The Clearing

I don#xE2;#xAC;"t know what I expected him to do. A magic trick, maybe? A back flip? If I was honest, I didn#xE2;#xAC;"t think it would be that impressive, whatever it was. Maybe I was hoping he would pull out some kind of document that explained how my parents had really died. Maybe I was hoping he would summon their spirits and I could talk to them. Regardless of whatever guesses I might have made, I would never, ever have expected him to do what he did in the moments that followed. One second, I was looking right at him. The next second, Liam Abernathy vanished on the spot. And two seconds after that, he flickered back.*Natalie Watson doesn#xE2;#xAC;"t believe the reports about the way her parents died. In fact, she#xE2;#xAC;"s not sure she believes in much of anything these days. But after moving from her home in Georgia to her aunt#xE2;#xAC;"s boarding school in Maine, solving the mystery of her parents#xE2;#xAC;" deaths is just one of several things on her mind. When she#xE2;#xAC;"s not fending off attacks from the popular kids or taking refuge in the pages of a novel, she ponders the rumors circulating about a certain boy in her math class#xE2;#xAC;#xA6; a boy with fiery red hair who never speaks to anyone.Despite suspicions that he may have murdered his sister a year earlier, Natalie finds it impossible to stay away from Liam Abernathy #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; especially when he confesses to knowing something about her parents. Soon she#xE2;#xAC;"s following him into the forest, where things happen she doesn#xE2;#xAC;"t understand#xE2;#xAC;#xA6; things that shouldn#xE2;#xAC;"t be possible#xE2;#xAC;#xA6;.As Liam#xE2;#xAC;"s story unfolds, Natalie realizes she#xE2;#xAC;"s more connected to him than she ever thought #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; and not everyone she counts as a friend can be trusted.