The Changeling's Source (Evedon Legacy Book 1)

by Sarah Lynn Gardner

  “Excuse me.” I tried to rise again, not wanting a scene. Not wanting to rain dark source on them. This time, Delilah grabbed my wrist, yanking it under the table, as she began to tell a crude story to the others, using me as the protagonist. She cussed every other word. Each one was like a hammer to my head.

  Dark source spun a web of dread, spiraling through me. The bad language gave it a vicious edge, spinning nausea in my stomach and a red fire in my chest.

  This desperation to lash out at Delilah whirled through me, but I knew if I touched her to get her to release me, I’d sink enough dark source into her that she’d notice.

  I pushed my lunch aside, put my elbows on the table, and pushed my palms into my temples. I closed my eyes and tried to take controlling breaths.

  “Stop, please,” I said.

  The other girls joined Delilah with the ugly language, soft in volume. Not enough to attract anyone’s attention.

  “Stop, please.” I was going to throw up.

  Why can’t they leave me alone? I didn’t steal Asher from Sam.

  “He never wanted her,” I whispered, wanting to yell it.

  Dark source consumed me, different from the angry dragon that had reared its head on Friday. This was a big, black, monster that wanted to destroy.

  Destroy the girls around me. “No.”

  “Is there room for me at this table?” a girl’s voice intruded.

  Liquid splashed next to me, a few drops getting my shirt.

  “Hey!” Layla screeched, jumping up.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” the girl said. “It was an accident.”

  “Calm down, Layla, or we’re over.” That was David.

  The monster of dark source rampaging through my mind was not in the slightest beautiful. I needed to get rid of it. When I was a little girl, Dad had always let me give him some of my extra. I didn’t have him or Holden. And I couldn’t dump it in front of everyone.

  Montrose. Maybe he’d let me share it with him.

  “Tara, do you want to come sit by me?” The girl pulled on my elbow.

  With her tug, I fell backward.

  “Tara?” The girl grabbed my shoulders, preventing me from smacking against the floor.

  I shook my head, then forced myself to look at her. It was Isabel, back to her frizzy ponytail and glasses. Despite that, her generous heart made her the most beautiful girl my dark source rampaged eyes had ever seen.

  David knelt by me. “Tara, what’s wrong?”

  Feeling sick to my stomach and ready to hurl, I used the wall behind me to stand. “I’m not feeling well,” I whispered.

  David put his arm around my shoulders. “Let’s get you to the nurse,” he said, guiding me to the nearest exit.

  Once we were in the fairly empty hall, he lifted me into his arms.

  “Can you take me to Montrose’s classroom?” I asked. What happened to Asher?

  As David stepped into a mostly empty classroom, I looked up in time to see Montrose approaching us from his desk.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “I think she’s having cramps.” David said.

  His assumption would have inspired a smile if I wasn’t feeling so horribly. Only a boy with sisters would think to say that, and David had four.

  David shrugged. “I don’t know. Some of Sam’s friends were also harassing her.”

  “Again?” Montrose snapped. He pulled out one of the chairs, and David set me down before backing up.

  I immediately rested my head on the table.

  “Tara.” Montrose kneeled, gripping the desk. “Why don’t you give me some of that,” he whispered.

  Carefully, I let my fingertips touch his and could instantly sense the balance of source within him. Giving him my negative would strengthen his alv ability. I released my negative into him.

  “Do you need to see the nurse?” he asked.

  The darkness retreated, leaving me exhausted, and I pulled back my hand. I shook my head. “Just a nap.”

  “I’ll take my next class to the library,” Montrose said. “You can stay here. I’ll let the office know.”

  Someone’s footsteps pounded toward the classroom growing louder. “What happened?” Asher’s voice exploded, the emotion behind it was like nails on a chalkboard to my ears, making me cringe. He came alongside me, then rested a hand on my shoulder. The warmth from the contact eased what was left of my darkness. I wanted to sleep held by him.

  “Delilah and some of the other girls swarmed her at lunch,” David said. “Where were you?”

  “Samantha told Mrs. Mason I was cheating on a quiz. Of course I wasn’t, but Mrs. Mason made me retake it, anyway.” He sat down by me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me toward him, and I sank into his embrace.

  Fatigue pulled at my eyes, wanting me to escape.

  “Are you two dating now?” David asked.

  I lifted my heavy lids to look at David.

  Montrose was no longer in the room.

  “Yes,” Asher said firmly.

  David smiled. “Good.” Then he left the room.

  “So what happened?” Asher spoke quietly, tracing a finger up and down my arm.

  What a blessing he knew about me. “Crude language always stirs negative source, and they were using a lot of it. Sam knows I don’t like it. I’m sure she told Delilah.”

  “I knew Sam was upset,” Asher said. “I didn’t think she’d go so far as to say I was cheating just to keep me from being with you at lunch, so they could do this.”

  Tucked in the crook of his arms, I turned inward.

  “She’s an expert at quiet harassment.” I shook my head. Tears burned in my eyes. “I used to stand by and watch. Too often, I laughed afterward.” My chest hurt at the memories. “Maybe it’s all pay back now. The natural consequence for being bad.”

  “Are you saying that because of Jack’s talk yesterday?”

  “I don’t know.” I turned my face to bury it in his chest, and took a deep breath of his familiar cologne. The natural woodsy scent soothed me, transporting me to nature.

  “At least, we are becoming better from our mistakes, and that’s what matters.” Asher rubbed my back.

  Footsteps approached in the hall, and I looked up to find Daniel in the doorway.

  Last spring, I’d hated how close the school district office was to the high school, because he was always checking on me, taking me out of school when Sam and I got in a fight.

  At that moment, I hoped that was why he was here, because I didn’t want to stay.

  After studying me for a second, he took off his glasses and scratched his forehead with the back of his wrist. “Let’s let Asher have lunch. I’ve signed you out already. We’re going for a drive.”

  Looking out on Lake Michigan, I sat on a large stone, part of a boulder wall that retained a sandy hill. We’d stopped at the supermarket on the way out of town, and I’d picked up a new sketchbook. Now, I sketched the scene that spread out in front of me.

  Daniel had picked up a hoodie, T-shirt, running shorts, and sweats because he wanted a swim in the lake. Having changed into them out of his work clothes, Daniel came up alongside me and plopped his sneakers and towel next to me.

  “You’re crazy,” I said.

  “My friends and I always had to get one October swim in.” He pulled the hoodie over his head.

  “It will be November next week!”

  “Eh? It’s above freezing.” He sat down and took the sweats off, which he’d worn over the basketball shorts. Now, he looked like he was ready for a workout, not a beach swim.

  “Besides, aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

  “What did we agree on the drive over? I won’t talk to you about school, if you don’t talk to me about how work was going.”

  Daniel had not been having a good time at work when he got the call to come pick up his sick daughter. The trouble had come from his superior, Frank, but I wondered if Sam’s father was behind it. My stomach twist
ed, thinking over it, and my thoughts strayed to Nathaniel at school. Hopefully, Sam’s sister left him alone. They didn’t get along on a good day. Would she go after him on behalf of her sister? I was definitely going to pry when he got home.

  Daniel clambered down the wall and headed across the short stretch of sand to the longer one of rocks. “This used to be sand!” he shouted, his voice barely heard above the roaring wind and crashing waves.

  “I vaguely remember that!”

  Lake Michigan’s water level was higher than it was when I was a small girl, leaving behind a beach that was little to be desired. Today, the waves crashed and the lake stretched out without any boats in sight. The sky had cleared from the morning gloom, and off to the northwest, Chicago’s tiny skyline looked more like toy building blocks.

  Daniel paused, bare feet in the water, hands on his hips, before turning to look at me with a grin. The wind swept aside his dark hair. His natural olive skin tone had kept a bit of the deep tan he always got in the summer.

  Mine was the same, inherited from my mother’s family, who’d come from Italy and Spain.

  Strangers never looked at Daniel and me twice when we were out together, assuming I was his daughter. For the first time in my life, I actually liked the resemblance rather than resented it.

  Seeing him now, lean and muscular without his shirt, radiating a wild, reckless energy, sans glasses, he looked younger, and I thought I caught a glimpse of the teen Mom dated in high school. Strange how the events of their lives brought them back together. Both losing their true sweethearts first.

  Daniel struck out running. As he entered the water, his treading wobbled, but he continued forward. Hip-deep, he dove, disappearing from view.

  I shivered watching him. Fifty-two degrees was not warm enough to take a dip in the lake.

  His adventure was a quick one, and he returned from the water. I threw him the towel which he dried his hair with, before draping it over his head.

  Clambering over the boulders to me, he grabbed his sweats and sweatshirt before climbing higher to where there were trees and tall grass growing out of the sandy hill.

  As he disappeared from view, I returned to sketching.

  Will Sam relent after today or will her bullying persist? I gnawed on my lip, mindlessly moving my pencil back and forth on my picture. Her behavior today reeked of revenge motive, not bullying.

  I was a fool to think that her war on me would end. For the most part, they’d left me to my corner all year. For sure the quiet harassment would continue. I wished Asher didn’t have to be the focus of Sam’s scorn, too.

  I didn’t want to go back to school tomorrow. I’d been doing that since spring—forcing myself to show up, so that Sam didn’t ever think she’d won the battle. A one day break to refresh sounded way too attractive. Maybe, if Jack was planning to stay home, but feeling well enough to drive, I could convince him to take me to Chicago to see Gran tomorrow. I could always go again on the weekend with Mom and Asher.

  Daniel sat beside me, dressed in sweats and a hoodie, and began to brush the sand off his feet with the towel. He had discarded the T and shorts somewhere.

  “Did you even go to the bathroom to change?”

  Daniel looked out toward the lake with a youthful smile. “No one’s around, and there are a lot of trees.”

  I laughed.

  “Jenn,” he referred to Mom, “and I once played hooky from school about this same time of year. It was right after I was able to drive friends. She was mad at her mom and somehow convinced me. I was usually a straight-line student.”

  “That’s hard to imagine,” I said.

  He grinned and reached for one of his sneakers.

  “Your first wife—Maurine—she didn’t go with you?” I asked.

  “No. Her father wouldn’t have let her hang out with us anymore.” He sobered, as he laced up his shoes.

  I started sketching. My thoughts strayed to his difficulty at work. “Do you like your job?” I asked.

  “It allows me to take care of you three when you need me, pay the bills, and get something nice for your mom at Christmas and our anniversary.” He tugged on the laces before making a bow. “I have no responsibilities outside of my work hours attached to it, like I did when I taught English. What’s there not to like about that?”

  I vaguely remembered that he’d been a teacher. “Did you teach here?”

  “California. After Maurine and I married, we moved out there because the beach scene was a lot better.” Daniel grinned.

  “Don’t tell me you know how to surf.”

  “Of course.” Daniel did up his second shoe. “Blond highlights, deep tan, surfboard in hand. I was your cliche surfer dude. Maurie and I spent all day every day of the summer outside. It was wonderful.”

  “No way! I can’t even imagine you like that.”

  Daniel laughed. “Ahh, to be young and reckless again. We didn’t have a lot, but we had each other.” He shoved aside the towel and hung his legs loose over the boulders. “The only thing we were missing was a baby.” He sobered, gaze floating over the water. The grayness of the lake reflected in his eyes. “Life definitely didn’t go as we planned.”

  Obviously, they hadn’t had a baby, but I felt awkward asking.

  “Since Maurie couldn’t have babies, we were trying to adopt,” Daniel offered on his own.

  “But she got sick?” I asked.

  He looked at me for a moment, head tilted sideways, then nodded. Sadness had replaced his recklessness.

  He pulled out his phone, glancing at the screen.

  “I lived in California my first couple of years. Was it anywhere close to you two?”

  “Yeah...it is getting late.” He looked at me. His eyes were glazed with tears. “Shall we go?” he asked. “We won’t make it home before Nathaniel gets off the bus if we don’t hurry.”

  “Sure.” Closing my sketchbook, I rose to my feet. Why’d my question bring tears to his eyes?

  Something bugged me as we drove home, but I couldn’t place it.

  Instead, I thought back to visiting Gran. “Jack’s sick, but if he’s feeling up to it tomorrow, could I ask him to drive me to Chicago to see Gran?” I asked. “Then I could go again with Mom on the weekend.”

  “You’re trying to cram in multiple visits.”

  “She’s not going to last forever,” I said.

  Daniel’s phone rang through the bluetooth connection with the SUV, announcing a call from Mom. He pushed the button to receive the call.

  “Jenn, what’s going on?” he asked.

  “Where are you?” she yelled.

  I looked at Daniel, my good humor fleeing.

  “We went to the lake. I told—”

  “I’m not mad. I’m freaking out,” she interrupted. “I need you home. Nathaniel’s missing.”

  “Nathaniel’s missing?” Daniel said. “What do you mean?”

  My chest tightened.

  “Apparently, he didn’t show up for his class after lunch,” Mom continued, her voice full of panic. “I’ve driven all over town trying to find him, going home multiple times. I’m about ready to call the police, and tell them he’s missing.”

  “Calm down, Jenn. We’ll be home in fifteen minutes,” Daniel said, sounding like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “We can look together one more time, before we go that route.”

  This was my fault. Sam’s sister must have done something, and he’d run away.

  25. Missing

  While Mom and Daniel went out searching the likely places Nathaniel would have disappeared to, I stayed behind in case he showed up at home.

  Clutching Daniel’s phone, which he’d left with me, I scoured every hiding place in the house. In Mom’s closet, I discovered a present that had been hidden, addressed to her from Dad.

  A thick feeling slid into my chest, and I reverently replaced it exactly as I found it.

  Outside, I scoured the backyard, even climbing the playset to see if he�
�d hidden in the upper cabin. Not there. I searched the bushes he hid in during hide-and-seek with Oops, but still nowhere. Finally, I walked the trail to where a gazebo looked over the lake. He wasn’t anywhere to be found.

  Negative source turned inside me, growing darker and darker with each minute. As it did, the best case scenarios I’d tried to focus on—like he was hiding somewhere at school—turned to worse case scenarios, of him running away from school, then getting hit by a car, that, after the driver dumped Nathaniel’s body in a ditch, fled the scene.

  What could Sam’s sister have done to make him go off like this? I tried calling his phone over and over again, but it was turned off, going straight to voicemail.

  I left a couple of messages, each time trying to keep my voice calm, because if he was freaked out, I didn’t want to make it worse.

  Dark source overwhelmed my thoughts. After last week, I knew it was happening, but I couldn’t stop them from berating me for being such a horrible sister. Stealing Asher from Sam had sparked her need for vengeance, and now my kid brother was the victim.

  I couldn’t stay with Asher and put Nathaniel at further risk.

  The doorbell rang, and I bolted to it, swinging it open.

  Asher, not Nathaniel. Disappointment sent dark source spiraling through me like a plague. Asher was the reason my whole family was getting bullied. The voice of reason argued back that I was as much at fault, but it was a whisper compared to the dark source rampaging through me.

  “I don’t want to see you right now! Go away.” I yelled, then slammed the door on him. Turning around, I sank to the ground and pushed my hands against temples.

  He began to alternate ringing the doorbell with knocking on it.

  No, no, no. I didn’t mean that at all. I needed him here now. I needed him here right now. “Ahh.” My dark source was out of control.

  I started sobbing.

  Stardust came racing down the stairs with Marion close on her heels. The cat and kitten scampered past my feet into the music room, and Stardust paused to let Marion leap on her. They wrestled together, Stardust happily nipping at Marion before the two darted into the family room together.