Contents
Copy right
key
Title page
prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Author's note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the
products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by C.L. Fennell
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Published in the United States of America.
It’s not necessary to read the Soul Mark series, but there will be back story that would make more sense if you have. These are a few terms you might want to know before beginning Illuminate.
Nephilim- a child by a fallen angel and human.
Guardian- a human saved by an angel. The angel shared a part of their glory with the humans soul- creating a person with the abilities to help others.
Watcher- An angel who had been sent to Earth to protect humans, and ended up banished to their own dimension for generations for their sin. They fell in love with women and procreated- creating the first nephilim.
The war- demons were set free from their dimension and marked humans with their darkness- using a shadow on their soul to control them. Andi, her family, the Guardians, and the Watchers fought them. They were able to kill the majority of the demons which freed the humans from their shadows.
Slip- the ability to transport from one place to another.
Prologue
My childhood was unusual to say the least. I was a girl, but not a normal girl. I had no family but surrounded by strangers who changed from month to month. People hurt me all the time, but my body would heal overnight, which made some of them hurt me more. I spent years with people who wanted to make me suffer to ease their own demons. They had hatred in their hearts and I was an easy target for them, one who wouldn’t fight back.
Things changed when I was somewhere around eight years old, not completely sure of my birthday- I’d never had one. There were very few memories of my life before the homes, no memory of parents, no happy times to think about. The only real memory I had from before was the little girl who had my face but not my voice. I called her Raven, but I’m not sure if it was her name. She would hold me, sing to me, and find food for us to eat. She was my protector and I’d loved her. Between one memory and another, she was gone, and I never saw her again.
The thoughts in my mind consisted of pain and sadness. I was sad nobody wanted me, and I hurt in my chest, more than my body when they hit me. I didn’t understand why back then, my young mind couldn’t comprehend their violence. One of the families sold me to The Society- a group of fallen angels who controlled the world behind the scenes. They gave me to a man named Tony, who was the Mayor of a small town in the middle of nowhere. He was marked by a demon, but he wasn’t as bad as some of the normal people I’d already lived through.
The only light in my life was the older girl in my dreams. She was beautiful and powerful, with black hair and a streak of white in the front. Her eyes were bright green and silver, unlike anyone I’d seen before. She was my hero, the person I thought of when I wanted to give up. When the pain would try to overcome me, I’d bring her face to mind and smile. I knew one day she’d save me, I knew she was coming, and I knew I had to be strong enough to wait for her. The man in my dreams didn’t have a face, but he told me about her. About the light in the darkness- my hero. Her name was Andi, and one day she did come to save me from hell.
The first time I saw her outside my dreams was the day Tony stabbed me in the chest. They’d done it before- cut my skin to watch it heal- stab me to watch the wounds close. This time he pushed the knife in deeper, but for the first time, I wasn’t alone. She was there with me, kind of, she there but not really there.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry I can’t stop this. I’m so sorry. I’m here with you, I'm here and if I could take all your pain away I would. It’s almost over now, and soon, soon you’ll be free.”
I heard her as though she was sitting next to me, and when my eyes drifted in the direction, I saw her ghostly face.
“Thank you,” I said and the knife pierced my chest. This one was different from the others, and the metal burned through my skin, filling my body with heat. Sparks flew around me until Tony was on his back and I was struggling to breathe. Andi was gone, but her panic and rage lingered in the room with us like a blanket. I stood on shaky legs and looked down at Tony’s wide eyes.
“Let me go,” I said, feeling braver than I had in the past. I’d spent the first years of my life afraid to speak. Too scared to stand up for myself. I went from home to home suffering at the hands of the humans who beat on those they saw weaker. They hurt me because they could, because I was too little to stop them. But one day I wouldn’t be too small to protect myself, one day I would be stronger than them- Stronger than all of them.
Tony was an evil man. Well, technically he was a host for an evil demon. The man was weak, one so weak he let a demon pull his strings like a puppet. He covered his shock and stood, dusted his suit off, and smiled at me in the cruel way he always did.
“You’ll never be free.” He raised the knife again, but a hand reached over and caught his arm.
“That’s enough.” Azazel stepped up next to Tony and looked over at me. The expression on his face was blank, like it always was. I could never tell if he was a bad guy or not, but something about him never fit with the rest of them. Something behind his eyes was different than the other fallen and different than the men who were filled with demons.
“The girl will be coming with me,” he said and pushed Tony toward the stairs.
I straightened my shoulders and raised my chin. I was tired of being scared of them. If they wanted to kill me, they could, but I was done being afraid.
“I think I’ll take this one,” another voice said and stepped from the shadow. Amon was definitely one of the bad guys. I wanted to curl up and hide in the corner, but I didn’t. Azazel's expression didn’t change other than the twitch near his eye. He wanted to argue, I could see it, but he kept his mouth shut. With one nod at Amon, Azazel turned and left me with the fallen angel who laughed while he hurt people.
It was almost a year after that night when I saw Andi again, this time she was solid. They dragged her into my cage and dropped her body on the concrete. I spent days trying to get my water down her throat, talking to her, hoping she’d wake up before they hurt her too badly. Every day they would come in and drag her to the middle of the room, hitting her until they wore themselves out. After a week, they forgot to lock the door an
d I was able to get to them. I tried to protect her by blocking their hits. Andi was still unconscious, but somehow she lite herself on fire. That’s when I knew she was coming back. I let the darkness take me with a smile on my face, knowing my hero was there and she was going to save us all.
Andi wasn’t only my hero, she was the light in the darkness. The warrior of the people. She was stronger than anyone had imagined, and in the end, she saved me- along with the rest of the world.
Chapter one
Misty
My alarm blared and my hand smacked around the side table until the sound was dead. I wasn’t ready for another day. It was the last semester of school and I couldn’t be more ready for it to end. Spending eight hours a day with a smile on my face was becoming difficult, more difficult as the years passed. Andi said things would get easier with time, but she was wrong. The memories were still there, the dreams still plagued my nights, and the pain didn’t fade but got worse. I rolled out of bed when I heard the knock on my door, and shuffled my feet to the bathroom. I got dressed in a bright blue shirt, and applied makeup, then smiled at my reflection. I frowned and smiled again, trying to find the right one. It was the smile I would use to get through the day. The one I would give when someone said something funny, or when I needed to be polite. It was the one I would use for my family, for my friends, and my teachers. It was the smile I’d been using for years, the one to let everyone know I was stronger than what happened to me. I was stronger than my past and pain. I was stronger than the darkness in my heart and monsters in my memories.
I ate breakfast with my family, and by the time I left the house the weight began to lift. Despite how each day started, I would always leave the house feeling better. Sebastian and Andi adopted me after the war, and my life since had been nothing short of amazing. But no matter how great they’d been it couldn’t erase the first ten or so years of my life.
Every morning I would walk my little brother to his class before I went to mine. I didn’t have to but I liked spending the extra time with him. When we got to his door, he turned back to me.
“I love you, Misty. I hope you have a good day.” Ezra was such a sweet kid, and his childhood was completely opposite from what mine had been. Something I was incredibly thankful for. I smiled down at him, ran my hand over his dark hair- styled to the side- and bent down to give him a hug.
“I love you, too.”
He pulled back and placed his hand on my cheek, looking into my eyes the way he always did. As though he could use those big green eyes to see into my soul.
“Can we go swimming today?” he asked and I nodded. He smiled and kissed my nose, something he’d picked up from Andi. I took a deep breath with my eyes closed and let his peace fill me.
My parents saved me, they gave me love and a new life, but Ezra gave me something much more. What my seven-year-old brother gave me was greater than anything anyone else could have. He looked up at me like I had looked up to Andi, and he gave me pure love freely. He didn’t know about any of the struggles I’d had, so he never looked at me with pity, but with pride. He loved me and I loved him, more than anything in this world. Even on my worst days, he was able to bring me back. I walked to my building with a smile on my face and not the fake one I’d started the day with.
I flipped the paper ball, but he ignored it. Max was a pro at ignoring me, but he couldn’t do it forever. He would always try but I’d catch the way his lip would lift at the corner, and how his eye would twitch when he wanted to look. He was stubborn, but I was persistent. I leaned over my desk and cleared my throat.
“Come on Max, don’t make me beg,” I whispered and his eyes flickered to me then away. His feet kicked out under his desk and he crossed them at the ankles, then he sighed.
“Alright, Misty, you win. You always win.” I squealed and he smiled.
“Just for a couple hours,” I said quietly and he nodded.
“Is there something you’d like to discuss, Misty?” Mr. Thomas asked and my head snapped forward.
“No, sir.”
“Oh? I was sure you wanted to teach today since you seem to have so much to say.” His voice was stern but the amusement on his face gave him away. Thomas was one my parents best friends, the Watcher Andi befriended during their war against the demons. He’d been around since then and started teaching as soon as the school opened eight years ago. The teachers switched off each semester and right now, he was teaching English and Science, which he blended into one class. It sucked so bad.
“No, Mr. Thomas, I was just asking Max to go swimming,” I said and smirked. “Last semester you kept telling us we need to exercise more, what a perfect work out for the whole body.” When he was teaching gym with Sebastian, he couldn’t believe how hard I fought against working out. I didn’t mind it sometimes, but those guys are like machines. I wasn’t trying to be a warrior, so a light jog was good enough for me. Not so much for them.
“I can help you work out your body,” Ben said from behind me and Max growled. I never liked Ben, he was one of those guys who loved to irritate people. He thought it was funny, but no one else did, well no one other than his douchecanoe friends.
“That's enough.” Mr. Thomas slammed his hand on the desk, and Ben squeaked out an apology.
I focused on the chalkboard where Thomas had written a name, NBRC, New Beginning Research Corp. He used a stick to point at the words and turned back to face the class. Thomas looked like he was in his thirties, but as a fallen Watcher, he was thousands of years old. Like the rest of them, he didn’t age. I’d heard they could decide when they wanted to give up immortality, and they would live out a normal life before dying naturally. Not sure how it worked, but that was the rumor.
“Who can tell me what they know about them?” he asked and scanned the room. I dropped my eyes when he met them.
“They’re testing nephilim DNA. Trying to find the difference between them and humans,” Levi answered.
“Correct. What else?”
“They want to know how nephilim are able to look normal but possess unnatural powers.” Levi was the guy who always answered, not because he wanted to be the star student, but because he was whether he liked it or not. He was by far the smartest person I’d ever met, and thankfully, one of my good friends. I passed most of my classes because of him.
“That’s right. They want to understand what makes nephilim different, how they’re able to manipulate powers and humans can’t. Scientist across the span of history have been searching for answers to these very questions, and now they have subjects to test. In the past, they spent years trying to uncover the truth of dimensions, unsure of what was real or fictional, and scientist were the loudest voices to deny anything other than humans existed. Since the war, when demons and angels were no longer secretive, and nephilim became another known race inhabiting the Earth, they were forced to redirect their research.”
“I think it’s wrong,” Levi said and Thomas tilted his head to the side.
“You think what’s wrong?”
“What they’re doing. I think they’re using humans and nephilim and it will end up creating more problems than anything else. They’re not looking for answers- they don’t need them. I think they are using it as a cover for something else...” He cleared his throat. “Something bad.”
Thomas smiled with pride in his eyes, and I turned to look over my shoulder. Levi’s muscular body was stiff, his back straight, and his jaw was locked tight. I wondered what had him bothered, out of the students in the room, he was the only human. Our school was mixed, but the majority were nephilim. The few humans normally kept quiet, stayed in the background and tried to blend in. I didn’t understand why, I hadn’t seen any of them being bullied or anything. But they kept to themselves for the most part. Other than Levi, who spent all his time with us.
“Very interesting,” Thomas said. He tapped his chin, and looked around the room, then smirked. “Homework. I want you to find a group of two or three and write a re
search paper on the differences between human and nephilim. Find articles supporting different opinions, find the scientific reasons behind those opinions, then come up with your own.”
The class groaned collectively. The bell rang and I jumped from my seat, beating the others out of the room. Lunch on Fridays was madness. Everyone rushed to the cafeteria trying to get in line first, hoping to get there before my grandma Emily’s dessert was gone. She wasn’t a cook at school, but on Friday’s she would bring whatever she’d been baking through the week. I don’t know how she was able to make so much, but she always came with enough for the students. Well, usually. There were a few times it was gone before the end of the line, which was why everyone rushed.
I sat the plates on the table, one for me and three for the others. My grandma Emily hated when I begged, but I knew the others wouldn’t want to fight the crowd. And she’d brought her chocolate lava cake, it wasn’t something anyone should miss out on.
“How was Thomas’ class?” Harvey asked and sat in front of me, smiling when I pushed her plate toward her.
“Terrible. We have to write a research paper on the differences between human and nephilim DNA.”
How did he get the bright idea to mix English and Science? It was my worst class by far. I loved Thomas, but I hated his class with a passion.
“Ugh, yeah. I’m glad I don’t have that one with you guys.” Harvey took a bite and moaned, then flipped her long braids over her shoulder. She was my only girl-friend and had been since we were kids. I met her right before the war, and Andi had sent to stay with a nephilim named Margret. Margret was nice for awhile, but she turned out to be insane. The only good thing I got from the time I was with her was meeting Harvey.
“Did I hear something about swimming today?” Levi asked and took the seat next to Harvey. He eyed one of the plates and I nodded at him to take it. My mouth was full of my own chocolaty goodness.
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