The Stars Never Rise

Grayson sighed. “Here’s how it works. When Finn’s upset, Maddock’s upset, and when Maddock gets upset, Devi gets mad on his behalf, and when Devi gets mad, she makes us all miserable. So…you need to fix this.”


I wiped the fogged-up mirror with my skinned left hand and studied my face. “Fix what?” I looked tired, and I’d found several new scrapes and bruises in the shower, but I was intact, which was more than I could say for the degenerates we’d fought on my first night as an exorcist.

“Finn likes you,” Grayson said, and my hand clenched around the comb I’d just found in the vanity drawer. “A lot. I’m not sayin’ you have to like him back, but if you do, please don’t let his weird personal situation scare you off.”

“His weird personal situation?” I started tugging the comb through my wet hair. “That may be the biggest understatement I’ve ever heard.”

“It took me a while to get used to it too, but I promise you it’s worth the effort. He’s not a demon, Nina. He has a soul. I think he is a soul. We’re all he has, and he loves every single one of us—even Devi—and that’s not something a demon is capable of.”

“I know.” I turned to face her, leaning against the counter while I combed my hair. “But I don’t know how to process the fact that when he talks to me I’m hearing someone else’s voice, and when I touch him I’m holding someone else’s hand. I mean, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to dissociate Finn from Maddock’s face and voice.”

“He probably should have told you earlier,” Grayson said. “And you should definitely take it slow. But—”

Someone knocked on the bathroom door, and I opened it to find Devi standing in the tiny rectangle of hallway, long, dark, still-damp hair twisted over her shoulder in some thick, complicated braid I’d never be able to master. Maddock and Reese were visible behind her on the couch, staring at a television I couldn’t see from the bathroom.

I expected Devi to start yelling, or doing whatever Devi does when she’s mad, other than break things, but she actually looked kind of…worried. “They just announced a special report from New Temperance coming up on the morning news. Nina, I think you’re about to be on television.”





“New Temperance made the national news?” My hometown was among the smallest of the cities and towns that survived the war, and little of interest ever happened inside our walls. In my entire life, New Temperance had made the national news only once—the day school officials burned Clare Parker.

I followed Grayson and Devi into the small living room, where the guys moved over to make room for their girlfriends. I sat alone in the only armchair, angled to face both the couch and the screen.

Angela Reddy’s television was bigger than the one I’d sold, but still smaller than many I’d seen, and its resolution was very clear, like the bigger monitors mounted in most public buildings.

“Where’s Finn?” I said while the international headlines scrolled across the screen accompanied by “peaceful” music I’d heard a million times. I was already glancing around the room for him before I realized that even if he were there, I probably wouldn’t see him.

Could he be seen when he wasn’t in someone’s body? Could he be heard? Could he see and hear us?

Grayson took Reese’s hand. “Not back yet.” She looked certain, and I wondered how she could possibly know that for sure.

“What do you care?” Devi’s brows rose in challenge. “You’ve already called him evil and rejected him. He may not have a body, but he has a heart, you know.”

“I know.” My cheeks burned. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Leave her alone, Dev,” Maddock said. “Don’t you remember how weirded out you were when you first met Finn?”

Devi scowled, and even with her dark eyes narrowed, her nose all scrunched up, and her face bare of makeup after her shower, she was still fiercely beautiful. “Why are you taking her side? I’m the one who’s going to have to share my boyfriend if Demon Spawn and Invisi-Boy ever make up.”

“Oh, I doubt you’ll be the only one shouldering that burden….” Reese smiled.

“So, you guys don’t mind him just…hijacking your bodies?”

“He’s supposed to ask first,” Reese said with a shrug. “And he’s pretty good about that. He spends most of his corporeal time in Maddy’s body because that’s where he’s most comfortable, but I don’t mind pitching in when he wants to interact with the world and Maddock’s unavailable. Or while they’re…occupied.” He waved one thick hand at Devi and Maddock.

That sentence insinuated several things I didn’t want to truly contemplate. But I couldn’t run from Finn and his situation forever.

“So, when he’s not…in one of you, where is he?”

“Wherever he wants to be,” Maddock said. “He’s not limited by physical barriers, like doors and walls, but he seems to be ruled by time and space just like we are.”

“Wait, what?”