Masquerade (Heven and Hell #1)(96)
Author: Cambria Hebert

Yeah. Thanks for letting him stay here. I don’t know what I would have done with him tonight.

Sam was sort of in limbo tonight because he’d already given back the keys to his old place and wouldn’t get the key to his new place until tomorrow. It wasn’t a problem when it was just him, because he stayed here every night anyway.

Maybe you should have kept the old place.

Nah. We’ll make it work with the new one. There just won’t be as much space.

Or privacy. I couldn’t help but feel a little upset about that. It made me feel selfish. I should be thrilled that Sam’s brother was here; thrilled that he was getting a chance to have some of his family in his life. I couldn’t quite get there. I wished Logan had an aura. I don’t know why, but I didn’t completely trust him. I couldn’t tell that to Sam, and I needed to keep my feelings about it under control. Our Mindbond made things tricky. It wasn’t always easy to keep our strong feelings from bleeding to the other. Logan was a kid and most likely was confused and hurt by what was happening with his body. Sam was his only link to anything stable. For Sam I would put my own fears aside and try to be there for Logan. Maybe he and I could be close.

Is everything okay? Sam asked, rubbing slow circles across my back. I worried for a moment that maybe I wasn’t doing the best job I could at hiding my feelings. Then he said, Today has been a lot to deal with.

He meant Airis and the treasure.

It’s hard to comprehend that we have possession of something so majorly important.

Yeah, I know. Where is it?

Under my pillow.

Maybe you should let me hold on to it.

I knew that it would be perfectly safe with Sam, but I wanted it close to me. I felt like it belonged to me. I kind of want to hold onto it.

I think that you having it puts you in danger.

You worry too much, I grumped. If having it put me in danger, then it would put him in danger as well. Either way, we were both in danger, so I decided I was keeping it. Sam? Something Airis said is bothering me.

Just one thing? He snorted softly.

I smiled. I guess that makes me crazy.

I felt his hands in my hair and his lips on my forehead. It makes you naïve.

She said that seeing auras was not my only gift.

Swiftly he pulled out from beneath me and looked down through the darkness. Are you feeling okay? Are you getting those tremors again?

I’m fine. It makes me nervous though. What else is going to happen?

He stared at me for several minutes without saying anything. Then, with a deep sigh he returned to the mattress, lifting me gently and pressing my head back into his shoulder. Whatever happens…I’ll be here.

My defender. I loved him for wanting to keep me safe, but it worried me. If Sam was busy protecting me, then who would protect him?

“I know what I am doing this summer,” Kimber declared, waving a flyer over our lunch table.

It was finally the last day of school. The halls and lunchroom were buzzing with nothing but plans for the summer.

“Well, doesn’t anyone want to know?” Kimber asked, dropping into a chair next to Cole.

“Let me see,” Cole said, around a mouthful of burger. He grabbed the flyer and looked it over. “I heard about this trip,” he said, turning the flyer around so Sam and I could see.

Sam pulled the flyer closer and kicked me beneath the table. I abandoned my Doritos and looked down. I sucked in a breath and got a hunk of chip caught in my throat. It was sharp and I felt it cut into the sensitive skin. I coughed and grabbed up Sam’s water to take a drink. The chip went down, but it scraped the whole way.

Sam’s big, warm hand landed on the back of my neck to rub.

“Where’d you get this?” I asked Kimber when I could speak.

“Mrs. Britt.”

“You don’t take French.”

Kimber rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to take French to go. It’s a school-sponsored trip, Mrs. Britt is just in charge of it.”

Sam and I glanced at each other then back down at the flyer. The words seemed to jump right off the page:

Trip to Italy

Explore Rome and its surrounding areas

Learn about other cultures – see stunning architecture and works of art by the most famous artists in history.

“This is a school trip?” I asked Kimber.

“Yep. Isn’t it cool?”

“Yeah, it is.” This could be our way to get to the scroll to Rome.

I’d say it’s our only chance, Sam said.

We’d been trying to brainstorm ways to get the scroll to Rome ever since our meeting with Airis. This was perfect.

“I’ve already filled out the consent forms, and my dad has already signed the check. All I have to do is pack.”

“When is the trip?” I asked. Kimber named off the dates. It was the exact same dates of that camp my mother was trying to send me off to. “How much?” I asked. Kimber gave me an odd sort of look. Her aura flared all different hues. I tried to ignore it.

“Are you interested in going?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.” Then, “It might be nice to get away for a while.”

Kimber’s eyes softened, and she nodded. Likely, she was thinking of the issues with my mother. “It’s fifteen hundred dollars.”

I sputtered. “Fifteen hundred!”

Cole whistled between his teeth.

“I doubt my job at the ice cream shop will pay that much,” I muttered, knowing for sure that I would never be able to come up with that much money…Sam either.

“Maybe your Gran would help you out,” Kimber suggested.

“Maybe.” But even if she would I couldn’t leave Sam behind.

“Go talk to Mrs. Britt. Get the permission forms. It would be so cool if you could come,” Kimber said.

“Maybe I should come too,” Cole said, grabbing up the flyer to look at it again.

“Really?” Kimber asked, a smile taking over her face. “We should all go!”

I faked my enthusiasm. I did want to go. Not for shopping and fun like Kimber, but for reasons that she would never understand.

“Just turn the forms in,” I pleaded with Sam. He was being very stubborn.

“I don’t want to turn them in until we know if you can go or not.”

Right after lunch Sam and I went to see Mrs. Britt. There were still spots open for the trip and when I voiced my concern over the price she told us that there were scholarships for three students. The school would pay for them to go. There was one left. I immediately offered up Sam’s name. Being that he was emancipated and worked so many jobs, Mrs. Britt helped to fill out the scholarship form and told us he would definitely be accepted.