

“A lot of power comes with being a source,” Ash said. “Maybe enough to help turn the tide against my father.”

“It didn’t help much against him when we had it, and we don’t have it anymore.” Kami’s voice was not friendly. “We have to do without it.”

“Maybe not,” said Ash.

“What do you mean?” Kami asked. “Is—is there a way to get the link back?”

If they had to reestablish the link to save other people, to save the whole town. If they had to.

“Sort of,” Ash replied. Kami stared at the closed book and the wood grain in the surface of the table. “You broke the link with Jared,” Ash went on, as if she didn’t know that. “There’s no way to make another link, once broken, without more power than any sorcerer has unless he or she completes the Crying Pools ceremony.”

Kami looked up. “He’s not trying that again!”

When Ash saw her face, he let out a low exclamation, got up from his chair, and rushed over to her side. He went on his knees on the stone floor beside her chair, fingers light against the side of her face. Ash never had any trouble touching her. His fingers lingered, as if he liked to do it.

“Kami,” he said, “you’re crying.”

“No, I am not,” Kami lied. “I got something in my eye.”

“You got something in your eye.”

“Yes. Possibly a speck of dust,” Kami said, and broke down. “All right, possibly my feelings.”

Ash smiled a little, sympathetically and tentatively, until she smiled too.

“You don’t understand what I’m asking you,” he murmured. “It has nothing to do with Jared. He is not the only sorcerer in Aurimere.”

“What—” Kami began, but before she could form the question properly in her mind, he had answered it.

“You and I could do the spell together. You and I could save the town together. You could be my source.”