Kim Harrison - Something Deadly This Way Comes

I headed for the outside, my hand holding my amulet in reassurance. I was so-o-o-o glad I still had it and it hadn’t been left behind in the kitchen when I had vanished, and I was sure I had. Barnabas had told me I had looked like a ghost when he yanked me back the first time, and since my amulet was what gave me my fake body, and it was with me now . . .

Poor Josh, I thought, wishing I had a way to talk soundlessly with him as I went outside and blinked in the sudden sun. He must be worried sick, me vanishing like that. As soon as I got myself thinking straight, I was going to contact Barnabas or Nakita to come pick me up. Nakita, at least, knew where Kairos’s island was, seeing as she killed him here.

My eyes darted to the broken table where she’d scythed him, the cracked table empty of any sign of violence. I’d taken on the duties of the dark timekeeper before the blood of the last one had gone cold, and I shivered. The hard stone had been cracked when the seraph had laughed at me for not believing in fate. Or had it been laughing because it had seen the future and knew that I’d be here now, wanting my body and the amulet both. They’d let me keep it, right?

Concerned, I wrapped my arms around myself and turned from the table as I remembered the painful beauty of the seraph. They’d let me keep the amulet. I mean, I’d asked if I could try it out, then give it back, and the angel had given me this crafty look and said I could if that was what I chose, like choice was all that there was when it was obvious that seraphs were all about fate. It had even said that there was always a choice. Well, I was making one now. Ron had an amulet, and he was alive. It had said I could choose to give up my amulet when I found my body. That meant the default was for me to keep it. Right?

Determination filled me, and the wind from the water rose up the hundred-foot drop from the tiny beach to shift my hair. The white cloth strung between the pillars made Kairos’s patio look like a perfume commercial. The tide was mostly out, and I closed my eyes and faced the sun, hands spread wide as if I could take the moment and remember it forever, filling myself with the heat of the sun. My heart beat in my chest, and I breathed in and out. I was alive and it felt wonderful—even if my neck hurt as if I had whiplash.

Slowly my smile faded, and my head dropped. Somewhere, on the other side of the earth, Nakita waited in the darkness, thinking I was going to give up my position and abandon her. Some might think it unhealthy to have pinned so much on another person, but Nakita was an angel, one of heaven’s finest reapers. For a creature who had existed since time began, fear was a world-altering realization. Her mind wasn’t created to understand it, and I was her only way to figure it out. Friend was too simple a word. Master was just wrong. Mentor didn’t fit. I only knew we had a bond, and I couldn’t dismiss it just to make my life easier.

My hand gripping my amulet, I closed my eyes, thinking of Nakita’s aura. Shifting my own aura so my thought could slip free of me, I sent a call to her, imagining her in my mind.

Nakita, I thought, feeling my emotion wing from me, and I modified it to her aura, exactly and precisely, right before it hit the top of the atmosphere and bounced down. Even if she were on the opposite side of the earth, she would hear.

But my thoughts stayed empty.

Frowning, I tightened my hold on my amulet. Nakita! I thought louder, taking more care to tailor it to her. Again it bounced from the ceiling of air back to earth . . . and simply vanished.

Concerned, I opened my eyes. I might be in some trouble here. Eventually they’d talk to Josh and figure out what I’d done, and since I had told Barnabas that I’d found my body on my island, they’d look for me here. How long that would take I didn’t know. What might happen to Tammy in the meantime was not pretty.

Barnabas? I called, modifying my thought to slip past his aura and into his mind. I had always been able to reach him the easiest.

“Oh, crap,” I whispered when I got the same response—which was no response. What the devil was going on? It was entirely possible that I’d accidentally changed my signature when I took my body, even if it looked the same to me. They might be hearing me and be unable to answer back. But I didn’t think so. It was as if my thoughts weren’t reaching them at all!

I spun to look at the broken table, fear making my stomach hurt. Maybe the seraphs had cut me off. They had been taking care of the dark timekeeper’s duties for months. What if they had seen me take my body and they just cut me completely out of the equation and left me here before I could tell them I had made a new choice!

Clutching my amulet, I searched its depths. It looked the same, and scared, I stood with the drop-off to my back, the wind shifting my hair as I held my amulet and brought the time line into focus. It looked the same, too, and I exhaled in relief. My amulet, at least, worked.

“There once was a girl who was dead,” Grace sang, and my eyes flew open as I spun, looking for her. “Whose decisions she made with her head. Her body to save, was just what she craved. Choice or fate—both were messed up, instead.”

“Grace!” I exclaimed, hardly able to hear her over the loud surf, and squinting, still not seeing her glow in the bright sun. “I’m so glad you’re here. Barnabas and Nakita . . . are they okay? I tried calling them, and they didn’t answer. I’m still the dark timekeeper. Right?”

A faint buzzing tipped me off that she was nearby, and a warmth stole into my aching shoulder, soothing it. “Yup. You’re still the dark timekeeper. They can’t just take that away. You have to voluntarily give it up. Or be scythed.”

My chest felt warm, and I wondered if she had moved to hover before me. “Your aura looks the same,” she said, her voice going more faint. “Maybe they’re just ignoring you. You smell funny now.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said, fully aware that I stank like I hadn’t bathed in a month. There was nothing funny about it. “Do you think you could have one of them come get me? I’m worried about Tammy.”

“You should be worried about Demus,” she said cryptically.

“Demus?” I echoed, wondering what the dark reaper had done, but there was no answer. She was gone. I hadn’t even seen her leave.

My brow furrowed, and I crossed my arms over my middle, feeing how empty it was. The elation at having gotten my body back was starting to fade. I was hungry, tired, and I ached from the injuries I’d gotten rolling down a hill in a convertible. It was starting to get hot, and my clothes fit funny. Looking at my nails and the old polish from the prom, I wished I had asked Grace to have Barnabas bring Josh with him. God, he must be worried sick.

The hair on the back of my neck seemed to prick, and I spun, heart pounding. There was no one there, just the big empty house that now belonged to me.

“Madison!” came from above, and I looked up, almost blinding myself. It was Nakita, and I backed up under the canopy as she landed, her beautiful wings glinting in the afternoon sun. She was wearing all white again from her head to her boots, and I felt a pang of guilt. She only wore white when she was upset with me, her way of expressing her anger.

Her face was creased, but upon seeing me in my new black clothes pulled from Kairos’s closet, confusion trickled into her eyes. “You’re wearing Kairos’s clothes,” she said.

“I . . .” I said, then hesitated. “Well, I’ve got his job, right?” I said, sounding harsher than I intended. “I may as well do it right.”

Nakita’s lips parted, and her wings rose to block out the sun. “Then you’re staying?”