SHADES of GREEN ↬ m. wheeler

XIV. NINE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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❝NINE❞

　
　

THE SILVER SKY brought forth gifts—fresh snow. Jade seemed immune to the cold now, and she knew why. If she could just think about what warmth felt like and really focused, her skin remained toasty warm.

　Hands stuffed into the pockets of her coat, Jade tried not to think too deeply about the fire she could summon. She hardly knew anything about it—not how to control it, not her own strength, the lengths she could go. A large part of her was afraid that the fire would slip along her skin and catch her coat on fire; she would have taken her hands out—they were not cold, after all—but she was unbelievably nervous, and having her fists pressed against the insides of her pockets helped.

　The source of her anxiety could have sprouted from several things; by now, it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint simply one reason. Her muscles were strung tight, neck aching with strain, shoulders tense. Her mouth was pressed into a constant line.

　Mike's presence had the potential to ease her anxiety, or reading (although she now refused to continue It without Mike), but he had been held back by his mother. He had still waited at their usual place, where Maple St. and Denver St. met, only to inform Jade that he would not be able to walk with her to school. Although she had brushed this off, insisting that it was perfectly all right, the words had been met with a sinking feeling in her chest.

　The walk to school passed in no time, now that Jade knew how to concentrate, to channel the unnatural warmth, to let the cozy fire slip into every pore of her skin—how to turn herself into a human heater, basically. The cold was no longer a burden on her, although she could see that the temperature had reached below freezing. Jade felt bad for anyone who had to walk to school and couldn't burst fire from their fingertips.

　Probably her whirling thoughts also had a hand in the flying time. She hadn't dreamt the previous night, surprisingly, but the image of Eleven—Jane Hopper—was printed on the backs of Jade's eyelids.

　Protect everyone. Eleven's voice was ghostly and soft, a pale caress. It would have helped if she had bothered to give Jade a little more information about the what and the how. The when was already evident to Jade—she could feel it, a deep stirring in her bones, warning that some crucial event was terrifyingly near. Perhaps the man she had seen on the street—

　Jade had just stepped onto school grounds when a sharp gasp entered her lungs. It was so loud that the few teenagers who dared to wait outside by their cars, wrapped in scarves and heavy coats, sent her stares. Jade was much too preoccupied to care—something that had been tingling in the back of her mind for some time had finally burst into the light.

　The man on the street. Jade remembered the way all of her senses had suddenly snapped into perfection. This stranger had emanated danger, skin wrapped in a dark mist. An aura.

　His aura was not the only feature that had struck Jade like a blow. She recalled the mark between his collarbones—an odd bird, with wings stretched wide, and a long curving tail tipped with wispy, flamelike feathers. Jade had seen the exact same tattoo...

　Above Max's collarbone.

　Jade forced herself to continue toward the school, though her mind was racing, trying to piece together these new realizations.

　Already here, Eleven had said. The danger, the threat to Mike, to everyone, was already here. Perhaps....

　Before, Max had been kind and outgoing. Not the hostile person she was now. It could have just been that she was changing, going a bit rebellious in the process, but how could it be a coincidence that she managed to get the exact same tattoo, in almost the same place as the man?