Overshadow (3 page)

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Raena

“You know, Rae, you’ve been acting weird ever since you got back from — where the heck were you, anyway?”

I was at work. It was my first day back at the bakery since returning from the Shadow Imperium. Unfortunately I was working with Cady. I wasn’t ready to face her and her questions.

There was no way I could tell her the truth. She would think I was crazy. Or she might be so intrigued by the whole thing she’d try to find Andrei. She might even renew her interest in Logan. I was convinced she had a crush on him. She’d been super mean to me ever since she had found out Logan and I were together.

Could she feel my panic? I didn’t know why I felt so weird around her now. There was something off about our friendship. “Umm… I’d rather not talk about it,” I hedged.

She threw down the towel she was wiping the counter with. It missed the edge of the counter and fell to the floor. “Fine. I thought we were friends, but
obviously
you don’t trust me enough to share your problems.”

Without even meaning to, she had hit the nail on the head, so to speak. I didn’t trust her. I couldn’t tell her that, though. She would be furious, way more furious than she was now.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you. I’m just not ready to talk about it.”

The glare she gave me was enough to make me shrink back from her. I tripped over a mat on the floor and cursed myself for wearing heels to work again. Luckily I didn’t fall.

“Why aren’t you ready to talk about it?” she whined. Apparently she was going to try that tactic since her anger hadn’t seemed to work against me. It was then I realized Cady was one of the most manipulative people I knew. With everything that had been going on, I didn’t need false friends, but would getting Cady out of my life even help? Or would it make things worse?

“I just don’t want to right now. You have to understand it was kind of traumatic.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized I shouldn’t have said them.

“Traumatic how?” She stepped closer. Great. Now she was even more intrigued.

“Look, I said I don’t want to talk about it! If and when I’m ever ready to tell you what happened to me, I’ll let you know. For now, will you please just drop it?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Fine, Raena. I can tell when I’m not wanted.” She disappeared into the back stockroom, leaving the towel exactly where she had left it on the floor.

Just then the door chimed, signaling a customer’s entrance. I sighed deeply, not wanting to have to deal with anyone. Maybe I should ask to go home early.

I turned toward the door, my mouth opening to ask what I could get for them. To my surprise, Logan stood on the other side of the counter.

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly.

“Yeah.” I walked over to the counter and leaned close to him. “I just had a fight with Cady, is all.”

“What about?”

“She wants me to tell her what happened to me.”

“You know you can’t tell her. She’s not trustworthy.”

I shot a look over my shoulder to make sure she hadn’t appeared behind me as Logan and I were talking. “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her anything, and I’m not going to. That’s why she’s mad at me.”

He visibly relaxed. “Okay, good. You know no human would understand.”

“I understand, unfortunately.”

“You’re not completely human.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” I was still trying to adjust to the revelation that I was a Nephilim, a half-human and half-angel creature. None of this had been easy to get used to. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to wrap my mind around the craziness that had been my life the past few weeks. Maybe I should tell someone, someone who wasn’t involved in this whole thing. Cady was definitely not an option. She was a huge gossip. There had to be someone I could trust.

“Ready to go?” Logan’s voice broke into my thoughts.

I glanced at my watch. The time had gone by fast. I hadn’t even noticed it was time to go. “I guess. What are you doing here anyway?”

He looked at me intently. “I had to make sure you were okay.”

“You don’t have to follow me around. I’m fine.”

“You underestimate me, Raena. I know I don’t
need
to follow you around. I just want to be sure you’re safe. I’m stronger now, and as far as we know, I’m the only one who can protect you from Andrei. Now why don’t you clock out so we can go and have this discussion in my car where no one can hear?”

Glancing around, I realized there were customers within earshot. I hoped we had kept our voices low enough to where they couldn’t hear. They would think Logan was a stalker or something. I shrugged, giving in. When I went to the back to clock out, I didn’t see Cady anywhere. Strange, I knew I saw her go back there. I hadn’t passed her on my way to the back. I wondered where she had disappeared to. I would have to try and make amends with her later.

I clocked out and called to the manager that I was leaving. When I went up front, Logan was still waiting. Cady was standing behind the counter again. I went up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to get her attention.

She shrugged it off. “I know that’s you, Rae. I don’t
feel
like talking to you right now.”

Her throwing my words back in my face was annoying — even though I knew she was going for hurtful.

“All right. I’ll see you later.” I turned to Logan. “Let’s just go.”

As we walked out, I glanced over my shoulder. Cady was slumped over, her elbows on the counter, as she watched us leave.

“I think she’s in love with you,” I informed Logan as we climbed into his car.

He raised one eyebrow. “Doesn’t matter. You’re the only one I want.”

“It matters to me. She’s one of my best friends.”

“And you hate to see her hurting. Is that it?”

Already he knew me too well. “Yeah, sort of.”

“What else is it?”

“There’s something… off. I don’t understand it. She’s way weirder than normal.”

“You think it has to do with something other than us?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I should never underestimate the powers of a jealous teenage girl, but you would think she would at least be happy for me. Plus, she’s started prying about what happened when I was gone. Like you said, there’s no way I can tell her about the Shadow Imperium, angels, devils — any of that stuff. She wouldn’t understand. Either that, or she’d get super excited and start stalking you or something.”

He seemed to find that funny. “I know you probably feel like you need to talk about what happened to you. Can you talk to me about it? Or do you need a girl to talk to?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. As much as I wanted to be completely honest with him, I was worried he would just get angry and try to go back there and destroy them all. He already knew Andrei had chained me and starved me, but he didn’t know about the prophecy or what Andrei had actually wanted me for. He had asked me several times, but after I refused to answer, he stopped pressing. Hopefully I would be able to tell him everything at some point.

“I don’t even know,” I finally answered. “There’s no girl I could talk to. Genevra would freak out, and Tanis would be skeptical. Cady — well, you saw her reaction.”

“What about Ismene?”

“The psychic? I had almost forgotten about her. I don’t know. I mean, she brought Nuada back, and she gave me that prediction, which seemed pretty reliable. I don’t know her well enough to know if I should trust her or not.”

“What about Father Matthias? I know he’s not a girl, but maybe he can help? He is a priest, after all. He did help me find you. He told me what I was and about my powers.”

“I guess so…” I didn’t actually want to go talk to some priest, but Logan seemed so excited about it. “Now then, why were you at my work?”

He smirked. I was finding that I had missed that expression. “Someone had to pick you up.”

“Yeah, Genevra was supposed to.”

Glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, he said, “Who’s better to protect you if something goes wrong: Genevra or me?”

“You’re right,” I admitted. “You’re definitely the better choice. If Andrei showed up again, there’s nothing Genevra could do except call the police. You and I both know that wouldn’t do any good against him.”

“So do you want to go to the church now?”

“I should probably go home first. Genevra would never understand if I went to a church instead of coming straight home from work. I’d get this huge lecture about how I was needlessly worrying her, et cetera.”

He seemed annoyed. “Look, Rae, this is important to me. Will you just go?”

Whoa. He must be serious. He never called me by my nickname. “I guess…”

His expression softened. “What if we go in the morning instead? Will that give you enough time to talk to Genevra?”

“Tomorrow sounds good.” I finally climbed into his car and he drove me home.

“So tell me again exactly why I have to go to this church with you?” I asked the next morning. Logan came over, but now he insisted we visit the Catholic church before anything else. Not exactly my idea of a date.

Logan looked annoyed at my protestation. “Because he helped me find you. He told me what I am,” he said in a clipped voice. His eyes remained glued to the road.

I was sufficiently admonished. “Sorry, I’ve just never been much of a church person,” I admitted.

He glanced at me briefly out of the corner of his eye. “Neither was I.”

We fell silent as he pulled into the parking lot. When we walked into the church, I was stunned by the size of it. It was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked outside. I was feeling a little overwhelmed. There was stained glass everywhere, and the benches were carved and ornate. At the front there was a raised platform with some sort of mural that looked as though it was carved in gold.

As we headed up the center aisle, a man came out of a side door. He was wearing black robes with a white priest’s collar. “Ah, Logan my son. Good to see you.”

“Father, good to see you too,” Logan said as he shook the priest’s hand.

The priest turned to me. “You must be Raena. I’d recognize you anywhere.”

“Excuse me?” How would he know what I looked like? I’d never met him before.

“Father Matthias has visions, Raena,” Logan explained.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“Sit down, Raena, and I will explain,” the Father said.

I complied. Logan sat next to me, while the priest sat on a bench in front of us. “You see, Raena, the Creator gives us many gifts. It’s just a matter of tapping into and using them. One of my gifts is visions. I see people who are in trouble. I see people who have strong gifts and try to guide them in the use of them. Sometimes I see them during the day. It can be quite distracting when that happens.” He laughed. It was a deep, hearty chuckle. I began to laugh too, in spite of myself. “Other times, they come in the form of dreams.” He broke off at my sharp intake of breath. “I see you’ve had some dreams yourself.”

I glanced at Logan. He nodded for me to continue. “I don’t think they were like your dreams. They were… well, manipulated, I guess you could say… by someone else.”

“A devil,” the Father supplied.

I started. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

“I saw you when you were trapped.” He held up a hand to stop what I was going to say. “Now, I know that may seem odd, but as I told you before, I see people in trouble. And you, my daughter, were in the worst kind of trouble. For a human, especially a Nephilim, to be trapped, there is a horror I cannot fully express.”

“How did you know I’m Nephilim?”

“I know many things. Probably more than most. I don’t necessarily like everything that is revealed to me, but I’m usually in a good position to help.” He smiled. “When Logan walked into my church, I almost couldn’t believe my luck. I was at a loss for how to help you. I didn’t know how to get to the Shadow Imperium, and I wasn’t entirely sure I could stand against a devil and win. Then the one person — the one angel — who could win against the forces of darkness appeared to me. I knew of him, from my visions, but I didn’t know how to find him. I believe meeting him was something like a divine appointment where you meet the one person you can help or be helped by at the moment it’s needed most.”

I was feeling a little overwhelmed. “This is all a lot to take in,” I admitted.

“I’m sorry, Raena. I tend to get a little overexcited. After all, it’s not every day a man is able to entertain angels.”

“So, can you tell me more about these gifts?” I asked curiously.

He eyed me for a moment before he responded. “If I’ve been seeing this correctly, I believe that your greatest gift is healing.”

“Healing?”

“Yes, healing. You’re compassionate. You are the type of person who feels others’ pain, or other strong emotions, as if they were your own. Sometimes you may not even realize it. Do you ever find yourself… how shall I put this… overreacting to something, or losing your temper for no apparent reason?”

I nodded. “Yes, sometimes. I thought that was just me.”

“No, daughter, you are what I’d call an empath, someone who feels others’ emotions as their own, but you could go even further. Within you, you hold the power to heal others emotionally or even physically.”

I didn’t know what to think about this new revelation. “I, umm… I guess I have a lot to think about,” I admitted.

Father Matthias nodded. “Understandable. I will leave the two of you for now. If either of you ever needs anything, please know I am here for you.” He stood. “It was a pleasure to finally meet you, Raena.”

After the priest disappeared into a side room, Logan looked at me. “Want to go?”

“Sure.”

As we walked out, Logan reached for my hand. He stopped in the middle of the parking lot and faced me. “Thanks for going with me today.”

“You didn’t exactly give me much choice.”

He smiled. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s no big deal. I know it was important to you. Sorry I was being obnoxious about it.”

“You’re right, it was important. I wanted you to meet the man who helped me find you. Now you have. Let’s just go back to your house.”

We climbed into the car without another word.