The Stars Never Rise
Contents ( 2)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2015 by Rachel Vincent
Cover art copyright © 2015 by Mark Swan/kid-ethic.com
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vincent, Rachel.
The stars never rise/ Rachel Vincent. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: In a world ruled by the brutally puritanical Church and its army of black-robed exorcists, sixteen-year-old Nina tries to save her pregnant younger sister from the Church’s wrath and discovers that not only is the Church run by demons but that Nina herself is one of the very few who can genuinely exorcise them.
ISBN 978-0-385-74417-1 (hc) — ISBN 978-0-375-99153-0 (glb) — ISBN 978-0-385-38393-6 (ebook)
[1. Demonology—Fiction. 2. Demoniac possession—Fiction. 3. Exorcism—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.V7448An 2015
[Fic]—dc23
2014008490
eBook ISBN 9780385383936
Cover design by Angela Carlino
eBook design adapted from printed book design by Trish Parcell
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Acknowledgments
About the Author
To my husband, who helped me brainstorm this project in various versions for two full years before I even told my agent about it. Thanks for all the plotting sessions, for the sketches you drew of my concepts, and for your endless patience. You’re the best. No, really.
There’s never a good time of day to cross town with a bag full of stolen goods, but of all the possibilities, five a.m. was the hour best suited to that particular sin.
Five a.m. and I were well acquainted.
“Nina, hurry!” Marta whispered, glancing over my shoulder at the cold, dark backyard, but she probably couldn’t see much of the neat lawn beyond the rectangle of light shining through the open screen door. “Mrs. Turner’s already up.” She wiped flour from one hand with a rag, then flipped the lock and pushed the door open slowly so it wouldn’t squeal and give us away.
“Sorry. Mr. Howard locked his back gate, so I had to go the long way.” My teeth still chattering, I stepped into the Turners’ warm kitchen and handed Marta the garment bag I’d carried folded over my right arm. The plastic was freezing from my predawn trek. Marta would have to hang the uniforms near a heater vent, or Sarah Turner would figure out that her school clothes hadn’t spent the night in her warm house, and I’d be out of a job. Again.