Transcendence Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Sure.”
    Griffon holds up his right hand and points to a spot between his thumb and index finger. “Right there.”
    I don’t see anything. “Where?”
    He moves his finger out of the way. “Just there. See that dot?”
    I look closer and see a tiny black dot a few shades darker than his skin. “Looks like a freckle.”
    “It’s not. My friend’s brother had a rig and offered to give us both tattoos. This was as far as I got before I chickened out.” He smiles at me. “Now it’s your turn.”
    I laugh a little. I usually hate games like this, but somehow it’s making me feel better. I try to think of the craziest things that have ever happened to me. “Okay. I’ve met the queen. I was switched at birth. And “I don’t know how to ride a bike.”
    Griffon stares up at the sky and looks like he’s thinking hard. “There’s no way you met the queen, so that must be the lie.”
    “Nope. I met the Queen of Greece at the symphony last year.”
    “I thought you said
the
queen.”
    “She is
the
queen. Of Greece. Deposed, but still. You have two more guesses.”
    “You can’t ride a bike?”
    “Of course I can ride a bike. Almost everyone can ride a bike. That was the lie.” I pause, not knowing how far I can push him. “You’re really not very good at this, are you?”
    He smiles, and I know he’s not annoyed. “So you’re trying to tell me you really were switched at birth?”
    “My mom says it was only for an hour and then the hospital figured it out. Sometimes I wonder, though. Kat and I … we’re not all that much alike.” Understatement of the year. She’s the very definition of the gorgeous blond California girl. And I’m … not.
    Griffon nods and flashes a dimple. “Too bad for her.”
    His direct gaze gives me another kind of fluttering inside. I bite my lip and look down at the ground as we walk. Maybe he has a thing for short, brown-haired girls who don’t wear anything that requires a trip to the dry cleaner.
    “I bow to the master,” he says, holding the door of the café open for me. “I think you won that round. Not even close enough for me to contest.”
    “Just beginner’s luck.”
    Griffon leads me to an empty wooden table by the window. “I’m going to get some tea. Sit here, stare at the tourists, and I’ll be right back.”
    The café is crowded with families, and the noise echoes off the walls of the big brick building. I can’t help watching Griffon as he walks up to the counter. Where his dad is totally what you’d expect from a guard at the Tower of London—short bristly hair, white skin, and pink cheeks—Griffon is completely different. He has light brown skin and broad shoulders that dip down into a narrow waist, and his light brown curls have tiny blond streaks in them that I can tell come from the sun, not a bottle. A heavy black cord hangs around his neck, but it’s tucked into his shirt, so I can’t see what’s on the end of it.
    Griffon is insanely good-looking, but it’s more than that. As much as I make fun of romance novels and chick flicks, I feel atug of recognition down deep that is almost physical, and it frightens me. While my eyes are on him, he turns to lean against the counter as he waits for the tray. I look down, but probably not fast enough. I’m still examining the wooden tabletop when he comes back with the tea.
    “I don’t know how you take it, so I brought milk, sugar, lemon, and honey,” he says, setting the tray on the table.
    I look over the assortment of jars and packets. “I suppose it’s wrong to say all of it?” I ask, hoping I sound more confident than I feel.
    Griffon grins, and my heart races. “Well, you’re allowed to do anything you want. Generally it’s either milk and sugar or lemon and honey.”
    “I guess milk and sugar, then,” I say.
    “And this is clotted cream,” he says, putting a jar of lumpy white stuff in front of me. “I highly recommend the cream with jam on those scones. Better than