Author: Jodi Meadows

I would have melted if he hadn’t been holding me up. The steam, his touch, his kiss: they made me light-headed and giddy, in spite of everything that had happened not an hour ago. Safe in his arms, with only the sound of the shower running, I could forget about the outside world and the rest of our problems.

“Do you remember what we talked about last night?” I kissed his ear, his cheek.

Sam gave a low rumble of assent. “You said you love me.”

“I did say that, didn’t I?” Pleasure poured through me. After years of believing I wasn’t deserving of love, Sam had shown me I was. But that was different from accepting I could love others. Wrestling those feelings had been difficult, but last night, I’d said it, and it turned out that I’d loved him all along. “Guess what?”

He pulled away and met my eyes.

“I still love you today.”

His smile grew wide and warm.

“I heard a rumor,” I went on, “that the first day of the new year is your birthday.”

“Did you?” He suddenly looked shy.

“When we first met, you told me we shared a birthday.”

“Did I?” Panic flickered across his face, and his cheeks darkened. “I did. Oh.”

I kept my face as serious as I could manage, though laughter gathered in my chest and I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling. “So?” I lifted an eyebrow.

His whole face was dark with embarrassment. “Would you believe I forgot when my birthday is?”

I snorted and laughed. That was exactly what I thought he’d say, because when I looked back on that day, I remembered the hesitation and momentary confusion before he declared we had the same birthday. He had forgotten. “It’s all right. I love you on your real birthday and on your fake birthday. And all the other days.”

He grinned, relaxing. “There’s nothing more we can do tonight. Would you—” He seemed to fumble for the right words. “Would you like to sleep here with me? In my room, I mean. Not the washroom.”

The mess would still be downstairs in the morning, and his bedroom had appeared relatively unharmed when we passed through. We could take care of everything else in the morning. Or not. Yesterday, the ruling Council had exiled me from Heart, and Sam was leaving with me. Soon, we’d be on our way east. We didn’t have to clean the house.

We could put off real life until dawn.

“If you steal all the blankets, you’ll be sorry.” I reached inside the shower and turned off the spray. After dealing with the Council, visiting friends who’d come to express their outrage, and then the earthquake and eruptions, curling up with Sam was the most appealing thing I could think of.

The shower dripped for a moment longer, and then the house was silent. Maybe the debris had stopped falling outside. The whole world was still, and quiet, and waiting.

I felt behind me for the doorknob and pushed the washroom door open. Soon, everything would be perfect, if only for a few hours.

Sam’s smile fell away. A question formed in my mouth, but he grabbed my wrist, yanked, and spun me so I stood behind him. “What are you doing here?” he growled. He reached behind him with his good hand, palm on my hip as though to keep me in place.

My heart raced at his sudden shift. I peeked around him.

A stranger stood in Sam’s bedroom, clutching a long knife. He wore a filthy coat that hung to his ankles, but even in the dim light and with the heavy layer of fabric, I couldn’t miss the bulge of another weapon on his hip when he faced us.

“Dossam. Nosoul.” His voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “We were hoping you’d been crushed to death.”

We?

I twisted my hand in Sam’s shirt, desperately wishing I were wearing something more serious than my nightgown as I stepped out from behind him. I didn’t need a shield. “You’re one of Deborl’s friends.”

“And you were in prison,” Sam said. “With Deborl and Merton.”

The stranger showed teeth when he smiled. “Janan used the earthquake to free us.” He pulled back his coat, revealing a laser pistol tucked into his waistband. “We have a calling.”

“Mat, no.” Sam tried to step in front of me again, but I jabbed my elbow into his side. “Why would you do this?”

The stranger—Mat—leveled his gaze on Sam, apparently unworried about our escape. We were trapped in the washroom, after all. “She’s an abomination. They all are. The plague of newsouls must be stopped.”

We were trapped in the washroom.

I stepped back, letting Sam block the doorway. “Newsouls are the natural order of things,” he began. “Other animals are born, live, and die forever. Haven’t you considered that what we do is unnatural?”

“They’re an offense to Janan. He created us. He gave us immortality. And soon he’ll return to reward the faithful. He’ll ascend. The faithful will ascend with him.”

Meuric hadn’t thought so. He’d been convinced he needed the temple key to survive Soul Night.

I tuned out Mat’s arguments as I considered the items in Sam’s washroom. Shampoo, soap, painkillers. I wished for my SED—then I could call for help—but both our SEDs were downstairs.

“Ana’s done nothing to you,” Sam said. “Nor have the other newsouls.”

Gauze. Painkillers. Ointment for cuts and burns. If my nightgown had pockets, I would have grabbed those, because the plan budding in my head involved going outside.

“They were born,” Mat said. “They replaced oldsouls. Real souls. They take what isn’t theirs. Life. Keys.”

Mat’s identity snapped into place. He was the man who’d attacked me when I’d stumbled out of the temple. He’d stolen the temple key from me and given it to Deborl.

“This must come to an end. I’m sorry, Dossam. I have no quarrel with you, but Ana has to die.”

Cleaning powder. I snatched the can and unscrewed the lid just as Mat pushed past Sam and aimed his laser pistol. The blue targeting light flashed—

With a shout, I hurled the powder at Mat’s face. Sam shoved Mat into the counter as the man screamed and his eyes watered. White particles floated in the air, glowing bright blue as the targeting light on the pistol shone. Air sizzled and a hole appeared in the ceiling; Mat was too busy clawing at his eyes to pay attention.

Sam grabbed Mat’s collar and slammed the man’s head on the stone counter. A wet crack sounded and the copper odor of blood filled the space, but I didn’t have time to see if he would live. I grabbed the pistol and fled the washroom with Sam.

We raced downstairs, pausing only to get our SEDs and shoes before we ran outside in our bare feet, carrying our belongings into the dark.

“Stay quiet.” Sam’s voice was low, all warning. “There may be more.”

Shivering with fear and shock, I let Sam guide me. He could navigate Heart blindfolded, but I needed a light, which we didn’t have and couldn’t use even if we did.

We slowed as the cold settled in and the sharp debris on the ground stabbed our feet. “Here.” Sam turned us toward a patch of black on black. Trees. Pine needles pricked at my feet and shudders racked my body. I could hardly breathe around the cold and adrenaline. “Put your shoes on,” he whispered. His hand fell from mine, and I realized I’d been squeezing it tightly from fear. It was his left hand, his hurt hand. He hadn’t made a sound about it.

I crouched, shoving my feet into my shoes as quickly as I could, straining my senses to hear footfalls from more intruders. But all I could hear was my pulse in my ears. Was Mat dead? Were there others? Deborl had more friends than Mat, so where were they?

“Do you need help with your shoes?” I asked.

“I’ve got them.” His voice was rough, from pain or cold or something else, I couldn’t tell. “Get your things.”

I scooped up my SED and the pistol I’d stolen and followed Sam through the darkness, keeping hold of his shoulder. How soon before someone found Mat in Sam’s washroom?

Was he dead? Had Sam killed him?

My thoughts spun as we crept through the trees. Our shoes made more noise than bare feet, but the risk of stepping on something was too great. Already, my body ached with chill.

Light shone beyond the trees, a pale and fractured glow. We’d reached Stef’s house.

“Wait,” I hissed, and squeezed Sam’s shoulder. His profile flashed against the light as he turned his head. “What if they sent someone to watch her?”

“Ah.” He retreated into the trees and knelt, then fumbled with his SED. “I can’t—It will take me too long to type a message with my hand like this.”

“I’ll do it.” I sank to the ground, shivering in my thin nightgown, and sent a quick message to Stef.

Mat attacked us. Deborl and Merton have escaped prison. We’re outside your house, but afraid it’s being watched. Call Lidea and Geral. Warn them. Meet us in the library with other trusted friends. Please bring us clothes.

Sam read the message over my shoulder. “The library?”

“Even if they look for us there, we’ll be able to hide. Plus, I think there’s something I need to say to all our friends.”

“Will you tell me what it is now, or do I have to wait?”

I lifted my eyes as a light flickered on upstairs in Stef’s house. “If Janan is responsible for the earthquake and eruptions, it will only get worse. They deserve to know, and a chance to get away while there’s still time.”

Sam caressed my shoulder, my spine. “Good. They deserve to know.” He went rigid as a shadow moved across Stef’s yard. “Stay here.” He grabbed the laser pistol and crept away. A second later, blue light flashed and the shadow crumpled. Dead or not, the person didn’t move as Sam darted across the yard and seized something—a second laser pistol.

I sent another message to Stef, updating her. She wrote back immediately.

Go to the library. I have a plan.

After a quick acknowledgment, I doused the light on my SED. Sam was back.

“Is he dead?” I asked. But maybe I didn’t want to know.

He just handed me the second pistol.

“Let’s go.” I didn’t have a waistband or pocket to hold my SED and the pistol, so they stayed in my hands.

“Okay.” Sam looked up, not at Stef’s house, but at the blaze toward the center of the city: the temple shone like a torch. “We can’t go any of my normal ways. If Deborl has anyone on patrol, they’ll be watching for us. Surely Mat was supposed to check in by now.”

“I agree. So we creep through the trees in the dark?”

He frowned as he hefted his pistol. “We don’t have much choice. Are you ready?”

I stood and linked my arm with his. “I’d go anywhere with you, Dossam.”

3

WORLDS

WE REACHED THE market field an hour later. Sam hadn’t wanted to go in a straight line from our house to the center of Heart, thinking that was a good way to get caught, so we sneaked around in the cold, doubling back on our path a couple of times before we finally reached the wide expanse of cobblestone at the middle of the city. Debris from the earthquake and eruptions littered the ground. Cobblestones had buckled and broken.

The four main avenues probably didn’t look much better, but Sam hadn’t been willing to use them—or even get near them until we had no choice. Hopefully the roads weren’t completely destroyed; we had to leave Heart soon.

I still couldn’t believe I’d been exiled. By all accounts, that was a death sentence. The world beyond Range was incredibly dangerous, filled with all kinds of creatures.

Though maybe Heart was just as dangerous now.

The temple flooded the market field with brilliant light. How many souls did it take to make the temple that bright? At least a hundred million.