by Leia Stone
“Would you like to lie down in an extra room or go and tour the Lumen campus? Grab an early dinner?” Aurelia asked, clearly trying to read my mood.
Gran seemed safe here, and I had way too much on my mind to sleep right now. We were basically homeless, so I’d need to make my decision sooner than nine days if I wanted a place to live. Unfortunately, the Shade Academy salary was looking nice now that we were about to be evicted, and I’d need a place for Gran to live while I went to school.
“Campus tour sounds nice,” I told her.
She nodded, placing a warm hand on my shoulder. “They are going to run some tests. I’ll get word to you as soon as I find anything out. She’s safer here than anywhere. I promise.”
I had to bite back tears. With a nod, Drea stepped up to my side. “Come on, the academy is just a couple of buildings down.”
She led me out of the hospital, which was in Midtown, not too far from where the Shade Academy was in Soho. Still, there was a different vibe here—where Shade Academy was full of steel and glass, Lumen Academy had carved stone and wrought iron. It was somehow warmer, homey, and inviting, like the living heart of a community thriving on this block.
We passed a couple of squat buildings full of old-world charm and character that Drea identified as the academy dorms and family housing. On our short walk, she explained that unlike Shade Academy, which housed everything in one sleek high-rise, Lumen Academy was spread out over a small city block and comprised of several smaller buildings with a courtyard in the middle.
We stopped in front of a turreted building at the end of the block that was the official academy location. It wrapped around the corner and ran down the adjacent side street. Six or seven stories tall, the exterior was a patchwork of white, gray, and tan stacked stones with arched windows. Two aged cement statues stood on each side of the front stoop: angels, wings spread wide as they gripped swords. The statues made chills race down my spine.
Watchers.
This morning was the first time I’d ever heard that word, but now it somehow felt so familiar, as if I’d known it my whole life.
“This is it!” Drea bopped on her heels excitedly. We stepped up to the door, and Drea pushed the single red button on the call box.
“Lumen Academy,” a scratchy male voice said over the speaker. His New York accent was thick.
“Vinnie, it’s me!” Drea waved to the upper corner of the door, where I noticed a red flashing light on a small camera.
When the door buzzed, Drea pulled it wide, and I stepped inside. In contrast to the intricate exterior, we entered into what looked like a totally normal apartment building foyer. There was a stocky man sitting behind a desk wearing a security guard outfit, and a wall of mailboxes on the far wall. I was expecting to see soaring ceilings, stained glass, and giant murals, so it was a tad disappointing, but even though the stone floors were chipped and in need of repair, this place already had a much better feel to it than Shade Academy.
Drea walked past the guard, Vinnie. He gave us both a curt nod. I followed her down a long hallway until she stepped into an ancient elevator that was basically a wood box inside of a metal frame. The accordion metal door squealed as she pulled it shut behind us. She then hit the button labeled “seven.” It was a moment before the lift jerked into motion, and I tried hard not to let my apprehension for being in this death box show on my face.
“First two floors are faculty offices,” Drea chatted excitedly, completely oblivious to my discomfort. “The academy classes, cafeteria, and training areas are on levels three through seven. The gyms and training centers in this building are only for students, but there’s a community center on the opposite side of the courtyard that has a gym that’s available to all Lumens. The compound also has a library and armory on the other side of the block.”
My eyes widened at the last building she threw out like it was commonplace. Armory. Was it weird I wanted to visit that next? Like what kind of weapons did angels have?
I scanned the row of buttons on the elevator wall as we made the slow trek up to the top floor, my gaze catching on the one at the very bottom.
“What’s floor SB?” I asked just as the lift lurched to a stop. The whole box bounced slightly a few times before Drea could safely haul the metal grate back open.
A look of nervousness flashed across Drea’s face, and she jumped out of the cab and into the hustle and bustle on the seventh floor without answering me. “Oh look, we’re here!”
Young teens walked briskly by as they talked and laughed, bookbags slung over their arm or swords on their hips.
“Jasmine!” Drea hailed a girl with long brown hair. She turned, and upon seeing us walked over with a young guy, who stood a foot taller than her but had the same chocolate brown hair and olive skin. They looked like siblings.
“Jasmine, James…” Drea looked from them to me. “This is Tatum. She’s a prospective student.”
Jasmine smiled, giving me a wave. “Hey, Tatum. You should totally grab a chocolate chip cookie from the cafeteria before you leave. Miss Freese makes the best.”
I returned her smile, feeling at ease here and digging the nice demeanor of the students versus the chilly air that sat around the kids in Shade Academy.
“I’ll do that, thanks,” I told her.
A bell rang and students cleared the hallways, ducking into various classrooms or running down a wide set of stairs that zigzagged around the elevator shafts, presumably to the ground floor. When the area was clear, I noticed an illustrated poster on the wall across from us.
It read: Do You Know Your Demon Levels?
Moving away from Drea, I stepped closer and studied what looked to be a diagram of ten levels of demons. There were black silhouettes of the various demons, along with their attributes, powers, and strengths.
It looked like the higher up the demon level got, the more they looked human.
“There’s one on every floor. They practically wallpaper the dorms with those,” Drea said. “As if anyone here could actually forget the different levels.” She started to laugh, and then cut it off abruptly. A grimace replaced her smile as she remembered that I didn’t know them. But I wasn’t offended. How could I know the demon levels? I only found out what I was less than twenty-four hours ago.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just really rare for a Watcher to grow up outside either of the communities. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. I’m sure you’ll catch on in no time.”
“It’s okay.” I waved her off and then refocused on the poster. It was wildly helpful. “If there are extras of this, I wouldn’t mind having one. I could carry it with me on the subway as a cheat sheet.”
I was half joking but Drea didn’t smile. She nodded. “Yes, definitely. Let me show you around, and then later I can get you one out of my dorm room. I’m sure I have one floating around somewhere.”
Starting from the top floor, Drea took me around each of the academy levels. The classrooms were on floors five, six, and seven. They were modest rooms. The professors taught off chalkboards, and lessons ranged from normal educational topics such as math, science, and English, to the more bizarre curriculum such as demonology, angel powers, and portal studies.
Drea explained that Watchers attended the academy from age twelve until twenty-two, with on-the-job training starting their first year. The parents were responsible for their children’s education before that, so many of the students went to human schools before coming to Lumen Academy.
She also mentioned that most of the Lumens didn’t receive a salary to do the job the angels had charged them with. Many of them still worked full or part-time jobs elsewhere, taking hunting shifts during their off-time. It sounded like a lot of work, but they were doing good in the world, as opposed to the Shades, who seemed like evil’s overpaid security guards.
Training gyms took up all of the fourth floor. There was a larger area that reminded me of a regular, if not a tad outdated, run-of-the-mill gym. Students and facu
lty members were scattered across the room using the standard weightlifting and treadmill equipment to condition their muscles. There were a handful of smaller gyms that lined the hallways where students were practicing hand-to-hand combat, some limited weapons training, and even practicing their powers. Solid metal doors blocked the interior of the training gyms from view, but I could still hear the muffled sounds of fighting from within.
We stopped outside one of the rooms. Drea opened the door and poked her head inside. She waved me in after her a moment later.
Marlow and Jacob were sparring in the center of the room. There wasn’t much to the space beyond the four blank walls, but they didn’t need anything. As soon as Drea and I settled off to the side, Marlow swept her arms in an arc and then pushed them forward. A shockwave burst from her outstretched palms and slammed into Jacob, throwing him backward into the wall.
I winced at the fleshy splat of his body slamming into what looked to be a wall of solid concrete. He slid down the wall and landed in a crouch. The white tattoos on his arms glowed suddenly, and he shook his head as if clearing his thoughts. A moment later, he popped back up, and with a wicked grin his golden wings burst free from his back. He rushed Marlow, moving so fast he was only a blur. His fist shot out, and she jerked to the side to avoid the blow.
“Nice try, wings,” Marlow snapped.
“You wish you could fly,” Jacob gloated.
They continued to go at it, throwing friendly verbal barbs at each other as often as blows. It was impressive. They were like a pair of suped-up ninjas.
I leaned toward Drea. “I was told Shades inherit more powerful abilities than Lumens.”
Drea laughed. “Is that what they said? Let me ask you a question. Can you ever snuff out light with darkness?”
I opened my mouth to say, “Sure,” but then I thought about it a moment. “I guess not.”
“Right, you can’t. You can chase darkness away with the smallest amount of light, but it doesn’t work the other way around. Light is always more powerful than the dark, no matter what the Shades may tell you. Remember that.”
It was a simple truth, but a profound one.
“Hey, Drea.” Dash’s voice rumbled off to the right, and I almost jumped out of my skin.
He must have been here the whole time, although I don’t know how I hadn’t noticed him. I guess he kind of blended into the wall with his gray hoodie and dark jeans. The lighting in the room was good, so even with his hood in place I got my first decent view of his face. His eyes were gray and his skin a deep bronze. A chunk of dark hair lay over one of his eyebrows. When he saw me staring, he pulled his hood forward, shading the upper part of his face.
Pity, he seemed like a good-looking guy. Why was he always covering himself like that? It was like he was trying to hide from the world.
“Hey, Dash.” Drea waved back to him. “I was thinking of ordering us all pizza and chilling in the dorm lounge. You in?”
He jerked his chin in a quick nod.
“Did someone say pizza?” Jacob asked, halting his sparring with Marlow.
“Come on, now. I was just about to lay you out,” she complained. “You can’t tap out now.”
“She said pizza and I can’t ignore the boss.” Jacob gave Marlow puppy-dog eyes while he rubbed his belly.
She rolled her eyes and relented.
Both of their arms glowed, sending swirls in high arcs up and down their biceps as they replenished their strength.
“Whoa,” I said aloud.
Drea grinned. “Light tattoos are cool, right?”
I nodded.
Marlow and Jacob looked fresh as daisies when the tattoos faded. That was a cool trick. Maybe I did want to be team Angel Gang.
“I’ll put in an order,” Jacob offered as he reached his bag and pulled out his cell phone.
“Just make sure not to order meat on everything,” Marlow said. “You know I’m a vegetarian now.”
Jacob lifted his eyebrows and dialed. “Yes, I’d like four extra-large meat-lovers pizzas please,” he said into his phone. Marlow chucked a sweaty towel at his head, but he dodged it.
“I’m going to show Tatum where the other buildings are. We’ll meet you guys in the lounge,” Drea said as she tugged at my arm. Marlow and Jacob were bickering, but Dash acknowledged her with another quick nod.
“Where’s Skye?” I wondered about the pretty brunette member of their five-some.
“She has a date with a senior hunter.” Drea wiggled her eyebrows, and I chuckled.
We took the scary elevator down to the ground floor and exited the academy, waving to Vinnie as we passed. We then circled the block with Drea pointing out the rest of the buildings in the Lumen Compound.
With soaring spires, carved stone, and stained glass windows, the library exterior had a similar Gothic feel to it as the academy. The armory, which I was still super curious about, looked like a giant cement block. It sat right next to the library and was a real eyesore. We didn’t peek inside, which kind of bummed me out. The community center was obviously the newest of all the buildings, a simple yet functional design that was about ten stories tall.
We cut in between the community and healing centers to take a shortcut through the courtyard and to the dorms. Right next to the dormitory was a building marked family housing. “I grew up there. All of the master hunters on salary live in the family housing building, but I moved into the student dorm next door when I was sixteen.”
An ancient looking structure sat in the middle of the open green space, and I asked Drea about it.
“That’s the Ascension Sanctuary,” she said.
“The what?”
I eyed the small two-story stone building as we passed. It was devoid of windows, and the center of the roof came to a peak, reminding me of an old church.
“It’s the first building the Lumen erected in New York City almost four centuries ago. The rest of Lumen Academy was built around it slowly over the years,” she explained.
It did look like the other Lumen buildings were protecting this one in the middle.
“It’s where Watchers go for their ascension ceremonies when they choose to be Lumens,” she continued. “It houses a permanent portal to Avalon.”
Peeling my gaze off the Ascension Sanctuary, “Excuse me?” I asked. “Did you say there’s a portal in there? And what’s Avalon?”
Drea smiled. “Avalon is where the angels live. It’s a whole different world, unbelievably beautiful. All Lumen visit there to get blessed with their gifts and abilities once they make their choice. Permanent portals are really rare. There are a couple more at Lumen academies around the world, and all heavily guarded.”
“Where do the Shades go to get their powers?” I asked, although I was scared I already knew the answer.
Her smile faded. “Shade Academy has their own portal, although I don’t know where they hide it. My guess is its deep within the ground somewhere and they built their high-rise on top of it. Their portal leads to the Netherworld—the Hell dimension where demons are from. Watchers go there when they choose to become a Shade, and Apollyon gives them powers and juices up their talismans.”
Talismans?
Whoa. This was making my head spin.
We reached the dormitory, which was sandwiched between the academy and the family housing building, and I followed Drea up a few flights of stairs in a haze. My mind was blown. Portals to Hell and Heaven-like worlds. How much more could I absorb in a single day?
Skye, Marlow, Jacob, and Dash were already lounging in the dorm’s common area when we arrived. Four pizza boxes were spread out over a coffee table, and Jacob had a half-eaten slice of pepperoni in his hand. I was surprised to see Skye. She waved when we entered.
“What about your date?” Drea asked.
“He got pulled out on a call. Level six in Harlem.” She frowned, looking down at her cute outfit that had gone to waste.
“Sorry,” Jacob told us around a mouthful of food, holdin
g up his half-eaten slice. “I couldn’t wait.”
The rest of us dug in when Drea and I were seated. The common area had a college vibe to it. There was a smattering of mismatched and stained furniture, a small basketball hoop stuck to one of the walls, several defaced Do You Know Your Demon Levels posters, and a bit of a funk that even the smell of pizza couldn’t mask.
I munched on my slice of Hawaiian pizza happily as I listened to Marlow and Skye talk about their upcoming trip to a small thrift store Skye had discovered the week before. I’m pretty sure they were plotting how to buy out the whole shoe section.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket, and I pulled it out and checked it while I ate.
I didn’t recognize the number.
Unknown: Hey, are you coming back to Shade Academy tonight? You’re welcome to stay with me until you get a room assignment.
My stomach dropped, the invitation causing a weird fluttering in my gut. Was Gage asking me to come back to Shade and sleep in his room again?
Another message came through.
Unknown: BTW, this is Indigo.
Oh.
A rush of embarrassment flooded my system that I’d thought the message was from Gage. I quickly programmed her number into my phone, shaking my head at where my thoughts had gone.
“Why are you blushing?” Skye asked, her keen eyes seeing too much.
“No reason,” I said quickly, and sent a note back to Indigo that I wasn’t going to crash there. She’d been nice to me so I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but if I could help it I’d never set foot in that place again. I shoved the phone in my back pocket, anxious to put it away. I don’t know how Indigo got my phone number. It seemed to be available to everyone these days.
“Was that Gage?” Jacob asked, a dark look sliding over his face.
“No, of course not,” I said even as my heart rate spiked. “Is there any more pizza?”
Drea shot me a weird look and then pointed to my plate, where there was still a slice and a half uneaten.
“Oh, right.” I picked up the food and shoved it in my mouth. Hearing it wasn’t Gage was enough to bring back Jacob’s good mood, and he went back to trying to sink shots with the small basketball as Dash heckled him.
