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  “Because the driveway was full.” There, I said the truth.

  “You don’t have a license.” I can feel the heat of her breath as she roars an inch from my nose.

  “And it smells like a bear took a shit in there.” Tad matches her tone.

  “Maybe it did.” I offer.

  “There are no bears on Paragon.” Tad screams into me on his way to the bedroom.

  I can hear the shower turn on from Drake’s room. He’s probably in there with Brielle while I occupy the ‘rents with my Brielle inspired shenanigans. I’m suddenly regretting ever meeting her.

  “Get to your room until I think of an ample and just punishment.” Disappointment seethes from her pores, all directed right at me.

  “You ever wish I was in that car with dad?” The words tumble from my lips bypassing the brain filter on the way out.

  “Skyla.” Her whole affect softens. “Don’t ever say that.” She pulls a loose strand of hair and tucks it behind my ear. “I knew you were probably going to have a party.”

  Great. She thinks the worst of me. Technically it was Brielle who had the party, Brielle who had sex in my bed, and Brielle who’s most likely doing that exact same thing right now under her nose.

  “When I was your age I did the same thing.”

  “Oh.” I can’t even imagine my mother my age. “You get in trouble?”

  “No. I never got caught.”

  I raise my fingers up over my mouth in surprise.

  “I clean better than you.” She walks down the hall to her bedroom and shuts the door.

  I head over to Drake’s room and knock on the door to give them a scare. A scrambling sound emits from inside, then silence.

  No reason Brielle should have all the fun, although being with Drake is punishment, does she realize that? Obviously she’s a sadist.

  I head over to my room and close the door.

  My mother—I track through my memory trying to recall her ever mentioning her youth. I know she grew up near the waterfront. My grandparents died a few years back. She has a sister in Idaho. That’s all I really know about my mom. Was she a member of an angel faction? How exactly does one go about asking their mother if they are, in any way, a supernatural being?

  I yank all the covers off my bed and drop onto the bare naked mattress.

  I don’t know how, but I’m going to make it a point to find out.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Ninjas

  Days drag on. I familiarize myself with the nuances of my bedroom. Sometimes I sit in the walk-in closet with the lights off and text Logan for hours. Apparently ample punishment doesn’t include taking away my cell or my computer. I’m thrilled actually. My room feels more like a safe haven rather than a prison.

  My mother gives a mild knock before entering.

  “You up for a chore?”

  “Yes.” I say hesitantly. Obviously no would have been the wrong answer. I try and assess her mood, but the only clue in how she might be feeling is that bright pink ruffled shirt. It screams take-me-to-the-circus-and-put-me-on-the-first-clown-you-see.

  “I need to do a bunch of paperwork for Tad, so I’m going to ask you to take Mia and Melissa back-to-school shopping for me.

  I perk up at the thought. Outside? In a car?

  “I’ll drop you guys off, just call when you need to get picked up. I know it seems like I’m going soft on you, but summer’s going to end in a couple weeks.” She lets her shoulders rise and fall. “Who knows, maybe I am getting soft. Be ready in fifteen.”

  I flip off my bed and text Logan. I think we’re about to have an accidental meeting.

  ***

  I pretend to be absorbed in my novel on the way to the mall so my mother might hold off on the inquisition. I’m still waiting for a thorough line of questioning involving Logan since she caught us in a heavy-duty lip lock.

  We file out of the van and I wave her off. Mia and Melissa are armed with cash, and per my mother’s wicked plan, I am not. I didn’t fight my mother on that one. I’m sure new clothes are in the cards for me, just not today, or perhaps ‘till I’m thirty.

  We head into the Paragon West End mall. It’s busier than the last time I was here by several hundred people. Must be the end of summer sale and back to school bustle all rolled into one. I see Logan over by the giant fountain and wave.

  “OK. So you guys are going to stick together and you have enough money for lunch and a movie, right?”

  “Oh, we can totally see a movie!” Melissa clutches my sister’s arm.

  “Or two, or three.” I suggest. “Look, I have my cell. Just call me when you’re ready to go. I’m going to hang out, Kay?”

  They wander down the corridor and disappear into a juniors dress shop, bubbling with excitement.

  I envy Mia. I wish I had a sister my age rather than Drake. At least I have Logan to take the edge off.

  He greets me with a kiss.

  “Let’s blow this joint.” I tick my head towards the parking lot. The last thing I need is spotting Mia and Melissa every five minutes. They’re totally safe. I can feel it in my creaky bones. It’s not like I left them alone—they’re not seven. They’re thirteen.

  ***

  “So where you going to take me?” We’ve got the windows rolled down and the wind is thrashing my hair around.

  “Surprise.” He answers.

  We drive for a half hour past the falls. I’m completely nervous about how far away I’ve gotten from the girls. He pulls down a tiny dirt road with a big white-planked sign that reads Black Forest.

  It’s more than a thicket of pine trees. It’s a denseness that I’ve never seen before. Walls of emerald fur, line the roadway impenetrable by man or beast.

  He drives down to a clearing and we get out of the truck.

  “You take all the girls here?” Really I don’t want an answer to that one.

  “I don’t think I’ve taken anyone here.” He leads me down a small stone path that leads into a smaller clearing, deep in the forest where you could feasibly only arrive on foot.

  “It’s kind of creepy.” Even though I’m with Logan I feel entirely vulnerable.

  Don’t. We’re safe. He walks over and snaps a one foot round branch off a tree, easy as snapping a pretzel.

  Words garble in my throat. I can’t seem to push any of them out.

  “I’m going to teach you how to do that.” He launches into one of his wild grins.

  “I’m all ears.” I walk over and stand next to him.

  “First, you determine that you can do this. Before you choose what you’re going to do with your strength, you need to believe.”

  “OK. So I believe I can pluck this branch off. I choose a far smaller, more meager branch to target.

  He motions for me to try.

  I give it a yank and it snaps upwards with violent force. Nada.

  “You have to really believe. It’s a biblical principle. You need to come from a place of knowing. Really understand that you’ve been given the power, and if you doubt it’s possible—it will be impossible.”

  “Great.” I try branch after branch, each time targeting something softer, meeker. “Can’t do it.” I suck in deep full breaths. It’s too exhausting to even think about trying again.

  “OK.” He looks around at the bed of dead pine needles on the ground. “Let’s try speed.” He positions himself like he’s going to run, but ends up standing next to a tree hundreds of yards away.

  “Hey! How’d you do that?” I yell, exhilarated.

  He cups his hands around his mouth. “Try it!”

  I place myself in the identical position, and start in on a run. The whole world turns into a blur, a carefree whirl on a familiar carnival ride. It reminds me of when my father used to take me up in his arms and spin me. Or at least I thought he was spinning me—it felt just like this.

  I appear right next to Logan with my chest heaving from the mammoth effort.

  “You did it!” He picks me up an
d twirls me.

  A loud reverberating shot rings out in the forest. A branch the size of a small tree just above our heads begins its silent tumble right for us.

  Logan pushes me out of the way as the timber crashes onto the bed of pine needles.

  “That could have killed us!” I pant. My heart scrambles inside my chest like a caged rabid squirrel.

  He looks around calm with careful intent.

  “I believe that was the plan.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Trouble

  Logan and I perch behind the trunk of an evergreen while staring out into the heavy shadow of the surrounding forest.

  Logan leans forward and brings his finger to his lips while looking at one of the branches on a tree across the way. He throws his finger into the air with a hard point. A dark-winged creature bolts out and heads to the west.

  “It’s that raven.” I marvel. “What is that, your bird or something?”

  “It sends a signal.”

  “Can’t you just use your cell?”

  “It’s more than that.” He gets up on his feet. “C’mon.” He pulls me in behind him using his body as a shield and we walk light footed through the dense overgrowth. It’s getting progressively darker. The fog illuminates itself like a lantern as it fills in the landscape around us.

  The heavy crush of leaves quickens in our direction. A stench of rotting flesh, or putrid fish, clogs up my nostrils and I find myself fighting the strong urge to vomit.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a Fem.” He clutches at my shoulders. “We have to outrun it, or it’ll kill us.”

  “I can’t.” I’m gonna die. My mother is going to find me in forest eaten by a Fem. “It’s going to eat me, isn’t it?” A weak groan emits from my throat.

  “It might.” He looks around distressed, panting.

  He picks me up and starts running. It feels like trees are darting in and out of our path. The sky appears and disappears like lightning. I close my eyes and bury my face in Logan’s chest until it feels like I’m flying in a dizzy circle with my father again. That’s how Logan makes me feel—safe like my father.

  An unbearably loud roar explodes right over my head, like that of a lion or a bear. I open my eyes to discover it emanating from Logan. I don’t know whether to be frightened or entertained.

  He jumps branch to branch, with me dangling on for dear life, and sits me a good twenty feet up. If I fall, I could easily crack my skull on the waiting rocks below.

  He lunges forward and clutches at a dark figure.

  I have no idea what in the hell it is. I’ve only seen the things of this world, and I know for certain this isn’t one of them. I can’t make out the proper form. When I see it I sway in disbelief. I crouch in and hug the trunk with all my might.

  A large bear looking creature ten feet high at least, with the girth of five bears up top, and legs like a jackrabbit, lunges and hisses at Logan. It looks like something out of a horror movie, something of pure evil. A shiny-flocked fur covers its flesh, its mouth is open and it thrashes its bright red pit all over.

  I close my eyes and bury my head into the trunk of the tree.

  I can hear a scuffle take place, bodies being lifted and thrown to the ground with violent force. The unnatural quiver of the forest lets me know this is no ordinary match. This isn’t human against human. And I have a very distinct feeling, that for one of them, this is going to end very, very, badly.

  “Skyla!” Logan calls my name.

  It takes all my effort to open my eyes and look in his direction. It might be his dying breath—the last word that leaves his mouth might be my name.

  Logan’s standing right there in the clearing with one foot on top of the beast’s chest in triumph.

  “You kill it?” I ask hesitantly.

  “Take a picture.”

  “You’re insane if you think I’m digging around for my phone.”

  Gage appears beneath me. “Jump and I’ll catch you.”

  “No.” I strengthen my death grip on the trunk of the tree. “I’m very afraid of heights. I’ll need hours of therapy to repair the damage done here today.”

  Logan springs up next to me, and grabs me by the waist. That weightless feeling I hate flips through my stomach and somehow we magically appear on terra firma.

  The beast hisses, and a wall of vapors surround it before it evaporates into thin air. The horrible smell penetrates the forest and we’re forced to cover our mouths as we run for the car.

  “Smells like raw sewage.” I say as Logan helps me into the cab of his truck and shuts the door.

  Gage appears in the nonexistent seat between mine and Logan’s.

  He pulls a small sprig of pine needles out of my hair and holds it out as if he were offering me a gift. He sneaks a quick kiss on my forehead.

  “I’m glad you’re OK.” He whispers before disappearing.

  Logan climbs in and shuts the door still out of breath.

  “What exactly is a Fem, and please tell me that was the last one.”

  “A Fem can change shapes to be whatever it wants—whatever it thinks will frighten you and weaken your defenses.”

  Immediately I think of the woman with crazy hair, hanging outside my kitchen door.

  “And what do they want?”

  “They personally don’t want anything. They’re a lower faction of the Sectors. They do all the spiritual dirty work. It’s been long believed that Countenance hires them out to do their bidding, but of course they deny it. There’s not enough evidence to bring them to the Justice Alliance.”

  “You said they hire them out. What’s their currency?”

  “It’s a power exchange. I don’t know how it works. All I know is if you ever come upon a Fem—one of you will be leaving dead.”

  “I could never kill anything like that. I’d be too afraid.”

  “That’s why it looks the way it does, because it wants to scare you. You have to remember it’s nothing more than a ball of air.”

  “Ball of air.” I repeat the words. But it looked so real—fought so hard.

  I don’t think I have what it takes to be an angel. Somehow, I don’t think it matters.

  Chapter Thirty

  Snatched

  It’s dark by the time we get to the mall. We made a pit stop at Logan’s house so he could shower and change. All the hundreds of shoppers who were here this afternoon have gone, and it looks like a bona fide ghost town.

  I call Mia on her cell but it goes to voicemail, same with Melissa.

  Not two minutes after, my mother calls and informs me she’s picking us up—that it’s nearing our bedtime. I leave the word bedtime out of my lexicon when I translate the conversation to Logan.

  “So you’re like a superhero.” I push into him playfully.

  “So are you.” He gives a playful shove back before circling my waist.

  “Yeah, but you killed a dragon. That practically makes you a prince.”

  “It wasn’t a dragon, but it might be next time.” He looks resigned to this. “And if I’m a prince you must be a princess.”

  I reach up and give a supple kiss to his neck.

  “It’s pretty amazing that we’re both Celestra. We could have an entire faction of perfect Celestrial beings running around one day.”

  “Or flying. We could always learn to fly.”

  “So we could learn other gifts?”

  “Yeah, but it’s like learning the piano for the very first time or another language. It takes great effort to master it. With your natural gifts, you just need to believe. He does the rest for you.”

  “Who’s he?”

  “Master.” He points up.

  Before we could continue on with our conversation my cell goes off. It’s mom.

  “I’m right here in the parking lot. Come on down.” There’s a hint of impatience in her voice.

  I hang up, struck with panic.

  “I have to find the girls.”

&n
bsp; Logan and I buy movie tickets just so we can get in. We comb through a football field of blackened movie theatres. I’m so desperate I’m shouting their names as I walk in without regard for the movie or the patrons. To make matters worse it’s nearing ten o’clock and I keep ignoring my mother’s nagging phone calls.