Read Blackout (Darkness Trilogy) for Free Online

point: They have that drive to honor Troublefields, and I just don’t. I love my parents, but I want more than this family in my life. I have my own dreams for power, for Star. For something bigger than this family and better than what we already have. My parents don’t feel anything when they walk by the Frontier because they’re happy on this side. And it makes me feel guilty for wanting more, but I do. If my family ever needed me to, I don’t know if I’d have what it takes to give myself up and walk boldly into the dark. There’s more to live for than just this family name.
    I rub the back of my neck and walk through the tall arch of the front door. An image of the monstrous black truck speeding toward me flashes through my mind, and I feel the shock prick my skin all over again. Never in my life did I expect to see anything pass through the Frontier, in either direction. And why they did it, I don’t know.
    “Phoenix!” Aura calls from inside. “Come here!”
    I follow the sound of her voice to the living room where she sits on the rug making candles. Deer fat boils in a large cast-iron pot over the fireplace. On the floor around her, she has spread a bundle of false tinder fungus for candlewicks. Burn stands beside her over an ironing board, skinning his latest kill, a squirrel. The knife is poised in his hand, ready to cut it from neck to tail. I’d offer to help but my hands are still quivering in my gloves. When my parents see the look on my face, they know something is wrong. As true Troublefields, they pride themselves on being in tune with each other and with me. It’s how they’re able to give before I ever have to ask—another family custom.
    “Tell us, son,” Burn says.
    I collapse onto the sunken leather sofa and tell them everything—slowly.
    Aura moves to sit next to me and listens closely while Burn tends to the meat. You have to deal with fresh game immediately. I tell them what the electricity felt like, about hiding in the morgue, and about the strange act the Easies put on, handing themselves over to the Frontmen. A silence grows after I finish.
    “ Why would they break through the Frontier, only to surrender themselves so soon?” Aura asks. It’s the riddle on all of our minds, and it doesn’t make any sense. Pummeling through the Frontier must have been an incredible risk for them—the impact, the consequences—but it’s as if they never actually wanted to escape at all.
    It reminds me of the last deer I shot: I stalked it in circles for an hour through a forest before I realized that the deer wasn’t actually trying to get away. It never wanted to escape me completely. I had to stumble across a concealed pair of fawns before I understood: This deer, their mother, was just trying to distract me.
    That’s it.
    “Maybe they were a decoy,” I wonder out loud, and my parents nod to consider it. It’s the best explanation on the table so far.
    “ Who would they be distracting? The Frontmen?” Burn asks.
    I shrug uncertainly. “Or us,” I suggest. “I don’t know.”
    The idea sends a chill down my back , but I shouldn’t be scared. I don’t know enough to be afraid. Even if their breach was a distraction, we still don’t know what it was meant to accomplish.
    The door to our townhouse suddenly slams shut, and two pairs of footsteps enter. I bolt upright and aim Magic toward the front hall.
    “It’s me!” Star cries.
    I lower my gun before she comes in range. That was too close for comfort. Star peers around the doorway, leading Spark—Spark!—by the shoulders toward us. He looks small and pitiable, with his face dirtier than most and his matted hair sticking out in all directions. They stop at the end of the sofa, where Spark pouts but Star looks exultant. Her cheeks flush with life. She crouches eagerly next to his ear, on the verge of revealing something big.
    “Tell them what you told me,” she says sweet ly to Spark. “Tell them how your family earned the