The Spider Catcher (Redemption by A.L. Tyler Book 1) by A.L. Tyler Page B

to the left, was a ripped piece of a hardback book cover.
    Ember picked it up, turning it over to look at the cover side, but there wasn’t a title. She didn’t recognize it, but knew immediately where it had come from. It was one of the books that Acton had left for her.
    Her mother had burned the books that Acton had tried to give her; and beyond the fact that they were books, they appeared to be expensive ones.
    It was an old red leather book, which meant the title had probably been on the spine, and was probably why it hadn’t burned like it was supposed to. Pressing her lips together to suppress a grimace, Ember looked at the soot that covered both of her palms, and it somehow felt like they ink of the dead book had bled all over her hands. She ached in her chest as she tried to decide what to do with the poor broken thing.  It seemed wrong to simply throw it back in the pit, so she tucked it into her back pocket.
    She stirred the ashes with a stick, looking for any evidence of the red jacket that had once belonged to Acton’s mother, but there wasn’t any. Wool burned easily.
    When she was done, Ember turned back to the house. Gina was standing in the kitchen window, making no effort to disguise her lack of remorse as she held Thalia’s head to her shoulder, slowly stroking her hair.
    With a chill already creeping in to her dirty fingers, Ember thought she would have felt something…maybe anger, or depression. But looking at her mother and Thalia, all she felt was that she was interfering. Gina was the local crazy woman—she owned everything, and hated everyone that she allowed on her land. She hated one daughter and loved another, and she believed that everyone living around her was dangerous enough to warrant answering the door with a knife.
    Apparently, she also burned books.
    As Gina turned to walk deeper in to the house, taking Thalia with her, Ember shook her head. Thalia was being raised by two crazy women, and she didn’t even realize that anything was wrong. Ember sighed as she started for the gate to get out of the yard, wondering if she hadn’t been the lucky one after all.
    She wasn’t too far from the house when Acton Knox was suddenly standing in front of her, wearing his old leather jacket once again. There was a man with him that gave Ember pause, but she couldn’t place him.
    “My crazy mother burned your books.” Ember said plainly, producing the cover scrap from her back pocket. “Your mom’s coat too, I think. Sorry.”
    Acton slowly took the fragment, frowning. “I thought she might. You kept this?”
    Ember shrugged. “My mom’s a bitch. Book burning is evil…”
    Acton shook his head, running his fingers over the surface. “That’s a shame. Are you going to throw this away?”
    “It’s yours.”
    “I gave it to you.” Acton said, looking up with interest.
    Ember held her hand out to take the cover back from him. “No. I’ll hide it from her. I like books. Even damaged ones.”
    Acton smiled as she took it, and then compulsively rubbed his hands together, seeming to notice the ash for the first time.
    She meant to ask what had happened the last time she had seen him, and how much she had drunk. She meant to ask something important, about something she couldn’t remember, and stopping short on the stairs the next morning. But as Ember tucked the cover back into her back pocket, eyeing the stranger once again, the thoughts calmly slipped away from her. They hadn’t been properly introduced.
    “Hey.” She said finally.
    The stranger didn’t respond. He kept his eyes on his duct tape covered shoes.
    “Ember, this is Joseph.” Acton said, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket to clean his hands. “Have the two of you met?”
    Ember tried not to let her expression betray her confusion; she wasn’t sure if she had met Joseph or not. She might have, but she might have been too intoxicated to remember him.
    “No,” she said with a smile, “I don’t believe I