Unearthly Read Online Free

goes. One minute you’re a happy fourteen-year-old—good at everything you try, popular, fun—the next you’re a freak with wings. It takes some adjustment. And it was only like a month after he got the news that I received my little mission from heaven. Now we’re dragging him off to Nowheresville, Wyoming, in January, no less, right smack in the middle of the school year.
    When Mom announced the move, he yelled, “I’m not going!” with his fists clenched at his sides like he wanted to hit something.
    â€œYou are going,” Mom replied, looking up at him coolly. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if you find your purpose in Wyoming, too.”
    â€œI don’t care,” he said. Then he turned and glared at me in a way that makes me cringe every time I remember it.
    Mom, for her part, obviously digs Wyoming. She’s been back and forth a few times scouting for a house, enrolling Jeffrey and me in our new school, smoothing out the transition between her job at Apple in California and the work she’ll be doing for them from home after we move. She has chattered for hours about the beautiful scenery that will now be a part of our everyday lives, the fresh air, the wildlife, the weather, and how much we’ll love the winter snow.
    That’s why Jeffrey is riding with me. He can’t stand to listen to Mom blather on about how great it’s all going to be. The first time we stopped for gas on the trip he got out of her car, grabbed his backpack, walked over to mine, and got in. No explanation. I guess he decided that he currently hates her more than he does me.
    I grab the earbud again.
    â€œIt’s not like I wanted this, you know,” I tell him. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
    â€œWhatever.”
    My cell rings. I dig around in my pocket and toss the phone to Jeffrey. He catches it, startled.
    â€œCould you get that?” I ask sweetly. “I’m driving.”
    He sighs, opens the phone, and puts it to his ear.
    â€œYeah,” he says. “Okay. Yeah.”
    He flips the phone closed.
    â€œShe says we’re about to come up on Teton Pass. She wants us to pull over at the lookout.”
    Right on cue we come around a corner and the valley where we’ll be living opens up below a range of low hills and jagged blue-and-white mountains. It’s an amazing view, like a scene from a calendar or a postcard. Mom pulls into a turnoff for the “scenic overlook” and I come to a careful stop next to her. She practically bounds out of the car.
    â€œI think she wants us to get out,” I say to Jeffrey.
    He just stares at the dashboard.
    I open the door and swing out into the mountainy air. It’s like stepping into a freezer. I tug my suddenly-much-too-thin Stanford hoodie over my head and jam my hands deep into the pockets. I can literally see my breath floating away from me every time I exhale.
    Mom walks up to Jeffrey’s door and taps on the window.
    â€œGet out of the car,” she commands in a voice that says she means business.
    She waves me toward the ridge, where a large wooden sign shows a cartoon cowboy pointing into the valley below. HOWDY STRANGER, it reads. YONDER IS JACKSON HOLE. THE LAST OF THE OLD WEST. There’s a scattering of buildings on either side of a gleaming silver river. That’s Jackson, our new hometown.
    â€œOver there is Teton National Park and Yellowstone.” Mom points toward the horizon. “We’ll have to go there in the spring, check it out.”
    Jeffrey joins us on the ridge. He isn’t wearing a jacket, just jeans and a T-shirt, but he doesn’t look cold. He’s too mad to shiver. His expression as he surveys our new environment is carefully blank. A cloud moves over the sun, casting the valley in shadow. The air instantly feels about ten degrees colder. I’m suddenly anxious, like now that I’ve officially arrived in Wyoming the