Angelborn Read Online Free PDF Page B

there’s one here right now.”
    His whole body stiffens, golden brown skin turning ashen as his eyes widen. I don’t blame him. Whenever an angel shows up, it’s bad news for someone.
    “How many?” he whispers.
    “Just one. There’s only ever one at a time.”
    His posture relaxes a fraction, but he doesn’t turn around, he just watches my eyes as I observe the scene taking place behind him. “Then they’re not here for me.”
    “No, it’s here for him.” I nod with my head as a kid — Nate, I think his name is, we had freshman English together last year — collapses.
    The bright ball of orange-red light expands and takes the vague shape of a person next to Nate. Angels are brilliant as the sun — you can’t even really look at them without giving yourself a headache. Nate gets off the ground, blocking the light for a second, while another version of him lies still and motionless, covered in fries from when his plate turned over as he fell.
    A group of kids crouches around him, and chaos erupts. Someone starts beating on his chest, trying to give him CPR. A security guard rushes over, speaking into his walkie-talkie.
    “Aneurysm, maybe,” I mutter. “Or heart failure or something?”
    Ghost Nate looks at the hubbub, then back at the angel. I hold my breath, hoping, hoping that he’ll make the right choice. I remember sitting in the row behind him last year and him telling a story about his bar mitzvah when we were asked to share something with the class during the section on memoir. Maybe that will make a difference, though I’ve seen ghost priests and preachers, nuns and rabbis.
    The angel holds out a glowing arm. I force myself to look, still not able to breathe until it’s done, until the choice is made. Ghost Nate takes hold of the arm, and then he begins to radiate with a white, clean light, different from the angel’s more colorful one. They shine, shine, shine, until I have to squint my eyes, and then they disappear in a blazing comet that streaks away.
    I release the breath I’d been holding and lean back. “They’re gone.” And Nate has made the choice to move on and not become a ghost to haunt the world. One less ghost, one point to heaven — or wherever. I remember something about Jews not believing in heaven.
    Caleb is staring at me, all tension gone from his body. “What?” I ask him, self-consciousness heating my cheeks.
    “He went with her? The boy?”
    “Her?”
    “Onyx, one of the angels of death. This is her territory, I believe.”
    I raise an eyebrow. “You two are on a first-name basis?”
    He snorts, which seems so out of character from his polite and mannerly behavior.
    “Yeah, he went with her.”
    The paramedics strap Nate’s body to a gurney and wheel him out. A bunch of students run through the doors to watch. The atmosphere inside the cafeteria is charged with an electric silence for a few moments before the drone of conversation resumes.
    I study Caleb, trying to figure him out. Trying to decide if I believe him or if this is all just an elaborate ruse by a dead guy with some weird agenda.
    “So … you’re half angel?” I try the words out on my tongue.
    He nods. “There are two types of halflings. Angelborn and humanborn. Humanborn have human mothers and angel sires; angelborn are the other way around.”
    So far, it makes sense. “Are there any other differences?”
    “Many. The most relevant is that humanborn halflings are born with souls, while angelborn are not.”
    This seems odd and unfair. Caleb reminds me of Genna in a way, oozing syrupy goodness. I can’t imagine that he doesn’t have a soul. “So, does that mean you’re evil?”
    He chuckles, and the warm sound wraps its arms around me like a hug. Like how it felt when he carried me the other day after I embarrassed myself shouting at him when he was invisible. I thought I dreamed that, but now I think it must have been real.
    But then his expression saddens. “No, I’m not evil.” He