Lost Eden (The Soulkeepers) Read Free

history?
    “You know who,” God said, as she broke apart and blended into the light.
    Fatima scrambled to her feet, Mara and Henry cursing at her side in their own pursuit of vertical. One by one they stepped to the scorekeeper and watched the light and the dark dance within the globe.
    “Who did he take, Fatima?” Henry asked.
    “I can’t be certain. There are so many souls.”
    “You know,” Mara said. “She said you know.”
    Fatima swallowed and raised a hand to the base of her neck. “There is only one person I can think of who is a constant reminder of Lucifer’s failures. She is the only one who has denied him time and time again. Her life is a testament to God’s grace and mercy.”
    Henry glanced at Mara, who looked off into space as if reading the stars. The immortals said the name together, in perfect unison. “Abigail.”

Chapter 2
    Abigail
     
    D r. Abigail Silva-Newman tried to be careful. After all, the people of Paris believed her to be in California, not emerging from a trap door in the backroom of the Laudners’ flower shop. She listened for any sign of activity above her before turning the crank to open the passageway and slipping silently onto the marble floor. As she resealed the entryway to Eden, she heard voices out front, John Laudner and Stephanie Westcott, something about flowers for a barn dance.
    Hastily, she tiptoed to the delivery entrance, peering out the small square window in the door to check that the alley was clear. With no one in sight, she cracked the door and stealthily crept behind the delivery van and then the dumpster. Curse this human form, so vulnerable. In her days as a fallen angel, she would simply twist into shadow and deliver herself where she wanted to go through a channel of darkness. Getting there one step at a time was nothing short of tedious. Still, she wouldn’t have given up her humanity for any price. Not after waiting ten thousand years to obtain it.
    But she had to go. Malini needed her. All of the Soulkeepers needed her. When Jacob said Malini and Dane were back from Nod but needed help, she’d assumed the mission to Arizona to bring them home would be quick work. With hardly a word of explanation, all of the Soulkeepers had left Eden to assist. Only, Malini’s call to Abigail over Warwick’s blue stone seemed desperate. Something had gone horribly wrong with the rescue mission, and Abigail was the only one left to save them. Well, aside from Gideon, and she wasn’t about to place her beloved’s life at risk.
    On her toes, Abigail rounded the corner of the building, and thanked the heavens for what she saw. Parked on the corner of Asher and Main Street, Stephanie Westcott’s scooter waited unattended, keys in the ignition. In any other city, the arrangement would have invited a theft, but as far as Abigail was aware, there’d never been a vehicle stolen in Paris despite the population’s regular habit of leaving car doors unlocked with the keys inside. Who would steal it? Everyone trusted everyone else. They left the keys on purpose, in case some other citizen might need them in an emergency. Well, as a former citizen of Paris, she accepted Stephanie’s hospitality.
    Abigail tossed a leg over the seat and turned the key. The small motor revved to life and she pulled away from the curb, heading up Asher in the opposite direction of Main Street, a roundabout detour to Rural Route 1.
    “Hey!” Stephanie yelled from behind her.
    She glanced back to see the girl whose life she once saved standing on the corner, waving her arms. Abigail did not stop. She prayed that speed and distance would conceal her identity. Certainly, she was dressed differently than Stephanie would remember: blond hair in a ponytail, yoga pants, T-shirt, and an oversized belted sweater-coat that barely defended her against the fall chill. She’d return Stephanie’s scooter eventually, but right now Abigail needed it more.
    After an uneventful cruise up the rural road she