Page 23 of Into The Green

"Damn it!" I snapped, slamming my hand down on the ground.

"How long have you had that?" Doyle's voice asked, making me start as I turned to find him standing at the edge of the steep hill. I hadn't even heard him coming.

"I don't know. I didn't know I had it on. How is that possible?"

"It's possible," Jasper said, his tone guarded. "Just incredibly, extremely fucking rare."

"That stone," Doyle said, smiling boyishly. "Was that ja..."

"Shut it," Jasper snapped at him which only succeeded in making Doyle laugh.

I made a whining sound in my throat, watching the pixies become nothing but a flutter on the wind a hundred feet away. I heard a huff and saw Onyx drop down beside me, his eyes looking sad for me. He stretched out beside me and I rested my head against his furry back. Normally, I hated the smell of dogs. But there was something undeniably comforting about Onyx and his almost humanness. And if there was one thing I could use after a long couple of days and the threat of a difficult one the next morning, it was a little comfort.

Before I realized what was happening, I had drifted off to sleep.

--

Jasper

That necklace was another piece of the Cece puzzle that didn't make sense. Like I had told her, it wasn't impossible to have magic woven like that. But it was rare. It was hard to come by. And even if you did manage to come by it, it was at an extremely high price. It was a lot of care and risk invested in a changeling. It didn't make sense.

To go through that, you did it for someone you really loved.

Then why send her off into the human realm? Why have her raised by people who could never and would never understand her?

And why the ever loving fuck would they pick that gemstone? Dozens of others would have sufficed, would have been more useful to her life. Why fucking jasper? Had they somehow known? Had they known what might happen in her future and that he would...

No.

Jesus Christ.

I was letting my imagination run away with me.

I was stressed and we were a stone's throw away from my childhood home and all the awful memories associated with it.

I needed to stop thinking about Cece and start focusing back on Jade.

--

Cece

I woke up with my mouth open to scream, my heart pounding out a frantic bass beat in my chest, my skin feeling sticky with sweat.

Their heads, I remembered through the fog of sleep, their heads were such a sickly shade of red.

On the wind, the sound of the banshee seemed louder.

I looked over at Doyle, asleep several yards away on his side, one hand pressed firmly against the ground as if prepared to pop up and onto his feet in a matter of seconds. I could have gone to him. He was the safest choice with his easy charm, his laid-back big brother protectiveness.

My eyes immediately moved on, finding Jasper on the other side, asleep facing me. The wind picked up, carrying with it the banshee's scream. I shivered, trying to keep the unease from uncurling in my belly. I just needed some sleep. Without nightmares.

I carefully took my feet, tiptoeing across the clearing, and lowering myself down beside his body. His warmth made me do a quick, full-body shiver. I knew I had to touch him for his sleep magic thing to work. So, taking a deep breath, I moved my hand out to rest on the patch of exposed skin on his neck.

Suddenly, slowly, his arm snaked out and wrapped around my lower back, pulling my upper body closer to him. "I didn't mean to wake you," I whispered.

"Honey, I wasn't sleeping," he said, his voice equally as low as his eyes slowly slid open. My belly did an almost embarrassing little flutter at the word honey and the sweet way it rolled off his lips, uncharacteristically gently.

"I had bad dreams," I admitted, his light eyes seeming almost hypnotic in the dark.