“No,” he answered in a long, drawn-out monotone. “Asher brought you new ones.” Fin threw his arm out, looking thoroughly one-upped. “Tell you what,” he said turning his charming smile to her. “I’ll drive you into town on Thursday after your music class, and you can do some shopping.”
Closing her eyes, Hailey smiled and threw her arms around him.
He held her close, resting his forehead gently against hers for a long moment.
“Try to be more careful, okay?” he whispered, and then he kissed her cheek, got up, and left.
After the door closed, Hailey clutched her chest and stared at the floor.
He’s an asshole. Giselle’s voice grated inside her head, abruptly ending her swoon.
Rubbing her forehead, Hailey turned her attention to the pile of goodies on her desk and hobbled over to check them out.
Not only had Asher replaced all of her class materials, he’d added a book on mountaineering in Columbia witha note:
He’d also left an Indispensable flashlight, a first aid kit, and a vase full of wildflowers. Hailey shook her head at all of it, smiling sadly as she puzzled over Asher’s quirks.
Why was he so…so…grumpy? Clearly he cared about her, she thought as she gently touched a fireweed petal in the bouquet.
For the second night in a row, Giselle didn’t come home, and Hailey had no idea if she should be worried as she got ready for bed. There was nothing normal about Giselle. There was nothing normal about Bear Towne.
Unhooking the ghost trap from her window, Hailey carried it into the shower, hoping to snag the little brat that had stolen her clothes. With her foot wrapped in a plastic bag and her senses on high alert, she moved her head under the faucet, and just as the spray hit her face, a slight vibration disturbed the air.
Pivoting on her bad heel, Hailey lunged into the changing stall, ghost trap in hand and clobbered the would-be brat over the head with it—which did absolutely nothing. In fact, the poltergeist paused only momentarily to point and laugh, and then it grabbed Hailey’s sweat pants and took off.
“Tomas!” she yelled, limping as fast as she could out of the stall. She didn’t care that she was naked—she was going to catch that little trouble-maker.
Tomas appeared in the mirrors, looking confused.
Hailey pointed to the brat on the ceiling, which taunted her by waving her sweat pants. “That urchin stole my pants again. Can you get them back?”
Tomas saluted and flew to the ceiling. A polter-scuffle took place there, and Hailey shook her head at the cartoonishly dramatic poofs of jagged smoke and tweety-birds that danced with them. Finally, her sweat pants popped out and fell to the floor. The brat wailed and flew away, and Tomas reappeared in the mirror, smiling victoriously.
“Great work, Tomas,” she told him, holding up her pants. “Listen, I’m designing a new ghost trap, and I’ll need a test subject. Wanna help me?”
Tomas tapped his chin thoughtfully then nodded, saluted, and disappeared.
That night, Hailey made it half-way through her new copy ofBalance and the Aether: The Lessons of the Seven Envoys, before she fell asleep with Asher on her mind (one of the seven mentioned in her textbook). She had a thousand questions and found him waiting for her in the Aether.
“Asher,” she called as she hobbled near.
He stood on a bluff, facing a breathtaking view of snow-draped mountains and turned only slightly to greet her.
“I find it very difficult to talk to you on Earth,” he said.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but hearing it so plainly sort of hurt Hailey’s feelings.
“I’m very quickly frustrated with your defiance,” he went on, and Hailey pressed her lips together.
“Asher. You threatened to lock me up. How am I supposed to respond to that?”
He stepped away from the bluff, and Hailey shambled behind him.
“I really like the flowers,” she offered, trying to keep up.
“They remind me of you—wildflowers.” he said sharply, but then his mouth twitched. Hailey wasn’t sure how to take it.
“You’re doing it again. You make me so nervous—it seems like you’re always mad at me,I—”
