Chapter Eight

Jace

I tapped McKenna's window, trying not to smile.

She was adorable, sitting there pounding the steering wheel. This girl was such a conundrum with the whole keeping everyone at arm's length, then swooping in and saving me like she had. And then right back to being standoffish when I tried to talk to her about it. I mean, who does that?

The irritated huffs and rolling of the eyes...it was a front, wasn't it? For what, I didn't know, but right then and there, I vowed to see through whatever was going on with us.

"Need a jump?" I said through the window.

She rested her head back and closed her eyes as her jaw tensed. The ring in her lip twitched, catching a hint of the lamppost light near her car, also catching my attention.

More than her lips did.

I shook the thought out of my head.

The door opened and I heard what sounded like the tailend of a wicked string of curses.

"My car's across the lot," I said. "I'll drive it over."

She let out a sigh, then said, "Thanks."

I all but sprinted across the nearly empty lot to my Outlander. I got in and my phone rang with Lily's Frozen ringtone. Well, it was the home phone, but she was the only one who called me from it. If my dad needed something, he usually sent a text.

"Hello?" I answered, worried something was wrong. 

"Story time! Daddy won't do it!"

Holy crap, she was still up? It was almost nine o'clock. 

"I won't be home for a while. You need to go to bed." 

"Jaaaaace! Please!"

I chuckled at the way she was whining. I could literally picture her slouching and her bottom lip pouted out. Where the hell was Dad, though? He'd probably just put her to bed and was downstairs doing his own thing.

He excelled at doing his own thing.

"Stay in bed. I'll be home in twenty minutes. I must rescue a fair maiden from car trouble."

"A fair maiden? Is she a princess?" she asked, her little voice reaching a new octave. "I bet it's a princess. Is she pretty? What's her name? Are you—"

"Lily." I tried to keep my tone serious, but my little sister was cracking me up.

"Byeeee!"

I chuckled and tossed my phone into the cup holder as I made my way toward McKenna. She'd popped the hood and leaned against the driver's side door, looking at her phone. 

She glanced skyward, then stomped her foot and shoved her phone in her back pocket. Her shoulders tensed along with her jaw, and right before my eyes, the happy McKenna from earlier, who I rarely saw, vanished.

I pulled up and lowered my window. "Everything okay?" "Fine." She glared at me for a second, then shifted her focus to the side. "I...need to get home."

"You sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine, can you just help me get my car started?"
I hopped out and gathered the jumper cables from my trunk, suddenly feeling like I'd eaten a few bad hot dogs. She looked upset, angry. Maybe even a little scared.

"Don't worry, fair maiden, I'll rescue you," I said, trying to cheer her up.

"I don't need rescuing."

"I was kidding. KOS joke." I connected the cables. "Settle down."

"Don't tell me to settle down."
"Relax a second and I won't have to."
"You're infuriating."
"But you still think I'm cute."
"Try delusional." Her face softened for a moment, but then tensed again.

She sat in her front seat and I got into mine. Pressing the gas pedal slightly, I gave her the thumbs-up. I heard her engine turn over a couple times, then finally catch.

"Yes." She pumped her fist.

I hustled to my car and removed the cables. "Looks like I saved you tonight, too."

"I'm still one up on you."

"Keeping score, huh?"

She humphed and removed the cables from her battery, but I could tell by the way her cheeks bulged that she was smiling. I found myself really wanting to see more of that.

"I see how you are."

"You don't see shit, Rovers." She slammed her hood down.

I shut my hood and gathered up the cables, watching her stomp back to her door. I remembered back when she was all smiles, like my sister Lily, and looked happy. Now...she looked angry. Sad.

"You pissed at what Joel said tonight?" I came alongside her car.

"Nothing I haven't heard before." She went to shut the door, but I grabbed it and leaned in slightly.

I knew I was pissed about it. When that nickname first came out, I'd hated it. My friends could be such dicks. Then again, what was I if they were my friends?

McKenna looked up at me, her eyes not entirely dark with anger like they were earlier. The streetlight we were under splashed its illumination over her smooth skin and, since I was towering over her, I got a great view of her face.

In this dim light, her big green eyes didn't look like the shallow end of the ocean anymore. No, they now looked more like the deeper end with lots of stormy waves. Like a blanket of sadness darkened them.

And I hated that.
"Thanks for the jump," she whispered.
I nodded, then shut her door and tapped the roof. And she was gone.

...

"You're home late," Dad said as I shut the door behind me. He stood in the kitchen, drinking from the milk carton, and had a microwave burrito in his free hand.

"Friend's car at the mall needed a jump start." I tossed my keys into the basket beside the door and snagged an apple from the wire basket on the center island.

"Applications?"

"Did one last night," I lied. "But yeah, I had a great day today, thanks for asking."

"How's...football?" He shifted his weight as if it were physically uncomfortable for him to ask me about my all- time favorite sport.

Something he didn't believe in, since it "wouldn't take me anywhere in life." If he'd had it his way, I'd be in math club, DECA, and all things business.

But I loved football and I loved writing. He knew about football and didn't care. And writing... He'd found one of my stories once, years ago, and brushed it off.

"Football's fine." I pointed toward the living room. "I'm going to go tell Lily a story. Night."

"She's sleeping," Dad said.

"No she's not." I shook my head. He didn't know anything, did he? "She can't sleep until she hears a story."

"Terrible habit you and your mother got her into."

I didn't even dignify that comment with a response. It was like his life's mission to rag on me about college applications, getting straight As, and everything besides just asking me how I was.

How the hell was I supposed to take that?

I buzzed down the hallway to Lily's room, but slowed up as I approached her door. I peeked around the corner and she was standing in the middle of her bed. She wore a glittery pink cape, held a wand in her hand, and was addressing her pile of teddy bears at the head of her bed.

"May a lowly servant address Princess Lily?" I said as I stepped into the doorway.

She whipped around and giggled. "You may."

I knelt to one knee and bowed my head. "Princess Lily. Will you do me the honor of listening to my new story?"

She squealed, then leaped off the bed. I opened my arms as I stood up and caught her.

"Lily! Careful." I spun and deposited her on the bed. "I wasn't ready."

"You'll always catch me, Jace!" She patted my cheeks. "Story!"

"Remember my Kingdom of Swords story?" I eased her under the covers and tucked her in.

"Yep. Mean Evil Queen."

"That's right. And Knight Ephraim, he's figuring out what the evil queen is plotting?" I settled onto the bed, atop the covers, and she leaned in to me.

"Knight Ephraim will stop her. Everything depends on it." She squirmed beside me. "He'll save the kingdom. He's a good guy! I like him."

"Yes." I kissed the top of her head. "But what if I threw him in the dungeon, keeping him from ever telling the prince of the evil queen's plot?"

"No!" She sat up. "Hear me out."

I told her McKenna's idea, in five-year-old speak, about how we'll think all hope is lost if the knight is gone, but it really opened the way for the unsuspecting heroine to emerge.

But when I'd told Lily it was a heroine that would come forward, I'd surprised myself.

Characters taking their arcs in different directions happened all the time when I was writing, but a heroine saving the day? Saving the prince? I hadn't planned for that.

"Is it the scary girl?" Lily asked through a yawn. "The dark-haired one? Don't remember...name."

Another yawn stole the words from Lily's mouth.

"You mean Masrin, right? No, well...maybe. Actually, I'm not sure."

Lily mumbled a few words as she fell asleep. The question about Masrin being the hero echoed around my mind as I made my way to my room. I pulled out my notebook and sat at my desk, hoping to be able to jot down the thoughts whirling through my mind.

Masrin was evil. Slinking around the forest searching through the gutters and finding the metal to forge the sword to kill the prince. What if there were more to her than what we thought? Something hidden within her. Magic. Power.

Like the character I was telling Lily about before. The ability to heal. Something. It'd be unexpected. But Masrin? She was too evil. Beyond saving.

Or was she? 

***********

Cliffhangers,

Hi! Happy Saturday! How are you? Things have been busy around here and I've fallen behind in my posting! :( I'm so sorry! 

What have you all been up to? What are you currently reading? Are you listening to any good podcasts? 

I've been listening to the Mountain Murders Podcast! It's really good and the stories are all about things that have happened near Asheville, NC (where I live)!

What did you you think of chapter eight? What do you think is going to happen next in KOS? 

I'll be posting another GUTTER GIRL update soon! 

Kelly Anne xoxo