Page 22 of Into The Green

Regrettably, I got out of the water, dripping everywhere and wishing for a towel. Jasper was beside the bank with three hollowed-out butternut squashes. "We need to move away from the stream," he explained, his words guarded.

"We're almost there, aren't we?" I asked, seeing the tension in his body.

"Yes. But we are only going to walk for another hour or so then stop, get some food, get some rest. We will head in before the sun comes up and hopefully get out without anyone seeing or sensing us."

I turned to the sound of Doyle's voice, low, sweet, and realized he was squatted next to the water and flirting with the sprites. I looked over at Jasper with a bemused smile and he just shook his head. "Where the hell did your dog go?" he asked suddenly and I looked around, realizing for the first time that Onyx was, indeed, gone.

"Maybe he went to get some food?" I suggested, stomach feeling a little wobbly at the idea that he had taken off and I would have to continue on foot again.

"He took off snarling just before you showed up," Doyle explained, walking back toward us. "Had his hackles up about something. I'm sure he'll be back. She isn't safe yet."

With that, Jasper nodded as Doyle took the canteens to the stream to fill them. "Do you think you can walk for a bit?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, knowing he could sense the lie, but also knowing he was going to let it slide because he was anxious to keep our time frame.

"Okay. Not far, alright? And we can stop if it's too much and wait for Onyx."

Was he actually being... considerate? "It doesn't matter. However far we need to go, I can handle it."

Except that was entirely untrue.

We had maybe been walking fifteen minutes, each step like a stabbing through my feet and I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out, when Jasper turned suddenly and stalked toward me.

"No," I said, trying to go back a step as he reached for me.

"Shut up," he said, but the words were soft as he scooped me up and started walking again. "We are about to go up a steep hill. It's hard to scale with good feet. You can barely walk. So just be quiet and let yourself be carried for a while."

With that, and knowing he was every bit as stubborn as me, if not worse, I tried to settle into his arms without thinking about it too much. Without thinking about how one of his hands was right...

No.

Okay. I needed a blank mind with his freaky emotion-sensing thing. I had always been crap at meditation, but I figured there was no time like the present to try to learn a new skill.

I realized I failed all of two minutes later when Jasper laughed and I knew I had totally been thinking of a giant bed with a dozen pillows and blankets and the AC blasting cold enough to make inside feel like the Arctic.

"Soon enough," Jasper said, his voice so low that I could barely hear it and the sound of that kind of intimacy sent a shiver through my system.

I snorted, shaking my head at myself and giving up my hope of meditating. Some things just weren't meant for everyone. So instead, I thought about what Jasper had told me, about being a changeling, about my family, about what it meant to be connected to the angelic realm. I closed my eyes tight, the way children do, and prayed to whatever angels or spirits or whatever were out there to help us find Jade and bring her back, all of us in one piece. And maybe if they had time after all that, fix my feet for good. But that definitely wasn't high priority.

"Alright," Jasper said suddenly, snapping me fully conscious. My eyes opened and my stomach dropped as I looked down to see a hill much steeper than I had realized, Jasper's heels almost at the edge of it. How the hell had he managed to carry me up something that steep was beyond me. "Here," he said, moving forward a foot, bending forward, and carefully depositing me on the ground in an area that was less of a wood and more of a meadow.

"Thanks," I said, looking around. "How far... wait... what the hell?" I asked, a swarm of pests suddenly filling the air around me, making me bring my hands up to swat at them frantically. "Freaking bugs..."

But as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized they weren't bugs at all. They were too big, but they were flying, their wings moving so furiously that they were almost hard to see.

"They're pixies," Jasper said casually, smiling at them. It was the first softness I had seen him show toward other fae. "They're harmless."

I nodded, reaching out to try to touch one. They made a tinkling giggle sound as they moved closer, their gauzy wings brushing my arm, my face. One landed on my shoulder, its wings stilling and thereby giving me a good look at her. The wings that I had thought were white were actually a light green and her pale blonde hair had matching streaks. Everything about her face was a petite, perfect version of a human face. Except she was too perfect, too finely boned, too proportionate. She was so beautiful that she was almost ugly.

A tiny doll-like hand reached out and stroked over my cheek, the sensation much like that of a stray strand of hair brushing you unexpectedly. Then I felt its hand near my neck and it let out a delighted little squeal that must have been some sort of call to the others because suddenly they all swarmed me, encircling me like a giant necklace.

And then I felt it moving. My necklace. The necklace Jade had given me. Quartz or something for protection. I looked down though, and realized that they weren't pulling on that. They were pulling something else around my neck. But there wasn't anything else around my neck. I only ever wore the one Jade gave me. I wasn't a jewelry kind of girl. The hand that was pulling at it dropped it and it disappeared. Disappeared. Like it was invisible so long as it was touching my skin. But that made no sense.

"Hey! No!" I shrieked as they finally lifted it free and flew around with it, making that shrill, happy sound all together. "They took it!" I snapped at Jasper who I found watching me with furrowed brows.

At that, he seemed to snap out of his stupor and looked at the pixies. When he spoke, his voice was lower, almost sickeningly sweet. "Come on, pretties," he said and all their eyes went to him, apt, interested. "You don't want that ugly necklace, do you?" he asked. "It's not even shiny."

I felt hope swell for all of three seconds before they stuck their tongues out at him, then giggled as they flew away.