My Soul Keeper by Ker Dukey

want to accept it with every fibre of my being… but we can’t. Not today. I want you to know me completely and be one hundred percent ready to take that step.” He kisses me again, and then tugs my dress back into its rightful position. He pulls me so I’m sitting.
    “Let me feed you before you have to head back.”
    I smile but I feel a little rejected. I know I shouldn’t; his words are everything I wanted to hear from Jacob. Instead, he nagged me to give up my V card. Shamar looks at me like he knows what I’m thinking and brings his hands to my face.
    “I want you, Simone. I really, really want you but you’re too special to me to rush. I want you in every way; I want your trust, your friendship, your heart.” He places his hand over the erratic beat in my chest. “Your body and soul.” The look in his eyes radiates devotion. My heart feels like it’s beating out of my chest and drumming against his palm.

I watch Simone walk back to the school building. She keeps looking over her shoulder at me and I swear my heart stops every time she does. God, the sun highlights her beauty; it smiles over her skin like it’s worshipping her.
    She wiggles a little finger wave before disappearing. I can’t help but shadow her for the rest of the afternoon; the dark soul at her school troubles me.
    After sitting through two hours of history and resisting the urge to materialize just to correct all the false information the teacher is feeding the class, the bell finally rings. I follow Simone to her car. Leah’s waiting for her.
    “Spill.”
    Simone looks at Leah coyly and gushes, “Oh my God, Leah. He is so amazing. I know it’s soon but I think I’m falling for him.”
    I hear nothing else - not the conversation or the bustling parking lot full of students. When my head finally clears, I’m standing in an empty lot; even Simone has left. What brings me out of my state of shock is Gabrielle in deep debate with the dark soul at the far end of the school building.
    After Simone’s confession to Leah, I’ve never wanted answers about her destiny more. If she is in fact falling for me like I am her, I need to know what is planned for her. I go to my dear friend, Archangel Chamuel.
    Rumour says he fell in love with a fellow Angel, which was forbidden, a sin to God. Angels are His children and are to serve only Him. When Chamuel’s lover fell from grace, her wings were clipped and she was left to live among the humans. He was kept in Heaven like a prisoner and unable to look down on the human race any longer.
    When I have a soul ready for its place in Heaven, I bring them to him so he can see the life the soul has lived, to give him a glimpse of what he can no longer see. He’s walking the length of the golden room holding a book in his hands, reading when I come to him.
    “Chamuel, you look well,” I tell him as I approach his tall, elegant figure.
    He has almost black hair and crystal blue eyes; blue with flecks of silver. He’s wearing white robes like every Angel in Heaven. His eyes light up when he sees me.
    “Shamar, my dear friend, I have missed your visits. I grow ever weary. Please tell me you have brought a soul for me to see life through.”
    His eyes lose their excitement when he sees my head shake no. “I’m sorry. Not today, but soon. Instead I was hoping to show some of mine.”
    He steps back and looks at me. “But you have never let me see through you. Shamar, what troubles you?”
    “There is this soul…” I answer but I don’t finish.
    He smiles and nods. “I can sense the love in you.”
    I find his eyes. “Yes, I believe I love her. Can I love?”
    “Is that a question, because I’m pretty sure you are already feeling the answer. Every soul can love - even dark ones. But your soul is far from dark, Shamar, and love is pouring through you.”
    I feel my stomach clench and then relax. “She is a Destined. There is a dark soul, the darkest I’ve ever seen, making itself known to her