Marked, Soul Guardians Book 1

by Kim Richardson

  After the grogginess had lifted, Kara stood in front of the four doors again. It had been quite an adventure, and she had no regrets. She knew deep down that she would have killed Ranab again and again to save Elder Otis. It was just who she was, a guardian of the mortals, and she had chosen to take the life of one mortal to save the life of another. She’d accepted her fate, and now it was time to move on.

  She forced David’s sad eyes from her mind and gazed at the four doors. Tall and elegant as they were, they looked as though they belonged in a grand hotel, not as portals to the end of her supernatural life. Which one to open? She wasn’t back here because she had unintentionally or intentionally killed another mortal. Her twelve hours were up, and there was just one door to be opened.

  Kara wrapped her hand around the golden handle of Door # 4, Other. She pushed it open and stepped to the other side.

  There were no other guardians lining up in front of the showers in the giant bathroom this time around. A single cherub held a large glass and waited for her soul.

  She avoided his eyes and looked around. A drop of water fell from one of the showerheads and disappeared down the drain—that would be her body soon—melting away until there was nothing left of her but her hovering soul.

  She looked to the right side of the room. She hadn’t seen them when she first came in, but the same three oracles that Kara had met before sat on their crystal balls in front of a long wooden desk. They busied themselves with paperwork once again. Unconsciously, she grasped the crystal timer in her hand and squeezed it tight. The oracles looked up as she approached them.

  “Ah, Kara Nightlinder,” said the oracle on the left, “Here you are at last! We’ve been quite anxious to see you.”

  “You have? You’re happy to see me?” Kara frowned as she studied the oracles’ faces. “I wasn’t sure you would be after what happened.”

  The oracle clapped his hands excitedly. “Of course we are, dear girl. What nonsense!” He leaned forward, and his crystal ball rolled and tapped the edge of the table. “You’ve succeeded in your mission and within your restricted time limit. You stopped Lilith from getting the other piece of the Arath and have saved the mortal world. This is tremendous! You’ve broken all the records!” He puffed out his chest proudly.

  Kara screwed up her face. “I have? But I accidentally destroyed the weapon. I thought you’d be mad.”

  This time the oracle in the middle spoke. “Mad? Of course we’re not mad, Tara. The events have turned out better than we had envisioned. With your personal touch, the Arath has been destroyed, and no entity, good or evil, can ever use it again.”

  “Good has prevailed over evil, once again,” said the oracle on the right, and he stood up on his crystal ball with his fist in the air. “Evil is like a storm—it may have its day, but in the end it will pass.” He turned and looked to the others. “I should be on stage.”

  “Indeed. I’ve always told you so,” said the oracle in the middle. “You’d make a brilliant actor.”

  The oracle scratched his beard. “Yes, I believe I would.”

  Kara lifted the chain over her head and placed the crystal timer on the table. The sand crystals glimmered and cast little specks of white light along the great desk.

  “Um...there’s something else I need to tell you. I don’t think I’m good, well not entirely. I think there’s evil in me...I felt it.” She lowered her head.

  The oracles were silent. She could see that they were looking at her very carefully. She felt relieved now that she could finally speak of it freely.

  “There’s darkness in me,” she continued. “Morthdu told me so when I was in the netherworld. I felt a connection to it then, and it became stronger. The darkness came out of me when I fought Lilith. It took over my elemental power. Part of me liked it. I guess it’s good that I can never be a guardian anymore, because I think I might not be able to control it again. I think I’m evil. I think that’s what my father had planned all along—that I should be a creature of darkness.” Kara stared at her boots. Her head fell heavy, and she thought she might tip over.

  “You are certainly not a creature of evil,” one of the oracles said. She peeked up at them through her eyelashes.

  “I’m not? But I felt it take control over me . . .”

  “But you resisted.” The oracle in the middle interlaced his fingers and watched Kara with gentle eyes. “Only an angel of pure soul could resist temptation from the dark powers of the netherworld. And you my dear, shattered the link.”

  Kara shook her head. “I don’t understand. How did it get there in the first place?”

  The oracle on the right answered. “Because it existed in Asmodeus. He became a creature of the netherworld because he embraced its darkness until it consumed him. And so he passed it on to you. The darkness lay dormant for a while inside you, until the power of the elemental woke it. We’ve seen it happen before; we just didn’t know when it would.”

  Kara wished that the oracles had been more open about this when she first came here. Perhaps she wouldn’t have been so freaked out.

  “It tried to draw you in,” said the oracle in the middle. “To consume you, to make you a slave of its power—but you resisted.”

  Kara raised her brows. “So...I’m not evil? Really?” A hint of a smile reached her lips.

  “Of course not. Would we have entrusted such a delicate mission to you if we thought you were evil?” the oracles shared a look and laughed.

  Kara rolled her eyes.

  The oracle on the left spoke. “You see, you could have chosen to embrace the darkness, but you chose not to. Power in itself isn’t evil—it’s what you do with it that determines whether it is good or bad.”

  Relief washed over Kara. What the oracles said made sense. Her actions spoke for themselves. She was a badass guardian angel—but now her career was over. Emptiness welled inside her like a giant hole.

  Something nagged at her in the back of her mind. “Um, if I’m made mortal again, what about the terrorist thing?”

  “All taken care of,” said the oracle to her right. “The events caused by Lilith and the Arath have been wiped out, so to speak. They have been erased from the mortal world. It’s as though they never happened. All is well in the mortal world, once again.”

  “So...that’s it then,” she said as she fought down the emotions that threatened to take her over. “I’ll never be a guardian angel ever again. It’s all over for me.”

  The oracles nodded sadly, “It is.”

  The oracle on Kara’s left shifted uncomfortably on his crystal ball. “I’m sorry, but the law is the law. You killed a mortal, and you must suffer the consequences, as other angels have done before you. But know this, Tara—only an angel of pure heart would have sacrificed their soul for the life of a mortal. It speaks greatly of you, and we will never forget it.”

  “Thank you,” said Kara, not knowing what else to say.

  “You have served the legion well, and we thank you,” said the same oracle. With a smile, he lifted a grubby little arm and pointed it to the shower stalls behind Kara. “And now your mortal life awaits you.”

  “Right.” Kara sighed and looked over to the showers. She remembered the grim faces of the angels that stood in the showers. Her time had come. The cherubs waited silently by the showers, their eyes all fixed on her.

  “May the souls protect you, Clara Nightingale,” said the oracles together.

  Dragging her feet, Kara walked over to the first shower stall and stepped in. She saw her sad face reflected back on the glass walls. In the corner of her eye, she saw the cherub with the glass jar move closer towards her. She raised her head and looked up at the large showerhead, wondering if the water would hurt.

  Even in her saddened state, Kara was glad to have had the experience of being a guardian angel. Angels existed, and they existed to protect the mortals from demons. It had been a supernatural experience of gargantuan proportions, and she had loved every minute
of it. She would do it again in a heartbeat—if she’d ever have the chance again.

  But now she looked forward to a normal life. A mundane life with David, she hoped.

  “See you on the other side, David.”

  Kara reached out and pulled the chrome lever on the right of the shower. Sparkling water gushed from the shower head. It hit her face and washed over the rest of her body. The water was warm and smelled sweet, like sugar, not at all like the salt water from the pools in Horizon. Tiny crystals formed over her body until her skin was completely covered in a coat of glittering diamonds.

  Drowsiness came over her. She tried to keep her eyes open, but her heavy lids fluttered shut. As the particles started to dissipate, Kara finally allowed herself to drift into sleep. The water spilled over her and disappeared into the drain.

  With a last shimmer Kara, the guardian angel, was no more.

  Chapter 22

  A Mundane Life