Ember
Page 24
Fanning the smoke from my face, I pad over to his bed. Without even looking, I know it’s a photo of Alyssa. Even with his eyes shut, his torture and guilt is written all over his face.
Cameron’s words reply in my mind: What if I told you I could take away every ounce of pain you have and would ever feel?
I take the photo from his hand and flip it over. Death made me do it, Alyssa, and I’m sorry. But now I have to move onto the next angel.
The next angel? He can’t be talking about… No, Ian could not have killed her. I struggle not to rip the photo into pieces. Setting it down on the dresser, I give Ian a soft shake. “Wake up, Ian. We need to talk.”
But he’s passed out, stoned out of his mind. I run back to my room to get my phone. I need to talk to Raven and find out if she’s still here, or if the Reapers have gotten a hold of her again. But when I enter my room, something feels off, like the air is unbalanced.
The window is open and a black feather is ruffled on my bed. I pick it up and my gaze lands on the wall, where the ink of a fresh poem is drying.
In separate fields of black feathers, the birds fly.
Four wings, two hearts, but only one soul.
They connect in the middle, but are separated by a thin line of ash.
It’s what brings them together, yet rips their feathers apart.
They can never truly be together as light and dark.
Unless one makes the ultimate sacrifice.
Blows out their candle, and joins the other in the dark.
It’s the poem that I read on Cameron’s wall, but three extra lines have been added.
Or if the other dares to fly across the line and steals the other’s light
And force them to cross over the line and join the darkness of life.
I’m not gone, princess. I will come back for you until you give in.
—Cameron
I blink as the ink bleeds down the wall. I back away from it and fall on my bed with the faint echo of Cameron’s laugh filling up my unstable head.
It’s starting again—the games, the tricks, the battle for me to surrender. And, like everything in life, I’m not sure how it will all end. Or when my sanity will fly away into the sky, just like a raven.
Jessica Sorensen lives with her husband and three kids in the snowy mountains of Wyoming, where she spends most of her time reading, writing, and hanging out with her family.
Other books by Jessica Sorensen:
The Fallen Star (Fallen Star Series, Book 1)
The Underworld (Fallen Star Series, Book 2)
The Vision (Fallen Star Series, Book 3)
The Promise (Fallen Star Series, Book 4)
Darkness Falls (Darkness Falls Series, Book 1)
Darkness Breaks (Darkness Falls Series, Book 2)
Connect with me online:
http://jessicasorensensblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-Sorensen/165335743524509
https://twitter.com/#!/jessFallenStar