jinn 03 - vestige
Authors: liz schulte
- Table of Contents
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
by
Liz Schulte
* * * *
Vestige
Jinn Trilogy
Book Three
Copyright © 2015 by Liz Schulte
Editing by Ev Bishop
Cover design by Karri Klawiter
All rights reserved.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
The suggested reading order for books in the Abyss World are as follows:
Secrets (The Guardian Trilogy)
Choices (The Guardian Trilogy)
Consequences (The Guardian Trilogy)
Easy Bake Coven (Easy Bake Coven series)
Be Light (The Guardian Trilogy)
Hungry, Hungry Hoodoo (Easy Bake Coven series)
Pickup Styx (Easy Bake Coven series)
Ember (The Jinn Trilogy)
Good Tidings (Baker’s Christmas Short Story in Christmas Yet To Come Anthology)
Snow and Mistletoe (Quintus’s Christmas Short Story)
Tiddly Jinx (Easy Bake Coven series)
Inferno (The Jinn Trilogy)
Vestige (The Jinn Trilogy)
Ollie, Ollie Hex ‘N Free (The Easy Bake Coven series)
And two other books:
Sweet Little Lies (Femi short story in Cupid Painted Blind)
Good Tidings (Baker Christmas short story in the Christmas Yet to Come Anthology)
To keep up with Liz’s latest releases sign up for her newsletter here
http://lizschulte.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=b24d896a4369244959d216887&id=a525d7447f
Table of Contents
Excited giggles broke the silence of the room. The little girl darted behind the chair across from me, smiling brightly. She slowly peeked around the arm at Holden, who merely lifted an eyebrow as he read the newspaper, and she dissolved into that honest uncontrollable laughter of a child. Thrilled to have his attention.
Domestic bliss. Those two words were like a wound packed with salt. They couldn’t have been further from the truth. The child ignored me when she wasn’t flinching away in terror, but who could blame her? The angel could have done any number of things to that little girl. Just because I couldn’t remember what she did, didn’t mean she didn’t do it. The girl, after all, held the key to ruling the jinn. She had been but a means to an end. That was until Holden stepped in.
After Holden’s initial relief at having me back, he withdrew further away from my reach than ever before. In the two weeks since the event in Arizona, he had cut me out of most everything. I wasn’t included in meetings or plans. I wasn’t even fit to watch the nameless child. Even Uriel wasn’t answering my prayers. I had been effectively shut out of my life. Punishment, no doubt, for the angel’s infractions and for not being strong enough to stop her. Had it not been for Femi and Quintus filling me in, I’d have no inkling of what happened during the months I was shoved to the back.
Though I was no less a prisoner now, than I was then. The angel had kept me safe and calm and hidden from the pain of losing my mother. Her decisions were bad, but she made them with the best of intentions. I had to believe that she really did just want to make the world a better place, with less pain for everyone. Now that she was gone, I was still trapped, just in a different way.
I was trapped by the life I lost: the one where there had been hope, the one that should have never been. It was a life where Holden and I looked each other in the eye, smiling and knowing nothing was more important than what we felt for each other. A rose-colored time of believing we were stronger together than apart. A fairy tale. I could see now it only ever existed in our hearts. But how do you let go of the one thing, the only thing, you have ever fought for? I didn’t know and clearly neither did he. The punishment was fitting. I deserved it. There should have been something I could have done to fight her. I wanted revenge. I made a decision with malice in my heart and left death in my wake. The finger of blame was pointed squarely at me. My mother and Baker were the primary victims of my failings—but now Holden was gone too. Physically still here, but gone. He looked at me like I was any stranger on the street. We sat in silence, using as few words between us as we could, prolonging what I feared was the inevitable end. The whole thing was exhausting. But I had one more chance to make things right.
My eyes found the urn of Baker’s ashes on the shelf.
I’m sorry
, I thought for the millionth time before I forced myself to look away.
The inactivity and the weight between us was driving me mad. How could he stand it? How could he just sit in this makeshift living room and let—no, I wasn’t going to do this. It was my fault, not his. I moved to get up, then winced. Sharp pain stabbed my chest and echoed through my body. A dizzying wave of nausea swept over me and for a moment I thought I might faint, before I shoved the feeling away and stood anyway.
“What’s wrong?” Holden asked, not looking up. He wasn’t asking about life in general, but about the pain he would have felt through our bond. It was visceral and therefore harder to mask than other things.
“Nothing,” I said. Nothing at all. Just the spot where Femi jammed a holy knife into my chest to kill the angel that refused to close or heal. It constantly seeped light and with every day that passed, chunks of myself went missing. But that was normal, right? I’d lived my whole life with the angel inside me. Now that she was gone, of course something was missing. I was incomplete without her, but I couldn’t regret her absence. Not after the way things ended.
I started for the back of the warehouse, needing space from Holden and the happy little girl. Roaming up and down these hallways like a ghost, thinking—always thinking—was the only thing that brought me peace. Since the rain started two weeks ago, I was stuck inside and haunting the cold impersonal hallways to keep from going insane. As I wandered, I could make plans to fix everything. I could, for just a few moments, have control again.