Eternal Echoes, Emblem of Eternity Trilogy Book 2 Read Free

traction. I sprinkled a few cupfuls behind each of the tires to help melt the ice and give the wheels something to grip as I backed up. I bent down to lift the bag of salt and was suddenly hit by the sharp smell of wet paint. I wrinkled my nose. Weird. Someone must be doing home improvement—and they had potent paint. I put the bag of salt back in the trunk, the area around me illuminated by a street light. And that’s when I saw it: a black misty shadow.
    It happened so quickly, it took me a minute to register that the shadow had darted from the tree behind the snow bank—the tree less than ten feet away from me—to the side of the red brick house that would have given me a street bowling strike if not for the snow bank bumpers.
    My heart started to race as I slammed the trunk shut. I practically skated from the back of the Mustang to the car door. I shut the door, punching the lock down as I scanned the trees and surrounding area.
    The shadow had moved so fast, I wondered if anything was really there at all. Lately in my life, it was becoming difficult to tell reality from my imagination and memories. But my heart was still racing, and my gut told me something had been behind that tree. I shook as I started the engine, the sharp smell of oil and gas hitting the air. I said a silent prayer to whatever Goddesses were listening, and hoped my Mustang would move. It took all my willpower not to punch the accelerator to the ground and get away from whatever other worldly thing was haunting me. Shifting the car into reverse, I slowly pressed the gas. Relief washed over me when the car rolled backward without spinning its wheels or getting stuck on the ice. I shoved the car into drive.
    I turned out of the neighborhood, blowing out a long breath. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a shadow like that; I had a feeling it wouldn’t be my last.

The next morning, I set the house alarm—a gift / requirement from Alex—and went out the front door. My best friend and housemate, Jasmine, thought an alarm was unnecessary. She’d argued that we live in Gunnison, not Chicago. Normally, I’d agree with her, but there was a lot going on that she didn’t know about.
    I’ve had a hard time figuring out where Jasmine fits in my life now that I know who I really am. Telling her is out of the question. I’m not even supposed to know about the Amaranthine Society and Daevos Resistance. And if Jasmine did know, it would put her at risk. Because of that, I’d become more introverted lately, especially since the incident at Halloween when I saw something Jasmine and Zach certainly didn’t see.
    Since I couldn’t let Jasmine, or anyone, in on the Amaranthine and Daevos secret, Jas and I had gradually drifted apart. She stopped asking if I wanted to hang out after I kept coming up with excuses. Now, we rarely even texted each other, and if I saw her at the house, we’d mutter a ‘hello,’ and maybe have some small talk about the weather, but nothing deeper than that. I could tell she was upset about it—I was too—but we hadn’t discussed it. I didn’t know what I’d say when we finally did.
    As I walked to class, I passed shrubs and trees weighted with mounds of snow; the early morning sunlight hitting the frozen crystals made them glitter. Our house wasn’t far from campus, and I was in the mood for fresh air—in the daylight, where shadows didn’t lurk.
    Last night wasn’t the first time I’d seen a shadow. I’d been confronted by a pee-your-pants scary shadow outside my kitchen window on a balmy night last summer. But since Caleb was the only one trying to hurt me at the time, I’d connected the shadow figure to Caleb’s evil Daevos Resistance Clan. Caleb had been trying to use me and Alex to get information about the Amaranthine Society, the soul Protectors. I thought the shadow problem had been taken care of after Alex, Emil and I took the souls of Caleb and his Clan. Apparently, I’d been wrong to assume the