Page 88 of Heart of Mischief

“We haven’t seen any deer yet,” Charlie pointed out.

“Who cares?” Lou asked, moving on to the next box. “There are, like, six billion white pines out here. I’m sure that there is a white-tailed deer under at leastoneof them.”

“Fair enough.”

Lou’s pen moved over to the third box. “So,” she said, keeping her eyes on the paper. “You’re awfully chipper today.”

Charlie shrugged, watching Henry leap off the stump to chase a chipmunk around a bush. “It’s OET weekend. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Charlie a month ago wouldn’t have cared about the annual camping trip.” Lou started to fill in the box for chipmunk. “Charlie aweekago wouldn’t have cared about the annual camping trip. Then, all of a sudden, a certain someone cruises back into town…” She looked up from the worksheet, quirking one eyebrow.

“My mood has nothing to do with Elias,” Charlie said, tasting the lie as it rolled off her tongue.

Lou didn’t respond. She just kept staring, lips twisted into a knowing little smirk.

“Fine.” Charlie toyed with a pine branch hanging close to her face. “Maybe it hassomethingto do with him. But only because he’s helping me figure out these powers that I didn’t know I had.”

Lou’s eyebrow hitched higher.

“Bah.” Charlie plopped down onto the stump beside Lou, head falling into her hands. “You’re annoying. You know that, right?”

“Talk,” said Lou.

“I don’t know.” Charlie rubbed at her temples with the bottoms of her palms. “Honestly. I have no idea what to say. I thought I hated Elias, but I’m starting to think…”

“… that you might be in love with him?” Lou prompted.

“What?” Charlie looked up from her hands, startled. “Gods.No. I could never fall in love with someone who tried to kill my best friends. I just…” She sighed, tilting her head back to look up at the cloudless sky. “He’s… good company, I guess. He understands me.” She paused, considering. “Sometimes, it feels like he understands me better than I understand myself.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized that they were a near mirror of what Elias had said just a few hours earlier. She swallowed, looking back down at Lou.

Her friend nodded. “I know.”

“You do?”

“Duh.” She rolled her eyes. “You light up like a Christmas tree when he’s around, Charlie. Before he showed up in Silver Shores last month, it was like… like you were living with only one foot in the outside world. You spent more time in your head than with the rest of us. But now—” She turned on the stump, her knees bumping into Charlie’s. “You’realiveagain. It’s so obvious it’s almost painful.”

“Maybe so. But I can’t go down that road with him again. The… romantic road, I mean.” Charlie watched Henry sniff some wildflowers. “He almost took everything from me, Lou. I would never be able to trust him enough to be in a relationship with him.”

“I’m not telling you to get into a relationship with him,” said Lou. “I’m just saying… he’s clearly making an effort to patch things up with you. Despite whatever history might tell us, I think he genuinelycaresabout you. And he’s strong, and he knows howto fight. Maybe having him as a friend wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”

“I don’t know.” Charlie chewed on her bottom lip. “Mason hates Elias.Despiseshim, really. He’ll never be able to forgive him for what he did to you.”

“We aren’t talking about Mason.”

“No. But he justbarelystarted talking to me again, and I’m not super keen on blowing up our relationship by announcing Elias as my new best friend.”

Lou scoffed. “Please. That title will never belong to anyone but me. If you give it to Elias instead, I might have to kill you.”

“Don’t worry.” Charlie grinned, reaching down to squeeze her hand. “I would never.”

“I know,” Lou said. “I’m irreplaceable. One might even go so far as to call me price—”

Just then, a squirrel leapt from the branches of a nearby tree, soaring through the air and landing less than a foot away. The girls screamed, jumping up onto the stump and grabbing each other’s shoulders. Henry squawked and launched himself off the ground, grabbing hold of the nearest tree.

“Lou, Henry, run!” Charlie yelled, letting go of her friend’s shoulders and stepping in front of her. “I’ll fend him off. I’ll—”

The squirrel turned to them…