Will raced from Jenna’s room, needing to get away from her soft touch, her inviting smell, and her innocence that drew him in.
“Where are you going, mate?” James called as Will passed.
“I need to fly,” Will muttered without stopping. He jumped into the air as soon as he was out of the caves. He flew straight up into the night. The moon felt natural now that it was the real nighttime.
“It’s good to see you,” a cool voice said behind him.
He stiffened, knowing it was the Queen before he turned.
“What-“ he began but she silenced him with a look.
“Why is she still alive?” she asked.
Will had always thought the Queen was beautiful with her black hair always pulled elegantly back with her heart shaped face that had been groomed to perfection but looking closer at her he noticed for the first time she looked weak outside her kingdom, even at night when she should be her strongest.
“Is everything alright?” he asked.
Her eyes narrowed and she snapped her fingers, causing Will’s throat to fill with ice. He choked for a few minutes until she released him.
“I asked you a question, boy!” she shouted. “Now tell me why is the Sun Angel still alive?”
“There’s been some complications,” Will wasn’t afraid of the Queen physically. He knew he could kill her if he really wanted to, but he was more afraid of what she’d do to others if he disobeyed her.
He’d learned the hard way. She’d commanded him to kill a castle servant accused of treason but he warned her and even helped her hide because he knew she was innocent, the Queen had found out and killed a whole family he loved until he’d done it. The memory always filled him with hatred toward her, but he knew she wouldn’t be Queen much longer, that is, if he could keep Jenna alive.
“I’ll give you three more days,” she said icily. “If I have to do it myself, there will be serious consequences.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he nodded.
“You’ve always been my favorite, William,” she said patting his cheek. “Make me proud.”
She disappeared before he could answer. The air was warm once again with her gone. Slowly Will floated to the ground thinking hard about why the Queen even cared if Jenna lived or died. He knew she wanted to control the skies but she had to know they needed the sun. Maybe she thought killing Jenna would get them the sun.
Her threat complicated things considerably. He frowned thinking hard about what to do. How was Jenna to get her powers back? Could she even get them back?
***
“Can I talk to you?” James poked his head in Jenna’s little dirt room.
“Sure,” Jenna nodded.
James sat slowly down on the end of the dirt bed, “Some home, huh?”
Jenna laughed, “Did you really come here to talk to me about this house?”
“No, just trying to make things less awkward, I guess,” he gave her a shy smile. “Look, I first wanted to apologize for how I treated you for the last year.”
“Treated me? James, you were the only nice person in my life,” Jenna smiled. “Aside from my Dad.”
“I never talked to you. I wanted to but I had been ordered not to. I tried making things easier for you, but it’s a little hard when my mission is to watch only, never interact, although there were some incidents where we did interact.”
“And for those interactions I’m grateful for. You’ve shown me that not everyone is bad.”
“That’s the thing I wanted to talk to you about,” he shifted uncomfortably looking at his hands clasped tightly in his lap.
“What is it, James?” Jenna asked softly.
“I overheard your little, um, conversation with Will a moment ago,” James cupped his neck with his hand clearly nervous.
This should’ve caused Jenna to be mad, but really she found James refreshing and his uneasiness made her smile.
“And?”
“He left before he could tell you why we turned you mortal,” James cleared his throat. “Sit back and get comfortable. Would you like some popcorn?”
Jenna giggled, “I’m okay.”
“Right,” James rubbed his hands on his thighs trying to wipe the sweat off them. “Well I know why you two started fighting in the first place.”
“Why?” Jenna leaned forward eagerly.
“When you got involved with Silas you changed. You see, you used to be nice,” James winked. “Not as nice as you are now, but still, you weren’t cruel. Anyway, Silas did something to you and suddenly you became angry. You killed so many Angels and creatures to get Silas what he wanted.”
“I did what?” Jenna asked breathlessly.
“It put Will on alert,” James continued, “he knew Silas had done something to you and was determined to figure out what it was to change it. When he realized you were under some sort of spell of Silas’s, he and I swore to each other to occupy you, so you wouldn’t be able to carry out his orders.”
“I don’t understand,” Jenna admitted.
“Well you see, Will never hated you,” James grinned. “He tortured you out of love.”
“Are you crazy?”
James shook his head, “I know how it sounds, but really as long as you two fought, you weren’t able to do what Silas wanted, which by the way would’ve been a lot of destruction.”
“So you’re telling me that in order to stop me from killing anyone you raged war on me?”
“You got it, Love,” James smiled bigger.
“So then why did you turn me mortal?”
His smile slipped and a frown replaced it, “I don’t know for sure, but Will found out you were going to do something unimaginable, and he had to stop it.”
“What was it?”
He shrugged, “Only Will knows. I do know it was something so bad you wouldn’t be able to come back from it.”
Jenna sat back, now confused more than anything. So her and Will’s war was fake.
“How could he do such awful things to me if he still loved me?” Jenna didn’t realize she had said that out loud.
“You’d do anything for someone you love.”
“Does he still love me?” Jenna looked up at James.
He looked uneasy again.
“Tell me the truth, James.”
“He hasn’t loved you for a long time,” James said sadly. “You had captured him and whatever you did changed him.”
“Let me guess, you don’t know what I did,” Jenna tried.
“Your guess is right. Will wouldn’t talk about it; in fact when I pushed him to tell me, he almost cut off my head,” James rubbed his neck. “That was terrifying, never feared for my life until that moment.”
“I’m sorry,” Jenna patted his arm.
“Eh, I’m still here,” he smiled at her. “Can I tell you a secret?”
“Will it make me feel worse about myself?”
James took hold of her hand and squeezed it, “Don’t feel bad about yourself. Morits is strong or else people wouldn’t call him the devil. He’s a terrible excuse of an angel, but he’s still very powerful. Whatever he did to you wasn’t your fault completely.”
“Thanks,” Jenna smiled at him.
“Now, my secret,” he reminded her. “Whatever you’re doing now is changing Will.”
“What?”
“He’s changing, becoming more like himself,” he explained. “I haven’t seen him smile for a very long time and now that you’re back, I’ve heard him actually laugh!”
“But-“
“He’s coming back,” James stood, “he won’t like it if he finds me here.”
“Why?”
“He can be a bit, um,” James edged to the entryway. “He can be a little jealous sometimes.”
Jenna didn’t know how to respond, so she just looked at him.
He winked, “There’s always two sides to one story, Love, try to be understanding before you judge him too harshly. He’s gone through more than you know.”
<
br /> “Thanks, James,” Jenna smiled before he disappeared.
Will came into her room and leaned against the doorway, “What was James doing in here?”
“He was telling me why you did what you did,” Jenna answered standing up.
He pushed away from the doorway, “What did he say?”
Jenna looked at her memory with new eyes. She could understand why he tortured her and she felt grateful for it. She walked up to him and without saying a word put her arms around his neck and hugged him fiercely. He was taken by surprise and hesitated at first, but slowly his body relaxed, and he wrapped his arms around her bringing her closer.
He could feel the door of hope opening wider. He didn’t know whether or not he could keep it closed much longer. Breathing deep he took in her sweet smell and ending up wanting more. Not only did he want to smell her, but he wanted to taste her lips to see if they were still as sweet as he remembered. He imagined they’d be sweeter since her smell was, but could only find out one way and right now Will wasn’t ready for that.
Jenna pulled away before he wanted her to, but he didn’t stop her. He didn’t want her to know exactly how much he cared.
“What was that for?” he asked roughly.
“Thank you,” Jenna smiled and stepped back looking embarrassed.
“For?”
“Keeping me from destroying the world.”
Will frowned, “It wasn’t fun for me, Angel.”
“Doesn’t make me any less grateful,” Jenna smiled. “Can you tell me one thing?”
Will nodded, wanting to please her but afraid of the question she might ask.
“What was I going to do the reason you turned me mortal?”
He ran his hands through his hair taking a deep breath. He didn’t want to tell her and ruin her good mood. He wanted to kiss her instead, anything but tell her how close she came to destroying everything.
“Will?” she laid her hand on his arm and shook him gently.
“I don’t want to say,” he said quietly.
“Will, you promised you’d tell me the truth.”
“Except I’m not telling you to protect you.”
“Will,” Jenna was getting impatient.
“Okay,” he threw his hands up in the air. “We did it because you were going to hand Silas the Sun.”
“What?” Jenna asked more confused than anything else.
“The Sun. If Silas were to get the Sun the world would burn.”
“That’s it!” Jenna hissed grinning.
“What’s it?” Will asked startled by her reaction. He’d expected her to cry or scream. Her reactions threw him off even more. She was so different.
“I had to tell you something the night you turned me,” Jenna explained. “That’s what the suit guy altered! The memory of Silas trying to get me to give him the Sun! It has to be!”
“You could be right,” Will said slowly thinking back to that night.
“I am right! I even told Mae there was something Silas wanted from me but you wouldn’t listen,” Jenna was too excited to hold still and started pacing. “But you already knew! That’s why you turned me mortal! You were stopping me!”
“We already know all that,” Will rolled his eyes.
“But what you wouldn’t listen to is that I was trying to stop Silas!”
“What?”
“Yeah!” Jenna nodded stepping toward him. “At least I believe that’s what I was trying to do. You see I told Mae that I had to make things right. So I’m guessing I was trying to fix the mess I made with Silas!”
“Oh, Jenna!” Will sat down heavily on the bed.
“Are you okay, Will?” Jenna rushed over to him.
“If that’s what you were trying to do before I turned you mortal then I made a huge mistake!”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t even know if you can get your power back,” he clasped his hands together tightly.
“I can!” She pulled the leather book out from a bag she’d taken from Mae’s house and handed it to him. “I’m trusting you with this, don’t make me regret it.”
He looked up at her and nodded as he reached out slowly to take it. He opened it and skimmed the pages. He turned each page faster until he stopped at one particular page.
“This is it!” he exclaimed standing.
“I know!”
“Where did you get this book?”
“I got it from Mae.”
“She had it the whole time?” He growled.
“I gave it to her sometime after you turned me. I’d stolen it but I don’t know who from.”
“Let’s go,” he smiled at her.
“Right now?” she asked surprised.
“Why not?”
“Okay,” Jenna grinned back.
“I’ll gather everyone and meet you at the opening.” Will hurried from the room.
***
“What are we doing?” Lena asked as she yawned.
“We’re going to restore Jenna’s power, idiot,” James muttered.
“Now?” Lena snapped awake.
“No, we woke you out of fun,” James said sarcastically. “What kind of Guardian are you?”
“Shut up, Dark One,” she hissed.
“How about both of you shut up,” Will growled. “I’ll fly with Jenna. James you get the Guardian.”
“Damn,” James grumbled. “Alright, Guardian. Come here.”
Lena didn’t look any happier to be carried by James. Jenna and Will smiled at each other as they took off into the night.
They flew for a few hours before landing.
“Are we here?” Jenna asked looking for orange rocks but only seeing buildings.
“No, we need to rest,” Will was breathing hard from flying fast.
James had dropped Lena when they were still a good twenty feet in the air. Lena yelled up a string of curse words but landed lightly on her feet.
Jenna couldn’t help but be impressed. She scowled at James who just smiled and dropped down too. Will had taken his time and landed softly.
“Lena, go get some food,” he ordered.
“For all of us?”
“No, just the two of you.”
Lena nodded and took off into the darkness. James and Will stood closely, whispering about something. Jenna was about to butt in when her phone in her pocket began to vibrate. She pulled it out and found she had twenty-six missed calls from her dad, and he was calling again.
“Dad?” Jenna quickly answered.
“Jenna!” he yelled, “where are you!?”
“I don’t know, actually,” she looked around for a hint but found nothing. “Will, where are we?”
“You’re with Will?!”
“Dad, calm down,” she sighed. “I went and saw Mae; she restored what she could of my memories and now Will is taking me to get my power.”
“No, Jenna! Listen to me!” her dad began cutting up.
“What? Dad, you’re breaking up!”
“I’m coming to you! Stay where you are!” her dad yelled into the phone before the call was cut off.
“Jenna?” Lena asked, “who was that?”
“That was my Dad,” she said slowly trying to redial his number, but it gave a busy signal.
“What did he want?” Will asked.
“He said he was coming to me and to stay where I was,” she tried again but got the same busy signal. “Dammit!”
“Oh wow!” Lena’s eyes got wide. “Jenna means business!”
“Shut up, Guardian!” Jenna snapped, irritated.
Lena stepped back in shock as Will and James laughed.
“We need to wait for my Dad,” Jenna said looking at Will.
“We don’t have time, Angel,” he answered.
“He’s my Dad, Will; I can’t just leave him.”
“He’d actually be good to have on our side,” James pointed out.
“Fine!” Will turned and stormed down the street. “Follow me.”
&nb
sp; “Where?”
“We’re going to get a hotel,” he called over his shoulder, “you don’t want to be on the streets tonight.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lena slipped away while Will got a room for them, and James surveyed the skies. Jenna followed Will but stayed back from the front desk.
Instead she wandered around the lobby reading different signs as Will talked to the deskman.
“Just one room,” Will was saying.
“How many guests?” the man asked.
“Two.”
Jenna looked over at them and found the deskman staring at her intently. She glanced away and then back again-- the man was still staring, hungrily.
“Alright, sir,” the man looked away and began typing on his computer. “That’ll come to ninety eight fifty.”
Will handed him a card and Jenna turned away now reading the breakfast menu. She didn’t realize the two men had finished until Will was next to her.
“Don’t look at him and follow me,” he whispered.
Jenna nodded and followed Will down the hallway to the elevators. Will jabbed the up button and then leaned back against the wall casually looking up and down the hallway. Jenna looked too and found the deskman at the sign they’d just left. He was pretending to straighten it, but Jenna knew he was watching them.
She turned her back on him knowing Will had his eye on him. Ignoring the uneasiness growing as they waited for the elevator, Jenna started humming.
The elevator dinged just as Jenna was about to look at the man again. She rushed onto the elevator, and Will quietly followed her. They waited until the doors closed.
“What was that about?” Jenna whispered.
“You need to learn how to relax,” Will smiled, “and to answer your question, that man is a demon.”
“What?” Jenna gasped.
“Don’t worry; he won’t try anything.”
“How do you know?”
“He knows who I am,” Will answered simply. “He’d be stupid to even try.”
The elevator reached their floor and as the elevator doors opened they revealed the deskman standing there, his eyes red.
The Sun Angel Page 18