The Stars Never Rise

My face flamed, as much in anger as in humiliation, and when Maddock looked my way again, I couldn’t meet his gaze.

“I turned her down, of course, ’cause that’s the right thing to do, but I’m not gonna say it was easy.” He rubbed the stubble on his jaw and frowned solemnly at the reporter. “But I have to set an example for the younger generation, ya know? I have to rise above that sort of vulgar temptation.”

The reporter nodded sagely and congratulated Dale on his prudence and self-control in the face of such corrupted morals, and I wanted to rip their heads from their bodies.

The scene on the giant monitor changed again just as a ripple of sound and movement worked its way through the crowd. On-screen, the camera zoomed in on Sister Pamela Williams as she emerged from a door in the courthouse, and when I turned to my left, there she was in her purple journalist’s cassock, just twenty feet away. She smiled and waved as two men walked ahead of her, clearing a path for her and for the cameraman walking backward in front of her, following her progress toward the dais.

I didn’t release the breath I’d been holding until the whole procession passed us without incident and Maddock and I could go back to scanning faces for Devi and Reese, which was even harder now that everyone was staring at the screen overhead and all we could see were the backs of their heads.

Then a man at the rear of the crowd turned, just feet from where I stood, and my heart thumped painfully while his gaze roamed the courthouse wall. His attention lingered for a moment on the speaker to my right, and I assumed he’d found what he was looking for.

Then he looked directly at me, and as his eyes widened in recognition, the last of my hope was swallowed by a wave of fear and determination unlike anything I’d ever felt.

The man opened his mouth to shout.

I raised my fists to stop him, and panic dumped adrenaline into my bloodstream, like fuel on the fire.

If I was going down, I would go down fighting.





I darted forward, fire surging through my veins, wondering how many of them I’d have to disable to clear a path of escape. Maddock grabbed me from behind. And that was when I noticed the stranger’s eyes.

They were Finn-green.

Maddock let me go and Finn and I squeezed between the wall and the huge speaker. With its sound projected in the opposite direction, we might actually be able to hear one another behind it.

“I found your sister,” Finn said, and before I could respond, he rushed on, and I realized he couldn’t spend more than a few minutes in the stranger’s body before someone would notice it was missing. “They have her locked in a cell, bound in the posture of penitence.”

My chest ached at the thought. How long had she been there? Did they let her up to rest? To eat? To use the restroom? “How does she look?”

“Tired and scared, but whole. The cells are opened by electronic locks, and I’ve figured out how to get hers open, but the leg irons require an actual key. Even once we find that and unlock her, we’ll have to get her past at least half a dozen cops and courthouse employees just to get out of the building. Then, of course, there’s getting us all out of town.”

“Okay. We’ll deal with the courthouse first.” I took a deep breath and looked around to make sure no one was watching. “Are there limits to your…ability? Can you take over anyone you want?” Seizing strangers’ bodies without permission felt like a fundamental violation, but there was no line I wouldn’t cross to get Mellie back.

Finn shrugged. “Anyone human. As far as I know, anyway. But I can’t get into someone who’s possessed.”

“Okay. Can you get inside someone who has the authority to just walk out with her? Like…fake a transfer or an appointment or something?”

“I think so,” he said. “They’ll probably send a security escort, but if I can get them out the back door, you guys can help get rid of the extra security, right?”

“Yeah.” I almost felt bad for anyone willing to stand between me and my sister. Almost.

“You might even be able to get a car,” Maddock added, and I could hear the excitement in his voice, even over the speaker and the buzz of the crowd. “I mean, if she has an appointment somewhere—like with a doctor, for the baby—they’d expect someone to drive her there, right?”

Finn nodded. “Okay, I’ll be back once I’ve lined up a body and a car. You two find Reese and Devi, and be ready to go when I have details.” Then Finn walked his borrowed body back to the edge of the crowd. I could tell when he was gone because the man whose body he’d hijacked stiffened, then glanced around in confusion, no doubt wondering how he’d managed to fall asleep on his feet and miss half the press conference.