The Soul Seekers: Horizon Read Online Free Page A

live together because it’s convenient, or saves money, or whatever other reason you want to drum up.
When we do live together, and I fully intend that we will, it’ll be because we’re properly wed.”
    “Properly wed?”
I shake my head. Make a face of distaste. Go about adjusting the soft buckskin pouch Paloma gave me, the one that holds the collection of magickal talismans
I earned during my Seeker training, along with the beautiful turquoise heart Dace gave me. “Don’t you think we should maybe graduate from high school first? And then, oh, I don’t
know, go to college, then on to grad school. Rack up a whole slew of impressive degrees, score the job of our dreams, win a ton of promotions, and then, when there are no more summits to scale, we
settle into the fiction that is the happily ever after of holy matrimony?”
    Dace shoots me an appraising look, whistles softly under his breath. “Wow, someone has marriage issues.”
    “I grew up on movie sets.” I shrug at the memory. “Surrounded by celebrities who were either falling in and out of marriages every ten seconds, or cheating on the spouses they
had with anyone who was willing to bed them. All of which may have left me a tiny bit jaded.”
    “A tiny bit?” Dace quirks a brow, pulls a worn, gray V-neck T-shirt over his head. The one that molds to his chest, clings to his abs, and accentuates his biceps, leaving me no
choice but to force my eyes away if I’ve any hope of getting on with my day. “It’s not like I plan on proposing tomorrow, or even next year. Just . . . someday.”
    “Fine,” I say. “We’ll deal with your
someday
when we get there.
If
we get there. But I’m warning you—no public displays. No stadium
jumbotron half-time proposal. No hiding the ring at the bottom of my champagne glass. Nothing you’d ever see in a movie or some cheesy reality TV show.”
    “So, these are the rules for the proposal you don’t actually want?”
    “That’s the starter list. There’s more. Believe me, much more. But until then, I’m afraid you’ll just have to put up with Love ’Em and Leave ’Em Santos,
all because you won’t accept
my proposal
to come live with me, rent free.” I keep my tone light, jokey. Refusing to betray the deeply rooted fear that our future is so
uncertain, we probably shouldn’t tempt it with conversations like this.
    Before Paloma died, she gave me a lineage transmission that allowed me to see the kind of things it would’ve taken her many years to teach. Including the tragic story of her past—how
her husband, my grandfather, Alejandro (a Brazilian Jaguar shaman of the highest order), was killed at the hands of the Richters—along with her only child, my dad, Django, when he was still
just a teen. Bestowing me with the breadth of her knowledge and insights in no more than a flash.
    I also saw the story of every Seeker who walked before me.
    Watched as they all—every last one of them—fell at the hands of Coyote.
    So why should I be any different?
    Why do I deserve the kind of happily ever after denied to my ancestors?
    “Don’t doubt the future, Daire.”
    I return to Dace. Surprised to find him standing before me, displaying his uncanny ability to read every shift in my mood. I ease my face into a tight grin, quickly turn away, and riffle through
my bag, mumbling, “How can I not?”
    “Because I know something you don’t.”
    Just as intended, the words lure me in, coaxing me to face him again. “Oh yeah, and what’s that? Care to share this great wisdom of yours?”
    Without the slightest trace of mirth, he places a hand on each of my shoulders, and fixes his gaze intently on mine. “There’s only one force more powerful than evil—”
    I blink a few times, drawing a blank on what that might be. Clearly, he’s not referring to me. No Seeker has ever successfully kept evil at bay—or at least not for very long.
    “Love.”
    I can feel the word as he says it.
    Can actually feel