Defiant Destiny

by Madison Cumbee

  Not just physical changes, but her behavior was different too. Other than a few venting phone calls over the year about the people at her school, I’d never heard Elly be angry about anything. And she was always one to fill a silence with endless chatter. The new Elly was solemn and anything but talkative. I couldn’t help worrying that perhaps she might try something drastic again like she had before school started.

  “Do you want me to come in with you?” I asked her as I unbuckled my seatbelt.

  “No, I should see them alone.” She spoke in the same unfeeling tone she had used in the mountains.

  It reminded me too much of how Uriel used to speak when we weren’t together to not make me feel uneasy.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I told her again.

  “I know.”

  “I’ll call you later.”

  “Let me be the one to call.” She stopped staring out the front window and looked at me for the first time in over an hour. “I think I need time, you know?”

  I nodded. “Sure.”

  Elly put her hand on the handle to get out, but paused. “Keira…”

  “Yeah?”

  She drew a deep breath. “Thank you.”

  I didn’t know how to respond. “You’re welcome” seemed like taking credit for too much. “Of course” sounded too flippant. “Anytime” was not at all the right thing to say. But Elly didn’t wait for a reply; she got out of the car and walked to the front door of her parents’ home. When she got that far, she turned around and fleetingly waved at the Escalade behind me. Then she reached up to retrieve the house key she always used instead of carrying one with her, from the top of the doorway.

  A second after she disappeared inside, Uriel opened my door and pulled me out of the car and into his arms. He didn’t say anything and for the first time that afternoon, I wasn’t dying to break the silence. He just held me, letting me know that he understood the day had been a lot to handle. I gratefully rested my head on his shoulder, and pulled him tighter.

  “Are we going back to your place?” I guessed, since that was what we usually did whenever there were things to discuss; it was a family custom, and I had been included ever since I was told about what everyone was.

  “Yes,” Uriel answered. “Do you want me to drive you?”

  “No, I’d like to drive myself.” The hour and a half back wasn’t quite enough to clear my head and calm my nerves. I needed a little more time.

  “Do you want me to ride with you?”

  “Yes, please.”

  I looked up at my angel and he kissed my forehead.

  I got back in my car and when Uriel closed his door, I set off for the family’s house. Uriel was watching me, reading me. I decided to speak first about it. “Do you know how frightening and tense that was?”

  He nodded.

  “Elly was terrifying- my friend scared me. She’s never talked like that before… And then afterward, it’s like she shut down. We didn’t say a word the whole way back. I’m worried about her, Uriel.”

  “The worst of it’s over; for Elly to choose to turn on Amir in the middle of a battle was inspiring. She was exuding her power and focusing on acting as a Watcher, but stopped. If you hadn’t shocked her out of her concentration… I don’t know how much longer Dagan, and even Zev, would have been able to keep Elly from overpowering their emotions. Now, Amir is gone and your friend had chosen rectitude. The guild will make certain she is properly trained and looked after. We don’t have to stay passive now that she’s chosen our side. You have nothing to worry about.”

  I knew he was telling me the truth, not just because we’d said no more lies but because I’d seen with my own eyes that the creep was never coming back and would never hurt Elly again. This recognition lifted my spirit some. “So it was good that I was there?” Admit it. Come on.

  “You got Elly to see the light,” Uriel acknowledged.

  He had to admit that I had been right about needing to come with him. “And I couldn’t have done that if I hadn’t been there…” I pressed.

  Uriel’s eyes narrowed. “How did you get to the valley when you did?”

  I felt my cheeks flush, remembering my cinematic-worthy speed chase against time. “I got caught speeding on my way up. I would have gotten there sooner but this stupid cop pulled me over on the highway. I can’t believe I got a ticket.”

  An I-told-you-so smirk flashed across Uriel’s face before quickly disappearing again. “But how did you get there at all? You were supposed to be at school.”

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I just walked out when I couldn’t stand it anymore. I don’t know where your uncle was.”

  Uriel’s face clouded over. He hadn’t exactly been cheerful before, but now he definitely wasn’t happy.

  I pulled onto the driveway at the family’s house and was about to ask Uriel what was with the face, but he got out of the car before I could utter a syllable. Azra parked a second after me, and we all watched as Uriel trampled to the front door and didn’t bother to close it once he was inside. I hurried to get out of my car and followed the others in.

  “URIEL!” my angel called to the empty house from just inside the doorway. “Uncle!”

  A crack of thunder and flash of lightning sounded and sparked from the middle of the living room to our right. “You bellowed,” the fiery-haired Hierarchy rumbled.

  “Keira was at the battle,” Uriel informed him stormily as he walked over to stand before his towering uncle.

  “I assumed that’s where she went,” URIEL replied in his calm, rolling voice.

  My Uriel raised his voice. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

  “You know that I cannot interfere with free will, Nephew.”

  “But I asked you to keep her safe.”

  “Our laws are binding; I could not restrain Keira against her will.”

  That struck a chord. “But you did,” I pointed out, stepping into the room with them as Azra, Dagan, Odeda, and Zev followed behind to watch the show. “You stood in my way earlier.”

  “You would have been stopped even without my being there; my nephew would have turned you around when you caught up to him. My involvement did not change the course of things.”

  “She could have been hurt,” Uriel restarted the conversation I thought was pointless. I mean, I was perfectly fine and standing right there.

  And I told him that. “But I wasn’t hurt, and everything ended successfully.” I faced URIEL. “Elly’s alive and now part of your side instead of evil, and Amir and the others were defeated. Or at least, I think they were.” I turned to address Azra. “Weren’t there suppose to be three bad guys?”

  “Yeah,” Dagan answered me. “You were a little late, Keira. You missed like half the battle.”

  “Amir was defeated?” UREIL commanded everyone’s attention. With that voice, you can’t help but stop and listen to him.

  “For good this time,” Azra told him.

  URIEL raised a disbelieving brow and sat down in one of the chairs in the room. He looked, once again, surreal and noticeably other-worldly in the middle of the familiar, normal setting. “Tell me about the battle.”

  Azra sat in a chair opposite the archangel and we all followed suit. Uriel seemed to be resigned once we were on the coach. Azra described what happened in the valley and it was still just as outrageous and inconceivable as when I’d seen it with my own eyes. But I did get filled in on what I’d missed while I was preoccupied with dealing with the Man and racing up the mountains.

  “Elly turned his power against him, and if this was not his last death, then I don’t know what will destroy Amir,” Azra concluded.

  “It sounds like you’re finally rid of him,” URIEL agreed. “The mission was a great success. A better guild could not have been assigned here. Each of you demonstrated the best qualities of the Nephilim of the Light.”

  “Speaking of missions- how was my personal charge?” Azra asked. “Hannah- who I asked you to keep an e
ye out for while we were battling.”

  “To be plain, I don’t expect the girl to make it through tomorrow without crashing.”

  Azra’s expression darkened with disapproval. “I confronted Hannah the other day and she said that she appreciated my concern but there was no need for it. She seems to think if she denies the risks, they won’t come to pass. Every time I tried to talk to her afterward, Hannah would tell me to stop worrying about her and then she’d walk away… Tomorrow morning I’ll have to get more active.”

  “I think that’d be best,” URIEL agreed. “And Dagan?”

  Dagan sat up straighter. “Yes?”

  “You don’t have an individual charge, correct?”

  “No, I haven’t found anyone.”

  “I might have. While I was watching over Hannah the second half of the day, I noticed a boy sleeping in one of her classes. Later on, I overheard the same boy telling another that he had been playing some war videogame last night and that he was going to get to a certain point in the game today even if he had to stay up all night again. The other student called him Tim.”

  “Yeah, Tim. He’s beast at anything that involves shooting. Not too bad at racing games either. Tim slept through school?”

  “I believe he’s acquired an unhealthy obsession with his electronics.”

  Dagan nodded. “Thanks for telling me. I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow. Shed some light on the fact that if he doesn’t pay attention in class, he’ll flunk and have to repeat everything he’s already worked for. That ought to get him to at least pass exams if nothing else.”

  “Uncle,” Uriel spoke for the first time in his usual tone. “Did you find anyone for me?”

  “You don’t have a charge either?”

  “No, the musicians at this school seem to be abnormally unburdened and not-moody. Why wouldn’t I have an individual mission?”

  “Your personal missions are always to help those in need of it. The Hierarchy doesn’t know exactly how sometimes but everywhere there is always some form of help to be given and the greater good to be accomplished.”

  This didn’t seem to suffice for Uriel.

  “But, in my opinion,” the archangel offered, “the greater good is not always accomplished by immortals. The good done this time might not have been meant to be by you, Uriel, but for you.” He looked pointed at me.

  “I’d never considered we could be the ones who benefit from missions,” Uriel mused.

  “Me?” I said surprised. “No, if an individual assignment is to help a person, then Uriel’s already fulfilled his- months ago.” I looked at my angel. “I’m your charge.”

  “So really,” Zev said, “Uriel found his mission before any of us.”

  Uriel smiled and squeezed my hand. “Whether I gave or received help, this has still been the best mission I’ve ever had.”

  I returned his pressure. “And it was a mission accomplished. Today’s as well. I think everyone deserves a celebratory night. I’m buying.”

  Odeda’s eyes sparkled before Azra said, “Perhaps after we finish with all of our missions.”

  “Sure,” I agreed easily. “URIEL, you should come too.”

  When I looked at him, the archangel was even more impassive than usual. It was like he wasn’t in the same room with us. “URIEL?” I asked uncertainly.

  His gray eyes slowly focused on his surroundings and he rumbled, “I have to go; I’m being called.” He stood and we all did the same. “Keira, it’s always an immense pleasure, and the rest of you, great job today. I’m sure I’ll be back soon.” He smiled at us all. “Until then.” And with that, he flashed us all and disappeared.

  “He was being called?”

  “Another Nephilim probably requested his presence,” Uriel answered me.

  I accepted this without further questions; it was going to take some time before I felt completely in the loop about the Nephilim world. We all sat back down, and I hung around at the family’s house until it was the time that my basketball practice would have been ending had I been where I was supposed to be.

  I kissed Uriel goodbye and then headed out.

  My thoughts during the drive home instantly turned from relieved to fearful ones when I came up the driveway and saw my parents standing in the garage. They looked pissed! Even my dad had on his criticizing business face as I rolled in and parked. I slowly got out and worked up an easy-going demeanor. “Hey guys, what’s up?”

  “Do not use that tone with me, missy,” my Mother ordered at a slightly higher than usual volume. “You are in so much trouble.” At my innocent expression she continued. “Your school called us.” Stupid, small private school. No normal school would notice that I’d left school without returning and definitely wouldn’t have contacted my parents. “Do you have an excuse for signing out after only half the day and never signing back in? I know neither your father nor I consented to you leaving school early.”

  I looked to Dad.

  “Where did you go, Keira?” he asked me.

  “For a long drive. You can check the mileage on my car if you want.”

  “Did you leave school with Uriel? Tell me the truth.”

  That was the question he’d really wanted to ask the first time. “I swear I did not go with Uriel. I needed to go for a drive alone and that’s what I did. I actually drove up to the mountains and back.”

  My dad’s relief was obvious; he was fine with my random act of skipping as long as it wasn’t for a boy. I worked hard to keep the grin from my face.

  My mother, however, kept berating me. “Whatever would possess you to do something so irresponsible? No, don’t answer that. You’re grounded, young lady.”

  “Grounded?” I asked incredulously. “But I’ve never been grounded. How do you even know what grounding is?”

  Father’s anger and fear was completely appeased. Mother, on the other hand, did not appreciate my “smart-alecky” question. “You are grounded for two weeks starting right now. You are not allowed to leave the house for anything other than school or sport, and you have to come straight home after both of those. Now, go to your room.”

  I obeyed, like a good little daughter, but satisfied myself with the imagined image of Mother’s face as she found out that my long drive to the mountains had been an illegally fast one that would cost her a good chunk of change.

  Indi Missions

  Chapter 26

  Uriel

  The moment we walked through the doors to the high school building on Friday morning, Azra set off to confront Hannah- again. I was impatiently waiting for Keira to arrive since we were only allowed to see each other at school for two weeks. I could still hear her mutinous words from our telephone conversation the night before. She brought up the Coming Out Ceremony at least four times, using it as an example of how her mother controlled her life. And each time, I reminded her that it was her ceremony, not her mother’s; she could call the whole thing off if she really felt that strongly about it. Keira couldn’t think of an adequate response.

  “Odeda, what’s that beeping noise?” Zev asked as we waited for school to begin- and for Keira to come.

  “It’s your cell phone,” Odeda sighed. “Give it to me; I’m sure you don’t remember how to check your messages.”

  He grudgingly handed it to our sister. Zev mumbled, “The buttons are so small, how can I be expected to recall which ones to push and in what order to push them?”

  Odeda didn’t have any problems pressing the correct buttons her first try. “You have a voicemail you just missed,” she informed him and held the phone away from her ear as the message began to relay in a nervous voice:

  “Hey, Zev. It’s Robert… I was just looking at the date and realized today’s the anniversary of my mom’s death…Umm, I don’t know why I’m calling you about this- nothing’s happened. My dad’s not even here this morning… I’ll see you at school.” Click.

  We all stood there staring blankly at the phone for a few moments, unsure of how to res
pond. “So…” Dagan started. “His dad isn’t there and he’s coming to school?”

  “Sounds like it,” Zev answered. “I guess I’ll wait and maybe follow him home after practice tonight…”

  “Yeah,” Odeda agreed. “Maybe you should even hang out with him- you know, take him out to eat with a few teammates tonight. Try to get his mind off the past and all.”

  “I can do that.”

  It was like a strange weight had been lowered onto the four of us after we heard Robert’s message. It’d been such a long time since we’d had to worry about any of our charges so much. Dagan shook it off first and decided to find Tim and talk to him about the late nights.

  “That’ll be interesting,” Odeda said once he was gone.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Dagan talking some boy into playing videogames less.”

  Zev snorted his concurrence.

  Two minutes before the eight o’clock bell rang, Keira came skidding into the hall.

  “What took you so long?” Odeda asked rudely.

  “I drove the speed limit,” Keira answered. “I didn’t know it could take that long to get from my house to school.”

  First period crawled on till it was time for second period. Keira and I walked into English to find Odeda and Dagan sitting in our usual corner of the room. “Where are Azra and Zev?” Keira asked as we sat beside the others.

  Odeda answered her. “I don’t know about Zev, but Azra went to the hospital with Hannah. She collapsed during our first class. The teacher wanted to wait for the principle to come and look at her, but Azra knew Hannah had to get to a doctor right away, so he called for an ambulance and went with her to the hospital.”

  “That’s awful,” Keira said.

  Odeda nodded. “But she’ll be fine. Azra’d kept a close eye on her the whole class and called right as she crashed. She should have listened to him sooner, but… sometimes, people just don’t want to be helped.”

  “After I reminded him that not passing enough classes would mean not graduating on time, Tim accepted my advice to stay awake in school,” Dagan said, satisfied. “Four missions down, one to go.”