Waken (The Woods of Everod Book 1) Read Free

‘93 Camry. To call it white would be generous. It was more of a camel shade, with rust patches growing along the wheel wells, but it worked and that was better than nothing. He’d spent his time after school last year working, while I’d spent it reading. Now I was stuck begging rides, unless I wanted to walk everywhere.
    “Let’s go, little girl!” he yelled through his open window. He laid on the horn, gesturing impatiently for me to get in. Blonde highlights shone in the morning light as he stuck his head out the window. “Come on! We have to follow them up to the hiking trail, so move your butt or we’re gonna miss them.”
    The All-American boy next-door. Yeah, right. If he hadn’t been my stepbrother, I might have found him cute, but after living with him for seven years, he just plain got on my nerves. We knew each other as well as any brother and sister, meaning that above all else, we knew how to push each other’s buttons. As much as I loved him now, he’d known how to drive me up the wall from day one. Today was no exception.
    I got in the car and yanked on my stiff seat belt, jamming it in to the buckle.
    “Morning,” he said with a wide smile.
    “Yeah,” I grunted in response. I still resented the way he could wake up early and be so cheery.
    His plugged his iPhone into an FM transmitter and turned the volume up so the speakers vibrated at full blast, adding to my grumpiness, but I didn’t want to push my luck. He would stop and dump me out if I dared to complain about his music in his car.
    When Justin began to sing off-key loudly, I shot him a dirty look. “Please?”
    “I’m sorry, is my music bothering you?” He smirked. A feeling of dread filled me. He wasn’t going to play nice this morning. Maybe he was worried that I’d actually manage to make a friend and he’d be left driving me around for the summer.
    It was weird for us when Tim and my mom got married, two ten-year-olds at opposite ends of the personality spectrum. Justin adapted quickly, like he does with everything. For him life stayed pretty much the same except a quiet little girl stared at him from the shadows. His outgoing personality and vivacious attitude towards life, so contradictory to my own, captivated me.
    The car jerked to a stop as Justin pulled into the library parking lot behind an old jeep.
    “I thought we were going hiking?” I asked.
    “Yeah, but I guess it’s a hard trail to find. We’re gonna follow some of them up there.”
    He waved to a couple girls as they hopped into their ride. The parking lot was full of people. Two weeks ago, heck, two days ago I would have sunk into my seat. Now I was preparing to thrust myself into their midst. I closed my eyes, and pictured how glorious the view would be at the top, only to have the guy from the library pop into the picture. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Yeah, right. If my reaction to him was anything to go by, I was doomed to humiliate myself in front of half the town.
    We followed the convoy of cars, curving through the mountains until we turned onto a dirt road. The suddenly bumpy road disrupted Justin’s grin. An ancient economy car wasn’t the best choice of transportation up a mountainside.
    Everod, Colorado hadn’t been my idea of a grand plan. Almost a month ago, Tim packed us up and we moved to the middle of nowhere, forty minutes from the closest town, Telluride, which didn’t say much. Tim thought nothing of moving. Since Elin left, we’d moved countless times. I think part of him was searching for her, hoping that with each new city he’d spot her in a crowd.
    Maybe that’s why we finally ended up here. This was her town. This was where she’d lived in the years before she had me and the only place she’d ever stayed for longer than a few months. It was where her mother had lived. Tim probably thought she’d come back here some day. I’m pretty sure he was also holding out the hope that if I connected with her roots I’d come to