Awaken the Soul (Havenwood Falls High)(23)

“I’m saying I’m an angel who has been here a long time for reasons other than you. I did speak to Ric about Vivienne’s attack, though.”

“The sheriff? Why?” The Court of the Sun and the Moon doesn’t rule over us as angels. Their magic simply can’t compare to our power. Elias has worked with them to keep peace, but why involve them with this?

“A girl went missing a week ago, Breckin. Whatever attacked Vivienne could be behind her disappearance. We can’t keep the information secret.”

“And what if it was something else? Something to do with us, or Vivienne specifically? What if the Court comes after her? If she isn’t human, they will—”

“Breckin,” he says my name sharply, reining my fears in. “Ric is trustworthy. We may need the Court’s help eventually, but for now we can handle it on our own. He’s agreed to let us deal with things as long as it stays among our kind.” He watches my face and continues. “She was right to ask what the point of her being your soul mate is, by the way. There’s a reason you were brought together. There always is.”

I stand. I want to scream. I need to fly, to think. My wings want release. They want the freedom of the open sky.

“Go.” Elias leans forward and jerks his head toward the stairs. He knows me well. “Take a moment, calm yourself. I’ll watch over her.”

I could use it. A flight to work off some energy. Watching over Vivienne the last few days, even when in secret, has left me no time to breathe. My hand goes to my back, intending to yank my shirt over my head, but the sound of water in the bathroom stops me.

“No. I can’t run away from this, even for a little while.” I lower my voice. “Whatever I have to do to protect her, Elias.”

He tips his head. “We’ll need to end him.”

“Then we end him.”

Vivienne steps out, smoothing her hair into a high ponytail, and looks up. She catches me watching and smiles. My wings settle, my restlessness calming. She does that. Only her.

“I was thinking about what you said, and I realized something,” she says as she crosses the room, and I twist on the couch to get a better look at her. “I watch you, too.”

“You do?”

Her eyes shift from Elias to me. “You sit in the back at assemblies. You tap your fingers on the edge of your desk in chem like you’re playing a song in your head, and you glared at me in middle school every time I caught your eye. I thought you hated me.”

It clicks. “And you stopped talking to me,” I recall as she returns to my side on the couch.

She lifts her shoulder and frowns. “I cried.” Her hand covers her mouth. “Oh my gosh. I’d forgotten about it, but I did. I went home and cried to my mom because Breckin Roberts seemed to hate me, and I couldn’t figure out why.”

I push back my hair and inhale deeply. I hid from her. I spent most of the summer between sixth and seventh grade travelling with Elias. We came back, and when school started, I saw Vivienne in the hallway and nearly threw up. My stomach dropped and shook, like I was in a space shuttle. I’d chalked it up to a crush when it didn’t stop after a week. Every time I saw her, I felt crazy.

I look at Elias. His mouth forms a small grin, and his eyes shine with suppressed laughter. “You knew,” I breathe.

Vivienne’s head whips to my “uncle.”

“I suspected.”

“Suspected? For how long?” I ask.

“From the first time you met.”

Vivienne gasps, and I fish her hand out from the sleeve of her sweater and interlace our fingers. “Tell us.”

Elias’s grin drops. “I wasn’t there. You were with a nanny at the time, Kathy I think it was, and she said you two went for a walk at the park. Vivienne and her mom were there. She gushed on and on about how inseparable you two were. It could have been two toddlers just playing, but—”

His eyes narrow meaningfully, and I pick up what he wasn’t saying. He knew. He knew she was different.

“You think we were always connected, then?” Vivienne asks.

“I think you were. Like I said, soul mates are forever. Somehow you two were able to ignore the attraction. I imagine it was easier to resist because you’d felt it from such a young age.”

Vivienne and I share a glance. There’s no denying the attraction anymore. And there are no easy answers when discussing things pertaining to destiny and creation.

“If you suspected we were soul mates, why didn’t you say something to me that first night? You made me think we could fix everything by erasing her memories.” Why is he keeping things from me?

Elias scratches his beard and blows out a long exhale. “I hoped I was wrong. I wanted the memory erasure to work, Breckin. I didn’t want to see either of you put into this situation.”

His eyes meet mine, and they’re filled with words he will not speak. This will be trouble.

He warned me that first night, but I thought he was worried about my healing her, or my exposing myself. No, he’s worried for us. I give him a nearly imperceptible nod, letting him know I understand.

Vivienne clears her throat and shimmies—like she’s shaking off a pall. “So, Elias. An angel who runs a business flying people on high adventure ski courses. It almost feels like an inside joke.”