Free Inception (The Reaping Chronicles, 1) by Teal Haviland

never had a mood like that just lift off of me before.
    But if she couldn’t give out more good karma than bad today, she may not be so lucky tomorrow. Her mood could be rather unpleasant.
    Gabrielle loved her job. Though it was sometimes difficult, it’d been the most important part of her life since Yahuwah appointed her to the position thousands of years ago even if it sometimes had a nasty effect on her personality. Unfortunately, being in an edgy mood had been increasingly common for her over the last one hundred and fifty years.
    She was the one that gave herself the title The Angel of Karma. The belief in karma’s cause and effect of past and present actions, and Yahuwah’s rewards and punishments, were pretty much the same. It was a lot easier than The Angel of You Reap What You Sow.
    Gabrielle made her way to the refrigerator to get some sweet tea—some very sweet tea. She looked over her shoulder at her brethren as she did. “Hate to interrupt, but anyone want something to drink?”
    All she got in response were two shaking heads, then they were back at it, causing her to smile. They were always going to argue, but she knew they respected each other. After filling her glass with iced southern sweetness, she let one cold sip slip down her throat and sat back down to continue to wait.
    Thoughts about her job consumed her own mind, and the thing she wondered about most was how she could have done it better all these years. If she had been more efficient, maybe the war being fought would be leaning more toward their side instead of Darkness gaining more of a stronghold on humanity.
    Maybe I wouldn’t have seen so many human souls lost and so very many Asarers die with them.
    She didn’t know most of the Asarers personally, but it didn’t make the cut any less deep or painful. Asarers were a huge step above a typical guardian angel—a sometimes deadly step. They could be from any of the Choirs. They were those of her brethren who chose, on top of their regular duties, to bind themselves to one human in particular. They didn’t have to be humans who were important or influential, just someone the angel was drawn to for any reason. It could be that they’d watched them grow from a child and had become attached, had seen them suffer a great loss, or any other reason. They put their own lives on the line, literally, as they try to keep that person they bound themselves to from becoming one of the Fallen’s, and thus Ramai’s, victims. If they failed to keep their human from Darkness, they would lose their own souls—their Divine lives—to Ramai, as well. Now, more than ever, performing her duties appropriately was vital to the outcome of the battle.
    To keep as few Divine lives from being lost as possible.
    Her daily task was to take the orders from Yahuwah concerning who He wanted to either reward or punish, along with the level of action He wanted taken. Then she decided in what form it would be dispensed. Once her decision was made, she gave the orders to Sheridan, her second in command, to give to the troops. At times, if it was someone she was particularly interested in seeing karma come back to, whether good or bad, she would take care of it herself.
    She wondered, again, what this day’s lot would have in store for her, how she’d feel tomorrow, and hoped to be able to cover up her crabbiness on her worst days when she was around the other teenagers.
    Especially Lucas.
    After several moments of thinking about Lucas, the debate between Amaziah and Sheridan abruptly stopped, and Gabrielle felt eyes on her. When she glanced at her brethren, Amaziah was looking at her. She hadn’t realized it, but she had slipped deep into thought about Lucas again. Maybe too deep.
    “Who is this Lucas , Gabrielle?” Amaziah inquired. “Is there reason for me to be concerned for you?” He waited for her answer.
    Amaziah was the closest thing Gabrielle had to a father. He’d been the one to recommend her to Yahuwah