are finished.”
I flailed my arms up, slapping them at my side. “Hardly!”
Felix’s eyes darkened. “I’m not asking. I’m telling.”
I pressed my lips together. We stood in silence, staring into the sprawling After. Bright pinks and purples streaked across the endless sky. Collectors and Guards wandered the streets below.
“Not every soul is made for this life,” Felix said suddenly. “But every soul is given a choice. Aaron’s lack of Collecting abilities didn’t make him not meant for life here. His compassion for humans and their well-being are a few of the essentials that all the Guard possess.”
“Yet his skills at doing a simple Collection didn’t disqualify him? He couldn’t even transition to G7 properly; how is he supposed to be in charge of a human life?”
“His unwillingness to take life is a strength of his.” Felix turned the full force of his gaze on me.
“So my willingness to take life is a weakness? You need Collectors!”
“The role of Soul Collector is extremely important, and you do it with efficiency and grace. But the Guard works differently. Most of the time they work as a team.”
“I can work as a team,” I said. “I work as a team every day training the new recruits.”
“And you are a great trainer but when you are finished do you make time to interact with them outside of a mission?”
I crossed my arms. “When I’m done training I have my own cases.”
“Because you requested to have more,” he said. “Maggie, I’m not putting anyone’s job at a higher level than the other. All are cut from different cloth. Just as Aaron wasn’t meant for Soul Collecting, you…”
“That job was mine,” I said through gritted teeth. “My record is perfect and I deserved that job; you’d said so yourself.”
“Things change,” he said, his golden gaze trained on mine.
No way was this conversation over. The most recent Guard that underwent the Recycling process, Ani, had said I was a shoo in for the job. I thought his recommendation had meant something.
“What changed in the week from Ani’s Recycling? You’d said I could have the position if I kept my record—”
“Your record is far from perfect,” Felix snapped.
I clenched my jaw. “I think you should reconsider counting the trainees’ record against mine. It’s not my fault that they don’t listen. It’s not fair. Not for this position. I deserve it.”
“Please enlighten me,” Felix said.
I straightened and ticked the reasons off my fingers. “I am a hard worker. I get the job done quickly and efficiently. I take on more cases than half the team. And besides the blemishes that you insist on counting against me, I do have a perfect record.”
“Those are all great qualities for a Soul Collector, but not one for a Guard.” Felix moved away from me toward his desk. “Aaron is more suited to the position. And maybe if you show me something different, when the next spot opens up I might consider you.”
I balked. “When will that be? In my hundred years under your service there hasn’t been a single promotion.”
Felix said nothing.
“So that’s it?” I said.
“I’ve made my decision,” he said.
Conversation over.
I clenched my jaw. “If I work harder to fit into your idea of a Guard, I want to know that you are going to actually consider me.”
Or else what was the damn point of all this? I might as well be Recycled if there wasn’t any point to working so hard. I could be an idiot like Aaron and get the job no problem.
“If you can show me that you are capable of the job, then I’ll consider it.”
That was the best I was going to get at that moment. The Caeleste could be quite stubborn.
“You might start your new attitude by congratulating Aaron,” he said.
I gave him a tight-lipped smile and exited the office and stormed out.
Yeah, right, congratulate that buffoon. Not if my entire after-life depended on it. Aaron might have won that round but round two was all mine.
I marched down one of the hallways that branched off the main office, toward my private one. I passed the Guard suite, where Aaron stood in the middle of a group of Guard. He shook their hands and some even patted him on the back. His stupid grin widened as he spoke to them. I didn’t bother listening. He was probably telling them one of his lame jokes. I had to listen to them for quite some time during his training. I’d never get that time back.
I continued down the hallway past the Trainee suite. I nearly passed it but stopped and stood by the door, listening to the laughter behind it. I homed in on Dylan’s giggle. Maybe I could work on my social skills. I hesitated at the door, but a small chime rang from my office, signaling the arrival of my next assignment.
Maybe next time, I thought.
I opened the door to my office and my entire soul relaxed. It wasn’t as large as Felix’s but it was my own space. One wall opened to a view of meadow, the tall grass swaying in the wind. I sat on the couch I’d set up close to the view, as if I were floating above the landscape rather than looking down at it. I took it all in and my whole being relaxed. My office was my sanctuary and before missions I religiously calmed my soul so I’d be able to focus. After a few minutes of meditation, I rose from the couch and walked to the wall behind my desk. A bright light flickered from my inbox. The Collections Officers were alerted when a soul needed Collection, which would call up the True Soul from their heavily guarded vaults below the building.
Pressing the lit button a door opened, revealing my assigned True Soul floating in the opening. I took it, with one touch knowing whom I was to Collect and where I needed to be, and transported without another thought of Aaron or the Guard.
Chapter Three
That lasted for two minutes. While I sat with an elderly woman, Irene, peacefully swaying in her rocking chair at a nursing home, I pondered what Felix had said.
“I care for humans,” I grumbled. “Here I am, sitting with one, knowing she won’t die for another hour. I could be off doing whatever until the last second, like Aaron did.”
The thought of Aaron made me want to punch things, so instead I focused on the woman.
Her glossy eyes slid over to the space where I sat; my soul stiffened. It always freaked me out when humans looked in the area that I occupied.
That might be part of the problem, my rational side chimed in.
The Guard appeared
