stereo, a massive television, a piano, brass instruments, and music stands. A smaller version of the

dining table fills up the corner of the room overlooking the backyard. Dad gestures to it. “That’s where

Jace practices piano and does his homework, but you have a desk in your room if you prefer.”

“It looks completely different than two nights ago.” I look down the hall to the next door. “Let me

guess, the broom closet.” I knock, but it’s not a guess. I know. I also know it doesn’t have a handle from

the inside.

I hurry past it. Three doors are on my left but one of them is the balcony door. The other two face

each other, with a few feet of cream carpet separating them.

“Yours and Jace’s rooms.”

Of course.

Dad braces the handle on the door to the left. “This is your space, Cooper. You can decorate it

however you like.” He pauses, glancing toward Annie’s room. “You’re always welcome here. I hope

you will consider this your home, too.”

I draw in a breath when he opens the door.

A double bed fit with a dark blue bedspread faces me. A desk rests by the windows, and a set of

drawers with a mirror is perched on top of it. The walls are covered in square cubbyholes a couple of

inches deep. They are empty, but for seven.

I recognize the stones inside them. They’re the ones I left behind when I ran away the first time.

“Th—thanks, Dad.”

He clasps my shoulder. “There’s a port for your iPod by the bed.”

I want to hug him. I want to turn around and squee like I’m small again, but I give him a nod

instead.

“Right,” he says. “I’ll let you get settled in.” He leaves, but it’s slow, like he’s reluctant to turn

away in case I shut myself in my room like Annie does.

“I’ll come down soon,” I say, but my volume drops as I spot Jace shuffling down the hall. He

doesn’t see me. Ha! One point for me. He glances at the broom closet and bows his head the rest of the

way to his room. I lean against the doorjamb.

He sighs, opens his door, and faces me. I open my mouth to say something, but I don’t know what

to say.

He rests against his doorframe and folds his arms. “It was a dickweed thing to do.” He lifts his gaze

to mine. “I’m sorry.”

“I said we’re even.”

I close the door and collapse onto my bed. A brilliant flash of orange lightning flashes across the

ceiling, reminding me of citrine and Halloween. The first sounds of thunder crack the sky. Shivering, I

worm underneath my covers and wonder when the storm will end.

moonstone

On my third week living at Dad’s, I return from school early.

Usually I hang out with Ernie and Bert at Schmoos Café or the waterfront—anything to avoid the

awkwardness of going back to Dad’s—but I have a test for science tomorrow and I want a perfect score.

I pull out the key Dad gave me and enter his castle.

Piano music sounds from upstairs; I’m heading there anyway so I move toward it. It’s full and loud

with tinkling interruptions. It’s complicated, as if proving a point. The music stops and starts. At the

fiddly-sounding part, a curse replaces the chord, and someone bashes the keys in annoyance.

I jog upstairs and stand outside the gaming room where the music is coming from. The door is ajar.

I peep through the crack and stare at Jace, who’s bent over the piano and knocking his head against the

keys. I allow myself to watch.

Jace straightens, glances at his sheet music, and plays the piece again. Every now and then, his

hands stray into my field of vision as he works the higher notes. His nimble fingers make quick, precise

work of the notes and he easily dominates the tricky part.

It’d be too easy to slink off and pretend I didn’t hear, so I push open the door and clap loudly,

whistle even louder. Whether I like Jace or not, I appreciate his skills.

Jace practically flies off his piano stool. “Wh—what? You’re home early.”

“Test to study for.” I drop my bag against the door. “You sound good.”

Jace glances over his shoulder at the piano and the sheet music that fell as he leaped up.

“You like the piano?”

He shifts from foot to foot. “Yeah. So what?”

Why is he so defensive? “I meant it’s cool. I like music.”

He studies me, then sits back on the piano stool. “Yeah. I want to study music but Mum says the

music business doesn’t offer many jobs. Especially for a pianist.” He shrugs. “But as they say, even if

you can’t do, you can at least teach.”

I grin. “Keep practicing. I’m in my room.”

“Won’t be too annoying?”

I shake my head. “I always listen to music when I work.”

“I start and stop a lot. Especially with this bitch of a piece.” His smile tells me he loves the

challenge of wooing the music until he owns it.

Is that how I look when I hold my rocks?

“Later, Jace.” I drag my bag to my room, followed closely by Jace’s “later” and the tinkling of

keys.

* * *

Later comes sooner than I predicted. That night, Jace charges into my room and drags me out of

bed. “Shhh,” he says, jamming a finger to his lips. When I ask what the heck is going on, he presses his

warm finger to my mouth. “Just be quiet, would you? Put your shoes on.”

The light of the full moon slithers into my room through a gap in the curtains. Jace is dressed in

jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt that’s inside out.

I pull on a pair of pants over my boxers, shove my bare feet into my Puma shoes, and shrug on a

light jacket. I’m too curious to put up a fight or demand to know details. I follow him downstairs and

out the backdoor. He closes it quietly. Usually a sensor light comes on but apparently Jace has

disengaged it.

When we head into the thick of trees, my pace begins to lag. Pines loom above me, basking in a

silver glow as they stretch toward the sky. “Jace, where are we going?” And why are we out here

together?

Twigs snap and leaves crunch as he continues walking. “It’s been bugging me,” he says.

A breeze on the cusp of summer blows his words back to me. I quicken my step until I’m next to

him. “What has?”

His lips part but he closes them and shrugs. I hate his shrug. I want to know what he’s hiding.

“Come on.” I shake my head. “You can’t expect me to follow you out into the bush in the middle of

the night!”

He smirks. “And yet here you are.”

“Wipe the grin off your face.” But I’m feeling one twitch at my lips too.

We walk around a bend of a hill where water from a creek tinkles nearby. At the bottom of a steep

bank covered in tree roots, Jace stops. “I want to make up for shutting you in the closet.”

I frown. Dragging me into the woods with a sinister smile is the way to do it?

He chuckles nervously and holds out his hand, which strikes me as strange. “Do you trust me?”

I shake my head. “Not really.” But I grab his hand, which is rougher and warmer than mine. He

leads me to a parting in the bank. “A cave?”

He squeezes my hand. “I discovered it last year. It’s small, a bit bigger than the two of us, but it’s

cool. Keep to whispers inside, okay?”

He ducks into the cave and pulls me in with him. He’s standing incredibly close so I can’t see much

else. For a second, I fluster, panic rising like it did in the broom closet. Why did he take me here! Why?

Why? Why?

Jace whispers, “Wait. No. Turn around. Look outside. You’re not trapped.”

I gradually relax as I take in the vines and the curve of the stream.

Jace releases my hand. “Since you want to be a geologist, I thought you’d get a dig out of this.” He

smirks and steps back, opening up the view.

Hundreds of green lights speckle in bunches over the entire cave. “Glowworms!”