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

by Angelina J. Steffort

  “What do you want now?” I asked, aware of the soul hanging in limbo before me and eager to take it where it belonged. If only it hadn’t been for Cas’s sudden entrance, I might have been there and back already.

  “What, no threats today?” I taunted and hoped he’d make his offer soon so I could focus on the soul and not on the last words he’d spoken to me days ago behind Santoni’s. He hadn’t approached me since. Whether or not I was glad about that, I couldn’t make up my mind.

  With a swift motion, he withdrew one hand and laid it on the brass knobs on the closet. He winked at me, shooting me a smirk that made my stomach feel funny before he opened the door and jerked his chin at the contents without taking his eyes off me.

  It took me a moment to realize what he was showing me.

  My heart began thundering in my chest, my body turning cold—so very cold—at the assortment of newspaper articles, photographs of people, and…

  I left the soul hanging midair and joined Cas at the open closet, wild panic flooding my veins as I recognized some of the articles.

  “I know you know I am right,” Cas prompted, turning so he faced the open doors with me.

  Murder in Towson, one of the articles, Child missing in Glyndon, in another. There were about ten of them, collected over the past fifteen years, all pinned carefully to the plain wood, an image of the victim attached and a list of dates and times and activities beside each one of them as if Max had been studying their daily schedules—

  “Oh my God,” I whispered, and what had been sheer cold earlier turned into solid ice clamping on my body. “Is he—” I couldn’t finish the sentence, knowing already that I must be right.

  “The murderer,” he completed it for me with a shrug. “More a serial killer is my assessment of the situation.”

  My chest tightened, and I gasped for air as my eyes darted back over my shoulder to watch the soul I had abandoned beside the bed.

  “Laney,” Cas’s voice pierced through my momentary petrification.

  My gaze locked on his in search of something that would help me focus … and found a quiet storm in the gray of his eyes.

  “I was about to take a murderer to heaven,” I said, toneless, my realization reflecting satiation in the dark pit of Cas’s stare.

  “You were.” He nodded, bringing his hand to rest on my arm—not a consoling gesture but played pity. “Now, what was I saying?” He let go of me, closing the door and making the proof of the dark side of the soul I had been assigned to disappear. “Right. The guy belongs in my resort.”

  He didn’t wait for me to unfreeze as he marched up to the bed and leaned toward the glinting star, quivering with the movements of air as he rushed forward before turning to look over his shoulder. “You didn’t touch anything in here, did you?”

  I mechanically shook my head. In and out, traveling in my Lightbringer essence as Leon had taught me. “Why?”

  “My fingerprints might not lead to anyone alive since the police started using fingerprints to identify people quite a while after I … well … stopped roaming the realms of the living as you like to call it,” he said with a smirk. “But yours do.”

  With those words, he winked, turned back to the soul, and absorbed it into his chest.

  I was too late to object—or maybe I no longer wanted to. When I could move again, Cas was gone, leaving me alone with the empty body of a serial killer. And I no longer knew if I should be upset or be grateful that he had come to steal this soul.

  Chapter Forty-One

  I was up with first daylight the next day, Leon’s arms slung around me like a Kraken.

  He hadn’t woken when I returned, just turned over as I had slipped into bed beside him, thoughts spinning around the mistake I’d almost made.

  Carefully, I reached for my phone on my bedside table and texted Jo to ask if she was up for a small adventure today.

  Surprisingly, her response was instant, begging me to get her out of there. There being her parents’ who were driving her crazy.

  So, I slid out of Leon’s arms, denying myself the urge to stare at his features relaxed in his sleep, mouth slightly open, hair mussed—

  My heart ached just a little as I left him behind to take a shower and get dressed. But first, I opened the drawer of my nightstand where I had stored the letter I had snuck out of Carly’s apartment and stuffed it into my bag.

  I rushed through my morning routine, pulling my hair into a ponytail, and donned my clothes after a fast encounter with the steaming heat of the shower.

  Leon was awake when I returned to grab my bag and leave a note for him.

  “Going somewhere?” He smiled with all of the seductive force of his Leon-charms and propped himself up on his elbows.

  “I’m heading over to Jo’s,” I told him. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “You didn’t,” he reassured me, shaking white-blonde strands out of his face.

  “I was going to leave you a note,” I explained a bit awkwardly, wondering what exactly I would have written in it. I’ll be back later. Or … Gone to deliver a letter I stole from a dead person. Even worse, the thought of how I would have signed it. Laney? Your Laney? Love, Laney?

  Probably neither of them. And most certainly not I love you.

  For even if Leon had spoken the words, even if I was drawn to him, if I enjoyed his company so much it sometimes hurt, there was something keeping me from truly falling over that cliff.

  Be careful who you give your heart to.

  I studied him as he rolled out of bed like an athlete and padded over to kiss me good morning.

  My spine tingled where he placed his hand on my back and pulled me closer, the other one cupping my face.

  “I know we didn’t make plans to spend the day together, but I could join you if you want me to,” he murmured as he grazed his nose along the side of my neck, driving shivers through my body, and making me wish I hadn’t already changed into my jeans and sweater.

  Maybe it was better that I hadn’t or I would end up going back to bed and standing up Jo.

  Jo! I sorted my thoughts and caught Leon’s face with my hand, stopping him from grazing below the collar of my sweater where his fingers had found purchase on the fabric. I couldn’t, in good conscience, invite him for the adventure I had planned with Jo—even if it was more like a tiny road trip; nothing more than searching for the lost daughter of Carly Mae Jennings. The plan was to spend some quality time with Jo and find out how she was dealing with her situation. Having Leon there would make that impossible. Also, he would notice fairly quickly what was so easy to hide at school where we rarely had more than ten minutes of uninterrupted conversation during breaks—that Jo and I had a secret.

  Actually, I had more than one, by now, Jo’s illness being by far the one that had the least impact on him.

  I hadn’t shared with him about the incident with Cas at the grocery store or that Mom seemed to know more about our Lightbringer world than she herself was even aware of. I was determined to wait until she came back to me with her notes before I’d tell Leon just to make sure it wasn’t a false alarm. But naming an angel of death Lucas … well, it did make it look a lot like there was more to it than just coincidence.

  And last, I wasn’t sure if I could tell him I had snuck out last night and almost delivered a murderer to heaven. Had it not been for the Shadowbringer—

  I didn’t even want to consider what might have happened.

  So in a sense, Cas had saved me last night. And that made me fear him even more.

  “I’ll drop by on my way home, all right?” I offered and had trouble not locking my free hand in his hair and pulling him back against my neck where his coffee-eyes had been wandering, mildly glazed.

  “All right.” His voice was husky as he dragged his gaze back to my face. “I have school stuff to do anyway. I’ll be out of here in ten minutes.” A broad smile graced his lip, making him even more surreal in his beauty. “Tell her I said hi. And call me if
you need anything.”

  I kissed him briefly and twirled out of his arms before he could convince me with another kiss that I wanted nothing more than to stay in bed all day.

  “See you later.” I made it to my bag, picked it up, and was at the door.

  “I love you,” he called after me, but I was already out.

  Mom was currently in the kitchen, cooking eggs, and turned, dishcloth in one hand, pan in the other as I stopped by the fridge to grab some juice.

  “He loves you,” she commented with a smile.

  Heat rose in my cheeks. “That’s what he says,” I retorted, unable to keep a straight face. I was the luckiest girl alive to have someone like Leon love me. Involuntarily, my eyes darted toward the stairs, suddenly paranoid Leon could be standing there and overhear our conversation.

  “I must say I’m not surprised.” Mom dumped half of the eggs on a plate and offered it to me. “Eat with me before you head out?”

  I knew Mom wouldn’t mind if I left Leon alone in my room. She trusted him with my life—and rightfully so. He had saved it more than once.

  Anyway, I took the plate and grabbed a fork from the draw by the sink.

  “You’re being safe, right?” Mom asked the second I’d sat down and taken a bite, having waited for me to have my mouth full so I was unable to object with my awkwardness right away.

  I considered her timing as I dismissed my thought to hysterically laugh at her. Instead, I chewed, contemplative of her authentic concern for me and my future. I swallowed.

  “It’s not like that, Mom.” It was the truth. Nothing even remotely dangerous had happened. His hands under my shirt being the farthest we’d gotten with constant interruptions from our missions, discussions we had to have about how to prevent the Shadowbringer from breaking the treaty—even if Cas had already told me he wasn’t going to kill me, I hadn’t told Leon that … and I didn’t fully believe Cas. That Shadowbringer was up to no good.

  “I don’t even need to know, Laney. You’re old enough.” From the look on her face, I could tell that she was hardly any more comfortable having this conversation than I was. That put me a bit more at ease. “All I want is to remind you to take precautions if you are having sex.”

  “You reminded me of that when I was thirteen, Mom,” I pointed out, remembering our conversations back then with mortification.

  Mom smiled. “I did, didn’t I?”

  I nodded and swallowed another bite. “Thanks, Mom, for caring.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” she said, her lips splitting into a devious grin. “I am planning to have the same talk with Leon when he tries to sneak out of the house.” She lifted the pan from the stove beside which she was leaning at the counter. “Why do you think I gave you only half?”

  That actually made me laugh. “I’m sure he’ll appreciate it just the same,” I reassured my mother as I got to my feet and placed the empty plate in the sink.

  I hugged her and swung my bag over my shoulder. “I’m heading over to Jo’s for the day. Leon will be out soon. Don’t scare him, please.”

  Mom only chuckled and patted my back.

  The address on the letter was in Towson. I had checked it the night after I had delivered Carly to heaven’s doorstep. Therefore, I knew where our trip would take us today.

  “So what’s that mysterious adventure you texted me about?” Jo wanted to know as she climbed into the car, waving at her parents, who had both agreed it was safe for her to go as long as we were back by tonight.

  I’d promised them we’d be back in the afternoon and that I’d take good care of Jo, and they had smiled. “I’m glad our Jo confided in you,” her father had said to me. “At least, there’s one person at school who knows.”

  Now, we were driving past the white fences and fall-mangled meadows where, during the summer, herds of horses were grazing like the motive in an aquarelle painting.

  “I need to deliver a letter,” I told her with as much nonchalance as I could muster.

  “To who?” Jo’s eyes sparkled beside me.

  “A woman named Mae.” I pondered telling her more details, but that would only raise more questions. So I went with a half-truth. “Plus, there is a really bad zombie film that premiered before Halloween that I’d like to watch with you.” We had seen the advertisement long before, and it triggered our idea to dress up as zombies. So it was something I was sure she’d agree to.

  Her grin confirmed that I was right.

  It didn’t take us any longer than usual to get to Towson due to a lack of traffic. People seemed to have huddled up in their homes as the weather turned colder by the day, reluctant to leave their houses if it wasn’t necessary.

  So when I turned onto the street on the envelope, I wasn’t surprised to find most driveways occupied with parked cars and lights on in the windows of the houses.

  “There.” Jo pointed at one of the brick bottom, wood top, two-story houses along the road that all seemed to look the same. “Seventy-four.”

  Jo had been my navigator, phone in hand, patiently narrating what I should be seeing at the next turn. Now, we had almost reached our goal, and my heart fluttered in my chest when I pulled over to park at the curb and noticed that the windows in seventy-four were all lit up.

  “You have reached your destination,” Jo chanted in a grand imitation of the synthetic voice of the navigation system. Her following laugh was like a balm to my soul. Jo was still the happy girl I’d gotten to know even if she was a bit less durable due to her condition. “Do you want me to come?” she asked when she noticed my hesitation as I took the letter in both hands and eyed the scripted words on the envelope.

  Mae Christopherson. It was the name she now went by. From what I had been able to spot on the pictures in Carly’s apartment, Mae was married. Again, I glanced at the windows, wondering if the moving figures were Mae and her husband or if I would be intruding while she had visitors over.

  “I’ll be fine,” I told her unnecessarily. “It will only take me a minute.”

  Jo bobbed her head. “Leave the music on.”

  I left the key in the ignition, and Jo turned up the volume of some bouncy tune as I opened the door and got out on feet that were surprisingly reluctant now that I was so close to accomplishing what Carly had asked in her letter.

  The bare trees and leaf-covered flowerbeds greeted me as I made it up to the white front door. I turned and glanced around before I rang the doorbell, giving myself another moment to find composure. I had no reason to be here, other than that I had seen the letter and I had taken Mae’s mother to the gates of heaven. If Mae decided she never wanted to open the letter, it would be her choice. All I would do, I promised myself, was hand the woman the letter and leave. No explanations; they would only raise questions.

  The neighborhood was nice enough to suggest Mae and her husband had made a comfortable life for themselves; not excessive, not rich, just … comfortable.

  After a deep breath, I was ready, finger ringing the doorbell, and waited with a pounding heart for someone to respond.

  The response came so fast I almost stumbled back down the low stairs that led back to the narrow walkway made of stone.

  “You must be coming for the piano lesson,” a round-faced, middle-aged man said by way of greeting. “Mae is waiting for you in the music room.”

  He gestured behind him where I noticed a blue-noted melody float, accompanied by a charming alto voice.

  “I’m … actually…” I stammered, lost for words now that all I had to do was hand him the letter and tell him it was for his wife.

  But he waved me inside so fast that I didn’t have a chance to object, and sent me directly into the room where the music originated.

  “You’re late, Mary,” Mae said without looking up, her heavy black curls moving as she swayed with the music her fingers produced on the piano that stood against the wall.

  I listened for a moment, spellbound by the music until Mae stopped and turned, probably wonderin
g if I was really there.

  “You’re not Mary,” she noted correctly, brows rising in her mocha-colored face, her glasses half up her nose, and studied me, waiting for an explanation.

  “I’m—” I started then decided it didn’t matter who I was. At least, not to her. All I needed to do was give her the letter and turn around. “I have something to deliver to you,” I said instead.

  I held up the envelope and took a step toward her as Mae got up from the piano bench and pulled her shawl more tightly around her neck.

  “You aren’t wearing a uniform,” Mae noticed, studying me there in the doorway to the cozy, wood-paneled room, resting her hand on the backrest of a leather armchair as she stopped a good three strides away.

  “It wasn’t sent via mail,” I informed her, hoping that my nerves would hold through the next minute until I could leave the building again.

  Mae’s eyebrows seemed to disappear into her gray-streaked curls. “Who is it from?”

  I put together all the courage I could muster. For Carly, I told myself. You are doing this for Carly so she may rest in peace.

  Mae picked ups the letter from my outstretched hand with hesitant fingers as I took a step toward her, offering the envelope.

  “Your mother.” It was all I needed to say before I left. Mae would figure out the rest when she read the lines hidden in the paper.

  So I gave her a smile and turned to leave when Mae’s footsteps rushed after me and her hand appeared on my shoulder, holding me back.

  “You knew my mother?” she asked, eyes wide, her big, round eyes suddenly moist. “My biological mother … I mean.”

  For a moment, I pondered whether there was any way it would be credible if I said I did—or if I said I didn’t.

  So I simply turned back to face her, a smile plastered onto my features that I hoped didn’t let on how nervous I was.

  “Her last thoughts were of you,” I said, neither confirming nor denying anything. And when a tear ran over Mae’s cheek, I added, “She knew you were living a happy life. Know that she is in a place where she will be happy at last, too.”