Spirit Read Online Free Page A

I
returned. One corner of his mouth lifted in a small half smile. I stepped forward.
    He lifted his
hand, his fingers splayed as if he would intertwine them with mine. I lifted my
hand, opening my fingers and began to reach for him. I took another half-step
forward, a few blades of grass bending over the toe of my boot.
    “Shayna, no!” a
voice called out like a ringing bell in the still, silent night. I blinked
rapidly, breaking the soldier’s trance over me, and snatched my hand away just
as my fingertips touched the invisible barrier between us. I could feel the air
ripple around my fingers when I pulled them back.
    The horde began
to wail and scream, clambering over each other trying to get to me, but the divide
between the once hallowed ground and the sidewalk kept them at bay. I turned to
see who had saved me and felt the world fall away again. My angel stood not
five feet from me. Instinctively, I felt for the shadows. They answered my call
and readied to wrap around me at a moment’s notice, but when he didn’t make a
move for me, I hesitated.
    “Why did you
stop me?” I asked, unable to help myself.
    “Do not go into
the void, Shayna,” he said, his deep voice a melodic balm against the
screeching and wailing.
    “The void?” I
asked lamely.
    “You still have
time to come back to the Light.” Still he did not reach out for me, still his
wings remained folded quietly behind him. It gave me confidence to keep talking
to him.
    “What is the
void?” I pressed.
    “That,” he said simply,
inclining his head toward the dispersing crowd of nameless, shapeless wraiths.
The four cognizant ones stayed and stared at me, their anger a visible mar on
their faces.
    “That’s what
happens when you turn from the Light?” I asked.
    “In time,” he
said with a nod, his voice distant and sad. I looked at those lost souls,
wandering and angry. I was already angry: angry at myself, angry at my angel,
angry at whoever or whatever had ripped my wings from my back. How much time
did I have before I became like them?
    On the night I
died, when Liam had walked me away from my friends and the wreckage of the
house, the tips of my wings had dragged along the ground. I thought maybe that,
though dead, I was still an earthbound angel. I thought I would get to stay,
and I just had to wait for someone, like my guardian angel, to show up and tell
me what I was supposed to do.
    But that’s not
exactly what happened. My guardian angel did show, in a burst of blinding
light, glorious in his power with his wings spread behind him as he floated. I felt
warmth radiating from him and the tunnel of light, trust and some form of
relief rushing through me, making me believe I hadn’t been abandoned while
falling through the crumbling house. He held out a hand for me as he came close
to the ground, his feet landing silently. I started to lift my hand to take
his, I always took his hand when he reached for me, but the closer he came, the
closer the Light came. I felt the pull of the Light somewhere in my center. I
suddenly knew if I touched him, took his hand, let that Light envelope me, I would
leave this world and my friends behind.
    “Wait,” I said,
snatching my hand back and taking a number of steps backward, nearly tripping
over my wings.
    “Shayna, what
are you doing?” he asked.
    “What happens
now?” I curled my hands into fists and kept them close to my chest.
    “What happens
now?” he repeated. By the look on his face, it was obvious no one had thought
to question him before. “We go into the Light, you join our ranks, and you
become the guardian angel you were meant to be.”
    “And Jodi and
Steven?” I asked. “What happens to them?”
    “They are alive
and well.” He shook his head and started to take a few steps toward me. For
every step he took forward, I took one backward, keeping my distance.
    “No,” I said,
“what’s going to happen to them? Are they going to be all right?”
    “Shayna, that’s
not