Intangible Read Online Free Page B

nowhere and disappearing into the night. What a whole lot of weirdness. She glanced at the clock on her bedside table: 1:34 A.M. It was late.
    Her eyes flicked back to Luke’s face and narrowed. “What are you—”
    “Doing up? I could ask you the same thing.”
    She closed her mouth, a small movement, and just looked at him for a moment. He was waiting up for her when he should be sleeping. As if he knew she would be back at this time. As if he knew what she’d been doing.
    He’d always been like this. Even when they were little. And it used to drive her crazy because he always knew ahead of time, and not only from the visions. He just had this sense of what was to come. He’d warn her, sometimes, but she wouldn’t always believe him. Why? She didn’t know. It certainly would have saved her from hurt or disappointment many times. And it would have stopped her from showing their grandmother what she could do.
    They’d been six years old and visiting their father’s mother. Sera had found an injured butterfly under the sky-high pine trees one morning outside her grandmother’s small, yellow house. She’d very gently touched one delicate white wing, and was watching it glow to health when her grandmother wandered over.
    “What have you found, Seraphina?” She bent over to see what Sera was doing.
    “A butterfly. It’s hurt, and I’m making it better.”
    “What?” Her grandmother chuckled, straightening back up. “Oh, I see. You’re just pretending. Are you going to be an animal doctor when you grow up?”
    But Sera looked up, very serious. “No, Grandma, I’m not pretending. I’m really making it better.”
    “You can’t make things better, honey. The butterfly is hurt, and it will probably die. No one can fix it. That’s the way things happen.”
    “But I can. When I touch it, it glows. See? It’s glowing right now.” Sera looked back down at the butterfly. Her grandmother did too, a quizzical look on her face. “It’s getting better. Look, its wings are moving again.” The butterfly crawled away from Sera’s outstretched fingers, folded and unfolded its wings, then took off into the air. “It’s beautiful.”
    “Oh! You were pretending,” her grandmother said again as the butterfly fluttered away. “It wasn’t really hurt.”
    “Yes, it was. But I made it better, like I told you.”
    Disapproval dragged down her grandmother’s face. “Do not lie to your grandmother, Seraphina.”
    Sera didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what she’d done wrong. Her mouth quivered, tears spilled over. “But I didn’t lie. I helped it.” She went running across the yard and threw herself into her mother’s arms. Her mom looked over at her mother-in-law with a questioning look, but the old woman strode back into the house without a word.
    During lunch, Luke had looked up from his sandwich suddenly and said, “Grandma? When you get your headache later, can we watch a movie?”
    Their grandmother was bemused, put her cup down. “Luke, honey, I don’t get a headache every day.”
    “I know.”
    She watched Luke eat for several minutes before continuing her own meal. Though she maintained her part of the conversation with their parents, her eyes occasionally flicked over to Luke throughout the rest of the meal.
    A couple of hours later, their dad sat down on the couch next to their mom. “Mother has a migraine starting,” he whispered. They both glanced over at Luke, eyebrows raised. “The kids need to keep quiet and away from her room.”
    Their parents turned on the television, volume low, and started flipping through channels to find something for them to watch. They paused on a news show and became momentarily engrossed. Sera got up quietly and inched toward the hallway. As soon as she’d made it out of the room, Luke was there, too.
    “Sera, don’t go in there,” he said.
    “Where?”
    “Grandma’s room.”
    “But I can help Grandma.”
    Luke looked at her for a moment,