Torn: A young adult paranormal romance (Breath of Fate Book 1)

by Angelina J. Steffort

  The teacher nodded, probably seeing nothing more than the teenage boy he pretended to be and not the dangerous stealer of souls he was, and pointed at the back of the room where one empty desk was waiting for the new arrival.

  In his chair near Avery, Leon had gone rigid, his face no longer holding those friendly features I was so accustomed to but that of a breathtakingly beautiful avenger angel.

  It took me a second or two to tear my gaze away from him and instead direct it to the boy, who was now walking down the aisle toward the empty desk, preparing to pass by my own desk on his way. His eyes were on the back of the room, no sign of recognition in his face. At least, not while I still had the courage to watch him approach. The second he reached the row before mine, I turned away, searching Jo’s face for whatever she must be seeing.

  But my friend just shrugged and set down her pen on the notebook before her, scribbling something, and beckoned for me to read it.

  “Not long before the Avery games begin,” her neat handwriting said, and I noted a smirk on her face that was very much unlike Jo.

  I hadn’t dared study the Shadowbringer’s face long enough to tell if he was the kind of boy Avery would pay attention to. After the last encounter and her color-drained face, I was almost sure that she would try to pull any rug from under my feet she could find. She was just biding her time. Leon sitting right next to her had already made her gloat.

  But the Shadowbringer was different. He hadn’t paid me a second of attention. And it wasn’t as if I would mind if she went after him—I was anxious for the girl who tormented half the school. No one deserved to be with the devil’s right hand.

  For a brave second, I risked a glimpse over my shoulder and found the Shadowbringer’s gray eyes resting on my back as if he was imagining to crave my soul out from between flesh and bone.

  A shudder spreading through me as if I had been touched between the shoulder blades with an icy finger made me shrink back and focus on Mr. Warner’s unintelligible scribble on the blackboard.

  “Now that we all acknowledged your new classmate, Mr. Ferham, we can return to work,” Mr. Warner announced, saving me from beginning to wonder if this was a nightmare and the Shadowbringer wasn’t really here. No, it was real. And Mr. Ferham was as much in his corporeal form as Leon and I. Meaning my soul was in more danger than ever before.

  I spent the rest of the hour ignoring the itch to turn in my seat and stare at him, but instead, I searched for Leon’s gaze, which was as cold as the Shadowbringer’s eyes on my back.

  Leon had bundled his hair back into a ponytail, exposing the profile of his face as he kept staring at the front of the room like a robot. What was going on in his mind?

  I was curious if only to have something to wonder while the minutes were trickling by too slowly. If there was any real danger, he would already have given me a sign to run, wouldn’t he?

  Beside me, Jo had rested her arms on our desk, her head on top of it seeming as heavy as a stone. Her eyelids were drooping when the bell finally rang.

  “I was just getting comfortable,” she complained as she reluctantly lifted herself off her books and gathered her things.

  Run, I wanted to tell her as, behind me, the other students were getting to their feet—probably including the Shadowbringer, who was after me and had now chosen to seek me out in bright daylight. But what would I tell her was the reason? Certainly not the truth. The truth, Leon had informed me, was something meant only for those who become Lightbringers. Even my mother didn’t know.

  I gathered my books, resisting yet again the urge to let my head flip to the side and reassure myself the Shadowbringer was still a good distance away, and was about to get out of my chair when Leon’s tall frame appeared beside me.

  “Thank God,” I whispered, ready to throw myself into his arms as he lifted them slightly as if he were equally ready to wrap them around me.

  There were so many questions on my tongue that I had to hold back until we were out of earshot of the crowd. But one was more pressing than the rest of them. “Jo?” I whispered at Leon, hoping that the mention of her name would be enough to make him understand that I feared for her safety.

  Leon waited for me to get up before he wrapped his arm around my shoulders in a gesture that was as startling as it was surprisingly comfortable … safe.

  Avery’s laugh sounded from somewhere by the door, but I didn’t bother to look up. Leon’s gaze had locked on mine, demanding my undivided attention as he leaned closer and whispered, “He’s after you, not her.” And he guided me out the door, his fingers secure around my shoulder letting me forget there even was danger.

  The hallway was filled with the buzzing voices of students as Leon led me in a careful slalom toward the cafeteria. Somewhere beside me, Jo chanted that she’d join us later, and some minor part of me that wasn’t paralyzed from either the sudden appearance of the Shadowbringer or Leon’s gentle arm wanted to smile at her and reassure her I’d be saving her a spot.

  Leon didn’t give me much opportunity to consider my options as he brought me to a table and sat me down, slipping into a seat right beside me, his arm reluctantly sliding off my shoulders, leaving a streak of heat that was more than I was used to from when he normally so casually touched me.

  “What is he doing here?” I finally got out, my voice low and shaky.

  Leon’s eyes darted across the room while mine focused on his. “He must have realized that you are transforming faster than expected.” His gaze eventually locked on mine, relief appearing in his eyes as he didn’t find what he had been looking for. “He must have realized that there is no way around me outside of school.”

  I gave him a long look that could have meant I didn’t understand a word or that I agreed. I wasn’t sure which one it was. All I felt was confusion.

  “There hasn’t been a single moment since your grandmother’s death that you were truly alone,” he admitted with a downward twitch of his lips.

  “What do you mean, not truly alone?” Now it was my turn to screen the room for the dark figure that meant my descent to hell.

  Leon shrugged and grasped for my hand, unbothered by Avery’s curious gaze as she noticed the new familiarity between us. A familiarity I was certain seemed like something entirely other than what it was … even if his touch did feel so very different now since we had touched in our ethereal forms.

  A zing ran through my body, starting where Leon’s fingertips brushed over my palm.

  “I told you the Milliari family has been watching over your family for a long time.” His voice was a husky melody in the cheery cloud of lunch chatter, drawing my gaze back to his. “As my grandfather watched over your grandmother, I am watching over you.”

  He held my gaze, intensity pooling in the coffee brown depths of his eyes, his lashes a star-like frame that seemed to make the rest of the world cease to exist.

  “Day and night,” he added, a small nod confirming he meant what I thought he meant.

  “How—” I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to ask. How did he watch over me? How was he protecting me? “I mean … during the nights and all…”

  Again he nodded.

  “You don’t climb into my room through the window, do you?” I grimaced at the image of the intrusion into my private space, into my vulnerable hours of sleep.

  At that, Leon chuckled, brightness entering his gaze at my suggestion. “I am not a stalker, Laney,” he told me and leaned closer. “I am protecting you, not flushing out your secrets.”

  Relief flooded my system. “So how does it work? Are we connected somehow? Or do you simply stand guard outside my house?” As if that weren’t equally creepy…

  “Something like that,” he responded, a hint of my old friend Leon shining through.

  I nudged him in the shoulder with my free hand, and he tightened his fingers around mine, instantly washing away that sense of the familiar friend I had been relying on for the past years. No, this Leon was something different. S
omething other. Something divine. I felt my heart flutter as he met my gaze again, a smile still playing around his lips. “You were in no danger until you saw me in my ethereal form, Laney. Seeing the souls a year ago after the accident … that was just a first sign that you would become like your grandmother, but not an indicator you were transforming into a Lightbringer.” He paused, checking around if anyone was listening before he leaned a tad closer and whispered. “It was only when you walked in on the Shadowbringer and me when I realized that there was a chance you’d become like me.” His eyes said something more than that. Equal, they seemed to speak from their depths.

  “I haven’t gotten a single assignment since you manifested,” he continued, holding my gaze with a focus that was new as if he hadn’t allowed himself to truly look at me in a long time. It made my skin tingle. “Except for making sure we don’t lose you. So all I do is hover, in my ethereal form, close enough to watch the perimeter of your house while you sleep”—Was there embarrassment in his voice as he shared his secrets?—“and make sure the Shadowbringer doesn’t get any ideas.”

  It took me a while to understand his words. To relate them to the purple shadows under his eyes, to the way he had slung his arm around me and literally pulled me from danger. He was giving up his nights to watch over me—

  “You don’t sleep,” I concluded.

  At that, Leon laughed. It was again the sound that reminded me of my friend.

  “I do,” he admitted, the change in his face telling me that he wondered what other theories I had about him. “Why do you think I keep showing up late for school?” He didn’t give me a moment to ponder his question before he answered for himself, “I take half an hour in the morning to crash in the library once you arrive safely. I zone out as best I can during classes. And in the afternoons, when we hang out together, when I am right next to you … it is almost as if I am dreaming…” He finished the last words as if he was speaking to himself. As if he hadn’t meant to say them, his eyes growing a bit more distant as he was staring into his own mind.

  “It does make me tired, though,” he chuckled again and pulled my hand onto his knee, absently kneading my palm as he scanned the room again … and froze.

  It took a moment to realize the Shadowbringer was sitting at a table across the room, his eyes directed at us, face impassive as he studied us together. The sight of Avery Macmillan beside him made me almost laugh out loud in an attempt to vent my fear. The girl was jabbering animatedly, her minions standing behind her, admiration in their dull eyes as they watched her conquer the new arrival.

  “He is here because the school is the only place where I slip up,” Leon answered my unanswered question. “Here, we have separate classes. And as I said, sometimes I nap in the library.”

  I could feel his breath on my cheek as he spoke, his eyes on the Shadowbringer even though he was facing me.

  “You said before he doesn’t need to kill me for that. So what is it that he needs to do?” I wanted to know. So far all I had learned was that the Shadowbringer wanted my soul as a trophy, but not what that implied. If I needed to die in order to achieve it.

  To my relief, Leon shook his head. “No, not to kill you,” he confirmed, voice flat. “Something much, much worse.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Leon

  I could feel Laney’s pulse racing through her palm under my fingers. Even if her face didn’t betray any emotion, fear was making her heart speed in her chest. Her eyes, pale blue in the neon light of the cafeteria, locked on mine, full of unspoken questions … and that new facet of her gaze that I had never noticed before. Almost as if she saw me in a different light now that she knew the truth, as if Leon, her best friend, no longer existed.

  I had yet to make my mind up about whether or not I liked that change.

  “What do you mean, something much, much worse?” She stared me down, determined to get an answer. And the look in her eyes brought back memories of the hours between the messenger angel’s essence had settled within me and the moment I had taken my first soul. I had been quick. Less than two days. Two days full of fear. There had been no one looking out for me during that initial time window when I might have fallen victim to the Shadowbringer.

  But I had been prepared. My grandfather had spent days and nights telling me about our history, about our mission, about our purpose—and about the Parker-family. Even if Laney was now a Dawson with her mother marrying that man and moving away and all.

  The task to watch over her lineage might have fallen to someone else entirely had she stayed away from Glyndon. But ever since she was back, her safety fell under my purview of tasks. Besides taking all those souls in Glyndon to heaven.

  They weren’t excessively many with a small town like this— a couple of deaths every so many weeks—I had to face my original purpose less often than my kin in more densely populated regions. But it freed up my time resources for watching over the emerging line of Lightbringers that Laney descended from.

  So I took a deep breath and did my duty to protect her … by telling her what could possibly be worse than death.

  “I told you that they take your light and sight.” I waited for her to confirm she remembered our conversation, and when she blinked, I continued, “You have the sight of the angels.” It sounded less ridiculous in my mind than when I had to say it out loud. Remembering how I had laughed at my grandfather when he had first told me, I wouldn’t be surprised if, at some point, the delicate creature before me would one day simply laugh at me and walk away.

  But she remained attentive, serious, staring at me intently as she waited for more information, her eyes so compelling that I had trouble sorting my thoughts. “You can see whatever is between heaven and earth … or between hell and earth for that matter,” I added. “That includes souls that are ready for transfer but also us Lightbringers and the dark side of the coin—the Shadowbringers.”

  I paused, verifying that she was following me, but she was, her attention on me only as if the Shadowbringer didn’t even exist.

  With a sideways glance, I reassured myself he was still there, brooding in his seat next to the Macmillan girl, who had slipped me dirty notes during class. He raised an eyebrow at me as if in greeting then tilted his head to the side as if asking how much longer I was going to keep up this game.

  For me, it wasn’t a game.

  “And that sight would be taken from you alongside your soul, leaving you as a conscious shell, capable of pain and grief, constantly searching for the one thing that you are lacking—your soul.” I didn’t look at her when I told her about her potential fate. It wasn’t something I liked thinking about, liked envisioning. Laney, broken and agonized for the rest of her mortal life.

  I shook my head, unable to face her. “I won’t let that happen to you,” I promised and pulled her against my shoulder, her shape, warm and breakable against me, filling me with a different sensation; pride.

  I was proud to hold her, that she was here with me, that she didn’t cringe away from the dangers I represented in her life. No, she tightened her fingers around mine and let me curl my arm around her.

  “Once you are fully developed into a Lightbringer, you’ll be safe,” I told her. “No Shadowbringer can get your soul as a trophy then.”

  She nodded against my chest, her hair hiding her face, and I couldn’t tell if she bought my reassurance.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Laney

  Reluctance was involved when I uncurled from Leon’s chest half an hour later, not having eaten lunch but still having a lot to digest.

  Jo joined me in the hallway just as I said goodbye to Leon, who was heading to his classroom with an expression of suppressed worry on his features. Jo watched him walk away, face unreadable and skin mildly green.

  “You don’t look well,” I noted and slowed my stride to match her slouch.

  “I don’t feel well,” she answered with little humor. “I think I need to lie down.”

 
I hooked her arm into mine and pulled slightly. “I’ll take you to the nurse.”

  All Jo did was nod with pale gratitude as I supported her along the corridors, past the lockers, and across the yard to the nurse’s office.

  Leon had promised me to be within reach if I needed him. That all I needed to do was call his name. However that worked, I wasn’t sure. Something with heightened senses, I assumed.

  He would travel to me in his ethereal form, and no one would be the wiser—except for the empty spot he would leave in his classroom. That would be an issue.

  Later. I would worry about all of that later if I even needed Leon’s help. Chances were that in a school like this, I would hardly even notice the Shadowbringer. I could avoid him easily between classes, and he couldn’t attack with a teacher and twenty-five kids in the classroom.

  The bell rang when we were entering the building at the other end of the yard. Warm air and the scent of paper and coffee greeted us as I led Jo past the dean’s office, our footsteps the only ones left. The rest of the students were back in their classrooms. Including Leon. He would be sitting next door from where I was supposed to be.

  Beside me, Jo moaned quietly before her weight sagged into me, half-tearing me to the floor as she collapsed. I caught her shoulders and head last, moments before they could hit the beige linoleum.

  “Jo,” I hissed her name, half-expecting her to vomit all over me, but her face was no longer greenish; it was wan with sweat beading her forehead.

  Her breathing was labored, and she rolled her eyes as she blinked them open as if the light hurt.

  “I’m okay,” she muttered and tried to pick herself up, failing to even lift an arm.

  “You’re not okay,” I objected and knelt down, lowering her head into my lap, my free hand searching for her pulse on her wrist. Her heart was racing.