LITMIR.BIZ

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a Guard trainer. Needless to say, he wasn’t pleased.”

      “So how did you get the job?” I asked.

      “Felix saw my potential and recruited me for Ally’s birth. When I was chosen for Ally, Jackson didn’t take it well. He didn’t think anyone was good enough for this family.”

      I leaned forward in my chair, but Cooper jumped up as if something stung him.

      He punched one fist into his open palm, bringing his hands to his mouth. “He spent years threatening to take my job, but I thought it was just jealousy, not intent.”

      I had a bad feeling about where this was going.

      Cooper closed his eyes and shook his head. “He constantly tested my will and before I could approach Felix about him, he acted.”

      “How?” I breathed, Ally’s damp hands clasped in a tight knot.

      “One night, when Ally was six, I felt another presence on the property. Another Guard. I thought it might have been Calliope or another friend, but when I investigated the feeling that brought me into the back yard, he attacked me.”

      I flinched, tearing my gaze away from Cooper and onto the dark sprawling lawn in front of me.

      He continued. “The swords that the Guard carry have a unique energy, one that the Caeleste bestow upon us. It’s only used for our protection against the Shadowed, but it has harmful effects for us as well.”

      “He used his sword on you?” I asked.

      “No, he used mine,” Cooper said softly. “The energy in the sword is our own life force; a part of the True Soul is embedded inside of it. When used on the Shadowed it destroys them, but when used on us—”

      I wanted to stand up, grab him in my arms and replace his frown with a smile, somehow. But I didn’t dare move. I needed to hear the rest of his story.

      “The energy inside the sword is connected to a place. A place I never wish to visit ever again. It’s almost as if the world imploded into a bright white nothingness. After what seemed like days, a Caeleste retrieved me. It turned out I had only been missing for a few hours. I immediately went to Ally and found her playing with her stuffed animals on the floor of her bedroom. It was the happiest moment I’d ever experienced. She had no idea.”

      “What happened to Jackson?”

      Cooper grimaced and his knuckles flexed. “He was there, just watching her as if he was in a trance.” Cooper shook his head, his eyes glazed over as if the scene played out before his eyes. “He snapped out of it when I approached him. And right before he disappeared he said, “Told you.”’

      “Told you what?”

      “That he was the better Guard for her. I didn’t think much about it at the time. But each day after that I was on high alert for him, I became obsessed. Felix assigned Calliope to train with me every night until I knew I could beat him if it came down to it.”

      Cooper’s shoulders relaxed as if the weight of the story had been released from his body.

      “Tonight was the first night I’d seen him since then,” Cooper said.

      I thought of Jackson’s eyes on mine. How could that tender gaze belong to someone who would do that?

      “We should go inside,” Cooper said.

      “No.” I grabbed his arm as he tried to walk past me.

      He stiffened. His gray eyes met mine and I swallowed hard. I tried to move Ally’s arm away, but he held it lightly in his grasp. He stroked it lightly with his thumb, his gaze not wavering, making the tiny blonde hairs on her arm straighten. Her stomach flip-flopped and her heart raced. Cooper’s eyes touched every part of my face. His hands radiated a warmth not unlike Seth’s, but this time the reaction was all me.

      “Ally,” he breathed.

      I flinched, and stepped back. How could I have been so blind? Cooper had been with Ally for so long, of course he’d fall for her. I hobbled into the house. Ally’s skin prickled.

      “Maggie,” he said, appearing next to me as I briskly walked through the kitchen toward the stairs.

      “Ah, you remembered my name,” I said softly, ascending the stairs.

      He appeared at the top of the steps; I brushed past him. “I didn’t mean—it’s just—”

      “Oh, I get it,” I said. I opened the door to Ally’s bedroom and homed in on her bathroom. Only a few more steps…

      “Maggie,” Cooper said.

      I reached the bathroom first, shutting the door in his face. Ally’s back pressed against the door as I slid down to the floor, wrapping her arms around her bent knees.

      Cooper’s shadow darkened the doorway, I watched his movements from under the door. “Please come out. I want to explain.”

      I sighed. “There’s nothing to explain. You miss her.” You love her. “I get it. So why don’t you do something about it?” I rested her chin on the top of her knees.

      “That’s not—” He stopped. The door moved against me and I heard a sliding sound against it. Cooper’s voice was closer, as if he sat in the same position on the other side. “Yes, I miss her. You caught me off guard. We’ve never had direct contact… before. I wanted to see her.”

      I knocked Ally’s head against the door. “Well, her body is still technically here.”

      “No,” he said. “Your soul faded somewhat since the accident. I lost myself for a moment when I looked in her eyes as if she never left.”

      I vaulted off the floor and flipped on the lights above the vanity. Ally’s face squinted in the sudden brightness. I leaned forward, trying to make out the outline of my soul.

      There it was!

      What was Cooper talking about? I could plainly see— well, he was right, somewhat. I wasn’t as defined but I was still in there. I rested against the vanity, staring at the girl whose body I inhabited. It had only been a few days, but it felt as if I’d been human for a lot longer than that.

      I stalled in the bathroom, brushing Ally’s teeth. The toothpaste didn’t mix with the chocolate cake and I scrubbed it away. I closed my eyes, thinking of the conversation with Cooper. The Jackson I’d met hadn’t seemed capable of the betrayal that Cooper described, but then again our meetings were short and the inexplicable desire to be near him seemed to be clouding my judgment. I really didn’t know him that well.

      You don’t know Cooper either, a small voice inside of me argued.

      But at least he wasn’t a Shadowed.

      The questions that had prompted the talk of Jackson were foggy, yet the most important one came to mind.

       How does Jackson know me?

       Chapter Twelve

      The sun beat down on his exposed face as he watched her sit in the tall grass field. She liked to come out there for privacy; he felt her need to be alone. He stepped closer, tentatively. A twig snapped under his foot and she turned, her face splitting into a wide grin.

       She twisted her body, facing him. “I thought you’d never come.”

      Her voice rocked him as if an earthquake rumbled under his feet. I shouldn’t be here. It went against everything he was. There was something about her that he couldn’t resist; was it her beauty? Of course she was beautiful; he wanted to run his fingers through the curls that wildly danced around her head in the breeze. Was it her intellect? She was the most intelligent woman he’d ever known, and he’d lived a long time. Those were great qualities

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