Innocence and Evil (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles #6) Read Free Page A

eyes widened a little bit, but she
didn’t really look too surprised. “Well, let’s go then.”
    I pulled out of the drive and passed through
the gate, which opened before I got to it and closed behind me.
Oscar could see us on the security cameras so he knew when to open
and close it.
    Huge clouds of dust and gravel sprayed out
behind us as we sped over the dirt back roads. After a little
while, I turned onto a tiny road that, in reality, could hardly be
called a road. Branches from the overgrowth scratched at my truck
and the ruts dipped really low in some spots.
    It wasn’t long before the road began to
slope upward. We continued like that, going up further and further
until Christina glanced over at me and sarcastically asked. “Are we
there yet?”
    “Nope.” I shook my head. “We’re going all
the way to the top.
    Narrowing her eyes, she nodded. “Yeah, that
makes sense. You’re trying to get as close as you can so he can
hear you.”
    “It’s dumb. I know.”
    “No, it’s not. It’s smart,” she argued.
    I shrugged. “Maybe, but it probably won’t
work anyway.”
    “Maybe it will and maybe it won’t. It’s
worth a shot either way.”
    She had a point. I was going to try it, one
way or another.
    Eventually the narrow, winding dirt road
opened way and crested into a wide area at the top of the mountain.
The trees were spread further apart than they were coming up,
leaving a wide area at the summit. I parked, making sure the
emergency brake was on, and took a moment to look around.
    “This is amazing,” Christina breathed.
    “It is,” I agreed.
    Below us, we could see for miles and miles.
The green expanse of trees drifted on like a blanket covering the
earth. Here and there a few tiny rooftops could be seen, as well as
the two nearby lakes.
    Christina opened the passenger door and
stepped out. “I’m glad I came with you, if for no other reason than
this,” she said.
    I rounded the truck and stepped up beside
her. Reaching out, I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Me too.”
It felt good to get out, to get away from everything in real life.
Way up here, we were on top of the world, far from all our
troubles.
    While there was no wind down below, there
was a heavy breeze up on the mountain. It caught Christina’s hair
and lifted the dark locks, blowing them every which way. I released
her hand and stepped closer to the edge of the summit.
    “Warrior Angel!” I called out. Even though I
was yelling, my voice seemed lost in the wind. “I need you!”
    Christina stayed back and let me do my
thing. I waited a few minutes and when nothing happened I tried
again. “You can’t leave me here like this. I’ve tried to live up to
what you have wanted. I have tried, dammit! But, I don’t know how.
Please help me.”
    Again, I waited, and again there was
nothing.
    “Some angel you are. You’re just like my
father. To create me and then leave me. To give me these powers and
then disappear, making me an outcast in my own world. Your just
like him and he was a vampire … you are supposed to be the good
guy!”
    I stepped back from the edge and bent over
so that I was staring at the ground. I was breathless from yelling.
I hadn’t realized that my abandonment issues ran so deep. Screw
that … screw them both.
    Inhaling deeply. I straightened and turned
to Christina. “Let’s go. I should have known better than to think
this would work.”
    She reached out for my hand and the wind
picked up even more. The gust was so strong it practically blew me
off the side of the mountain. The sky darkened as a cloud passed
over the sun.
    I grasped Christina’s outstretched hand and
we both tilted our faces to the sky.
    “Holy crap,” Christina whispered.
    “Yeah,” I agreed.
    A massive dark gray cloud was making its way
across the sky, blocking out the clear blue canvas of the day.
“It’s going to storm.” I tugged on her hand. “We better go.” The
last thing I wanted to do was be stuck on