Page 15 of Clouded by Envy

“Brenik, I got ya a plastic bag over there. If you want you can start puttin’ leaves in there,” Ruth said. “Brayora, you can either help Brenik with the leaves or spread some dirt around.”

Bray looked at the pile of leaves that Ruth had raked up. Smiling back at Ruth, Bray dove straight into the mound of leaves.

“I want to do that.” Brenik laughed and plopped down beside her, tossing a big leaf at her.

“Leaf fight!” she yelled, and they giggled with each other as they buried themselves deep into the pile.

Ruth strolled up with her hands on her hips. “You two ain’t makin’ things easy today.” She smiled and raked them all up.

Bray looked down at her dirty hands and swiped at the tears with the top of her wrist. She missed those days, but she couldn’t turn back time. Some things were impossible.

Since Wes was gone and Luca was at school, Bray decided she needed a bath from all the filth covering her. Brushing as much dirt from her skin as she could, she flew over to the birdbath, and peeped her head over the rim to gaze down at the water. Her lips curled up with disgust because birds had already entered her newfound territory—feathers, bird droppings, and dirt were all swirling around in the liquid.

“Never mind, bath inside it is,” she told herself.

Luca had left his bedroom window partially cracked open, just for her. She dove through it and fluttered her wings past the bathroom until she reached the kitchen area. The black plug in the sink sat directly next to the drain, so she landed in front of it, feet clanking when they tapped the metal of the basin.

With all her might, she shoved the plug into the hole. Flying back to the bathroom, she found the linen closet open and grabbed a rag.

Darting back to the kitchen, Bray set down the rag so she could push up the handle of the faucet and shove it to the side for warm water.

Bray pressed down on the soap pump about twenty times too many, leaving brown specks of dirt from her hands on the cream-colored surface.

Bubbles were starting to spew from the edge of the sink onto the counter, so she hurried to turn off the faucet. After stripping off her clothing, Bray gazed at the water longingly because she hadn’t been able to make a bath like this in a long time.

She didn’t toe her way in, instead she leaped right into the water and let her body drift to the bottom before springing back up, face covered in bubbles. Bray laughed because she had learned to find ways to entertain herself over the years.

The bubbles died down a fraction, and even though her fingers and feet were already wrinkling, she stayed in the water, floating on her back.

“What are you doing?” a voice rumbled, frightening her deeply to the core. For a moment, she lost the grip on her bat form as her eyes flew open. It was already too late to stop it. Bray’s body shook, and every part of her grew and grew—legs lengthened, feet widened, until her limbs pushed her up and out of the sink, tossing her backward on the wide counter.

Bray’s eyes trained on Wes’s stunned expression, who was staring at her like she was a whole new creature—which Bray guessed to him she was.

The cold air brushed her wet body, and a shiver spread through her. Looking down, she remembered she had no clothing on.

Hastily reaching for the rag behind her, Bray brought it in front of her chest to cover herself, and she could see Wes hadn’t moved an inch.

“Um, that isn’t covering you,” he stated, mouth hanging open.

“I know, you moron, turn around!” she yelled while watching him spin to face the other direction.

Bray focused on her gift from the Stone of Desire. She hadn’t used it in such a long time because of Brenik, and sometimes she managed to forget about it. Concentrating, she let her form shrink back down to her normal size. With quick motions, she dried herself off using the already wet rag as best as she could, before slipping her clothing back on.

Whirling around, Bray found Wes still facing the other direction, with a hand propped on the wall and his head tilted down. She bet he even had his eyes closed, too. “You can turn around now.”

Obeying Bray’s command, he pivoted to her, face unreadable.

Cocking her head to the side, she crossed her arms and took a seat on the counter. “Not going to say anything?”

At that moment, his face became readable. “What just happened? I mean, seriously what the fuck?” His hands flew to the sides of his head as he marched up toward her, but then thought better of it and took several steps back.

“What do you mean?” Bray’s eyes slid to the side.

“What do you mean, ‘what do I mean?’ Am I losing my mind here? First, you appeared last night on Luca’s shoulder like a damned vampire, then you flew around and talked, and somehow ended up sleeping on my shoulder. Then you went outside and acted like you could work on the garden, which I guess by the looks of it you can! But then you’re all swimming around in my sink and then somehow sprouted into a giant.” He covered his eyes with his palms before he quickly uncovered them again. “Well, no, not a giant, but a giant compared to what you are now!” Wes threw his hands up in the air and stared at herveryhard.

Bray was about to explain everything to him, when he started ranting the whole thing over for the second time.

“I did offer to help you in the garden earlier,” she pointed out when she finally got a word in. Bray was going to shift and become human to help him pull out the old bushes, buthewas the one who would not cooperate.

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