Sisters Of Salt And Iron. Kady Cross

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      I pressed my fingers to my mouth and smiled. I felt light—ridiculously happy. Who knew that boys held such power in their lips?

      I spun around, laughing out loud as I whisked myself away from Haven Crest. As I drifted away I saw two leaves fall from the tree. They drifted down to the ground where Noah and I had sat. They each fell alone but ended up together on the grass, stems entwined. Somehow, they’d found each other.

      I danced all the way home.

      LARK

      I woke up late, a little sore from the fight with Daria, but otherwise fine. I would have been up earlier, but I’d stayed out late with Ben. Memories of how we’d passed the time made me warm all over. God, that boy knew how to kiss. Where to touch...

      What the hell was that sound?

      Slowly, I pushed myself up onto my elbows and looked out into the dimness of my room. There was Wren dancing and singing under her breath in front of my mirror. She kept changing her outfits and hairstyles like a movie montage. All she had to do was think it, and she could look it. I hated that about her. It took me forty minutes to get ready. It took her four seconds.

      I’d never seen her like this. She was grinning like an idiot, and I’m pretty sure she was singing a Taylor Swift song. She was also wearing a dress exactly like the one Belle wore to dance with Beast in the Disney movie.

      “That yellow clashes with your hair,” I grumbled, beating down the blankets.

      She yelped, and so did I. What the hell? I’d never startled her before.

      “Are you okay?” I asked, frowning at her. She looked...sheepish. I guess I would be, too, if I’d been caught in that dress.

      “I’m fine,” she chirped. “Just bored waiting for you to wake up. It’s about time.”

      My gaze narrowed. There was definitely something up with her. “Where did you end up last night? I was surprised you weren’t here when I got home.”

      She shrugged and looked away. “I went to the Shadow Lands for a while. Nothing exciting.”

      My ass. But, hey, if she didn’t want to talk about it, she didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t like it when she nagged me, so I wasn’t going to nag her.

      Except... “You’d tell me if you were in trouble, right? Like if something awful happened?”

      She frowned, dark red brows lowering over eyes that were exactly like mine. “Of course. Just because I wasn’t with you doesn’t mean something terrible happened.”

      But something had. I was willing to bet it was Kevin. He’d left the dance early, too. At the time I’d assumed a high school dance wasn’t all that interesting for a guy in college, but now I suspected he’d run off to hang out with my sister. If he broke her heart, I was going to break his head.

      “Why are you looking at me like that?” Wren demanded, the ball gown melting away into leggings and a long, slouchy sweater.

      “Like what?”

      “Like you want to punch me in the face.”

      “Sorry. It’s not you I’d like to punch.” I threw back the covers. “Gotta pee.”

      She came into the bathroom with me, phasing through the wall. Ghosts didn’t have the same personal boundaries as the living. Wren never had a full bladder, the cow, so she didn’t get that emptying it was often a private thing.

      “Did you have a good time last night?” she asked, sticking her fingers through the shower curtain as she turned her back to me. At least she gave me a little privacy.

      “I did—obviously after we got rid of Daria.”

      Wren frowned. She looked disappointed. “I was so sure that it was her love for Mr. Fisher that kept her here, not revenge.”

      “When love goes bad, it goes bad. Happens all the time.” I flushed and washed my hands. “Not like they had a chance at happiness with her being a ghost.”

      “You know, for a girl with a boyfriend, you’re terribly cynical about love.”

      “No, I’m not.” I pulled on my pink fuzzy robe. “I just believe it works better if both people are on the same side of the veil.” I gave her a pointed look, hoping my meaning hit home.

      She thought about it. “Well, that certainly makes intercourse easier.”

      I stared at her. Gaped, actually. “What?”

      Wren looked at me like I was slow. “Intercourse. You know, interaction between two people.”

      “I think you mean discourse. Intercourse means sex.”

      “Oh.” A look of understanding took over her face. “It really would make that easier, then, wouldn’t it?” Then, she burst out laughing and so did I.

      Our grandmother wasn’t home when we went downstairs. Sometimes Nan and a couple of her girlfriends went shopping on Saturday mornings and then went for tea afterward. I didn’t expect to see her anytime soon.

      The coffee was still hot. I filled the biggest mug I could find and dumped in some flavored sweetener until it was the perfect color. I drank it while waiting for my bagel to pop.

      “That’s a lot of cream cheese,” Wren remarked when I sat down at the table, breakfast in hand.

      I picked up half the bagel and took a big bite. I could feel cream cheese smear against the outside edges of my mouth. I had been a little heavy-handed. “It’s the best part.”

      She shrugged. “If you say so.” Wren had experienced food before. Sometimes I’d let her possess me so she could experience things, but while she enjoyed the taste of cookies or chocolate, or even hot wings, she didn’t understand eating for pleasure. To her a little cream cheese was the same as a lot.

      I actually felt sorry for her when it came to that.

      “Hey, can ghosts have intercourse?” I asked as the coffee kicked in. “The sex kind, not the conversational type.”

      She stuck her tongue out at me. “We have all the same parts the living have, so I have to say yes.”

      But she didn’t know for certain. My sister was still a virgin. The idea that she might remain that way forever was a little...depressing. It wasn’t any of my business, but sometimes... Sometimes it was upsetting thinking of all the things I could experience that she never would.

      Then again, I’d never know the sublime pleasure of being able to scare someone so effectively their bladder never worked properly again.

      “Mostly ghosts merge their energy,” she continued. “It’s more of a literal ‘becoming one’ with one another.”

      “What if everything gets all mixed and you, like, leave part of yourself in the other ghost?”

      She frowned. “I don’t know.”

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