His trembling subsided with each second that passed. He finally stopped shaking and took a long, deep breath. A little apprehensive, I pulled my hands away and put some distance between us.
Victor stood. “Thanks.” He looked better. He wasn't pale anymore, his chest and shoulders no longer sagged, and his eyes shone. He was gorgeous, as always.
“You’re welcome.” I curled my fingers around a strand of my hair. “If it was this bad, why didn’t you come sooner?”
He looked away. “I wanted to avoid drawing attention. The demons are probably here because of me. They sensed my aura and came.”
Could it be? I thought they were coming because of my aura. But if the demons were here because of Victor’s aura this time, what could explain the other times?
His eyes returned to me, and I held my breath once more.
How could this man, who had been shaking like a scared child a few moments ago, be a freaking almighty god? I couldn’t believe it. I had three months to absorb and believe, but I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. When I closed my eyes, it was easy to tell myself that what happened had been a dream.
A dream. Hallucinations. Maybe visions. Maybe Ceris hadn’t taken the Destiny Gift away, and this time I was living within a vision, trapped forever.
“How have you been?” he asked.
I frowned. After all these months, that was what he asked me? “Good,” I said, my voice more bitter than I intended.
His gaze ran the length of me before settling on my eyes again. “You look good.”
What was that supposed to mean? I looked down. My hair was messy from running, my face was probably flushed, my clothes were battered and dirty after all I had been through this morning, and one of the heels of my boots had been glued on with crazy glue. Oh, and there was the brand new splat of blood on my boot. I felt anything but good.
“How’s your family?” he asked, surprising me.
“Good,” I lied.
“And Raisa and Olivia?”
What was with him and small talk? “They’re good too.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Look, Nadine, we should probably ta—”
“If there isn’t anything else I can help you with, I should probably get back to work,” I said, putting as much confidence as I could in my tone. It wasn’t easy.
The shine in his eyes changed. “No, no. I’m fine now. Thanks again.”
“Sure.”
Holding my head high, I strolled out of the room. Once in the corridor, I let out a huge breath and fought against the sudden tears. Why was I feeling disappointed and frustrated? He didn’t owe me anything. He had left with his mate, and said mate had fabricated my feelings for him. Nothing that happened between us had been real, and I should be over it.
I shook my head. Apparently, I wasn’t really over it.
I entered the restroom, washed my face, and then dropped down on the couch in the locker room.
Before my mind could drift and my muscles relax, my cell phone vibrated with a new text message. It was from my boss. Where are you? She sounded mad even if I couldn’t hear her voice or see her face. I knew she was mad.
Cursing I pushed up from the couch and rushed out.
This day couldn’t get any worse.
The bus ride back to campus that evening had no incidents, thank goodness. It dropped me inside the north gates, and I walked the couple of blocks to my dorm, located on the east side of campus.
Last semester, Raisa and I had shared an apartment outside the walls, but this semester, the university’s policy had changed. All students were required to live in the dorms inside its walls for security reasons. Olivia, however, was long gone. When things started to get worse, her parents told her to come home. Raisa’s parents were trying to convince her to do the same. My parents tried to convince me too, but I wouldn’t budge. There weren’t many jobs available where they lived, if there were any, and I would be one more mouth to feed. I couldn’t give up yet.
I glanced up at the electrified cables they had put atop of the walls, creating a wrought dome that fried the demons wherever they touched it. It was like living in a prison, but if it meant the university could keep us safe so I could finish my degree and help my family, I was okay with it.
The dorm building wasn’t too bad. Most students were scared shitless, and a few had left. There were parties, but not too many anymore, not since the world kept getting worse and worse.
I opened the door to my room and sighed. The room was tiny compared to our old apartment, but that was the only truly bad thing about living here. One room with dull white walls; a boring window that opened to the courtyard at the heart of the other dorm buildings; two squeaking twin beds; two desks that looked like they would break if we put one more book on them; two chairs; a decaying sofa; two tall shelves that passed as closets; a counter with our coffee machine and such; and a bathroom with plastic curtains and stained tiles and a sink, but at least we didn’t have to share it with anyone else.
I closed the door, and threw my coat and my tote on my bed. I thought about taking my boots off and throwing myself on my bed too, but I would have to leave for class soon. If I got comfortable now, I knew I wouldn’t go.
I turned on the coffee machine, and Raisa stepped out of the bathroom.
“Hey, you,” she said, her hazel eyes inquisitive. She had a towel draped around her, and her short brown hair was wet, dripping all over the linoleum floor. “I saw the bats’ attack around the hospital. Was it too bad?”
“The usual. Lots of hurt people and lots of people we couldn’t help.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
I nodded, and she disappeared inside the bathroom again. She turned on the blow-dryer, and I leaned against the window while waiting for the coffee machine.
The raven was perched on the limb of a dying tree. Thank goodness, it was all right. I hadn’t forgotten it had saved me from a demon, but with all the chaos inside the hospital, I couldn’t really stop and wonder about it. Besides his presence wasn’t news. Rok had been following me since I came back from that boring Croatian island. Each time my eyes landed on the bird, my thoughts turned to Micah and mixed feelings invaded me. I was angry with him for leaving me alone on that damned island. I thought of all he had done: sticking up for me, defending me from demons, killing Brock so my identity and family would be safe. I didn’t understand.
I scoffed, trying to suppress such thoughts. However, the more I tried to put my mind on something else, the more it went back to him. I was angry with him, even though he didn’t owe me anything. He was a god, an almighty god that would probably stomp on a human like me at the first opportunity. But if that were true, why would he send Rok to keep tabs on me? The only reason I could imagine he had was to know if I ran away right when he needed my healing.
My healing … I had seen Victor today. Oh my God, I had seen Victor today.
My heart sped up.
Disappointment and frustration brewed in me. Three months. For three months, I had heard nothing from him. I thought I was free of this mess, save for the bird following me. I thought I could live my life, pretending I didn’t know anything about why the world was the way it was, about how there were gods out there in the mortal world on what sounded like impossible quests that could bring light to our world of darkness, and about how I could help these gods.
I wished Ceris had taken away my healing ability too.
The coffee machine beeped. I dragged my feet to it and prepared my coffee. Black, no sugar. I hadn’t drunk any mochaccino since the Fates brought me back. I was afraid I liked mochaccino only because Victor had told me he liked it during a vision, and I wanted to distance myself from coincidences like that as much as I could.
Raisa exited the bathroom dressed in tight jeans, a red blouse with a gray knit cardigan over it, and full makeup.
“Hmm, hot date?” I asked, not really interested, though I should be. She was a good friend and she deserved my atten
tion.
She wiggled her eyebrows. “Something like that.”
Raisa had been going out with the guy who lived across the hall. As the good friend she was—her words, not mine—she tried setting me up with her guy’s roommate. There was nothing wrong with the roommate. He seemed okay, kind of cute even, but I wasn’t into him.
“All right. Just please, if you come back after midnight, be quiet. I need to wake up early tomorrow.”
She raised her eyebrows. “When don’t you need to wake up early?”
“Good question.”
She grabbed her purse from her closet and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Don’t wait up.”
“Ha, as if.” I reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Be careful.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t leave campus.”
“Good.”
She waved goodbye and left the room with a wide smile.
Raisa went through life as if it was a party, even after demon attacks and other horrible stuff. She cared, of course, she was sad about those things, but she didn’t let it bring her down. I guess she pretended it didn’t happen and thought it could never touch her. I wished I could be that carefree.
Trying not to let my mind go back to the fact I had seen Victor this morning, I refilled my coffee mug.
“Hello, child.”
I froze. My mug slipped from my fingers and crashed on the floor with a loud crack, splashing coffee everywhere.
No, no, no. Two unexpected visits in one day?
Slowly, I turned and faced the Fates.
Three identical women stood in front of my bed, wearing matching white gowns, and looking ageless and powerful. I shuddered.
I thought this day couldn’t get any worse. Oh, God, how wrong I was.
The gray eyes of the one in the center met mine. “Good to see you, child.”
I pressed my lips together before I said I didn’t feel the same. “Why are you here?”
She stepped in my direction. “Because we need to give you your soul back.”
Of all the things I expected to hear, this wasn’t one of them. My mouth fell open, and I literally forced it closed. “What?”
“You’ll need it.”
“I’ll need it? For what?”
She shook her head once. “We can’t tell you that.”
Typical. I crossed my arms. “And you’ll just give it back to me? No favors? No deals?”
She smiled. “Child, we’re not evil. We don’t want you harmed. Actually, we want quite the opposite.”
“But why?”
“Can’t tell you.”
I groaned. Talking to them was always confusing. Instead of answering my questions, they left me with more.
She extended her hand to me, and I squinted at it. What if they were messing with me? What if they were lying and whatever she did to me actually made everything worse? What if they brought me back to the center of the problem, even though all I wanted was to be left alone?
“I already told you, child. If we wanted to harm you, we wouldn’t ask permission. We would have already done it a long time ago.”
True, but that didn’t make me less wary.
I couldn’t deny, though, it would be nice to go to bed at night without worrying the Fates would show up and claim me.
I placed my hand in hers.
A rush of energy flowed into me, cold one second, warm the next. It was like when I was healing Victor or Micah, but receiving instead of giving. The energy cascaded into me and coursed up my arm, around my shoulder, and spread through my chest. I shivered. It coiled around my heart and into it. I gasped. My body became jelly, and I fell into a seated position on my bed.
The Fate let go of my hand. “Done. Your soul is yours now, and you may use it as you want.”
“This damn cold,” Raisa complained as we walked out of our dorm building. We had an early morning biology class together on the west side of campus.
There was snow everywhere, but I was happy about getting out. Since moving onto campus, weekends were terrible. Especially when snowing. We were stuck in our tiny dorms with nowhere to go. Well, almost nowhere. Raisa, for example, went to the room across the hall, and I didn’t even want to know where the spare roommate went.
I tugged my beanie down over my ears and my scarf up over my nose and mouth. “The walking in the snow bothers me more,” I said, kicking at the frozen fluff with the tip of my boots.
Raisa linked her arm through mine and pulled me with her. “I’m a walk-in-the-snow expert.”
“Yeah, right.” I remembered last year, when she had fallen on her butt in front of half the campus after slipping on an icy patch. I wouldn’t let her drag me down with her this time.
“So,” she said, “why don’t you want to go out with Cale?”
Cale. That was the name of her guy’s roommate. Just the fact that his name didn’t stick to my brain told me volumes. “Again with that? I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You mean you don’t want to talk about Victor?”
I glared at her. “Raisa.”
“What? You never talk to me about him. I’m worried. The guy takes you on a trip, which I think is supposed to be romantic, and then you come back alone and never talk about the guy again. It’s a little odd.”
Oh, I thought so too. Especially because the romantic trip had no romance in it. Well, maybe one tiny moment, but even that had been misguided. I was sure it had been misguided.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I whispered, glancing at the trees. Rok was there jumping from branch to branch, following me.
“But—”
“How’s your guy?” I asked, interrupting her. I had to change the subject. I knew she couldn’t help but talk about her love life. Unlike me, Raisa loved talking about everything.
She smiled. “He’s okay, I think.”
“Just okay?”
“Well, I’m kinda disappointed because he’s considering going back to his parents.”
“Because of how bad things are?”
“Yeah.” She looked up, and I followed her gaze.
The wrought dome was there looking like a dark gray cage, swallowing our freedom. Most of the time I felt safe under it, but there were rare times when the air was gone and I suffocated. Like now. I took a long breath, willing the heavy arms of the dome to melt and let in the fresh air and the sunlight—as if both things were hiding behind it.
Breaking my daze, Raisa said, “I’m not sure I’ll go home next week for Thanksgiving.”
What? She had been talking about Thanksgiving break for weeks now, longing for a little vacation from our classes. She would go home, enjoy her family. I would stay here and work double shifts at Langone.
“Why not?”
“My father gave me an ultimatum last night. If I don’t come home to stay when this semester is over, he’ll cut me off.”
“What?” My shock made me slip on the snow. Raisa held on to my arm, keeping me steady.
“He was serious. The thing is I’m afraid if I go home for Thanksgiving next week, he won’t let me come back to finish this semester.”
“He wouldn’t do that.” Maybe he would. I didn’t know her father well enough to know what he would or wouldn’t do.
“It sucks. My hometown sucks. Everything is closing or dying there, and the colleges nearby aren’t as safe as this one. But he and my mom are worried. If I was a mother, I would be too.”
I tilted my head, watching her. “Wow, that is so unlike you.”
“I know.” She smiled, but it was a sad one. “They got me thinking, you know. Even if I stay and graduate, what will I do later? Things are getting worse. It’s not like I can walk out of these gates and have a normal life. Whatever normal might be. I’ll have to go back to my parents or try my luck in a city like this.” She gestured to the walls.
She was right. I had plans to work at Langone after I graduated from med school, but that wasn’t a done deal because getting into med school was
n’t a done deal. They could reject my application—fear gripped my chest each time I thought about it, making me sick—and housing did worry me. I was used to spending most of my time inside these walls. It would be hard and incredibly dangerous to live outside of them. I thought about bringing my family to live here with me, there was nothing left for them where they were, but I wasn’t sure here would be much better.
“It’s hard watching it get worse and worse, isn’t it?”
“I wish there was something we could do about it,” she muttered.
I glanced at her. “What did you say?”
“I know presidents and governors and all those big guys get together all the time to come up with solutions and ideas, but nothing they do is working.” She paused. “I wish we could do something, but I don’t know what. If the government can’t do anything about it, we certainly can’t, right?”
“Right,” I said automatically.
I wish we could do something.
That thought stuck in my mind. I shook my head, but the thought stayed there in the back of my head, taunting me.
We reached the door of the science building, and a siren blasted through the entire campus.
My heart stopped for a second and fear locked my muscles.
“What the hell?” Raisa asked, squeezing my arms.
We whirled around. Red lights flashed from all corners of campus and above the walls. Guards appeared out of nowhere and ran to the gates. Students rushed out of the buildings, their faces lost and scared.
“What’s happening?” they asked each other.
But nobody knew.
I looked up to the dark sky.
It seemed different. Darker. Heavier.
My knees shook, and I held on to Raisa. I saw them before anyone else. Just like that day at the hospital, but many, many more. A huge cloud of demons descended onto the city.
“This is Mr. Cornell, your dean,” the voice boomed from the speakers strategically installed around the campus. “All students proceed to the basements in their residences at once. Please respect the guards and police officers doing their job and follow their orders.” He sighed. “New York City is under attack.”
Soul Oath Page 2
