Kellan looked at me, long and hard, and then spoke up, clearly, “It’s the intellectual battle for a soul.”
Everyone was shocked, just as myself. The Bradens didn’t talk in class discussions. We weren’t called on, and we were never even required during a class reading. And now, here Kellan spoke up, our leader.
After another beat of silence, Mr. Hawkins gathered himself and rasped out, “Yes, Kellan, but I was looking for something more.”
Kellan shrugged. “It’s the idea of where the soul goes after death. It’s about if the soul can be corrupted during life or not.”
“And what do you think?” our teacher challenged.
Kellan smiled tightly and glanced sideways at me. “I think everyone’s already corrupted, but there are some who don’t agree.”
Mr. Hawkins caught the glance and trounced eagerly. “Shay, what do you think? Do you think souls can be saved? Not corrupted?”
I was furious with Kellan, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I was caught off-guard, “I think souls are just a prize to some. I think they can be saved, yes.”
Both Giuseppa and Vespar turned around in their chairs, wide-eyed, as they looked at us, at me. I refused to flush underneath their scrutiny. Kellan had baited me for a specific reason. I wasn’t going to back down.
“Do you think they’re worth being saved?” Kellan challenged me further.
Everyone in class listened raptly. Never had a battle between the Bradens, much less Kellan and myself, been publicized. A pin dropping could’ve been heard in the silence between our dialogue.
“Am I worth being saved?” I asked him, no one else. I didn’t care the class could hear.
Kellan shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but he replied, monotone, “Any soul has a choice, Shay. What do you choose?”
I grinned faintly. “Do I choose hell now and heaven later? Or do I choose heaven now, for the pleasure, and get hell as my reward? What would any sane person choose?”
“But that’s the issue of this discussion. No one is going to choose hell first. Everyone wants the easiest, the quickest. Everyone wants to be gratified now. You know they’re going to choose heaven first.”
“And get hell as their reward?” I asked lightly, a little hoarsely.
“That sounds like my diet,” one girl exclaimed.
“Bethany!” Mr. Hawkins laughed, a little relieved from the intensity in the room. “What does your diet have to do with our discussion?”
“Nothing, really, but it’s the same,” she piped up brightly. “I can choose to eat Dunkin’ Donuts now—heaven—or choose to eat my one serving of cottage cheese—hell—to get heaven later. What do I want to choose? The donuts, of course. What should I really choose? The cottage cheese.”
“Is that what you want, Bethany?”
“Hell no. I want to lose ten pounds, but those donuts taste like heaven.”
“It’s called discipline!” one of the boys shouted out cheerfully. “I might want to get laid now, but I’m hoping heaven is all sorts of sex!”
Another boy laughed. “That’s got nothing to do with discipline, Kent. That’s called rejection.”
“Well, if you’d put out, Brian, I might go to hell right now.” Kent laughed good-naturedly.
The insults flew between the two. Before long, the class had separated into their own conversations. Mr. Hawkins was called over to a table for personal questions, and it was soon chaos in the room. That was, until Kellan suddenly spoke up, another first—to initiate a discussion—when he asked, “What if there wasn’t heaven or hell? What if it’s all to play with our minds?”
Silence descended the room. Everyone turned toward Kellan and then to Mr. Hawkins, who narrowed his eyes, pushed up his glasses, and folded his arms. His toned arms bunched underneath his shirt as he asked me, “What do you think, Shay? The two of you seem like you’ve put the most thought into this. Do you think there’s a heaven and hell?”
I closed my eyes a moment. I felt my siblings’ gazes. I felt their own intensity at what answer I’d give. And then, as my tattoo started burning again, I opened my eyes and stared right into my brother’s authoritative gaze. “I know there is.”
“Well.” I felt Mr. Hawkins’ excitement at an actual debate, especially one between two Bradens. “Can you explain more on your matter-of-fact statement, Shay?”
“Yeah,” Vespar scoffed. “Those are big words coming from a high school girl.”
Someone sucked in their breath. Someone else whispered, “Holy cow.” Never had a Braden called out another Braden.
I felt Kellan’s anger brimming beside me and knew it wasn’t directed toward me. I also saw how Vespar glanced at his older brother, but he didn’t backpedal.
Giuseppa grew still.
I leaned forward and spoke clearly, “We both know I’m more than a high school girl.”
Vespar snapped his mouth shut, but not before he snuck another look at Kellan. Then he turned back around in his chair. The small challenge was officially closed, and I was the victor.
I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to be.
All hell broke loose after class.
Well, not immediately after class, but as soon we left school. Kellan told me to go straight home, that he’d deal with Vespar. However, when I drove down our long winding gravel road, I saw that he hadn’t quite “dealt” with our brother. Vespar was smoking, waving agitatedly in the air, and pacing back and forth by the river. Giuseppa sat on the bank, her knees drawn against her chest, and her head tucked between her legs.
I hadn’t gone farther than two steps before Kellan’s car zoomed and braked beside mine. Dirt flew in my face, but I didn’t see it. Some of it nicked my leg, and blood was drawn, but I was intent on Vespar. Never had a Braden disrespected another in public. It wasn’t going to fly now. I took another step and found myself hauled back.
Kellan was there. “Let me handle him.”
“No.” I shoved off his hand. “He pissed on me. I told the truth, Kellan. He didn’t like it, for whatever reason, and he humiliated me! Me! Not you.”
“I’ll deal with it. He won’t listen to you. He’ll fight. He won’t fight me. Let me do this, Shay.”
“No!” I was out for Vespar’s blood. I swung around, ready to charge, and found myself face-to-face with an equally enraged Vespar. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated, and when he shook a finger in the air, I saw the actual air move with it. I wondered if the trees swayed as well.
“You don’t say that! You don’t play with our lives like you did in class!” Vespar yelled at me. Giuseppa stood to the side, anxious, but still alert. Kellan fell to the side, and I surged forward. “He asked me a question. I told the truth!”
“How do you know, Shay?” Vespar laughed mockingly, bitingly. “How do you know there’s a heaven or hell? How do you know when no one else knows?”
“I know because—”
“You know because you’re a demon! Just like us, Shay. We’re all demons. We’re all going to hell. That’s how you know, but are you going to tell them that? Are you going to—” Vespar interrupted heatedly. He shook his finger with each word until he stood an inch from my nose.
I took it. I held firm, and then I cut him off, “What life are you so worried about, Vespar? You can’t die. You’re a demon. We all are. We don’t die!”
“Enough!” Kellan roared and stepped between us.
He didn’t touch us, but his hands sparked, and we were thrown backward. Vespar went farther than me, and as I landed, a little unsteadily on my feet, Vespar fell to the ground. I quickly strode to where Vespar lay. “I spoke the truth. That’s all I did. No one’s going to think we’re demons. No one’s going to ever consider it, so you’re safe, Vespar. Your little hide is safe because that’s all you’re really worried about. You don’t care about me. You’ve never cared about me.”
He looked up, dazed, but I saw the anger still there. His blue eyes snapped back at me as he cradled a hand on his chest, where Kella
n had zapped him. “Humans can’t hurt us, but don’t you think there’s something worse for us? We’re half-human, but we’re half-demon, Shay. We can go to hell. That’s our rightful place—”
“Not if we’re smart. Not if we…”
Vespar laughed coldly and rolled to his feet. “Not if we what, Shay? Not if we ignore all the sick, dark stuff we love? Not if we…what? I’d like to know. We’ve got a nature inside. It’s called evil. We’re evil. You’re evil, just like us. You just fight what’s inside of you better than the rest of us, but there’s worse for us, Shay. Worse than just dying.”
I frowned, caught off-guard.
Giuseppa stepped forward with her eyes narrowed and her hair pulled into a hasty ponytail. She murmured throatily, “They can send messengers after us, agents after us. You have no idea, Shay, because you never want to know. You don’t want to know what we are, what you are. You’re one of us. You need to start acting like it.”
Messengers? Agents? A cold shiver slammed down my spine as I remembered my painting. Three angels were descending—I painted that after seeing Kellan portrayed as a demon. It didn’t mean anything. It couldn’t. I shook my head and rasped out, “It’s no excuse. Just because our mother had demon blood—”
“Has,” Giuseppa interrupted firmly, coldly. Her blue eyes studied me as if seeing me for the first time, like she was seeing something she’d never seen before and didn’t like it. She stepped back, retreating, and repeated again, “Has.”
“What?” I frowned, scratching absent-mindedly at my arm. The tattoo was burning…
“You said ‘had.’ Mom has blood. She’s not dead, Shay,” Vespar snapped back. “And you still need to hear us. You can’t go talk about stuff like that. There are people, things, around that are more open-minded than most. They believe in stuff like us, like demons. They’ll figure it out and send messengers after us—”
“—if they’re smart, they will,” Kellan finished for him darkly.
I looked at him, confused. “You want that?”
Kellan shrugged. “We’re demons. If they’re not coming after us, I’m going after them.”
“Do you know who it is?”
“Does it matter?” Gus laughed shrewdly. “The minute they open a channel and summon something, we’ll feel it and be all over them.” Her eyes twinkled in anticipation.
I felt a shiver down my back, but suppressed it. This was my blood.
“Why do you always talk as if Mom is dead?” Vespar folded his arms over his chest.
Why? I opened my mouth to explain and stopped. I had no idea. “I…I never see Mom or Dad. They’re never here. It’s only us all the time.” It had never been them. It had always been the four of us.
Giuseppa frowned. “They’re here all the time. What are you talking about?”
Kellan stepped in between us and folded his arms over his chest. His eyes sparked. “I think that’s enough. Vespar, don’t ever challenge another Braden in public.” Vespar opened his mouth, but Kellan finished, “Or be prepared for me to challenge you.”
He shut his mouth with a snap. He raked his eyes over me and then Kellan. With a disgusted sound, he grabbed Giuseppa’s arm and yanked her with him when he stalked to his car. Ignoring her protest, he shoved her in the car and took off, spitting gravel from the tires. When they were gone from eyesight, Kellan sighed. “Vespar will leave you alone from now on.”
I didn’t say anything at first. I spoke the truth, and Vespar couldn’t handle it. But then I felt their darkness inside of me. I felt it twist around my soul and squeeze, if I had one. This was the family that I came from? I felt like I’d just gotten a bucket of boiling water thrown in my face.
“Shay.”
I whipped my eyes to his and saw concern. “What?”
“What were you just thinking?”
“Why?” For some reason, I didn’t want to tell him. For some reason, I didn’t trust Kellan anymore and that shook me more than anything else. “Nothing. Why?”
“Because the garage just lifted off the ground.”
I twisted around just as it landed with a crash. The cement was cracked as well as the bottom portion of the garage. “I didn’t even…I don’t know how to fix that.”
Kellan stepped forward and waved a hand in the air. The garage was lifted again, and every crack was fixed. He set the building back down as if nothing had happened and then studied me again. I felt his gaze on me. It was heavy, as if wet cement covered me head to toe, and it was drying rapidly. A lot of different emotions were swirling inside of me, but I focused on one thing. I needed Kellan away from me. My head couldn’t get clear if he was around. He always got in there and muddled everything up. I spoke hastily, “Leah came to my locker today.”
He frowned more fiercely, but I felt a shift in his concentration. “What about?”
I wet my lips. “Her father hurt her. She asked us to tell you because…”
“I know why.” He sighed. “I have to take care of that as soon as possible.”
“You can go now. I’ll be fine.”
“I don’t think I should leave you alone.”
“No.” I shook my head and hugged myself to ward off a chill in the air. It felt like it was trying to slip inside of me, winding around my legs, arms, neck. “You can go. I’m going swimming. That’ll help me relax. I’ll be fine.”
Kellan stared at me, and I knew he was trying to read my thoughts. I didn’t think he could, but I clamped down on everything in my body. A wall slammed in place, and I figuratively shoved him out. “Okay,” he murmured slowly. “I’ll go.”
I held my breath when he turned and walked away. It wasn’t until after his car had driven off and was gone from sight did I let it out raggedly. When I jerked forward a step, I wasn’t surprised at how my legs shook. Then I reached for the door handle on my own car, and I saw that my hands trembled even more so. As I cursed, I attempted twice to open my door until I finally managed it. When I crawled in and shut my door, I slumped forward and rested my forehead against the steering wheel. It felt cool to my skin, and I pressed my cheek against it to calm down. Then I turned, and my eyes opened slightly to look at the house.
My house looked like it always did: tall, three stories high, with a deck that wrapped around it. What was different was the front window. Two people stood there, watching me. They hadn’t been there two seconds ago, but they were now. Their eyes were large black holes, and the woman had white hair that wrapped around her waist. Her mouth opened, and her hand stretched to me as if she had a warning for me.
It wasn’t the sight of them that jolted me. It was their pure darkness that rushed at me. It was as if they’d come from hell and wanted to take me with them. I screamed and jerked upright. When I reversed the car, I slammed down on the accelerator and shot out of the driveway. It wasn’t until I was miles away before I slowed down to a normal speed, but my heart kept racing. I knew demons existed. I knew ghosts existed, but those two weren’t either of them. Whatever they were, they were worse. And I knew instantly they were more powerful than I was.
“You don’t have to be like them,” a voice whispered from behind me.
I whirled around, but there was nothing there. Then I sensed all around me, in the car, out of the car, above, underneath since magic could come from anywhere. I couldn’t detect anything. Magical spells always left a trail. Then I heard the voice again. “You’ve been given a reminder. You keep ignoring it.”
I sucked in my breath and tried to concentrate on driving. The voice didn’t send chills down my spine. In fact, I wasn’t alarmed at all. I was more intrigued and cautious. “Who are you?”
There was no answer. I waited a few more minutes, and there was still no response. When I pulled into my school’s parking lot, I turned off the engine and listened to the silence for a while. My heart pounded loudly, but my hands no longer trembled. I waited for the voice again, but there was nothing. So I asked softly, “What reminder?”
“The bracele
t.”
I pushed back my black sleeves, but my wrists were bare. “I don’t have a bracelet.”
Nothing. I waited ten more minutes, but there was no answer.
“Who are you? What do you have to tell me?” My heart pounded thunderously in my ear. I focused on that voice, only that voice. Everything in me strained to feel where that voice came from because it touched something inside of me. And that same something told me it didn’t come from a foe, but from an ally, a very powerful ally. “Who are you?”
I held my breath and closed my eyes. The ticking from someone’s watch pounded loudly in my ear. When I opened my eyes, I saw an older man across the road. He walked beside his son, and they were headed back into a house. The voice didn’t come from him, but it was connected to them. I just didn’t know how.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I was startled.
I gasped, and my eyes flew open. That was when I realized that I’d never opened them in the first place. I looked around and only saw my school’s parking lot. There were no houses nearby. The older man and son had been a vision. Somehow, I’d conjured them in my