Mortal (31 page)

"Fine. Then I’ll go by myself. Don’t
expect me to be there for you anymore. Without trust you can’t have
a relationship. There’s nothing. I gave you a chance, and you let
me down, Kara. It’s over."

He turned on his heel and
left.

Kara stared back at him, and tears
rolled down her cheeks.

David had just broken up with her… But
why? Because she didn’t want to waltz into the spooky forest—it
didn’t make sense. She’d never seen him behave like
this.

It was
over
, he had said.

It seemed that David had disappeared.
She didn’t know who this cruel person was. What had happened to
him?

Kara stood frozen in place, hoping
that he would change his mind and come back. But he
didn’t.

She watched David disappear
through a line of pine and hemlock trees, and then she started to
move toward the forest herself. She was going to give him a piece
of her mind. Whatever was wrong, they were going to
talk
about it—

But Kara’s blood went cold, and her
breath caught in her throat when she saw a dark shape appear where
David had stood just seconds before.

The shape was a head taller than
David. It moved gracefully between the trees and then disappeared
after him through the thick wall of shrubs. Was it a trick of the
light? Was the forest playing with her mind? This wasn’t just a
case of an overexcited imagination. She couldn’t explain it, but
she just knew it was evil.

It is a bad omen to see a
bat in broad daylight.
Mr. Patterson’s
voice sounded in her head.
…It is a sign
that the balance of things has shifted, that something unnatural is
near—something not from this world has entered
.

Kara was frightened. Mr.
Patterson had been right—she wasn’t imagining demons again.
This
was
real
evil, and it was going to kill David.

About the
Author

Kim Richardson is the
author of the SOUL GUARDIANS series. She was born in a small town
in Northern Quebec, Canada, and studied in the field of 3D
Animation. As an Animation Supervisor for a VFX company, Kim worked
on big Hollywood films and stayed in the field of animation for 14
years. Since then, she has retired from the VFX world and settled
in the country where she writes fulltime.

To learn more about the author, please
visit:

www.kimrichardsonbooks.com

www.kim-richardson.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/KRAuthorPage