Forget Me Not Read Free Page B

burns with a scream. I’ve got to get him out of here. He must know about my pendant, the brooch. Dammit. I wriggle to escape his vicelike grip, but it’s no use —he’s too strong.
    My hand darts toward the pendant. I snatch it, but he grabs my wrist. Adrenaline tries to pound my heart right out of its home in my chest. If only I can get the jewelry on, I might be able to make its magic work and hide.
    “Tech breech confirmed,” he speaks into his collar in a matter-of-fact tone; then he turns his gaze to me. “Give me the pendant.”
    There’s a tiny ripping sound, like Velcro torn open. A young guy in a black leather jacket flickers into my bedroom. A sharp gasp leaves me. I can’t escape one attacker, let alone two. Where the heck are these men coming from? I’m not going down without a fight, so I kick at my captor’s shins. The leather jacket guy wrenches the man’s grip from my shoulders and punches him square in the chin, knocking his head to the side. Shaking his head, the gas man stumbles backward.
    The jacket guy raises his knee and drives a foot into the other man’s stomach. The straight, hard kick makes a loud thud and forces the dude to double over and curl in on himself. The leather jacket guy crouches and drives his fist straight up into the man’s chin. It knocks him flat on his back like a felled tree.
    My chest rises and falls with my quickened breath. My heart thuds like a booming drum. The mysterious rescuer turns toward me, holding my gaze with intense, steady jade eyes. He grabs my assailant by the arm, and they both flicker out of my room.
    My mind spins.
    Legs, arms, body—I can’t move, but it doesn’t matter. Moving is the least of my worries. Who were they, and what just happened? The meter seemed to lead him straight to Mom’s pendant. Gas man, my ass.
    I clutch my head in an attempt to stop my mind spinning, but my hand slides off my sweaty forehead and falls against my tightened stomach. What if they come back? The guy in the jacket…
    What was that? The brooch, the pendant… my disappearing reflection. They wanted it. Damn.
    Sweat trickles down my forehead and into my eyes. I wipe it away with a trembling hand. Questions hurtle through my mind, all jumbling together as they race faster and faster in my mind. Seconds, minutes, hours I don’t know, but a single thought emerges through the haze of my mind.
    Will.

     

Chapter Two
     
     
    A deep drawn-in breath brings the familiar smell of grease and car and Will, which weakens my tense muscles. I twist my hands together in my lap and stare out the front window of his beat-up car, unsure of how I got here. Here where it’s always been safe. Safe to run to. Safe to hide. The only place that eased the gnawing pain of Mom’s disappearance.
    The passenger door squeaks open, and Will plonks himself onto the seat. He props a long leg on the dash, then his other leg over the first and shoots me a smile. “Hey.”
    I unclasp my hands and raise a thumb to my mouth, chewing on the soft side.
    Brow furrowed, eyes dark, he runs an idle finger round and round the gearstick. “What happened?”
    I open my mouth and it all tumbles out—the magic, the gas repair dude, the young guy in the leather jacket. At the end of my story, I start to crack. Now it’s all out, and there’s nothing to hold me together, nothing to separate brave and terrified. I am shattered glass. But Will’s here, and I’m safe.
    Tears roll down my cheeks, and my chest heaves with each racking sob. He reaches across the bucket seat and pulls me into an awkward, protective hug. My shoulders sag under his embrace.
    After a few minutes, he pulls back and looks at me, his eyes steady and clear as still water. I’m so lucky to have a friend who looks out for me, someone who usually has all the answers.
    “What are we going to do?” I ask.
    “It has to be the brooch, the invisibility.”
    I shake my head. “This is —I mean—magic doesn’t exist, Will. This