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.”“No…I wish.this was much worse.But you go first.What’s eating you?” I asked, and she rose up and gave me one of her famous bear hugs.“What is that for?” I said, hugging her back.“I’m healed now.I can go back and warn the others,” Trevor said as he came up to where Lacie and I were hugging.“How do you know?” I asked, as I released Lacie and laughed, as I watched her try to wipe off the water mark I’d just given her.“I found out yesterday when I came back from getting food.As soon as you had left, I could hear the call again.”“Oh.” That meant he could hear his fellow Guardians; meaning, he would be able to access his realm again, go there to fully heal, and call upon other Guardians to protect Lacie.“Well, it was fun while it lasted,” I said as I tried to let out a laugh to make light of the situation, but I could feel my eyes tearing up.“Does this mean I have to go back to pretending I can’t see you, as you hide from the Guardians who surround me?” she whispered in my ear with a sob.“Yes.”“Don’t take my soul too early, okay?” she asked casually as she stepped toward Trevor.“Okay…I won’t,” I said.“Cendall,” Trevor said as he stuck out his hand to give me a parting handshake.“Trevor.Back to enemies, it is.” As soon as our hands embraced, the heat of his touch sent tiny sparks up my arm.He let go quickly and my hand shot back to its normal temperature.“We have to call them now, so you should probably go, Cendall.They’ve already been waiting too long,” he said.I waved and teleported out of there.No way did I want to be there when he called—probably—a million Guardians to tell them about what had happened.Hopefully leaving me out, as he had promised.I ported to my room and laid on my bed, staring at the red and black walls.At ten years old, my father had let me paint my own room.I’d wanted red and black.He had tried to argue that it would make everything look smaller, but there was no reasoning with me, and he let me get what I wanted.He even let me paint it myself.After I’d finished painting the walls red, I was ready to do the black trim.I kept trying to get it so perfect, but no matter what I did, the black dripped onto the red.Eventually, I got so frustrated that I threw the paintbrush, and instead of it landing on the floor like I’d wanted, it hit one of my other red walls, making a huge black splatter on the red.Furious, I threw my hands into the black paint and started throwing it against the walls.When my father walked in, instead of yelling, he only laughed, and we agreed to leave it that way—calling it a work of art or expression.Usually the memory brought out a smile, but now it was just reminding me of the chaos I’d created in my life.I’d tried to be so perfect—in training, then in the field trying to be the first to finish my scroll.Like the paint job, I couldn’t make it perfect, and once I had one setback, I let the rest spiral out-of-control.It started with saving Lacie, but it’s gone so much farther.I’d protected her, befriended her, and even made a deal with a Guardian to ensure her safety.If that wasn’t bad enough, just today I’d saved two lives just because I couldn’t stand to see Dave feeling hurt.I felt tears roll down my cheeks.Like my paint job so many years ago, when it was said and done, I knew it wasn’t perfect, but it was the choice that fit me.I knew that if I was somehow given the opportunity to reverse time, I would have done everything exactly the same.I had to give myself credit, as I doubted anyone in my class had an experience similar to mine, and if they had, I’d like to think some of them would have made the same choices.Who would have been given the list I was their first go-around anyway? It was like I’d been set up for failure.But what did it matter now? It was over, and I’d be gone, wandering alone, soon anyway.Chapter 27You Can Always Rely on a Demon to Ruin your Night.It had been three weeks now—not that I was counting on a calendar or anything—since I’d last seen Lacie and Trevor.Little had changed in my realm.Reapers went on finishing their lists, while I pretended to finish mine.Really I was looking for where I was going to hide out on earth before my next birthday.I’d narrowed it down to one spot that should be able to hide me pretty well when I left my realm.I’d already transported most of my stuff there, and even had a nice ID that should be able to get me by, in the human realm, for at least a year.As long as I kept the use of my Reaper powers to a minimum, no one in my realm should be able to track me while I was on earth.Hell, I didn’t even think they would want to.After all, leaving the realm was a big betrayal in most eyes.Some Reapers had done it in the past, and I’d never heard of a search party going out to find them.No, when a Reaper would venture to earth, they were never spoken of again.I would have left already, but seeing Dad every day was not helping, especially when I had to come up with lies on why my list wasn’t finished yet.While I was out one night, I’d foolishly left my scroll at home and he had noticed I only had three souls left.“You’ll be done in no time! That top spot is yours, Cendall….” Blah, and so on.One more week, and then I’d be gone.I’d already half-finished the notes I would leave for my father and Dave.They were the only ones who I felt compelled to tell why I had to do this.Of course, I wouldn’t give the full truth, but I would say what I could.If luck was on my side, Dave’s crush still hadn’t regained her memories from the crash.It took all the strength I had to pretend I was shocked at the news from Dave that she was in the hospital.If only the underworld had Emmys.Soon she would remember, though, which would make Dave ask questions, so I’d better be gone by then.The letters and burning my scroll were the last things that were on my agenda.To think of what the town will say…ha.Did I really care, though? I felt a tear leave my eye.I guess I did a little bit.The tear was more for the thought of leaving my father and Dave, and, hell, I hated to admit it but the tear was for Lacie and Trevor as well.Along with not being in contact with anyone in my realm anymore, I couldn’t hang around with Lacie and Trevor either, because our worlds just didn’t fit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]