Free Darkside Sun by Jocelyn Adams Page A

exposed until she’s been trained.”
    “There wasn’t time. I told her to go. She didn’t. Not my problem. Now or later, I’d still have to break her shiny new cherry. She’ll be sore for a while, but she’ll get over it.”
    I must have made a sound of disgust to go along with my thoughts, because both of them turned to look at me. “I’m not a coward,” I said, “and don’t be crude.” He’d killed someone and intended to make me into whatever he was, and that was what I chose to say? Defend my complete lack of courage and my sensibilities? “I will never do what you did last night.”
    They continued to argue, voices lowered so I couldn’t hear. My mind returned to what she’d said about the Shift and my recent time loss. I’d bet the hidden library in Asher’s office had been in the Shift, since it went from morning to night while I’d been in there. And the morning I’d been late for class, I’d inadvertently stepped into at least one alternate reality and lost a half hour. What about when I’d read the bible? Asher said it had caused the time blip, so did it take me into the Shift while I read?
    I wasn’t sure how get back to the true reality, but I had to try while they were occupied. Dad would be frantic, especially if more time had gone by than I hoped. But how? I wished I’d been able to finish the book before Ava had interrupted me.
    Needing Dad, I imagined myself at our cabin in the woods, my favorite place on earth, his arms around me as we cuddled in his tattered easy chair. Intense emotion swelled in me: joy, loneliness, and determination. A faint image of trees and a gravel driveway overlaid the room. Oh, was it that simple? Think of a place and go there? My vision swam harder as I concentrated on Dad’s face, the many pictures of our adventures on the green walls, the scent of the wood burning in the stone fireplace. Excitement and anxiety rushed through me.
    “Don’t do it.” Asher came through the door and reached me in three long strides. My stomach clenched again, but I managed not to barf on him.
    “Did she just call the Shift? How can she do that when she hasn’t even been inducted?” Sophia looked from me, to Asher, and back to me as if I’d sprouted a frog on my head.
    My concentration broke, and I returned to the infirmary like a rubber band released too hard. Knees buckling, I folded down to sit on the edge of the nearest bed. “Please let me go. Dad needs me.”
    Asher paced, his teeth clenched. “She said she could,” he said to Sophia as if I hadn’t even spoken, “… but I didn’t really believe it until now. I haven’t figured out why she’s different than the rest of us, but I will. Now. Today.”
    “Why are you so pissed?” Sophia edged toward the door. “You look like you’re about to go off like a bomb.”
    I considered why he seemed so agitated, marching back and forth between the beds. I didn’t know him very well, but he was arrogant and most likely high up on the sentinel chain of command. Given his reaction to my extra time loss and a few other things … “Are you mad because I can see the wraiths and you can’t?”
    He halted at the side of the bed. His expression flashed between fury and … something. Silence descended like a lead apron.
    “Is that true?” Sophia asked.
    “Yeah,” I said. “I’d do anything not to see.”
    “That explains a lot.” She hugged herself, shivering, but it wasn’t cold. To Asher, she said, “You’re afraid she’s going to outrank you in the Machine.”
    He didn’t appear to be hearing anything outside of his own thoughts, staring at his thousand-dollar loafers. “Try to leave here again, and I’ll take Daddy dearest from you,” he said in that icy, detached voice meant for scaring people in the dark. It worked just fine in the light, too, apparently.
    It took a second for his words to sink in. I launched up, drawing in a breath that couldn’t find an escape. “You stay away from him. Do