Women of the Otherworld 09.5 - Angelic Read Online Free PDF

tried pushing the molding back into place, hands shaking, blinking back tears, muttering under her breath.
     
    Cursing you, Eve. You know she was. Tell her not to bother fixing that—her house is going to burn down in a few months. That’s what she got for taking in your kid. It destroyed her house, destroyed her reputation, destroyed her life. But at least Savannah didn’t need to worry about the Coven after they kicked Paige out for keeping her.
     
    “I screwed up, okay? You think I don’t know that?”
     
    I tramped down the hall.
     
    “You killed her!” Savannah’s shriek echoed through the house. “You promised Paige would be safe and you killed her!”
     
    I broke into a run. This time I almost passed the room, stopping only when I heard her scream again. I wheeled and saw a furnace. Savannah kneeled on the other side of it, facing the wall, sobbing.
     
    I looked at that room and my gut went cold.
     
    “No,” I whispered. “Not this. Come on. Don’t—”
     
    “I’m right here, Savannah,” Paige’s voice drifted from behind the furnace. “Nobody killed me.”
     
    “Oh, thank God.” Another voice I knew so well. Kristof’s. “See, sweetheart? Paige is fine.”
     
    “You killed her!” Savannah screamed. “You killed her! You promised! You promised and you lied!”
     
    Savannah’s head dropped forward, tears streaming as she sobbed. Kristof stepped forward, arms opening to embrace her. Paige yelled for him to stop. He didn’t.
     
    Savannah turned fast, hands shooting up. Kristof sailed off his feet. His head hit the concrete wall with a horrible crack. His eyes went wide. Then they closed. And he slumped to the floor. Paige ran over to check for a pulse.
     
    There wouldn’t be one.
     
    She was calling for you , the voice whispered. Before he came. Screaming for you. But you didn’t come. And he did. Do you really think she doesn’t know what happened? Doesn’t know she killed her father? She knows, Eve. She knows.
     
    If you’d told Savannah about Kristof… If you’d let her know he was a good man, let her know you loved him, none of this—
     
    “Do you think I don’t know that?” I snarled. “I know every fucking mistake I made in my life and I don’t need to be reminded.”
     
    How many people did you kill, Eve? Not just tangentially, like Kristof. But actually sent to the afterlife yourself .
     
    “Oh, no.” I gave a harsh laugh. “Now you’re getting desperate. That I don’t regret. I never killed anyone that wasn’t just as big a threat to me and wouldn’t have done the same right back. I don’t feel any guilt over them.”
     
    “No?” said a young voice behind me. “What about me? Do you feel guilty about me?”
     
    I turned to see a boy of about ten. “I don’t know you.”
     
    “I’m Terri Blake’s son. My mom double-crossed you. You killed her. Do you know what happened to me?” He met my gaze. “Do you care?”
     
    “Look, I—”
     
    “What about me?” A woman stepped from another doorway. “John Salton’s wife. Widow, I should say, though I never realized that. I thought he’d left me, me and the kids. Did a good job of hiding his body, didn’t you?”
     
    “He’d have done—”
     
    “The same to you,” the boy and the woman chanted in unison, their voices joined by others, more people stepping from doorways, the endless hallway filling. “Had to kill them. Didn’t have a choice. Kill or be killed. The law of the jungle.”
     
    John Salton’s widow leapt at me, teeth bared. “Welcome to the jungle, Eve.”

Eight
     
    I don’t know how long I spent in that hell, tormented by the ghosts of those I’d wronged. I didn’t curl up and take it. I defended myself—verbally, physically, whatever it took. When that didn’t stop it, I walked away, only to step into another scene from This is Your Life .
     
    I fought. I resisted. I raged. But eventually the djinn won. And I don’t remember anything after