Captured: Academy of the Seraph

by Brandi Elledge

  I quickly straightened. The only persons who noticed my fall were a few students dancing nearby and Thalan. Of course. He narrowed his eyes as he took me in. Before the end of the night, he would question me again, which would be a huge problem.

  Luna’s chin was on her chest, looking dead to the world, but I could see the rise and fall of her chest. I sent up a silent prayer that everything would work out as I moved drunkenly toward the dance floor.

  “She will not die tonight,” I announced.

  Trev was super confused, but he nodded, taking me at my word. I could tell that he wanted to ask me what the hell all that was about, but he didn’t. Smart boy. Until he told me where he thought Finn could be, I wasn’t having share time.

  The fluorescent lights were in sync with the bass of the music that was thumping out from the speakers. Continuing with my inebriated state, I skirted to the outside of the group where I came upon Thalan, again. He was still staring at me warily.

  I had to ask the brothers, “If we can’t take out the headmistress, and I can’t kill the wendigos—”

  “What?” both boys interrupted.

  I nodded as Thalan began to move off the wall and toward us. “No time to explain. He will know about me soon, and we can’t let that happen.” Ezra came up beside me while Trev followed behind. “Back him in a corner. I have some questions.”

  Without hesitation, both brothers crowded in on Thalan, whose mouth opened and closed like a bass just waiting to get hooked. Then his eyes widened when I stood a foot before him.

  Both brothers were now crowding into my back, blocking Thalan and me from the crowd.

  “You are more than you say you are. You are extremely blessed.”

  “Aw … Thanks, boo. Now that you know that I’m more than I seem, let me ask you how we can call up the original?”

  He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. I got the information from him. As soon as I asked the question, he immediately thought of the answer, even as he shook his head. I also got flooded with an onslaught of images that I didn’t want to see.

  This man was the epitome of evil. He killed with barely a thought. Women and children meant nothing to him. His soul was black.

  He tilted his chin in the air. “I’m not telling you. All I need to do is yell, and the headmistress will have your head on a platter before the end of the night. I have personally killed thousands of—”

  I laid a palm on his chest and concentrated on the energy that I wanted to call forth. It was different from what I gave Luna. This wasn’t pure. This power was scary. It was dark and powerful.

  My palm lit up for a split-second before Thalan took his last breath and crumpled to the floor, looking like a drunken sack.

  “Leave him,” I said. “What’s the point of trying to hide a body when this whole thing is about to turn into a chaotic mess?”

  Trev gave me a questioning look. “At least he’s in a dark corner.”

  “She wasn’t playing about calling her the executioner,” Ezra commented.

  I should have felt some sort of emotion, other than rage, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel remorse for Thalan. He had been a vile man—nothing good left in him—and the world was better off without him.

  We went closer to the side of the room that held the aquarium, and the wendigo lunged for the glass, making me jump back a little. Then the wendigo cocked its head at me as it trailed its black nails down the glass.

  Trev nudged me forward. “Just to circle back to your last comment … If you don’t kill the wendigo, it will touch others here. That means that everyone in this room who can’t escape will either turn into a wendigo or die. Keep that in mind.”

  “I know. I’m hoping I can just disable the wendigo.” I wasn’t exactly sure what I was capable of. “One little hitch to the plan is the original wendigo can’t be summoned. The headmistress goes into the portal when she needs something from them.”

  Both brothers mumbled several expletives.

  The look on Trev’s face said he thought he was going to die tonight, but he was in it to win it. Ezra looked just as defeated, but the devil-may-care look was his staple, so I might have misread him.

  The binding around my heart tightened. I didn’t understand it. Finn was so close, but where? As we walked farther away from where Thalan’s body was, I turned around, ignoring the wendigo at my back as I scanned the crowd for Finn.

  The DJ’s cheery voice rumbled over the speakers. He killed the music then asked for everyone to assemble in front of the offering table.

  We moved away from the enclosure. Ezra came up beside his brother. Cold air hovered near us.

  “Remy, stay hidden,” I said. “Things are about to get real.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” she whispered with humor in her voice.

  At midnight, the guards flipped a lever then hit a button, causing the glass doors to open. The crowd grew eerily quiet.

  The four of us walked closer to where two guards had untied Luna from the chair and were now strapping her down to an altar. Awake once again, she bucked and screamed. However, her strength was no match for the guards who tied to the table within seconds, but only because she wasn’t aware of how powerful she was yet. Then the guards slowly backed away from the altar and the approaching wendigo.

  “If the headmistress doesn’t show up, who does she think will stop the wendigo? Or is that her plan—to kill everyone here?”

  “This is the first time this has ever happened. I’m just as confused as you are,” Ezra replied.

  I shrugged. “I need one of you to make a distraction. The dead guy in the corner would be a good one.”

  Ezra nodded. “On it.”

  Trev stepped closer to me. “I’ll stay with Gabriella.”

  Ezra pushed a boy, who had started cheering, out of his way. The boy took one look at Ezra’s face and slithered off through the crowd to find a different viewing spot.

  As I stalked toward the wendigo, I noticed that it was taking its sweet time, almost as if it was enjoying the attention. Good. The slower, the better.

  When I was two feet, I heard a commotion over at the DJ booth, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the wendigo.

  Trev whispered, “The headmistress is back. Shouldn’t you go after her first?”

  I looked over to the risers where the headmistress was. She was standing on her chair again and now had the microphone pressed to her smiling lips.

  “I’m sorry that I had to depart for a bit, but something very, very interesting just fell into my lap.”

  It sure as hell better not have been Finn.

  “I had to take care of those matters first.” It wasn’t my imagination that her eyes narrowed on me for a bit before saying, “Things are definitely getting interesting.”

  I looked at the approaching wendigo then back to the headmistress, except she was no longer there. “Where did she go?”

  “Shit,” Trev said. “The headmistress has her wings out. Look above.”

  I tilted my head back and, sure enough, there she sat on the rafters. Even from this distance, I could see that her eyes were focused between me and the wendigo.

  “Do you think she knows about me?”

  “No way,” Trev said. “Now what?”

  I looked over my shoulder to see that Ezra had grabbed a pretty girl and was flirting with her, pretending that all hell wasn’t about to break loose. He must have steered her right to Thalan, because there was a scream that would have made Hollywood proud.

  The headmistress’s face registered shock as everyone started turning to where the girl was still screaming.

  With the wendigo momentarily forgotten, I watched the altar with intensity as it jumped up onto the table, straddling Luna.

  Trev clenched his fist.

  I put a hand on his arm. “Have faith.”

  “Let’s hope you know what the hell you are doing, Gabriella.”

  Yeah. Let’s hope.

  The wendigo took one long, bl
ack nail and trailed it down Luna’s face. Then it leaned down, and a white smoke uncurled from its mouth. Luna flung her hands up just as the wendigo huddled farther over her. Once its chest touched her palms, it screeched before it fell off the altar and landed on the floor. No one moved as the wendigo started turning into a pool of what looked like crude oil.

  Oh shit.

  “What just happened?” the headmistress screamed from the rafters.

  Everyone started taking a few steps back from the liquified wendigo and the altar.

  Luna sat up, visibly shaking as she began to untie her ankles from the straps.

  I had just told Sandalphon that I would do my best not to kill any wendigos, and not even thirty minutes later, the remains of a wendigo were coating the cheap floor.

  The headmistress flew down from the risers and didn’t stop until she was right in front of Luna. “How did you do that?”

  A frown was on Luna’s beautiful face. “I have no clue what just happened, Headmistress.”

  The headmistress looked past Luna to me, her eyes narrowed.

  Grabbing her attention again, Luna said, “All I know is I didn’t kill the wendigo.”

  “Ma’am?” the guard closest to her said. “We can’t explain how Thalan died. Until we know for certain, we should clear the area.”

  The headmistress pointed at Luna. “Don’t think you escaped the sacrifice.”

  Guards quickly surrounded her, and I lost any opportunity to wield the Flaming Sword on her. There was no way I could take on all of them, not until I figured out my powers’ limitations.

  Luna nodded as she headed toward us. However, Trev gave her a shake of his head, and she veered off in a different direction. That was a good call. We couldn’t afford to draw any more attention to us.

  The students and faculty were quickly clearing out, but I dragged my heels as the headmistress shouted at one of the guards, “Did you break her yet?”

  “Not yet,” one of the guards said.

  “What do you mean not yet?”

  “We are working on it,” the guard answered.

  I pretended not to listen as we slowly shuffled our way to the door, but the sickening groan, followed by something hitting the floor, clued me in that the headmistress had just minimized her staff.

  “And you,” she screeched, “have we found out what went wrong today? None of the commander’s people were slaughtered! None. The wendigo was supposed to kill all of his people. Instead, when we made it down to the ridge, there was nothing but a ton of oil matching what is similar to that”—she pointed at the remains of the wendigo that Luna had killed—“coating the forest before the lavender fields, and now we have proof of what that oil represents. Someone tell me how this is possible.”

  “Perhaps he has the Flaming Sword?” a guard suggested.

  “And what? Does Luna also have the Flaming Sword hidden somewhere on her person?”

  There was silence from the guards as Trev picked up the pace, and I matched him.

  This didn’t make sense. While the headmistress still yelled at her guards, my power coiled around me, squeezing me like a python. When I didn’t fight the power surge, it uncoiled like a violent serpent that had been waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

  Trev was looking at me strangely as he tugged me along, but it was too late. My gift of power from Haniel had snatched on to the headmistress’s thoughts. Without even trying, I had plucked at her brain, seeking what I wanted … and then my breath hitched as my world began to shake.

  The headmistress’s words were running on repeat through my mind. The people who Finn had brought … the ones who were right outside of these walls, waiting for me to make my exit, were okay. Yet, there were thirty dead wendigos.

  When Trev escorted me back to my room, Remy was there, sitting on my bed in tangible form.

  “Something is wrong with her,” he said to Remy. Then a look passed between them. “I’ll try to find out some more information. When the coast is clear, we will meet in here. Just hang tight.” He closed the door behind us.

  Not looking at her, I took the bandage off my hand with jerky movements before throwing the gauze into a trash can as I asked, “So, you know where Finn is?”

  Her blue eyes filled with tears. “I have a feeling, yes.”

  She started to say more, but I cut her off, “No, I can’t right now.”

  I stormed off to the bathroom and shed my dress before climbing into the shower. The hot water hit me as I cried until my legs collapsed underneath me.

  I had put the dress back on, since that was the only clothes I had, and was sitting on the bed as Remy brushed my hair. I still didn’t know where Finn was. He was close, but did that matter anymore? How was I going to help him?

  When I had visited him in my dreams, he had told me there were two ways to kill a wendigo. They could die by another wendigo or the Flaming Sword, and until thirty minutes ago, no one held part of the sword in them but me and me alone. Therefore, I knew what Finn had done. He had turned into a wendigo. Still, I didn’t know how or why.

  I grabbed Remy’s hand, making the hairbrush still in my hair. “I need you to go talk to Dan and Richard. I need to know the exact details from their point of view.”

  She removed the hairbrush. “If it will help your heart, I will do it.”

  “Thank you. How fast can you travel?”

  “Like the wind. I developed a new trick.” She gave me a sad smile. “We will talk about it later.”

  If I were a good friend, I would stop her and ask her to tell me about her new talent, but all I could think about was needing to know why and how Finn had become one of those creatures. My heart was shattered, but even in the darkness, I wouldn’t lose hope or faith. Finn had never given up on me, and I sure as hell wouldn’t give up on him.

  I was just about to test Haniel’s gift again when there was a knock on the door. I didn’t bother permitting them to enter, as they were already turning the knob. Then, quickly, Trev, Ezra, and Luna came in. The brothers closed the door then stood off to the side, like they were unsure of what to do. Luna didn’t have the same trouble. She climbed up on the bed and threw her arms around me. “I know that you don’t really know me,” she said, “But my heart is breaking for you. I was eight when I found out that my parents didn’t survive a mission that the Headmistress sent them out on. My younger brother died in those cells. The brothers have been sneaking in food to the prisoners since they were little. That is how me and Trev became friends. He would sit on the other side of my cell telling me stories of the outside.” I pulled out of her hold so I could search her face. “The Headmistress decided when I was fifteen that I could take my parents place. I work for her because I’m forced to but not one day goes by that I don’t think of my family and what they have endured. I was so broken…some days I still feel broken. The brother’s help me to see that there is still a fight within me. If I give up on life then the Headmistress wins. I can’t let that happen. Trev told me what Finn means to you. There could be a possibility that he’s not one of them, you know.”

  “No, there is no way that he escaped that fate. You can only kill a wendigo if you are one or possess the Flaming Sword.”

  She scoffed. “Well, I’m pretty sure that I somehow killed that wendigo.”

  “You did.”

  She gasped then looked at the brothers, who both winced. I had a feeling that Luna was going to have their heads for them not telling her what they already knew.

  “Lu,” Trev started, “we just put two and two together. Don’t get mad. We thought it best if Gabriella told you herself.”

  “What are you guys talking about?” Luna asked.

  I wasn’t in the mood to do any explaining. But, since she was three seconds from wigging out, I said, “I’ll have to give you the cliff notes version right now. What I say stays in this room, or I’ll kill all of you myself. Do I make myself clear?”

  Gone was the weak Gabriella. Finn was in trouble an
d, from here on out, I would kill anyone who could possibly be a threat to my well-being. If they got in my way, then I wouldn’t be able to fix this.

  When Remy suddenly appeared at the base of the bed, the brothers jumped and Luna’s eyes bugged out of her head.

  “Did she just teleport?”

  Remy gave Luna a funny look. “This ain’t Star Trek, babe. I’m a ghost.”

  Luna’s mouth dropped open. I waited for her to close it, but when that never happened, I grew impatient.

  Ezra gave her a wink. “Nice to meet you in the flesh.”

  She batted her eyes. “Your pleasure.”

  Luna was still gaping at Remy, but I had things to do.

  “Please focus, everyone. Can all of you keep a secret?”

  Finally, Luna nodded. “Of course. I won’t tell a soul.”

  Both brothers agreed, as well, before they looked at Remy.

  “Um, I don’t know what all of you are looking at”—she gave them a WTF scowl—“but I am the best friend.” She clapped her hands together. “I”—clap—“already”—clap—“know”—clap—“her”—clap—“secrets.”

  Taking back over the conversation, I said, “My mother is Gabriel, the archangel.” I didn’t give them time to ask questions; I simply plowed on ahead. “I have been blessed by eight archangels. I carry their powers with me. If that wasn’t enough, Uriel put the Flaming Sword inside of me so that the fallen wouldn’t get it. I died centuries ago, and this is my second go-around.”

  Luna’s eyes were wide. “I feel like maybe the cliff versions aren’t good enough.”

  “Well,” Remy said, “that”—clap.

  I grabbed her hands before she could keep going. “I think what Remy is saying right now is I’m not in a great mental state, so at this current moment, I can’t go into details on how eccentric I am.” I gave Luna a small smile so that I wasn’t being a complete bitch. “I haven’t learned how to master all my powers yet, but I can say that the usage of the Flaming Sword is coming as easily to me as breathing. On my first night here, Uriel visited me. Since then, I’ve dream walked to seven archangels on a plane in heaven.”