“What?” I asked, wanting to know the cause of this effect.
“That must be why Zev was nervous. And why he didn’t come with the rest of us.” Uriel pointed to a table toward the back of the room where all my friends dressed in their best were standing and waiting for the ceremony to begin.
I gasped in surprise. Zev was standing apart from the rest of Uriel’s family but was extremely close to Alicia. “He brought Alicia? Like, as a date?”
“It appears so.”
I tore my eyes from the tremendously odd spectacle of my really short, country friend flirting with the school’s foremost post-player and was met with another unexpected sight. Azra was talking amiably with Meredith, which isn’t unusual. The thing that was strange was that Joshua Jones had his hand on Meredith’s lower back where he stood next to her. “And Josh and Meredith?”
“Looks that way.” Uriel smiled.
“Wow.” My Coming Out Ceremony had become a gathering spot for unpredicted couples. Everyone looked amazing in their dresses and suits. Of course, the most handsome couple was Azra and Odeda. They looked like models that just dropped by from a photo shoot.
Seeing the family made me think of a question I’d been avoiding for the last couple of weeks. I decided to ask it even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. “Uriel, how long do you get to stay here until you have to go off on another mission?”
My angel straightened so that he was no longer leaning around the wall’s corner and was once again concealed in the hallway from the guests. I did the same and we stood facing each other, only inches apart.
“My uncle visited the other day to check up on us and I asked him that same question.” Uriel’s eyes bore into mine. “He said he believed we had earned a vacation of sorts… It seems you are going to be stuck with me for at least another year.”
“You aren’t leaving?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I exhaled a relieved breath and wrapped my arms around him. Uriel returned my hug, and for a moment I was blissfully content with the assurance that I still had more time with my angel that wouldn’t affect his “job.”
“Um. Excuse me. Miss?” an uneasy voice said behind me.
I turned to see a little red-haired young woman in an apron peering at Uriel and me from large, anxious eyes. “Um. Mrs. Fairchild would like you to be ready as soon as you can.”
I let go of Uriel and turned toward the girl. “And I’m sure she said it as kindly as you just did,” I replied indignantly. And then, seeing the frightened look creep into the girl’s already panicky face, I added, “Thank you. I’ll be ready shortly.”
She bobbed her head in understanding and fled.
Shortly wasn’t a very long time. It meant that in a matter of minutes I had to walk down what seemed like fifty thousand steps and smile and dance in front of everyone. How could I have allowed myself to participate in this Coming Out Ceremony? What did I care about society? All of the people on the first floor waiting- it didn’t matter if they thought I was a proper lady. I didn’t even know I wanted to be considered a proper lady!
My breathing started coming more often in shallow breaths and I realized that my bats were being overshadowed by full-on nausea.
“Keira,” Uriel sounded worried. “Keira, calm down.”
I looked up into those gray-blue eyes and tried to do as he said. “I don’t usually ask you to summon things for me, but…” Uriel nodded his encouragement for me to continue, probably preparing to make Pepto-Bismol, Tums, or a paper bag appear. “I need a stress ball.”
He looked at me blankly, no doubt thinking he’d heard me wrong.
“Uriel, any other time I would be punching, riding, swimming, running, or screaming out my nerves. But right now, I can’t do any of those, so I need you to get me something I can squeeze the dickens out of. I. Need. A. Stress. Ball.”
In a millisecond, he had one in his hand and was placing it into mine.
“Thank you.” I started squeezing like my life depended on it.
An amused expression that I did not appreciate settled on Uriel’s face. He leaned down to kiss my forehead and then my nose and then my lips. “Everything will be fine,” he told me, using a soothing, gentle, definite tone. “In a few hours the ceremony will be over and then you and I can go someplace else. Anywhere else. Okay?”
“Okay,” I sighed, already feeling a little more at ease.
Then I heard nothing. It was one of the most terrifying sounds I’ve ever heard- no sound at all, complete silence. The gathering below us had gone quiet, which meant the ceremony was about to begin, which meant even an angel couldn’t help my nerves now.
High heels suddenly broke through the silence and my apprehension intensified. I shoved the stress ball, as well as the hand that held it, into my right pocket. A second later, my mother appeared around the curve at the end of the hallway that was opposite the staircase. She caught sight of me and traipsed over.
“It’s time to begin.” She harshly threw her arm in my direction. “What are you doing just standing there?”
“Just standing here,” I shrugged.
“Are you giving me attitude young lady? I don’t accept it; I will not accept this kind of behavior tonight.”
“Sorry.”
She went on like I hadn’t spoken. She was already wound up from trying to perfect everything for the ceremony, and apparently I was just adding another grain of rice to tip her patience scale. “All throughout the planning for this day you have been difficult and trying. Your ceremony is supposed to be starting right now, and you’re up here being your usual ungrateful, stubborn, and immature self. This is your night! What’s the problem? How can you possibly have a problem on this night? What do you have to say for yourself?”
Uriel started to step in, but I stopped him. “No, I can defend myself.”
I faced my mother unflinchingly and let it rip. “In no way is this my night, Mother, and you know it. You say I’m ungrateful, but I never asked for this; I never even wanted a stupid ceremony. It doesn’t make me immature to not be able to withstand your pointless parties. I can’t take your imposed attendances at these ridiculous, stuck-up affairs any longer. I’m so close to walking out and leaving you here to salvage your event. But I won’t. I’ll do the ceremony and smile and put on a good show, but after this thing is over, I’m not your puppet any more or your excuse for business and social gatherings. This is it. I’m finished after tonight. So you can just stop trying to change me into some little cardboard cut-out of what you think the ideal daughter is, because I’ve got news for ya: I am my own person and I will no longer hide the qualities you don’t like about me that make me me from, or for you.”
For the first time since I’d known my mother- aka all my life- she couldn’t find anything to say. Whew! That felt good. She stood there for a couple of seconds staring at me like she’d never seen me before. Finally, she found her tongue. “Walk down those stairs when the announcer says your name. We’ll talk more tomorrow.” Then she turned on her Prada heels and stalked off around the corner she’d come from.
“Are you alright?” Uriel asked me.
I thought for a moment and then answered, “I think for the first time, I’m better than alright about her. I’ve never told that woman I knew I was like a puppet under her strings, and tonight I did. It was freeing, taking some scissors to those strings.”
Uriel pulled me in for another hug. “I’m proud of you for finally standing up for yourself to her.”
I leaned my head into his neck and breathed deeply, feeling better than I had all day. “Thanks.”
He held me closer. “I love you, Keira Fairchild.”
“I love you, Uriel Gray.”
He was silent for a while and I thought we were going to have to walk down the stairs. But then he said, “It’s not Gray anymore. I’m someone else entirely.”
I tipped my face up so I could look into his eyes. “Well, when you know what
your new last name will be, tell me. Because that’s who I am too.”
Uriel kissed me and smiled. “How wonderful life is now you’re in the world.”
Defiant Destiny Page 37