Airel: The Discovering (Airel Saga Book Two)

Chapter I

Boise, Idaho—Present Day

LIFE WAS GETTING MORE complicated with each passing day. I was getting more beautiful by the second, which was amazing, but it was also a problem. I had also made a promise to reveal to the most amazing boy—whom I hardly knew—how it was that I could heal supernaturally. That I could heal was already a done deal. My body had already betrayed me in the nurse’s office, forcing me into promising an explanation to Michael Alexander. What else could I have done? But I knew the problem with making promises is that they have to either be kept or broken.

It was another item on the list of things I just didn’t want to think about.

So while I was trying to deal with that potentially life-altering stress, Kim was chomping at the bit to call the police about my newly acquired stalker. She became especially pushy after I jilted her in the school nurse’s office, and I wondered if she was really looking out for me or if she just thought it would be cool to be involved in a police investigation. She made me want to pull my hair out. I sometimes felt like the only person she could think about was Kim. Either way, it was more than I wanted to deal with, for sure.

As for Michael, one way or another I was going to have to either tell him or show him that I was a freak of nature. And as crazy as it sounded, I thought showing him might be easier. Otherwise he would probably never believe me.

In order to try to regain at least a shadow of control over my own life, I needed some space. That was the one thing my Kimmie was loath to give unless there was a really good reason. So I called her and apologized for excluding her. It was an awkward phone conversation in which I tried to convince her that I wasn’t suicidal, pregnant, or ditching her for Captain Gorgeous. And while I still couldn’t really say what I was dealing with, I was able to talk her into postponing the double-date idea on the grounds that I just needed a little time to think and be myself.

And I made another promise: that everything would be just fine later, and we could share all the juicy details between us after my date with Michael. In the end, it was enough for her, but I felt like I had shouldered a mountain of relational debt in order to placate the people I cared about—or wanted to care about—the most.

Cue the ominous music: it was date night. I was learning quickly that life’s big decisions eventually take us to the edge of the cliff. We must turn back, fall off, or learn how to fly. I was hoping for a miracle, personally.

It was a good thing my mom was busy fussing and hovering over me, because my emotions were getting pulled in so many different directions it was hard to cope. Mom was there, though, to run a brush through my hair and help me decide on the right shoes—but we both knew it wasn’t about any of that. When you need your mom, you just need your mom.

My hair looked like spun silk, but darker, like strands of deep gold that had been interwoven. When I touched it, I gasped. It was soft, but so strong that when I pulled a strand from the brush and tried to break it, I couldn’t. With each stroke, it got smoother and smoother. Maybe I’m going to die. Maybe this transformation will kill me—but at least I’ll die looking good.

It was just after six, and Mom and I shared a glance between us. I pulled on a cute little dress I had picked up at Forever 21. Kim had insisted that I buy it, and I had to admit that it did look great. It was a light, springy material, sky blue, with silver lines falling down the right side and curling up the hip into a flower with silver petals. The thread was so beautiful and delicate that I was almost afraid to touch it. It was a sleeveless V-cut with the delicate hem at my knees. It was so flattering that I blushed at my own reflection in the long mirror on the back of my bedroom door.