Sweet Reckoning
Page 15

“You dreamed of me?” she whispered.
He kissed her forehead. “Yes.”
Marna gazed up at him. “I can see that you’re afraid. But happy. Me, too.”
“You can see it?” he asked.
She pulled back and ran her fingers through the haze at his chest. “Your aura.”
Jay shot me a questioning look.
“We see emotions as colors,” I explained.
“Anna can feel them, as well,” Marna added. “She’s different from the rest of us.”
Jay raised his eyebrows, and I shrugged. He came forward and hugged me more gently than normal, like I was fragile. I squeezed him until he squeezed me back. I didn’t want him to treat me differently.
He pulled away and stared down at me as if seeing me for the first time. “All along . . . you could always see this stuff? And you had, like, superpowers?”
I dropped my eyes. The heightened senses had been a struggle for me. “It’s not as cool as it sounds. I’ve always hated it, and I’m still not so good at it.”
“And Kai!” Jay’s eyes widened. “Duuuude . . .”
“Yeah,” I said.
“It’s all making sense now.”
He sat on the bed next to Marna again. Their hands immediately linked. “So, what makes you different from them?” he asked me.
“Their mothers were all human. My mother was a guardian angel. That’s why I can see the pregnancy when other Neph and the Dukes can’t. It’s an angel ability.”
“Nuh-uh.” I saw in his eyes that his perception of me fully changed in that moment, from the silly, strange Anna he’d once known, to an Anna who elicited awe. “So, your mom was an angel, but your dad’s a demon?”
“It’s complicated. They knew each other in heaven, before he became a demon.”
Jay stared at me.
“I’m still just me,” I promised him.
“No . . . you’re more.”
I shrugged again, embarrassed by the attention.
“And wait,” he said. “There’s really guardian angels? Here on earth?”
“Yes,” Marna said. “All humans have them.”
Jay got still. “I have one?”
Marna and I nodded, and then giggled as Jay’s head swiveled side to side, searching.
“You can’t see him!” I said.
“No way! No way!” He jumped up and spun now, looking right past his guardian angel, who stared down at him with a look of mirth on his celestial, misty face.
“I think he’s laughing at you,” I said. Marna giggled and nodded.
Jay went into spaz mode. “For real? I got a cool angel with a sense of humor!”
“He loves you,” I told him. “He’s always watching over you.”
“Like . . . as in, always always?” His eyebrows went up. Marna giggled again.
“Yep,” I said.
“Oh, man. This is crazy.” His face paled and he started babbling. “Holy crap. Demons. What do they do, exactly? Never mind. I probably don’t wanna know. I knew there was something messed up about your dads, but dang.”
I didn’t want to talk about our fathers. Jay would learn soon enough about the demons. He’d have to know everything he was getting himself into. Even mentioning the demons gave me the creeps. Dark thoughts raced through my mind, followed closely by a tumbleweed of emotions.
Jay was in danger.
Marna had less than forty weeks to live.
If the Dukes or whisperers found out about this baby, the child would be killed after birth.
I pressed a hand to my chest. What were we going to do?
“You all right, Anna?” Jay asked.
I nodded and shot him a quick smile. “Yeah.”
“Do you think your sister’s okay?” Jay asked Marna.
Marna’s face darkened. “I’ve never seen her that upset. She’s always been protective of me, but this isn’t something she can save me from. I know she feels like the world is ending, but I need her now more than ever. If I give her a little time and space, maybe she’ll be okay. . . .”
Marna met my eyes, and I could see we both knew. Ginger, the mama bear, would be wrecked by the loss of her twin. I couldn’t imagine the world without Marna, so I couldn’t begin to understand how it felt for Ginger.
“I’ll talk to my dad and ask what he thinks we should do.”
Jay jumped to his feet, a terrified look in his eyes. “You can’t tell him!”
“Her dad is good,” Marna explained.
We spent the next hour explaining everything to Jay. From meeting Kai, to my parents’ story, to the Great Purge when demons killed all the Neph, to Sister Ruth and the prophecy that said I’d rid the earth of demons. By the time I got to the events on the island, Jay looked ill.
“Is there anywhere I can take the baby to be safe?”
Those words made me dive forward and hug him, getting choked up.
“Oh, my gosh. You’re going to be such a good daddy.”
I heard Marna sniffle.
“You’ll take good care of the baby, Jay,” she said. We were a mess.
I wiped my eyes and thought.
“We took Zania to a convent. What about a church? Demons avoid places where two or more people convene in prayer.”
“I’m on it,” Jay said. “I’ll contact every church I can find and see if they have something, like a room to rent or a basement, or anything. I don’t know. I’ll figure out something.”