The Stars Never Rise

I could only nod, my jaw clenched in some toxic combination of grief and rage. Then I waved toward the hallway, urging him on. “Do you have a car?”


He dug in an inner pocket of his cassock without slowing, then handed me a set of keys. “East parking lot, third row. I’ll tell them you stole the keys.” He stopped in front of an unmarked metal door and pulled another set of keys from another pocket. “Your sister’s in here, but she has a visitor. Someone they brought in to get her to talk. They’ve had her on her knees for days, but she hasn’t told them anything. She’s in rough shape. Strong kid, though.”

My heart ached. Mellie shouldn’t need to be that strong.

Flores unlocked the door, then opened it, but he didn’t put away his keys. The room beyond was actually two rows of steel-barred cells divided by a wide aisle. All the cells were empty except the one at the end on the left, outside of which stood a woman in a pale blue cassock and a cop frantically sorting through the keys on his metal ring.

“Anabelle!” I whispered, and she and the cop both turned. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I recognized Officer Jennings, and the fact that he hadn’t pulled his gun told me Finn was still in residence.

“Nina!” Anabelle’s gaze slid from me to the cop behind me, and when she was sure he wasn’t going to prevent our reunion, she raced down the aisle toward me and nearly bowled me over with her hug. “Officer Jennings said you’re innocent.”

Officer Jennings obviously hadn’t mentioned that he wasn’t himself at the moment—not that we had time for such a complicated explanation.

Anabelle pulled away from me and stared straight into my eyes as if she could verify my humanity at a glance. “You’re still you, right?”

“Yes, and Mellie’s still herself. It was all a lie, Anabelle. So many lies, the whole time, and we never saw it. My mom was a demon. She was never sick or high, she was possessed, right under our noses.”

Anabelle’s forehead furrowed. “Since when? How is that possible?”

“Since forever. Since before I was born.” Seconds ticked away in my head, and I knew we were running out of time, but I needed Anabelle to understand, and I needed to keep her safe, somehow. I couldn’t let the Church claim her soul. “I didn’t know the truth about myself until I exorcised her—”

“You—” Her eyes widened.

“I’m an exorcist. The Church said I killed my mom because they can’t afford for anyone to find out the truth, but I’m innocent, and Adam was innocent, and Melanie is damn well innocent.” I glanced at Finn over her shoulder. “Speaking of which, where do we stand on the jailbreak?”

“I can’t find the right key,” he said, frustration echoing in his deep, borrowed voice.

“Let me.” Officer Flores pushed past me, already flipping through the keys on his own ring as he marched down the aisle. Finn stepped aside to give him access to the cell door, and that was when I saw my sister. Melanie was lying facedown on the floor of her cell, her legs still pinned to the floor by steel bands bolted to the concrete just below her knees.

She wasn’t moving.





“Melanie!” I raced down the aisle and gripped the bars of her cell with both hands while Flores unlocked the door. As soon as it swung open, I fell to my knees at her side and brushed limp, pale hair from her face. “Unlock her legs,” I demanded, but Flores was already squatting next to me, searching for another key. “Mellie,” I whispered into her ear. “Wake up. It’s Nina. I came to rescue you, and that’ll be a lot easier if you can walk.”

Her eyes rolled behind their lids; then those lids fluttered open, and I exhaled.

“Nina?” My sister’s voice was dry and hoarse, but she was awake and she recognized me.

“Yes. I’m here.” I blinked away fresh tears. “Hold still for just a minute while we get you unlocked.”

“Finn.” I twisted to whisper into his ear while I smoothed Melanie’s hair back. “Bennett was disembodied a few minutes ago.”

His eyes widened and he glanced at my sister, then back at me. “You want me to make sure Mellie’s…still in there?”

“Will you have to let go of Jennings to do that?”

“No, I should be able to sort of…push her, mentally. If there’s give she’s fine. If not, she’s possessed,” he whispered.

“Do it.”

While Flores unlocked, then flipped back, the steel bands that had bound my sister into the posture of penitence until she’d lost consciousness, Finn closed his eyes. A second later, he opened them, and I saw his relief even before I heard it in his voice. “It’s her. She’s fine.”

Tension eased within me—my unconscious sister would have been an easy and convenient target for the newly disembodied deacon. “Thanks,” I said to Finn. Then I turned back to my sister. “Let’s get you up slowly. Can you stand?”