Airel: The Awakening (Airel Saga Book One)

Chapter XX

Boise, Idaho—Present Day

I WAS SITTING IN my car in the school parking lot, eyes closed, hoping I wouldn’t suddenly retch, hoping I wouldn’t get a splitting migraine at any second or contract some other horrible heretofore unmanifested disease in my as yet (mostly) unmanifested life, which was, oddly, manifestly weird lately. I was just sitting.

Thinking.

But I didn’t want to think. I just wanted to feel … feel.

The word rolled through my mind like a summer thunderstorm. Feel … I heard the flutter of wings, the rustling of feathers, old pages turning in the back of my mind.

This morning had proven to be better than anticipated. I was wearing pink, my feel-good color, and there were cartoonish clouds filling the young blue sky like daisies, a yellow sun blazing through them from just over the mountains. I’d made it out of the house in time to retrieve my coconut latte on the way, this time without incident. I was up early today. No reason.

Now I was sitting in my car at school half an hour before it started.

School.

I didn’t want to think. I just wanted to feel.

School didn’t require a large part of my brain anyway. Seriously. If a student learned anything here, it was simply to nod and grunt in the right places. I skated by without breaking a sweat, nodding, grunting, Googling what I needed to survive. I didn’t want to excel at this game; it was empty and I knew it.

There was more out there. Somewhere. I couldn’t put a name on it, but I knew it. I knew that most of what was advertised as normal life was an illusion. I didn’t want a career and a husband and kids and a cute little house and a stupid dog that licked my face when I came home—at least, not on Their terms, whoever They were. I wanted to live my life my way. If I ended up with the same results as everybody else, I would still retain my precious difference because of how I achieved them. Just because I looked like the average girl didn’t mean I was the average girl.

I emptied my mind of every thought about my weird life. Feel.

Fluttering.

My eyes opened. Michael Alexander was pulling in next to my trusty little Honda in his big white truck. It wasn’t like it was the only available parking space at this hour, either. My heart jumped into my throat. Needing something to do, I sipped my coffee.

Michael closed his door and leaned down, looking through the passenger window and waving at me. I smiled at him as he opened my door. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” I said, wondering at his boldness to assume he could invade my little world unbidden. “What brings you here so early?” Huh. I sound normal, even happy. I guess that’s good. But what I felt inside were wind, waves, butterflies.

Michael’s eyes lit up and he shot me his smile. “I just had a feeling you would be here before everyone else.” He chuckled. “Here you are.”

My heart did somersaults in my chest as Michael slid into the passenger seat. I could smell his shampoo. There was also the faint odor of bacon and eggs lingering on him, which—on him alone—was magical. 

I looked at him without looking at him, and he smiled and stared openly at me. It was as if he didn’t mind me knowing he was interested. Maybe I was just imagining it and he was being friendly. I was running low on the kind of excuses that fueled that fantasy, though.

“So, you hear anything from the police about that murderer?” Michael asked.

The words “I know what you are” resounded in my head like the toll of medieval church bells. I felt shocked. “Uh, no,” I managed. “I think they’re still looking for the guy. Kinda weird being there in the theater when it happened.” I sipped my coffee and hid behind my hair, which I wore down today, thank God.