Page 59 of Heart of Mischief

Shaking her head, Charlie looked over at Elias, ready to ask if he was okay. When her eyes landed on him, however, the words stopped in her mouth.

Elias still hadn’t moved out of the position he’d landed in after she shoved him. His head and back were pressed up against the scaffolding, chest rising and falling as he stared down at where she’d touched him. His eyes were searching, confused, as if he expected to find something there. As if her palms had left permanent prints. He let out a ragged breath and glanced up.

For a brief moment, their eyes met, and the confusion on his face deepened, as if he wasn’t sure who or what he was looking at.What just happened? Why did you protect me?he seemed to be asking.

Before Charlie could open her mouth, Elias darted out from under the bleachers, making his escape.

After the fight, there was nothing left to do but help Abigail clean up.

Charlie worked her way around the parking lot, grabbing the buckets filled with dirty water and lugging them over to the grassunder the bleachers. Once there, she dumped them out. She wasn’t paying too much attention to where the water went and, on several occasions, accidentally gave a few tiny stone creatures a particularly disgusting bath. They howled what could only be the rock language equivalent of a swear word and tottered away.

Charlie could have sworn she heard Henry giggle whenever that happened.

Elias followed in her wake, picking up dirty rags and sponges and stuffing them into an oversize plastic bag. Though he remained close by, he worked in silence.

Normally, Charlie would be grateful for it, but now she yearned for a distraction. Anything would do. Even the crass, sadistic remarks of her sworn enemy. Because without those, Charlie had nothing for company but buckets of dirty water and the inside of her own mind.

And her mind was not a pleasant companion.

She and Mason were in grave danger. And not just them. Rattatosk didn’t seem to know exactly who they were—only that they were siblings around a certain age. He could come foranyonein the area who matched that description. Not to mention if hedideventually find them, who was to say he wouldn’t kill the people around them, too? Their mom, Lou, Abigail… Charlie had a feeling that Rattatosk would do whatever it took to get to his real targets.

Charlie didn’t want to admit it, but she was scared. Scared asHel.

There was another question, too. Something that had eaten away at her since it happened.

Why did she push Elias out of Mason’s reach?

She’d acted without thinking. But why had her first instinct been to save Elias?

There were two acceptable answers: one, she loathed violence and was such a benevolent person that she would have shovedanyoneout of the way of her brother’s fist—even someone as awful asElias; two, the push was a carefully crafted move that played into her scheme to pretend to become his friend.

Unfortunately, Charlie knew neither were correct.

So, where did that leave her?

She stood in the middle of the parking lot, chewing anxiously on her bottom lip, holding on to the same bucket she had for the past five minutes.

“You okay?”

She startled, the bucket slipping from her hands. It clattered to the pavement, rolling in a lopsided circle around itself.

“Gods.” She put a hand to her chest, turning to face Elias. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.” He smiled sheepishly. “Force of habit, I guess.”

“Yes, I suppose itisyour primal instinct. Can’t blame the shark for eating the cute little dolphin when that’s what it was born to do.”

His eyes brightened, and he threw up a finger as if he’d just made a great discovery. “Exactly! I’m as innocent as a shark!”

She laughed. “I don’t think that came off the way you wanted it to.”

For a moment, he looked shocked by her laughter, but his shock quickly morphed into delight. “Well, well.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest, dirty rag flopping over one elbow. “Shedoesremember how to have fun.”

Rolling her eyes, Charlie bent over to retrieve the fallen bucket. “Of course I do. I have plenty of fun.”

“Is that so?” Elias quirked an eyebrow. “When’s the last time you went to a party?”

“Uh.” She scanned her memory, trying to come up with something. “Well, there was…” Her voice trailed off.