Ethereal Underground (Ethereal Underground Trilogy) Read Online Free Page B

back and brought her hands together. It felt so incredibly good to be able to let herself go, let the power flow from her body and do as it was meant to. It was as if she was free, an open spirit and light in the darkness. This was the only time she could ever truly be herself and be free, other than around Leon. From the outside, if she were to allow herself to be seen, there would be a great light, golden and bright, shining around the two of them, until his soul rested in her hands.
    She opened her eyes, and tapped her bangle to teleport herself again, and found herself in the Grand Hall. Other seraphs took the reaping job as an opportunity to walk among the mortals, glittering ball trapped in their bag until they made their way back to the netherworld. Annalise, however, always went straight back to the Grand Hall, making sure she got the soul back as soon as possible, because she did not want to risk losing it for a few good minutes in the mortal world. Even though she yearned to mingle with the mortals, she knew what the punishment held. She never broke a rule, always doing as she was supposed to.
    As she stood up, she noted the cold gray metal walls all around her. It was the darkest place in her world, the coldest. Even though the lighting was bright, the tall dark walls always made Annalise feel small and unimportant. Still, she continued down the hallway until she reached the door where the souls were sent to their afterlife. Annalise fell quiet as she walked, knowing it was prohibited to speak in such a sacred place.  She nodded at the guard standing there. Tall and dark with dark gray wings, Slade was very menacing in appearance.
    Slade nodded to her in greeting and pressed the button to slide the door open without saying a word. She gave him her best smile in return and walked inside, her heart still racing inside of these prison walls even after all of these years. She preferred the openness of the outside world; this place was one built of mortal means, sealed of alien technology. There was no outside entrance into here. Only those with teleportation keys set here could enter. She continued to look forward, her peripheral vision the only cue that there were others there, sending souls on. Other female seraphs bringing back the souls they had collected.  Each of them smiled at her as they passed excited to reap yet another soul and complete what was asked of them. Annalise smiled in return, the other seraphs were the only thing that made this place feel like home. They were her people, her family in a sense. There was a loyalty among them that no other species knew, or so she had been told.
    She knew this room well, making several visits here per day. It was perfectly square, bright florescent lights beaming down on her in an unnatural way, the walls lined with holes that somehow took the soul to the afterlife. She reached a circular hole across the room and gave one last look at the soul. It was continuing to glitter, the light bouncing off the wall in front of her and giving the only natural feel to the dark space, colors swarming in a circular motion. It made her smile to know that she had saved this soul and could send it on to its resting place. The mortal would never again suffer. She held the ball out in front of her, offering it to the hole and continuing to watch it in awe. Carefully, she placed the soul into the hole and it was sucked away, off to the afterlife. Annalise took a step back, allowing herself to wonder where it really went, what really happened to them after she deposited them here. She turned around and walked back outside, giving a nod to Slade and wishing she could tell him goodbye. The two of them were acquaintances and he spent some of his free time with Leon. But this was a place of complete silence, and so she remained quiet, waiting until she was further down the hall before teleporting herself back