“If you steal all the blankets, you’ll be sorry.” I reached inside the shower and turned off the spray. After dealing with the Council, visiting friends who’d come to express their outrage, and then the earthquake and eruptions, curling up with Sam was the most appealing thing I could think of.
The shower dripped for a moment longer, and then the house was silent. Maybe the debris had stopped falling outside. The whole world was still, and quiet, and waiting.
I felt behind me for the doorknob and pushed the washroom door open. Soon, everything would be perfect, if only for a few hours.
Sam’s smile fell away. A question formed in my mouth, but he grabbed my wrist, yanked, and spun me so I stood behind him. “What are you doing here?” he growled. He reached behind him with his good hand, palm on my hip as though to keep me in place.
My heart raced at his sudden shift. I peeked around him.
A stranger stood in Sam’s bedroom, clutching a long knife. He wore a filthy coat that hung to his ankles, but even in the dim light and with the heavy layer of fabric, I couldn’t miss the bulge of another weapon on his hip when he faced us.
“Dossam. Nosoul.” His voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “We were hoping you’d been crushed to death.”
We?
I twisted my hand in Sam’s shirt, desperately wishing I were wearing something more serious than my nightgown as I stepped out from behind him. I didn’t need a shield. “You’re one of Deborl’s friends.”
“And you were in prison,” Sam said. “With Deborl and Merton.”
The stranger showed teeth when he smiled. “Janan used the earthquake to free us.” He pulled back his coat, revealing a laser pistol tucked into his waistband. “We have a calling.”
“Mat, no.” Sam tried to step in front of me again, but I jabbed my elbow into his side. “Why would you do this?”
The stranger—Mat—leveled his gaze on Sam, apparently unworried about our escape. We were trapped in the washroom, after all. “She’s an abomination. They all are. The plague of newsouls must be stopped.”
We were trapped in the washroom.
I stepped back, letting Sam block the doorway. “Newsouls are the natural order of things,” he began. “Other animals are born, live, and die forever. Haven’t you considered that what we do is unnatural?”
“They’re an offense to Janan. He created us. He gave us immortality. And soon he’ll return to reward the faithful. He’ll ascend. The faithful will ascend with him.”
Meuric hadn’t thought so. He’d been convinced he needed the temple key to survive Soul Night.
I tuned out Mat’s arguments as I considered the items in Sam’s washroom. Shampoo, soap, painkillers. I wished for my SED—then I could call for help—but both our SEDs were downstairs.
“Ana’s done nothing to you,” Sam said. “Nor have the other newsouls.”
Gauze. Painkillers. Ointment for cuts and burns. If my nightgown had pockets, I would have grabbed those, because the plan budding in my head involved going outside.
“They were born,” Mat said. “They replaced oldsouls. Real souls. They take what isn’t theirs. Life. Keys.”
Mat’s identity snapped into place. He was the man who’d attacked me when I’d stumbled out of the temple. He’d stolen the temple key from me and given it to Deborl.
“This must come to an end. I’m sorry, Dossam. I have no quarrel with you, but Ana has to die.”
Cleaning powder. I snatched the can and unscrewed the lid just as Mat pushed past Sam and aimed his laser pistol. The blue targeting light flashed—
With a shout, I hurled the powder at Mat’s face. Sam shoved Mat into the counter as the man screamed and his eyes watered. White particles floated in the air, glowing bright blue as the targeting light on the pistol shone. Air sizzled and a hole appeared in the ceiling; Mat was too busy clawing at his eyes to pay attention.
Sam grabbed Mat’s collar and slammed the man’s head on the stone counter. A wet crack sounded and the copper odor of blood filled the space, but I didn’t have time to see if he would live. I grabbed the pistol and fled the washroom with Sam.
We raced downstairs, pausing only to get our SEDs and shoes before we ran outside in our bare feet, carrying our belongings into the dark.
“Stay quiet.” Sam’s voice was low, all warning. “There may be more.”
Shivering with fear and shock, I let Sam guide me. He could navigate Heart blindfolded, but I needed a light, which we didn’t have and couldn’t use even if we did.
We slowed as the cold settled in and the sharp debris on the ground stabbed our feet. “Here.” Sam turned us toward a patch of black on black. Trees. Pine needles pricked at my feet and shudders racked my body. I could hardly breathe around the cold and adrenaline. “Put your shoes on,” he whispered. His hand fell from mine, and I realized I’d been squeezing it tightly from fear. It was his left hand, his hurt hand. He hadn’t made a sound about it.
I crouched, shoving my feet into my shoes as quickly as I could, straining my senses to hear footfalls from more intruders. But all I could hear was my pulse in my ears. Was Mat dead? Were there others? Deborl had more friends than Mat, so where were they?