The Stars Never Rise

Devi didn’t even glance at him. She was too busy glaring at me.


“I’m done apologizing for my existence, Devi. I’m not sorry that I’m here, and I’m not sorry that I’m one of you, and I’m not sorry that we saved hundreds of innocent people today. Hell, you saved way more than I did.”

She looked only slightly mollified by my admission. “Those ‘innocent people’ were chanting for them to burn your friend alive. What century is this, anyway?” Devi slammed her bottle down on the table and water sloshed over her hand. “That was barbaric. Beyond that, it’s asinine. Souls have no physical form—Finn’s proof of that—but fire is the physical expense of energy, right? So why on earth would fire have any effect whatsoever on a soul? That wouldn’t make sense even if your friend was possessed.”

“And they know that.” I tried not to think about what I’d seen. About the friend I’d just lost. About the horrifying stench of burning flesh still clinging to our clothes. Look forward, Nina. Focus on what can still be dealt with. “Which brings me back to my original question. Did anyone else see their eyes?”

“I saw them,” Finn said with Maddock’s voice. “That’s what I was coming back to tell you.”

Ohhh. The problem he’d mentioned hadn’t been the incoming degenerates. He’d been talking about the demons in Church robes.

“Whose eyes?” Reese twisted the cap from his own bottle of water and accepted a cellophane-wrapped muffin from Grayson with his other hand.

“All of them.” I glanced at Finn, and he held up one finger, asking for me to wait. Then he closed his eyes, and when they opened again, Maddock looked out at me from his own body. He stiffened and blinked in momentary confusion, then relaxed a little when he saw the familiar surroundings and faces he knew.

When his gaze lost focus, I realized Finn was filling Maddock in on the parts he’d missed. Then Maddock frowned at me. “They were demons? All of them?”

“All of who?” Devi said.

“The Church.” Grayson sank into her chair, stunned by what she’d obviously heard from Finn.

I nodded. “Every single cassock-wearing son of a bitch out there chasing us today had shiny demon eyes. The cops. The deacon. The fake exorcists. Even the cameramen. They were all possessed.”

“All of them?” Reese froze in the middle of unwrapping his muffin. “Are you sure?”

I shrugged. “All the ones I saw.”

“Finn says, ‘Me too.’?” Grayson relayed the information in a flat, shocked voice. “That’s why he couldn’t get Melanie out. He couldn’t get inside anyone with the authority to unlock her cell, because everyone who qualified was already possessed.”

“Of course they were.” Devi glared at me, hands propped on the generous curves of her hips. “Naturally, Nina’s the product of a town being run by demons!”

“That’s a recent development. It has to be.” Didn’t it? I couldn’t possibly have been living in demon central my whole life without knowing about it.

But then, how was I supposed to know? How was anyone supposed to know? Only exorcists could see the demonic gleam in a possessed person’s eyes, and I’d only transitioned a day ago. There was no way I could have known about the deacon and the school officials and…

How many were there? How many had I seen every day of my life, and spoken to and been taught by?

Anabelle.

Anabelle was an ordained Church pledge. But she wasn’t possessed. She couldn’t be. I’d known her all my life, and she was still the same kind, friendly girl she’d always been. Anabelle wasn’t a demon. Surely they weren’t all demons. Right?

I sank onto the couch, half-crushed by the enormity of the possibilities coming into focus in my head. My lungs wouldn’t expand. The truth was heavier than the air I needed, and it filled me, leaving no room for me to draw breath.

I shivered. I shook so hard the room seemed to tremble around me. The truth was cold and sharp like the October wind, and bitter like ashes on my tongue.

The truth…made no sense.

“It can’t be all the Church members in my town, and it can’t be just my town.” I wasn’t sure whether to hope I was right or pray that I was wrong about that last part. “Sister Pamela isn’t from here. Neither are the cameramen. But they’re all possessed.”

“Could they have gotten possessed since coming to town?” Reese asked, and they all turned to Maddock for the answer, presumably because he’d seen more of the country than the rest of us.