Page 58 of Clouded by Envy

She thought about all the choices she had made. Maybe she should have stayed in Laith. They had been hiding just as much here as they had been there. But no one could smell them out here.

Bray wandered the rest of the way with a blank mind as she approached the Stone. It sat there as if it had never been roused before.

Shakily, she reached forward and pressed her hand on top, begging the Stone to talk to her. Bray was willing to sacrifice herself for her brother if she had to. “Please talk to me. Take what you gave me. Take my gift and give it to Brenik.” The Stone didn’t budge.

She sobbed quietly against the rough surface when a soft rustle disrupted her crying. “Who’s there?” she shouted, wiping the tears away from her face. “Brenik?”

A small form stepped out from behind a tree. “Luca? What are you doing here?”

His shoulders slumped. “I heard your conversation with Wes.”

“How? Weren’t you inside?” Bray hadn’t heard or seen him out there.

“I went out the front and hid behind the gate,” he explained. She didn’t have enough energy to stir up any anger about his eavesdropping.

“Something happened to Miss Alvi, didn’t it?” Luca asked, his face falling into sadness.

“Why would you think that?” Bray didn’t want to break the news to Luca.

“Because I heard you say four people, and Brenik was with Miss Alvi yesterday.” Bray wasn’t sure whether to tell Luca the truth or not. He was a ten-year-old boy—a human boy. He was at an age where he was still innocent but approaching the level of growing up. But he had done a lot of growing up already, and Bray had to learn about life the hard way right after she was born. He could handle it.

“Yes, Luca. Miss Alvi is gone.”

With a heavy sigh, he nodded, and Bray wrapped her arms around him. She wouldn’t tell him not to worry because she was worried herself.

Luca pulled away from her, blinking away tears. Then he shrugged a shoulder and tilted his head at it. “You want a ride home?”

She didn’t have the strength to tell him no, and their house wasn’t far anyway. “You read my mind.” Bray transformed, and the long blades of grass rubbed at her. Luca bent down to scoop her up and plopped her onto his shoulder.

“Wes is going to be so mad that I didn’t tell him I left.” Luca had a look on his face that appeared sorry, even though he wasn’t.

“Luca!” Bray scolded.

“I’m just kidding. You know he’s still in the garden—he probably doesn’t even know I’m gone.” She highly doubted that.

Bray tapped the edge of his shoulder. “Don’t ever do that again without telling Wes, okay?”

“Okay.” Luca nodded in agreement.

When they got to their street, Luca pulled Bray from his shoulder and held her close to his chest as he ran the rest of the way home. She bobbled and felt queasy, but she enjoyed the wind brushing against her face.

Luca opened the front door and released her in the air. She changed forms, and they headed to the back door.

Wes looked up from the garden, his hands covered in specks of dirt. “You’re back. I was about to go on a search mission.”

Luca shut the door behind her to stay inside, while smiling deviously since he got away with his crime.

Wes grabbed three of the four lawn chairs, leaning against the back of the house. He propped the chairs open in the middle of the yard for them to sit. Bray sat down next to him, and the other one was open in case Luca wanted to venture back outside. Wes could be so thoughtful.

Without a word, he dropped his hand down in between them and wiggled his fingers. Fighting a smile, she took his hand and leaned back to think about anything except what was really going on. There were a lot of times when Bray had gotten her and Brenik in trouble. It was her fault.

“Look, Brenik, I found the biggest pear up here. If you help me get it down, I will share more than half with you,” Bray said, tugging on the fruit that wouldn’t budge.

“I do not know about this, Bray. We are supposed to be extra quiet when we venture out this far. Junah does not want us to come out here without her, remember?” Brenik replied, flapping his wings and soaring up beside Bray.

Bray had to beg Brenik to come with her—he wanted them to stay home. She was worried about what Junah would say, but she wanted to retrieve the pear for Brenik, and a little for herself. They had been craving the fruit for a long time and there were no pear trees anywhere near Junah’s part of the forest.

Reaching toward the thin stem, she tugged on the fruit again and hoped it would drop. Brenik shook his head and sighed, grasping the pear in his grip. “Okay, on the count of three we will both tug. One, two…” Bray had already begun to tug because she could not wait. “Three.”

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