Stone Angel (15 page)

She used
to say,
All’s
well that ends well
.

And it had.

“HOW ARE the two lovebirds?” Charisma
asked.

The Chosen Ones sat around the dinner table,
nibbling on tiramisu and drinking espressos.

Irving perused the letter he had received
with a postmark from a tiny town in Tuscany. “Amanda says Sophia is
happily immersing herself in learning Italian, and Liam is studying
viticulture so they can make a profit with their little
winery.”

Isabelle chuckled. “Not like they need the
money after the amount you handed to Liam before they boarded their
flight.”

Samuel chimed in from his place next to
Isabelle. “It’s true. They could probably live off the interest.
But they took a whole lot less than Liam was originally
promised.”

“Liam didn’t want the money,” Irving mused.
“He wanted their new identities so he could start his life with my
erstwhile private nurse.”

“Well, you got a replacement nurse who will
rehabilitate you … whether you like it or not. Right, Helga?” Caleb
looked at the thick-necked, linebacker of a German nurse that had
arrived the day before.

Helga gave Caleb a grunt and quick nod before
returning to her second dessert.

It had taken them weeks to find someone with
the nursing qualifications that could also pass their strict
background check, but they were still completely taken aback by the
product of their search.

They were the Chosen Ones. They had special
powers.

And Helga scared the hell out of all of
them.

Jacqueline giggled and then tried to play it
off as a cough. “It sounds like Sophia’s force field is holding
up.”

“Yes,” Irving said. “As long as they don’t
try to stray too far from home, they’ll be protected.”

“If I lived on a vineyard in the middle of
Tuscany, straying from home wouldn’t be a concern for me,” Aaron
replied. “But I think we should keep an eye on Sophia. We’re going
to need a new set of Chosen in a few years. I mean, we will,
assuming we don’t screw up and get killed, and Osgood succeeds in
dragging the world into hell.”

“Well, aren’t you the cheeriest Chosen One?”
Charisma laughed at his grimace.

Not that he wasn’t telling the truth. The
Chosen Ones weren’t exactly losing this fight, but they weren’t
exactly winning, either. Osgood and the Others seemed to be getting
stronger and craftier, and they never knew what Osgood had up his
sleeve next.

Then she looked around the table at her
friends and sworn companions, and her smile slowly faded.

If only she knew where Aleksandr was … and
why her stones had stopped singing.

THE END

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