Page 8 of Twi-Flight (Ghostlight Falls #6)

Chapter Six

“ I ’m sorry Lucy.” I say the second my best friend steps foot in the house.

“Sorry for what?” she asks, setting her school bag beside the door.

“For pressuring you about telling other people’s secrets, for not believing you, for leaving for so long that I didn’t notice that you’d become a vampire.”

“I’m not mad. You don’t need to apologize.” She grins slyly and leans against the wall. “But please, go on.”

I take a deep breath before I can bring myself to continue.

“You were right, I’ve hidden things about my own past. You’re right it’s not fair for me to expect other people to be open when I don’t talk about why I haven’t been around.

” The last part is the hardest and the simplest to say.

“And you were right, Eggward isn’t a vampire. You were right about everything.”

“So he told you the truth?” Lucy asks eagerly.

I nod.

“Finally! And?”

“And I’m in love with him.” I admit cautiously.

Lucy’s smile is wide. “Then what the hell are you doing here right now?”

“Well—I didn’t exactly admit that to him.”

Lucy rolls her eyes but catches herself with her pupils halfway to the ceiling. “I’m sorry.” Lucy’s voice is quiet. “I didn’t like keeping secrets from you. You are a good friend. You always deserved the truth. From him, and from me.”

“I’m so glad to hear you say it.” I say, feeling the hot tears prick at the corners of my eyes.

“Which is why you need to go and tell that giant chicken how you feel about him.”

“We don’t know that he likes me at all.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’ve seen the way he acts around you. The fact that he lets you anywhere near his precious chickens. He trusts you. He like you. He’s smitten.”

“No, he isn’t.”

“He spends a lot of time with you, and only you,” Lucy says. “You know why?”

“He’s a loner?”

“He’s smitten,” she insists.

“Lucy.” The whine I hear in my own voice is embarrassing. “I’m scared!” I admit much quieter.

“You wanna see something really scary?” Lucy smiles wide, and maybe it’s my imagination—but were her teeth always that sharp?

She takes two steps through the living room towards me. The room seems somehow darker; she seems a little taller. I instinctively back up. With inhuman speed, she’s directly in front of me. She laughs; the sound is chilling. Like hearing the call of a predatory animal emerge from a dark night.

“I’ll show you just how scary vampires can get if you don’t walk out that door and find Eggward tonight.” Her smile seems sharper, more angular than it did moments before.

I laugh cautiously. I know she’s all talk, she’s just playing a game, she wouldn’t really hurt me.

I don’t think.

“Oh, it’s such a relief!” She announces, stretching her arms wide and cracking her neck disconcertingly loudly.

“I can finally act normal again in my own house. Now, I’m going to sit here on this couch, drink my dinner, and grade eight-year-olds math homework.

I want you out of this house and I don’t want you coming home before midnight!

I’ll see you in the morning preferably!” She’s pulling me now, her grip around my arm like iron as she tugs me toward the door.

“I get it!” I protest lamely, letting her open the door and push me outside into the quickly fading evening light.

She shuts the front door behind me. Leaving me with just the frog-song and a satisfied feeling in my stomach.

I guess I’m doing this.