Lost Eden (The Soulkeepers) by G.P. Ching Read Free Book Online

Soulkeeper.” Malini paused, rubbing her palms together. “According to Fate, God and Lucifer have engaged in a battle for human souls, winner take all for one thousand years. Lucifer will release six temptations, God six gifts. Each is meant to win the hearts of humans. Upon the last gift, the balance of human souls will mark the winner. I saw the scorekeeper myself. The challenge has already begun.”
    As if she might bust out of her skin if she held still, Grace erupted from her chair and paced the room. “So stupid. So irresponsible. What was she thinking making Dane a Soulkeeper?”
    Master Lee sighed, rubbing his milky eye, a Soulkeeper’s gift that allowed him to see through a Watcher’s illusion. “She was thinking, save a life . Dane would have died without her intervention. Any of us might have done the same.”
    “It’s not fair, Lee,” Grace snapped. “Lucifer forced Fate to break the rules. If he hadn’t cheated and targeted Dane in the first place, she wouldn’t have had to save him. Lucifer was not supposed to tamper directly with human lives. Dane was human. He tampered. Fate was justified.”
    “Maybe that’s why God posed the challenge,” Malini said quietly. The others turned to face her one by one. “For thousands of years, God has kept the compact while Lucifer ignored it. Evil does as it pleases. Perhaps this challenge is a way to end an agreement that wasn’t working.”
    The five stared at each other, a whole lot of blinking and fidgeting in place of any real progress. Malini needed to bring them back to the task at hand, but she couldn’t focus. For the first time since becoming the Healer, she was flying blind, working off intuition rather than her power.
    Lillian spoke first. “When you were In Between, did you see any hope of getting Abigail back?”
    “No. Lucifer stole her life’s thread. I can’t see her past or her future.”
    Gideon let out a shaky breath, and Malini put her hand on his shoulder. “Chances are he’s using her as bait. If we wait, he’ll send me a ransom note like he did with Dane. Remember? He pulled my soul into Hell to demand the list of Soulkeepers. He’ll probably do the same with Abigail, and when he does, I’ll bargain for her.”
    “So we wait? We do nothing while Lucifer tortures my wife?” Gideon spat. Despite Malini’s healing comfort, Gideon dropped a fist to the table, rattling the wood and the spirits of everyone seated around it.
    “We have no other choice. Lucifer is going to expect us to respond immediately. He’s counting on it. He wants to flush us out of Eden. That’s been his plan all along. When he approached Cheveyo to act as his Trojan horse, he did it because he knows this is the only place we’re safe from him.”
    “This is bullshit,” Gideon said, the first curse Malini had ever heard him use. He shrugged from under her hand and stood, knocking back his chair.
    “Remember, Gideon, that Lucifer has the list that Abigail conjured. He knows the names of every Soulkeeper on that list. He knows where we live and where we go to school. The only place we are safe is in Eden.”
    “So?”
    “So, he probably took Abigail to smoke us out. Watchers could be anywhere. Too aggressive and we play into his hands. He already knows Jacob, Dane, and I live in Paris. If he suspects the entrance to Eden is here, the town will be crawling with Watchers in no time. He’ll pluck us off one by one. Without the Soulkeepers in the way, his chances of winning this challenge are vastly improved. No, we need to be smart about this. Lucifer will get impatient and careless. He’ll make a mistake and that’s when we’ll move in—when he least expects it. I have to believe that our best bet of getting Abigail back from Hell is helping God win this challenge.”
    “What about the challenge, Malini?” Lee asked. “How do we prepare when we have no idea what the six temptations will be?”
    Suddenly, her upper body felt heavy, and she