Soul Thief (22 page)

KATIE WRAPPED A BLANKET
around my shoulders. I took a sip of the hot cocoa she'd pushed into my hands. We were at Leander's place. The Warrior Angels had come for Myron and taken him away to prison. They'd put him in custody until his trial, which Leander assured me was a rock-solid case. He and Diane would testify in my defense, we had the Book of Names, and then there was the demon Myron had summoned. A demon expert from Heaven came to investigate the spot and noticed sulfur inside the Angel trap, which was more than enough to determine that Myron had worked together with demons, something Heaven apparently didn't take lightly. Leander had taken Katie, Mich, and Craig to his place before he returned to me. We spent more than an hour testifying to the Warrior Angels, who seemed more like police detectives than warriors. Then Leander took me to his place too. I'd taken a shower and now, here we were, all seated in the living room, trying to wrap our minds around what happened.

Myron's words haunted me though. There was a way to get Stacey back and save the souls of those three girls. I'd already asked Leander about an Angel oath. Apparently it was some kind of oath an Angel could swear to and if they didn't live by the oath they'd die. After he'd explained, he turned to me, fire blazing in his eyes. “Don't believe for a second that you can trust Myron. He's never been trustworthy, not three hundred years ago, not now. Besides, he's already in prison so there's nothing you can do now. I'm sorry, but that's the truth. I can ask around if anyone knows which demon has Stacey's soul, but that's the most I can do.”

I looked up at Leander. I felt a million emotions when looking at him, but not one of them came close to how I'd felt even a week ago. It was like that girl, sweet, innocent Riley who thought her worst care was becoming an Angel of Death, had completely vanished off the face of the earth. Replacing her was this new version who was broken, twisted and rearranged by guilt, and who simply couldn't forgive herself.

“Do you think doctors will be at Stacey's by now?” Michelle asked no one in particular.

“It's eleven thirty,” Katie said. “It feels later though. But I'm sure they must've noticed by now.”

“I should've anticipated it,” I mused out loud. “I should've realized he'd pull another trick.”

“How could you even know that?” Katie asked.

Craig sighed out loud. He walked in front of me, bent his knees, and looked me straight in the eyes. “Stop it. Ever since you've become an Angel, you've had this crazy idea that the entire world revolves around you, and that you're responsible for everything. I'm sick and tired of it. It's not your fault that this happened to Stacey.”

I choked on his words and tears rolled down my cheeks. “If it wasn't for me, then she'd still be alive. She'd still be okay.”

“A bad person hunted you down. You're not responsible for his actions. You could not have anticipated that he'd do something like that.”

“He's right,” Leander said. “You've been an Angel for three weeks. How were you supposed to know every trick in the book? I didn't even know it was possible to summon a demon from within an Angel trap.”

“The point being,” Craig continued. “You did the best you could given the circumstances, and I'm proud of you. We all are. We're here for you. You're not the only one who'll suffer from what's happened to Stacey and the others. As long as we stick together, we'll make it. You feel guilty now, but that feeling will pass. Just don't do anything stupid.”

“Thanks,” I said between tears. “You're the best.”

“I know,” Craig said. “Now, let's go home. I want to sleep for days.”

“I don't want to burst your bubble,” Michelle said. “But how are we going to explain this?” She pointed at my ruined dress.

“I fell down in the garden. Slipped in the rain. Given what happened, coming up with a convincing lie is the easiest thing I've done all night.”

“All right. We'll need to get to Stacey's first though. I left my car there and I can't exactly come home without it,” Katie said.

“I'll teleport you there. I need to get my car back too,” Leander said.

We huddled together. This time around, I didn't even feel sick after we'd teleported to Stacey's place. Leander had teleported us to an abandoned corner in the gardens. But the moment I looked up at the house, all lights glaring, police sirens screaming in the night, I did feel sick.

“What are the police doing here?” Michelle wondered out loud.

None of us had a reply to that. We made our way through the gardens, all the way to the back entrance. Chelsea, one of Stacey's closest friends, stood in the back entrance. She had a coat wrapped around her shoulders. A boy with short black hair and bright green eyes was talking to her.

Chelsea looked up at us. Her face was puffy from crying and tears rolled down her cheeks.

“What's happening?” Katie asked her. Chelsea didn't reply. She shook her head, as if she'd lost the ability to speak.

“Stacey is in a coma,” the boy said. “They have no idea how it happened, but the police suspect foul play.”

“Why would they think that?” Michelle asked. “And will she be okay?” she added quickly.

The boy looked at her strangely. He narrowed his eyes. “Well,” he said eventually, “they found her in one of the sitting rooms upstairs. The room was in bad shape, some furniture thrown on the ground and such. It's possible she did it before passing out, but with those mysterious attacks on young girls, they can't leave any option out. I'm not sure if she'll be okay. They have no idea how she ended up in a coma in the first place.”

I licked my lips. But I had. It was all my fault.

We thanked the boy for the information and made our way to our cars. For the second time that night, we were stopped for interrogation by law enforcement officers. We weren't suspects though, so they kept it short. They asked us where we were and when. We said we'd come to the party, only seen Stacey briefly, and then walked around in the gardens when we saw the police cars. The place was swarming with people, all in various stages of shock, so they didn't give us that much attention.

“Well, I think we should hang out tomorrow night,” Katie said before she got into her car with Michelle and Craig. “Let's do something nice and quiet. I think we deserve that.”

“Okay,” I said. I didn't feel like I deserved anything, but whatever.

She nodded at me, smiled, and then vanished into her car. I got into Leander's car and sighed out loud. It felt like my heart rate was only now slowing down.

Leander drove me home in silence. When we pulled into my street and he parked the car, he looked at me.

“Riley,” he said. “As your Guardian, I'm really proud of you. You stood your ground, you fought, you never gave up.” He squeezed my hand. “But I'm also worried. The Council is afraid of Halflings. If they figure out you managed to do all that, they might grow afraid of what you could do next.”

“I'm not about to revolt against them,” I said. “My main concern right now is surviving.”

“I know, but they… they're old-fashioned and paranoid. They will think that you're too powerful and that you're a risk to them. If they find out you did it all on your own, it'll make things worse. I've already told them I helped you and hopefully they'll keep on believing that.”

“I sense a ‘but' coming,” I said.

“I don't think it's wise if we let anything else happen between us,” he said. “I mean, I'll still be your Guardian, and we can be friends, but…”

I squeezed his hand. “It's okay.” I was actually relieved, at least this way I didn't have to tell him about my feelings, and how suddenly I couldn't feel anything I had before, as if I'd become a numb, zombified version of myself.

He leaned in and kissed me. His lips tasted as sweet as ever, and for a minute something resurfaced from deep within my soul, and I wanted him to kiss me forever and never let go. But as soon as the feeling appeared, it vanished.

When I got out of the car, I felt a mix of regret and relief. I waved at Leander as he drove off, and went to the front door.

Before I could even put the key into the lock, mom opened the door. She took one look at my disheveled appearance, pulled me close, hugged me, and told me it would be all right.

I didn't even realize I was crying until her shirt became wet.

* * *

I'd barely slept at all. At seven o'clock, I was up. I'd purposely avoided the daily newspaper. I'd seen it while going out the front door; it showed a large picture of Stacey's house with a headline about a possible murder attempt. If only they knew the truth and how much more complicated it was.

I jogged to the forest. This early in the morning, birds and small critters were the only ones accompanying me. I let all my emotions from the last few days run over me again. I'd told Mom about Stacey last night and she hugged me and told me it would be okay. She'd barely asked about my ruined clothes and I was glad for that. But before I went to bed, I'd asked myself a thousand different questions, came up with different scenarios for how I could've stopped Myron from handing her soul to that demon.

I made my way through bushes and grass until I reached the clearing of the graveyard. Sun fell on a few of the graves, making the place look peaceful rather than scary.

It took me half an hour to find the angel necklace. By then, I'd walked past it about a dozen times. If the silver hadn't reflected in the sunlight it might have taken me a lot longer. I put it back on and sat down on the grass, wet with morning dew.

What was I going to do? I needed to set things straight, to get Stacey's soul back and rescue the souls of Tara, Emily, and Marissa from eternal damnation. To accomplish that, I had no other choice but to work together with Myron… which meant I needed to find a way to break into a celestial prison and get him out.

It seems writing a book requires half an army. I'd like to thank my editor, Clarice Joos, for helping to improve the manuscript and bring it to the next level. A huge thanks to Rachel Mizer, my cover artist, who made the most amazing cover I've ever seen. Another thank you to my proofreader, Lydia Johnson, for offering the finishing touches to make the book as good as it can be. And last but not least, thank to you Ruth Silver, my book manager.

Majanka Verstraete is twenty-four years old, has a Master of Laws degree, and is studying for a Master of Criminology degree at the moment.

She debuted with “Valentina and the Haunted Mansion”, the first book in a picture book series called “Valentina's Spooky Adventures”, of which three books have been released so far. She's also working on the “Weirdville” series, a series of scary lower grade chapter books. The first three books in the series have been released, and books four to six will release in 2014.

She has written two young adult novels. “Fractured”, the first book in the Mirrorland series was released last year and its sequel, “Reflected” will be released in 2015.

“The Soul Thief” is the first book in her latest young adult paranormal series, called The Angel of Death Series.

Website:
http://majankaverstraete.com

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