Free Not Your Average Happy Ending by Chantele Sedgwick Page A

off. Since I’d known Kendall, Ellie was always happy and outgoing. She never missed a chance to talk to us or make fun of me for whatever reason. Hopefully Kendall could see something was going on as well. “Ellie seems a little different,” I said.
    “I’ve noticed that too,” Kendall said. “She says she’s fine, but I’m not sure I believe her.”
    “Huh. Sounds like something you’d say. You’re fine but you’re really not.” I knew I shouldn’t have said it, but I always seemed to get in trouble when I opened my big mouth.
    She frowned. “I already told you. I’m tired. That’s it.”
    Sure she was. She seemed fine earlier. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. But something’s wrong. I know you better than you think I do.”
    She folded her arms and whispered something under her breath, but I didn’t catch it. Probably cursing me for bugging her about it. I let it drop, but was determined to bring it up again later.
    I looked up as Ellie walked back through the room and didn’t even acknowledge we were there. She rounded the corner and instead of her light skip, her footsteps were heavy on the stairs. I don’t know why it was bothering me so much that she was acting strange. Girls had mood swings a lot. It was normal. But for Ellie, it wasn’t normal.
    “I’m thirsty,” Kendall said. She got to her feet and I couldn’t help but notice the way she wobbled a little. After regaining her balance, she walked into the kitchen. When I didn’t follow, she poked her head back in the living room. “We have Oreos.”
    I jumped to my feet. I’d never had Oreos until I met Kendall. They were probably my favorite snack food. I could eat a whole package in one sitting. True story.
    Kendall was prepared, as usual. She had a couple of packages out on the table and was pouring me a glass of milk when I came in. “So, you haven’t told me a lot about your trip with Sam yet. You keep avoiding it.”
    “I wouldn’t call it a trip. It wasn’t fun at all. Not really fun to think about either. That’s why I keep avoiding it.”
    She frowned, her hazel eyes worried. “What happened, Ash?”
    I sat down at the counter and dug into my Oreos, wanting to ignore the question, but knowing I couldn’t. I probably could have done the same thing she was doing to me and not answer, but maybe if I told her about my bad day, she’d tell me about hers.
    I decided to start at the beginning. “The first week, nothing happened.”
    She put her hands on her hips and stared at me.
    I raised my hands. “Honest. Nothing happened the first week. We didn’t see any sign of Dax anywhere. We just kept wandering around in a bunch of trees.”
    “I thought you said Sam had a lead.”
    “He did.” I shoved an Oreo in my mouth and ignored her stare as I chewed. After a swig of milk, I continued. “Which brings us to today.”
    “The whole banshee episode,” she said. “I didn’t know they were even real.”
    I grimaced. “They’re real all right.”
    “Why did she attack you guys?”
    “Actually, I’m not really sure. The only thing she said was she knew my…uh…biological father. And he was looking for me. I don’t know if she’d get a reward or something for finding me, but we didn’t really get that far into the conversation.” I left out the part about Kendall’s impending death. I wouldn’t allow it to happen. And I’d never tell her about it.
    A slight breeze filled the room and I told myself to keep it together. No need to lose control of my power at the kitchen table in front of Kendall.
    “Your father, the djinn?” she asked, dipping an Oreo in her glass of milk.
    “Yep. That’s the one. Let’s not call him my father though. His name is Linkin.”
    “So, what happened?”
    “Well, I banished the banshee, as Sam said…and then Sam and I woke up in a cave. I don’t know how we got there, but we were tied up and we couldn’t teleport or use our magic. We did end up escaping,