An Angel, A Demon, A Candle 5q1og

AN ANGEL, A DEMON, A CANDLE

Cordelia Faass

Copyright © 2012 by Cordelia Faass.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012920959 ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4797-4674-3 Softcover 978-1-4797-4673-6 Ebook 978-1-4797-4675-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

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

Chapter 1

I strongly despise with a fiery ion Prologues

Some people believe that death is just the end of life. Others believe death is a age to another life, or another style of living. To one girl, death was life, and life was death. She was brave, and when she lacked courage, she shined with her kindness. She was my hero. She saw the light in each person and knew the darkness; something I only dream of being able to do. If you are like me, you are different in your own unique way. Nobody seems to accept you; nobody seems to like you, but you somehow find the strength and courage to be yourself anyway because you just don’t care what others think of you anymore. These are the last chapters of the life of Ariella Zemra Nightengale, treat them with respect. Yours truly, DAM

Chapter 2

Dear whoever reads this, For your information, I am writing this on what may possibly be the last day of my not-so-long (second) life. I will try to and reveal to you the events of my second life, but though my memory is brilliant, it is not always as reliable as it once was. I want to apologize to everyone I’ve hurt, everyone who died under my responsibility, and, well, everyone who deserves an apology from me. Daliah, Mertyle, August, Austin, Thomas, and Alex, you will always be the reason why I am doing what I am now doing. So I guess, now I will tell you my story from the beginning of my second life, and I hope that the world will never forget me. To begin, I’ll explain some of my history from before my first death. I was that shy girl who almost never talks, who sits in the back of the class, and who has, maybe, one friend. I was Ariella Zemra Nightengale, freshman (fresh meat) at the Amberberg Telushkin School. At my old school, Strickler Downingtown Middle School (SD), I wasn’t very popular with anyone either. I had three mottos I lived by: emotions are your biggest weakness; keep calm in the face of danger and/or fear; and never, ever, supply the bullets for your executioner. These are the three mottos that I plan to die with. Anyway, that was then; last year, I transferred to a mostly artistic school: the Telushkin School in Amberberg, Pennsylvania. Many fun things happen at Telushkin. It’s what you might expect from a high school where the total number of students is somewhere around 70 (not including teachers, of course; that makes it around 80 some). News there spreads really fast, too. Who’s with who, who got what on this, who got that, who got detention, who’s doing this tonight or that tomorrow, who’s having a party this weekend, with or without drugs, etcetera, but there is one important thing, that never went around through the gossip river, and that one thing seemed impossible; but it was so important that it changed my life.

Chapter 3

Anyway, in my new school, I met a boy named Thomas Vincent Lehrs. Within my two weeks of school, we were in a relationship. He’s very lucky that I still consider him a friend, after what we’ve been through. Anyway, time lapse to that spring break. I went to New Orleans, Louisiana, to help clean up the Lower 9th Ward after Katrina (a very large, very deadly hurricane that flooded New Orleans) and plant tree saplings in the swamp. While I was there, I met one of the other guests helping plant tree saplings in the Hilton Hotel elevator. At the time, he seemed like he was just another middle-aged, friendly guest. Little did I know this guest was about to change my life. I didn’t know at the time that I was an Angel or the truths about what Angels were. In fact, in Hebrew School (I am Jewish), we were discussing how Angels, no matter how glorified they are by the church, are just messengers. Not that it matters. Everyone has a little bit of good and bad in them. Even if you are labeled “Angel” or “Demon.” Anyway, after the incident in the elevator, I started to see that man everywhere: Bourbon Street, the hotel, the hallways, and the airport. At first, I thought it was just a coincidence. After all, New Orleans, though magnificent, is truly a very small city, and there were tons of people there that weekend for community service, including him. My thinking of our meetings being accidental lasted until we got onto the plane that was headed back to Pennsylvania. My mom, dad, and little sister sat together on the other side of the plane while I was stuck between the man from the elevator and another man. It was almost frightening to me. When the plane took off, I noticed my family was asleep. Actually, it seemed as if everyone on the plane was asleep, or rather everyone but me and the men on either side of me. “Look,” I said with a hint of seriousness in my voice, turning to the man I had met on the elevator, “what do you want from me? You can’t kill me; we’re on a freaking plane. You can’t stalk me; I’ll call the cops. Just leave me alone, ok? I don’t have time for silly games. I have a life, a school, friends, a family, and plenty of worries on my plate without you intruding like an unwanted vegetable

and possibly ruining my life.” “Ariella please, calm down, I am here to protect you, not harm you. Ariella, do you believe in Angels?” asked the man, asking the question with his body as well as his voice. He seemed to me a little… off. Friendly, but off. “No. Why should I?” I asked skeptically, turning my head so I could see the other man in my peripheral vision. I had a very bad feeling about the man from the elevator, especially because he mentioned “Angels.” He seemed harmless enough, but I knew to never judge a book by its cover. “You should, because you are an Angel, a very special Angel, specifically the Angel of Inner Beauty, and my dear friend and I,” he said, motioning to himself and the extremely creepy person on the other side of me, “are here to protect you until you are safe.” “Safe from what? Do you really think I believe this bull? Do you? Get away from me!” I shouted very loudly and threateningly, hoping to freak him out or wake up my mom. Or dad. Or sister. Anyone would do, really. Even the flight attendants were asleep. It was like a spell was cast over everyone, making them sleep; and to make things better, I felt like I was alone in the world between two psychopaths. I was just hoping the plane wouldn’t crash. “Ariella, calm down! I told you Arthur; I told you she would do this. I told you she’d freak. Look kid, were not here for your protection, we’re here to protect your family and to protect the other engers on this plane. And don’t worry about your so-called ‘friends.’ Do you even realize how much damage you can cause, if you get mad, or upset, or show even a sliver of emotion? No, you don’t, you can’t even recognize help when it’s being handed to you on a silver plate! You could honestly kill everyone on this plane in a matter of seconds without the proper training, without our proper training” shouted the very creepy man on the other side of me, putting emphasis on “our,” like there was someone else looking for me. I did not like him. And I know I never will. “Bah humbug,” I said to him, trying to use the most threatening, emotionless expression I could. I needed to calm down; I was starting to lose the feeling of self-control. “Ariella, you either listen to us or…” started the man. He had pushed me too far.

“I’m sick of this! Leave me alone!” I said, reacting by punching him square in the face, making his nose bleed. Meltdown moment. I was beginning to seriously freak out. “Ariella, you know this happens to you; all the time. You show no emotions, because you know that strange things happen when you do, strange, unexplainable things; and, on the rare occasion you do show emotion, you can’t what happened. Don’t you want answers?” asked Arthur, holding my hands tightly so I couldn’t punch him, looking me straight in the eyes, and speaking quickly, like I would hit him before listening. I didn’t realize he was such a smart man. “Say I do believe you. So what? Last time I checked, I don’t have wings. My parents don’t know you, so they won’t let me go anywhere with you, and I am not a Christian,” I said, pulling my hands free, and feeling proud, I stood up for myself for once. I tried to calm down. “Ariella, my dear, time and religion is not an obstacle for Angels. No one has, well almost no one has wings, and your training will replace an afterschool sport, like the situation for all the other Angels with normal parents. No one normal can know about Angels. It’s a rule that no one can break, it’s been, for lack of a better word, jinxed,” he said. “So I can’t even say ‘Angel’ around ‘normal’ people?” I asked in confusion. “Yes, you can, but they won’t it,” he said. “I can’t do this. My plan is to make a difference in the world, to be someone, not be some fictional character from a story book,” I said, trying to focus on my dreams of saving animals, meeting people, fitting in, writing a book. I thought then that if I chose that path, I’d never reach my goals in life. “You can do it, and you will make a difference. I promise,” he said, and I couldn’t help but smile, but little did I know, that moment I changed my life. Forever.

Chapter 4

Another time lapse, two days forward. My first day of Angel training. My job was to go into the school’s locker room, go to one of the showers, and turn the shower on. There were two other girls who were in there with me, that I was glad they were there: Angelica (Angi) Copper and Lauren Blan. “Hay Ari!” said the bubbly Angi, coming into the locker room just as I had finished changing into new clothes, Lauren followed close behind. “Hi Angi. Hi Lauren,” I said, including Lauren, who wasn’t very nice to me. “You looking for something?” asked Lauren innocently, but coldly. “Naw, I’m just going to take a quick shower. I had blacksmithing, and I missed the bus,” I explained, sending her the same heartless vibes she sent me. “You’re an Angel, aren’t you?” asked Lauren barely waiting for me to finish. “Not sure, I don’t think I know what I am anymore,” I answered, trying not to show my regret. She and Angi then showed me how to use the showers to get in and out of the mysterious Angel School. “And , we don’t know you, our ‘normal’ names are to be kept secret,” said Angi in her sunshiny voice, and adding a friendly smile to soften the blow of infinite rejection. “But, we got your back if you need it, just call us,” said Lauren, with a smile. Then, we left. When I got there, I found myself on a small blue and white tile platform facing an old-fashioned wooden door. There was a window behind me, and when I looked outside, there was no ground, just miles and miles of blue sky and bubbling white clouds. A floating school, surrounded with a few miles of fake dirt, surrounded by a group of white, fluffy cotton-ball clouds, which would make most kids my age smile. I was not so smiley, so far from the nice, solid ground, it just made me panic.

After wandering around in circles for a while, I discovered the blueprint was like my new high school. I could hear fellow students down one hallway. From what I could hear, I guessed that there were about thirty more kids than in my high school, but still that’s about 150 less than the eighth grade at SD. And, I was the only one there without an Angel name. Literally, no one knew my name. It was the first day at Telushkin all over again. “Good, you made it, I was about to think you had changed your mind… ,” said a voice behind me. It was Arthur. I turned around and almost knocked him over before I knew it was him. He was carrying two large, heavy-looking books. “You’re lucky my parents bought the detention story,” I said as he handed me the two very large, very heavy books he was carrying. “It wasn’t luck. The one on top is a book of names available, and names taken. Consider it a directory. The names taken have an address next to them. You get to pick your own name, because there is no record of a previous one for you. The second one is a book of Chants and Incantations. You must study them, if you are to progress in Angel Incantations. The higher the level, the more Incantations and Chants you can learn. The book is Incanted so as soon as you level up, the new Chants and Incantations will add themselves in,” said Arthur, and then he gave me a smile of ice and said “Oh, and here, I am Mr. Cruncher.” “Al-righty then,” I said, attempting to juggle the oversized books in my hands, trying to look for a name. I knew I probably needed something I could , but I also knew I had to like it. “Can my name be Luna? It doesn’t look like it’s taken.” Luna has always been my favorite name. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always loved that name. “If it’s not taken, it’s yours. Come in Luna, dinner is about to start,” said Mr. Cruncher, opening the doors to the cafeteria, and holding them open for me. This is where the first of my troubles as an Angel began. As Mr. Cruncher opened the doors to the cafeteria, I saw a group of kids (and some teachers) that I knew were from Telushkin, Pioneer (the high school I would have gone to), and some other schools; but the person that stood out to me was Thomas, who was in the dinner line, flirting with another girl. Think of it as seeing your star-football-playing boyfriend with a hot cheerleader. I thanked Mr. Cruncher, sat down at the nearest empty table, and began to speed read through

the book of Incantations and Chants; I was mad at it for not having a table of contents. “If you’re looking for food Incantations, the good ones begin on page 2,643,” said a girl’s voice, and somehow, I recognized it. It was my friend Mertyle, and she had recognized me too. I was so glad to see her, to see that there was someone who wouldn’t reject me. I had missed going to school with her. We used to be like inseparable sisters. “I’m not looking for those, but I’ll keep that in mind. I’m Luna, I’m new here,” I said, as she put down her tray, sitting across from me, like how we sat at SD during lunch. I tried to the rules, but the only ones I knew were (1) don’t tell ‘normals’ and (2) here, Angel names only. “Luna, huh? I’m Victoria,” she said, nodding her head with an approving smile. “What you looking for?” “An Incantation to change my appearance,” I said, nodding my head toward Thomas, who she met once, but knew all about. “Ahhh, him, yeah, we have a couple of classes together, his name’s Zaniel,” she said, quickly dragging me across the room into a closet while simultaneously flipping the pages of my book to page 6,189, and pointed for me to read. “Parvo ad erit pulchra,” I said, and I felt myself begin to change. I watched myself in the reflection of the pure silver hand mirror with hand carvings of cats that Mertyle pulled out of her bag and gave me. My brown hair became neat, and silky, and more strawberry blond; my skin lost its battle scars from multiple fights from yesteryears, gaining a perfect tan, feeling extremely smooth like a river stone; my eyes went from a dullish deep blue, becoming a brilliant pale gray-blue, with gold streaks streaming from the small, black pupil. Thank goodness, I had already changed my clothes. “Gosh Luna, are you an Angel of Something?” gasped Mertyle, staring at my newly symmetrical face. “Angel of Inner Beauty, you?” I asked, dog-earing the page and handing the silver mirror back over to Mertyle. “Oh Luna, you never lost your sense of humor, did you? Only a few of people

are Angels of something! I should have guessed it too,” she laughed, pushing my shoulder playfully. Then she took a picture with something that looked like a cross between a make-up case and a camera. I stood up, and got in line behind Thomas, right as his Angel girlfriend left to get in another line. “You new here, aren’t you,” said Thomas, handing me a tray from the stack. “Yeah, first day,” I said shyly, trying not to show I was shocking myself. My voice had changed too. Mertyle had outdone herself. “Ahhh, I’m Zaniel, I’m from the Telushkin School in Amberberg,” he said blankly. “Oh cool! I’m from the Pioneer school,” I said excitedly, “Oh, and my name’s Luna.” “I know a girl who would kill to have that as her name,” said Thomas, seeming to drift off to his memories. Well, at least he seemed to me. “Same! That’s funny; she transferred to your school this year! Maybe you know her! That’d be awesome, if we had the same friend! Her name’s Ariella Nightengale! Ring a bell?” I asked, trying to sound like a ‘blonde’ cheerleader. “Um… freshman, about 5'10”ish, brown hair, super shy?” he said, trying to move away from me, hiding his face. “Yeah, that’s her! Oh Ari, she’s so silly!” I said, still attempting “blonde” and cheery. “Yeah, look, I have to go,” said Thomas, jumping out of line. And I smiled, because I knew he was going to talk to his Angel girlfriend.

Chapter 5

I left the empty tray in line without having dinner, told Mertyle I had to go, and she helped change me back. When I got home that night, I had the best sleep I think I’ve ever had. The next morning, Thomas came up to me while I was reading in the library about Greek mythology, and I couldn’t help but smirk. “There is something I want to say,” said Thomas in a sad voice. “There is something we need to discus,” I said, folding the corner of the page in my book and closing it. “First, know I can’t tell you who I am, because people like me can’t tell people like you. It’s really complicated,” said Thomas, as I stood up. “Why not Zaniel, did your girlfriend say you don’t have to talk to me about it?” I said, turning toward him in rage, being careful to control my anger. I didn’t want to lose “How do you…” started the confused Thomas. “Don’t judge a book by her cover, you should have figured out by now that I’ve always been a fast learner,” I interrupted with another smirk. I felt like a jerk, saying what I did, and how I did, but he needed to know how I felt. And I felt beating him up would not get the point across correctly. He laughed a depressing laugh, like one you would make if you studied really hard for the SATs, and then you found out you bombed it. “Not possible,” he said, shaking his head back and forth. “Check the address book, genius, and then tell me it’s impossible,” I said, walking away to my next class. I felt like a jerk, leaving him there, mouth open like a fish out of water. Later that day, after dinner, Mertyle and I had self-defense for an hour.

“So,” said Mertyle, as I dodged a punch at my face from her. I cursed her stupid black belt in karate “How’d it go?” “Well,” I said with a smile as I threw her on the ground, “very well.” “Ready to learn something new?” She asked as a red head was thrown to the floor by her partner a few feet in front of me, and landed, again, with a very loud thud. “Sure,” I said, preparing to end up like the red head. “Watch,” she said, “punch me.” Easy enough, I decided to change things up a bit and punched with my left. She grabbed my arm and tripped me, and I rolled out of the way as she leaned down to punch my face as hard as she could. When her fist hit the mat, the sound echoed through the room. Then, I tripped her, and pinned her down. Of course, Mr. Cruncher came in just as I managed to pin her down. “Luna, you seem to be doing excellent, has your friend taught you self-defense Incantations yet?” he asked, looking at me as he helped Mertyle up. “Umm… ,” I started. “Not yet sir,” said Mertyle, in her I’m-completely-innocent-but-will-kill-you-inyour-sleep voice. It was beginning to rub off on me. “Ok, well tomorrow you should teach her as many as you can, it will be important if we ever send her on a quest. Or hunting,” said Mr. Cruncher. Then, without an answer, he turned around, and left. “Hunting?” I asked, looking at Mertyle as we walked over to the lockers to get our books. I am a huge er of anti-open season; hunting is not something I will do willingly. “Yeah, hunting Demons, you get sent to random places around the world, and attack people trying to kill you. It’s actually cool, you know, when they send you to awesome places. There is a girl at level 6 who got to go to South America for a hunting tour. Otherwise, it’s a bit of a pain,” said Mertyle, accompanying me out of the gym, talking about how she was going to be the best Demon hunter in the world.

“So, why do we hunt Demons?” I asked at the end of her story. “’Cuz if we don’t, the Fates come after us, sayin’ that we aren’t keeping the peace, and then we have some bigger issues on our hands.” She said. “Fates?” I asked. Never heard of a fate. “Sorry, I forget sometimes you didn’t grow up like the rest of us. Fates are faceshifting sticks in the muds who are the police equivalent in our world. They have the territories between the Demon Villages and the City,” explained Mertyle. “What?” I asked. I didn’t really understand. “The City? The City is the only place where peace between all races are. The Fates, the Fairies, the Crosslings, the Lupinus, and the Ickors. Fairies are blue, tree-hugging, winged pains in the neck, Crosslings are elvish-like things that are crossed with their auras’, the Lupinus are your shape shifters, but most of the time your classic werewolf, and Ickors are your classic vampires. Sometimes. Fun fact, it’s been a while since the Ickors and the Lupinus made any kind of political moves.” explained Mertyle. Like that helped any. I just hoped I’d never run into any of those things, because I was sure we wouldn’t get along.

Chapter 6

I’m just going to skip what happens in regular school now. Just about nothing had ever happened there compared to the curious events that had happened in Angel School. Angie and Lauren started to talk to me, and Thomas was skipping school, but that was about all that happened. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t care Thomas wasn’t coming to school; I assumed he couldn’t face me. Or was sick with embarrassment. Anyway, that Thursday I had a solo Chants and Incantations class with Mertyle, because Mr. Cruncher didn’t want me to become “popular” with other students. Like that would have happened. No one there talked to me. “Check list,” shouted Mertyle as she kicked open the door to the empty chemistry lab, her hands full with books. “Ok,” I said, looking around the almost-empty room. Other than the unusual smells, lab tables, safety equipment, and the door in the back of the room, the room was empty. No posters, no teacher’s desk, no nothing. “Why are we in the chem lab?” I asked. “Books,” shouted Mertyle, ignoring my question, throwing her Vera-Bradley bag on one of the lab tables, and heading for the door in the back of the room. “Check,” I confirmed, lightly putting my books on the table next to hers. “Brain,” joked Mertyle, bringing a willow tree sapling from the room in the back to the desk we were working at. “Yeah, yeah, what’s the tree for, oh smart one?” I asked, rolling my eyes and moving my books out of the way of the tree. “Ok, ok,” she said, opening my book to page 84 and pointing at one of the many Incantations. “Arbore referri mei,” I said, reading under her pointed finger. Then, the sapling

on the table began to grow, so I quickly picked it up and carefully put it on the floor. The tree grew into a life-sized copy of me, but without a face. This must be where the myth of dryads came from. “Wicked.” I mumbled. “Now change it back,” said Mertyle, reaching into her bag. “Redire normali,” I said, reading the text underneath the previous Incantation, and the tree quickly went back to normal. “This is a good Incantation for when you need more hands,” said Mertyle, pulling out an 1862 Spanish sword, a stuffed orange cat with ivory claws, and a mask inspired by the cover of the 150th anniversary edition of Moby-Dick. “What are these for?” I asked. She replied by turning the page to 93, and pointing at an Incantation for me to read. “Quasi mei,” I read, reading the small print under her finger. Then she guided my hand to touch the tip of the sword, the claws of the cat, and trace the lines on the mask. She then silently handed me her hand mirror, as my nails became sharp, and the fingers they were attached to easily curl. I looked in the mirror to see blue scars on my face like veins. “What is the purpose of that?” I asked, testing the flexibility of my fingers. “You now have ten tiny retractable daggers, ready for self-defense when you are. The mask makes you unrecognizable. Now change back,” she said, putting her objects back in her bag, and reaching around for something else. “Relinquunt mei solum,” I said, again reading under the first Incantation. My fingers and their nails returned to their original state, and the marks on my face instantly vanished. She pulled out a cat carrier, in it, containing her black pet cat, Sparkles (named by her little brother). She released the cat on the table, and turned the page to 108 and pointed. “Felem lumina,” I said, and I blinked. In the split second it took for my eyes to blink, they had been repositioned, and I could see what Sparkles saw. It was spectacular and terrifying at the same time. “Change back,” she commanded, holding the book in front of the cat, as the notcat me could recite the reversal Incantation.

“Oculis,” I said, and in the blink of an eye, I could see normally again. “Spy stuff?” “Yep, as you increase levels, the Incantation gives you more control over the animal, so when you’re, let’s say, level five, you can walk around as the animal,” she said, putting her cat away and replacing it with a brick, opening the book to page 118, and pointing. “Perluciduli corpore,” I read, and nothing happened. “Put you’re hand through the brick,” said Mertyle. I looked at the clock on the wall. Five minutes. I put my hand on the brick and leaned, not expecting anything to happen. Wrong expectation. I fell through the brick, through the table, and onto the floor. Mertyle was laughing her head off at me. “Rursus normali,” I growled, changing back the way I was before. “Let’s go, you’ll need your rest, I have a feeling Mr. Cruncher will want you to study hunting tomorrow after your test,” said Mertyle, her eyes giving me a look of pity. A look that was so rare, so unwonted, it sent shivers down my spine.

Chapter 7

Angel School, Friday, the day of my level 1 test. I spent the entire day studying my book of Incantations and Chants, everything in there from Abacinate to Zygadenus. I didn’t know what to expect, and no one could give me the smallest hint as to what my test would be like. Angie’s first test was a test of endurance, she had to run for six miles in under two hours; Lauren’ first was that she had to find her way out of a cornfield in the dark; Mertyle’s first test was she had to navigate through a city busier than Beijing, China, without getting jumped; I was excited and a little nervous to find out what my test was going to be. When I finally got to Angel School, Angie (Safire), Lauren (Olivine), Mertyle (Victoria), and Mr. Cruncher escorted me outside. “Well, go on in, you have an hour to get out. Good luck,” said Mr. Cruncher as I looked at the opening between the hedges. I concentrated on breathing and reciting the Incantations and Chants in my head. I reached my first obstacle going around the first corner. It looked like an old vintage mirror from grandmother’s house. “Incendere ut fraxinus,” I said confidently to the mirror, hoping it was just a mirror. The mirror, thankfully, quickly turned to ash, as it was supposed to. I felt proud that I had ed that Incantation. I don’t know why I was so proud, may it was the first one I used. Well, first one I used to do something more productive. Then the pile of ash began to smoke. Then it caught on fire. “Aquaderum,” I said, holding my hands over the fire, allowing a light sprinkle of water to cover the ash, before the fire could go much further. Not surprisingly, the hedges didn’t burst into flames as well. I kept walking, until I came to a fork in my path. On the left was fog; on the right was pitch black, like a black hole. I went to the left through the fog and heard crunching under my feet. At the end of the fog I saw the ground I was walking on was covered with broken glass. Ahead at the fork in the path, there were large crystals that looked like they were made of glass. The crystals reflected tiny beautiful, colorful rainbows onto the dark green hedges. I reached out my hand to touch one and it felt like water. Looking at the crystal as I touched it, I saw ripples go through the crystal like a

droplet on water. The beauty of the crystals was paralyzing. Though they blocked my way, I almost didn’t want to continue. I could have looked at them forever, until I took my hand off. When I removed my hand from the crystal, I saw that my hand was badly burned, and smoke came off my fingertips. “Tergum ut primo statu,” I said sadly, holding out the palm of my hand to the beautiful crystals. They melted quickly into sand, revealing the next fork in the road. On the right side, the hedges grew thick black thorns and faded quickly into darkness, while on the left side, the hedges had beautiful blue, purple, and white flowers, and it seemed to be in the perfect sunlight. Because I felt the obvious choice would have been to go left, I went right. The sharp thorns reached out and grabbed at me as I ran down the path. I began to run faster as the thorny hedges began to close in on me. At the end of the slowly shrinking path between the thorns, there was a small clearing, and in the center of the clearing was a small white door made of wood. I looked around and I thought I saw a man in a black suit hiding his face with a black top hat, and a girl standing next to him in a black mourning dress with black and red hair and sad purple eyes, but I dismissed them as if he and the girl were a hallucination and opened the door. Through the door, I saw Mr. Cruncher, Angie, Lauren, and Mertyle. “I believe you have set a new record for this test, Miss Nightengale, you completed in twenty-five minuets, let alone ing on your first try. Congratulations. I think that’s enough stress for you for one day. We’ll talk about hunting on Monday,” said Mr. Cruncher with a smile. I couldn’t tell if he was impressed or not, but the girls ran up to me and engulfed me in a group hug. Little did we know that was the last time they would be hugging me for a long time, and my last hug from them in one piece.

Chapter 8

That night, like every other night, I went to sleep in my bed, in my room, in my house. The next morning I opened my eyes and woke up on the edge of a roof, on an old run-down building, tied tightly to a wood chair. I looked at the other buildings around me. The building next to the one I was on, I counted, was fourteen stories high, meaning this building was thirteen stories down; so jumping off didn’t appear to be a reasonable option. Even better, I am ever so slightly afraid of heights, so I was ever so slightly not calm. I tried to calm down by whispering short Chants for levitation, but it’s hard to Chant when there is a cloth constricting your vocal cords around your mouth. I tried to access the situation. I was tied to a chair, I was on a roof, and it was creaking, in a small pattern, which meant someone was coming. “Scared?” mocked a voice I knew very well. Julia Berkley, top of the popular (i.e., bully) totem pole from SD. Her favorite hobby at school was teasing me about being adopted, being Jewish, being allergic to milk, and liking poetry. I was anything but scared of her. She loosened the cloth around my mouth. “Nope, not of you. Seeing as I’m the one tied up, you must be afraid of me,” I smirked. I can kick Julia’s butt with or without fancy Incantations if she would have just untied me. She was a girly girl; I was a tomboy. She had boys to wrestle for her, I wrestled with boys. “I’ll untie you,” she said, leaning over me, putting her hands behind her back as we looked each other in the eye “if you tell me where she is.” “Where who is? There has to be at least 3 billion ‘she’s’ on this planet,” I said smartly, hoping to annoy her. She slapped me across the face, hard. I laughed coldly as she watched her hand turn from a “perfect-peach” to an “overripe tomato.” That was obviously the answer she wasn’t looking for. “The Angel of Inner Beauty, you idiot, your friend Thomas tells me she goes to your school. You are the only person he says might know,” she said with fury. I was too busy planning how I was going to torture Thomas to respond immediately.

“What is the Angel of Inner Beauty? This is the first I’ve heard of an Angel of Inner Beauty,” I said, sounding confused, as I looked her in the eyes. I thought I was very convincing. “Let’s go ask you’re friend, shall we?” she asked. Then she put a tight black sack that was lying on the ground next to the chair over my head, and began to lead me to go down what I believed was a flight of stairs (I figured such because I was warned of the constant need to step down). She was either being careless, or was in a rush, because we barely took three steps before falling through the wooden stairs. I, however unlikely, landed on my feet. Julia, however, was not as fortunate. Even though I couldn’t see, I could still hear her dying-bird screaming from her pain, and felt that the floor was wet, and something told me it wasn’t wet from water. I heard a door open and slam close, then running footsteps. “Julia!” cried a young boy’s voice, one I couldn’t identify. Julia just kept screaming. “We fell,” I tried to explain, realizing that there was blood coming out of a gash in my leg and left arm, “or at least, I think we did.” “Then how in the spirit’s unholy fire are you ok?” asked the boy impatiently. “I wouldn’t consider myself ok if I am bleeding,” I said, trying to swallow the rush of pain, “Can you take this off of me? I might be able to help.” “Stupid girl, stupid stupid girl,” said the boy, grabbing my hurt arm and dragging me. Then he forced me to sit down, tied me up, and took off my blindfold. The first thing I saw was a scrawny, ginger-haired boy with dark snake-emerald eyes and pale-white skin, turning and walking around another prisoner and slammed the open door. It was Thomas, his face and clothes were soaked with blood, old and new. “Hey,” he said, trying to smile comfortingly. “Hi,” I said, trying not to show any emotion. “What happened to us?” he asked with confusion. “Can’t we get out of here? With an Incantation or something,” I asked impatiently, looking for the knot. I wanted to avoid that question for the time

being. How could he even think of asking that and not survival? “Demon knots. Incantations don’t work,” he said, “unless you happened to the Final Exam, be the Angel of Inner Beauty or a Demon, neither of us are getting out until one of us can untie the knot, which I don’t know about you, but I can’t do that without moving my hands, which, in the position we’re in, is impossible.” “Fun,” I said, trying to wiggle myself out of the knot. Then Julia screamed in pain again, gasping between screams. “What happened to you? That’s a nasty gash,” he said, trying to sound concerned about my leg. “We fell through the stairs, I think. Got a matching one on my arm. I don’t know what happened to her though,” I said, again swallowing my pain. “You barely look hurt. How far did you fall?” he asked, tilting his head to get a better look at my leg. “Not sure, what level is this?” I asked, trying to find a window. “You!” yelled the boy as the door violently swung open, almost breaking the weak excuse for a wall separating us from the rest of the building. “Someone’s dramatic. Me or him?” I joked; nodding to Thomas. Obviously, he couldn’t take a joke. “You,” he said, coming over to me and taking out a blindfold, “are coming with me” I was dragged (very unkindly, I might add) by the boy to another room. Then he tied me to another chair, and took off the blindfold. “Who are you,” asked Ginger (the boy, I’m just going to call him Ginger for now). “Dora Martin,” I said. Julia wasn’t here, she couldn’t say who I really was, and with a question like that, that means he doesn’t know. He didn’t need to know. At least, not then.

“Not you’re name, stupid little Angel girl, who do you work for?” he asked impatiently, and rudely. “My mom, the people who want me to babysit, and I walk dogs on the side,” I said, being as vague as I could. I could tell that he didn’t appreciate my sarcasm. He slapped my face about five times harder than Julia did. “Who is the Angel that you work for?” he shouted in my face. Anger issues much? “I help out my sister, but I wouldn’t call her much of an Angel,” I said. “Who is the reincarnation of the Angel of Inner Beauty?” he interrupted, rolling his eyes. “The what?” I blinked, pretending to be surprised. “The Angel of Inner Beauty, Angels of Something are few and far between, not to mention unique and annoying. Each Angel of Something has their own talents. The Angel of Inner Beauty is an expert at weapons, has very powerful Chants, can’t be affected by Demon Jinxes and can see in the dark. She is an artist, a walking master piece,” he said, giving me a look similar to one you would give a crush. He sounded like he was trying to describe the perfect girlfriend, which, at the time, I had prayed I’d never be his. But a lot has changed since then. “Look, I’m new to this whole ‘Angel of something’ stuff. Why do you want her, did she do something wrong?” I asked, sounding like a counselor talking to a bully. “It’s what she hasn’t done that concerns us. She is not affected by our Conjures, thus it is important that she is trained properly,” he said, sitting up, not changing his glance from hopeless crush to determined stalker. “Let me guess, you guys are the only people who can train her properly?” I asked. “Yes,” he answered. “Bah humbug,’” I said, quoting a Christmas carol.

“Excuse me?” he asked in confusion. “Come on, Scrooge? From a Christmas carol?” I asked. “Never heard of it,” he said with annoyance. “No? Ok kid, you need to read some English classics. How about this ‘Double, double toil and trouble’.” I said, quoting Shakespeare. “No idea what you’re talking about,” he said in confusion. “Shakespeare? No? Ok kid, you’re deprived. Can you read?” I asked, hoping he said yes. “Yes, I can read,” he said, sounding offended. “Yes? That’s surprising,” I said. “You need a therapist,” said Ginger, giving me the “hairy eye.” “You need education, but that’s not happening any time soon, is it?” I asked. I knew I was bothering him, and it was worth it. That conversation continued for about five minutes. Actually, it was more of a lecture from Ginger, talking about Heaven and stuff. “So in short , you strongly dislike me with a very fiery ion, and your best method of torture was a lecture from my Religious school? Can you write that down so I can quote it later?” I asked, breaking my five minuets of silence, which pissed him off greatly. “No, I will not write what I said down, there is absolutely no point to that whatsoever,” said Ginger, not trying to hide his annoyance. “Then write it down so I can find one for you,” I said, hoping he would just write it down. If I was going to be stuck there, then I had wanted at least something to do. I could have done that all day; annoy Ginger on the verge of losing his head. There was then a loud crash, and the boy stood up. “I will be right back. Do not move,” he threatened, heading toward the door.

“I’ll try,” I said as he slammed the door in my face. “Incenteria,” I whispered, and the ropes fell off in ashes. Ginger was right, about the ineffectiveness of his Conjure, but his knots were very weak anyway. He had tied a simple bowline knot to the door to keep it shut. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t keep me in for long. I quietly stalked out the door, and I looked around through other doors for Thomas. After looking through about three doors, I found him. Alone. He looked conscious enough, but there was a new puddle of blood on the floor. Fortunately, Ginger wasn’t there, unfortunately, I didn’t know when he’d be back. So for precaution, I listened closely as I untied Thomas. “Thanks,” he said as I was uniting his remaining arm. “No problem,” I said as I finished. We stood up and faced each other. The question of “how do we get out of here” was barely on my tongue when he kissed me. He’s lucky I was surprised. Then he grabbed my arm and dragged me with him through the hole in the wall he had just made with his foot. As far as I knew, it was a two-story drop to China. Thankfully, we weren’t that far from home.

Chapter 9

We began to run. Neither of us knew where we were running to, but we ran harder than either of us had before. Or, harder than he had ever run before. “Where are we,” I asked trying to slow down to match his pace. To his defense, I was a sprinter in track. “Your guess is as good as mine. We need to find a school as soon as possible,” he said, breathing heavy, as I pointed to the right. “There is a gas station over there, let’s go ask,” I said, pulling his arm. He was slowing me down like a dead weight. “Well, come on, let’s go.” “This place is abandoned. No one is here, and I have a feeling we shouldn’t be,” he said, looking around in a nervous panic. “How long have you been in there?” I asked, watching the expressions on his blood-covered face as he stopped moving completely and stared me directly in the eyes. It felt like years before I got an answer to my question. “Wednesday. I’ve been here since Wednesday,” he said, turning his head back to the ground, putting his hands in his pockets, and walking faster. That’s why he wasn’t in school. “What, did they want with you?” I asked, trying to get him to look at me again. Instead, he just looked up. “They want the Angel of Inner Beauty for two things, one they fear her, and two they have some ‘prophecy’ about her. Truthfully, I’m not sure she exists, and if she does, Mr. Russle hasn’t found her yet,” said Thomas, whose amber-gold eyes looked lost hopeless. “How do you know the Angel is a she or a he, or even if Mr. Russle has found her/him?” I asked, getting a little ahead of him, so I could walk backward and look at him.

“You know the Greek gods and goddesses, right? Of course, you like mythology. Well, they were actually Angels. Mr. Russle is the equivalent of Hermes, he finds Angels, and determines if they are something or not. If they are, he sends Mr. Cruncher to bring you. The myths are real, the gods and goddesses weren’t. Zeus, is the Angel of Light; Poseidon, Angel of Water; Hades, Angel of Death; Aphrodite, Angel of Beauty; and, to be brief, your favorite, Artemis, Angel of Inner Beauty, mistress of the hunt, and friend to the Unseen,” he said with a heavy sigh. “Three questions, and one contradiction. One, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, nothing more; two what do you mean ‘friend of the Unseen’; and three, who is the ‘Unseen’,” I asked in confusion. “The Unseen are beings that can only be seen by an un-judging eye, and because Artemis sees the whole of every living thing, they appear only to her, thus she can do incredible things, like see in the dark. Artemis was the first Angel of Inner Beauty, thus her powers were misunderstood. In ancient times, she was known for her hunting skills, understandable, considering she naturally ‘attracted’ the Demons, because they knew she saw the good in them. Not to mention how naturally good she is with weaponry. She was also often referred to, by fellow Angels, as the Demon of the moon, because she was so… mysterious. Kind of like you. I know you, but inside of you, somewhere, you are very curious, but somehow you manage to stay emotionless. How?” he asked, trying not to look at me. “Self-control,” I shrugged. Then everything went black.

Chapter 10

“Yeah, I don’t really know what happened to her, she just fell over,” I heard Thomas say. I could tell I was barely conscious. “Do you know who she is? What she is?” asked a man’s voice. My eyes snapped open, and I sat up and I immediately felt dizzy. I held my head up by leaning against the wall to keep myself from falling over. “Why do I feel like jello? Why does my head hurt? Where am I? And who are you?” I groaned, trying to stay awake. It was my way to figure out if I had to worry. “Lay down, little wolf girl, you need rest,” said the man fatherly. The man didn’t look older than forty, and he wore casual work clothes. “She won’t lay down until you answer her questions,” said Thomas with a hint of amusement in his voice. Smart boy, I’ll have to to give him a star on his explaining-common-sense chart. “Fine. When you fell, you were afraid, so you landed on your feet, but that took most of your energy. You are in my house in Cats Kill, NY. I believe that answers all of your questions,” said the man, with the same tint of amusement. “Who are you and how did I get here?” I asked quickly as my eyelids slowly began to get heavier. “I am Jon Lamhear, a master of healing Incantations, and your friend carried you here, as far as I know,” said Jon. And then the celling began to spin into darkness. When I woke up, this time, I immediately opened my eyes. I was alone in a room smaller than my sister’s (which is saying something). There were two doors (one very small, one normal sized). There was a window next to the bed I was laid on. The small room’s ceiling was slanted and made of wood. The walls were a soft lavender-ish color.

When I sat up, I saw a note on the floor. It was labeled “Artemis” in a beautiful calligraphy. When I went to pick it up, it changed into a small plate of scrambled eggs, some raspberries, and a find-your-way stone (a river stone shaped like an arrowhead). I was so hungry, I didn’t mind eating the food with my fingers. As I ate, I noticed a small, weak light was shining underneath the door. Wasn’t surprising, the sun was barely up. “She’ll be fine though, right?” asked Jon on the other side of the door, not hiding the worry in his voice. “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine,” said another man. “I hope so, Arthur will have my head if she’s not,” said Jon. “Though I’d like to see that, I don’t think he would kill you,” said the other man playfully. “No, he’ll just turn me into a fish and watch me suffocate. I hope that girl is ok,” said Jon with true concern. “There is only one way to find out,” said the other man. I heard them open the door. Unfortunately for them, the girl they were planning on seeing wasn’t there, she was hiding under the window, and she was wishing she could see the looks of surprise on their face.

Chapter 11

I had climbed (more like fell) ungracefully out of the window, and listened to the men enter the room as I leaned against the wall. Every part of my body was burning like it was on fire. I looked around at the landscape; we were at the foot of three hills, and the house was in a grassy field with a few trees. I decided to wait under the windowsill until they left. “Holy Winged Angels! Where is she?” asked Jon, showing his frustration by yelling through his teeth. “You found her first, you were in charge of her,” said the other man. I began to wonder why I seemed to always be around boys. “She must have gotten scared and ran out the window. I came in and checked on her about an hour ago, she was out cold. So she’s been gone for a little less than an hour at the most,” said Jon, in that universal don’t-tell-me-I’m-wrong tone. “Taciturnitas,” I whispered, as I watched my skin change like a chameleon. Ari, the Chameleon, used to blend in with people, now she matches the walls. “And what will Thomas say when he sees his girlfriend flew the coop? He’s gonna kill you too,” asked the other man. I wanted to protest, I am not his girlfriend, but I wasn’t going to risk being found. “Ongi! You’re not helping, we have to find her before something happens,” scolded Jon. I could hear he was slowly getting annoyed with his not-so-helpful friend. “Jon, the Cats Kill isn’t dangerous, the only danger is the very small possibility of her falling off a twenty-foot drop cliff, that’s all. The Fates that would want to kill her, can’t climb well, they’re earthbound creatures. I say, we wake up Thomas, and ask him where she might run off to,” said Ongi. Then I heard footsteps, and a door close. I took my chance, and climbed a nearby tree, whose branches wrapped themselves over the top of the house. I slipped the rock in my pocket, and ran up the tree, jumping from branch to branch. As I was close to the

top, I heard the back door open and close and saw the sleepiest Thomas I had ever seen. “Ari! Ari!” he called, half asleep, but still louder than ever. I decided to hide on the roof. I jumped off the branches, and army crawled into a better position. “I heard something! This way!” cried Ongi. If I knew he had super-sonic hearing, I would not have breathed. “Perluciduli corpore,” I whispered, and I fell through the roof, through the attic, and through a coffee table, without a scratch (thankfully). I quickly took the find-your-way stone out of my pocket and it twirled like a com. Finally, it picked a direction, and I ran harder than I have ever done. Fortunately or unfortunately, it took me a while to that Incantations and Chants can be traced, so I had to immediately remove my chameleon Chant. Let me take a minute to explain. I did not want to be around people I thought I knew, because it would be a huge disappointment if they weren’t whom I thought they were. Then I heard the snapping of twigs behind me, and I took off again.

Chapter 12

Ok, to keep things simple, I ran as if my life depended on it, which in a way, at least in my mind, it did. And then I fell about, ten feet off a cliff. I jumped to a tree before I became an Ari-pancake. The sun was still waking up, but somehow, I saw perfectly. I decided to climb down from the tree and jog (with more caution) in the direction the rock pointed. I decided to stop jogging and start walking about midday, and I was by the sea in time for the sunset when I decided to stop. I was in a forest of pines. “You just had to run, didn’t you?” said a very familiar voice. Ginger. His voice was shaking with a hint of dripping pain. “That’s what I do best,” I said, looking around for the source of the voice. “What, no quotes this time?” asked the Demon with a hint of sarcasm. “Come out, and I’ll give you one. It will knock your face off,” I said, planning on how I would have hit him as hard as I could have. “You’d like that wouldn’t you, Ariella, but unfortunately, I am not as dimwitted as you seem to think, little Angel girl,” said Ginger. Out of fear, I quickly climbed a tree next to me. “Look, I know kind of what you’re going through, so let’s just talk and not do anything irrational, ok?” I had tried to suggest. “Fear is unnecessary, Angel, to those who own it,” said Ginger, as coming out from behind his tree, and looked up at me. Even as the sunlight was dying by the horizon, I could see his pale face was torn to shreds, his pale freckled skin was peeling off, covered with dried blood. His beautiful bright green eyes dulled with sadness as he looked up at me. “A poet now, Ginger?” I asked, trying not to say anything about his face, or even think about it. To think that a person did that to him would be a mistake. A monster in a human’s body, maybe, like a wolf in a sheep’s skin, but either the

boy didn’t deserve to be hurt, not like that. “No, just a victim. I will be killed if I don’t take you hostage,” said the sad, bloody Ginger. “By the time you take me to wherever it is you want me to be, you’ll have died from blood loss,” I called back, trying to reason with myself. I wanted so badly to go down to him and comfort him, like he was a little kid. He was a little kid. In fact, I was sure he was no older than I was. Fourteen. I saw my sister in him, my little sister. It brought out the sympathy in me, but I couldn’t take that chance. I wanted to trust him, but at the time, I thought trust wasn’t an option. “Point taken, so relax, Angel Ariella, sleep, you won’t run, and I won’t climb,” he said, sitting at the trunk of the tree with a sigh. “Please tell me a tale, Angel girl, so I may sleep into the next world. If my life must end now, it would put a smile on my face if a pretty girl like you may make the journey easier. The life of Alexander Ryean Wies was short, and beaten to the ground with hate, but everyone deserves a moment of happiness, right?” he croaked and choked, and his entire body shook from the cold. I came down to the branch above his head, tears dripping from my face like a leaky faucet, as I began to tell him the first story I thought of, the story of Snow White. “Once… once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Snow White. She was named so because her skin was pale white, her lips were red as a rose, and her hair was black as coal. And her stepmother was the queen, who was also a witch. One day, the queen asked her magic mirror ‘Mirror mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all’, and the magic mirror replied ‘Her skin is as white as snow, her lips are red as the rose, and her hair is as dark as coal. Snow White is the fairest of them all.’ Outraged by the mirror’s answer, she hired one of her huntsmen to take Snow White to the fields to pick wild flowers, and there, he would kill her. The man took her out to the fields, and right before he killed Snow White, he told her to run,” I stuttered and slurred. “Little Angel,” interrupted Alexander, his voice shaking just from the extreme effort that he had to put in to talk, “thank you, now may I be the hunter to tell you to run, for they are coming for you, and you will die when they find you,” he warned. “But the man kills a pig, not her, and,” I tried to continue, but my words slurred,

and his chest wasn’t moving. I climbed down from the tree to check if he was alive, which to this day I regret doing, for he was, as far as I could tell, dead. “Good night Alexander Ryean Weis, I will see you on the other side.” And so I climbed to the top of the tree to watch the sunset over the bay, and cried.

Chapter 13

That night, I I felt like all I was capable of was crying. I felt like a terrible monster. I still feel like a terrible monster for what I did. I knew and know I didn’t kill Alexander Wies, but I might as well have. It would have been better if I hadn’t said anything, and just turned myself in for him to save his life. I wonder now how different my life would have been if I never met him, never excepted the fact I was more different than I ever imagined, if I could have been the change in the world I wanted to see. But no, of course I was a jerk and just let him die. I had watched him die too. I had to watch his last breath leave his cold body. I had to let a little of my inner devil show and tell him a story. Maybe it wasn’t my inner devil, just my evil personality. I had to climb the tree. I had to, for he was dying and I was at heart a Demon. What kind f Devil watches an innocent soul ? What kind of evil soul waits for one to die? What kind of empty, cold, black heart listens for the dying’s last breath? What kind of Angel would let another person die before their eyes? Only a cold, heartless, soulless girl named Ariella Zemra Nightengale. The sun was coming back up and I was filled with rage and sadness and guilt. “Ari?” called the oh-too-familiar voice of Thomas. I decided to ignore him. “Thomas, look,” said Jon walking up to Alexander to observe his body. “Look at his face, it’s ripped to shreds,” gasped Ongi, leaning over Jon. “Ari wouldn’t do that, she couldn’t do that. She could barely hurt a fly, let alone another person,” said Thomas. At least he was defending me. “Doesn’t mean she is innocent,” growled Ongi, looking from Alexander to Jon for . “Doesn’t mean she’s guilty either,” said Thomas, looking at Ongi with an aggressive glare.

“Well, let’s find her and ask, no harm in knowing, right?” suggested Jon, stepping between Ongi and Thomas in an attempt to avoid a fight. “Fine,” growled Ongi, still studying Alexander. It made me feel uncomfortable, and I wanted him to back away from his body. “How far do you think she’s gone?” asked Jon to Thomas. “Seeing as she made it here in one day, she could be anywhere, or here. She hasn’t eaten in a long while,” reasoned Thomas. “This is like a murder mystery,” complained Ongi. I wanted to protest. It wasn’t a murder. Or at least, I didn’t kill him. “Ari, where are you?” shouted Jon in frustration. “Why can’t we just use an Incantation to find her, it’s so much faster, and easier,” complained Ongi, looking at Jon, then back to Alexander. “Because, she would know we found her, and she’d just run some more. If Thomas is right, that she ran out of fear, and feeling that we used a Chant or Incantation to track her would probably be scary, especially of you’re running from them” said Jon. Yes, I have to it it would be a bit stalker-ish, but considering that I was watching them, I would have thought that if they knew, they would have been scared out of their minds. Or very confused, at the time I’d just rather they didn’t know I was there. I felt like I was waiting for years for them to leave. The minutes felt like hours as they debated over my innocence, an argument that they never ended, and after a time just decided that they would pause the argument to look for anything unusual. At least they did decide on one thing, I was either still in the woods, or captured. “Now can we use an Incantation?” complained Ongi, whining like a small child. He looked exhausted. “Not if she’s nearby, it won’t work,” said Jon. “Boo,” said a voice behind me. Thomas, I was surprised I wasn’t surprised to see him. “Having fun?”

“Yeah, you guys are hilarious, how long have you… ,” I began to ask him. “Since we found the Demon,” finished Thomas. “Alexander. His name is Alexander,” I said sharply, barely letting him finish. I didn’t want him to see the hurt I felt in my heart from his rude remark. “Ok, since we found Alexander. I knew you wouldn’t leave, then I saw you in the tree, and figured that I’d walk around a bit before I ‘found you’,” said Thomas, using air quotes when he said “found you.” “Do they know?” I asked, nodding toward Ongi and Jon. “Not sure, don’t think so. Why don’t you come down and tell your side of the story?” asked Thomas. He already found me, might as well. There was no point in trying to run. “Fine,” I groaned as we raced down the tree. “Ariella Nightengale! You have a lot of explaining to do,” said Jon, sounding like an angry father. I finally got to see Ongi for the first time. He was a short, tan, middle-aged man. “Grr,” I growled, trying to avoid the sight of Alexander. “What happened?” growled Ongi through his teeth as he came over to me to look me in the eyes. I was mad at him, so I punched him in the face. He was knocked over from the blow. “What was that,” shouted Jon as he rushed over to help Ongi with his bloody nose. “My way of introducing myself to the rude and unwanted. For the record, I didn’t kill Alexander,” I said, getting in Ongi’s face to give him a smirk. “Why you little…” started Ongi, through his teeth and bloody nose, allowing Jon to wipe the blood with his sleeve. “Brat? I’m not the one making false accusations and underestimating people I don’t know,” I said, standing back up and looking at his face to see the damage I

did with an emotionless face. “Monster,” finished Ongi, with loathe in his eyes and spitting blood at me. I wanted to hit him again. Hard. “Alright, let’s just get out of here,” said Thomas, dragging me away from him. “Gladly,” said Jon, still trying to use the sleeve of his shirt to try to stop the bleeding. Well, we quickly walked to the nearest inn, it was half a mile away (Ongi was done bleeding by then). It was called “States’ Inn.” It was a ten-story hotel, with ivy hugging the outer wall of the first five. The sign for the hotel was a wooden sign hanging off a flagpole. We easily got a room on the seventh floor (they were “redoing” the first six). “Alright, tell us what happened,” said Jon, giving Ongi unnecessary help to the bed, while Thomas locked the window and the door. “Well, I woke up, ran, and found Alexander. He asked me to tell him a story, so I told him the story of Snow White. He died while I was talking. I don’t think I can do this anymore,” I whimpered as I curled up in the corner adjacent to the bed. “Did he mention what or who hurt him,” asked Ogni, wiping his face on his sleeve. “Me first. Who are you, what do you want, who placed the card, how old are you both, and should I be concerned?” I asked looking from Jon to Ogni. “He’s Ogni, I’m Jon, neither of us want anything, I don’t know anything about a card, I’m 29, he’s 32, and I don’t think so,” said Jon, who obviously ed trying to get me to do stuff before. I glared at Ogni. “I don’t know anything about a card,” said Ogni, retuning my glare. “Did Alexander mention what happened to him?” asked Thomas, sitting next to me. “No,” I lied. They had no reason to know. “Ari, are you ok?” asked Thomas, putting his arm around me.

“Honestly, no,” I said, breaking his grip and walking to the window. “Ari,” said Jon with a warning voice. “Ari, what’s wrong,” asked Thomas. “Tell us, little Angel, so we can help,” said Jon. “Honestly, we only want to help,” said Ongi. “You lied to me,” I said, looking him square in the face, holding back my anger. “No we didn’t I swear,” he said in desperation. “You told me I didn’t need to be worried, and I guess that was if I believed you,” I said. Then I did the most unthinkable thing possible I could think of. I jumped out a seven-story window, following the broken pieces of glass.

Chapter 14

I feel like I have to explain something. Actually two things. First, the more I jump out of buildings, the more afraid of hights I become. Second, the three people in the room were not Jon, Ongi, and/or Thomas. I will explain.

a. Thomas would never touch me if he thought/knew I were upset. He would have told me things that would make me feel better and keep his distance. b. Ongi (though I don’t know him personally) would never have offered to help me based on his previous attitude toward me. c. Jon would have called me “wolf girl” not “little Angel.” d. I wouldn’t have thought about any of this, if I had heard them breathing regularly. And I didn’t count the small sip of air every five minuets as breathing.

I was covered in glass, and every inch of my body was in pain. I swallowed the burning feeling in me, closed my eyes and tried to an emergency Incantation as I felt blood trickle from my face and down my neck. “Nisi viate” I managed to hoarsely croak, as I thought of the showers at school. I felt my body spin, so I knew I had just a few seconds before I blacked out. I snapped my eyes open, and about seconds before my blackout, I managed to turn on the shower. As I became conscious, I heard people talking. “Well, she got here somehow,” said the familiar fatherly voice of Mr. Cruncher. I tried to say hi, but it came out as an unintelligible moan. “Wake up Luna, and tell us what the heck happened to you,” said the sisterly

voice of Mertyle. I managed to barely open my eyes and look at her. “Why?” I managed to croak, as I attempted to smile. “Fine, not now, how ’bout we get some food in ya’ before you talk, so you can have some energy,” said Mertyle trying to return my smile as I tried to sit up. “Nope,” she said, pushing me back down on to the stretcher “We still have some glass to get out of you before you get up, so don’t move, ok? Actually, don’t answer that, just don’t move.” I was barely paying attention. What was going through my mind was “Why doesn’t this happen in movies? The hero jumps out of the window, and gets away without a scratch. Does that make me the villain?” “Let. Me up. I’m. Feeling great,” I tried to say, but choked on my words. “I’m feeling great she says, through her teeth while simultaneously choking on her words. Look, just listen to me for once, and don’t move. I’m going to leave, I’ll be back, try not to move,” said Mertyle with a hint of laughter in her voice. Like I wouldn’t move. As looked around, I saw a mirror pointed at my glassfilled legs. I waited for them to leave. Mr. Cruncher had to literally drag Mertyle out of the room. After they closed the door, I swallowed the pain and sat up. I found a pair of (blood covered) tweezers and a bowl of broken, blood-enveloped objects. I used the tweezers to remove the remaining twigs, glass, and other objects in my legs. It was bloody, and a bit icky, but I had done worse. This kind of pain is not unfamiliar to me, in fact, at one point in my life, this was nothing. As I was thinking about my “dark” past, a thought occurred to me. Calculating the amount of pain, and the number of pieces in my body, this should take me hours. It took me five minutes to remove 173 pieces of seemingly random objects from my leg. It wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. Mertyle came back just as I was taking out the last piece of glass out of my leg. “What the Demon are you doing???” she screamed as she attempted to juggle two trays of cafeteria food through the door. “Removing blood-thirsty objects from my legs, you?” I croaked, looking up from my punctured limb to acknowledge that I heard her.

“Juggling dinner for my gimpy best friend,” said Mertyle, on the brink of tears, looking away in an effort to avoid looking at the blood dripping off my fingers. “I feel fine,” I squeaked, studying the look of motherly disgust on her face. “Again with the lies! Come on, wake up and smell the rusty air! You’ve lost more blood than you’ve got in your body right now, and you’re acting like it’s just a scratch,” she shouted. “It is just a bunch of scratches,” I mumbled. She ignored me and continued. “And it might not matter to you, considering you enjoy life-threatening experiences, but I actually care about other people, especially my friends, and their health, or lack thereof. I can only hope you’d do the same for me if I was where you were,” she screamed, her eyes looking like daggers. She slammed the trays down on a small table by the wall. “I’ve got no more glass, can I go now?” I whispered as my voice began to recover. “No, unfortunately for you, people who attempt suicide need to do as they are told,” she growled at me, sitting in a chair, and holding her head with her hands. “What if I didn’t?” I asked, looking at her position and wondering what was bothering her so much. There was a pause before she sighed. “Well, we’re still not sure if…” she argued with herself, slightly coming out of her stress bubble. “Would I be dead?” I demanded. She was on the brink of tears. “Yes, you most likely would have been killed, tortured, or in an elephant load of pain,” She itted with depression in her voice. “Why?” I asked with anger. “Well, considering that…” she began to argue with herself again. “Victoria, please just answer the darn question,” I tried to say calmly, but it sounded more like I was frustrated.

“Considering who you are… oh darn you Luna! Please don’t make me say anymore, I can’t take the thought of seeing you dead anymore!” she yelled, and the tears began to stream down her face. She jumped up and ran past someone in the doorway. The person in the doorway came in. It was a girl I didn’t know, but she couldn’t have been much older than me. I had to do a double take. We had the same blond-brown hair, same slightly tanned skin tone, same height, almost everything was the same , but her eyes were a light brown, and mine are a light blue-gray. “Hey sis, looks like you’ve been surviving without me,” said the girl. I looked at her with a look of horror on my face. Never, in my entire life, did I ever expect to meet my older sister. Let me back up for a second. I was legally adopted before I was born, so I never had a chance to meet my birth family. Not that I’m complaining, but it was hard growing up thinking that somewhere else in the world were the people who knew who I was. Who might have known who I really was. I knew they existed, because they had made me a scrapbook, with their names on the inside front cover. The outside of the book was space-y and had the Earth on it, like a picture from a satellite in space. The inside pages looked old and worn, but I have flipped through those pages for as long as I can . I have two siblings, Aura, my older sister, and my little brother, Josh. At the time, I only knew their names. “And you are?” I asked, one eyebrow raised. “You mean, you don’t recognize me? That’s a bit hurtful,” she said shaking her head “you know you’re adopted, yes?” “Yeah, and?” I said. “Well, I’m your big sister,” she said, with a nod. A boy not much younger than me, walked in. “Oh, and this is Josh, he’s the baby of the family, a year younger than you. I’m two years older.” “What?” I asked. The kid was at least six two! “Believe it or not kid, were related. That means, from now on, we have to hold each other’s backs, keep ourselves eagle-sharp, run faster than the wind, we have

to…” said the girl claiming to be my sister. “Cara,” interrupted the boy. “Yeah?” asked Aura. “She gets it,” he said. “Oh, ok. You get the point, whether or not you accept it is a different story,” said Aura. The boy took out a piece of paper and handed it to me. “I’m Treasure here, and she’s Cara, those are our Angel names,” explained Josh. Josh was his real name. Aura was her real name. I wanted to cry. “Well, it’s nice to meet the two of you, I’m sure we have a lot to discuss, but if you’ll excuse me,” I said as I started to get up. “Luna! I swear if you so much as move a toe off that stretcher, I will duck-tape you there for two weeks!” shouted a voice down the hall. All three of us looked at the door, waiting for the owner of the threat to come in with a roll of ducktape. I prayed it was not Thomas. The door burst open, and my prayer was not answered. “Where in the gosh-darned planet have you been?” said Thomas, almost knocking over Josh and Aura as he entered.

Chapter 15

As it turns out, I was right to jump out of the window. Never, in my entire life, have I been so happy to be right. Thomas said their pick-up truck was hijacked while they were trying to track me down, and the other detail after that seems irrelevant to mention. I explained my side of the story to Thomas, Aura, and Josh, and they all had the same question: How did I know that the people I was with weren’t real? I found myself explaining that right before I have a meltdown, I listen to the people around me breathing. I also explained their minor mistakes, other than their lack of breathing. “So, you saved your life, with a meltdown?” asked Aura, with her voice coated with question. “No, what saved her was Alexander’s death. If he hadn’t died, she’d be laughing at the situation, and not focusing,” argued Thomas, pointing out my lack of focus, which pissed me off. “What saved her was her ability to hear and observe others in her surroundings” argued Josh calmly. “What saved me was whatever broke my fall,” I said, shutting them up. I was sick of them arguing. What they were saying was true, but if I changed nothing, I still jumped out that window. I should have died. Whatever, or whoever, broke my fall, saved my life. “But nothing broke your fall, that’s why we want to know how you survived,” said Mr. Cruncher, burying his true emotions under a face of blank. He had just come through the door. Just his presence got everyone else to leave. I knew how to deal with him. I stared him down with an equally emotionless face. “I told you everything I know,” I said, figuring that he was listening to me tell my story from the other side of the door. “How did you get here?” he asked me like he was a interviewing a criminal.

“An Incantation,” I said, looking at the bowl of broken glass in wonder. “Can you show me?” he asked, handing me my book of Chants and Incantations. I looked at him, then turned the book over and flipped to page 318, and pointed to the Chant next to the number 96, the last page in my book so far, and handed it to him. “Few students ever see this page, even less it, and even less of that percent ever need to use it. Do you realize how important this is?” he asked, closing the book and handing it back to me, closing the door, and pacing the room. “No, I’m still trying to understand why I’m alive,” I said, thinking of Jon and Ogni. Mr. Cruncher came over and closed the book in my hands. I looked up at him in confusion. “You need to train more,” he said, looking me in the eyes. “And why do you suggest that?” I asked, purposely adding a hint of annoyance in my voice. “Because, if I can help it, you’ll be the best gosh darned Angel in the world, once the Winged Angels are done with you.”

Chapter 16

I never thought of myself as someone who asked for much from anyone. I’ve always done fine on my own. Or mostly on my own. I’ll never beg for mercy, never asked for many favors, and never asked for the truth. I’ve been working with Mr. Cruncher all week, and I had noticed he asks for a lot of favors. “Luna, please do this.” “Please Luna, can you do that?” Why couldn’t he just tell me what to do? I suppose he was trying to be polite, but it was annoying me. I surprised him by completing four years worth of training, in four days. When I was finally well enough to go back to regular school, there was only a week left, so I didn’t bother. I wanted to go home, but Mr. Cruncher told me the shock would be too great for a normal person to bear, and when I told them, I should be mostly healed first. It hurts, thinking I was hiding from my family, especially my little sister Daliah. Mertyle, Thomas, Angi, Lauren, Aura, and Josh helped me my level 2–5 tests. Mr. Cruncher’s goal was for me to level 10, which very few ever reach. The last person to the particular test he wants me to took it over two centuries ago. Not to mention, he wants me to that level in two weeks. Mertyle gave me a list of the tests I needed to .

Level 1: Maze Level 2: Language Level 3: Transformation Level 4: Search and find Level 5: Problem solving Level 6: Obstacle course

Level 7: age Level 8: The Starlight Swim Level 9: Fear Level 10: ???

“Why are there question marks next to level 10?” I asked suspiciously as she gave me her newly composed list of tests that I had to . “One: Mr. Cruncher won’t tell me what it is. Two: All the books on the levels only go up to level 9, because not enough people have ed level 10, at least not enough to write about it,” she said, looking through another book. That’s what we’ve been doing for the entire day, going through the enormous library looking for something on the tenth test. “Didn’t he take his level 10 test?” I asked. “No. The greatest teacher in our school has not even attempted his ninth test yet,” growled Josh with annoyance. “Great,” I mumbled into my book of Chants and Incantations. “Let me see that,” said Angi, taking the book out of my hands. “You won’t be able to read most of it,” said Mertyle, not looking up from her book, she was on to something, I could tell. “Why not?” asked Angi, flipping through the pages of my book in frustration, and only seeing the Chants and Incantations for her level. “I think she needs more, hands on training,” said Aura. Then she pushed me out of my chair, and everyone, but Mertyle, was quiet and had their eyes fixed on me. I couldn’t help but smile. Josh and Aura didn’t know the kind of training I did before they met me. In turn of her pushing me over, I knocked her down, pinned her to the ground, and stopped myself right before I snapped her neck.

“Her physical defense and offense is above average, it is the simple Chants and Incantations that she needs to work on ing,” said Mertyle, without looking up from her book. “How’d you do that? I want to do that!” whinnied Aura, still out of breath from hitting the floor hard. “Instinctive training. Mr. C made her go through the higher levels of training before her second test,” said Thomas, offering her a hand. “Intensive instinctive training,” I corrected, sitting back down at the desk I was at. I had that class for two hours with Mr. Ritho, only once. I fear his students who went to his class for two hours every week. “I can’t do that! Why I can’t do that?” whinnied Aura, trying to knock down Thomas. I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s because you’re trying to hard,” I laughed, standing up to then knocked him down, a bit more gently, next to her. “That makes absolutely no sense,” complained Aura, looking from me to Thomas. “It’s called instinctive for a reason,” I replied. She let out a great sigh as she flopped dramatically back onto the floor with frustration. “Like that puff of air that just came out of your mouth,” mumbled Josh. I smiled to hide my laugh. “Let’s go take a test,” I said with determination, heading to the door. There was no cheering, no “good lucks,” there was no positive reinforcement, there was only the silent march of feet to the door and the looks of sympathy for what was to come.

Chapter 17

Problem solving was a little confusing. They (they being the test committee) put me in a room, in a room, in a room, in a room, in a room, in a room, that spun, in all direction (including up and down) and my goal was to get out of all of the rooms, in fifteen minutes. The walls and doors were all Demon made, so Chants and Incantations would not work. They also told me they would only come and get me when they were done. They did not say the doors were locked. It was hard to move in a straight line, but short story shorter, I ed with seven minutes to spare. The Obstacle Course was a series of objects I either had to go over, under, or move. It should have taken me the entire twenty minutes, but because I was moving fast, it was more like fifteen. The age was a long cave, I had to somehow figure my way out of, and after I did, was The Starlight Swim, which was a gigantic about-to-freeze lake that I had to cross in twenty minutes. The coldest I had taken so far. Then, after I dried off, I had ten minutes before tests nine and ten, which were somehow connected. “You don’t need to so this if you don’t want to, we’ll love you the same either way,” said Mertyle, giving me her friendly and unhelpful advice as usual. “I have to do this. I have to ,” I said, as I picked at a scab on my arm. Mertyle swatted my hand away with a motherly look. “Research says you won’t , long-term fears are one of the hardest fears to conquer,” said Aura, trying hard to convince me not to go. “And yet, I jumped out of the window,” I said, glaring at her. Looking back, I wish I could have calmed down. I wish I could have told them what I felt, inside. How nervous I was, how I knew that these two tests would hurt me most of all. “Let’s not fight over this, Luna needs her strength,” defended Lauren, patting me on the back and handing me a pack of cookies.

“You need to know we believe that you can do this,” said Angi, sitting next to me, and now that I think about it, I knew what she was trying to do. She didn’t want me to feel alone, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I couldn’t have felt more alone, because I knew that no one could help me face my fears. I could have all the friends in the world, and I still had to alone; and no one knew what the last test was. Or if there were any more tests after that. For the third time in my new life, I was completely alone. I spent the rest of my ten minutes, sitting in silence, inhaling as many cookies as I could. The others were talking, but it was just mumbling to me. When my ten minutes was up, I felt calmer than when I did before my first test, more confident, more mature. I felt like an entirely different person. I didn’t want to think about how unprepared I was to face the worst of my fears alone. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to after all, why do something that you feel you can’t do? A voice inside my head told me that you do what you feel you can’t, to prove to yourself you can. “Are you ready?” asked Mr. Cruncher, interrupting our moment of silence. “As ready as I’ll ever be I guess,” I said. But there was nothing that could have prepared me for what was about to happen.

Chapter 18

Mr. Cruncher led me to a room, an empty room, like the first room in my Problem Solving test. Gray walls, dark-gray door, no windows, and two regularsized metal chairs. “Close your eyes, relax, you’ll do just fine,” he said, motioning me to sit down. “I’d like to keep me eyes open, if that’s ok,” I said, sitting down, keeping my eyes on him. I hadn’t learned to trust him yet. “Close. Your. Eyes,” commanded Mr. Cruncher through his teeth. I unwillingly closed my eyes. As soon as I did, I felt my body spin in tiny circles, at what felt to be a thousand miles per hour. When I stopped spinning, I was slightly in shock. I wasn’t dizzy, and I was no longer in the gray room. I was facing a ghost town, one I know I would never forget, for the second time. I wanted to stand, I wanted to run, and I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. I was in shock. A voice broke my concentration. “I enjoyed your story, Angel girl,” said a voice I thought I’d never hear again. I knocked the chair over as I stood up, and turned around to see Alexander. “How… how are you?” I started to stutter as I started to come out of shock. “Shhh, you’ll be fine,” he said, his voice smooth like rolling waves, and pulling me close to him with his hands on my waist, looking me in the eyes, with his stunning dark snake-green eyes giving me a soft look, like he was going to kiss me. His breath was calm and he smelled like the pine trees where I saw him last. There was a small scar on the left side of his face from whatever attacked him. He brushed my bangs back behind my ear. I needed to get away before he went too far. In my mind, at that moment, he was dead, and this was an illusion, but I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted him to be real. I studied the scars on his face, and, for the first time, I noticed how handsome he really was. I wanted him to hold me close, and tell me everything would be all right. “No,” I said, breaking myself away from his hold, avoiding his luring green eyes

“You’re dead.” Those words stung my tongue, I knew how hurtful they were to him, or how they would be if he wasn’t. They hurt me even more than they could have hurt him. The words are still burned in my mind, they sting at me like bees. “No, no Angel girl, it’s ok,” he started. He looked badly hurt, and I tried to hide my hurt inside. “No, it’s not, and I want it to be ok. I want everything to be ok. I wish you never met me, I wish you never died, I wish for a lot of things, but I know I’ll never get them. I wish,” I said, walking to the edge of the roof, cutting myself off. “I’m sorry, but this is not right,” I cried, and then I jumped. I think I’m beginning to enjoy the sensation of falling now. I somehow dove through a window on the seventh story. I looked up, and saw the hole Julia and I fell through, I saw it go all the way down. I began to run down the steps, faster than I’ve ever run before. As I ran down the steps, they creaked, cracked, and fell behind me. I had to get out. After sprinting down seven stories of stairs, I saw Mr. Cruncher. “Get me out of here,” I yelled through my teeth. I didn’t care where the next test was, I just wanted out of there. “Ariella, I must warn you, I do not know where your next test will be, The Winged Angels will be placing you,” he said, with a sorry look. We were running out of time, what was he stalling for? “Just do it,” I yelled. I was about to cry. Between Alexander and the memories and the guilt, I was barely holding it together. “Ariella, please forgive me,” he said. Then he took out the largest needle I’ve ever seen, jumped at me, and stabbed my left arm. When I woke up, I could not see anything but a tiny piece of paper that had a small gold aura of its own. On the piece of paper was a note that said “Welcome to the Labyrinth, please exit the Labyrinth in less than one hundred and twentyone minutes upon regaining consciousness. Thank you.” “Hello,” I called into the darkness. I looked back at the paper. The writing had disappeared, and was replaced with the word “one hundred and twenty-one.” Great. A timer. “Really? Really!?” I thought for a second. “Luminite,” I said to myself. I began to glow a dark

silvery-blue, my aura. Not my sister, Aura, my personal aura. An aura is the color of your Angel personality, or past. Everyone has their own auras, whether they know it is a different story, and no two auras are the same, they can be the slightest bit off, but never the same. As I began to walk down the lonely Labyrinth, I ed an Incantation for being lost. “Argentea filo, nisi mei, sint dux,” I whispered. Then I sat and waited, for what seemed like forever, but according to my paper-timer, it was only about five minutes, then a little ball of silver thread rolled up to my feet. I began to roll the yarn back into a ball as I ran after its trail. My first encounter with life in the cavern was a low groan. “Hello?” I called to the darkness. There was a low groan in return. I walked a little further and my aura fell upon a figure, and it looked alive. “Hello?” I asked again. The body was of a boy’s, and he was not much older then I. He was covered in blood and scratches and scars, mostly new. His clothes were rags, his hair unkempt. He rolled over, and looked at me. I had to take a step back. The white of his eyes were red, his iris barely showing, but between the red of his eye and the large black ring of his pupil, you could see a sliver of honeybee yellow. “Run, little Artemis, run. Your life depends on it. He’ll be coming soon. Run, run. That’s what she told me, run and she’ll meet me in the light. Run, run, run little Len, your life depends on it. Run, run, run,” he commanded, nodding his head quickly, his eyes unblinking. He looked far beyond help, but I needed to know who “he” and “she” were. “Who is coming? Who told you to run?” I asked, kneeling down next to him. “He, the first of many, run, the beast from the sea. Run. I never made it by him. He taunts me, and kills me, but I still survive,” he said, not blinking. “Who told you to run?” I asked patiently. He shook his head. “It’s a shame, most of her pain, should come from her own head and mind,” he said, looking like he was coming back to life. “Who Len?” I asked again, pleading in different words. “Who has time to listen, to speak, with the fallen, to help the cut, and broken,

heal through broken words, tears of pain and tears of torture, help heal the broken heart through the skin stained with blood, the pain they feel inside will never fade,” he said. “Who?” I asked again, pleading. “She’ll pick up that sword and thrust it in his chest yelling ‘for all you’ve done to the world, my gift to you is death’ and he will lie in pain on the floor in front of her saying ‘I curse you girl, the girl who has killed me’ and she will laugh, because she was born a curse to the world,” said Len like a drunken sailor. “Who Len, tell me!” I shouted meanly at him. He looked up at me with wideopen eyes. “The girl of blood, the girl of the darkness, the girl with the quiver, the girl. The girl that will be you,” he said, between gasps for air, and then began to flop like a fish. I thought he was crazy, and I ran from him, but something told me I should have stayed. As I followed my silver lifeline, I followed it as I ran from the crazy boy, and down the cave. I heard a low growl behind me. I turned around and looked and saw the largest beast I’d ever seen. The beast was at least eight feet high, with the head and body of a bull. His arms were black, and furry, and human-like, and his legs were the legs of a bull. He looked down on me with dark eyes, and as he breathed heavy, his chest heaved in and out. “Hello,” I said, hoping it was friendly. The beast growled and swung his fists at my head. I ducked and tried to hit the beast in the chest, but that did nothing but make my hands hurt. The beast swung at my head again. This time I dodged and got behind him. The beast laughed. “Daughter of Life, I address you as an equal,” said the beast, turning around. “What?” I asked, looking up at him. “As you are also a lost, unwanted creature, I will give you advice. To leave this place alive, you must; distract Cerberus, the beast from Hades; kill Lamia, the beast from Hera; shoot the Calydonian Boar, the beast from Artemis; trap the Stymphalian birds, the beasts from Ares; set fire to the Teumessian fox, the beast of Dionysus; sneak past the Caucasian Eagle, the beast of Zeus; and behead the

great spider of Athena. Only then can you your test alive,” said the beast. “And you are?” I asked. “The beast from Poseidon, the Minotaur,” said the beast. “Why are you helping me?” I asked. “As I said, you are also an unwanted creature, and like me, you are lost. I am helping you, because it is not your fate to die here,” said the beast, then he disappeared into the darkness. I looked back for my string, but it was gone. My only light now was my aura. I stumbled around a little, then tried to orient myself but I froze. There was a puddle of goo on the floor, and I had stepped in it. I looked up and saw three very large, very unhappy dogs. It was more like one dog with three heads. There was a piece of meat stuck in the teeth of the third dog’s head, and I was hoping that was the reason for the puddle on the floor. “Hi little giant puppies,” I said. They growled. I wasn’t expecting an answer. I was trying to think of a way to distract them. One head snapped at me, and nicked my arm. The cut from the dog’s teeth stung. I swallowed my pain, and tried to clear my head. “Ok, bad dog!” I said, yelling at the Cerberus like a puppy. The beast looked at me with confusion, and then put its heads down and began to sulk. I ripped off a piece of bloody cloth and through it in the opposite direction, and all three heads turned with hopeful looks of fresh meat and jumped at it. I walked around the beast with a cautious step, and then ran down the cave. “Hello, child, are you lost?” called a voice in front of me. There was a slither on the floor, it sounded like a wet snake. “Who are you?” I called, looking for the beast. A woman appeared, but there was something… wrong with her. “My name is Lamia, and I am here to help you,” she said. I looked harder at the woman and, instead of legs, she had a serpent’s tail. “I don’t think you want to help me,” I said, backing up. I hit the wall of the cave. The beast slithered closer.

“Of course, I do! That’s what I do, I help the lost children,” said the beast. “I don’t consider myself much of a child anymore. I’m fourteen,” I reasoned. “Of course, you don’t, but everyone is a child to an old lady like me, dear,” she soothed. “Stop calling me dear,” I said. “Come now, I only want to help,” she said, holding out her hand as if she wanted me to take it. “I really don’t think helping me is on your list of things to do,” I said, looking for a way around her to run down the cave. “Turn off that light, and I’ll show you the way out,” said the beast, her long dark blond hair falling over her shoulder like small waves. “Why should I lower my aura, I can’t see without it?” I said, trying to stall time while I thought of a way out. “I can help you, don’t you trust me?” said the beast softly. “Luminite!” I yelled, jumping at the creature, grabbing at her face. She screamed in pain, and fell to the ground gasping for air like fish out of water. I ran down the caverns some more, and came to a fork in the cave. On the right, there was an immediate twist, and I could not see much more than that. On the left side, there was also a twist, but down that path I heard voices, and there was an unnatural blood red light coming from that side, so I ran quickly down the right side of the fork. I walked down the cave, straining my eyes to see what came before me in the cave, but as I could only see as far as my aura, there was no point. I heard the roar of a beast in front of me and I ran to the cave wall for safety. I tried to what beast the Minotaur said this would be, but all I could was that I had to shoot it. I picked up two rocks off the floor. “Alkimiya,” I whispered, and the two rocks turned into a bow and arrow. Only one shot. I drew the bow and carefully continued down the cavern. I could hear heavy breathing of something in front of me. And then I saw it. A big, black

boar, at least twice my size, with large ivory tusks, its large beautiful amber eyes looking down on me with anger and disapproval. It scratched its large, heavy black hoof twice on the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust before charging at me. I tried to jump aside, but it was too late, and one of its tusks nicked my ribs, snapping two of them. I grimaced through the pain, and stood tall as it turned to charge again. This time, I would be ready. As the boar began to charge, I began to run at it, and right before we collided, I slid down to the floor on my side, sliding next to it, bow drawn, and shot it in the heart. The beast moaned in pain as it fell to the ground, confused as to what had just happened. Its breath was slow and heavy, and it looked at me with sadness in its eyes. To keep myself from crying, I had to run. ing the next beasts I had to face, I braced myself for the occasion by listening for the flapping of wings. I thought of how I was to trap them, was it to be in chains, a cage, or a crease in the rocks. As I walked faster, and began to hear the flapping of wings, I saw a crack in the cave wall, just big enough for a good-sized bird. I looked around for the birds, they had to be close, but for some reason I never thought to look up. I sat down on the cave floor in front of the crack and inspected my arm. The scratch from the dog was so deep I could see my bone. As for my ribs, I could feel them splintering out of my skin and rubbing up against the inside of my arm. “Bledan cedere,” I said, holding my hand over my ribs. My aura around my chest glowed brightly as the blood immediately stopped running down my side, and the break didn’t hurt as much as before. I stood up, put a rock in the entrance to the crack, and screamed. For some reason, I thought it would get the attention of the birds, and thankfully, it did. I had wasted enough time on waiting for the metal birds that I was beginning to think they weren’t real. After I screamed, large metal birds started swooping down from the roof of the cave and dived at me. I jumped aside as they flew straight into the crack in the wall. “Tumefy,” I whispered and the small rock I placed by the front of the crack quickly grew to a good-sized bolder to trap the birds in the wall. I smiled as I heard the sound of metal against rock, then ran as I saw the bolder was starting to move. Running wasn’t as easy as it was before, now that my ribs were broken. It stung to twist my body in any way, and any slight curving my back too was immediately greeted by a sharp pain in my side. But pain wasn’t my only issue.

My next step was with a beast that was designed not to be caught. And I had to set it on fire. I could hear a low, deep purr in front of me. I saw the fox, curled up and asleep. I crept close to the fox, and pointed to the tip of the fox’s tail. “Paewr egni,” I mumbled, and a hair on the tip of the fox’s tail caught fire. I was a bit upset, attacking a creature that did nothing to me, but it had to be done. As soon as the small spark began to grow, the fox sprang up and ran past me back down the cave where I had come from. I probably would have gone the wrong way had I not fallen down the hole the fox was sleeping on. As I ran down the tunnel, I could hear a man moaning in pain. There was a light, either by fire or by the sun, projecting the man’s shadow on the wall. As I watched the figure, a bird came down and began eating the man. He screamed in pain. The scream was almost unbearable. After the scream died down to a low moan, I turned and ran to the man. “Get down, it’ll see you!” cried the man, seeing me coming. The man had shaggy dark red hair, bright green eyes, and a hole in his stomach. He was chained flat to a rock. “What happened?” I asked, ducking behind a rock, and looking at the man with horror. “Oh, you know, I got in trouble a long time ago, giving a couple of normal’s the gift of magik, and this was the punishment set out for me by the Angels of Something,” said the man. “And the bird, is that…” I started. “The Caucasian Eagle? Yes, eats my liver twice a day… very painful process. I don’t regret doing it, though. To this day I’d still pick daily torture for the gift. If magik was not meant to be shared, then it should never have been so easy to give. What did you say your name was?” asked the man, interrupting my question. He seemed well off, for as much pain he was in. “My name is Ariella Nightengale, but most people call me Ari,” I said. “Ariella Nightengale? The Ariella Nightengale? What the heck are you doing down here?” asked the man. “I’m taking a test. And what do you mean ‘The Ariella Nightengale?” I asked,

scowling. “You are destined to do great things, my dear. You must get out of here, and fast, before…” his voice trailed off. “Before what?” I asked in urgency. “When the Eagle comes back, run down the hall to my right, there you will find a great spider waiting for you. He will want to talk, to stall you. Let him. Let him think he has won. Congratulate him. Tell him to lay down and rest while you sing to him and prepare yourself to be a tasty meal. Sing a lullaby, and when he falls asleep, kill him,” said the man. He looked to the torch next to him with sadness. “What if I kill the Eagle and free you?” I asked, wanting to help him. “You can do more by ending the fight between Angels and Demons. There is no difference other than their hatred to each other,” said the man. He hung his head low with a look of sadness. “There has to be something I can do!” I said, being careful not to move too much. “Hush now, there is nothing you can do for me but take my place, and once you die, then someone else must come, and so on. You are not disposable. You must go,” he said, looking up. “But… ,” I started, but was interrupted by the loud caw of a large bird that swooped down and began pecking at the man’s stomach. “Run now, Ari, before it’s too late!” screamed the man, holding back his screams of pain. I ran faster than I ever had, with tears in my eyes, to my final battle in the labyrinth with the spider of Athena. As I ran, it began to smell like the ocean, and a forest. I could hear the crash of the waves. I slowed down to take it all in. It smelled familiar. “So, you enjoy the beach or the forest more? Or, perhaps, it is the boy you smell,” asked a voice behind me. I turned around to see a man in a black suit and top hat. I could not see his face from behind his shaggy hair.

“Who are you?” I asked in a hiss. “My name is Satin, I am the Demon of Life,” he said, bowing. “But, why are you here?” I asked, watching him closely. “Only to inform you that the spider you are looking for, shall we say, hasn’t been around for a while,” he said, leaning on the wall. “Are you the man who tried to kill Alexander Weis?” I asked, trying to think on how to get out of this one. “On the contrary, I told him where to find you, and where your teachers could find him. I have no quarrel with that boy,” he said, not moving much. “So, I ask again, why are you here?” I asked. He did not look like the kind of man who did favors. “To give you a message to tell your teacher,” he said, looking up at nothing. “What is it?” I asked, wanting him to get to the point and leave me alone. “Tell Mr. Cruncher, that though he has a lot on his plate, he can’t avoid his assigned duties,” he said. Then with the snap of his fingers, he was gone. The crashing of the waves and the smell of the forest left with him. I turned and saw the end of the tunnel, and ran to it as my energy began to drain. I was confused, I somehow had managed to escape the endless maze beaten, gnawed, bruised, teased, broken, and bloody with a little less than twenty-five minutes left on the clock. When I saw the mouth of the cave, I used the last bit of my energy to get out of that death-filled ditch. When I came out, the first thing I saw was Mr. Cruncher. “I hate you,” I panted with a depressed sarcastic laugh. “Understandably. You’ll thank me later. You are a very talented person; just about everyone who goes in there, never comes out, and if they do, normally they’ve gone mad. Even I haven’t taken it yet. Now, go home, and get some sleep, I have a big surprise for you tomorrow,” said Mr. Cruncher, and with that, he mumbled an Incantation, and I was home. Home for the first time in about

two months.

Chapter 19

When most people come home for the first time, covered in blood from multiple near-death experiences, they need a “oh gosh, you’re a mess, where have you been?” or “Ariella Zemra Nightengale, what have you been up to? Where have you been?” Unlike my response to my arrival from my mom (my dad was out on business), who told me I had an hour before she’d call the police and have me arrested for tresing. My sister, Daliah, just stood there at the top of the steps with silent wet cheeks looking down at me. She had a black eye, and a small knife cut on the back of her right hand. Without me, someone or something beat her up, and now I can’t come back. I can’t go back. I can’t take it back, I never could. I wish I could have stayed, or told her something comforting, but I was so worked up over my mother’s reaction to my return, I marched upstairs, quickly packed a bag, and left the house, still covered in blood and broken. I walked to my regular private school and made a little lean-to in the woods to sleep under. If I didn’t have a home, I at least wanted to stay dry. When I got up the next morning, I looked through my bag for the watch I packed. It was still dark outside, so I could already tell it was early. When I finally found my watch, I saw that it was four o’clock in the morning. I grabbed my bag and decided to go to the library in the Angel School, it was a quiet place, and I wanted to play the piano on the fifth floor. I quickly went through the wall on the outside of the gym and ran to the locker room. I had about four hours to practice all the pieces of music I wanted to on the piano. When seven forty-five finally came around, I figure school was starting soon. Not regular school, I decide not to finish the year, I didn’t see the point of missing so much and showing up in the last week; my classes at the Angel School would be starting soon. I left the library with my bag and decided to look for Mr. Cruncher. “Luna!” shouted a voice behind me. I grabbed my backpack tighter as I turned around to see a surprised Mr. Cruncher. “Luna, you… you look like a mess, here,” he said, handing me some new clothes “put these on, and wash up.” I

didn’t respond, I just took the clothes and headed or the girl’s bathroom and changed. At first, I wasn’t focused on what I was putting on, just focused on scrubbing off the blood on my skin. Then I saw myself in the mirror. Mr. Cruncher had given me a black and silver leather jacket, a black tee, black flair stainless-steel woven denim jeans, a pair of knee-high silver socks, and a pair of black combat boots. I came out of the bathroom and looked for Mr. Cruncher. “Luna, you look much better, come,” he said, spotting me watch the small crowd of confused first-level Angels with a smile. “Thank you,” I said to him, willingly letting him lead the way for the first time since we met. He chuckled with pleasure. “You’ve deserved it. There is a meeting for the High Angels of Something, and you are required to attend. Just be yourself and you’ll do fine,” he said taking me down a hallway I’ve never seen before. Toward the end of the hallway, there was a door, but if you weren’t looking for it, you’d never see it. It was too small, too unnoticeable. He opened the door and let me in, but shut it quickly behind me before I could change my mind. Inside, there were ten other people; all seated in a circle, all older than me, even though I could point to some in my grade. I sat down in the seat closest to the door. On my right was Margerette (Mary) Hope, the oldest girl in my grade. She has auburn hair, blue-gray eyes, beautiful voice, very smart. My mother always compared me to her, telling me I’ll never be as good as her at anything. On her right was Zoe Zimmerman, a friend of Mary in the tenth grade. She has blond hair, green eyes, a large heart, and a very good sense of humor. On her right was a tenth grader at SD, Andrew Cassy. He has black hair, snake green eyes, and also very funny. On his right was James Ray, an eleventh grader at TA. He has blond hair, brown eyes, and is one of my few good acquaintances. On his right was Henry Harrison, a senior. He has black hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. On his right was Mrs. Fin, one of the most unique teachers I’ve ever met. On her right was Erica West, also in tenth grade. She has short light-brown hair, hazel eyes, and hands down the most beautiful girl in school. She reminded me of a fawn. On her right was Shaun Pencil, the comedian of the eleventh grade. He has dark (almost black) brown hair, light brown eyes, and possibly the best sense of humor in the world. On his right was another familiar face from SD, Billy Barker. He has short black curly hair, dark brown eyes, and got

detentions all the time for getting in fights during school. On his right was one of Shaun’s best friends, Micael Marks. He has shaggy brown hair, hazel eyes, and a love for machines. They all stared at me in confusion as I sat down, Zoe was the only one who smiled at me. “Hey,” I said, breaking the ice. “We’ve been waiting for you Artemis,” said Mrs. Fin coolly. “Excuse me, who?” I asked with a hint of attitude. Mary leaned over and whispered in my ear. “You’re the reincarnation of Artemis,” said Mary, trying very hard not to roll her eyes. “I know that, but why did you call me Artemis?” I asked, looking at Mrs. Fin. “Moving on from this subject, Apollo will be late again, so let’s start without him,” said Mrs. Fin, ignoring my question. Andrew stood up. “There have been a couple of Angels missing in this area, and I like to bring it to our attention. I believe they are looking for someone, because these Angels are being returned with no memory of their kidnapping, which is unusual for Demons. The Fates have agreed to aid us in our investigation, but are unwilling to provide us with the information they know about the Demon’s kidnappings,” he said and then sat back down. A shiver ran down my spine. “But Hades, what would they want, we haven’t bothered them, crossed our borders, nothing. We haven’t bothered them for awhile,” reasoned Henry. “What if they were looking for one of us?” asked Erica, sounding innocent. “Then they seem to be having a bit of trouble doing so,” replied Micael. “With the exception of Apollo and Artemis, which they never found out they had, right?” responded Mary, staring me down. “As far as I know,” I started and then the door to the room slammed open and shut in a hurry.

“Welcome, Apollo,” smiled Mrs. Fin, I didn’t turn around. Apollo walked up to the chair next to me and pulled it out. “Who’s the newbie?” asked Apollo and everyone laughed. He hadn’t seen my face yet. I looked up at him. “Who do you think I am Apollo, Coraline Grey?” I asked looking into Thomas’ eyes. A slip of cold silence ran through the room, swirling around the other Angles and landing between Thomas and me. A few seconds into the previous conversation, and everyone began to argue, which I used to slip out and go to the chemistry lab. I went to the chemistry lab, because nobody ever goes in there. Not unless they have a class, which was highly unlikely because the class was canceled due to the teacher almost exploding the school. I took out my book of Chants and Incantations and began to study my new material a little when I heard a familiar voice outside the door. “Hey,” he said, strolling through the door. “Why?” I asked him, watching him come close to me. “Why? What? Why am I here?” he asked, watching me quickly move away from him. “Yes,” I said through my teeth. There was shouting in the hallway. “Your teacher, he wanted to know where you were,” he said, walking close to me. “How nice of you to volunteer to come and find me,” I said, moving away from him. “Come on Ariella, can’t we just talk?” he asked. “No,” I said and turned, and then there was a flash of light and a sharp pain in my left shoulder. “Ariella, are you ok?” asked the familiar voice of Mertyle.

“Yeah, yeah, what happened?” I asked, opening my eyes. “You busted down the chemistry lab door, got shot in the shoulder by a Fate and then beat him unconscious, and then fainted,” he said. Mertyle slapped him. “Hey!” he protested. “You should have stopped her,” growled Mertyle. “Like I could have stopped her!” he protested. “Mertyle, stop hitting people,” I requested. She rolled her eyes. I leaned back on the table and tried to relax. “Does it hurt?” she asked, her voice getting soft. “A little, it’s not broken, I’ll be fine,” I said, hoping it was true. Although it didn’t hurt much, I knew the damage an arrow could do. “I’m surprised that nothing is broken,” he said. I twisted my head to look at the damage. There was a small, deep hole right above the t in my left shoulder. I opened and flexed my hand, with little difficulty. Then I made a fist and punched Mertyle in the face. “Who are you and where are my friends?” I screamed, pinning the two of them on the floor. The door to the room burst open and three people came in and attempted to restrain me. I fought back as hard as I could, but more strangers came in and knocked me unconscious. When I gained consciousness, I was tied to a wall, and dried blood was all over the floor. “You have been charged with the assault of three Fate officers and will be dealt with according to our laws. Do you claim any of these charges are untrue or feel that our judgment on your punishment may or is clouded in anyway?” asked a short brown-haired woman, I assumed to be a Fate officer. “I accept the charges and the consequences for my actions,” I growled. I didn’t want to show my confusion. “Thirty-seven lashes by a barbed whip will be your punishment. You will be sent home when your punishment is finished,” she said and then left. A larger man

came in with a whip. His nose was broken. “You were him, weren’t you,” I said, looking him in his light brown eyes. “Yes, I was,” responded the man. I wanted to spit at his feet. “He has scars on his face,” I said, as he walked behind me. “From you?” asked the man, rubbing the tape on his nose. “No, from a former co-worker, you could have never been as good as him,” I growled. “Oh really, are you his girlfriend?” asked the man. “No, just his friend,” I said. “I did not know he had any friends, never seemed like he could,” said the man. I turned to look at him in an inevitable rage. “Alexander may not know it now, because I’m stuck here, but he will never be alone,” I said. I wish I could say that now. Then my punishment began, and I prayed for the safety of my sister and Alexander between each lash, hoping that they never have to go through what I had to.

Chapter 20

After they were done, the Fates transported me to my neighborhood. I decided that I could at least walk by the house, check on Daliah. I walked down the street to my house and started to worry. The neighborhood was way to quiet. As I got closer, I saw that the front door to my house was slightly open. I ran inside and saw an old friend waiting for me. “I’m sorry little Luna, but I was too late,” said Peter, the conductor to the train I rode into the city when I wanted to visit my dad when he worked in the city. I hugged him and saw the blood trails around the house. “Where is she?” I asked, trying to be strong and not cry. “She and your mom were taken by a group of Demons, I came as fast as I could, but they were gone by the time I got here, I’m sorry,” he said. “How long have you known?” I asked. “About you being the Angel of Inner Beauty? Let me tell you a secret, I’m the Angel of Security, and I was sent by an old friend of yours to keep you safe,” he said. “Who?” I asked. “Who the friend is, is not important right now. I’ve got your friends at the station waiting for you, and I think I might be able to help you find Daliah, if you think you’re ready,” he said, helping me to the door. “I need to grab something first,” I said, then I ran upstairs to Daliah’s room and took her hunting knife from under her bed, and then ran into my room and got my hunting knife and took a picture of me and my sister, taken the day I learned I was an Angel. Then I ran down the steps and ed Peter and we walked together to the train station around the corner. “Ari!!!” screamed Mertyle, running over to hug me. I was back in the clothes

given to me by Mr. Cruncher. I saw Alexander and Thomas standing there and smiling at me. I also saw two unexpected faces: August and Austin, two of my friends from TA. August is in eleventh grade and Austin, his brother, is in tenth. “They don’t know,” whispered Mertyle in my ear. “Good, neither of them knew I was an Angel of Something,” she released me, looked me in the eye with a look of concern, and then reed with the others. “Where are we starting?” I asked Peter. “Let’s get on the train first, we’re going to a gala in Weston, Massachusetts,” said Peter. “Why?” I asked, hopping on the train with the others. “The leader of the group that took Daliah and your Mother will be there,” said August. I turned and looked at him in surprise as we sat down. “And how would you know that?” I asked. “We are Roman Angels, we’ve been tracking these Demons for months,” said Austin. “Wait a second, what?” I asked. Since when were there different kinds of Angels? “Roman Angels are like Jupiter and Venus, we are more physically based in forms of power, but more physiological in means of Chants and Incantations; where as you Greek Angels they more, physiologically based in forms of power, but physical in means of Chants and Incantations,” said Austin. “Meaning?” I asked. “Meaning that the only difference between the two categories is the way the Angels of Somethings perform, they are the closest types of Angels out of all of them,” said Mertyle, glaring at August and Austin. “Alright then,” I said, looking out the window. Just then, the train started to move, which caught Alexander off guard, and Alexander was thrown against Thomas, and they started to fight.

“I can’t believe you befriended a… Demon,” said Austin, wrinkling his nose at Alexander. I grabbed his throat tightly. “If you even think of calling him that again, I will hurt you in so many ways you’d wish you were dead. People can change, why can’t he? No matter what you say about him, and no matter what you do to him, he’s still a person,” I growled, letting my nails begin to pierce his skin, letting the threat sink in. Then I let of his neck to go break up the fight. “Hey,” I called at Thomas. He threw a punch at Alexander, but thanks to Alexander slipping again, and Thomas missed and hit the wall instead. With his face red with embarrassment, he turned to punch at Alexander again, but I intervened and grabbed his fist before he could finish his blow. “Hurt him, and I’ll hurt you. Go sit down,” I hissed. “Oh come on Ari, we’re just having some fun,” started Thomas. I gave him a death stare. “Go. Sit down. Now,” I hissed a bit louder. I dropped his hand, and he speed walked over to Mertyle for protection. “You ok?” I asked Alexander, helping him off the floor and watching Thomas duck in his seat. “Yeah, you?” asked Alexander as I started to drag him to the control room. When I opened the door, we saw Peter pressing buttons. “Why?” I asked, slamming the door, grabbing Alexander’s shoulder, and pushing him into a chair. “Why what?” asked Peter, swirling around in his swivel conductor’s chair to face me. “Why her? Why not me?” I asked, covering Alexander’s mouth with my hand, a sign for him to stay quiet. “Is this not a conversation you and I should have alone?” asked Peter, nodding at Alexander. “No, I’m not letting him out of my sight. Not again. Answer my question,” I said. Peter was probably the only person on the planet that could talk circles around me.

“I’m not sure, maybe she’s one of them, maybe she’s like you, what does it matter?” he asked. I was shocked at his response; he knew that I cared about her life more than anything. “How can you say that? Daliah is the world to me! Who do you think I am, a cold, heartless human? I am nothing like my mother,” I said. My mother and I were somewhat overprotective of Daliah, but she let Daliah get beat up at school, and that was it for me. “Just making sure you’re the real Ari, not some fake Fate,” he said, then got up and walked over to the shelving next to the door between us and the cabin, pulled out a box, and handed it to me. “What is this?” I asked, inspecting the box. It was taped shut. “A gift from your friend who sent me. Said it was important you got it,” said Peter, going back into his swivel chair to press more buttons. I used my hunting knife and carefully opened it. Inside were three outfits, one identical to the one I was wearing, the second, a silver and black stainless-steel weaved dress with black leather legging, leather boots, a pair of silver moon earrings, and a silver heart necklace, and the third outfit was an outfit you’d expect Artemis to be depicted in a silver and black Greek dress, black sandals, and a silver circlet. “Tell her I said thank you,” I smiled, neatly closing the box and using a simple sealing Chant to close the box. “How do you know your friend is a ‘she’?” asked Peter calmly. “Only a girl could find stuff like this,” I reasoned, ing what my sister used to get for me. “If you say so,” said Peter. Then Peter mumbled something, and I slept all the way to Massachusetts. I woke up to August shaking me quite violently. I snapped my eyes open, and before my brain ed that it was August, my instincts took over, and my hands punched him in the face and wrapped my hands around his neck to cut off the airflow to his brain. “Well, she’s alive,” laughed Austin as I sat upright.

“I warned you,” chuckled Mertyle, throwing the black dress at me. “What’s this for?” I asked, looking at the dress, releasing August. “We have two hours to make you look amazing,” said Mertyle, looking through her bag. “Why?” I asked, picking up the dress and looking from the dress to her. “The gala, ? I wrote all of the plans down, they’re so simple even you can’t mess it up. You just have amazing look,” said Mertyle. “Great,” I grumbled and stood up. “Boys, out,” yelled Mertyle, and Alexander, Austin, August, Thomas, and Peter left. I grabbed Peter’s arm on his way out. “Protect him,” I whispered. “With my life,” he answered. Then I let him go and he disappeared through the doors. “What about the train?” I asked, thinking that the train would probably crash. Or miss the stop. “Peter, put an Incantation on it, the train can and will work on its own. Just put the dress on, so I can do your hair,” pushed Mertyle. “Fine,” I sighed, getting changed into the dress. Then she gave me a drink, pulled me into the swivel chair, began to tease, and twist my hair, and next thing I knew my two hours were almost up. “Wanna see yourself before the others do?” asked Mertyle with a devilish smile. “Sure,” I said, and next thing I knew Mertyle was putting an Incantation on the wall, making it like a mirror, and I was shocked. I looked like I was twenty at the least. My brown-blond hair was a honey-gold color, my skin has a soft glow to it, my blue-gray eyes became a more bright bluish color, and my skin was soft and clear of scars. “What did you do to me?” I asked, not taking my eyes off of my reflection in the mirror.

“I gave you a twelve-hour age Incantation made by August, because I knew you wouldn’t let me do it myself. Oh and here’s the plan,” she said, handing me the paper, and I don’t even what the plan was, because I never planned on following it.

Chapter 21

When we finally got to the party, Mertyle was in a stunning gold dress with beautiful black heels and one of my gold Star of David necklaces and was escorted by August, in a black tuxedo with a medium length dark plaid tie. I was happily escorted by Alexander, who wore a similar black tuxedo, with a small black bow tie. The place was beautiful, a marble ballroom with a large room for dancing and a bar. We came in a little after the party had begun. “Excuse me, Ms.,” said the security guard at the door. We all had taken the aging Incantation. Well, everyone but Alexander, who used some Demon Conjure. “Yes?” I asked, using the fanciest voice I could. “This is invitation only,” he said. I pulled out two pieces of paper from my bag and handed it to him. “Sorry Ms. Martin, Ms. Mayroe,” he said stepping aside to let us in. “It’s fine, you’re just doing your job,” I said, giving him a smile as I let Alexander guide me as I floated through the door frame and into the hall of partiers. Almost as soon as we got in there, the four of us got on the floor and got to work looking for the Demon. After a while, Alexander spotted the head of the Demon gang and whispered in my ear. “Daniel Smoke. I see him. He’s at the bar. You ready?” he asked. “Yeah, let’s go,” I said and then he excused himself and walked over to Mertyle to dance with her. I put on my best-stressed face and walked over to the bar and sat next to him. “Can I get a Cosmo?” I asked the bartender. “Depends, you have an ID?” asked the man. I reached for my purse, but the man next to me stopped my hand. “John, if the lady wants a drink, get her one. I would never invite someone who couldn’t drink,” said the man and then turned to me “please excuse him, Ms… .”

“Martin, we met at that party in Philly a couple of months ago,” I said, looking at him in the most tempting way I could. “So brave, coming to this party without an escort,” he said, looking for a man who sat alone. Alexander was off flirting with some other girls. “No, I didn’t come alone; the man who came with me has his head on other matters,” I said, pretending to try to not sound jealous. “Do you have feelings for him?” asked the man, leaning on the bar. I looked down into my drink for dramatic effect. “Whether or not I still have feelings for him isn’t important. I was stupid to believe I could keep a relationship with a normal,” I said, taking a sip of my drink to keep my laugh and my smirk in my throat. “Normal? You talk as if you are something different,” he said, pretending to be shocked. He was a terrible liar. Almost as bad as I was. “I am different, and so are you,” I said, looking at him and lowering my voice as I swallowed. “Let’s find somewhere else to talk, shall we?” he asked and then I followed him as he led me to an unnoticeable door in the back of the room and hoped that one of my friends had noticed. “Where to sir?” I asked in a flirty way. “What are you?” he asked, brushing my hair off my neck. “A Demon, like you,” I said as I let him push me into the wall. “How do you know that I’m a Demon?” he asked between kisses up and down my neck. “I was sent here to help you in your project with Daliah Nightengale, the Angel girl you have,” I said, letting him kiss my cheeks. He looked up at me and stared at my eyes, like he was drugged. “The girl, such a beauty. We leave for New York tomorrow to interrogate her,”

he said, kissing me on the other side of my neck. “Where in New York?” I asked, still sounding flirtatious. “The Empire State Building, we redid the office on the top,” he said, turning out the lights, kissing my cheeks again, and then slamming me against the wall to aggressively kiss me. I had to go along with it, even though it was painful. I heard a voice whisper in my ear “hold on a second dear” and the Demon was thrown against the opposite wall by some invisible force. I recollected the small amount of pride I had and looked around. There were three ghostly blue figures pinning Daniel against the wall, one with both hands on his shoulders and the other with both hands on his neck. The third stood next to them, watching the other two, waiting like a tiger stalking its prey. “What is going on?” he screamed, his voice cracking. “Skia thanatou, Artemis. We are the Ghost Unseen. We will protect you as best we can along your various journeys,” said the creature. “Are you going to kill him?” I asked, watching his breath slow. “We might,” said the creature. “I don’t want him to die. Though he deserves to die for his crimes, I would like to keep the body count down, if that is possible,” I said, quietly, but sternly. The creature laughed. “Silly girl, we have this conversation every time you reincarnate. We Ghost Unseen don’t kill, we erase memory. What is happening to the Demon now is we are erasing his memory of you. It is the Shadow Unseen that kills, but rarely attacks, unless asked. They only when they feel it is necessary,” the creature waved its hand and handed me an old looking book. “What is this?” I asked, taking the worn book. “A book on the Unseen, none but you can read the book, and to others the book is just a book of little importance,” said the creature, then Daniel’s limp body dropped to the floor, and the other two creatures ed the third and bowed. “A pleasure to meet you again Artemis,” they said.

“A pleasure to meet you as well,” I said, returning the bow. “We must be going Tililya,” said one of the creatures. “I’ll be right behind you Sntutler, Leoge, please go with him,” said Tililya, nodding them off. Then Sntutler and Leoge disappeared. “Will I see you again?” I asked, readjusting the aged book in my hand. “Yes, you will. We will always be running into each other from time to time, but if you ever need one of us, just turn out a light or two first,” said Tililya with a wink and then disappeared like the other creatures. Almost simultaneous with the evaporation of Tililya, the door to the small room burst open in a trail of sparks. “Ari!” shouted Alexander as he attacked me with a hug. “Calling me Ari now?” I asked, turning on the lights so he could see that I was fine. He was looked stunned. “I’m… I’m,” he stuttered. I laughed and put my arms around his shoulder and pulled his face close to mine. “I’m joking,” I said with a smile. “You can call me Alex now, if that makes it even,” he said shyly. “All right Alex,” I said jokingly. “We should go, find the others,” said Alex, pulling away, looking down. “Alright,” I agreed and then I followed him, with my new old book, out of the empty hall (the party had ended) to the train. “Where were you?” asked August through gritted teeth. “Getting information that I needed,” I said smartly. “Give her a break August, not like you could flirt information from the head Demon in a fully functioning Demon gang,” said Thomas, punching August on the shoulder.

“Well, neither could you,” argued August. “Neither of you could get a date with a toad,” joked Mertyle. “Like you could do better,” argued Austin. “I have,” remarked Mertyle. Truth is she’s smart enough to avoid going on dates with stupid boys like them. Peter just rolled his eyes and started pushing buttons. “Where to?” asked Peter, ignoring the childish comments from the others. “New York City, New York,” I said, kicking off my shoes and rubbing my feet. “So, what did he say?” asked Mertyle, sitting down next to me in excitement. “More importantly, what happened to you after the two of you disappeared?” asked August. Everyone was silent waiting for an answer from me. Thankfully Peter began to sing, and the next thing I knew, I was asleep. When I woke up, I was asleep on Alex’s soft shoulder, and he was on my head. I gently moved my head and left him asleep on his shoulder. “Sleep well?” asked Peter quietly, looking at me from his chair. “Yes thank you,” I said, smiling. He pointed to the box of clothes, and I knew what he wanted me to do. I took out my black outfit from Mr. Cruncher and changed behind one of the key s. I looked out a window and saw that the sun was setting. “How long have I been sleeping?” I asked. “All of you slept all day. Good thing too,” he said. “Why?” I asked. “I have some bad news,” said Peter, not looking at me. “What is it?” I asked, hoping it had nothing to do with my sister. “The brothers can’t go with you to save your sister, they have been called back to their school for another Demon hunt,” said Peter.

“Really?” I asked, wondering why now. “Yep really,” said Peter, straight to the point. “What do I do now?” I asked, thinking of how I would work with Thomas and Alex on their own. “Nothing. You should wake the others though, so you can go find Daliah,” said Peter, going back to pushing buttons. “Ok,” I said. Then I screamed. Alexander was the first to wake up. “What’s wrong?” he asked, jumping up. “There is a fire,” I said with a straight face. He jumped up and started to wake the others. “Fire! Fire!” he screamed, waking the others in a panic. Peter and I just laughed. “What’s so… there is no fire is there?” asked a very sleepy Mertyle. All I could do was shake my head with a smirk. “That’s not nice,” said August, pushing his brother off of him on to the floor. “That is not nice, I am actually quite a nice person,” I said, trying to stop laughing. “Well, either or, where are we and what are we doing?” asked Thomas. “We’re in New York, and we should go as soon as we can possibly can,” Peter and I said at the same time. “So, where are we going?” asked Alex. “Well, August and Austin have to come back with me because they are on another assignment,” said Peter before I could answer. “What assignment?” asked Austin in confusion. “You have a new assignment from your school. More I cannot say,” answered Peter.

“Why not?” asked August. “Because, more I do not know,” lied Peter. I was glad he lied in front of Alex. “On a happier note, Ari, tell us where Thomas, Alexander, and I will be following you to,” said Mertyle, seeing that talking about hunting Demons in front of Alex might be slightly crossing an emotional line I didn’t want to cross. “We are going to the most famous part of New York City, the Empire State Building,” I said, grabbing my book on the Unseen and striding out the door, not waiting for the others to follow. I was going to save my sister, with or without the help of the brothers. I had my two best friends coming with me, and that was all I needed.

Chapter 22

There is no word for the feeling I had when I walked out that door. I walked off the train into the mostly empty train station and didn’t even stop to look around to see which way I had to go, I somehow just knew. The Empire State Building was just a few blocks from the train station, a short ten-minute walk. Once I got there, Alex, Thomas, and Mertyle caught up to my fast pace. “Where to Mr. Weis?” I asked Alex, not turning around to look at him. “The top,” he said, looking up at the building. “All the way?” asked Mertyle shakily. “Yep,” said Alex. “No Austin or August?” I asked. “Nope, they said they weren’t authorized to,” said Thomas. “I thought they were assigned to something!” protested Mertyle. “Yes, and assignment that they are authorized to come on,” said Thomas. “And how do you know that,” snapped Mertyle. “I was in charge of authorizing them and I lost their papers,” said Thomas. “Ari, are you ready to so this?” asked Alex, probably knowing the danger better than anyone. “Let’s go get my sister,” I said and then marched into the skyscraper followed by the three people who stuck with me through the beginning, the three people I knew had my back. Once we were in the elevator, Alex said some weird Demon Conjure to the elevator, and we shot up to the roof. The doors opened and we all stepped out of the metal death trap, into a wooden box graveyard.

“That’s it?” I asked Alex, leaning toward him and then straightening up. “Yep,” he said. Then we started looking. We stealthily looked around the boxes for a door, but before we could get very far, we heard voices, and we all hid in or around the wooden crates. “We need to know where her sister is,” said an annoyed female voice. “Yes Penelope,” said a masculine voice loyally. “Do I have to torture you like I do that girl to get this information?” asked Penelope, still annoyed. “No Ma’am, I will tell Lucas your orders then search the house again,” said the masculine voice. “And when will I know if you have anything for me?” asked Penelope. “Two seconds after I have something,” answered the loyal masculine voice. “Good. You are dismissed,” said Penelope. Then I heard footsteps leave, but to make sure, the four of us stayed hidden for another ten minutes, in which time I sped-read my book on the Unseen. After I was sure there was no one outside, I got out of my box and went to find the others. “Clear,” I whispered and waited for my four partners in crime to come out of their hiding spaces. “Thank the Angels!” growled Mertyle, coming out of a box that was near mine. “You can say that again,” said Alex, kicking his way out of his box. “Thomas,” I hissed and received no response. “Where is he?” asked Mertyle, looking from me to Alexander and then back at me again. “I was hoping one of you could answer that,” said Alexander and then they both looked at me. “They must have gotten him,” I said, watching the last ray of the sun disappear

on the horizon. “What will they do to him?” asked Mertyle with a frightened voice. “If that is the Penelope I know, you’d rather not know what will happened to Thomas,” said Alex. “I think I would,” snapped Mertyle. “Fine. Just so you know, you asked for it,” warned Alex. “Shut up and tell me!” commanded Mertyle. “I don’t think he can do both, Mertyle,” I said. “The sun just went down, we should find some form of light,” said Alex, and Mertyle and I began to laugh. “What?” he asked. “Just put your hands on my shoulders, we’ll find our way,” I said, and we made a line and began to look for a door. “Ari, we should change form,” said Mertyle from behind Alex. “Ok,” I said and then we simultaneously said a metamorphic Incantation, and we each glowed slightly from our auras doing their best to change our appearance. “That was cool,” said Alex, as I headed toward a small metal door. “Want to see something cooler?” I asked walking up to the door. “Sure,” he said excitedly. I concentrated hard on engulfing my Chant for going through inanimate objects around the three of us, then carefully recited the Chant, and walked through the door. “How was that?” I asked, picking up the pace through the narrow hall. “Impressive,” he said and then I heard a familiar scream, a scream that has always and will always haunt my nightmares. My eyes grew wide and I looked back at Mertyle. “Ari, no!” shouted Mertyle, pushing past Alex to grab my arm.

“Get off of me,” I screamed as I tried to run down the hall, but Mertyle pinned me down. “Ari, calm down, please,” she begged, tears coming to her eyes as well as mine. “Get off of me now!” I screamed, pushing her off of me. Alex tried to reach for me, but I was too fast. I ran down the hall, and burst through the first door I saw with light under the doorframe. “Who the heck are you?” asked a boy, who was chaining my sister to a table. Daliah looked at me in fear. She didn’t recognize me. Her face was scratched and covered in blood, old and new. Her short brown hair was matted with dried blood. I could tell she put up a good fight, though, she had bruises up and down her arm, and so did the man. “I’m here for my friends. I’ll fight you for them,” I said, looking at Thomas, who was chained to the wall like he was on a spinning wheel. His body was limp, but unharmed. “Ha! Sure little weakling Angel, we can duel, and if I win?” he asked, walking away from my sister to me. “What do you want?” I asked. He walked up to me and circled me before deciding his price. “Information. About your Angel School and the Angel of Inner Beauty,” he declared without much thought. “Deal,” I said, hoping my confidence was as big as I thought it was. Giving him information about the school could put all of the student’s lives in danger. “Good! Shall we shake on it?” he asked, holding out his hand. I glared at him and then shook his hand. “Deal,” I repeated. He then led me to a separate room, attached to the torture chamber. It had a tall, wide, medium length, table, with lines. The man motioned for me to stand on the small dot on my side. It had two foot prints, and upon standing on it, the lines on half the table turned dark blue. The man did the same on the other side, the lines turning a dull mustard yellow.

“Shall we begin?” he asked, motioning me to stay where I was. “Let’s,” I said. Then he threw what must have been every Conjure he knew, and when he was done, he was shocked. “Who are you?” he asked, panting like he just ran a marathon at the site of me not having a scratch. “The Angel of Inner Beauty, and now, it’s my turn,” I declared “Time be mine.” Then time around the Demon seemed utterly slow. I took out a knife and ran up to him. His face went white with fear. “Luminiteant,” I said, and the lights went out. My time Chant would not last very long, so I had to act quickly. “amicorum skia thanatou salvum me facias,” I said, cutting the palm of his right hand and letting the blood drip onto the floor. Then, three red ghostly figures appeared. “Skia thanatou, we see and will attack on command, dear Artemis,” said the first red Unseen. “Can you please hold him down until I come back?” I asked, and the second and third creatures moved quickly and took him from my hold, just as the time Chant wore off. “Please, please don’t hurt me,” he cried, looking for the invisible creatures that held him down with tremendous force. “I would wish for nothing more than to save your weak, pathetic, worthless life, believe me; but if my sister is harmed, in any way, you’ll be dead before you can even beg for mercy,” I said coldly, standing over and looking down on him with a look of shame, as the two Unseen held him down. I turned quickly and ran into the other room with Daliah, she was crying. I helped Thomas down and nodded to Daliah. “Please, she recognizes you, please take her to school,” I whispered in his ear. He just nodded, unchained her, and I watched him gently carried her like a muddy, crying rag doll out of the room. I went quickly back to the Demon, and the three Shadow Unseen. “Shall we kill him?” asked the first Unseen, watching the Demon struggle like a fly in a spider’s web with a proud smirk. “Let me ask him something first,” I said, ing in the observation of the Demon.

“Of course,” said the Unseen, standing like an officer. “Why Daliah, what has she done to deserve what you did?” I asked, kneeling down to look him in the eyes and grabbing his throat so tightly it began to bleed. “Fear,” he managed to croak, his body was beginning to shut down. He weakly tried to pull my hands off of him. “What about fear? What do the Demons fear about her?” I asked impatiently, tightening my grip. “She. Controls. Fear,” he gasped, giving up on trying to get my hands off of him. “I’ve heard enough, kill him quietly please,” I said to the first creature. “You may wish to leave, dear friend,” said the creature. “Alright, thank you,” I said and then left the room. Thomas must have told Alexander to come back and help me finish the Demon, because he had just walked (more like ran) through the door. “Did you kill him?” he asked between gasps for air. I shook my head and pointed to the door. He ran through the door and I heard the dying Demon shout “traitor,” then I left to follow Thomas and my sister, gently shutting the door behind me. We all met back in Peter’s train, in the conductor’s car. Daliah was spread across the bench, unconscious. Peter was covering her in Chants and Incantations. “Will she live?” I asked, walking next to him. “She will,” he said, as if there was something else on his mind. “That isn’t all of it, is it?” I asked, looking at him. “Nope,” he said, looking at me for a second and then looking back at Daliah. “Care to share?” I asked, waiting for an answer. “It’s not something I think you’d like to hear,” he said, turning from me and going to the bookshelf.

“Look, I know she’s the Angel of Fear,” I said, the Demon that I fought told me that. “I know,” he said, taking an envelope off of my box. “Then what is it?” I asked, walking over to him. “The Winged Angels are looking for you. They think you’re ready to take the test,” he said handing me the envelope that he had taken off the shelf. “What does that mean?” I asked, trying to move around to look him in the eyes, setting the envelope down on the empty bench space next to me. “I’m afraid it means you’re going to meet Artemis, the original Angel of Inner Beauty,” he said, leaving me alone with my sister as a wave of fear and panic overcame me as I dwelled in the fear of meeting the girl who started this.

Chapter 23

Over the summer, my dad was spending more and more time out of state for work, so Daliah and I moved into the library at the Angel School. She took the couch in the science fiction section on the third floor, and I took the couch in the mythology section on the other side of the third floor. The couches were our beds, the cafeteria was our kitchen, and the lockers in the locker rooms were our closets. Of course, we kept some stuff at home for when our dad came home, but Mr. Cruncher was more concerned for our safety than keeping our dad off our backs. Daliah had become a level 5 over the summer, while Thomas, Alex, and I took a field trip to a place I’d rather not say for the safety of whoever reads this. Let’s just say I found out a lot more about myself than I wanted to, and I set the magic world on a path I hoped would create peace. When school finally started, we had our annual two-day camping trip with the rest of the level 6 and higher Angels. Mr. Cruncher was worried about me, so Austin, August, and Thomas had to watch me like a little kid, and Alex (despite our protests) stayed behind to watch Daliah. The camping trip was fun; after all, I did have some freedom. I went down to the stream with some of the other students. That night, I played capture the flag against the boys and won. I wished Daliah was there with me, she loved to play capture the flag, but I was only gone for a day and a half, and she needed to learn how to control her fear. When I got back from the trip, I was greeted with open arms in the parking lot of my school. “Thank goodness you came back!” cried Daliah as she choked me with her death hug. “Why wouldn’t I?” I managed to choke. Alex was trying to control his laughter as he walked over. “I was so bored! Alexander sucks at playing cards!” she said squeezing me tighter.

“Sorry my skills are not in the art of card-playing,” chuckled Alex. “I’ll play cards with you if you would just let go,” I said through my teeth, trying to push her off. She finally let go after I convinced Alex to tickle her. “It’s getting dark, may I escort you ladies inside?” asked Peter, a signal for Alex to leave. He was staying with Thomas. Though, I’m not sure why. Thomas hated Alex, and Alex was probably paying the price for being born a Demon. It’s not like he chose to be born a Demon, that’s the way he was born. Daliah and I raced around the high school and down the hill to the gym. We pushed each other over trying to get through the door in to the locker room. Once inside the school, we ran into Mr. Cruncher. “Hello, Mr. Cruncher,” we said simultaneously sounding like two guilty school children. “Dema, Luna,” said Mr. Cruncher nodding to each of us. Dema was my sister’s Angel name. “Can we help you?” asked Daliah, giving him puppy dog eyes. “Yes, I wanted to remind Luna that she is to head straight to bed, as she has a big day tomorrow,” said Mr. Cruncher, with a strange smile. On that note, Daliah and I went up to our couches. I think I had my eyes closed for five seconds, before the school’s emergancy alarms went off. I shot up and ran to see if Daliah was ok, and we ran into each other. “Ouch!” yelled Daliah, as she fell over. I helped her up. “You get the Hall of Entrances, I’ll take the school,” I said. She showed me her knife, I showed her mine, a protocol we made so we knew we could each defend ourselves. We nodded and ran off to do our searching. As I ran through the halls, I had to walk through the Hall of Past Angels. The paintings were of past Angels that went to the school; most of them had done something great. The paintings are enchanted pictures of the original Angels, they talk and everything. I the first time I saw the pictures, I had a conversation with each one of them, and most of them were something legendary. My favorite was Strega Puca. In the painting she was twenty two, but

she died at twenty three. She was working on a project with a Demon named Satin. The project was to work out a way to unite Angels and Demons, but she died before any action could be taken. It made me smile to talk to her and not feel like I was the only one who wanted peace. As I walked by the tired Angels, I was greeted with sleepy smiles and drowsy eyes. After walking through the hall, I ran back to the library. Daliah was waiting in the mystery section of the library for me, the first section of the library when you walk in. “Anything?” I asked, waiting for an answer. “Nothing but a box addressed for you,” she replied, leaning over a medium sized brown box. “Really?” I asked jumping over the couch to see the box. There was nothing special about it, other then the school never got mail. “Really, I even tried to open it, but,” she started and ended by showing me her slightly bent knife. “Oh, well, let me open it!” I said with excitement and pulled out my knife to open the box. Inside the box was a small black jewelry box. I slowly opened it, and inside was a beautiful silver locket watch and chain. Opening the locket, on one side, there was a clock, with an hour, minute, and second hand, and on the other side was a com. “It’s beautiful! Put it on!!!” squealed Daliah. I slipped it over my neck and watched Daliah’s face turn from excitement to fear. “What’s wrong?” I asked, studying her face, then I heard it, one of the classroom doors creak close. I nodded to her to get behind one of the shelves, while I hid behind one on the other side of the narrow hall. The “intruder” came into the library slowly, and when he came between my sister and I, I signaled for her to jump in front of him, while I took him out from behind. She just stood there and punched him in the face, while I pinned him down on the ground with my knee to his neck, and Daliah and I both simultaneously shouted “luminite.” I began to glow my dark blue aura, and Daliah began to glow a maroon-ish color. “Andrew?” I asked, looking at Andrew Cassy’s very confused face on the floor.

“It was. My turn. This week,” he moaned. Andrew, James Ray, and Harry Harrison took weekly shifts, so if the alarms go off, they volunteered to come and help inspect the school for intruders. I jumped off of him. “Sorry,” I mumbled, as I helped him up. “No problem, well, you guys are ok, should we check the rest of the school?” asked Andrew, mumbling luminite to add his dark gray aura to our two clashing auras. “I get the Hall of Entrances, you get the library, she gets the school,” said Daliah, sounding pissed off. “Fine, meet here in ten,” he called as we ran out the door. We had just checked our areas, but I should have looked harder, and I would have noticed the stream of blood as I ran down the hallways. When I got back to the library, Daliah was on a couch in the mystery section, throwing knives at an empty wall, while Andrew stood (for his safety) on the other side of the couch watching. I walked over to the wall she was throwing at and caught her last knife just before the tip of the blade cut the ancient oak wall. “Should I ask?” I asked, looking from her to him. “No, it’s not-,” she started, not finishing her sentence. Instead, her face, as well as Andrew’s, turned from boredom to fear. “What?” I asked in a panic, listening for something. It sounded like there was a leaky faucet somewhere, but I didn’t think that’s why she was panicking. The one rule about Daliah was if she started to panic, it was only a matter of time until the rest of the people in the room began to scream. “E… Eyes,” stuttered Andrew, pointing to the wall behind me. I figured it was Daliah’s doing, she couldn’t control her Angel ability to for you to see your worst fear yet. “Daliah, what’s wrong?” I asked, kneeling down in front of her to try and calm her down, like I would do for the children I babysit for. She just pointed at the wall she was throwing knives at and put on a sour face as she tried to hold back the tear that snaked down her soft face. I slowly turned around preparing to jump up and have to defend two petrified Angels.

Instead of an intruder, which by the way I would have picked, over the sight I saw. Andrew was right, there were eyes. Paper eyes. The eyes of the past Angels, the kind paintings in the hall, were strung through their pupils on a long piece of twine. Behind the terrible string of eyes, on the wall was a warning “leave now” with a very detailed picture of a pair of wings, three symbols around the wings: a crescent moon, a skull, and a snake. The scary thing about the message was it was soaked in blood. “Daliah, you’re gonna be ok, I promise,” I said, kneeling down in front of her to try and calm her down before she hurt anyone or herself; but it was too late. Andrew began to scream and thrash on the ground in pain like a fish out of water. I started to see the things I fear the most, things that I will not write down. “Daliah, please,” begged Andrew between his violent fits. Then his eyes closed and he was out cold, and his flickering aura dimmed away. I looked at her in fear, but I knew she was scared too. Her aura began to flicker, and it was seconds after the flickering began that she too was knocked out. I looked around, and I knew it wouldn’t be long till I ended up like them. “Run, Artemis, take your friends and run,” whispered a voice that echoed throughout the library. I was strong, but my as my aura began to flicker, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to save them both. “Amicorum skia thanatou, adesto vt mortem,” I whispered, trying to save my energy for a fight. The Unseen were only allowed in the school for extreme emergencies. At least, that was the rule Mr. Cruncher placed. Three silver figures appeared in front of me, and one bent over me. “Skia thanatou. Are you hurt my friend?” said the silver figure. She spoke in a calm, hushed female voice. I shook my head. “My sister and my friend, they need to get out of here,” I whispered, as I began to feel faint. “And you?” asked the figure in a hurry, ing the word on to the other two figures with a swift motion of her hand. “Please get them somewhere safe,” I begged, and the figure stood up. “Gently now, be careful, they’re in trouble and we need to move them now,”

shouted the figure and then leaned back over me. “Go with them, please go with them, please stay with them until they are found,” I said, as I clumsily fell on to the floor. “I can’t just leave you here, Artemis,” argued the figure, leaning further over me. She sounded a lot like Mertyle. “You can, and you must. I will be fine as long as my sister is, if she goes, so will I,” I said as I gasped for air. One of my worst and slightly gory fears, drowning in the blood of people close to me. The silver figure gently brushed the hair out of my face. “I wish you luck, brave Artemis, the worst has yet to come,” said the silver figure and then she stood up and ran to help the others take Daliah and Andrew somewhere safe. Then, I watched as my aura slowly flicker out, and the blood on the walls and the floors began to fade into nothing with the eyes of the past Angels and the books that kept me up at night; and as the room I once looked at as a place of safety faded, a ocean of blood swirled around me, I heard the screams of my sister and my friends, and the ocean of blood slowly and painfully choked my thoughts and mind.

Chapter 24

When I woke up, I was in a puddle of blood that I traced back to the wall. The eyes and the markings on the wall were gone, and the lights in the library were on. I tried to stand up, but my head was still fuzzy. “They haven’t found her yet, but we will,” said a familiar voice. James. “Well, find her. We need to know she’s ok,” said another familiar voice. Mr. Cruncher. “Zaniel, have you seen Luna?” asked James in an annoyed tone. “Don’t you think I would have told someone if I had?” snapped Thomas. “A simple yes or no would have worked,” said James, a bit offended. “Fine. No, I haven’t, we were going to look for her to see if she knows what’s going on,” said Thomas. “Fine, you look for her in here, everyone else has already, why don’t you check?” said James in disgust. “We will, thank you,” said a voice I’ve too often been shocked by. I heard footsteps slowly coming closer, and I tied to stand up again. The best I could do was prop myself against the couch. “Where do you think she is?” asked Thomas and then I saw one of Alex’s feet as I tried to lift my head. I watched as his foot moved faster in my direction. “Luna! Dear Angels please be alive,” said Alex as his warm hand checked my pulse. I tried to smile. “I’m ok,” I said with a hoarse voice. Alex wrapped his hands around my cheeks and moved my head so I could look him in the eyes.

“She looks like she’s waking up from something strong, let’s move her to the couch,” said Thomas, as they moved to pick me up. I tried to push them away but I was too weak. They gently lifted me onto the couch. “Luna, you ok?” asked Thomas. I wanted to give him a smart remark, but Alex beat me to it. “Does she look alright to you? Go get Mr. Cruncher and tell him we found her,” demanded Alex, brushing the hair out of my face. I could almost hear his thoughts, telling me that it’s going to be ok, but something was wrong. I still felt like I was drowning. “Luna, can you speak?” he asked gently, trying to hide his worry. I nodded. “How is she?” I managed to croak. My eyelids felt heavy. “Daliah? I’m sure she’s fine by now. How are you feeling?” asked Alex, trying hard to look away, knowing the danger of being close to me while I was injured. He knew that my ability to (as Mr. Cruncher says) “lure” Demons to feel “‘attraction” to me was so much stronger. To be completely honest there were days I wished I knew whether or not it was my fate that pushed me through that roof only a year ago. “Like I’m drowning,” I croaked, trying to focus on regaining my strength. I hated feeling weak, like I was trapped in a corner. “Daliah got scared?” he asked, standing up to look at the wall. He saw what I saw. I could still see the marks on the wall, and the stringed eyes, even though I knew they were gone. “You see it too,” I whispered, using a lot of my regaining strength to look over at him. “I see markings, carved into the wall by a hand that is not Angel or Fate. I see eyes string like popcorn on Thanksgiving between the shelves. I see a beautiful Angel, hurt by her own sister, gasping like a fish because she knew what I knew. I see the Demon school that I once went to; I can still hear their laughing. I see what I know is not there, and if you can see that too, you are something more than anyone ever thought,” said Alex, without turning to face me. It was one of his abilities, given to him as a gift by the Winged Angels for saving Daliah’s life.

“They were here then,” I asked hoarsely, trying to sit normally. Alex must have heard me in my struggle and pushed me back into a lying position. “Where is she?” I heard Mr. Cruncher yell as the library doors slammed against the wall. It wasn’t long before a very angry Mr. Cruncher was getting in my face to yell at me, pushing Alex out of the way. “She’s getting better, we found her against the couch, she says she feels like she’s drowning,” said Alex, looking at me with apology in his eyes. “Good, meet me in my office in two,” he said, standing up straight. “But Mr. Cruncher, she’s too weak to walk,” argued Alex, looking panicked. “No, she’s not, she can and will if she wants to,” he said, giving me a sideways look and walking away. I tried swinging my legs onto the floor, but I could barely move, I felt so stiff; the hardest part of trying to stand was the energy it took to balance myself. I wobbled for a second, but Alex helped me. Unfortunately, the walk to Mr. Cruncher’s office was short. Alex held the door for me as I limped into the office and slumped into the chair on the other side of his desk. “Mr… . Mr. Cruncher, I,” started Alex, stuttering over his tongue to get his words out. “You may go now, shut the door behind you,” said Mr. Cruncher, not letting him finish. “Yes sir,” he said, looking at me with hope in his eyes for a second, then hurrying off and gently closing the door behind him. “What happened?” he asked calmly, leaning in my face. “Well, the emergency alarms went off, and after we did our rounds, we met in the mystery section. Then Daliah began to freak out so I summoned the Unseen,” I began calmly, because I knew he would freak out about me letting the Unseen into the school. “You what!?” asked Mr. Cruncher.

“What was I supposed to do? She is stronger than you think, Arthur, and I can’t always calm her down, and they were dying! I am many things, but I am not a monster. Just because you think I would purposely hurt my own sister, does not mean I would,” I shouted, leaning on his desk for dramatic appearance and to get back in his face. “Because of your actions, I’ve arranged an alternative house for you to stay at,” said Mr. Cruncher, regaining his calm voice, not losing his look of disparagement. “What?” I shouted with anger. How could he kick me out? I stood up and limped to the door. “The new host will pick you up at sundown,” he called as I slammed the door in his face and limped to the locker room. I took my backpack out of my locker and began to aggressively shove my clothes into my enchanted backpack. “Hey,” said a voice behind me. It was the Unseen leader from last night. I watched her glide through the door and sit next to me. Being an Unseen, her figure was similar to a person’s, but no details, like a silver ghost. “How are they?” I asked, going back to packing my backpack. “Artemis, my friend, don’t you trust me?” asked the girl. She seemed more human then the other Unseen I had met. There were flickers of dark shadows that looked like hair, and I could almost have sworn that her lips were red. “My question first,” I said, looking at her with frustration. “They’re fine, Shelia and Delano are using small Influences along with some of a healer’s Incants, they cannot be traced, I promise they will be fine. I’m Phylinoe, by the way,” she said, trying to talk with a smile in her voice. “I trust you, but I’m sure you didn’t risk coming here to update me,” I said, giving her the smile I knew she wanted to give. “I won’t tell if you don’t,” she said warmly. “I won’t,” I said, feeling much better.

“I came here to warn you, a Demon in an Angel’s skin is not only nerve racking, but dangerous. Never, Artemis, never take off that necklace. The Demon will try to trick you, he will hurt you and the one you love. He will try to kill you. You will not survive in the state you are in now, no matter how hard you try. The Winged Angels will not approve of me telling you this, especially after what just happened, but you need to earn your wings, Luna, it’s the only way,” she said, and I swear I saw a glimpse of a violet eye. “Alex is going to try to kill me?” I asked in a hurt voice. “No, not him, the other one!” she said in aggravation; then there was a knock on the door. “I must go now, but do not forget, you must . And never take off your necklace,” she said and then she turned to smoke and disappeared. “Luna, can I talk to you?” asked Alex from the other side of the door. “Sure, I’m about to head out,” I called, grabbing my bag and going to my regular school, accompanied by Alex. We waited outside and laughed as it began to storm. As the rain fell harder, we laughed louder, and though I will never it it to anyone, it was that moment I fell for him. “Alex,” I said, calming myself down. “Yes?” he said looking at me with a smile. “Would you do something for me?” I asked. He turned and looked at me. “I would do anything for you,” he said with a smile. “If anything happens to me, can you light a candle for me?” I asked. For as long as I could I’ve lit a candle every night for people who had no one to them. I had been thinking about what the Unseen girl had said. The Demon in the Angel’s skin would kill me. “Sure,” he said with a smile. The laughter and smile from Alex’s face dimmed slowly, fading away to anger as a car pulled into the school’s parking lot. Who but August came out of the car. “Hey Ari!” said August, stepping out of the driver’s seat of the car. I watched Alexander’s hands turn into tight fists; his eyes turn into a scowl.

“Hi August,” I said, slightly monotonely. “Careful August, she brought her guard dog,” joked Austin, stepping out of the other side of the car. I took a step at him and he fell back into the car, hitting his head. I looked back at Alexander and saw him smirk to hide his laugh. “Well, we better go home,” said August, trying not to laugh at his brother’s reaction. I sulked as I grabbed my backpack out of the tree and walked over to the car. “How are you going to get home?” I asked, as I opened the backdoor to the car. “I’ll be fine,” he said with a smile. “Are you sure?” I asked, I wanted to be with him longer. “Have fun,” he said, faking a smile as he pushed me into the car and closed the door. As August drove away, I realized Mr. Cruncher assigned me to stay with August, because August didn’t know I was an Angel of Something. And it made me wonder why I needed to stay with someone who didn’t know.

Chapter 25

When we got to their house, Mr. Klein (August and Austin’s dad) greeted me with a welcoming smile, but something told me he was not happy about having a girl in the house. He and his (ex) wife (August and Austin’s mom) were divorced, and there had not been a girl in their home since. After Mr. Klein greeted me, August led me to their guest bedroom. It was a small room, with a bay window that gave a beautiful view of the forest behind their house. On the wall adjacent from the bed, there was a small mirror with a thick metal frame. “Sorry it’s so small,” said August as I put my backpack down next to the twin bed under the slanted roof. “It’s perfect,” I said, smiling at him, purely for his reassurance that we were still friends. “It’s Friday, wanna order pizza?” he asked, looking from the floor, to me and then looking around. “Or I could save you money and just make dinner,” I said, sliding past him and walking down the hallway. “Or you can do that,” he said, as I heard him close the door and follow me. I sent August and Austin downstairs, claiming that I had a “secret recipe,” really, I was just going to turn a pile of cereal into pizza, which took me five seconds. I set the table, call the boys, and made them wait for Mr. Klein to us at the table to eat. “How did you do that?” asked Mr. Klein, looking amazed at the brothers, then looking to me, then back at the boys. “Make pizza?” I asked, assuming he knew I was an Angel. He laughed and smiled at me, a true smile, something I haven’t seen in awhile. “Get them to wait,” he laughed, as August and Austin looked at me with annoyance.

“I have my ways,” I joked. Then we sat down and everyone started eating, laughing, and talking, and it wasn’t until midnight that our small party ended. I cleared the table, washed the dishes, and then went to my room; it was dark and everyone was asleep, everyone but me of course. I couldn’t sleep, so I took out my sketchpad and did a still life sketch of my watch, and as I was drawing, I noticed initials on the outside of the locket. The initials were DAM, and it made my mind wander to what it could stand for. As I lightly sketched the alien initials onto the watch-locket on my paper, my eyelids became heavy, and I drifted into sleep. A sleep that I wish I had never been lulled into.

Chapter 26

What woke me up was the warning call of a raven. It was dark and cold, but I could see there were rays of light just peeking the horizon. I opened my eyes slowly and saw a tree-guided path, worn from weather, and carved by deer and other critters of the forest. I jumped up and looked around. I was standing on the edge of a path, surrounded by trees and a little creek. “Good morning, Artemis,” said a man’s voice behind me. I slowly turned around as I reached for the knife in my shoe. “Who are you?” I asked, looking the mysterious man in the eyes. He looked middle aged, and he had dark, slightly shaggy hair, deep brown eyes, and had a hard, deep tan. “I am Genen, the Test Giver,” he said, hinting that I should have heard of him. “And how in the world would I know that?” I asked, raising my knife in a more threatening fashion. “You can’t hurt me, silly Artemis, I’m not that dissimilar to your friends, the Unseen,” he said, reaching into a bag next to him. I had no choice but to lower my knife, I saw no point in threatening him if he could not be hurt by fist or sword. “Just answer my question please,” I asked with a sigh. I was becoming impatient. “You requested a test from Mr. Cruncher, your teacher, and he requested that the Winged Angels grant your request immediately, and that’s where I come in,” said Genen without hesitation from looking for whatever it was that he was looking for in his bag. I had to think for a second, because I misunderstood his statement. I never asked to be tested for my wings; I never wanted to advance to a level 10. Now that I’m thinking about it, I never wanted any of this. I never planned on taking tests and

risking my life for things I didn’t agree with, I never wanted for anyone to get hurt, I never wanted to be anything special, and I never meant to meet Mr. Cruncher in New Orleans. Now that I mention that, I guess I died that day. The person I was, the person I was planning on being, died the day I accepted to be an Angel. Anyone I could have been, anyone I wanted to be, forever lost in a void of long-forgotten wishes and wants. I wanted to be an artist, to creatively express myself through paper and color, but that life is lost and dead now. I can never go back, I’m too far deep in this hole someone dug for me and pushed me in and commands me like a slave. I figured my gravedigger was responsible for my new dance with death. That’s all I can do I guess, learn to dance with death, in an endless waltz of the music of the light and life of the world and swinging between death and sorrow and pain. “I did not know my request would have been accepted so quickly,” I lied to make myself feel better. If I was going back on the dance floor, I might as well smile for the audience. “I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be, you are the only Angel since your past life to request a test such as this one. You are brave, young one, but you are not invincible. You are in the Forest now, and I must go. Your test will last five days, in which time your strength, bravery, courage, quick thinking, and ability to adapt will be tested. You cannot be afraid, little one, for if you feel fear, you will die,” said Genen and disappeared in a snap, but left behind a small plate of food, which I welcomed with a smile. He was kind to me, even though I was a jerk to him. I felt like a monster, but I knew I had to be strong. I finished eating, returned my knife to my hand, and began to walk down the path up hill and watched the sunrise on the most beautiful, green forest I had ever seen. If only I knew its secrets, I may not be in the position I am now. After about five minutes, I decided to go back and follow the little creek; there was no harm in looking for a way out. “Hello murder, come to try to kill me again?” said a voice behind me. The voice was vaguely familiar, yet at the time I could not say who it was. As far as I had known, I had not been responsible for killing anyone. “I think you have the wrong person,” I said, trying to put on a fake smile as I

turned around, after all, lost souls sometimes need a friendly face to remind them not all living are as terrible as their slaughterer, but I was gravely mistaken. As I turned around, I saw the mutilated, torn form of Julia, the girl who had kidnapped me and fallen through the roof the day after my first day of Angel School. The only reason I recognized her was because she was wearing the same jewelry that she wore when she kidnapped me. Her right arm was a red-flesh color, her hand looked as if it had melted. Her clothes were torn. There was a slash on the side of her neck. I could see bone through the scratches on face. Her eyelids were missing. Her nose looked melted to the left side of her face. “Are you sure?” she asked, looking at me with her blood-red eyes. How could I convince her that I was not responsible for her tragedy? I felt guilty, and she wanted me to. That was her shining moment, she had successfully kidnapped an Angel, and I had ruined it for her. “Look, Julia, I didn’t kill you, ? We fell through the floor,” I asked, trying to look at her with the look of a concerned mother. “You’re wrong, you killed me,” she said, flashing a smile as she pulled out a knife, “And I’m going to keep you here forever,” she said jumping at me. All I had to do was stand there; she was a test, and a lost soul, neither of which could be solid. “Why don’t you run, aren’t you afraid of dying, alone, and feeling helpless?” she asked, stopping mid jump. “No,” I hissed with smile as I leaned into her face, as she realized her plan for me to cower in fear or to run had failed. She dropped her knife and looked into the sun. “I just wanted to prove that I was as good as my brother, Jason,” she cried, as her knees buckled and dug into the soft dirt. I couldn’t take the sight of her misery anymore, so I turned around and started to walk. As I walked, the wind began to pick up and blow in my face, the leaves on the ground began to tornado around me, and the dust forced me to kneel on the ground to protect my eyes and pray that the test would not end so soon. If I was going to be sucked into this, I was not going down without a fight. The dust cleared after a few seconds, and the trees looked much younger than before, and the path was gone. I heard the rush and crunch of running feet coming from above me, and then whatever it has hit me hard. The mystery figure

and I began to tumble down the hill toward the water. “What the heck!” shouted the other figure when we stopped. I was facing the other way, but I could hear that the voice was female and could not be much older than I was. “Who do you think you are?” she shouted. “Who are you?” I asked, trying to put my brain in order. “I am Artemis, Angel of Inner Beauty,” she said, helping me up, and looking at me like I was an injured bird. I looked down and saw blood dripping off my arm. “Thanks,” I managed to smile as my nerves began to kick in and I was tempted to cut off my arm. “No problem, but we have to go, can you walk?” she asked and then I saw it. On her back were the wings of a raven, and on the tips of each deathly black feather was the metallic color of silver. “Yeah,” I said, swallowing my pain as I followed her as she speed off after something. I made the mistake of looking down, the further we ran, the higher we got. “Here we are,” she said, looking down at the watery grave below with a beaming smile. “Where would here be?” I asked, looking for a sign for an escape route, a portal, a door, anything. “Down, into the water, if you land with the current, we’ll just float down. This mission has become too much for me to handle,” she said looking around. I decided to look down with her. My mistake. The “water” she was talking about was about eighteen feet down, and it was a waterfall, about six stories tall, not something I wanted to do. Then I heard what she must have been looking out for, something that sounded similar to a pack of wild cats. There was some hissing, some growling, and a lot of feet pounding. “What is that?” I asked, looking between her and the direction of the noise. “You need to jump. Now,” she said, dragging me to the edge.

“What about you?” I asked, wishing the pain in my arm would stop. “This is the Forest of the Forgotten, you must me, or no one will. Promise,” she said, looking me in the eyes with a hint of depression. “You won’t die, I can help you,” I said, trying to think of a protective Incantation. “You can’t stop what is coming, you can only die in my place,” she said, not changing her look of sadness and she ripped my sleeve to make a bandage for arm. “Then let me die,” I said, trying not to wince in pain. “I can’t, I will not be responsible for anymore deaths than I already am, all I can do is hope that you don’t forget me, and I hope that you continue on your journey safely, wherever it may take you,” she said, changing her look of sorrow to a motherly smile and then pushed me off the cliff. As I fell, I tried to grab on to a tree root to stop myself, but it was too late. I heard Artemis scream and saw her body fall limply over the edge of the cliff. I gave up on the root and watched as her body became a translucent silvery black, and I had no choice but to continue the dive into the waterfall the way she had wanted me to. After I hit the water, I found a hollow log to float down the river on for the rest of the day. I tried to heal myself with a couple of Chants and Incantations, but nothing would work. I had seen what the Test Giver wanted me to see, and the cut was to remind me of Artemis, and I knew that the harmless scratch was going to become a scar, so I would never have the chance to forget. About halfway through the day I lost feeling in my arm. After the sun had begun to set, I found a small indent in the seemingly endless cover of aging trees. I somehow pulled myself out of the watery grave that I thought I would die in, onto the mossy oak cove made by the trees. Sleep was pushing my eyes down, my arm was probably broken, from the fall and the impact of the waterfall, but somehow my necklace had stayed on. The necklace had not a scratch, or a dent, but I tied the face to my arm to try to put pressure on it. Just as I laid down to think of a way out, a pair of lavender eyes appeared before me. The eyes softly called for me to curl up into the soft, forgiving moss and let sleep seal my eyes and leave my mind to wander again.

Chapter 27

The sound of the waves told me I was near a beach, yet when I opened my eyes, a tropical forest surrounded me. It reminded me of planting trees in New Orleans. A falcon was warning me of danger over my head. Genen was leaning against a tree, watching me with smirk that made my skin crawl. My arm had finally stopped bleeding, and I saw a giant splinter in the wound, which I assumed to be the cause of my pain. “Where am I?” I asked, making sure I had my knife. My arm was limp, and I determined that I couldn’t use it very well. “The Island of the Innocent,” he said, not changing his devilish look. “Why the creepy smile?” I asked, and his cold stare felt frozen. “I wish you luck, little Artemis. This may be your hardest test,” he said, disappearing with a snap of his fingers. He didn’t even leave breakfast. I started to walk in the opposite direction and pick at the splinter in my arm when I heard a song. A song that haunted me in my dreams. I heard a lullaby being chanted in the haunting voice of my mother. I started to run in the direction of her voice. It wasn’t until I saw a clearing in the trees that I saw her. She was walking in a circle, but she was limping. Her leg was torn at the knee. Her hands were missing a layer of skin, and her face was burned. Her eyes were scabbed over. “Ariella?” she asked, looking at me with her crusty eyes, her pupils barely able to look through the rusty color. “Yes mother,” I said, looking at her with no sympathy. “They did this to me. They killed me looking for you,” she shouted like it was my fault. I could have saved her, had she not kicked me out of the house. “You did this to yourself, I could not protect you from the danger you faced, not

after you kicked me out of the house,” I said, acting like I knew it would happen. “Traitor! How could you do this to me, your own mother,” she cried, coming toward me. “I did not send you out into the world with no hope, Evrona Nightengale, I only obeyed what you told me to do,” I growled, looking at her with disgust. She looked pitiful, I almost felt bad for her. Almost. “I didn’t want to, but you had no right!” she started to yell, coming at me with her rage. “I had no right? What did I ever do to you, Evrona? Did I hurt you somehow, by obeying your every command? Was I not grateful enough for working like a slave everyday? Are you just a heartless creature, or a blackened soul?” I shouted at her. She didn’t grant me with an answer, she just turned her head and walked away sadly. It killed me to see her that way, it would kill me to see anyone that way. I started to walk the other way, when the sky turned dark, and a dust tornado formed around me, so I dove on the ground and held onto the closest tree. In five seconds, the storm was gone, the sky was clear, and something tripped over me, kicking my bad arm. “Who are you?” asked a young girl’s voice. The first thing I saw was a very large, heavy branch on my leg, and one particularly sharp branch that went through my leg. Then, I looked up and saw her face. She was young, her skin was tannish, her long dark blond hair was pulled back in a long braid to her waist. Her eyes were a soft mix of green and brown. She couldn’t have been older than fourteen. She had the black wings of a falcon, each feather tipped in silver. If anything, I would have guessed she was ten or twelve. “Ariella, you?” I said, being calm, while she held her knife over me with her hand shaking vigorously. “Are you an Angel too?” she asked, tears coming to her face. “Yes,” I said, not moving. A shaking hand with a knife over your face is dangerous.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, cutting the branch in my leg and pushing the larger one off. I would never have thought she was that strong. I sat up, swallowed the pain, and pulled the smaller branch out. She offered me a hand up, and when I took her hand, and I quickly felt how strong she really was. “I’m not quite sure,” I said, using her to my body. It was hard for me to walk. “Then you should know this is the Island of the Innocent,” she said, her eyes starting to water. We walked the entire day toward the ocean, and I just listened to her tell me about how she ed her first exam at age five, and how her mom left her and her eight brothers and her father for a man who killed her. She said it like it was no big deal, but anyone could tell she was trying not to cry through the story. She avoided any emotions by explaining every small detail of her siblings. “The sand is cold,” she said, the second the dirt turned to sand beneath our feet. We both took off our worn, torn, bloody shoes and left them in the sand. The sun was beginning to set, and we were so close to the water. “Yes, it is,” I said, the first thing I had been able to say all day. “I don’t want to do this,” she said, her voice shaking. “Live in the light,” I said, pulling her with me to the water. I needed to clean the cut from the branch. “What?” she asked. “Throughout our lives, we have the choice to die in the dark or live in the light. To live in the light, even as you die, you must believe you are right, no matter what other people say. If you make sacrifices for others, then you have lived brighter than any sun,” I said, wondering what sleeve I pulled that out of. We were a foot away from the water. “I don’t want to die,” she cried, a tear rolled down her cheek. “Hey, hey,” I said, pulling her out in front of me so I could look her in the eyes. The waves gently licked our dirt covered feet. “If you live in the light, which I can tell you have, you can never truly die,” I said, pulling her back by my side as

we wadded into the water. Once we were in the water, she began to pull me. She didn’t speak again until we were knee deep. “Promise me something,” she said, making me face her. “Anything,” I said, looking her in the eyes. “My name is Gwendalyn, please don’t ever forget me,” she asked, letting tears roll down her round cheeks like raindrops down a hill. The sun was setting and left a beautiful gold mark on the clouds; the sky was bouncing with lavender, salmon, clementine, and wheat. “I promise,” I said, then I heard the stampede of cats, and knew what was coming. “Thank you, and I’m sorry,” she said, giving me a hug. The hug did not last long, and then without a word she pushed me under the water. If it weren’t for my arm and leg, I could have stopped her. She ran so fast, my head was barely out of the water when I heard her scream. When I finally got my head above water, I saw her body, bloody and torn to bits at the edge of the water. It had the soft glow of her aura. I tried not to show the lavender eyes watching me how upset I was. I tried to slowly come out to bury her, but a wave knocked me over, and the world went dark.

Chapter 28

I was woken up by a swan’s warning cry. I looked around and saw Genen, leaning against a tree with a new smirk on his face. “What now?” I asked, looking at him as I tried to stand up. “I’m not sure what the Winged Angels have planned for you today,” he said, not changing his smirk. “Well that’s helpful,” I said, attempting to be rude. “That was a failed attempt,” he said, beginning to pick at the bark on the tree next to him. “What was?” I asked, standing up. “You, trying to be rude. You’re in too much pain to be rude,” he said, looking over me. “I’m not in pain,” I said, swallowing my lie. “You are, and I must go. Good luck,” he said and disappeared. “Hello?” I heard a man’s voice call out. “Hello,” I replied, looking for a stick to use as a walking stick. “Who are you?” asked the man. I looked up from my search. There was an African-American man, he looked a bit older than me. He was wearing a black top hat and a gray suit. “I’m Ariella,” I said and continued my looking for a stick. I could barely walk, my right leg was broken. “I’m Gus. Can I give you a hand?” asked the man, offering his arm. I took it with a smile.

“Thank you,” I said, hoping my smile displayed my gratitude. “You’re welcome,” he said, leading me down the path he came from. “Why are you being so kind to me?” I asked with honest curiosity. “There was a time, when I loved you,” he said, with a hint of depression. “Did I love you back?” I asked. He was a handsome man for his age, but he was older than me. And probably dead. “No, you were in love with a Demon,” he said, then spent half the day explaining how his mom was a Fate and his dad an Angel, and they both had been killed by a fire. Evelyn, the Angel of Inner Beauty, knew. When they were both five, she convinced her parents to take him in. As they grew, he fell deeper and deeper for her, and by the time they were my age, he couldn’t think of anyone but her. His entire life, he was teased and abused by other Angels, and she protected him. How could he not fall for her? Once she started dating a Demon, things went wrong. She started getting sick, and on his birthday, the Demon broke into her house to try and kill her. He died to save her. “She never stood a chance. William Russle was way too strong with the idea of power,” he said, but before I could say anything, a girl, about the same age of Gus, appeared in front of us. She had short brown, layered hair, soft brownamber eyes, and a beautiful pair of black swan wings, and like the other two Angels, each feather was tipped in silver. At the sight of her, Gus tipped his hat. “Hello Gus,” said the girl and then turned her white smile toward me. “Her name is Ariella,” said Gus quickly and calmly. “What did you do to her?” asked Evelyn. “She was like this when I found her,” he said and then I saw the lavender eyes watching us from down the cliff. There was a pond down below and the swans with their gosling. They were scared. “Ariella, I’m not sure what you’re doing here in the Fire of the Fallen, but you must leave,” she said straightly.

“How could you,” I growled, stepping forward to look her in the eyes. I almost fell over doing so. “How could I what,” she hissed back. “Let him die, he loved you,” I growled. She let him die for her. To me, she was a soulless, heartless, being of murder. “I loved him too,” she hissed with a hint of sadness. I didn’t want to believe her. “Liar,” I growled. Her eyes began to water. “I wanted to tell him, but I was dating a Demon as an assignment. When I saw him dead, I hung myself,” she hissed, then pushed me off the cliff, and turned as I fell and watched as she hugged him, her tears sticking to my clothes like burrs. I then noticed why it was called the Fire of the Fallen, because I saw a stream of lava come over the cliff above them and engulf them in burning rock. I hit the water like a limp doll on concrete. Every scratch I had burst open in a watery firework of red. The pain shot through my body like tiny fuses, leaving burns in my veins as they moved at the speed of light, then the fuses reached my brain and burned to black.

Chapter 29

I woke up to a freezing feeling in my heart. My clothes were ripped and barely useable, and they were stained with blood. Not completely soaked with blood, I guess because I was in the water, but the stain was still there. There were a few trees, but everything was covered in white fluffy snow. I saw Genen, but he was missing his normal smirk. “What’s wrong?” I asked, thinking he would help me if I helped him. “Nothing,” he hissed. “What’s wrong?” I repeated with more force. “When my sister died, she came here,” he said, looking down, kicking the snow. My arm and leg were still broken, but the pain was now at least bearable. “How did she die?” I asked, hoping for hints on what was coming. “She was in pain, so I put her in a sleep I knew she would never wake from. She died peacefully,” he said, turning from me and walking further and further away from me, till the falling snow made him disappear. “Hello?” called a sweet female voice. I was guessing it was Genen’s sister. “Hello,” I called back. I felt afraid of her. Her hair was long and black. She had red, rose-colored lips, pale skin, stunning gray-green eyes, and an expression on her face that asked for belonging. Just from looking at her, I could see her troubles, her sorrow, her ills, the beast that tried to kill her, the mark of her brother who put her in an endless trance of lulling sleep. She was afraid of something. “Who are you?” she asked, wanting an honest answer. I wanted to tell her I knew her brother, but something told me she already knew that. Something told me she wanted a friend, someone to listen to her.

“I am Ariella. And you?” I asked, trying to sound as polite as I could. She needed respect. “Who I am is not important, what took you so long, however, is very interesting to me,” she said, losing that sweet tone, replacing it with a serious expression to match her icy words. I don’t know why at the time her words stung me then, for I was so confused. It took me a couple of stunned seconds to find the words to say. “I’m sorry, I would have come sooner if I knew you were waiting,” I said, figuring that they were the words she was looking for. “Of course. Your friend is looking for you now, do you wish to go to her?” she asked. I thought she was talking about Mertyle. I wish she was talking about Mertyle. “Yes please,” I said, and the snow kicked up and blew around me, pushing ice into my face. The trance of snow ceased with a fast moving object running into my bad leg. “Who are you!” shouted a girl, pushing a knife in my face. There were many more trees than where I had started with Genen. “Ariella Nightengale,” I said, wondering why the questions are always the same. “So quick to give a name. Don’t be, it can be used against you,” she said, giving me a hand up. She had long, auburn hair, deeply tan skin, green eyes, freckles from ear to ear, and black robin’s wings, each feather tipped in silver. She wore a fur coat and leggings, with knee-high boots. Her appearance was so different than I had expected; it took me a second to realize I was almost done. Somehow, I knew the day was almost gone. “Can you walk?” she barked. “Sorry?” I said, not hearing her the first time. “Can. You. Walk?” she repeated, more angry and aggressive than the first time. “Yeah,” I said, standing up and wincing through pain.

“Good. We’re going to walk quickly to a pond, break the ice, and survive, got it?” she demanded, in a voice that said she would not take no as an answer. “Yeah, sure,” I said, not wanting to piss her off. Then she took off, walking quickly between trees, somehow knowing where to go in the snowy fog. We walked without stopping, until we reached ice. My leg stung, my arm (still a bit bloody) was frozen over with ice. “Here it is,” she said, kneeling down in the snow to brush the white dust off the ice. Just standing on the ice said that the ice was thicker than I thought. “What do we do now?” I asked, hoping that I could be helpful. She handed me a knife. “Here, get down, take this knife, and dig. I’ll go see if I can find you a critter to keep you warm,” she said, helping me down to the ice. “Sorry?” I asked, confused. “Well, you won’t last much longer out here without something to keep you warm, and I’d give you something of mine, but I won’t last long either,” she said, draping her fur coat around me and then disappeared in the white haze. I chipped at the ice until the light, which I assumed to be the sun, behind the snow started to fade. “Ariella!” shouted a voice. “Yeah?” I responded, watching the knife get close to the water. “I got some… ,” said the voice, sounding cut off and then there was a bloodstopping scream, and my head shot up. I knew what happened, but this time, it was different. This time, there was no warning, no connection. I knew nothing about her, who she was, her name, nothing. I wanted to cry, but no matter how hard I thought about it, nothing. No tears, no emotions, not even a sniffle, as if it had never happened. But it had, and there was nothing I could do about it. They were all dead, and I couldn’t change that. Julia, Artemis, my Mom, Gwendalyn, Gus, Evalyn, Genen’s sister, they were all dead. I looked up and saw the lavender eyes, and they were doing something I thought they couldn’t do; they were crying, as if for a best friend. And the longer I looked at them, the heavier mine got, until the world was black and nothing.

“No!” I whispered, sitting up with a jolt. I was back in August and Austin’s house, my sketchbook on the floor. At first I thought it was just a bad dream, but in my attempt to stand up, I realized my nightmare was a reality. That’s when I began to question if I was living a nightmare or dreaming in reality.

Chapter 30

The first thing I heard when I woke up was Thomas shouting some not-so-nice things to who I assumed was Alexander. They were things like “stupid Demon boy” and “why aren’t you dead yet,” so I sucked up my pain and charged down to the basement, just in time to see Thomas and August cornering Alexander, with Austin on the couch, watching them with a bit too much enthusiasm and a devilish wolf’s smile. “Stop!” I screamed as I ran over to Thomas and August, grabbed the collar of his corner’s shirts, and pushed them against the wall. “What do you think you’re doing?!? Alexander, are you ok?” I said, tightening my grip on the cloth in my fists. It was getting harder for me to stand, and my broken arm was crying to let them down and heal myself. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said in a winded voice. “Good, you best be getting home now,” I said, not taking my eyes off of the nervous boys in my fists. “Yeah, get going weakling,” taunted Austin. “Austin shut up! ’Cuz after I beat the living daylights out of these two idiots, you’re next,” I hissed projecting my glare to him. It was suddenly silent. “Ari, you’re covered in blood,” said Thomas, snapping back to his calm face. I tried not to cry. “How long?” I asked, loosening my grip on them as I heard the front door open and close. “Ari is that… ,” started Thomas. I snapped my grip back in anger. “How long?” I demanded. August looked from him to me in confusion. “Five days,” he said with a sigh. I dropped them and looked at my hands. They

were dry, cracked, and stained from blood. I wasn’t ready for this. “Ari listen,” started Thomas, trying to be comforting. “Get away from me!” I screamed and ran upstairs to my room. I looked into the small metal-framed mirror and saw my reflection. There were thorns in my face from colliding with Artemis, there was still sand in my hair from wrestling with the waves, the dried blood from my fall in the Fire of the Fallen clung in clumps to my hair, and the cracks in my hands and face from being dry I blamed on almost freezing to death. I backed away from the mirror in shocked fear and sat in the small corner between the wall and my bed. Something in me told me to cry, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t. Because I felt nothing.

Chapter 31

I somehow feel asleep again. To this day, I don’t know how. In my dream, I was outside the library at school. The hallway was covered with tall, burning candles. “Come in, we’ve been waiting for you,” said a familiar voice. Genen’s sister. “How long?” I asked, trying to be polite. “Time here runs differently, so I don’t know,” she said and then opened the door to the library and motioned for me to go in. Inside, there were trees, with more birds than I could recognize, with tall white candles floating around the room, making the room feel like it was covered in sunlight. Owls, hawks, eagles, doves, parrots, and more flew around in song. Under one of the trees, there was a woman, dressed in white, with stunning silver wings of a morning dove. As soon as she turned her focus to me, the sound stopped. It didn’t fade away, it just stopped. “Hello, new child of Artemis. We have been waiting,” she said, her voice like a simple melody. “I apologize,” I said, not knowing where the words came from. “You are forgiven, but it is not time to talk further. Now is the choice. You must chose to accept and become a Winged Angel and find new limits and power, or decline, and remain at level 10. Forever. I understand the challenges you face, but now you must make your choice,” she said, then walked past me, and out the door. I looked at the birds around me, staring at me like living statues. A minute ed by when a little nightingale flew up to me and landed on my shoulder. Almost simultaneous with the bird landing, a vigorous knocking noise from the library door shocked me, and as I turned around, my eyes snapped open and I was back in the bedroom, on the floor. I looked out the bay window from my corner and decided it was six. Then the knocking noise repeated itself. I tried to get up, to open the door, but something snapped me back to the wall. I looked nervously over my shoulder and saw a

handful of black feathers tipped silver trapped between the wall and the bed. It took me a couple of seconds to realize those feathers were attached to me, and from the position I was in, I couldn’t move the bed without pulling my feathers or making a lot of noise. “Who is it?” I asked, trying to sound like I just woke up. “It’s me, August, can I come in?” he asked. I began to panic. “No,” I hissed, still trying to free myself from the bed. “Why not?” he whispered back. “I… I don’t have clothes on.” I wasn’t exactly lying, I didn’t have anything on but what I came back with, and I would consider that scraps of fabric. “Ok, I’ll give you thirty seconds to put something on, then I’m coming in.” “No,” I said. Why couldn’t he have just gone away? “Fine,” he said, and I whispered a weak locking Chant to make him think I wanted him to go away. Then I grabbed the blanket on the bed and covered my wings, just in case. I forgot that the door was wood. He just took his foot and busted the door down. I drew the blanket tighter around me to make it look like I was afraid of him. “I told you no,” I hissed as he walked in. I forgot how pain-filled my limbs were as I pulled my legs in tighter. He looked down on me with a look of amusement and then pulled the bed, freeing my wing. I looked back over my shoulder to make sure my wings folded. When I looked back at him, he was no longer August. He had transformed into Mr. Cruncher’s wingman. The Demon in Angel’s skin. “And I don’t care for your Angelic rules. Were leaving,” he said and hit me hard. So hard, I can’t anything until we were on the highway, far away from all I knew.

Chapter 32

“Wake up Ariella,” teased my kidnapper. I was expertly tied to the back seat of a car with the seat belts. “What do you want?” I hissed, making sure I had my necklace on. “First, do you know who I am?” he asked, with a hint of humor. “William Russel. You’ve tried to kill me before, what’s stopping you now?” I asked, looking out the dashboard. “My boss says that he needs you for something. You’re fate is his now,” he said with a hint of depression. “It was you in the library,” I hissed, connecting the dots. “Yes, and if it weren’t for Phylinoe, I would have taken you then, before your test. But, that is over now,” he said, looking back to give me a devilish smile. “Who?” I asked. “Ahh, yes. You’re guardian. Phylinoe and I never really got along, even when we were young,” he said, sounding like he once had feelings for her. “And when was that?” I asked. He took a deep breath and turned onto the exit. “Well, since the Angels have been around,” he said, and the car screeched to a stop, the seat belts fell off, and the door snapped open. “Have fun,” he called as I stepped out of the car into a forest. There was a logbook, for travelers, and it was empty. I figured, since I was a traveler, and it asks you to write your purpose for travel, I thought I would write my story down, since something inside of me tells me, I’m not getting out of this alive.