Free The Glass Man by Jocelyn Adams Page B

know any better.”
    “It wasn’t horse shit!” Garret blurted.
    Sebastian back-handed him across the face while the other two snickered. Garret stumbled, but he didn’t go down. My respect for him grew a little. “Get outside before I give you a few extra holes to breathe out of.”
    Garret turned his eyes up to Sebastian like a dog expecting to be beaten for peeing on the carpet. Sebastian yanked the door open and pushed the younger man through.
    When footsteps thumped behind me, taking everyone’s attention, I grabbed a chair and heaved it through the kitchen window over the sink. An explosion of tinkling glass fueled the adrenaline pumping through my body. I leapt up on the counter and dove out, slicing my thighs on jagged bits in the sill. I tumbled into the roses, clutching at my wounds, wincing. Blood poured out, but I had nothing to wrap myself with.
    Shouting erupted within the house. A gun fired, flaring into the darkness over my head. The sound careened around the valley into the night and drowned out the screeching insects. I threw myself to the ground again, cutting up my forearms on the fallen shards and cursing.
    “Goddamn it, Sebastian,” Liam shouted. “Put the fucking gun away. If you so much as nick her, he will kill you, and then me.”
    Scratched and bleeding, I stood and groaned as more shards pierced my bare feet. No time to pull them out. Holding my breath, I closed my eyes so I could determine where the magnetic push came from. The north.
    With my pulse racing, I sprinted south toward the woods, imagining what I’d do to Sebastian when I found a way to release my energy. Liam would be next.

9
    Pain screamed up my legs as I ran from the farm house and through the reaching arms of the trees. Shards of glass crept deeper into my soles. The cuts on my thighs dripped hot ribbons down my legs, soaking into the blue dress.
    No amount of pain or blood would make me stop—not with the screaming of the insects growing louder. The silhouettes of trees whipped past me like scenery from a dark dream. I stumbled over a fallen log and crashed down, shredding my forearms. My body grew into a giant burning ache.
    A deep base growl rose up from the shadows in front of me. My pulse galloped. Respect the wild things, and they’ll repay you in kind. I stumbled, picking bits of bark out of my wounds, and limped on. The glass in my left foot met with bone, and they weren’t having a nice visit.
    A growl came closer. I stopped and stilled my body as I scanned the darkness. Deep in the woods, the moonlight didn’t penetrate the canopy, only dappled the forest floor.
    Amber eyes appeared in front of me. A scruffy black wolf emerged. He barked and flattened his ears as he stalked toward me, his lips curled up over shining white teeth. Animals had never bothered me before. I did my best to breathe normally, holding my hands out as I sidestepped around him. My gaze never left the wolf, but I avoided his eyes. I’d learned never to stare a wild beast in the eye unless I wanted a fight—another rule I’d made.
    A whine and a few yips came from my right before a second wolf stepped out to block the new path I’d chosen. When the third ruddy wolf appeared, I realized they were herding me. Hell’s bells. The Glass Man had made some new friends since I’d last seen him.
    My mind spun as I looked around for a weapon. Nothing. Not even a dead branch or a rock. I tested the barriers around my energy again, poking and prodding at it, but the harder I pushed, the more impenetrable it became.
    A fourth wolf, a white one, showed up, and the four of them stood in a u-shape in front of me. One way to go: the one direction I wouldn’t turn. I could climb a tree, but that would leave me trapped, so not much better.
    “You are a hearty thing,” the Glass Man said in that amused tone he always used. He sauntered out from behind a tree, wearing a dark grey suit. A grey silk tie painted a shining line down a matching shirt.