Darkside Sun by Jocelyn Adams Page A

reference,” he said, too quiet, too guarded, “pulling the thread. Tell me what you mean by that.”
    “Why are you asking me like you can’t see the black holes when they open?”
    “I have extra senses that tell me when there’s a disturbance in our reality and when a wraith is near, but you’re the only person I’ve ever met who can actually see the rifts and the phantom forms before they take a human body.” He leaned forward, eagerness radiating from him as he reached for me, paused, and then formed a fist he set down on his thigh. “We’ve been drowning in wraiths, but I think our founder has thrown us a lifeline. You.”
    He grabbed my pack from where it had settled on the floor and got out of the car.
    I sprung out after him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “It means that you’ve been destined to join us since birth, your future written into your genetic code. I’m not only a sentinel, Addison, I’m also a recruiter. You can call me Asher.” He stopped beside me, and something foreign spilled into his gaze. It took me a second to recognize regret.
    I shook my head. “No.” I pointed a finger at him as he moved closer. “You stay the hell away from me. I am not like you. I’m going home to my Dad.” To do what? my inner voice mocked. How could I protect him?
    “What is it you think we’re doing here? I’d bet my life that you’re a sentinel, and given what I’ve seen from you so far, I think you’re going to change everything. Why do you think I gave you our entire knowledge of the wraiths?”
    Clearly, I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Chapter 6
    The sun should have been warm against my skin, but I shivered. “I’m going to be an accountant,” I said. “My dad mortgaged the house so I could come here and study without having to work while I went to school. Mom abandoned us the day I was born. I won’t abandon him now, so you can just take whatever thought you’re having and shove it.” What he’d said earlier about Kyle, that he might have hated Green less if he’d bricked the gangly kid into a wall, finally made sense. “You didn’t give Kyle a choice about whether or not to join the Machine.”
    “We’re rare, and we’re too few for the growing incidents around the world,” Asher said. Calling him that seemed strange and inappropriate. “There’s never a choice for people like us.”
    “I told you, I’m not like you.” It was a whisper, but the lie rang in my ears like a gong. Was he human? Was I? Hell, yes. To think anything else would send me over the edge I teetered upon.
    “Keep telling yourself that, and maybe one day you’ll believe it.” He hiked up my pack and started toward the road. “Come. We have to go.”
    “I’m not going anywhere with you.” I dug into my pocket for my phone, hoping the half hour hadn’t passed for me to call Dad. “Just tell me how to protect my dad and go away.”
    “I intend to teach you all you need to know, but first you have to be inducted into our ranks so your abilities can be fully realized.”
    No way did I want any other weirdness to deal with. I imagined having to hunt and destroy the very things I’d been running from my whole life, having to walk away from school, from Dad, and from everything I knew. Green hadn’t specifically said where he’d be taking me, but I assumed it would be away from here. If I left Dad, who would he spend Christmas with? Who would take care of him when he was old and make sure he had underwear that wasn’t holier than the Catholic Church? Who would rock my kids to sleep if I ever had any? If I went with Green, the life I’d always thought lay ahead of me would never come to pass, and Dad would end up alone. My heart knew it was true.
    Palming my keys, I edged toward the driver’s-side door of my car.
    “If you fight me on this, I’ll have no choice but to take you by force, for your own safety as well as ours.” He stopped, his head tilted forward. “Come with