Get rid of your dark source.
I looked up at the ceiling. Grabbing the door, I used it to pull myself up, then sprinted my way into the kitchen. Throwing open the fridge, I pulled out the drawer of cheap meats Daniel stored for me, pulled the first package out, and began cleansing myself of the negative source I’d let brew. Packages of lunchmeat, hotdogs, and then Daniel’s steak went up in the storm of my fury.
While I washed my hands, Asher’s barrage of knocks and rings had ended.
Clarity hit me. Sprinting to the door, I hoped I would catch him getting into his car. Instead, I saw his car speeding down my street.
What have I done? He’d come over to check on me, and I slammed the door on him again. Would he as easily forgive me this time?
Maybe I could cut him off at the bike trail.
I slipped Daniel’s phone into my pocket and locked the door. Racing to the backyard, I went through the gate and passed through the wall of trees into the neighboring farmyard. I crossed a dirt road before cutting through an open greenspace. Eventually, I met a thicker wall of trees that I had to run the length of, before coming out and onto the bike trail.
I searched both ways for Asher’s car, but it was nowhere to be seen. I’d probably just missed him.
Tears flowed down my cheeks again.
Maybe he’d gone straight home. Walking down the trail, I headed toward where I could access Asher’s neighborhood from the street. I crossed, and was about to go over the greenspace into Asher’s neighborhood when a distant car horn blared.
I stopped to look.
Asher’s Suburu had turned at the light and was headed my direction.
How in the world had I outrun him?
I returned across, and, as Asher slowed to a stop, I was just in time to jump in his front seat. He quickly kept going, because another vehicle drove behind him.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean that—” I began.
“How’d you get here?” he demanded at the same time.
“I never want you to go away,” I finished.
He was quiet. His eyes were red around the edges, like he was holding back tears.
“Nathaniel’s missing,” I said. “I’ve been so worried about him, I let my negative source overwhelm me. I’m sorry.”
“What? Slow down, Tara. What’s going on?”
“Nathaniel skipped school, and we can’t find him.”
Asher reached for my hand, and I quickly laced my fingers with his. A look of relief entered his green eyes—maybe because I didn’t pull it away from him. “Did something happen?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Sam’s sister is in the same grade as him. Something happened for Daniel at work today, too, and I’m almost certain her father’s behind that. I worried about Nathaniel today too, because I know Tammy hasn’t been nice to him.”
“I’m not even going to describe the day I had to you,” Asher mumbled.
“Was it bad?” I asked.
“Let’s say, I had lots of little surprises, and it’s probably a good thing you left.” His fake smile was bitter. “Let’s check the playground. It’s close enough to your home with a lot of places to hide.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry about just now.”
He picked up my hand. “I fully expect that won’t be your last tantrum.” He kissed the back of my hand.
My heart burned. “I don’t understand how you’re so patient with me. Forgiving.”
Asher turned the car, headed up the street for the playground. He smiled a little but didn’t respond.
“Thank you.”
“Just remember.” Asher looked my way. “When I throw my own tantrum someday, how patient I am with you.”
I leaned closer to him, resting my head on his shoulder briefly.
Parking, Asher and I simultaneously got out and stepped up onto the sidewalk. The play equipment didn’t have a single soul on it. Nathaniel was not within eyesight.
“Nathaniel!” I called.
“I’ll run the trail around the butterfly meadow,” Asher said, already racing toward it.
The afternoon sun blazed off the metal, and I held up my hands to block its rays as I did a slow three-sixty spin to take in the entire park. “Nathan—”
He was right behind me, somehow sneaking there without making any sort of noise.
His sudden appearance was almost as scary as similar appearances in spooky movies I’d seen, and it made me gasp.
His bangs covered his eyes, and he didn’t say anything.
I pulled him into a hug, and he started crying.
“I don’t want to ride the bus anymore. I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to keep seeing her every day across the street.”
Putting him at arm’s length, I said, “Who?”
“Tammy.”
It was Sam’s sister. “What’s been going on?” I asked, alarmed.
“She’s been texting me these horrible pictures all year, and today, she had—” Nathaniel covered his face. “I don’t have any friends no more! Why is everyone so mean to me?”
My heart dropped. I knew Nathaniel had had a hard time fitting in since moving in with us, but he’d seemed happy since buddying up with a boy who lived the next street over. This went deeper than Sam exacting revenge on my family, although what a moment to enlist her sister to help.
I gently moved one hand down and wiped a tear from his cheeks. “What happened?”
“Max pulled down my pants,” he whispered, “on the bus, and someone took a picture, and texted it to everyone. I was the literal butt of everyone's joke, and couldn’t take it anymore.”
My gosh, I forgot how horrible middle school is.
I wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “I had a bad day at school, too, and left.”
Nathaniel looked up at me, brows furrowing. “You did?”
I caught movement in the corner of my eyes. A glance toward it revealed that Asher had emerged from the trail, but was keeping his distance.
“Daniel had problems and cut work, also. This is all Sam’s cruel way of getting back at me for stealing Asher. I’m sorry, Nathaniel. It never occurred to me she’d get her family involved.”
“How do you do it? Keep going back, day after day?” Nathaniel asked.
I was thoughtful for a moment. “I don’t know. I don’t want Sam to think she’s won?”
“But you have friends now,” Nathaniel said. His brows furrowed. “Where’s Asher? That’s his car.”
I looked at the Subaru, then over at where Asher lingered by one of the pavilions.
“Asher, I found him,” I called.
Nathaniel followed my gaze, and Asher headed our way.
I called Daniel to let him know I’d found Nathaniel and where we were. He told us to stay put, and they’d come over after picking up Oops from school. The three of us spent the intervening thirty minutes pretending to be seven-year-olds again, taking over the playground, which happily remained free of kids.
As Asher entered one of the slide tunnels that twisted in its descent, I entered from below, climbing upward, expecting Asher to run into me. I found him stopped in the bend, blockading me from going further.
“I got stuck,” he said, smiling. “Too long.”
“Sure you did,” I said. Approaching alongside, I paused beside him. “Think I can squeeze past?” I came within inches of him. Still, my timidity didn’t let me move in closer.
Asher bridged the distance. He tilted my chin. “Not likely.” He brought his lips to mine. The stress of the day flew away, and I melted into the kiss.
Nathaniel banged on the slide, startling us out of it. “I know what you’re doing, and I think it’s gross!” he called to us.
A little embarrassed, I withdrew, but Asher cupped the back of my head, keeping me close. “Nuh uh, I’ve waited all day to kiss you.”
Closing my eyes again, I explored his lips against mine, not caring if I was awkward. New feelings flourished inside me.
Nathaniel ban
ged the slide again.
Laughing, Asher pulled me between his legs, and we slid out together.
The rest of my family had driven up, and Oops raced over to us. The fun deflated out of Nathaniel. Daniel had said he’d want to talk to him when they arrived. Nathaniel glanced at me before walking toward Daniel. Mom remained inside, sitting in the passenger seat. Nathaniel and Daniel got into the middle seats and closed the door behind them.
Instead of coming to me, Oops had gone to Asher and now asked him to be the monster for The Ground is Lava. “Of course, I would love to do that.”
I caught a small amount of sarcasm in his tone, especially as he looked my way.
“Give us thirty seconds!” Oops said and grabbed my hand. “Come on, Tara.”
“Oh, am I playing?” I said, scrambling after her.
“Of course.” She looked at me with a huge grin.
Her sweet innocence sent a spiral of positive source through me.
After securing permission from his mother, Asher came over so we could finish our story. Working in the kitchen, we completed the final drawings in black and white. I was on my way up the stairs to retrieve my coloring pencils when the doorbell rang.
Tension dropped over me. What are the chances it’s someone from Sam’s family? Backtracking, I peered through the peephole.
It was Isabel, with a boy slightly younger than her standing on the sidewalk behind her. She held a plate of cupcakes.
Intrigued that she would come over to check on me, I opened the door. “Hello Isabel,” I said.
“Hello. I brought you cupcakes from my favorite bakery in town.” Isabel held them up.
“Thank you.” I smiled taking the plate from her. “That was sweet of you.”
“Are you feeling better?” she asked. “I’ve worried all day.”
“I’m doing fine. It’s—been one of those days.” I glanced at the teenage boy behind her. He was lanky, with mousy blond hair that matched Isabel’s.
“This is my cousin, Benjamin,” Isabel said.
Her cousin? Was he related to Ema? Just looking at him, I couldn’t tell if he was an alv, but I was certainly curious.
She reached for his elbow and pulled him forward. He jutted his jaw, looking annoyed. “He won’t say it himself, but he’s been worried about your brother, Nathaniel, because of stuff that happened at school today.”
“Are you in Nathaniel’s class?” I asked.
Benjamin gave a curt nod.
“Ben?” Isabel hissed.
“Izz, this is awkward,” he muttered.
“Go on.” She smiled politely at me.
“Is Nathaniel home?” Benjamin asked.
This could be really bad or maybe something good for Nathaniel. I couldn’t quite gather if she was forcing him to be friendly, or if he’d gotten her to bring him. I nodded. “He’s up in his room. I’ll go get him.”
Running upstairs, I found Daniel, Oops, and Nathaniel sprawled out across Nathaniel and Holden’s room, playing a video game. Mom had gone out to bring home a couple of pizzas.
“Nathaniel, someone named Benjamin is here to talk to you.”
The game paused, and he spun around to look up at me. His eyes grew wide. “Who?”
“Benjamin? He’s tall and lanky. Sound familiar at all?”
He looked startled—then intrigued. “I know of him.” Slowly, he stood up and followed me downstairs.
In my absence, Asher had taken my place and invited Benjamin and Isabel inside.
He certainly had gotten comfortable here fast. I hid my smile.
Asher was having Benjamin cut a deck of cards for a trick. “Here’s one to impress the ladies with.” He looked at me with a wink.
He did the exact same trick he’d used on me. This time, as I watched him closely, I realized Asher split the deck in half as Benjamin and Nathaniel looked at it together and glanced at the card there so he would know what was on top of theirs.
That’s how he did it.
“Is this the only trick you know?” I teased.
“I know some craftier ones,” he said.
Finishing the trick, he didn’t stop to give any wagers, but at the end, when he found their card, they both wanted to know how it was done.
“I’ll show you,” Asher said. “But first, the ladies have to step out.”
“Oh, please,” I said, rolling my eyes. Recognizing that Asher was trying to break any ice between Nathaniel and Benjamin, I looked at Isabel. “Want to eat some cupcakes together?”
Isabel smiled.
We had our own ice that still needed to be broken. Plus, I wanted to ask her about Jack.
In the kitchen, we sat at the island, each eating one of the cupcakes she’d brought over.
“Sorry, I hope we haven’t interrupted anything,” Isabel said. “I go over to my cousins’ every day after school because both my parents work, and we live far outside of town. When Ben came home, he told me about a kid who’d gotten bullied, and I realized it was your brother. I’d already wanted to come by, then when I saw how he wanted to also, I figured cupcakes were an easy in.”
Isabel’s kindness was such a contrast to Samantha’s hate.
“Thank you for earlier.” I smiled. “I am really, truly sorry I used to be mean to you.”
“I know I’m a bit of a nerdy dork, so it’s easy to brush off.” Isabel smiled, sideways.
“But—”
“Working together in science has been fun,” Isabel interrupted. “Mrs. Elleck is finally growing on me.”
“You mean you like all the videos and worksheets?” I laughed.
Isabel grinned. “They don’t require a lot of thought, and I am getting my novels read in a couple of days now, instead of weeks.”
Now would be a good time to ask her about a group date with Jack.
Licking my finger to delay my awkwardness about bringing it up, I walked around to where the garbage can was and disposed of the paper wrapper. “Isabel, would you ever go on a date with Jack?” I asked, demurely, then washed my hands.
“Jack?” she laughed.
My heart plummeted. Okay, so maybe not.
“I have the hardest time getting any boy to notice me, let alone Jack.”
Hope suddenly trickled back, and I dried my hands. The way she said his name made it sound like Jack interested her. I plopped myself down on the stool and grinned at her. “So he’s someone you like?”
“I didn’t say that,” she said, her cheeks went pink. “Anyway, even if he had the slightest...interest…” She paused and looked me straight in the eyes, brows furrow, some sort of understanding happening in her thoughts.
I wondered if she was making the connection that Jack and I were friends. Yes, girl, I’ve talked to Jack about you.
“My parents wouldn’t let me go on a date with him.”
“Why?” I asked, irritated. Jack was one of the nicest guys I’d ever known. Maybe Isabel wasn’t worth his attention after all. Though Jack had said the same thing—that her parents wouldn’t let him take her out.
“They’re kind of particular about who I date.”
“What about hanging out?” I pressed. “We could all do something here.”
Isabel shrugged. “Jack doesn’t even look at me at school. It would be too awkward.”
There was definitely interest in her tone. The fish had caught the bait. Maybe I needed to start with even smaller baby steps. “Who do you sit with at lunch?”
“Some sophomores and freshmen.”
This girl needed a little help. “So, come sit with Asher, Jack and me on Wednesday. You can’t say no to that. I’m going to be gone tomorrow.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Speaking of tomorrow and Jack, I needed to see if Jack was feeling well enough to take me to my grandma’s and let Asher know I’d be absent.
A little later, when I told him, he was not happy about being left alone at school again. He was also irritated by Jack driving. Guilt plagued me, and I
was about to call the plan off, but he insisted I go.
“You never know. Your grandmother might not make it until the weekend. Why don’t you call Jack now.” Asher handed me his phone.
Calling Jack meant he found out about the events at school. Putting him on speaker phone, Asher and I related to him what had happened with Sam’s friends and how she’d framed Asher for cheating. Jack must have been on some sort of medicine that made him loopy, because his outraged comments of indignation were quite hilarious. He quickly committed to driving me out, promising to wear one of those germ masks—which I told him wasn’t necessary, but he insisted.
Conversation over, Asher plucked his phone from my hand and set it on the floor. “I’m going to miss you tomorrow.” Asher tugged my arm. “Can I kiss you?”
I lifted myself into his lap, letting my legs dangle over the side of his. In a moment of introspection, I slid my thumb along his jaw bone. “Two weeks ago, we didn’t even know each other,” I whispered. Closing my eyes, I grazed his lips with mine, then rubbed our noses together, teasing him like we had each other on Saturday, enjoying the light flourish that ran through me. Enjoying the increase of affection I felt for him.
“We were probably crazy to rush into dating each other,” he whispered.
“Probably.” I leaned slightly back, opening my eyes. As he looked at me, I moved a curl of his hair off his forehead.
“I have a lot of regrets, Tara. But I don’t think this will be one of them.”
I pressed my lips to his. “Kiss me,” I whispered.
Asher smiled. “Gladly.”
At first, I held back any positive source, wanting Asher to experience me unembellished, but then I realized source was part of me and would play a huge part of the relationship we shared.
It wasn’t something I needed to hide from him.
26. Chiara
The next morning, I watched for Jack at the window. The previous night, I’d asked Mom and Daniel if I could tell Jack about being a changeling while we drove to Chicago. Mom seemed to think Dad had mentioned something to Jack when we were younger.
Still, I was nervous about his reaction.
Jack and Asher arrived about the same time, though Jack lingered in his car as Asher came to the door.
The Changeling's Source (Evedon Legacy Book 1) Page 29