Page 17 of Earth-Bound

“What? We want to know. You want Marcy back and she won’t come back to Lower Dipton until Laura does. We need to know if it’s safe for them.”

“Yes, but you can’t just go around saying that to people.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s rude.”

“Don’t care.” Broadmire grinned and I saw the way Randall’s heart melted a little at the sight of it. I thought it was sweet. And I was excited to meetmymate. I’d never expected to get a mate. Not everyone was guaranteed one. I’d just hoped and hoped that, one day, I might find the person Fate made especially for me.

As soon as I had enough power, I was going to go and find them. Then we’d make ourselves a home right here, plant our roots deep into the earth and entwine ourselves forever.

Chapter 9: Joe

Iwas crossing the fields from where I’d been working to the little dirt path that led down to the village high street and I was glancing over my shoulder periodically. That fox was still following me.

I tried not to let myself panic. That was normal, right? Maybe she thought I’d give her some food. Foxes had got used to people now and, when I’d worked in the city, they’d walked down the street and not batted an eye when people strolled past.

Except she was sticking closer to me than most foxes did. It wasn’t that I minded foxes – or any animal, really – it was that I’d learned a long time ago not to encourage things like this and I was worried that I’d open up that part of my life again and let all the weird in. The weird that had always followed me, dogging me and making me the strange kid nobody talked to.

I hadn’t even known why, at the time. I had just assumed – with the naïve innocence of youth – that everyone talked to animals. And plants.

I’d been wrong.

As I’d been told very, very clearly. By a number of people.

I felt the residual shame and fear and confusion rise up inside me, the same feelings I’d had when I’d been a child and the local kids had realised I was weird and decided to do something about it. Sometimes they realised straight away. I have no idea how. Sometimes, they took a while to find out, hours, maybe days, occasionally a week or so. But they always found out. Then I would be glad to move on when my mum packed us up and drove off, and I could leave behind those feelings, if only until we stopped again.

I should never have let that fox sleep curled up beside me last night. I should have chased her away.

It meant I was walking a bit faster than usual and maybe I was trying to out-run the fox but she was determinedly keeping up with me. I nearly stopped to tell her not to bother, that I wouldn’t feed her, but she wouldn’t have understood me.

I glanced over my shoulder again and movement at the top of the hill caught my eye, right by the tree. Without thinking, I stopped and turned, my eyes already scanning over the land as though I’d see my fantasy man again.

And I did.

One moment, there was the tree and nothing else, and the next, my man was stepping right out of the trunk.

Like… just stepping out of it.Throughthe trunk. Not out from behind it, not standing up where he might have been sitting out of sight, no. He actually stepped out of the tree. The angle I was at meant I could see him emerge, blending with the bark and leaves and then becoming more solid, changing colours until his skin took on a tanned, earthy colour and his hair became dark and his shirt became white and those legging things turned light tan.

My mouth fell open as I watched. There was no way I had seen that. Not really. People didn’t walk out of trees.

At least, sane people didn’t see things like that. And I wanted to be sane. I really did.

He stretched up, raising his hands above his head, his gorgeous face towards the sun, and his shirt rode up just high enough that I saw the top of his waistband, around his actual waist. He stayed like that for a moment, seeming to soak up the rays of the sun, completely oblivious to everything around him.

Just like when I’d seen him before, the lust began to stir inside me. I’d never seen anyone as beautiful as him. He somehow managed to be everything at once: strong and graceful, solid and ethereal, masculine and pretty.

Ok, my body was misbehaving. I was getting hard over an apparition. I was probably very ill.

The apparition lowered his arms and then looked round at me. It was unnerving that he looked straight at me, making direct eye contact for a split second. I totally panicked then.

I didn’t mind seeing hallucinations (ok, I did mind but it wasn’t like I could help it) but having them seemewas something else. I didn’t like that at all.

Before the apparition could move again, I turned and bolted. I ran all the way down to the village. I hadn’t intended to go to the café but really Randall and Broadmire were the only two people I knew here and I wanted to see a friendly face. Preferably one which would tell me I wasn’t going mad and sexy ghosts walked out of trees all the time.

I stumbled into the café, hardly looking where I was going.

A deep, gravelly voice rumbled. “What happened?”

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