“Nicely executed. What you’ve done today is some of the best work I’ve seen you do for some time,” said Gabriel, tucking his hands into his coat pockets.
“Thanks,” nodded Imorean. He ruffled one wing, shaking a few drops of moisture from the feathers.
“That was beautiful,” said Amelia. Her voice was quiet and somehow hesitant.
Slowly, Imorean settled his wing back behind his shoulder, trying to hide it away. “Thanks, Mom.”
“I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m cold,” said Amelia, rubbing her arms.
“I always seem to forget things like that. You humans feel cold so much more acutely than we angels do,” said Gabriel, taking the car keys out of his pocket and starting back on the trail through the woods toward the car park.
“Imorean,” said Amelia, when Gabriel was a good distance ahead of them.
“Yes?”
“I’m not happy with what’s happened to you. Not at all, so don’t begin to think that I am. But if this is what you want, if what you want is to be a soldier in a war that you never had any part in, then I will accept that.”
“Thanks, Mom. I don’t want to do it, but what choice do I have? It’s not like I can do anything about the situation, so I might as well make the best of it.”
“I know. I’m proud of you, Imorean. I love you. Nothing will ever change that.”
“I love you, too. And thank you,” replied Imorean, smiling at her. As she met his eyes, Imorean noticed the reservation in her expression, but he was glad she had accepted him for what he had become. Imorean knew it could have hardly been easy and it was a massive shock to her.
“Are the two of you coming?” asked Gabriel.
Imorean looked up to see his mentor waiting next to the car.
“Come on,” said Imorean, lengthening his stride to catch his mentor.
Chapter 26
“I’m still in shock that you can deal with the heights,” said Amelia, passing Imorean a plate of food.
“Well I can hardly say that I had any choice about dealing with them,” said Imorean. He and his mother were the only ones in the house. Gabriel had left them to their own devices and the twins were still at school.
“What do you mean?” asked Amelia, sitting down across from him at the kitchen table.
“Gabriel sort of … forced me into dealing with them. He shoved me off this cliff and it was sort of a fly or fall type of deal. I mean, I’m sure he would have caught me if I’d fallen too far, but the point is he made me rely on my instincts. After that, I ended up falling in love with flying.”
“What does it feel like?” asked Amelia, her brown eyes lighting up.
Imorean couldn’t help but smile. It was the first time he had seen his mother happy all day. He had wanted to talk to her about this ever since Michael and Gabriel had changed him. He felt suddenly that a wall had finally fallen.
“I mean, it’s still strange to look down and not see ground beneath my feet but I’ve started to get used to it. It feels like … I don’t know if there are even words for it. It’s the feeling of complete freedom. It’s openness in its purest form. When I’m in the air, I feel such power. It’s as though I’ve always been meant to be there. You can see forever, and the world feels clear. It’s ancient and new, both at the same time.”
“Sounds wonderful,” said Amelia, smiling.
“I wish I could show you how it feels,” said Imorean.
“That would be amazing,” sighed Amelia. “What does Gabriel think of you telling the rest of your family? The twins and your grandparents?”
“I haven’t spoken with him about it yet. Right now, I’m not sure how good of an idea it would be. I think they prefer to take it one day at a time. I do want to tell Papa and Grandma though. They deserve to know about what’s happened.”
“I see,” nodded Amelia, lowering her gaze to the tabletop. A moment later she looked back up at him. “They forced you not to tell, didn’t they?”
“It wasn’t as much force as it was coercion,” replied Imorean.
“But how?”
Imorean shrugged. He wasn’t sure if his mother really needed to know exactly what Michael had done. “Michael is pretty good with mind games.”
“That’s the same Michael who’s been giving you a hard time on the skydiving team, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” nodded Imorean. “He’s an ass, plain and simple. I mean, he has his good points, but his people skills are terrible. He hardly ever gives straight answers, and if he does they’re brutal. And I – I don’t know, he’s just rude in general.”
“He must be hard to deal with.”
“Believe me, he is,” replied Imorean. He glanced away from his mother and looked at the television which was quietly playing the news in the living room. He was about to turn back to her and continue the conversation when one word over the news caught his attention.
‘Romania.’
“Hold on,” said Imorean, getting up and going into the next room.
“What is it?” asked Amelia.
“I’m not sure,” replied Imorean, using the remote to turn up the volume. His mother stood next to him and turned her attention to the television as well.
“For the last few days, the period of unseasonal, heavy rainfall and unusually high winds that have plagued Bucharest, the capital of Romania, have finally escalated into a severe thunderstorm,” said the news anchor reporting the story.
Imorean stiffened as a video clip of some of Bucharest’s streets were shown on the screen. Debris littered the roadsides and it was pouring rain. The city looked close to flood danger.
“As you can see, they are experiencing strong winds and heavy rain,” said the reporter on screen. “In some areas affected by the storm, winds are reaching speeds close to seventy miles per hour. To follow, in Ileana, a town neighboring Bucharest, a massacre of over twenty people by an unknown assailant has been reported.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Amelia, jerking Imorean back to the present.
“That’s where Michael is,” replied Imorean. “Gabriel mentioned on the way home that Michael was in Romania, but he didn’t say where or what he was doing.”
“Do you think this is it?” asked Amelia. “The massacre and the weather?”
“It’s something to do with him. It has to be. As far as I know, Romania doesn’t normally get winter thunderstorms like this and Michael is one of the only angels I’ve ever seen that has some influence over the weather. Plus, you heard what Gabriel said earlier about Vortigern wanting the world for demons and that he would target humans. This has angels and demons written all over it.”
“Why though?” she asked.
Imorean thought of Uriel and Vortigern and bit his lip. “I guess Michael’s out there to try to stop him. Keep him from building up too much steam.”
“It still seems awful to me that you are going to be fighting against… demons,” said Amelia, turning and making her way back into the kitchen.
“Believe me, you aren’t the only one,” sighed Imorean, following her. “Honestly, I’m surprised you’re handling all of this so well. It took me days to accept it all.”
“This isn’t a situation I can change or alter,” said Amelia, shaking her head. “I think the only thing I can do is accept what they have done to you and support you as much as I can.”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” said Imorean, sitting down across from her at the table.
“It’s not your fault, Imorean,” she said, shaking her head. “I would never, ever blame you for something like this. It wasn’t as though you asked for them to do this to you.”
“No,” replied Imorean, looking out of the window. Did the massacre in Romania have anything to do with Michael’s quest to find Uriel? He swallowed. It was highly likely. “When are the twins getting home?”
“They’ll be home any minute,” replied Amelia, checking her watch.
“I wish I could tell them about this. I hate keeping secrets.�
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“I’m surprised you’ve kept this one for so long. You were never very good with secrets.”
Imorean shrugged and looked away. His thoughts wandered immediately back to what Michael could be doing in Romania, when his mother interrupted his musings.
“Have you ever seen any demons?”
Imorean hesitated. Gabriel hadn’t said they weren’t allowed to speak about demons, but he had a feeling it could be rather a tentative subject.
“Yes. Three times,” replied Imorean after a moment.
“What were they like?” asked Amelia. “Scary?”
“The first one I saw was a Hellhound,” said Imorean. “I’m pretty sure that thing was bent on killing me or something and I think it would have if Michael hadn’t come to the rescue. He took care of that one.”
“How did something like a Hellhound find you?” asked Amelia, her eyes wide.
“It followed me from here,” replied Imorean. “It – it latched onto me the night I crashed my truck. It hunted me for half a semester, then decided it was going to appear. Gabriel says he thinks one of the chief demons, probably Vortigern or someone close to him, sent it to hunt me down. We don’t know how or why, though.”
Imorean watched his mother’s face. She looked scared. He didn’t blame her. He hadn’t mentioned the platoon of angels that had watched over the house during the semester and he didn’t plan to do so.
“The second time I saw one I was with Gabriel. I was flying properly for the first time and he spotted it. I didn’t get a good look at it. Everything happened too fast. We returned to Gracepointe almost immediately. The third time was during my classmates’ first flight. We were flying over a fjord when all of a sudden, we saw this huge, black cloud in the distance. It looked like a storm cloud. Michael and about six other angels took off toward it. Gabriel took us back home and we didn’t see Michael for the rest of the day. I think I was the last student to see him. He spoke to me that evening on the roof of my dorm. I don’t think I’ve ever been so grossed out in my life.”
“Why’s that?”
“He was almost unrecognizable. I mean, he was just covered, and I mean covered, in blood, and he didn’t even seem to notice it! He’s a weird one, Mom. I don’t understand him at all.”
“I can see why,” sighed Amelia.
Imorean grimaced at her, knowing that deep down, she was deeply upset about not being able to do anything about the situation he was in. He knew she hadn’t been this pensive since the divorce process with her second husband.
“I thought angels were supposed to be good, kind, honest creatures,” said Amelia, looking up at Imorean. There was a longing in her eyes for him to correct her.
Imorean crooked a humorless smile. “Yeah, me too. We learned really fast that they aren’t what most people make them out to be. Not in any way, shape or form.”
Chapter 27
Imorean was extremely glad to be able to walk around his hometown again at last. He had been home for a little over a week and had only just now managed to get his affairs in enough order to leave the house for a long while. He wished he hadn’t left his phone at home. He was meeting Roxy soon and couldn’t remember the exact time. As he walked, he thought about the recent news reports. There had been no more news about the storm over Romania. Imorean had scanned the internet as well and found that it seemed to have dissipated. Authorities were still searching for the culprit behind the massacre, but had found nothing. Imorean hoped that Michael had found what he was looking for in Romania. Maybe it would bring them all one step closer to being released from Gracepointe. Imorean couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to them at the end of Michael’s war or if they would even live to see the end of it. The teenager shook his head, trying to clear his head of such thoughts. They weren’t good things to dwell on.
“Imorean!” called a voice, causing him to turn. He grinned when he saw Roxy standing under a gazebo in the city park.
“Hey there,” said Imorean, turning off the sidewalk and approaching her quickly.
“I tried to call you. What happened?”
“I left my phone at home,” replied Imorean, stopping when he was next to her. “It’s not really a habit for me to carry it around with me anymore.”
“I think I’m connected to mine by an umbilical cord,” replied Roxy, tucking a lock of her hair over her shoulder. This time all of the underside of her hair was dyed blue.
“Nice color,” said Imorean. “It works for you. Brings out your eyes.”
“Thanks. This time it’s permanent.”
“You actually went through with doing that? I know you mentioned it, but I didn’t think you were serious.”
“Of course, I was,” said Roxy, smirking. A moment later, her eyes turned serious and she glanced over her shoulders. “Say, is your guard around?”
“No,” said Imorean, shaking his head. “I’m actually pretty sure Gabriel’s asleep. He seems to do a lot of that.”
“Hmm. Weird,” frowned Roxy. “I wonder why.”
“He says it fascinates him. He enjoys dreams,” said Imorean, shrugging. “He’s so different from the other angels. So much more human. He’s weird. He really tries.”
“I wish they were all like him,” sighed Roxy, kicking at a fallen twig.
“Why do you ask?”
“Come on,” said Roxy, grabbing his wrist and dragging him further away from the sidewalk and further into the park.
“What’s all this about, Roxy?” asked Imorean, glaring at his friend suspiciously as they walked to the very perimeter of the common.
Roxy looked around before she replied.
“Sorry, my guard follows me everywhere. I don’t think she ever sleeps and she’s always nearby. I think I’ve managed to give her the slip for a little while though.”
“You know you’re not supposed to be doing that. They’re here to protect us. What’s going on?” asked Imorean, feeling concerned. He gently removed his arm from Roxy’s grip and placed it into the pocket of his hoodie.
“Do you remember what I mentioned before we left Gracepointe?” asked Roxy, leaning on one of the playground’s jungle gyms.
“About running away? Yeah, of course I do.”
“I’m starting to think more seriously about it.”
“Rox. You know why we can’t do that. Demons would be all over us.”
“I don’t care.”
Imorean could barely hear her.
“I’m tired of being under their thumbs, Imorean. They keep such close watches on us all. I’m sick of it. I can’t bear it anymore,” said Roxy, meeting his eyes at last. Imorean could see frustration, fear and anger etched in them. “I think at this point I’d rather risk the demons.”
“You can’t be serious. Roxy, that’s absolutely idiotic. Don’t be stupid. You’d be killed before you crossed the Tennessee border if Michael didn’t get to you first or if some redneck didn’t shoot you.”
“You honestly think Michael would care about one hybrid going missing? Come on, Imorean. You know he doesn’t care about any of us. We’re just cogs in his war machine. Yeah, maybe he’d be down on you like a ton of bricks, but not a nobody like me.”
“That isn’t true, Roxy.”
“You think you know him, Imorean,” replied Roxy, frowning. “I don’t see where you get the idea from. I don’t claim to know him and I certainly don’t trust him. I don’t want to have to trust him with my life.”
“I’m just trying to tell you the obvious, Roxy. Do you really think your absence would go unnoticed long enough for you to get far? And even then, do you think you could hide from them?”
Roxy shrugged and looked away. She was quiet for a few minutes and Imorean swallowed, hoping he had managed to convince her to keep from making any bad choices.
“Think what you will, Imorean,” sighed Roxy, shaking her head and moving to turn away. “I know what I’m doing. I’ve got to tell you something. I know you don’t like her and I know what she did
to you was wrong, but I’ve been in contact with Bethany. She didn’t get that scholarship for financial need, Imorean. Her family is filthy rich. She says her dad can get me out of here. All she needs is my address and I gave it to her. I’m going. Soon I’ll be away from here. I’ll be free. You could come too, if you wanted. We could get away from them.”
“Roxy, listen to me,” said Imorean, grabbing hold of her wrist. “Don’t do anything stupid. It could get all of us pulled back to Gracepointe early and believe me, there would be a lot of students out for your blood if you caused that. Do you really think state lines or country borders would stop Michael from finding you?”
“I’m not doing anything stupid. If I get away, they won’t find me!” snapped Roxy, angrily pulling her wrist from Imorean’s grasp. “You know, of all the people at Gracepointe, I thought I could trust you to help me with something like this, Imorean. You hate it there as much as I do. But I guess I was wrong. You’re just too far under their control now. I’ll see you around.”
Imorean sighed in exasperation and shook his head. “I’m not under their control, Roxy. I’m just asking you not to be an idiot. It could end badly for everyone.”
“That’s about the third time you’ve insulted my intelligence today, but I guess that’s all I am, isn’t it? Imorean Frayneson’s idiot friend.”
“Roxy, that wasn’t what I meant! Roxy!” called Imorean as she turned her back on him. She didn’t look back over her shoulder, she didn’t even do so much as pause. Imorean sighed in despair, dropping his hand back to his side and his gaze to the ground. His feet moved of their own accord, taking him to a nearby bench, where he sat down heavily. Why did Roxy think her plan was a good one? He wondered if he had managed to talk some sense into her, but it didn’t seem like it. Imorean groaned aloud and ran both hands through his white hair. It was little wonder he had grayed out early. Slowly he shook his head. The thought arose to contact Gabriel, but Imorean squashed that down immediately. No. Imorean had a feeling that if Gabriel even thought that one of the students was considering disobeying the rules, they could all be sent straight back to Gracepointe. No matter how much Imorean trusted the Archangel, telling him about something like this was too big of a risk.
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