Supernaturally (21 page)

Meet Me in the Middle

H
onestly
, you little brat,” Arianna said, carefully putting the finishing touches on my splint, “if I’d known you were going to be so high maintenance, I wouldn’t have agreed to be your roommate.”

I smiled, my teeth gritted against the pain. “I love you, too, Ar.”

“And you’re an idiot, by the way. If you had let me talk to you, I would have explained that I took the liberty of putting together applications for you to American University and George Washington University, both of which are a quick train trip away from Georgetown.”

“You—what?”

“And if those don’t work out, I’m more than willing to use my vampire tricks on an admissions officer. Just because I can’t have a life doesn’t mean I’m going to let you be so stupid about yours. You can thank me later.”

I stared, shocked. I didn’t know what to say. I’d been so set on Georgetown, I’d never been willing to think of other options. I was beyond touched that Arianna had been watching out for me like that.

Of course, being close to Lend might not matter anymore.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital right now?” Raquel’s eyes were still tight with worry. She’d come immediately to David’s house when Jack told her I was gone. They sat now, shoulder to shoulder.

“It can wait until tomorrow.”

Raquel heaved a
why must you be so stubborn
sigh, then shook her head. “I can’t believe it about Jack. We’ll be on the lookout for him; if we catch him, the iron cells will hold him. The little demon can’t make doors there. Speaking of which, I’m still not sure how you got out of the Paths alone.”

“I don’t know. Reth and Jack both said you had to have a sense of the place you wanted to go, have a connection to it. For Reth it was names; for Jack it was seeing it before. For me it was—” I blushed, looking over at Lend, who sat next to me, but not touching-me-next-to-me. “Well, it was you. All of you. Once I focused on memories of you, I sort of felt my way here.”

Arianna looked confused. Admittedly they had a lot to take in, between the whole Jack-is-a-psychopath-who-wanted-me-to-destroy-a-species thing, and also the turns-out-I’m-less-human-than-we-thought thing. Lend stayed silent the whole time, which made me increasingly nervous. Was he going to be awkward around me now? I still loved him, I always would, and I’d do whatever he wanted with our relationship, but this whole not-touching-not-talking thing was gonna have to end.

Okay, so maybe I wasn’t quite ready to let him go.

Okay, I’d probably never be ready to let him go.

Arianna frowned. “But when you were stuck in the Paths, why didn’t you call that one faerie, your father? Didn’t Reth tell you his name?”

My jaw dropped. “Bleep. Wow. It didn’t even cross my mind.” I couldn’t believe how stupid I was, ready to rot and die on the paths when I knew a faerie name other than homicidal Fehl’s. But that meant something, too. When it came down to it, I didn’t even think of my “father” or where I came from. I thought of the people I had, the people who meant something to me.

So that whole faerie parentage thing? Screw it. Knowing where I came from didn’t change who I was. My stupid father could rot in the Faerie Realms for the rest of eternity. He was nothing to me.

And I most definitely was
not
nothing.

Too bad I couldn’t have figured that out before destroying my relationship with the love of my life. I had messed everything up, so fixated on trying to create my ideal of a life and so paranoid about losing Lend and being hurt that I sabotaged myself. I looked over at Lend, wishing he’d do something, say something.

As if in answer, he stood and held out his hand. “Can we go for a walk?”

“Sure!” I let him help me up, unsure whether or not I could keep holding his hand. But he didn’t let go as he led me outside and down the path toward the pond. He stopped abruptly halfway there.

“I can’t—” His face twisted somewhere between anger and sadness. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. Why?”

I couldn’t stand to look at his face, so I studied the blanket of dead leaves on the ground. “You’re the most important person in my life, the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I kind of hate that, how much I love you. Because I’ve been left a lot in my life, and loving you meant that it’d happen again. The thought of watching you drift away, become someone like your mom who couldn’t love me anymore—it’s easier to get it over with sooner. It won’t kill me now, I don’t think, but it might later. And I’m sorry, I should have told you, but I thought if you didn’t know we could make it work somehow. You always made me feel warm, forget the emptiness. It was selfish, and it wasn’t fair of me. Everyone deserves to know what they are.”

“Evie—you—GAH!” Lend shouted, and I looked up at him, surprised. He had both hands clenched into fists and was staring up at the sky. After a few seconds he looked back at me, all the anger gone from his face. “I’m not an immortal.”

“But I saw—”

“I know what you saw, and I’m sure you were right, but
being
immortal doesn’t make me
an
immortal. Don’t treat me like I’m my mom. She’s always been that way—she can’t be any other way. She doesn’t grow, she doesn’t change. Are you saying that I’m the same?”

“Of course not!”

“Then don’t act like I have no choice! I’ve never wanted that life, that world. And I know I’ll have to decide what to do someday, but bleep, Evie, I’m eighteen! I don’t have to face forever for a long time yet.”

“But you will, eventually.”

He rolled his eyes. “You act like I’m gonna pack my bags and jump in the nearest river next week. Which would be a terrible idea because I have a huge paper due. That isn’t my world. This is. And I’m going to live out my life the way I want to. Which is by getting a degree, and making leaps and strides in cryptozoology, and having kids, and being ridiculously conventional aside from helping take care of paranormal creatures and being able to shape-shift. And I am going to do all that, every minute of it, with the girl that I love, who is going to promise to
always
be truthful with me about
everything
from now on so that I can actually be there for her.”

I blinked back tears. This was exactly what I wanted to hear, what I hadn’t dared hope I would hear. But he didn’t know. How could he be sure? “What if you change your mind? I don’t even know how long I’m going to live.”

He stepped forward to close the distance between us as he rested his forehead against mine. “The only life I want is one with you. I don’t understand this gap you see between us, but can’t you meet me somewhere in the middle?”

“The middle of what?”

“I don’t know, the middle of tomorrow and forever, the middle of life and death, the middle of normal and paranormal. Where we’ve always been.”

I bit my lip, nodding against his forehead. “There’s a place for us there, right?”

“Always.” He put his lips to mine, sealing our own little spot in the world. Together.

Acknowledgments

T
urns
out writing the second book in a series isn’t as easy as you’d think. Or maybe you thought it would be really hard, in which case clearly you are smarter than I am. So, as usual, I have many people to thank for getting this book out there. Perhaps I should start interspersing these paragraphs with kissing scenes to reward you for reading them.

First and foremost, my adorable genius of a husband. Thank you for all the Saturdays you took the kids to the beach while I sat locked in the library. (Wait. Maybe
you
should be thanking
me
for that.) Thank you for your unfailing belief in me. Thank you for no longer suggesting I kill Evie in every scene; I kind of like her alive. Most especially, thank you for making me laugh every single day of my life. I love you, Hot Stuff.

(Sorry, no kissing scenes between Noah and me. Much as I enjoy kissing him, that would just be awkward.)

Elena and Jonah, you are endless sources of delight and joy. Watching you grow is the greatest privilege of my life, and there is no title I am prouder of than “Mom.”

Mom and Dad, you are the best parents anyone could ask for. Kit and Jim, thanks for having the best son ever and letting me marry him. Erin, Todd, Lindsey, Keegan, Lauren, Devin, Matt, Tim, Carrie, Seth, Shayne, Eliza, Christina, Josh, Emma, Beverly, Thomas, Colton, Dee, and Mary: I’m really glad to be related to all of you. And really glad I don’t have to get gifts for everyone at Christmas, because boy there are a lot of you.

Natalie Whipple, thank you for being there. Thank you for reading my stuff as I write it and overlooking the first draft issues to help me finish so I can clean up the mess. I couldn’t write without you. Stephanie Perkins, none of my drafts are ever done until they have passed muster with you. Your brilliant advice always makes my writing even more
mine
than it was before. I’m so grateful to count both of you among my dearest friends.

(Okay, I’m not going to kiss Natalie or Steph, either. Even though I love both of them.)

Cristina Gilbert, my awesome marketing director, and Kim Bouchard, the publicist for
Paranormalcy
; Christina Colangelo, Kristina Radke, and Caroline Sun, the marketing and publicity team behind
Supernaturally
, thank you all for your enthusiastic and greatly appreciated efforts on Evie’s behalf. Torborg Davern and Alison Donalty, your covers are freaking works of art. Thank you for dressing Evie’s books in a way she would flip out over. If she were real. Which she is not, but I do enough flipping out for ten imaginary characters. Tyler Infinger, thank you for assisting and otherwise being awesome. Any day I get a package with your name on it is a good day.

(Guys, I just don’t know who should kiss who. Imaginary characters? Real people? I want to thank Snow Patrol, Paramore, and Ingrid Michaelson, but I don’t think they should kiss each other. However, if anyone tried to kiss Lend, Evie would Tase them, and then the acknowledgments would get way too violent.)

Erica Sussman, brilliant editor extraordinaire, you are nothing but a joy to work with. I am so glad that I get to create these books with you. Thank you for the editorial letters that fix what needs fixing but are generous with the smiley faces. Even your handwriting makes me happy.

Michelle Wolfson, I’m not usually one to believe in fate but you and I were meant to be. Thank you for being my tiny spitfire agent of awesome. I’m so lucky to have you on my side as an agent and friend. You are unbelievably wonderful.

(The other question is, are you looking for a full-on kiss? Or maybe a friendly peck? I don’t think tongue is appropriate for an acknowledgments section. I’m totally over-thinking this. Curses.)

And finally, to my readers. You. Thank you for reading
Paranormalcy
, telling your friends about it, writing me notes, and everything else you did that buoyed me up and helped it to be such a success. I hope you loved
Supernaturally
just as much; I can’t wait to show you where Evie’s story ends in the next book.

(I know—I love you all so much, how about
I
kiss
you
? Then again, that would take a very long time, depending on how many of you read this. And it could lead to some awkwardness, since I would be going in for the cheek, but what if you turned your head the wrong way, and we bonked noses, or maybe your significant other misinterpreted the cheek-kiss as something more than friendship, and then we’d have to say, “No, no, it’s just to make the acknowledgments more interesting!” but it would be this whole mess and really we’re probably better off if I just give dramatic air kisses to everyone.)

So. “Kiersten lifted her hand to her lips, grinning impishly (as there are few better ways to grin, in her opinion) as she blew exaggerated kisses to everyone reading the acknowledgments section to show them how much she appreciated them for joining her imaginary worlds.”

About the Author

KIERSTEN WHITE
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
PARANORMALCY
. She has one tall husband and two small children. She lives near the ocean in San Diego, where her days are perfectly normal. This abundance of normal led her to a fascination with all things paranormal, including but not limited to faeries, vampires, and pop culture. Visit Kiersten online and read her blog at www.kierstenwhite.com.

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Praise for Paranormalcy

“Strong characters, a clever premise, and a hilarious voice all team up to make
Paranormalcy
the most refreshing paranormal debut of the year.”

LISA MCMANN

New York Times
bestselling author of the Wake trilogy

“A fast, flirty roller coaster of a ride. This story was everything I hoped for—sassy, light-hearted and downright scary. Oh, bleep! I’m in love!”

BECCA FITZPATRICK

New York Times
bestselling author of
Hush, Hush

“
Paranormalcy
seduced me. The two sexy paranormals who vie for Evie’s affections each had their own victory; one won Evie’s heart and the other won mine.”

APRILYNNE PIKE

#1
New York Times
bestselling author of
Wings

“Kiersten White creates the perfect blend of light and dark. Even as the stakes rose higher,
Paranormalcy
’s narrator, Evie, kept a smile on my face with her cunning wit. I can’t wait for more!”

CARRIE RYAN

New York Times
bestselling author of
The Forest of Hands and Teeth

“First-time author White shows the technique and polish of a pro in this absorbing romance, which comes closer than most to hitting the Buffy mark.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“This witty novel hilariously challenges notions of dreamy vampires, along with many other common assumptions about paranormals. The romance is keenly realistic, and Evie herself is a memorable character.”

—
The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“A fast-paced, entertaining debut. Alternately funny and tragic but never maudlin, White’s debut will have broad appeal.”

—
ALA
Booklist

“Good, romantic entertainment.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“Perky, insolent, fearless, and insecure, teenage girls will recognize themselves in Evie. Likely to be a popular read.”

—
VOYA