The Stars Never Rise

“You’re saying she wasn’t a naturalist?”


“I’m saying there are no naturalists.” He twisted a knob on the front of the tiny, shin-high stove, then lit a match and stuck it through the burner. Fire flared in a ring beneath the pot, and he adjusted the height of the flames by turning the knob again. “Or, more accurately, there are only naturalists. You can’t be trained to drive a demon from a stolen body by scorching its life force with the power of your own.”

Was that really what I’d done? How was that even possible?

“You have to be born with that ability.” His gaze met mine across the indoor campsite, and flames from the stove made shadows dance on his face. “And you were born with that ability, Nina.”

I shifted nervously on my pillow. “Why would the Church have a bunch of fake exorcists? What happened to the real ones?”

Finn shrugged, digging in the utensil box again. “You’re as qualified to answer that one as I am. You’re an exorcist. Why aren’t you down at the worship center right now, in line to get your cheek branded?”

“Because the only Church officials who know I’m an exorcist just aimed guns at my head!”

He finally pulled a plastic spoon from the box and used it to stir the stew. “Yeah, they tend to do that.”

“Doesn’t the Church need us if they don’t have any real exorcists?”

“Who knows what the Church thinks it needs?” He met my gaze over the camping lantern. “Humanity needs us. I know that much. Demons hunt us. The Church will take us. I know that for a fact. They took Carey James. I don’t know what they did with him, but I know they took him alive.”

“Who’s Carey? An exorcist? Your friend?”

“He is an exorcist, yes. Just like you.”

Like me? Why not like us?

“But I never met him,” Finn continued, stirring the stew again, and my stomach started to growl. I hadn’t eaten since lunch at school. That felt like ages ago. “I know his sister, though. Her name’s Grayson. You’ll like her. Everyone likes her.”

He pulled two paper bowls from a package and set them on the floor in front of the stove.

“What do you know about my mother?” I asked as Finn twisted a knob and the flame beneath the pot died.

When he turned away from the stove, he looked sad. “I know she was possessed and probably had been for quite a while.”

“Since the day she turned eighteen.” How could I not have known?

Finn poured beef stew from the pot into the first bowl. “This isn’t your fault, and you couldn’t have stopped it. There’s no way you could have known. You had no frame of reference, right?”

“What do you mean?” I took the bowl he pushed toward me and held it for warmth, even when the blanket slid off my shoulders.

Finn set the pot back on the burner and picked up his own bowl, then settled onto the pillow across from mine. “She’s been possessed your whole life, right? So you don’t have any experience with a normal mother to contrast yours with. There’s no way you could have known.”

Maybe not. But I should have known.

If Mellie hadn’t gotten pregnant and derailed my mom’s plans, would I have ever known? We’d been avoiding her for months. Her symptoms had gotten dramatically worse, and we hadn’t noticed, because we didn’t want to see her or deal with her. We just wanted her to wait until I turned eighteen before overdosing and passing quietly out of our lives.

But that wouldn’t have happened. She would have possessed me and sold Melanie, and…well, I wasn’t sure what her plan was after that, since my body couldn’t produce a new host for her.

Finn chewed his stew quietly, watching me. He’d set a bottle of water at my feet, and I hadn’t even noticed.

“What else?” I put my bowl down and picked up the water. “What else do you know about her? About us?” How had he found me?

“Tell you what.” He glanced at my untouched bowl. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, as long as you keep eating. You’re going to need plenty of energy if we’re going to make it out of here without getting caught.”

I had no home. I had no clothes except what I was wearing. I had no food except what belonged to Finn. I had no information except what had come from him. And I had nowhere to go and no one to trust. There was nothing left. Except Finn.

He must have seen doubt in my eyes, because he smiled, and when he smiled, I could see nothing of the boy who’d killed a degenerate and shot an “exorcist.” When he smiled, he looked normal. Friendly. Trustworthy. And that very thought put me back on edge.