Torment - Lauren Kate [136]
“You know her past,” Shelby said, walking in front of him so that he had to look at her. “You don’t know what she’s been through these past few weeks. I’m the one who’s been around while she glimpsed her past lives. I’m the one who saw her face when she found the sister she lost when you kissed her and she …” Shelby trailed off. “I know you all hate me right now. But I swear to—Oh, whatever it is you guys believe in. You can trust me from here on out. Miles, too. We want to help. We’re going to help. Please.” She reached for Daniel. “Trust us.”
Daniel wrested himself away from her. Trust as an activity had always made him uneasy. What he had with Luce was unshakable. There was never any need even to work on trust. Their love just was.
But for all eternity, Daniel had never been able to find faith in anyone or anything else. And he didn’t want to start now.
Down the street, a dog yipped. Then again, louder. Closer.
Luce’s parents, coming back from their walk.
In the dark yard, Daniel’s eyes found Gabbe’s. She was standing close to Callie, probably consoling her. She’d already retracted her wings.
“Just go,” Gabbe mouthed to him in the desolate, dust-filled backyard. What she meant was Go get her. She would handle Luce’s parents. She would see that Callie got home. She would cover all the bases so that Daniel could go after what mattered. We’ll find you and help you as soon as we can.
The moon drifted out from behind a mist of cloud. Daniel’s shadow lengthened on the grass at his feet. He watched it swell a little, then began to draw up the Announcer inside it. When the cool, damp darkness brushed against him, Daniel realized that he hadn’t stepped through time in ages. Looking back was not normally his style.
But the motions were still in him, buried in his wings or his soul or his heart. He moved quickly, peeling the Announcer off his own shadow, giving it a quick pinch to separate it from the ground. Then he threw it, like a piece of potter’s clay, onto the air directly in front of him.
It formed a clean, finite portal.
He had been a part of every one of Luce’s past lives. There was no reason he wouldn’t be able to find her.
He opened the door. No time to waste. His heart would take him to her.
He had an innate sense that something bad was just around the bend, but a hope that something incredible was waiting in the distance.
It had to be.
His burning love for her coursed through him until he felt so full he didn’t know whether he would fit through the portal. He wrapped his wings close against his body and bounded into the Announcer.
Behind him, in the yard, a distant commotion. Whispers and rustling and shouts.
He didn’t care. He didn’t care about any of them, really.
Only her.
He whooped as he broke through.
“Daniel.”
Voices. Behind him, following, getting closer. Calling his name as he tunneled deeper and deeper into the past.
Would he find her?
Without question.
Would he save her?
Always.
LAUREN KATE grew up in Dallas, went to school in Atlanta, and started writing in New York. She is the author of the international bestseller Fallen and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and is learning how to surf.