Souljacker by Kodilynn Calhoun

nine, full and content. Then little-me at the funeral
a week later, begging Mom to open her eyes, begging to know what
had happened to her. They called it a freak accident, but a little
piece of my heart was buried with her that day.
    “I know what you mean.” I slump back against
the wall, my arms crossed over my chest.
    Our eyes meet and Caddie shakes her head.
“The fire got hotter and hotter inside me, vying for a way out. It
made me angry and I just wanted to burn things. When I was seven, I
threw a fit because my brother tattled when I melted one of his
toys. I literally had a meltdown. The house burned down and we
barely got out. It was bad. Real bad. Then we realized I needed an
outlet. I needed to be able to expel the fire in a constructive way
in order to keep from flaring.”
    “Like my surges.”
    “But I have an idea.” I stare at her,
expecting her to continue, but instead she gathers up her bag and
books on the counter and unlocks the door. “Meet me at my house
after school and we’ll talk. I live on Eaden, back behind the Asian
Grocery. Tiny house. Huge ass fence in the back yard. Barky dog.
You can’t miss it.”
    “Caddie—”
    “Later, Luce,” she says with a grin and ducks
out the door. It clicks shut behind her, leaving me in the empty
bathroom. Crap. I have a couple of options. I can skip my last few
classes and have the principal call Mr. Rockwell, or I can bully
through the rest of the day even though people are going to gossip
and stare. Ugh. Not great choices.
    I sigh and grab my bag off the back of the
stall door. Sync beeps inside and I open the flap. She whizzes
around the room for a moment before coming to hover in front of my
nose, a worried expression on her digital face. “What’s going
on?”
    “I’ll explain on the way to Caddie’s, I
guess,” I tell her and stuff her back down in my bag. She lets off
another round of annoyed beeps and I can’t help but chuckle. I
sling my bag over my shoulder and pull the door open. I can get
through the rest of the school day. Mr. Rockwell would have too
much fun grounding me otherwise.
    As always, the day sucks.
    My destination’s the Asian Grocery, but I
find myself standing at the mouth of Freak’s alley. No. Iofiel’s
alley. I half expect to see him flopped on one side, ears perked
up, tail wagging. Waiting for me. I jerk my head up as there’s a
crash down past the dumpsters. My heart lifts with hope, but then a
mangy yellow tom cat comes padding towards me with trash in his
mouth and it sinks again.
    Why am I even here, anyway? To apologize to
him for ruining our date? To demand to know why he’s even bothering
with me when he’s not even human himself? Can Fae-made creatures
even love?
    I shake my head and keep walking. It doesn’t
matter. He’s not around and the way that cyberhound tackled him the
other night, I don’t blame him. I’m not safe for him anyway. It’s
better this way.
    Still, it doesn’t ease the ache in my
heart.
    Caddie was right, in the end: I really can’t
miss her house. It’s a cracker box with a roof, painted a sickly
shade of mint green. Old Christmas lights are strung around on the
front porch. I mill around out front for a few minutes, hesitating
about knocking on the door, before I head out back. Sure enough,
there’s a seven-foot high privacy fence shielding a large back
yard. I cup my hands around my eyes and peer through the slats.
    A huge but skinny white pit bull lunges at
the fence, paws scraping wood as it lets out a barrage of
ear-piercing barks. I scramble back, my heart in my throat, and
kick at the fence. “Slag,” I hiss and Sync tutts at me.
    “That’s what you get for marching around on
private property!”
    “Lucy!” Caddie’s voice rings out and I back
away from the fence line. She’s got the front door swung wide open,
her head poked out and a grin plastered on her face. She shuts the
door behind her and hops down the porch steps. “I would’ve offered
to let