Kim Harrison - Early to Death, Early to Rise

From the corner of my sight, I watched him shake his head. “You scared the ever-loving feather dust out of me. I’ve never…I’ve never even heard of…What happened?”

I couldn’t tell if I was hungry or if I was going to be sick. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in weeks. And I hadn’t. “I think it was a flash forward,” I said, thinking, This is my job? I’m going to do this how often? I had to find my body, like, yesterday. “Everything went blue, and I could see your wings,” I finished, feeling ill.

Barnabas cleared his throat. “Why would seeing the stars hurt?”

Turning to him, I shrugged. I honestly couldn’t remember. It was as if my mind had blocked it out. Maybe the human mind couldn’t take that much beauty. “I don’t know,” I said softly. “But, Barnabas, I watched Shoe uploading the virus into a computer disc. I was him, but he couldn’t hear me, even when I told him to stop. Then things shifted, and I felt his satisfaction when he heard about the people dying at the hospital. The guy is whacked! I don’t understand it. He looks so normal.”

“No wonder Ron never said anything about his flash forwards,” Barnabas said, his brown eyes holding heavy concern. “Madison, it was awful. It was as if you weren’t all there. I thought if I let you go, you might…vanish. Like your being dead took away your anchor to get back. Your amulet wasn’t keeping you grounded to the time lines. I was.”

Fear slid through me. “Were there black wings?”

His shook his head, but the look in his eyes scared me. “No. But I thought if I let you go, you’d be gone,” he said. “I’m supposed to be keeping you safe. I’ve never been that terrified.” His lips parted as he searched for words, and I swear, if I had a heart, it would have skipped a beat at the worry in his eyes. “And you’re going to do it again.”

Frightened, I swallowed and looked at the fast-food child’s-meal toy on the floor, not knowing if I believed him about the black wings. What if this happened while I was at school? They’d put me on meds or something.

“It will be okay,” I said, shuddering. “I know what flashing forward feels like now. Before it happened, all the light went blue. Next time, I’ll just find a quiet room or something.”

“Blue. Like you were moving faster in time,” Barnabas said, seeming to find comfort in that there would be some warning.

A sudden thought pulled me straight, my own fear vanishing as I tossed the hair from my eyes. “And if I’ve flashed forward, then maybe Ron did, too.” Crap, if he saw what I had seen, he’d know who the mark was. I stood, almost hitting my head on the ceiling. “We have to go,” I said, feeling light-headed and weak. I’d not been hungry or ill for months, and being that way now was a shock. Maybe flashing forward had taken a lot out of my amulet.

“Where’s Nakita?” I asked when he didn’t move, still sitting on the van’s bench seat and looking at me as if I were going to break apart. “If I saw the future, then Shoe has made his decision, and his fate is set unless I can change his mind. I’ve got to talk to him before he does something stupid or Ron IDs him.”

Barnabas took my arm, drawing me back. “Madison, slow down. You’re not well.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, feeling shaky as I tugged on the door and it didn’t move. “But Ron can tell who the mark is now. He sees what I see, right? If we don’t find Shoe before whatever light reaper Ron sends out does, Nakita will kill him. Barnabas, I’ve run out of time!”

The irony of that wasn’t lost on me, and I tugged on the latch, but either I wasn’t doing it right or it had a child lock on it. Huffing in impatience, I leaned back in the seat and said, “Some help here, please?”

Silent and grim faced, he reached across me and pulled the door open. I’d been doing it right; I was just too weak.

I stumbled when I jumped to the curb, and I couldn’t help but glance at the puddle of streetlight to reassure myself it was a cheerful yellow instead of an inky blue-black. “Where is the school from here?” I asked. If she killed him, I’m going to be so pissed. I have not gone through this for nothing.

“You’ll never make it in time on foot,” Barnabas said, and I gasped when he scooped me up, cradling me as he gave one downward thrust with his wings, and we were airborne.

Barnabas’s arms were tight around me as he flew over what had to be the high school. While Nakita and I had been trying to pass my dad’s spaghetti off on Josh, Barnabas had been canvassing the town of Fort Banks, a foresight I was now reaping the benefit of. The flat, pebbled roof with its big air-conditioning units was featureless in the dark. It smelled like tar, and the air grew warmer when he drifted over it and found the back of the school with its big expanse of parking lot.

“Do you see Nakita?” I asked, scanning for any sign of her, Shoe, or even Grace.

“No,” he said softly, and I hoped we weren’t too late.

“Do you think I should try calling her?” I asked, and he shifted the tilt of his wings to make us fly parallel to the rows of black windows along the side.

“I’d have to stop hiding your resonance and hope she is doing the same. Ron might hear,” he said, finishing softly, “Better to just look.”

“I suppose,” I said, frustrated.

“No black wings,” Barnabas said, making me think that there had been when I flashed forward, and he just hadn’t told me.

“Yet,” I said sourly. A darting motion attracted my attention, and I pointed. “There!” I said, but Barnabas had seen it, too. It was Shoe, halfway through a low window with one foot inside, one on the sill. Nakita was talking to him from outside, having probably surprised him. The faint, softball-size glow over her was likely Grace. The dark reaper didn’t have her sword out, but I could tell by Grace’s haze that things were not going well.

Barnabas angled away, and, startled, I yelled, “Where are you going?”

“I don’t want him to see me with my wings,” he said, and Grace, who had clearly heard me, darted up and our way.

“Barnabas, I’m trying to convince him he needs to change his life or risk being cut down by an angel. Land where he can freaking see you! You can always change his memory.”

Making a grunt of understanding, he shifted his course, wings beating three times to cushion our landing on the pavement.

“He’s here! You need to hurry!” Grace said, her haze looking dim against the stars as she flew in circles around us. My hair flew straight up from the gust of Barnabas’s wings. “She chased him inside!”

I stumbled away from Barnabas as my feet found the earth, tugging my skirt down where it should be. Nakita had vaulted inside, but she was lingering by the window to watch Shoe and us both. Her sword was drawn, and I didn’t need to see the future to know everything was about to crash down.

“Grace, tell her to wait!” I said. “Ron isn’t here! We’re okay!”

“Got it!” she sang out, and in a flash of silver she zoomed away.

Ron isn’t here, is he? I questioned myself. Grace was. She’d been keeping an eye on Paul. Was she still, or had she shifted over to spy on me again? The seraphs were watching. Nothing like a little pressure to bring out your best, I thought, grimacing.

Barnabas came up beside me, and as we started forward, Nakita and Shoe vanished deeper inside the building.

“Damn it!” I shouted, not caring if God himself heard me. I was mad. I didn’t feel very good from my flash forward. And now Nakita was going to scythe Shoe and turn all our efforts into puppy presents on the rug.