Shimmer: The Rephaim Book 3 Read online

  PRAISE FOR PAULA WESTON’S REPHAIM SERIES

  HAZE

  ‘Aussie author Paula Weston’s hip urban fantasy debut Shadows was a triumph—but could she back it up in its sequel? Hell yeah. Weston’s well-defined, personality-packed characters don’t miss a beat.’ ADELAIDE ADVERTISER

  ‘Has everything I love about Aussie YA: there is something in the water and Weston has so tapped into it. Her characters are three dimensional. The prose is eloquent without being flowery. Weston writes with so much vitality, life springs from the pages. The dialogue is snappy and authentic…Emotions run high and ring true. The action is swift and tense and believable. There’s a lot of arse-kicking, on both sides. The danger is real, the stakes are high and the Rephaim deliver. I’m still reeling…I cannot recommend this series enough.’ INKCRUSH BLOG

  ‘Haze is the most perfect angel book I’ve ever read and I truly deem that if you have not read this series, you are missing out on too much. Read it and never regret it, you’ll be addicted.’ YA MIDNIGHT READS

  ‘Haze is a great example of a sequel—the perfect amount of back story, plenty of action, romantic tension, mystery and a heart-stopping ending. I have no idea what Paula has in store for us, but I can’t wait to find out.’ VEGANYA NERDS BLOG

  ‘What an amazing sequel…Kick-butt action-scenes, perfect characterisations and a mesmerising storyline that gets better and better.’ OBSESSION WITH BOOKS

  ‘If you like feisty characters, heart-pumping action and sexy romance then this book is for you…Haze is a must-read.’ INSIDE MY WORLDS: R. L. SHARPE

  ‘What makes it a standout read in this genre is the clever writing, with witty dialogue and a believable cast of characters…Packs a punch.’ READPLUS BLOG

  ‘Some books you crave. You keep returning to the cover art and re-reading the blurb, you stalk the authors’ Twitter, Tumblr, Goodreads profiles in the hopes of gleaning morsels of information…you count down to release day. Paula Weston’s Haze was just such a craving… Weston is something special indeed, and The Rephaim is one of the most original and intriguing new young adult series available.’ ALPHA READER

  ‘Paula Weston hasn’t let the ball drop in the sequel to the hugely successful Shadows. Everything I loved from the first book—the cleverness, the mythology, and of course the romance, are still there.’ FIRST IMPRESSIONS BLOG

  ‘Paula Weston brings the amazing to the table once again, with the brilliant and exhilarating Haze… I love this series. It’s one of the best angel-themed series available now, and it’s Australian to boot!’ SPECULATING ON SPECFIC BLOG

  SHADOWS

  ‘One of the best YA novels I have ever read.’ DARK READERS

  ‘One of the best angel books I’ve read, if not the best, with brilliant characters and its own take on the genre which I had previously sworn myself off.’ THE OVERFLOWING LIBRARY

  ‘Shadows’ fast-paced narrative, risqué romance and snappy dialogue kept me absolutely hooked and I stayed up late into the night to finish this book…The smart-mouthed character of Rafa kicked the Edwards, Peters and Jacobs of the YA world to the kerb. If only he were real…’ SUN BOOKSHOP

  ‘Forget everything you think you know about angels and demons…Shadows is, by far, THE book to read…[it is] beyond explosive with a kickass heroine, an amazing storyline with incredible mythology, and a romance sure to heat up even the coldest of hearts.’ WINTER HAVEN BOOKS

  ‘Fans in need of another angel series after finishing Lauren Kate’s Fallen will devour Shadows…there’s a heroine—Gaby—to get behind, a boy—Rafa—to fall in love with, as well as the many sides fighting to win you over.’ BOOK PROBE BLOG

  ‘I have to say that this is in my top of 2012 reads and I’m so glad I picked it up. I can’t wait for the next in his series. If you’re looking for the next incredible paranormal, fallen angel type story…look no further because this is it.’ FIC FARE

  ‘Oh my God (almost literally)! If this doesn’t drag young adult readers away from their computer screens, nothing will. It will entrance many oldies too. Aussie author Paula Weston’s debut is a fast-paced, sensational ride, which screams “read me” and “turn me into a movie”…it’s a wild start to what should be an even wilder series.’ ADELAIDE ADVERTISER

  ‘A breath of fresh air in an over-saturated market… I urge any paranormal fiction fans to pick up a copy immediately.’ WONDROUS READS

  ‘O-M-freakin-G…This book was AWESOME! So, so, good. Quite possibly my fave Aussie release this year.’ BOOKSWOONING

  ‘If you told me last week that I’d be fan-girling over a YA urban fantasy series I would’ve stared at you blankly then hurled a copy of Friday Brown at your face. *Quietly eats hat* I loved this book. Loved.’ TRIN IN THE WIND

  ‘Tough, smart and refreshing…not to mention it’s the best angel-themed book I have read.’ ALPHA READER

  ‘This book should be right at the top of your wishlists.’ INKCRUSH

  ‘It’s got angels, it’s got demons, it’s got hot guys, it’s got sword fighting and it’s got a strong female lead. What else could you ask for?’ SHARPEWORDS

  PAULA WESTON lives in Brisbane with her husband. She reads widely, and is addicted to paranormal stories. Haze is the second book in the Rephaim series. Shadows was the first.

  textpublishing.com.au

  The Text Publishing Company

  Swann House

  22 William Street

  Melbourne Victoria 3000

  Australia

  Copyright © Paula Weston 2014

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copy right owner and the publisher of this book

  First published by The Text Publishing Company in 2014

  Cover design by Us Now

  Cover photograph by Mark Owen/Arcangel Images

  Page design by Imogen Stubbs

  Typeset by J&M Typesetters

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

  Author: Weston, Paula, author.

  Title: Shimmer / by Paula Weston.

  ISBN: 9781922147974 (paperback)

  ISBN: 9781922148971 (ebook)

  Series: Weston, Paula. Rephaim ; bk. 3.

  Target Audience: For young adults.

  Subjects: Angels--Juvenile fiction.

  Dewey Number: A823.4

  SHIMMER

  THE REPHAIM – WHO’S WHO

  Gaby/Gabe Recently discovered she’s not completely human—and that she knows how to kill creatures from hell with a sword.

  Jude Gaby’s twin brother. Also not who he thought he was. Not necessarily unhappy to discover he’s more than a backpacker.

  Rafa Jude’s best friend. Had a complicated history with Gabe. Now has a complicated relationship with Gaby.

  Jason Gaby and Jude’s cousin. Keeper of secrets. Not keen on the rest of the Rephaim.

  Loyal to the Sanctuary

  Daniel One of the Council of Five. Gabe’s ex. Nathaniel’s right-hand man. Snappy dresser.

  Taya Designated head-kicker. Punches first, asks questions later.

  Malachi Taya’s battle partner. Prone to trash talking.

  Daisy A close friend of Gabe’s. Impulsive, loyal. Not a fan of Mya.

  Micah Another old friend of Gabe’s. Laid-back. Deceptively effective in battle.

  Calista One of the Council of Five (ex-soldier). Limited sense of humour.

  Uriel Another member of the Council of Five. Also an ex-soldier. Still jumps into the fray as o
pportunities arise.

  Magda The academic on the Council of Five. Not a fighter.

  Outcasts

  Mya Volatile, unpredictable. Anti-authoritarian. Has a tendency to overuse kohl eyeliner.

  Ez Calm and level-headed. Emotionally intelligent and deadly with sharp weapons. One half of the Rephaim’s only functional couple.

  Zak A man mountain of few words. Trusts Jude and Rafa implicitly. The other half of abovementioned couple.

  Jones Easy-going, lethal. Doesn’t hold grudges. Has more patience with Mya than most people.

  Seth Always up for a fight. Tall and strong—even for the Rephaim.

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  HAPPY THOUGHTS

  THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY

  BLAME: A GAME FOR ALL THE FAMILY

  DISOBEDIENT BASTARDS

  GATHERING CLOUDS

  FIRE AND ICE

  YOU CAN CHECK OUT ANY TIME YOU LIKE…

  NOTHING SAYS ‘I CARE’ LIKE A PUNCH IN THE FACE

  HISTORY COUNTS

  BREAKING BREAD

  TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES

  THE AUSTRALIAN PATIENT

  KNOCK, KNOCK

  SMILE…

  HOOK, LINE, SINKER

  DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT THE LLAMAS?

  IT’S ALWAYS BLOOD

  BLINDED BY THE LIGHT

  THE ITALIAN INQUISITION

  EVERYBODY WAS KUNG FU FIGHTING

  THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

  CIRCLE OF TRUST

  STORM ON THE HORIZON

  COLOURS BLEED TOGETHER

  WATCH FOR THE SPIN

  FLESH AND BONE

  POT. KETTLE. BLACK.

  THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES

  WHEN IN DOUBT, GET A BAZOOKA

  ON THE WINGS OF AN ANGEL

  BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

  SKIN DEEP

  BLOOD IS THICKER THAN ANGER

  OUT IN THE OPEN

  TWISTED FAMILY TREE

  BRUISES AND SPONGE BATHS

  SANDALWOOD, CINNAMON AND HONEY

  NO PARACHUTE

  OH, AND BY THE WAY…

  A QUICK TRIP

  PARENTAL GUIDANCE RECOMMENDED

  A HARD-EARNED THIRST

  FAMILY SECRETS

  OUT OF THE DARK AGES

  NEW TERRITORY

  A NEW LINE IN THE SAND

  UNEXPLODED INCENDIARY DEVICES

  AND NOW I SEE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  PROLOGUE

  There’s a lot I don’t know about my life. But here’s what I do know.

  Eleven days ago I was living in Pandanus Beach with my best friend, Maggie, holding down a job at the library, grieving for my twin brother Jude. I thought I was a backpacker; I thought I’d watched Jude die in a crumpled mess of metal and petrol and dust. I thought I was learning to get on with my life, despite gruesome dreams of hell-beasts and mutilations.

  Then Rafa came to town. Violence followed—and some mind-bending news. I’m not nineteen: I’m a hundred and thirty-nine. And I’m not a high school drop-out estranged from my parents: I’m part of the Rephaim—a society of half-angel, half-human beings. My father was one of the Fallen, two hundred and one archangels originally sent to hell thousands of years ago because they couldn’t resist human women. A hundred and forty years ago, led by Semyaza, they broke out and did the same thing all over again. And then they disappeared without a trace. The only one of the Fallen who abstained was Nathaniel. He’s the one who gathered together the Fallen’s bastard babies and made us into a society. Raised us into an army. Called us the Rephaim.

  Not that I remember any of that.

  Nathaniel claims our destiny is to find our Fallen fathers and turn them in: hand them over to the Angelic Garrison. But we’re not the only ones looking for them. Hell’s Gatekeeper demons are also tracking them, and are itching to destroy the Rephaim along the way.

  So where do I come into all this?

  About a decade ago, there was a major split among the Rephaim over what should happen if we actually did find our fathers. Jude and twenty-three others, including Rafa, rebelled. I should have walked out with them, but I stayed. They became Outcasts.

  Then a year ago, Jude and I made up. It turns out it was because Jason—our cousin, who’d been hiding from Nathaniel all these years—reached out to us. He told us about a young girl in his family who had visions. She’d seen something important involving me and Jude, so we went to see her. And then we disappeared. Both factions of the Rephaim assumed we’d betrayed them and had found the Fallen—and it got us killed.

  But we were both alive, with no memory of being Rephaim or what we’d done. Both thinking the other was dead.

  Rafa helped me find Jude. My brother took the truth better than I did—and he’s fitting into his Rephaite skin so much quicker than me.

  Along the way we’ve discovered a new threat. There’s a farmhouse in Iowa that contains an iron-lined room. It can do something that should be impossible: imprison the Rephaim. It was built by a family who know about the Fallen and the Rephaim, and who hate us. A family who claim to receive divine guidance about how to protect the world from us.

  Somehow the Gatekeepers found out about that room. And they were quick to put it to use. But not before they murdered a sixteen-year-old girl and her mother and left them to rot in a cornfield.

  I still don’t remember that old life. Or what Jude and I did a year ago. Neither does he.

  But I vividly remember everything that’s happened these past eleven days, since Rafa tracked me down. And it’s those memories I cling to now.

  HAPPY THOUGHTS

  ‘What did I tell you about scratching that?’

  I look up, my fingers still digging into the scar above my collarbone. I didn’t hear Rafa come out of the bungalow.

  ‘It’s itchy.’

  ‘It’s itchy because it’s healing.’ He sits next to me on the top step of the deck. ‘Let me see.’

  I stretch the neckline of my t-shirt so he can see the puncture marks: a sharkbite-shaped souvenir of my hellion cage match on Monday night. I keep my eyes on the sea beyond the town as he studies it. The sun slips behind a cloud, casting the water in grey shadow. I listen to the low pounding of the surf down the hill, the chatter of lorikeets in the trees up the street. Breathe in morning air sharp with salt and eucalypt.

  ‘It doesn’t look too bad. Moisturiser would help, though,’ Rafa says.

  ‘Moisturiser. And you give Jason a hard time because he can tie a scarf.’

  ‘No,’ Rafa brushes his thumb over the scar tissue, ‘because he’s a tool.’ His touch and that hint of sandalwood are as distracting as ever. I let my t-shirt settle back in place.

  ‘And speaking of tools,’ he says, ‘we’ve got places to be.’

  ‘I can think of better ways to start the day than with the Butlers in the front bar of the Imperial.’

  ‘I don’t plan on making it a long visit.’

  ‘That’s my point.’

  ‘You can handle a couple of meatheads in steel-capped boots.’ He stretches an arm across his chest away from me, biceps flexing.

  ‘Rafa…’

  ‘Do you want to keep getting hurt?’ He drops his arm. ‘Because I don’t find watching you in pain to be much of a spectator sport.’

  Two lorikeets sweep past us, squabbling. They land on the grevillea next door and start to wrangle over a pink flower.

  ‘You have to know you can fight when you need to,’ Rafa says. ‘Not just defend: attack. And if it takes a scuffle in a pub to get you ready for the shit that’s coming, then that’s okay with me.’

  I finally look at him, his green eyes watching me, waiting. ‘Is there any other way with you lot except violence?’

  He shrugs, a lazy gesture. ‘It’s what we’re built for.’

  I stretch out my fingers. No sign of the grazes and bruises from the cabin brawl three nights ago, but I still feel them. ‘But not every Rephaite is a fighter, are
they?’

  ‘You see me as a scholar?’ He cracks a knuckle and laughs without humour. ‘Funnily enough, when Nathaniel was handing out careers that option never came up.’

  The sun moves out from behind the cloud, turns the sea silver.

  ‘Don’t you ever get tired of it?’ I can’t imagine what it must have been like, the life I’ve forgotten. Always fighting or training to fight.

  ‘Brawling? Nah, keeps me fit.’

  ‘I’m serious.’

  His shoulders tense. He looks out to the water, eyes tight against the glare.

  ‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Gaby, but violence is the only thing I’m good at.’

  Violence is the only thing I’m good at…

  The Pan Beach morning fades and with it the noisy lorikeets and the pounding surf. And a bone-deep chill cuts through the warmth of the sun…

  THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY

  Cold. God, I’m so cold.

  I’m wrapped in two blankets, knees tucked under my chin, waiting. Waiting for my sliding thoughts to find traction. Waiting for the crushing panic to pass. Waiting for Rafa to appear in the middle of this ancient chapterhouse, bloodied, injured, pissed off. Alive.

  But Rafa’s not coming.

  My breath shortens; my head swims with jasmine, incense and musty wool. I blink, try to focus. My eyes skate over white marble columns, towering arches, heavy glass panes; angels tearing demons apart in a thickly textured oil painting.

  The winged figures blur. All I see is the demon blade thrusting out of Rafa’s stomach, wet with his blood, his eyes searching for mine in the darkness. Black spots stain my vision. I bite the inside of my cheek, taste copper.

  ‘Gaby, stop.’ Jude’s fingers press into my shoulderblade. ‘You’re doing it again.’

  I take a long, shaky breath. The spots recede. Jude is still with me. Rafa is at the mercy of demons in Iowa and I’m in a monastery in Italy with the Rephaim, but I have my brother back.

  It’s something. A big something.

  I wipe my face. The tips of my fingers are numb from the cold.

  Rafa was taken no more than twenty minutes ago. The longest twenty minutes of my life. My eyes travel to the domed ceiling high above us. The point where the arches meet is shrouded in shadow and cobwebs.