Book of Life

  Stella shrugged. “I guess she says she gets it from Jake.”

  “Ha!” I hooted. “Like Jake knows anything.”

  She was quiet for a moment, just staring and waiting for me to let the chip roll off my shoulder. “I hear Jake knows . . . a lot . . . about Emily,” she continued.

  I shook my head. “What is this? Gossip hour? You sound like every other girl in our school.”

  She frowned then.

  I reached forward and bumped my hand against her knee that was covered by layers of blankets. “I’m kidding. Geez, you need to learn what it means to joke a little.” I leaned back.

  “I don’t think I like joking. I don’t see the use in it.” She sounded so tart. It was cute.

  I had to admit she had a lot more edge than Jane ever did, and it suited Jane’s dark features much better. Eyes that always seemed so sad were suddenly teeming with a fire I never knew they could. Could I admit that perhaps Stella’s soul was a better match for this body than Jane’s was? Jane could have better benefited from a little blonde, perhaps a set of green eyes. Was it rude to think?

  By now Stella’s voice had grown considerably more seasoned. The hoarseness was nearly gone, and any slight stumbling had disappeared all together.

  “How do you allow Jake to be like that? Aren’t you jealous?”

  I nodded dramatically. “Of course I’m jealous, but I guess in a way it’s not bothering me so much as of late.”

  “Because you care less.” She said it like a statement, like a fact she knew to be true.

  I couldn’t help but consider it for a brief moment before rebutting like I felt I had to. “No. No that’s not it. I just know he’s not going to try anything. He’s never going to be allowed by more than just me, even if he did want to try something. It’s against the rules of his kind.”

  “Ever heard of the term ‘rules are meant to be broken’?”

  “And you have?”

  She shrugged. “Clearly.”

  I narrowed my gaze. “Don’t even start. He’s not going to break the rules. We’re friends now. On top of everything else he’d never go behind my back.”

  Stella just laughed.

  I clenched my jaw. “I think I liked you better when you couldn’t talk.”

  She stopped laughing, giving me a sour look instead.

  I just smiled. I was enjoying the banter between us in the way I used to enjoy it with Jane, and even Emily. I didn’t like how serious everything had become over the last few months. A part of me wished I could ignore it all and just start over.

  Just then the door from the house to the garage opened and I felt my heart sink for a couple of reasons. The first was that, somewhere wicked, I didn’t want this moment to be interrupted, the second was the fear of being caught by Emily, or even Sarah. Sarah especially given the fact we were hiding Stella from her until we decided what to do about it. To my surprise, though, it was Max.

  “What are you doing here?” I barked.

  Max’s eyes tracked from me to Stella and back again. “I could ask you the same thing.” He raised his brow, his hand dropping from the door handle. He stepped in as a figure behind him followed, illuminated by the bleeding florescent lights of the garage. She wore a white hooded shawl with a delicate fur trim. It shielded her eyes under the harshness of the light.

  For a moment I swore I felt my heart stop beating. I knew exactly who she was without seeing the whole of her face. What was she doing here? She slid past him, stepping into the room as Max stepped further in behind her and shut the door. She removed the hood and stood regally before stepping toward Stella, a wad of something bundled in her hand. I flew from the couch, blocking the way between them. “What the heck, Max?” I boomed. “Stop,” I then hissed at Avery.

  Avery stopped dead in her tracks, looking back over her shoulder at Max.

  I looked at Max, too, annoyed by the unconcerned look on his face. “What is this? What are you doing with her here?”

  “I thought you heard?” he spoke calmly.

  I shook my head, but not as my reply. “Yeah, I heard, but I never figured you’d try to bring her here.”

  “She’s fine, Wes.”

  “Fine?” I barked. “That’s not a very convincing choice of words. How do you know she’s fine? You certainly didn’t know before.”

  Avery was looking at me once more.

  “Don’t you dare look at me,” I hissed under my breath.

  “I’m sorry, Wes,” she whispered in reply. “I promise I’m not who I was.”

  I laughed mockingly. “A promise from you is worthless.”

  She tilted her head, eyes solemn. “I understand. I don’t expect you to believe me.”

  “What’s in your hands?” I reached to try and pry it from her.

  Avery didn’t protest.

  Unbundling the wad, I found it to be nothing more than a set of clothes. “What is this?”

  “Clothes for Stella,” she answered plainly. Her eyes blinked—her beautiful, spiteful eyes that hid so much when she was posing as Navia.

  “Max, I can’t trust her.” I just couldn’t leave it be.

  Max stepped toward me, becoming a wedge between Avery and I. “It’s just clothes, Wes. It’s not going to kill her.” He pried the clothes from my hands and handed them to Stella who looked confused but also grateful.

  “How did you know we were here?” I went on.

  Max shrugged. “The prophets.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course.” With Max so close, I could finally sense the strain in him. He’d seemed so collected since Jane’s death, but now I saw the flaws, the pain, smelled the anxiety and sadness. But, there was something else, something new. “What’s going on?”

  He stood a little taller, raising his chin. “Jane’s gone.”

  “Jane’s gone?” I didn’t understand what he meant. We knew she was gone already.

  “Her body is gone. She chose to be reborn,” he elaborated.

  The first thing that came to my mind was that this was a good thing. “But this is good, right? I mean, that would mean she’s back here, or rather that’s what’s been explained to me.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not that easy. She’s just a baby at this point. She could be anywhere, anyone. There’s no way to track her down. She’s more lost now than she was before.” There was a shake in his voice. He turned his attention on Stella in his attempt to quell the hollow emotion he was trying to feel, emotion that was dead to him. “Are you alright?”

  “How do you know this?” I demanded, trying to bring him back to the problem at hand.

  He looked at me again, this time with a certain level of annoyance. “The prophets.”

  “Right,” I nodded, meaning to sound annoyed. I no longer possessed the energy to remain so on guard. This was continued bad news, and it was sad that all I could think of was how Emily would react, and what it meant for me. Her attitude within our relationship was not about to change—if anything, it was bound to get worse.

  EMILY:

  I woke to frantic voices in my head. It was as though they were right there in the room with me. I sat up, hearing Max’s voice, then Wes. I wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying, not until I heard her voice.

  I felt my heart start pounding. What in the world was going on? I threw the blankets off me, not surprised to see that Wes was not here—he’d snuck off . . . again. I rose from bed and crossed the room, following the direction of the voices and trying to hear what they were saying . . .

  “I’m sorry, Wes.” Avery whispered, her mind truly meaning it. But, it had to be a trick. “I promise I’m not who I was.”

  Wes laughed mockingly with his thoughts, and I assumed out loud. “A promise from you is worthless.”

  At least it was nice to hear Wes was standing up for himself. He’d seemed tired and quiet as of late, not his normal ‘roaring’ self, so to speak—I knew it was because of me. His thoughts were a jumble of things. What the
group was saying was the only clear thing my mind could translate.

  “I understand. I don’t expect you to believe me.” Avery replied.

  Believe her? Of course he’s not going to believe her. I can’t believe she’d even go so far to assume he would or was even thinking of it.

  I was downstairs now, trying my best to see where they were and what they were doing. I listened hard, the voices echoing loudly in my head. I was surprised they were leaving their minds so open, knowing I was in the vicinity. Then again, maybe they were trying to do it on purpose—Max often did that and I considered it a compliment.

  At last I’d narrowed the talking down to the garage, mostly because once I made it into the kitchen, the thoughts I was hearing were then accompanied by the muffled voices behind the garage door. I swung the door open. Max seemed the least surprised, but Wes, you’d think I’d caught him naked with the mail lady.

  Looking around, everyone was here except Lacy and Jake. How was it they’d all secretly managed to convene like this, and again, why wasn’t I informed until the last minute? I looked a wreck in old tattered pajamas. I wouldn’t care if it weren’t for Stella in the room. Then again the only person in the room I really did care about was the figure in the white coat. She wasn’t facing me, but I knew who she was, and I wasn’t happy about it.

  “Emily,” Wes spoke. He looked awkward standing there in front of everyone with nothing but his shorts on.

  “Why is she here?” I hissed, aiming the question at Max.

  Max’s gaze on me was steady and calm. “She’s with me. I promise you she is of no harm.”

  “No harm?” I croaked.

  Max’s eyes flitted toward Wes. I took it as a hint, redirecting the question. “Wes?”

  Wes looked between Stella and I. She was on the couch, fumbling under a pile of blankets before she threw them off her and stood. Her shirt was on backward. I couldn’t help but find myself thinking a whole range of things given the facts: Wes in his boxers, her fumbling to put clothes on. I didn’t want to jump to that conclusion, but it was rather hard, even with Max and Avery in the room—at what point had they arrived?

  I could tell by the look on Wes’s face that he was putting together the facts the same way I was. “It’s not like that, Emily.”

  I felt my jaw clench without really meaning to. “Then start talking, and fast.”

  “I just came down for some milk and Stella was at the window. I let her in and we came in here to talk because I didn’t want to have your mom coming downstairs and losing her lid when she saw her.”

  “Talk? She can’t exactly talk, Wes.” It was hard to hold my temper at bay.

  “Well . . .” Wes’s voice trailed as he looked at Stella. “She does now.”

  My brows rose in disbelief. “Prove it,” I demanded of Stella.

  Stella looked nervous, her face a pasty white, though still irritatingly beautiful in a way Jane’s never could be. Stella’s soul had done it justice. “What exactly do you want me to say?”

  What she’d said in response was clearly enough. I felt a shiver creep up my spine. Though I’d heard the voice in her thoughts many times, hearing it aloud made it real. “What the Hell . . .” was all I could murmur.

  Max finally stepped in. “Listen, Emily. We lost Jane.” He gripped my arm.

  I was having a hard time processing what he’d just said on top of everything else. The world around me shifted in a nauseating manner. “What do you mean you lost her? Where could she have gone? How can you lose someone who’s dead?” Saying it felt good.

  “She chose to be reborn, thus forfeiting her body. That’s why Stella can talk. She is now the full owner.” Max seemed so cool about the whole thing.

  A part of me stiffened—the part that still wanted to kill Avery. I saw now why Max had gripped my arm. It was more for stopping me than comforting me. “Reborn? I don’t understand.”

  “Once you die you have this choice. You always have this choice until you find your true love and your true half. Once you have that, the game of life is over and you can die happy and move on. That’s how this works.”

  I couldn’t help but think of Jake. “Really?”

  He nodded.

  “Why the heck didn’t she just wait for you?” I retorted quickly. Knowing my sister, though, I wasn’t surprised. She waited for no one.

  “Jane didn’t want me to die and she wasn’t prepared to give up living, either. Your sister, though an old soul, still craved more.”

  “So, then what happened to her? Did she just, become a tree, or a frog . . . or something? How is she re-born?” I was using sarcasm to deal with my anger.

  “She’s a baby somewhere out there in the world.”

  “Well, find her.” I demanded, mind a fog.

  “You can’t just find her, Emily. If that were the case I would have already.” I saw something strange happen to him then. His confidence melted, if only for the briefest of moments. “Finding your soul mate isn’t as easy as it may seem to you.”

  I couldn’t help but catch the deepened, accusational gaze of his eyes when he said this, as though to suggest he knew my problem with Wes and Jake. That was something I was hoping to bury.

  Max’s gaze broke from mine. “But, unfortunately, even with how pressing this all seems, this is not the reason we are here.”

  At last, Avery stepped forward. Her eyes were level with mine for a moment before moving on to the rest of us. I was shocked by the lightness inside them, the inky, evil black of before but a memory seared into my mind.

  I grumbled.

  She ignored me. “Greg is coming. Max and I have talked extensively about what to do, and we’ve both come to an understanding and an answer. We fear there is no stopping him unless we can work together to show him the life he’s missing out on. Greg is lost in a world full of shadows and we need to show him the way to redeem himself as . . .” her speech faltered as she smiled to herself. “As I have,” she finished.

  At least she hadn’t given up on her uppity side.

  “What do you plan to do? I don’t think you can redeem him unless you kill him. But, you can’t do that. We all know what that means.” Wes looked at Max warily. “You can’t sacrifice yourself, Max. You have to find Jane. You have to remember her in this life or what hope will you ever have of finding her?” He looked exceedingly worried all of a sudden. A part of him was taking this personally.

  Max raised his hand. “I’m not going to sacrifice myself. I knew you would assume that. This also means I won’t kill Greg, either. That much is obvious. I’m not saying he can never be redeemed, he can. My brother, Erik’s life, is a testament to his mercy. It does exist somewhere for him. This I have always believed.”

  Avery took the stage once more, relieving a taxed looking Max. Though he seldom showed it, he was finally feeling the burden of all that had happened to him. “He is to arrive very soon. The Black Angels are behind him and support his advance.”

  “Who’s to say they’ll stop even after Greg is dealt with?” Stella asked the question, surprising me.

  “Because that is what the prophets have told Max.” Avery seemed sure of her answer.

  “And what about Srixon,” I asked in a dark voice. “What’s he hiding?”

  Avery’s gaze slid to meet mine. “He doesn’t know about any of this. He doesn’t even know about me. The prophets are lying to him on purpose. They’re on our side this time. My father’s past discretions have lost him their trust.”

  “They were lies about you that he was making. Why do the prophets trust you, then?” I smarted back.

  A little flash of the old Avery I knew could be seen. She was aggravated. “They don’t trust me. They trust Max.”

  Max looked at me as though to say that that was enough. “What has happened has happened. I know it sounds hard to accept, but all our lives depend on us holding it together. There are hundreds of Black Angels out there in the mountains as we speak. They are here to kill us as th
ey have a hundred other towns just like Winter Wood. Our only hope is to find Greg tonight.”

  “Tonight?” I gasped. I didn’t think it would happen so soon. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

  Just then the garage door began to open. In my head I heard the whispered thoughts of Jake and Lacy.

  “We didn’t know until now. Srixon hadn’t said anything because he wasn’t being informed. The prophets found us.”

  “They found you?” I wanted to laugh if not for the circumstances. I tried to picture June anywhere but at his table playing games. “It must be bad, then.”

  Max didn’t reply, instead looking over his shoulder as Jake and Lacy stepped into the garage. In that moment, my mother also opened the door, eyes groggy with her pink robe wrapped around her. Max was quick to step toward her and usher her back into the house before she got the chance to see Stella. I wasn’t sure what he was going to tell her, but with his charm, I was certain I wasn’t about to see her again tonight. As much as my mother knew about my father’s world, my world, I’d rather keep her in the dark at the same time. Allowing her to know about Stella or what Greg was up to was just as cruel a punishment as it was for me.

  “So, what now?” Jake barked, looking at Avery the same way I’m sure I was—with mixed emotions. Lacy looked sleek and put together. She arrived at Stella’s side, seeming to whisper harshly into her ear, only to be surprised when Stella whispered harshly back. There were a lot of surprises tonight, it was hard to know which to feel and allow to sink in and which to cast aside for a later date, if there was one.

  STELLA:

  “What are you doing here?” Lacy hissed at me in a low tone. I felt a little ashamed to have snuck away from her, but I couldn’t help it. Besides, given the unfurling circumstances, it was probably a good thing I had.

  “I’m talking to Wes,” I hissed back, finally able to stand up for myself.

  Lacy looked shocked. “What the heck, Stella. Since when did you start talking? Been hiding it from me?”

  I shook my head. “No, leave me alone. It happened today.”