Halflings by Burch Heather

Author:Burch, Heather [Burch, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780310728191
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2012-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Raven said, flicking a toothpick from the car window. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to watch Vine eat another piece of candy, and he didn’t want to hear the younger boy’s excitement at all his first-time adventures. He wanted …

He wanted to be with Nikki.

Raven tried to swallow the thought along with a toxic gulp of reality. He never went for girls like Nikki. The redheaded shark was more to his liking. Nikki was a parasite burrowing under his skin, causing it to itch and inflame. That, he didn’t need.

“Hey,” Vine said. “A bowling alley. I’ve never been bowling before.”

Raven pivoted in the car seat. “We’re not here to socialize, Vine. You aren’t some teenager looking for a girlfriend, okay?” None of us should be. And we really shouldn’t linger on what a relationship could be like.

He’d become vaguely aware of Nikki in the principal’s office. She didn’t like the mistreatment he’d suffered and was quick to come to his aid. And that was … interesting … but that’s all it was. Then, the painting. The splash of color and life draining from a broken pot had shifted something in him. But it was his assessment of the painting, and the fact she’d painted it without knowing why, that pushed him over the edge. He’d seen the flash of acknowledgment in her eyes, and something deep inside him rumbled to life. Something he’d thought dead. For a speck of a moment, Raven felt … clean.

He forced the sensation from his being. “Look, Vine, we’re from a different world. Nothing and no one can change that.”

Vine’s head dropped forward. He chewed his cheek.

Raven unfastened his seat belt. “And the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.”

“Yeah, but I’m here,” Vine countered, tucking a mass of hair behind his ear. “I might as well enjoy it.”

“For a purpose. Not to act like some lesser being,” Raven spat.

Vine looked over. “Is that what you think of humans?”

He shrugged and hoped the long spikes of bangs shrouded his face. “So what if it is?”

Vine shook his head hard and had to push back the hair that landed in his eyes. “It’s just wrong. Humans are the seed of the incorruptible.” His voice dropped. “You shouldn’t even utter such words.”

Raven threw a hand toward a group of teens entering the building. “Look at them. They’re oblivious to the other realm. It’s within their power to see it, but they just bumble along like the only thing that matters is where they buy their clothes.”

“I wish I were human,” Vine muttered.

Raven scowled. “Don’t even say that, Vine. They’re ordinary and average.”

“Ordinary isn’t so bad.”

“It’s worse than bad. Mediocrity breeds weakness. And weakness is death.” Nikki Youngblood, with her flowers and broken pots and innocent charm, was weakness. Especially for him. And weakness he couldn’t afford.

Vine wadded up the wrapper from the candy bar he’d devoured. “I thought this saving-the-world stuff would be more exciting and rock-star cool.

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