Glass Heart

by Amy Garvey

  Dar and I both laugh, but I like the idea. After everything that’s happened, it won’t be a huge deal if it’s too late to join yearbook, but I’m still going to try. What stings is that I came so close to believing magic was the only thing that made me special.

  I shake off the thought of Bay and pick up my coffee. “I have to go in a minute. I told Gabriel I’d come over now that he’s not, you know, writhing in pain.”

  Jess snorts a laugh, and I manage a smile, because there’s nothing else to say. Migraines never killed anyone, as far as I know. But what happened to Gabriel was close.

  “Hey,” Dar says, touching my hand. “He is okay, right?”

  I straighten up, trying not to shiver. “He is. And I should probably take him the instant sugar high Geoff provided.”

  “Call later,” Jess says as I get up from the table, and my smile is wider this time. These are my friends, and I don’t need anyone different. We’re all pretty perfect just the way we are.

  It’s still cold as I walk to Gabriel’s, blue and clear, and I’m surprised to find him sitting on the front steps. He’s bundled into his heaviest jacket, and a gray wool scarf is looped around his neck. He stands up when he sees me.

  “What are you doing out here?” I ask him, stretching up to kiss him. His lips are chilly and smooth.

  “I had to escape,” he says, and takes the café bag to peek inside. “My sister is in full hover mode. I think she has a future as a spacecraft.”

  I elbow him as we sit down on the steps together, and he pulls one of my feet toward his, lining them up side by side. He’s wearing the blue sneakers from the pictures, and I’m in my Docs, as usual. I lean my head on his shoulder and reach for his hand, tangling our fingers together.

  “So that happened,” Gabriel finally says, and I have to laugh even as I elbow him again. “What?”

  I don’t want to ruin this moment. I don’t want to ruin anything again, ever, especially not between the two of us. But the last few days have washed over me like a wave, rinsing so much clean, and I feel lighter than I have in a long time.

  Until I think about Gabriel.

  “It’s your turn, you know,” I say after thinking about the words carefully.

  “My turn to . . . cast an evil spell on someone?” He makes a face, but he’s smiling.

  “To spill, Gabriel.” I stand up so I can face him, but it’s hard not to pace back and forth on the walk. “I can’t even explain what it was like when you were lying in that bed, in so much pain. I haven’t been that scared in . . . Well, you know the last time I was that scared.”

  His brows touch, furrowing into the beginning of a frown, but he doesn’t look away.

  “I can’t lose you, Gabriel. I love you.” I shrug and let the words hang there, simple and honest, completely unadorned. “But I keep wondering who it is I love. There are so many things I know about you, but they all have to do with, well, me. That you would never hurt me, that you want me to be happy, that you want me to be safe. It’s beginning to feel like I made you up, you know? The perfect boyfriend, who’s always there, who gives me the most awesome gifts ever, who takes a frigging magical bullet for me. But it’s like . . . it’s like looking in a mirror or something. I can take care of myself, you know? What I want is . . .” I trail off, sighing. “I want to know you, Gabriel. The way you know me.”

  He unfolds himself from the steps, long and lean and so quiet I want to shake him. Instead, I wait while he walks toward me, offering a hand. “Let’s walk, huh?”

  “Are you sure you’re up to it?”

  “I feel fine.” He squeezes my hand. “No magic hangover at all.”

  I’m not sure this was true yesterday, because he woke up groggy and disoriented, and it took a few hours of nodding in and out of painless sleep for him to totally be himself again. But I’m not going to argue.

  “It’s, you know, hard to talk about this stuff,” Gabriel says when we’re halfway down the block.

  “What stuff?”

  He groans. “If I could just barf it out, it wouldn’t be hard.”

  “No barfing.” I bump his hip with mine. “What’s the hardest part? Start there maybe? Get it over with?”

  He stops suddenly, and I stumble against him, startled. But when I see the look on his face, I let the snark on my tongue dissolve. “It’s nothing really horrible. Me, I mean. I didn’t kill a man in Vegas, and I’m not, like, an alien, and my sister isn’t secretly in hiding from the mob or something. It’s just . . .” He swallows hard. “It’s just my dad.”

  I take both of his hands in mine. “We all have them, you know, one way or another. You can tell me, Gabriel.”

  An elderly woman is coming up the sidewalk with a beagle that looks just as old, and we move to one side so she can pass. Gabriel watches her go and finally looks down at me again.

  “It’s just . . . it’s nothing to be proud of. Your dad, even though he left, he never wanted to hurt you, you know? That’s why he left. To keep all of you safe.”

  I know he’s trying, and for a moment the world rocks to a halt. We’re balanced over something deep, something dark, and all I can do is hold on as we fall.

  “I know my story, Gabriel,” I say when he’s silent for too long. “Tell me yours.”

  He lets go of my hands and starts walking again. He’s running from something, even if it’s just telling me, but I catch up and grab his arm. I’m startled to find he’s already talking. “. . . in prison now, in Ohio. He’s a con man, Wren. It’s the only job he’s ever had, really. I think my mom thought he was . . . something else. Maybe I just want to believe that, I don’t know.”

  I can’t say anything yet. I have to let him tell it all, the way he wants to. But I tuck my hand into his jacket pocket as we walk.

  “He used her, all the time.” His eyes skid sideways, judging my reaction, and I just nod. “He used her gift to scam people. And then she got sick. So he used me instead.”

  Horror uncoils in my stomach, raw and sharp. But he’s not done yet.

  “And after my mom died, he dragged us all over. Long cons took a while, so sometimes we’d get to stay somewhere for a few months, but we could never really make friends. And half the time we were living in some trailer or some shithole apartment I wouldn’t have wanted anyone to see.”

  It’s scary, how dead his voice sounds, how cold and flat. Maybe if he makes it sound like just another thing that happened, a simple fact, it doesn’t hurt as much.

  “He’s hurt people, Wren.” When he looks at me this time, I can see the shame of it in his eyes. “I just . . . We’re done with him, me and Olivia. But he’ll be out one day. And I never want him to find us, or you. I never . . . I never wanted to have to tell you what I come from.”

  “But it’s not your fault!” I throw my arms around him, squeezing tight. “You have to know that. You and Olivia, you’re good people, Gabriel. Whatever your father did, that’s on him. Seriously.”

  He doesn’t seem convinced. “But . . . I come from that.”

  “So what?” I step back, throwing my hands in the air. “So. What. It’s not a disease, Gabriel. Your father made choices and so did you. You and Olivia, you chose to come here, to start over, to leave him behind. Every day, you’re not living the life your father did. How can you not see that?”

  He stares at me, and that dark, deep place closes up in the space of one breath. After a moment, something like a smile tugs at one corner of his mouth. “So you’re saying I’m, like, a total moron.”

  “Pretty much.” I kick the toe of one sneaker with my boot, gently. “My boyfriend, the giant dumbass.”

  He actually laughs. “You could make a T-shirt. ‘I’m with Dumbass.’”

  “I think I will.” I grab his hand and turn us around so we’re headed back toward his apartment. After a second, I pull him closer and glance up at him. “Thank you. For telling me that.”

  He shrugs, dorky cute when he’s sheepish. “I’m sorry I didn’t do
it before.”

  We walk in silence for a little while, but it’s comfortable, familiar. It’s nice, until I realize my own words are echoing in my head: “Every day, you’re not living the life your father did.”

  And neither am I. For the first time since Gabriel told me what he’d sensed about my dad, I’m not worried about using my power. I’ve never used magic the way he did, and I don’t want to. I want to explore it, because it is part of me, and it’s pretty cool when it comes right down to it. But I know I have to respect it, too. And that doesn’t seem like a burden.

  I feel so light, I think with one breath and a little focus I could float up over the rooftops and into the trees. Maybe even take Gabriel with me. And inside me, my magic is still wide-open sky. I know I can fly when I want to.

  I tug Gabriel’s hand to get him to stop, and step backward. “How good do you feel?”

  “I told you, I feel fine!” He rolls his eyes. “Wow, now I know what I must sound like.”

  “Fine, huh?” I grin, and turn him so his back is to me.

  Then I push him into a crouch and climb on. “You are fine,” I whisper in his ear when he’s standing up and not laughing anymore. “Take me up to your place and show me how fine, huh?”

  I’m pretty sure he’s blushing as he heads toward home.

  Epilogue

  THE MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR ADAM IS HELD the first week in February, at Saint Francis. Gabriel and I are a little late, so we end up standing in the back, straining to hear the priest. Audrey is way up front, sitting right behind Adam’s family. She’s going to speak, too.

  Gabriel and I decided to call the police anonymously about Adam. Afterward, I know they searched Fiona’s house and property, and they were looking for Bay, but nothing ever turned up. Fiona was already eighteen, so there was nothing they could do about her, even when she never came home. Jude told me they’d interviewed all kinds of kids on campus, and once they knew about Bay and Fiona’s relationship, the police were willing to bet she’d left with him of her own free will.

  I wasn’t so sure.

  I see Jude sometimes now. We’re not friends exactly, but she’s someone I can talk to about my power, someone who isn’t related to me, anyway. She’s a really good artist, and I think someday I’m going to show her some of Danny’s pieces.

  More than that, I think I’ll probably tell her about Danny at some point. The whole story. She has a lot of guilt about Adam, even if his death wasn’t really her fault. Maybe if I share what I’ve done, she’ll feel a little better.

  I hate that the police never found Adam’s body. But the fact that they had a lead and something of an idea about what happened to him helped his family out a little bit. The memorial service is proof of that. It’s a way to say good-bye, after all.

  I’d said good-bye to my dad the same Sunday when Gabriel and I talked. He had to get back to work, but he made it clear that talking on the phone and sending email was something he wanted from now on. I was glad, too. I just hoped the next time he visited, we would be a little lower on magical emergencies.

  Robin had a hard time with him leaving, doing the whole Velcro hug thing until I was worried Dad wasn’t actually breathing anymore. Mom had already said her good-byes and was upstairs in her room with Mari, and I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for her. To love someone like that and know you can’t be together? Love is so huge and so sweet when you find it, I’ll never understand how it manages to turn around and smack you so often.

  I walked Dad out to his car, and he paused before he got in. “Just . . . be careful,” he said.

  “I will, Dad.” I hugged him then, too, breathing in that familiar leather-and-soap scent as long as I could. “But I don’t think you need to worry.”

  He scoffed, barking out a laugh. “Uh, I’m a parent, kiddo. That’s what I’m going to do anyway.”

  I glance at Gabriel now, watching his face as he listens to the priest. Gabriel didn’t have that, except from his mom, and she was taken way too soon. It’s not fair. In my secret fantasies, Gabriel’s father and Bay run into each other somewhere, and the only words I have for that scenario are “cage match.”

  “Audrey’s going to speak now,” Gabriel whispers, glancing down at the program. “That’s going to be hard.”

  I tuck my arm in his and lay my head on his shoulder. It will be hard. But whatever it is, I’m pretty sure now that Gabriel and I will always get through it.

  Acknowledgments

  MANY THANKS TO THE PEOPLE WHO HELD MY hand as I wrote this book: Stephen, as always, who propped me up a lot of the time; my parents, who have always believed and are always willing to lend a hand; Lee, who literally kept me going in more ways than I can count and loves me even when I forget to send her cupcakes; ita, who patiently listened to me whine every day; my wonderful agent, Maureen Walters, who is always right there cheering; and the fantastic people at HarperTeen, foremost the ever-supportive Erica Sussman. I’m lucky she still likes me. Last, so much love to my kids, who are incredibly patient with me, and always have a hug ready.

  About the Author

  AMY GARVEY is a former editor who now works on the other side of the desk as an author. She grew up reading everything she could get her hands on, watching too much TV, and wishing she was Samantha Stephens from Bewitched. (She still wishes that, actually.) She is also the author of COLD KISS. Amy lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with her family. You can read her blog at www.amygarveywrites.blogspot.com and follow her on Twitter@amygarvey.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

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  Credits

  Cover art © 2012 by Howard Huang

  Cover design by Michelle Taormina

  Copyright

  HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

  Glass Heart

  Copyright © 2012 by Amy Garvey

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

  www.epicreads.com

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Garvey, Amy, 1967–

  Glass heart / Amy Garvey. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Wren Darby is struggling to keep her life in balance as she juggles her blossoming relationship with Gabriel, shocking revelations about her family’s past, and the darker side of the powers that have been passed down to her from her parents.

  ISBN 978-0-06-199624-5

  Epub Edition © JULY 2012 ISBN: 9780062103369

  [1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Psychic ability—Fiction. 3. Horror stories.]

  I. Title.

  PZ7.G21172Whe 2012

  2011052410

  [Fic]—dc23

  CIP

  AC

  * * *

  12 13 14 15 16 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  First Edition

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