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Fun fact, Jared put in. Ash wet the bed until he was five.
Kami spluttered out a laugh against Ash’s lips. Ash drew back sharply.
Kami tried not to die of mortification. “I’m so sorry,” she said instantly. “I was thinking about something else.”
Ash’s voice had an edge to it now. “What were you thinking about?”
“I was thinking that—” Kami floundered, a fish on the dry land of shame. “That—that purple is a funny color?” She couldn’t blame Ash for his look of incredulity. She was feeling something along the same lines herself. “Look, I’m so sorry,” Kami said. “I’m feeling really weird. I should probably go home.”
She crossed the bridge over to the road running along the woods. When she glanced back, Ash still stood on the bridge in the moonlight, looking like an outraged angel. Jared was loud in her head about the fact that she was walking home through the woods alone at night.
I’m not going into the woods, Kami snapped. I’m not a total idiot
. And if I’m alone, whose fault is that?
Jared rolled out of bed, trying to ignore Kami’s angry silence in his mind. It had been keeping him up for hours. He just had to move, as if by moving he could get past the feeling he had done something even more messed up than usual.
He pulled on a pair of jeans and took the back stairs down toward the kitchen. The landing between floors was painted red, so the first flight of stairs was like a descent into hell. He went past hell to the next flight of stairs, past one wall that was a tableau in black-and-white mosaics of a woman standing caught between Aurimere and a lake, into shadows leading down to a gray hall. There was a marble bust against one wall, a man’s white profile that reminded Jared of Aunt Lillian.
Jared realized that a door was ajar and someone was awake, because he saw the slash of light bisecting the marble face. He turned toward the lit room as he descended the stairs, and he heard the murmur of voices. A family conference was going on in the library.
“… it’s clear it will not stop. We have to do something,” said a woman’s voice. It was Aunt Lillian, and not his mother, because she was talking about taking action.
His mother spoke next. She said, “You can’t trust a half-breed.”
Jared went still for a moment, and in that moment Ash opened the door all the way and slipped outside the room. He looked up at Jared on the stairs, and his blue eyes went wide.
Jared lunged from the step across the floor and pinned Ash up against the stone wall.
“Half-breed?” Jared said in a furious whisper. “Do they mean Kami?”
At the mention of Kami’s name, Ash’s eyes narrowed. “No,” he said, and his voice was suddenly like his mother’s, crisp and cold. “They mean you.” He shoved Jared away and disappeared back into the room where they were holding the family council.
Jared didn’t wait to see what Ash told them. He walked through the dining hall and then the entrance hall and out the front door, slamming it behind him. He sat on the top step of the entrance of Aurimere House, Sorry-in-the-Vale stretched dark and quiet below him.
Half-breed.
Jared had never belonged anywhere. This was the first time he had been glad of it. He wasn’t one of them. He didn’t want to be. He knew where, and to whom, he wanted to belong.
They could keep their secrets, as his mother wished. He didn’t want to be involved.
Kami got to school the next day without any incidents like being kidnapped by pirates or having the earth open up and swallow her, which on the whole Kami thought was a pity. And on her way up to her headquarters for her first free period, she ran into the person she least wanted to see. “Ash,” she said, breathless with horror.
“Hey,” said Ash.
Kami stared at him with blind panic and offered: “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah,” Ash said. “You mentioned that already.” He fell into step with her, going up the stairs. “Look,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. Really. I feel like I should be the one to apologize.”
“No,” Kami told him. “No, I’m pretty sure that it should be me. Over and over and over again.”
“I knew you were upset. Taking you out was meant to be about cheering you up, not getting all offended and making you feel worse.”
“Well, you’re far too nice, and I’m still sorry for inflicting the worst date you’ve ever had on you.”
“Oh no,” said Ash. “It wasn’t the worst date I’ve ever had. The worst date I’ve ever had was with a girl who had a pet fire extinguisher.”
Kami blinked up at him.
