Kim Harrison - Something Deadly This Way Comes

It was quiet and dim; the sun wasn’t up yet, but it was close. The wind was a steady, dry force, blowing my hair first one way, then another as Barnabas circled to a pink-tiled patio that opened seamlessly to the desert. My nerves were ragged. I didn’t know what was going to happen in the next five minutes, but it was tearing me up that I might not have a chance to even say good-bye. They’d let me say good-bye, wouldn’t they?

I was pretty sure I was meeting with the seraphs for one of three reasons: one, I stole some of Tammy’s soul; two, because I convinced the rising light timekeeper to help me circumvent a guardian angel; or three, to give them my amulet back and renounce my timekeeper status because I got my body back. But the seraph had said I could do that if I chose to. What if I chose to do something different now?

Maybe we hadn’t succeeded with Tammy. Maybe we had. Wasn’t it worth spending a little time to find out? And if it became certain that she would never change, then I would scythe her down myself.

Oh, God. Could I do that?

Barnabas set us down with a gentle step-hop, and I let out my held breath. His grip on me loosened, and I turned. I knew I had a scared look on my face, but he managed to muster up a weak smile for me. “I’ll see you later,” Barnabas said, and I reached for his sleeve, keeping him from going more than a step.

“You’re not staying?” My voice quavered, and I hated it.

Sighing, he dropped his head, then looked back up at me. “I can’t. I have to leave. I hope . . . I hope I see you later.”

They were going to take my amulet from me. I knew it. And my hand grabbed it, useless as it was at this point. “Remember me,” I breathed.

Barnabas cupped my chin, his thumb wiping away a tear that had somehow leaked out. “If they let me,” he said. “You were a very good timekeeper, Madison.”

Barnabas’s hand dropped. Eyes fixed to mine, he backed up. His wings made one fast downward push, and he was airborne. I felt alone and miserable.

He’d been told to leave, and he left. Angels were made to serve, Barnabas had said. But if one served unwillingly, wasn’t it slavery?

A bitter resolve pushed out my fear as I watched his silhouette spin, turn, and vanish. Sure, I had made the deal to give the amulet back once I had my body, but things had changed. I—no, we —had proved that a soul’s fate was not fixed, but that it could be turned back to a better path. I wanted my body, my amulet, and a chance to really see if this could work, and as I turned to look at Ron’s house, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to let anything go without a fight.

Arms wrapped around myself, I looked in the wide patio doors at a huge, tiled living room done in tasteful browns, taupes, and pale pinks and oranges. It looked very desert-ish, so unlike my green suburbia. No wonder Ron wore desert robes; the sand must get into everything.

Going up and knocking didn’t seem right—after all, the sun wasn’t up yet—and it wasn’t like I wanted to talk to Ron. “Where are you?” I whispered, looking up into the pale blue sky that almost looked white. No seraphs.

I went to sit on the waist-high wall surrounding most of the patio, angling so that I could see the house and the rising sun both. I’d never been to the desert, and it was breathtaking in its open beauty. The horizon was so far away, the colors melting into themselves like watercolors. The wind blew into me as if it had never brushed against anything ever before. I could feel a hum in my veins, and I wondered if it was because the ground was holy. It would have to be for a seraph to set foot on it. My island, too, was holy.

A thump on the glass door shattered my introspective mood, and I spun, chest clenching when I saw Ron, furious as he struggled to get the door to slide open. “You!” he shouted, his bony, bare, ugly feet slapping as he came out. “Paul is gone. You’re here. What have you done with him?” His pace slowed as he noticed my new, reaper-black clothes.

I slid from the wall and tugged my oversize tunic straight. “Hi, Ron. Nice place you have. Must be a bitch getting out here with no roads. Or is that to keep people from leaving once they get here?”

I gasped, backpedaling as he reached for me, giving me a shake with his small hands on my shoulders. I was too taken aback to try to stop him, and besides, I thought I deserved it.

“The seraphs told me to come here,” I said, teeth rattling. “Not my idea. I’m waiting for them! Get your . . . hands off!”

Ron let go, backing up as he tried to guess if I was telling the truth. His eyes narrowed in the rising sun, he looked at me. “You’re alive,” he said suddenly, and his gaze dropped to my amulet.

“Yeah,” I said in a huff. “I found my body. Thanks for adding to the misery.”

“I’m not going to adjust your amulet if that’s why you’re here,” Ron said haughtily, backing up even more and slowly making a 360 with his gaze on the skies. “Where is Paul?”

Sniffing, I refused to let him know how miserable I was. Adjust my amulet? Adjust it right out of my hands, maybe. “Careful,” I mocked, turning to look at the rising sun. “Someone might think you care about him.”

“You little . . . girl,” Ron spat, and I turned back around, hearing the hatred in his voice. “Where is Paul?! He’s changed his amulet’s signature. I don’t know how, but he did. I can’t find him.”

My eyebrows rose. I hadn’t told him how to change resonances, so his amulet must have changed on its own—because he helped me, the dark, save someone from the light. I didn’t even try to hide my smug look, and Ron’s look became choleric.

“You didn’t!” Ron exclaimed. “How dare you interfere with my own student!”

“Why not? You interfered with me, and I was Kairos’s student,” I said, arms over my chest. “Well, I would have been his student if he hadn’t been trying to kill me! Paul is helping me. We’re saving souls.”

“You are wrong, Madison.” Standing stiffly before me, Ron fisted his hands, his eyes going blue for an instant as he touched the divine. “You cannot change a person’s fate after their soul dies.”

“You can if you catch them soon enough, before it dies completely!” I shouted, hearing my voice become lost in the desert, shredded by the wind. “What is your problem? You’re the one who believes in choice. Or is it that you believe in choice only when it’s done your way?”

Ron paced to me, and I stood firm, head even and lips pressed defiantly. “What did you do?!” he demanded.

“Nothing.” I backed up a step, not liking him that close. My amulet wasn’t working at all, and if I died before the seraph got here . . . well, who knew if it would listen to me, anyway. “Paul helped me find Tammy since my connection with my amulet is less than it should be. We flashed forward,” I said, and Ron’s face went gray. “It wasn’t happy-happy, Ron. We both saw what happens to the people you save with guardian angels who don’t manage to rekindle their souls. Paul wasn’t too thrilled about it. I wasn’t, either. No wonder the dark timekeepers kill people to prevent that. I’m starting to think they are right. No one deserves to be eaten by black wings. Their entire existence erased like they never existed. When were you planning on telling him? When you were on your deathbed and you’d brainwashed him into being a second you?”

“You turned him dark . . .” It was a breathy whisper, but I could see the tension in him building.

“I did not!” I stated firmly, but I wondered. “We saw the truth! And the truth sucks!”

“You turned him dark!” he shouted, face going red. “He’s my acolyte! You are toxic, Madison, poisoning everything you touch!”