by H G Lynch
They were all in terrible, sooty states, and Reid and Ember were both covered in blood and forest debris. Nobody’s clothes were perfectly intact anymore, and Reid and Ricky had clearly suffered fresh damage from the fighting. Nothing too serious though. Sherry had a couple smears of blood on her arms, but she didn’t look injured, thankfully.
It wasn’t long before a bright light shone down through the smoke crawling across the night sky, and Raphael appeared in the clearing before them. He was fully in angel attire, wearing only white linen trousers, his hair hanging loose around his shoulders. His expression, though, was anything but angelic. He looked almost panicked, his brown eyes swirling with anxiety. He flitted to Ember’s side in a movement she didn’t even see. “Oh, good, you’re alive. Are you okay? I heard your call for help, but the building was—”
“Warded with Enochian runes. I know. The professor smugly proclaimed it to me. Asshole. Him, not you,” she clarified quickly, and Raz just nodded, his expression calming.
“I’m sorry. I did an awful job of protecting you.” He frowned, looking truly distraught about that.
Ember beckoned him to crouch next to her, and he did. Then, she grinned at him and smacked him upside the head. His eyes widened briefly and he touched his head where she’d smacked it, shock written all over his face.
“What was that for?” Just for a moment, he sounded like a normal guy, if a little astounded.
“For being stupid. It wasn’t your fault. I pretty much gave myself over to The Society. I kind of had to. You did the best you could, and without you, I would’ve been dead by Tuesday. With you, I’ve made it to…actually, what day is it?” She’d completely lost track of the days, but she was sure it hadn’t yet been two weeks since this all started.
“It is Thursday, the 3rd of January,” Raphael said quietly.
Ember nodded. “Well, then I definitely would’ve been dead by Tuesday.”
Raphael didn’t look amused, but he did look relieved —briefly. Of course, the second Ember tried to sit up, he saw her wince, and frowned again. “Are you hurt?” he asked, sounding alarmed.
“Cracked a rib, I think. Broke a bone in my wrist. Nothing deadly. I’ll heal.” She tried to shrug, but it was a bad idea. Another bolt of pain seared through her chest.
Raphael leaned over her, and put and hand gently on her ribs, on the left side, where the cracked rib was. “Yes. You will,” he said softly. Then a bright light flared up from between his spread fingers, and a warm pressure sunk into her chest. The cracked rib screamed for a second, but then the pain lessened, then gradually numbed until the rib was healed completely.
Ember let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” she gasped, lying back in the snow.
Next, Raphael gingerly lifted her broken wrist and another blinding flare of light made her close her eyes. Her wrist took only seconds to heal under Raphael’s influence, whereas it would’ve taken at least a week if she’d been left to heal on her own. She thanked Raz again and pushed herself carefully to her feet.
Just then, a streak of orange bolted into the clearing and nearly crashed into Ember’s shins. Hiro yelped and bounced around frantically, circling Ember and the rest of the assembled crew. Everyone laughed, and the little orange fox began to vibrate, his shape blurring as he grew into a tall, skinny Asian boy with crimson hair and amber, cat-like eyes.
“Holy shit, guys! Oh God, I swear I thought you were all dead! I tried to follow where those assholes were taking you, but the put some sort of anti-tracking wards on their truck, and I couldn’t run fast enough to keep up…Holy crap. It took me ages to get here because, when I remembered where you’d said The Society’s base was, I tried to teleport here, but the fucking runes block teleportation for miles! Oh my God. Are you all okay? Holy hell, what the hell happened here? Oh wait, don’t tell me, I’ll guess: Ember happened, right? Jesus, Emz, what’d you do, nuke them all? Shit!” Hiro spluttered frenetically, without even taking a breath, clutching his hair in his hands and spinning around, gesturing wildly. Yeah, it was safe to say he was freaked out.
“Hiro, whoa, whoa! Chill! Relax, for God’s sake! Look, we’re all okay. Yeah, I nuked them. I also set off a crap-load of explosives inside the building —don’t ask why they had explosives. I’ll explain everything later. Important thing is, I’m okay. We’re all okay. So, if you don’t mind, could you tell us how far we are from Ellon? I’d kind of like to get home and if we’re sixty miles away—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Raphael said abruptly. Everyone looked at him as he started to glow like a piece of burning magnesium, then looked away as the light got too bright.
When Ember opened her eyes again, she was standing in the middle of her grandparents’ living room. “Holy crap!” she blurted, staring around her. Yup, they were all here, back to Ellon safe and sound. If rather ragged and bloody and really exhausted. They were all in one piece at least. Raphael smiled a little, and Ember pointed at him accusingly. “You have got to warn a person before you do that,” she said as she collapsed into an armchair.
Hiro tumbled to the floor, and Ricky and Sherry sprawled on the sofa. Reid plonked himself into the other armchair with a groan.
“Sorry,” Raphael said, not looking at all like he meant it. He shrugged, a very human gesture. Then his smile dropped and he looked…sad. It was disconcerting and heart wrenching to see Raz look like that.
“Raz? What’s up?” Ember asked quietly.
He looked at her and forced a smile, but it was only a movement of his lips. It didn’t touch his sorrowful eyes. “My job here is done. I can return to heaven for good. You no longer need a guardian angel,” he said softly.
It took Ember a moment to realise why he was upset. Then her heart sank and she slumped in her chair. “Wait…you mean…you won’t be coming back? We won’t see you again?” She tried to keep her voice stable, but after everything, she thought of Raphael as a friend. And she’d never been good at losing friends. They were the most important things in her life.
Raphael nodded solemnly. The atmosphere in the room was suddenly heavy and quiet. Ember looked around at her friends and saw they were all wearing the same expression that was probably on her own face. Even Hiro looked upset.
Ember turned her gaze back to Raz, trying to hide the tell-tale shimmer in her eyes. “But…can’t you ever come back and see us? I mean, after all this…they can’t have sent you here to teach you to feel and expect you not to hurt when they take you away again,” she said hoarsely, willing her lips not to tremble.
Raphael didn’t answer, but the look in his eyes gave her his answer.
She swallowed, blinking back tears. This wasn’t fair. This was cruel. The angels had assigned him to her so she could inspire him to feel again, and now they were going to take him back and he’d never see them again. That was more like punishment, than a lesson.
“Well, this sucks,” Reid stated, thumping the arm of his chair with one fist. Ricky and Sherry nodded their agreement.
“It does. But it is how the angels operate. They feel, but not so much as those on Earth. Not so much as I do now. They will not take pity on me, or on you. I shall have to return to heaven very soon,” Raphael said formally, then caught himself and sighed. “For the record, I’ll miss you all. A lot. But if you’re safe, I guess it’s better that I leave. I was here to protect you. If I stayed, it would mean you still needed protecting. Leaving you means you are safe…for now. Who knows? Maybe you’ll need a guardian angel again. It wouldn’t surprise me; you lot could get into trouble in a padded cell. Which, by the way, you should all be in.” Raz grinned suddenly, a genuine grin that was stunning.
Ember felt herself smile back in response. “Yeah, there’s no doubt we’re going to run into more trouble sooner or later. Hell, maybe we’ll even kick up as storm or two just to give you a reason to visit.” She winked at Raz.
He chuckled, but then he sobered quickly, and Ember’s smile fell a little. “I must go now. I can feel the
angels calling me. I will truly miss you all. I never thought anyone could restore my faith in the life on Earth, but you have done it, and I’d like to think of you all as my friends. Even Hiro.” Raz cast a questioning look at the Kitsune boy, who looked back sombrely and nodded.
“Hmm...sure. whatever lets you sleep at night, Spaceman,” Hiro said with a quick, emotionless smirk.
Raphael smiled kindly. “Thank you,” Raz sighed, looked up at the ceiling as thought he could see through it to heavens clouds - Hell, maybe he could. “Goodbye my friends. Ember, it was…a pleasure to be your guardian angel. I’ll be looking out for you all from the clouds when I can be. Maybe one day I’ll see you again. Till then, I bless you.”
A blinding light flared up, flooding the living room and blowing an impossible wind through the room. Then Raphael was gone.
Ember felt her eyes sting and Reid came over to kneel in front of her armchair. She threw herself into his arms and let the tears leak out, soaking the remaining shreds of his t-shirt. She heard Sherry sniffling, and Ricky murmuring soothing things to her. Hiro made a choked noise and Ember looked at him over Reid’s shoulder. He met her gaze for just a second, then looked away, scrubbing at his face and clawing his hair down over his eyes. But she’d seen the pained look in those strange, amber eyes, and her heart gave a squeeze as she realised she could be losing two friends soon enough, not just one.
She wasn’t sure she could take that. If she was this upset about losing Raphael, losing Hiro too would be three times as painful. After all, she was bound to him with that special link of loyalty. She could sense how he felt again, now that he was close by. He was feeling exactly how she was, only more so. She couldn’t imagine how painful it would be for him if they all just up and left, gone back to Acorn Hills. He had nobody else, and they were the first people he’d trusted with his secret, the first people who’d known he was a Kitsune and not thrown him into the street.
Ember disengaged herself from Reid and looked at Hiro, tilting her head, an idea forming inside her mashed-up mind. It was a little impulsive, but she had to try. “Hiro?” She shifted across the floor and put a hand on his arm.
He didn’t look directly at her, but he turned his head toward her slightly. “Huh?”
She sniffled and looked around the room. Everyone was watching her expectantly, confused. She took a breath and let it out slowly. Well, it wasn’t like she hadn’t had crazier ideas before. And this one was for a good cause. “Hiro, do you think…I mean, would you want to…” She hesitated, feeling the tension in his muscles, but she ploughed on after a moment, “What I’m trying to say is, would you like to come back to Acorn Hills with us? When we go back, I mean?”
Silence. A glance at her friends’ expressions said they hadn’t expected that, but none of them looked like they disliked the idea. “Actually…that’s not a half-bad idea, Emz. I’m sure Cris would have a field-day having a real Kitsune around,” Reid said gently, smiling.
“Yeah. Cris can have a roommate. They’d get along great! And Hiro, there’s woods all around the school, so you’d be able to run around as a fox all you liked. Nobody’s allowed to hunt wildlife there, even if they were to go into the woods. Which they don’t.” Sherry giggled, grinning at this new idea.
“It would be a shame to lose a good friend over something as trivial as distance,” Ricky put in, smiling.
Hiro lifted his head and looked at Ember, then at everyone else, his amber eyes bright. His red hair fell scruffily into his face, and his caramel skin was a little flushed. Then he looked back to Ember, meeting her eyes for a long time, apparently searching for some answer in her eyes. She held his gaze easily, hoping he could see how much she wanted to take him with her back to Acorn Hills.
Eventually, he nodded, just slightly. “I-I’d like that,” he said softly, sounding awfully young and vulnerable.
Ember smiled, and wrapped her arms around the boy in a tight hug. Tentatively, he hugged her back. She could feel his elation even as he was trying not to cry. He wasn’t being left behind. Not this time.
Epilogue
A few days later, Ember stepped out of the study, having just sent an extremely long email to Cris, filling him in on everything he’d missed. She’d even told him he was going to have a new roommate. She’d check the inbox tonight for his reply, but in the meantime, she had something else to attend to. Enjoying her last day in Scotland before going back to Acorn Falls tomorrow. She was going to miss it all so much, even if this hadn’t been the relaxing holiday she’d wanted. Scotland was still her home.
She wandered down the hall and into the back room, emerging into the frigid back garden. The snow was finally melting, but there was still a good few inches of it, and the temperature was just barely above zero most of the time.
“Hey, I hope all of you are packed!” she called across the garden, grinning as Sherry and Hiro engaged the vampires in a snowball fight. So far, it seemed Sherry and Hiro were winning, using their magic. Reid was claiming they were cheating, but seeing as he was already covered in snow, Ember was pretty sure it didn’t matter.
“Come on, Emz. Join the fight!” Sherry beckoned her over during a lull in the battle, while the boys stocked up on snowballs.
Ember laughed and grabbed a pair of Vans from where she’d left them by the glass doors. She pulled on the trainers, and skipped out into the midst of the snowball war, narrowly avoiding taking a hit to the leg as Reid aimed for her. She stuck her tongue out at him and melted his next snowball. It was hardly fair on the vampires when she could melt their ammo, but it was funny.
“No fair! Three against two!” Ricky called, his next shot going wide past Sherry.
Sherry laughed, and Hiro ducked to avoid getting a mouthful of compacted snow.
“So? All’s fair in love and war!” Ember yelled back, throwing a snowball that clipped Ricky’s shoulder.
Reid chuckled and tossed a chunk of snow back at her, and she yelped as it smashed into her chest. “So I’d noticed,” he laughed, and she shot him a glare.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked sharply, dusting snow off her hoodie.
Reid just winked at her, and threw another snowball. She dodged it this time, and it whacked into Hiro, who grimaced.
“How did I get involved in this again?” he grumbled, combing snow chunks from his hair. He was like a bright flame of colour against the white snow, with his red hair, amber eyes and caramel skin. Even his clothes were bright; A red hoodie and matching converse. He’d dug up a bag full of his clothes out in the forest when Ember had asked him if he had anything to bring with him back to Acorn Hills. He didn’t have much, but it was enough. Ember thought he was just glad he wouldn’t have to live on his own again.
“You agreed to officially join the gang. Therefore, it’s mandatory you get involved in one of our epic battles,” Reid called over, having heard Hiro’s comment.
The Kitsune boy snickered and grinned. “Fair enough,” he lobbed a snowball and it hit Reid square in the chest.
Ember punched the air. “Yes! A true hit. Well done, Hiro.” She high-fived him, and Reid took the chance to hurl back a snowball that whipped past right between Ember and Hiro.
Ember turned and pulled a childish face at him. “Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me!” she called in a high voice.
Reid blurred, and suddenly, he was sitting next to her in the snow. His arms snaked around her, pulling her close to his warm, solid body. His silky blond hair lifted around his face in the light breeze, and his blue eyes shone as he leaned forward to whisper to her, “It’d be my pleasure.”
Then his warm, soft mouth was on hers, and she forgot about the snowball fight altogether.
The End
div style = " -webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); -moz-filter: grayscale(100%); -o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share