Hold Tight by Cherie Colyer

Author:Cherie Colyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Omnific Publishing
Published: 2013-08-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Tethered

“Madison, you have to tell Isaac.”

“I’ll tell him as soon as I figure out how.”

Kaylee had arrived at my house exactly nine minutes and a gazillion seconds after I’d called. One look at how upset I was, and she suggested we ditch class. I caught her up on Reed and then, because I needed a break from the thought of evil faerie princes, I insisted she give me a minute-by-minute replay of her night with Josh. Afterward, we went to the only place that ever offered me comfort when I was as lost as I was at that moment. Frozen grass crunched under our sneakers as we crossed the cemetery.

It had taken every ounce of self-control on my part not to dig Reed’s flask out of the garbage. The longer I resisted, though, the more distant his hypnotic voice became until finally I could no longer hear him coaxing me to join him.

With the exception of a crow, the cemetery was empty. I crouched down next to my mom’s grave. Kaylee stood to the side, bouncing on her toes and rubbing her arms.

“It’s freezing,” she whined.

“Two minutes, and then the hot chocolates are on me.”

I cleared the brittle leaves from in front of Mom’s headstone and laid the spring bouquet Brea had given me there, its stems and petals still in the gossamer layer of ice that had to have been Reed’s doing.

“Hey, Mom,” I whispered. “I could really use your crazy advice right about now.”

I swiped at a tear with the palm of my hand. I missed how Mom had worked her advice into everyday conversation, casually giving her thoughts on things. On a couple occasions, when we’d been folding laundry, she had said, “This basket is a lot like a bedroom.” She’d put a pair of Dad’s boxers on top of his pile of clothes and add, “If we keep your dad’s stuff in one pile and yours in another as we fold, it will make putting everything away much easier.” That translated into, If you would just put your things where they go to start with, it wouldn’t have taken you two hours to find your bedroom floor. And once when she had added orange zest to Dad’s favorite chicken dish, she’d held her finger to her mouth as if saying, Shh, this is our little secret, but out loud said, “I’ve always wanted to jazz this dish up a bit.” That had loosely translated into, You should try softball; you might find you like it.

I didn’t like softball, and the chicken dish was better without the orange zest, but Mom had pointed out that we would never have known that if we hadn’t tried.

Kaylee glanced around us. “I feel like we’re being watched.”

I concentrated on our surroundings, using my powers to help me sense others. “We’re alone. Focus and your senses will become heightened. You’ll be able to tell too.”

Kaylee groaned. “I’m too cold to focus. Reed’s a faerie, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And humans can’t see faeries unless they wish to be seen.

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