How to Change Your Stars

Chapter Four ~ Beautiful Thorns

The sight before Ari was unlike anything she'd ever seen. Snow covered the ground in a thick, glistening layer. The moon shone down, turning it all to diamonds under its luminescent glow. Black trees reached their gnarled fingers into the sky. There were no

stars. No clouds. Just the moon.

Beauty surrounded her. Snowflakes tickled her skin. And she couldn't appreciate any of it.

My dad. My dad. Her panic grew into a wildfire. Now that she was here, she couldn't focus on anything else.

Calm down, Ari told herself. You're okay. She spotted something red to her right, peeping through the whiteness of the snow. Was that blood? A new flare of panic ignited in her stomach.

"Roses," Sam said, as if reading her mind.

She looked again. Dozens of roses crept over the ground, covered with snow like sprinkles of powdered sugar.

"But the snow..." Her breath formed little white clouds as she spoke. "How do roses grow here?"

"They are the only things that grow in the Darklands."

Ari tugged her sleeves over her hands and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Forgive me. I don't know how I could have forgotten." Sam took off his coat and held it out to her.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" Ari said through chattering teeth.

Sam quirked an eyebrow. "Most people wear them."

"That's not what I meant. You said you were like air; you can't touch me." She motioned at the coat. "How do you expect me to wear that?"

Sam smiled, a slight upturning of the corner of his mouth. "The rules do not apply here."

"But you'll be cold."

"It won't kill me." He shook the coat at her. "Do you want it or not?"

Ari spun around, still doubtful, but when Sam placed the coat on her shoulders she was surprised to feel the weight of the fabric. And something else. She could feel his knuckles brushing her shoulders.

She turned to face him. "I can...touch you?"

Sam nodded. He peeled off his glove and held out his hand.

Ari hesitated for a moment, and then placed her hand in his. It felt like a normal hand-warm and smooth. How could he be warm?

"As I said, the rules do not apply here." His voice was almost a murmur.

Ari untwined her fingers from his. My dad. My dad. Her panic threatened to engulf her.

It was then that she noticed a silver sheath attached to Sam's belt. "What's the sword for?"

"Protection."

"Protection from what?"

"I am not the only thing in these woods." He pulled his glove back on and began walking.

Ari hastened to keep up. "You're a ghost, aren't you?"

"I thought we'd established that already," he replied, without slowing his pace. "Ghost, spirit, soul: they all mean the same thing."

"I get that. What I don't get is why the rules have changed."

Sam glanced sideways at her. "Shades are as good as alive in the Darklands. This is our afterlife."

Shades? There was that word again. The two girls at the post office had used it too.

Ari looked around at the snowy wasteland, at the roses blooming bright red against a black-and-white backdrop. "So what exactly is your afterlife?"