Once Upon an Angel (To Light and Guard Book 2.5)

by Piper Hannah

Three hundred thousand years ago...

  I breathed in the scent of the ocean and let the sounds of the waves calm me. I needed the peace, and I struggled desperately to find it within myself. I knew that if I didn’t control my emotions soon, I would end up pulling all of the hair off of my head. I didn’t want to do that again. I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply.

  Luke left me.

  He said he was doing it for the both of us, but he never took my wants into consideration. I didn’t want him to go, but he left me anyway... because he said we were broken together. I didn’t even know when I was going to see him next. When I asked him about it, all he said was ‘away.’ It was as if he couldn’t even trust me with the information.

  I hate him. No, that wasn’t true. I loved him still, but I hated myself for it. We weren’t like the other paired angels - this was true - but I thought that if we tried harder, we could resolve our conflicts and argue less. We were angels, after all. We should be able to fix things that were broken.

  I looked at Kyrie standing next to me on the beach, and I tried to absorb her energy. She was so strong that, at times, just being next to her made me feel stronger.

  The wind blew her long black hair away from her face as she gazed intently at the sea. With one hand, she shielded her eyes from the brightness of the sun. She was looking for something and she had been staring at the sea for a while now.

  It was just the two of us today because right after Luke left me, Joshua and Kyrie got into a heated argument. Joshua supported Luke’s horrid decision, which caused Kyrie to become very upset with him.

  I should tell Kyrie that I was fine, because I truly didn’t like seeing her argue with Joshua, but I was selfish, and I desperately needed someone with me right now.

  “I can’t stop thinking about him,” I said. “We’ve argued many times, but this is the first time that Luke has actually left me. I should track him down and make him listen to me, make him come back to me.” Actually, I wanted to yell at him and beat him with a large tree branch, but Kyrie convinced me not to; she said that would only chase him further away.

  “Don’t worry, Adra,” Kyrie said as she placed one arm over my shoulders. “I’m here for you. Maybe you and Luke just need some time apart right now, and I’m sure that it’s only temporary. Luke will realize it one day that he was wrong, and he will come back to you.”

  “You think so?”

  “Absolutely. You two are bonded angels. Just give him time. I heard that this sort of thing happens sometimes.”

  She was lying. I’ve never seen bonded angels such as us. Other paired guardian angels were just like Kyrie and Joshua. They were unbreakable. In sync. Coordinated. In love.

  Luke and I were never like that - not even in our beginning. We were odd, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t love him. That was the problem. I had always loved him more than he ever loved me.

  “He’ll be back,” Kyrie said, reassuring me once again. “Just give him time.”

  “Alright… and I’m sorry you had a fight with Joshua because of me.”

  “It wasn’t about you. It was about him. He shouldn’t be supporting Luke just because he’s his friend. There are times when you have to tell your friend that his actions are hurtful, and disrespectful, and stupid… so so stupid.” She shook her head, her brows pulled together as she frowned. “Luke’s so stupid."

  I tried to smile for Kyrie, showing her how much I appreciated her for supporting me on this. I knew how much she hated arguing with Joshua; it physically hurt her. She explained it to me before. It was like a physical pain in her heart, she had said, or something to that effect.

  Kyrie looked back into the ocean. Then, she nudged me on the shoulder.

  “Come on,” she said with a grin. “I have something to show you.”

  She took a few steps, jumped up, and her white wings snapped open. The sand on the ground scattered all around us. Turning, she flew towards the ocean.

  I did the same and followed her, trailing close behind her as she flew. I closed my eyes briefly as I felt the heat of the sun on my wings. I loved the sun. I loved the light. It was the one thing I always knew that I couldn’t live without. Perhaps my situation wasn’t so bad. Eventually, I could learn to live without Luke.

  We were somewhere in the middle of the ocean when Kyrie finally slowed down. She pointed in the distance. “Over there. Do you see them?”

  I saw several gray humps that rose above the ocean’s surface at different intervals.

  “Whales?” I asked, confused. There was nothing special about whales. They were boring, and they could possibly be the least interesting of all the creatures in this planet.

  "We flew all this way to see whales?" I asked.

  “Just follow me,” Kyrie said with a grin. She tucked her wings and fell towards the ocean, head first. She dove gracefully into the water, her body disappearing within. With a sigh, I did the same and followed her.

  Completely submerged in the salty water, my body quickly adjusted to the cold. I saw Kyrie ahead of me, and I tried to keep up. She was swimming towards the whales, her white dress floating around her in swirls. There were fish everywhere, and I had to focus on Kyrie’s white dress so that I wouldn’t lose her.

  As an angel, I could hold my breath indefinitely, but I rarely swam deep into the ocean. It was because I hated the dark, and the bottom of the ocean always reminded me of a large and bottomless dark pit.

  About a hundred feet away from the whales, Kyrie stopped swimming. She treaded water as she waited for me, her arms swaying forward and back, gracefully hovering in one place. We weren’t very far from the ocean’s surface, and there was enough sunlight that I could still see everything around me.

  When I finally reached her, Kyrie pointed towards the group of eight large whales; her face was lit up with excitement. I followed the direction of her finger. Then, I narrowed my eyes to get them to focus in the water, and that’s when I saw them.

  Mermaids.

  And they were swimming around the whales as if they were all friends.

  I gasped, and I ended up swallowing some seawater. I covered my mouth with both of my hands as I gazed upon the mermaids.

  There were about twenty of them; perhaps they were a family. From this distance, one could easily mistake one of them for a large fish or a dolphin. Their tails were long and shimmery, just like their bodies, and they didn’t have hair on their heads. My heart pounded a hard and steady beat inside of my chest. I’ve never seen mermaids before. Sure. Some angels had mentioned them in passing, but everyone agreed that they were very difficult to find - almost impossible. They were shy, or extremely wary of land creatures, and we were definitely considered as land creatures.

  I moved to swim closer to them, but Kyrie placed her hand on my arm, pulling me back. She shook her head slightly.

  ‘Wait,’ she mouthed in the water.

  Moments later, one of the mermaids stopped swimming and stared at us. Then, it glided towards us, twisting and turning in the water. The mermaid was a female, I could tell. It was in the way she moved; it was like she was dancing.

  She was smaller than the others, so maybe she was just a child. I waited patiently, and it was hard to do because I felt so energized. I wanted to swim towards the mermaid and meet her half-way. Instead, I stayed still and followed my friend’s instruction. Kyrie must know more about them because she spent more time in the water than I did.

  The child-mermaid stopped twenty feet away from us. She tilted her head to one side, her eyes squinting to take a better look at me, and then, she stared at Kyrie. We must look like strange sea creatures to her.

  The mermaid’s eyes were a light amber color, and her skin was slightly tinted in green. I smiled at her and waved with one hand. She waved back, and I saw the webbing between her fingers.

  She was beautiful, in a strange unique way, just like all of the other creatures on this pl
anet; she was one of Earth’s many miracles. I wondered if the mermaids ever ventured on land.

  Then, the mermaid smiled, her sharp, pointy teeth showing. I couldn’t help myself as a giggle came out, and I swallowed more water. I started choking, and I gulped the salty water down, forcing it down my throat. I didn’t want to have to come up for air and miss any of this.

  We heard clicking sounds, and the child-mermaid looked back behind her. She smiled one last time. Then, she headed back towards her group, who were still swimming around the whales, but they were further now. The child-mermaid swam so fast to keep up with them that I could barely see her tail moving in the water.

  Kyrie and I watched them in silence until the mermaids swam away with the whales and became undetectable to our angel-eyes. Once gone, Kyrie tapped me in the shoulder, and pointed upwards. I followed her as we swam towards the surface of the ocean.

  I kicked hard until I was out of the water. Then, I flared my wings, letting them catch the wind. My hair, my white dress, and my wings dried instantly, and I flew next to Kyrie, giggling all the way back to the shore.

  “That was amazing,” I said when we reached the beach; my bare feet touched the sand as I landed. “I’ve never seen mermaids before.”

  “Joshua and I found them seven sunrises ago. They seem to like to swim with the whales. For protection, I think, because the whales are big enough to scare away the sharks.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a smile. I licked my lips. I could still taste the salt of the sea from them. “For a while there I completely forgot about Luke…”

  “That’s what sisters are for.”

  “What would I do without you?”

  “You would be miserable,” Kyrie said, sighing dramatically, “but, honestly, Adra, please always remember that I’ll be here for you forever… even if Luke is not. You’ll never be alone, and I will always be your friend. Forever. That’s a promise.”

  I smiled, feeling loved and cherished once again.