Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 (23 page)

Lilith pulled her hand away and backed
up, shaking her head. “No! No! No! This can’t be happening! I’m a
demon! Not a mortal!”

With a flick of his wrist, David
sheathed his weapon inside his jacket. “How does it feel to be
amongst the living, Snow White?”

Lilith threw herself at Kara’s feet
and grabbed fistfuls of her pants. “Oh, please, Kara. Change me
back, I beg you! You’re my sister...don’t you care about me? Please
don’t leave me like this. I smell. I can’t smell. I’m disgusting. I
can’t live like this! I’ll...I’ll die!”

Kara knelt down and grabbed Lilith’s
hands in hers. “I think this is the best thing that can happen to
you, Lilith. Being human is a wonderful thing. You might even grow
to enjoy it.”

“
No, please, Kara. I’ll do
anything you want, anything!” wailed Lilith. “I will never hurt
you, I promise. I want us to be sisters. Please don’t leave me like
this.”

Part of her felt sorry for Lilith, but
she knew Lilith couldn’t harm anyone anymore as a mortal. “Even if
I could change you back I wouldn’t. And I can’t. You’re going to be
fine, dearest sister. You might even learn to love and appreciate
being alive. It’s more of a blessing than a punishment.”

Kara let go of Lilith and stood
up.

“
No! Don’t leave me here
with these monkeys! I am a demon princess! I have powers! I’m
immortal!” Lilith threw herself on the ground in a tantrum,
punching and kicking the ground in a fit of rage.

“
She’ll cool off once she
starts to get hungry,” said Jenny, and her face brightened. “I
never thought this day could end so perfectly. I can’t wait to see
the look on Ariel’s face when we tell her about Lilith. God I love
my job.”

“
Kara, what was it you
wanted to say earlier?” asked David as he stood beside
her.

Kara stared at the faces of her
friends. They all waited for her to answer. It was time to tell
them—to tell them everything.

She reached inside her shirt and
pulled out the crystal timer. She let it hang over her chest. With
a quick glance at the nearly empty top glass, she knew that her
time as a guardian was in its last seconds.

Jenny grasped the timer gently. “What
is that?” She rolled it in her hand, examining it. But when Kara
didn’t answer, she let it go gently and took a step
back.

Kara stared at her feet. She opened
her mouth, but the words died in her throat. How could she tell
them that it was all over for her? The oracles had warned her not
to tell anyone, so she hoped they could figure it out.

“
I knew it wasn’t an
ordinary necklace,” said David fearfully. “You had it with you when
you came back, after you killed the Seir. This is what you’ve been
keeping from me, isn’t it? There’s something bad about this
necklace, isn’t there? Isn’t there?”

Kara only nodded—frightened that she
would disappear if she spoke.

“
Kara, what’s he talking
about?” asked Jenny, her eyes wide with fear. “Why is that necklace
bad? What’s going on?”

Kara’s eyes flicked to David’s, but
she remained silent.

“
So what happens when the
sand runs out?” Peter inspected the crystal timer more closely.
“It’s almost empty.” He eyed Kara worriedly.

But Kara didn’t answer; she couldn’t.
She could see terror and recognition reflected in David’s eyes. She
pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling.

“
This is because of what
you did to Ranab, isn’t it?” said David, his voice rising. “That
second chance the oracles said they gave you...it was only for a
few hours? You were on a freaking timer! But...but what’s going to
happen to you once it’s empty?”

Jenny’s eyes widened. “Kara, you’re
scaring me. What is that thing?”

A warm sensation tingled inside Kara,
like warm rain. Her M-5 suit started to glow until it was consumed
in brilliant little particles. She lifted the crystal timer—all the
crystals lay at the bottom of the glass.

It was over. Her time was
up.

“
Kara, what’s happening to
you? What’s going on?” said David, fear increasing in his
voice.

Kara gazed at her friends and smiled
painfully. She forced the words out of her mouth. “I’m not supposed
to talk about it, but seeing as my time is up, I might as well let
you know what I can.”

Jenny sobbed, and Kara smiled at her
comfortingly. “It’s all right, Jenny. It’s not as bad as it looks.
I messed up, and I have to accept the consequences. The oracles
gave me a second chance with a time limit. I only had twelve hours
to get the mission done. My hours are up, and it’s time for me to
say goodbye. I’m going to miss you guys terribly.”

“
No!” cried Jenny. “We’re a
team; you can’t go. I won’t let you, I won’t!” Her bottom lip
quivered. Peter held her hand and stared at the ground.

Kara’s soul was breaking, but she put
on a brave face. “You’ll be fine, I promise. I love you guys
dearly, and I’ll miss you...more than I can say. I just can’t find
the words.”

“
Are we ever going to see
you again?” asked Peter, his voice trembling.

Kara shook her head. “Not as a
guardian angel.”

“
This is not happening. The
legion has to do something,” said David, as he pulled his hair. “I
mean, after everything you’ve done, how can they do this? They owe
you. I don’t accept this. It’s screwed up. I’m going to give the
High Council a piece of my mind! I swear to you, I’m not letting
them get away with this!”

“
This is
my
fault, David. I did
this. It’s not the legion’s fault—it’s mine. I broke the rules, and
I have to pay for what I’ve done.”

“
But it’s not right! It’s
not fair,” shouted David. “How many times did you save the
legion—and the mortal world? You only killed the mortal to save
another mortal’s life? This is ridiculous! You saved an
elder’s
life. What are
they thinking? I won’t let them do this to you.”

“
It’s over, David,” said
Kara. “There’s nothing you can do to change this. It’s time for me
to go. Promise me you won’t do anything too stupid after I’m gone.
Okay?”

David didn’t answer. He kicked the
ground with his boot and turned around. His shoulders
shook.

Kara stepped closer to him. She cupped
his face into her hands and kissed him on the mouth gently. For a
moment, she felt as though she was in her mortal body again and
back at the bookstore with David, having a normal life. But after
everything that had happened, she wasn’t sure she could return to
the mortal life she had before she had killed a mortal. The rules
had changed. Perhaps she would never see David again...

Finally, Kara pulled away. She looked
into his pained blue eyes. “Don’t forget me,” she
whispered.

David frowned and reached out to her,
but his arms fell through the air.

Kara’s body had
disappeared.

Chapter 21

A cold shower

A
fter the grogginess had lifted, Kara stood in front of the
four doors again. It had been quite an adventure, and she had no
regrets. She knew deep down that she would have killed Ranab again
and again to save Elder Otis. It was just who she was, a guardian
of the mortals, and she had chosen to take the life of one mortal
to save the life of another. She’d accepted her fate, and now it
was time to move on.

She forced David’s sad eyes from her
mind and gazed at the four doors. Tall and elegant as they were,
they looked as though they belonged in a grand hotel, not as
portals to the end of her supernatural life. Which one to open? She
wasn’t back here because she had unintentionally or intentionally
killed another mortal. Her twelve hours were up, and there was just
one door to be opened.

Kara wrapped her hand
around the golden handle of Door # 4
,
Other.
She pushed it open and stepped to
the other side.

There were no other guardians lining
up in front of the showers in the giant bathroom this time around.
A single cherub held a large glass and waited for her
soul.

She avoided his eyes and looked
around. A drop of water fell from one of the showerheads and
disappeared down the drain—that would be her body soon—melting away
until there was nothing left of her but her hovering
soul.

She looked to the right side of the
room. She hadn’t seen them when she first came in, but the same
three oracles that Kara had met before sat on their crystal balls
in front of a long wooden desk. They busied themselves with
paperwork once again. Unconsciously, she grasped the crystal timer
in her hand and squeezed it tight. The oracles looked up as she
approached them.

“
Ah, Kara Nightlinder,”
said the oracle on the left, “Here you are at last! We’ve been
quite anxious to see you.”

“
You have? You’re happy to
see me?” Kara frowned as she studied the oracles’ faces. “I wasn’t
sure you would be after what happened.”

The oracle clapped his hands
excitedly. “Of course we are, dear girl. What nonsense!” He leaned
forward, and his crystal ball rolled and tapped the edge of the
table. “You’ve succeeded in your mission and within your restricted
time limit. You stopped Lilith from getting the other piece of the
Arath and have saved the mortal world. This is tremendous! You’ve
broken all the records!” He puffed out his chest
proudly.

Kara screwed up her face. “I have? But
I accidentally destroyed the weapon. I thought you’d be
mad.”

This time the oracle in the
middle spoke. “Mad? Of course we’re not mad, Tara. The events have
turned out better than we had envisioned. With your
personal
touch, the
Arath has been destroyed, and no entity, good or evil, can ever use
it again.”

“
Good has prevailed over
evil, once again,” said the oracle on the right, and he stood up on
his crystal ball with his fist in the air. “Evil is like a storm—it
may have its day, but in the end it will pass.” He turned and
looked to the others. “I should be on stage.”

“
Indeed. I’ve always told
you so,” said the oracle in the middle. “You’d make a brilliant
actor.”

The oracle scratched his beard. “Yes,
I believe I would.”

Kara lifted the chain over her head
and placed the crystal timer on the table. The sand crystals
glimmered and cast little specks of white light along the great
desk.

“
Um...there’s something
else I need to tell you. I don’t think I’m good, well not entirely.
I think there’s evil in me...I felt it.” She lowered her
head.

The oracles were silent. She could see
that they were looking at her very carefully. She felt relieved now
that she could finally speak of it freely.

“
There’s darkness in me,”
she continued. “Morthdu told me so when I was in the netherworld. I
felt a connection to it then, and it became stronger. The darkness
came out of me when I fought Lilith. It took over my elemental
power. Part of me liked it. I guess it’s good that I can never be a
guardian anymore, because I think I might not be able to control it
again. I think I’m evil. I think that’s what my father had planned
all along—that I should be a creature of darkness.” Kara stared at
her boots. Her head fell heavy, and she thought she might tip
over.

“
You are certainly
not
a creature of evil,”
one of the oracles said. She peeked up at them through her
eyelashes.

“
I’m not? But I felt it
take control over me . . .”

“
But you resisted.” The
oracle in the middle interlaced his fingers and watched Kara with
gentle eyes. “Only an angel of pure soul could resist temptation
from the dark powers of the netherworld. And you my dear, shattered
the link.”

Kara shook her head. “I don’t
understand. How did it get there in the first place?”

The oracle on the right answered.
“Because it existed in Asmodeus. He became a creature of the
netherworld because he embraced its darkness until it consumed him.
And so he passed it on to you. The darkness lay dormant for a while
inside you, until the power of the elemental woke it. We’ve seen it
happen before; we just didn’t know when it would.”

Kara wished that the oracles had been
more open about this when she first came here. Perhaps she wouldn’t
have been so freaked out.

“
It tried to draw you in,”
said the oracle in the middle. “To consume you, to make you a slave
of its power—but you resisted.”

Kara raised her brows. “So...I’m not
evil? Really?” A hint of a smile reached her lips.

“
Of course not. Would we
have entrusted such a delicate mission to you if we thought you
were evil?” the oracles shared a look and laughed.

Kara rolled her eyes.

The oracle on the left spoke. “You
see, you could have chosen to embrace the darkness, but you chose
not to. Power in itself isn’t evil—it’s what you do with it that
determines whether it is good or bad.”