Netherworld, Soul Guardians Book 4
to her, like some
sick game where the object was to torture angels. The horror of the
situation weighed her down. The legion had been right, and she had
been wrong. She had been selfish and foolish again thinking she
knew better than everyone. Kara curled her hands behind her back
and glared at the girl. She wouldn’t be fooled twice.
    The seirs’ leader pushed Kara forward
roughly. “Mistress, where do you want them?”
    Mistress? Kara stumbled forward. Why were the seirs taking
orders from a little girl? Kara gave David a sidelong glance, and
noticed his face bore a deadly scowl.
    “ Thank you, Ranab. Leave
them where they are,” the soft voice commanded. At once the seirs
backed away from Kara and the others. Only their leader remained
where he stood.
    “ As you command, mistress.”
Ranab gave a nod of his head and straightened his back.
    With a suspicious frown on her face,
Kara shared another look with David. “What’s going on? Why are they
listening to her?” she whispered.
    David shrugged. “Maybe these clowns
like getting bossed around by little girls.”
    Kara’s frown deepened. “Do you think
she’s paying them somehow to do this? Like a job? It doesn’t make
any sense.”
    “ Maybe.” David laughed a
little. “She does look as if she’s cut from the upper-class
cloth.”
    Kara watched the elemental make her
way slowly towards them. She lowered her voice some more. “Either
way—it makes no freakin’ sense. She should be on our side. What
does she want from us?”
    “ Maybe the freaky little
girl wants to play dolls with real-life angels.” David glowered at
her.
    “ I have a bad feeling about
this,” whispered Peter. His face had gone a sickly grey color, and
Kara could see his shining angel essence through his thinning skin.
She figured he had maybe another half an hour before his M-suit
evaporated completely. They had to get out of there quickly, there
wasn’t time to play with dolls. She met Jenny’s eyes—they were
round with fear. Her skin had also lost its pigment and dazzling
light seeped through her pores. They needed a plan. And they needed
to get out of there.
    The elemental stopped a few feet in
front of the group. Her lifeless face stared back at them like a
ghostly doll—perfect and new, as if she had just stepped out of the
box. Her white dress was spotless. She had not been living on the
streets for months. Her freshly polished black shoes gleamed like
jewels, as if they’d never been worn. She was like a robot—no
facial muscles moved, and she never blinked. Her white skin
shimmered under the fluorescent lights, and her dark eyes shone
with intelligence beyond her years. The elemental clasped her hands
in front of her and regarded them with great interest. She leaned
forward, and her smile widened.
    “ How can you do this?” Kara
scolded before she could control herself. “You’re an elemental!
You’re part angel! We came here to rescue you. Why would you do
such a thing to us? How can you go against your own
kind?”
    The little girl giggled. It took a
moment for her to compose herself. She flattened the front of her
dress. “But that’s where you’re wrong, Kara. I’m nothing like
you.”
    “ So you knew who I was…all
this time?” Kara’s anger flared. Her arms and legs twitched. She
forced herself to stay calm. If she couldn’t use her arms, maybe
she could head-butt the smile off the girl’s face.
    “ Yes, of course I knew.”
The girl glanced at her fingernails as if she were bored by the
conversation. “I found you out at that pathetic bookstore, didn’t
I? To think you spent your summer holidays in that God awful,
smelly place. You were practically covered in filth when I first
saw you. Quite disgusting really.”
    Kara bristled. “And so you tricked us!
You tricked me into believing you needed my help. You’ve been
planning this all along…but why—and how did you get into my
head?”
    Kara took a step forward, but Ranab
pulled her back

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