The Soul Healer by Melissa Giorgio Page A

city itself. Exploring the busy streets, seeing the world he had grown up in. Visiting his favorite restaurants, his favorite shops. It would have been nice, normal.
    Normal? I laughed bitterly. The moment that demon had walked into the Corral, normal had disappeared from my life forever.
     
    ***
     
    “Do you want to go to winter formal with me?” Rafe asked suddenly.
    I paused the corny holiday movie we were watching (his idea, not mine. I had wanted to watch a slasher movie, but he said that wasn’t exactly festive and was instead forcing me to sit through an hour of singing clay reindeers and snowmen) in my living room and stared at him. “Excuse me?”
    He nervously played with the tassels on one of the couch pillows. “The winter formal. At my school. Did you… Do you want to go with me?”
    Aww, he was nervous. Why, though? It wasn’t like it was our first school dance together. We had done Halloween—wait. I narrowed my eyes. “Rafe, after the disaster that was the last dance, why do you want to go to another one?”
    He squirmed. “I doubt we’ll see another demon at this one.”
    “Really.”
    “Yes, really.” Rafe nudged me with his shoulder, laughing. “Our luck isn’t that horrible, Gabi. We won’t see another demon at another dance. I’m positive.”
    “Um, in case you’ve forgotten, the universe seems to hate it when I wear something nice when I’m with you. It’s like, ‘I don’t think so, Gabi, Rafe can’t see you in that dress without staining you with blood or punch or GREEN DEMON ICK.’” I threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know why I even bother. I should just wear a garbage bag over my entire body, with a hole for my head to stick out.”
    Rafe spit out the soda he had just taken a sip of, his face turning red as he half-choked, half-laughed. I pounded him on the back, laughing myself.
    When he finally recovered, I gave him a mock glare. “Instead of laughing, Rafe, you were supposed to tell me I would look super hot in a garbage bag.” I shook my head. “Haven’t I taught you anything?”
    “Oh please,” he said, pulling me into his lap. I snuggled closer to him, sighing in contentment. “I tell you I think you look good and you bite my head off for having an old lady fetish.”
    “Well, you do!”
    Rafe trailed his hand up and down my arm and hummed noncommittally. “You haven’t answered my question, you know. Do you want to go to the dance with me?”
    “If I said no, would you ask someone else?”
    “Yeah, I was going to ask Evan to be my date,” he responded sarcastically. “Think he’ll wear a dress?”
    I groaned. “Actually, I think he probably would. Especially if you paid him. In cigarettes.”
    “The sad thing is, you’re absolutely right,” Rafe said. “Come on , Gabi, spare me the humiliation of going with Evan and say yes. Please?”
    “When you put it that way, I guess I have no choice but to say yes.” I smiled. “I’m such a good girlfriend, you know?”
    He tilted my head up to kiss me. “The absolute best…”
     
    ***
     
    Dammit. Was I going to dream about Rafe every single time? I rubbed at my eyes, trying to stop the tears before they really started flowing. I may have been the girl who hated the thought of spending a week away from her boyfriend, but I refused to be the girl who gave up and just sat around crying when things went bad.
    No, I would be the girl who did something about it.
    I rolled out of bed, glancing out the window to see it was nighttime. Hard to tell, with the city lit up with lights; even the sky was still bright, not a star in sight. Back home, the night sky shone with thousands of sparkling diamonds; I couldn’t believe I had ever taken such a breathtaking view for granted.
    I missed the stars.
    Heading for the door, I skirted around the tray of half-eaten food Nina had brought me earlier. A buttered roll, some soup, and a banana. No dessert whatsoever. I guess they wanted to kill me after all.