Clouded by Envy Read online

  More stirring—the sound of digging—spread through the tree. Bray leaped from the hammock and crept to the edge of the hole to peer out, just as she heard a loud grunt. A shovel struck the ground, and two filthy hands held the tool in his sweaty grip. No shirt, a headful of brown hair that fell past his earlobes, and no face. Well, he did have a face, but Bray couldn’t see it yet.

  Quietly, Bray pulled her small body from the edge and tightened her wings against her back, prepared to flee.

  Though she was practically on her stomach, Bray lifted her head back up to peep out of the hole to get a better look. Natural brown skin reflected the sun’s rays, and the guy was lean with well-defined muscle—but not to the point where it was ridiculous.

  Turning away from Mystery Face, Bray discovered he had a whole garden waiting to be planted: white roses, yellow daisies, and green bushes. She had no idea what the last ones really were, so she would just call them green bushes. Ruth had a beautiful garden once, until everything died, along with her.

  “Hey, I’m heading to school now. I’ll see you after,” a voice called from farther away. Bray’s gaze automatically turned to the back of the house where a small boy—who must have been about seven—stood. Bray was not very good at guessing ages, so maybe he was six. She wasn’t sure. He had a haircut that looked like a bowl sat on the top of his head with the hair parted and split smoothly down the center. It wasn’t as bad as some of the hairstyles she had seen when she used to watch TV with Ruth and Brenik, though. The boy’s baggy striped shirt fell to his knees, almost the same length as his shorts, hiding the remainder of his thin upper arms and legs.

  “Okay, Lu. Do you want me to drive you today?” Mystery Face twisted his neck to look over his shoulder at the little kid. Not a mystery anymore. He had a nice face that matched the kid’s younger one. Might be about twenty-five, possibly had the kid a little young, she decided.

  “No, I like the walk.” The kid smiled wildly and shifted the backpack on his shoulder.

  Nice Face set down the shovel and walked closer to the kid. “You sure, Luca? I’m about to head off to work, and it’s on the way.”

  “I got this. I gotta learn to take care of myself.”

  Nice Face’s expression turned into not such a nice face. “Someone bothering you at school?”

  “No, just gotta impress.” The boy’s—who Nice Face had called Luca—wild smile became a bit tamer and practically said there was no bullying to worry about.

  “O—kay,” Nice Face said almost skeptically, studying the kid for a few extra seconds. His tight shoulders seemed to relax a fraction. “Well, I’ll be home around four, so see you then. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.” Luca pivoted on his heels and gave Nice Face a tilt of the head goodbye.

  Nice Face picked the shovel back up off the ground and resumed his digging. Bray wondered where the mom was—probably already at work. Ruth’s house had been sitting there for a long time with a for sale sign in the front yard until about a month ago. Bray guessed the new family was finally there and must have moved in the day before.

  Growing bored of watching the guy dig holes, Bray crawled away from the open space and stood. She crashed down on the hammock, letting it sway her back and forth. What is on the list of things for me to do today? she wondered. Oh, that’s right, my usual—sleep. If Brenik was there, they would probably just sit in silence—at least that was better than being completely alone.

  Bray wasn’t sure how long she had drifted off for, but there was a puddle of wetness against her cheek when she woke up—okay, so it was only drool from herself. Lifting a hand up toward her cheek, she swiped the saliva away and rubbed it on to the hammock. Classy, she thought, but there was already some gathered there anyway.

  Remembering the events from earlier, Bray headed straight to the hole and peeked out. She shifted her head from left to right. Nothing. Bray looked up and down—she could see a few bushes had already been planted in the dirt.

  Then she saw it: a circular stone bowl filled with water sitting on top of a long thick stem, attached to a circular bottom. A birdbath! Almost giddily, Bray stepped on the ledge of the hole and leaped off, flapping her wings hurriedly to the nearest pink and yellow peach. Opening her jaw wide, she bit into the thin skin. A juicy one. The fruit filled her mouth with delicious pleasure, and she took one more long bite before diving down to the birdbath.

  The top of her newfound treasure was a perfect circle with tiny mounds around it resembling hills. Bray landed on the ceramic and bent down to take a seat, before placing her bare feet into the warm water that had been perfectly heated from the shining sun.

  Peering down at the clear water, Bray saw no sign of intrusion from other creatures yet. She rotated her head in every direction, as if she would be caught just by thinking about slipping into the water—still no sign of life.

  Flicking her braid over her shoulder, Bray pursed her lips together to hide the smile aching to shine against her face and jumped into the water. The splash echoed. Her bare feet scraped the rough bottom, while her dress inflated and then clung to her body as she shot to the surface. She let out a small giggle to herself. It was sad that the only highlight of the past year was hopping into a shallow pool of water with no one around except for her.

  She leaned back into the liquid, letting herself float and moving her arms slowly up and down, while swimming in figure-eight circles.

  Bray closed her eyes and let the water cover her ears, so it felt like nothing in the world existed, except for the muffled vibrations from the liquid.

  A loud booming sounded from above, and her eyelids thrust open, meeting dark brown eyes, light brown skin, and that black bowl hair. Tiny human. Luca.

  Freeze, Bray thought to herself, not even blinking her eyes. She held them wide open, thinking he wouldn’t notice her, or maybe he would just assume she was a bird. Even though he was staring at her and had spoken something she didn’t hear clearly.

  Nope. That isn’t going to work. He hovered closer, his eyes scrunched halfway closed to examine her more thoroughly. Unable to hold her eyes open any longer, Bray blinked several times.

  “What are you?” he asked, genuine amazement creeping into his words, lips slightly parted.

  “A bat!” Bray yelled, and she jumped up from the warmth of the water, darting straight for the tree hole.

  Breathing heavily, Bray landed inside and collided with the floor. She rolled to her back, running both hands down her face. “Why did I come out without paying attention? I know not to!” Ruth had always told her this.

  A quake trembled through the tree, causing shivers to run up and down her spine. What is the little beast doing? Oh no, what if he is trying to chop down the tree? My home—the peaches! Bray didn’t know why she was thinking about stupid peaches when there was another fruit tree directly next door.

  Despite the thunderous rumbling, Bray grabbed the needle from underneath her hammock and dodged toward the window. If the little beast thought he could take her down, then he had another thing coming. She would prick his eye—actually, she would poke both of his eyes to protect her and Brenik’s home.

  When Bray reached the edge of the window, the sound stopped. She peeped her head out of the hole, right as a face met hers, his black hair falling forward over a hazel eye—an eye she was going to poke. Startled, she jumped back instead of toward him.

  A broad smile crossed the little beast’s face. “Hello.”

  Freezing once again, until she remembered that the staying-still-as-a-statue strategy didn’t work in the birdbath, she meekly said, “Hi.”

  Bray brought the needle up toward his smiling face, just in case.

  “Are you planning on sewing something?” He tilted his head at the needle.

  “Yeah, your eyeball.” She gave him a hard glare.

  “What?” he asked while laughing hysterically.

  He was laughing? Not scared? Bray brought the needle closer. “Yeah, you need to leave and
never come back. This is my home.”

  “No. Technically, it’s my brother’s home,” he said, still smiling.

  “What brother? You mean your dad out there who was planting this morning?”

  Luca shook his head, and she didn’t miss the wince before he spoke. “No, that’s my brother, Wes. I don’t have a mom or dad.”

  Crestfallen, Bray lowered the needle. “Oh. Me neither. I only have a brother, but he will be gone for a while.” She paused and glanced at the note Brenik had left behind, her chest tightening. Then she shrugged it off and shifted her gaze back to the boy. “By the way, my name is Brayora, but you can call me Bray.” For some reason, she wasn’t worried anymore about the human.

  “I’m Luca Duran.” He plopped his thin fingers on the edge of the hole.

  “Yeah, I heard your name this morning, little beast. I mean, Luca.” She thought little beast suited him better than Luca.

  “Little beast?” He grinned.

  “Sorry, I thought you were trying to tear down the tree.” Softly, she lifted his fingers from the ledge of the hole.

  “Um, I don’t think I could do that without an ax. I’m not that strong.” He looked strong enough to her, even though he was much smaller than his brother.

  “How old are you anyway? Six?”

  Pulling his head back from the tree, Luca straightened his neck and narrowed his eyes. “What? I just turned ten and am in the fifth grade,” he said proudly.

  “Six… Ten… Same difference.” Human children his age all appeared to look the same to her.

  Luca cocked his head at her, as if trying to appear older than he was. “No, six is a baby. I’m no baby.”

  “You can keep on thinking that.” Bray laughed and set the needle back on the floor.

  “How old are you?”

  Bray tugged her shoulders back. “I’m twenty.”

  “So you’re old then, like my brother. He’s twenty-three.”

  Scowling, Bray placed her hands on her hips and took a step toward him. “What? I’m not old!”

  “My mom was nineteen when she had Wes, so it would definitely make you old.”

  Bray wasn’t sure how old her mother was when she had her and Brenik.

  “I’m going to ignore that statement,” she huffed.

  “Well, see ya.” Luca started heading down the tree, limb by limb.

  “Wait! That’s it?” Bray dove out, flapping her wings, and halting in front of Luca’s face as his feet struck the ground.

  “I need to eat a snack. I’m starving and just got home from school.” He brushed a few beads of perspiration away from his forehead.

  Her stomach growled at the word snack, and it was loud enough for Luca to hear.

  He hiked his thumb back at the door. “Do you want to come in?”

  “No. I don’t want to be seen,” she said half-heartedly. It was enough for one person to see her today, but it also felt good to have someone to talk to. Her gaze kept training on the door, and Luca didn’t miss it.

  “Wes isn’t home yet—and don’t worry, I won’t tell him.” He held his hand up in front of her face and crossed his index and middle finger.

  One tiny human who seemed trustworthy enough shouldn’t be a problem. Bray plopped down on Luca’s shoulder like they had known each other for an eternity, and he walked inside the house—Ruth’s house.

  Except it looked nothing like her home anymore and hadn’t in a very long time—after it was cleared out, Bray never went back inside. Now, there were boxes sprawled across the large living room. Against the wall was a floral couch, and diagonal from it sat two blue sitting chairs. A large box TV was propped in the center of the room, pushed up to the opposite wall. Bray ached to turn it on because it had been so long since she used one.

  Luca took out two blueberry muffins from the tiny pantry in the kitchen, padded into the living room, and set the wrappers on a rectangular wooden coffee table across from the sofa.

  Flipping on the television, Luca shuffled to the VHS tapes and popped one in that was already halfway through the movie. He swiveled back around and opened the wrapper of the muffin for Bray. She landed on the coffee table and focused on eating the blueberry part first.

  “So you’re a fairy, like from Peter Pan?” Luca asked, while he stuffed most of the muffin into his mouth, letting small crumbs fall into his lap.

  “No, I’m a bat.” Bray angled her head in the direction of the TV and pointed furiously at the furry creature with big ears on the screen. “Hey, we have those in Laith.”

  “A Mogwai?” Luca’s eyes bulged with excitement.

  “What? No, a Drogwai.” She had no idea what a Mogwai was, but that creature on the screen looked incredibly similar to a Drogwai.

  “Okay, well, Gizmo is a Mogwai,” Luca corrected.

  “That is incorrect.”

  “I’ll take your word for it, since you say you’re a bat and all,” he said with sarcasm lacing each word, and a big smile spreading, showing a row of crooked bottom teeth.

  Bray’s lips tugged to the side, but when she heard a car door slam shut outside, she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She had to get out of there.

  “Crap, Wes is home. Hurry!” Luca sprinted for the back door, tearing it open, and gesturing for Bray to escape. She zoomed out without a proper goodbye and pumped her wings as hard as she could toward the tree hole, until her body slammed against the floor.

  Hurriedly, while still out of breath, Bray gazed out the hole and saw Luca giving her a thumbs up from the glass window before heading back to his brother.

  3

  Brenik

  Ten Years Ago

  A bright white light seeped through the darkness, and Brenik felt a sudden shake under his feet. He turned toward Bray, but he could not see her face, only an outline. Still, he heard her whisper softly, “It will be okay, little brother.”

  He nodded in the dissipating darkness as the Stone of Desire’s arm pushed them farther and farther out toward the light. Brenik’s heart had not ceased pounding, and it needed more oxygen than his own lungs did.

  Skyscraping trees appeared in his vision: green and brown. They were tall and full of needle-like leaves he had never seen before.

  “Pine trees,” Brayora whispered as her blue eyes sparkled under the light. “Junah told me about how we have them on the other side of Laith.” But they were no longer in Laith.

  Junah had never discussed those things with him, but he had never asked her about leaves either. “Where are we?” he demanded, clasping his hands together while digging his index finger into the skin of the opposite hand.

  “You are on Earth,” the loud voice of the Stone boomed in Brenik’s head. He whirled around to see its face had already closed in.

  The Stone tilted its alabaster hand, and Brenik and Bray slid down until their backsides hit the dew-covered grass. Leaping up from the moisture, Brenik brushed the dirt from his wings.

  “What do we do now?” Bray inquired, calmly flicking a blade of grass from her brown dress.

  “You try and live. The girl will have the gift of survival.” Without another word, the Stone of Desire withdrew and curled itself back into the rose-shaped boulder, tucking its head in first followed by arms and legs. A low grumbling penetrated the air as the Stone slowly sank back into the dirt. The ground shook beneath their feet for several of Brenik’s heartbeats, until the Stone looked the same as when they first discovered it back in Laith.

  Running a hand through his shoulder-length black hair, Brenik turned to Bray and asked, “What do we do now? The Stone said you have the gift of survival, so what is it?” He could not understand why the Stone did not let them know what it was. A large part of him desperately wanted to go back home.

  Her nose crinkled as she thought. “I—I don’t know. I don’t feel any differently.” She took off on a sprint toward the rose stone and slammed her palm against it. Nothing happened. “Come back! I have more questions.”

  The realizati
on that maybe they should have stayed in Laith washed over Brenik. Shaking his head, he ran up beside Bray to set his hand beside hers on top of the cool stone. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

  Bray took a couple of steps back and turned around to take in the scene before them. “One sun. Look, Brenik, there is only one sun in the sky here.” She tugged on the edge of his brown tunic and pointed a finger at the light blue sky.

  Astonishment buried itself inside his chest as he gazed up at it. “The sky is blue! Not a pale pink like Laith’s sky, but blue.” It was beautiful. There were enormous, white puffy clouds pressed into the sky that contrasted with Laith’s, which were the darkest of grays.

  Flapping his inky wings and feeling the wind dance against his face, Brenik soared up to the top of a tree to look out as far as he could. Sharp points pricked his skin from the tips of the needle leaves, and he backed away in annoyance, a slight stinging sensation lingering on his arm.

  Bray appeared next to him, scanning the foliage, almost meticulously. “We have to be careful—we don’t know what species this place has. What if they are worse than Junah’s kind?”

  He could practically feel the blood boiling in his body, unable to hold the anger back. “Quit acting like you are in charge all the time, Brayora. I know what I am doing. I am not a youngling anymore, so stop treating me as such.”

  A sorrowful expression crossed her face, and Brenik instantly felt terrible for yelling at her. But there was also a little bliss at seeing the hurt there—maybe she would understand now how he felt.

  “I am sorry, I did not mean to yell at you like that. It is because I already miss Junah, and I am not sure what to do.” This was an unfamiliar place, and he had to learn new things—the idea frightened him.

  In understanding, she smiled as she nodded, and they decided to fly through the trees until they found something to eat. There were birds and insects, but he could not find one fruit tree anywhere in sight. A gurgling sound rumbled from Brenik’s stomach, and they flew until the edge of the forest neared, where there were no more trees to pass through.