Captured: Academy of the Seraph

by Brandi Elledge

  Turns out that my gut and intuition was also like a GPS of sorts. I knew exactly where I was. I made the climb up the side of the mountain. A few bats flew down close to me, and I shooed them away. I couldn’t even find happiness in the fact that my night vision was fantastic. I could see pebbles on the trail from ten feet away. I should be ecstatic, but I just felt grumpy as hell.

  I saw a young man on top of the roof of the academy. He shouted to someone behind him, “She’s back. Tell them she’s back.”

  I stormed into the academy, seeing a few students still milling around, even as late as it was. They smiled and nodded at me. I just grunted as I passed them.

  I had only made it up two flights of stairs when Remy almost tackled me down the steps.

  “You’re okay!” She hugged me so tightly to her I thought my ribs would break.

  “Pissed, but okay. We will talk about the whys later. I’m emotionally drained, and I need to check on Hannah.”

  “She’s in the shower.” She grabbed my hand like she was afraid I had forgotten how to climb steps. “We need to have a meeting, pronto.”

  We ran into a tired-looking Luna at the top of the steps. She scanned me from head to toe then hugged me. “Hey, girl. I was worried about you.”

  I waved off her words. “No need to worry.”

  Remy nodded. “Could you please tell Trev and my ex-fiancé that we will be in Gabriella’s room? They need to meet us there.”

  She gave Remy a wink. “You got it, firecracker.”

  Remy ushered me to my room. My anger was starting to fade a little, and I realized how tired I was.

  She pushed me onto the bed. “Sit. You look like you are about to fall over.” She tilted her head toward the closed bathroom door. “Hannah is in the shower. When she gets out, don’t talk to her about you know”—she dropped her voice to a whisper—“her wings. She is going to be fine. She just needs some love, that’s all.”

  I didn’t tell her that I had already spoken to Hannah. Instead, I just nodded. I did agree that we should let Hannah come to us when she wanted to talk. Hannah had been through a hell that none of the rest of us could understand.

  I kicked off my shoes and crawled under the covers, clothes and all. “So, did I hear correctly? Ex-fiancé?”

  Her blue eyes flashed. “Yep. It’s so over.”

  A smile lit up my face. “And why’s that?”

  “Well, when the wendigo came in and grabbed you—that was the commander, wasn’t it?”

  I nodded.

  “So, when the commander took you out with a blurry speed that none of us could track, I might have gone a tad crazy. I screamed for Ezra, who was the closest to the door, to go after you, and he said, ‘Meh. She’ll be fine. It’s not like he’s going to kill his soulmate.’” She nodded, her short black hair swinging about her chin. “Meh, he said. Talking about the potential harm that could fall upon my bestie and the boy said, meh! No, girl. Right then and there, I broke things off. I can’t be with someone like that. I’ll have to cancel the wedding registry, but a girl must do what a girl must do.”

  I had no words. Nothing.

  My head hit the back of the headboard as I heard the shower turn off. Hannah was going to be okay. She was definitely going to have to work through some things, but she was alive. And as soon as I saw Finn, I would light him up like the Fourth of July, with or without his permission. He was beyond ridiculous.

  “So,” Remy said, “red wings, huh?”

  I grimaced. “Yeah, I’m assuming everyone saw that?”

  “Yeah. Well, everyone except for Hannah. Which, considering the circumstances, I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk—”

  The bathroom door swung open. “You both do realize that I’m still fully blessed, even without my wings, correct?”

  I scooted up in the bed a little as I studied Hannah. She had a soft, white towel around her. It was super short, because she was runway model tall. Her hair appeared darker, due to it being wet, and her eyes were puffy; evidence that she had been crying pretty hard in the shower.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked.

  She lifted one dainty shoulder. “That guy, the one who’s Trev’s brother, healed me. I feel no more pain, which is a blessing. That was the worst pain I’ve ever felt.”

  There was a knock on the door, and I shouted, “Who is it?”

  “Luna.”

  “Come in.”

  Luna came in, carrying a stack of clothes. “Hey, girls. I thought that you could share some of these items. I’m sure Gabriella wants out of that dress that looks like a pillowcase, and I knew Hannah would need some after her shower.” She laid them down on the bed. Then she sat next to the pile, her gaze running over Hannah.

  “I know that you don’t know me, but I’m hoping that’ll change. I have spent my whole life with only friends who were boys. I’m pretty sure I’ll say things that are crude and inappropriate from time to time, but hopefully, all of you will forgive me?”

  Remy scrunched up her little nose. “Um … crude and inappropriate is kind of a staple for this group.”

  Luna laughed. “How are you feeling, Hannah?”

  Hannah sighed. She was probably going to get that question a lot.

  She walked over to the pile and grabbed a shirt and a pair of sweatpants that would probably be too short for her. She slid them on under her towel then put the shirt on as she shimmied the towel down. We waited as she wrapped the towel around her still dripping hair. Then she walked to the other side of the bed and pulled back the covers, crawling in beside me.

  Looking at Luna, she finally said, “Obviously, there are scars on me that won’t heal, even though I was immortal—am immortal. They are bad, but that’s not really what has my emotions all over the place. There is a huge sense of loss. I didn’t have a ton of time to even get used to my wings. I only got to take to the sky once. Maybe that’s what is really bothering me. I can feel that part of me that I know is missing, like how I imagine an amputee would feel phantom limb pain. It feels as if they are still there, even though I know that they’re not.”

  Remy was drying her face. Luna had grabbed Hannah’s leg that was under the comforter and was rubbing it. I grabbed one of her hands while searching for the right words.

  “Hannah, I can’t give you back your wings. I don’t know of anyone who can. Nothing I say or do will help you grieve less over their loss, but I can give you a gift.”

  “It’s true,” Remy said as she moved the clothes to a chair in the room and sat next to Luna. “Hannah, I felt the same way as you. Not quite, but almost. Someone killed me, took my life, and then I ceased to exist. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Everyone forgot about me. After a few weeks, I didn’t even hear my name being murmured in the hallways. They had moved on with their lives, a life that I didn’t have anymore.

  “When Gabriella came to the school and could actually see me, I was so damn happy. Then she gave me an extra gift.” She gave Hannah a watery smile. “She gave me you. And now look at me. I’m able to use my ghost form as a power. I can go invisible when I want to, and I am just as immortal as the fully blessed. Maybe more so. Then I received another gift.”

  Hannah gave her a questioning look, but before she could answer, Luna said, “Gabriella decided to give me a gift, as well. I was seconds away from either dying or becoming a wendigo, and Gabriella gave me the power of the Flaming Sword. I’m not good at using it,” she said sheepishly, “but I think I’ll get better.”

  Hannah unwrapped the towel from her hair. “What do you mean, she gave you the Flaming Sword?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t give it to her. I poured some of its essence into her. She, along with Remy, now carry it around with them.”

  She narrowed her pale eyes. “They can do what you can do?”

  Remy scoffed. “We weren’t touched by eight archangels, but we can wield the Flaming Sword. We can kill wendigos with a touch of our hands. Of course, we choose not to.”
r />   “You aren’t killing them?” Hannah asked.

  “Nope,” I said. “We can use the sword to turn them back to their original state.”

  “You’re kidding!” she gasped.

  “She’s not,” Luna said. “And here is a really cool part … We’re not certain, but we don’t think that we can be killed. I mean, if we can, it would be really hard.”

  “We should probably test that theory out on Ezra,” Remy suggested.

  “We can,” I said. “Or, at least, an archangel told me that if I exhausted all my powers, I could die.”

  “Bummer,” Remy said.

  I grabbed Hannah’s hand. “I’d like to give you this gift, too. It won’t bring back your wings, but it will give you a purpose. We will rely on you. If you choose to accept this, you will be forever tied to us in an unbreakable sisterhood.”

  Hannah’s bottom lip trembled. “I think I would like that very much.”

  All of us were smiling as I touched my palm to Hannah’s chest. She closed her eyes, and a small smile lit up her face.

  Remy clapped. “This is the best girls’ night that I never wanted.”

  We all laughed.

  “So,” Remy said, “I hate to bring up darker times after this kumbaya moment, but what happened with the commander?”

  I groaned. “The man is infuriating. Honestly, in his wendigo form, I barely spent time with him. It was when I passed out and dream walked that I saw him. I told him that I could change him back to fully blessed. He didn’t act shocked, but he did argue that he should stay a wendigo.”

  “What?” Remy screeched. “Like, for good?”

  “No,” I said. “I don’t think he plans on staying like that forever, but one of the archangels came to visit him, and they explained that perhaps it would be better off. He thinks he will lose me if he can’t protect me, and other than the Flaming Sword, nothing can take down a wendigo, other than a wendigo. So, the more I think about it, he must think that a wendigo is going to harm me.”

  Luna took down her ponytail then ran a hand through her pink hair. “The fact is that everyone who we’ve turned back from wendigo to blessed remembers their time as a wendigo, but it seems that it’s a bit foggy. Even the powerful ones describe it like they are strapped in the passenger seat, taking a joyride, as they watch their life being managed by someone else.”

  Remy nodded. “For Finn to still be in control is an amazing feat. He never once tried to hurt you, and from what we understand, once a blessed becomes a wendigo, they belong to their creator, which is the headmistress. Technically, she should be able to control him.”

  “When he thought I was hurt, he carried me away from the academy. He watched over me until I healed enough to walk back.” I ran a hand over my chest. “I can feel him. He’s close, but not close enough.”

  Remy shook her head. “What a sad group we are. Luna, you’re new, but I’m sure you have some baggage, right?”

  She nodded. “The headmistress forced my parents to do some recon for her. To make sure they did their job she put me and my little brother in a cell. When they died we lost all hope of freedom. Then to make matters worse I survived. My brother did not.”

  We all winced.

  When she saw how depressed we all became she said, “Then to make matters worse I became like a little sister to the brothers. They have been bossing me around since I was fifteen.”

  “That is good enough. I’m sure that it has provided you with great psychological damage,” Remy said. “Hannah, my little giraffe, is a mess, Gabriella’s love life is in the gutters of hell right now, and I had to call off a very high profile marriage to a boy who I found I could no longer love.”

  “Whaaat?” Hannah began.

  Luna and I shook our heads, trying to warn her, but she ignored us both.

  Remy smiled. “So glad you asked, friend.”

  We all groaned as she began her version of two star-crossed lovers spiel. When she got to the part about how their love was as rare as unicorn babies born in Spain, I feigned sleep. I noticed that Luna was curled like a kitten in a little ball at the end of the bed. At some point, me faking sleep turned into the real thing. I had expelled a ton of energy today, and my body was exhausted. I rested easy, knowing that Ezra had set up a few guards to alert us if the headmistress was headed this way. We wouldn’t get much sleep because the brothers would eventually come and wake us, and Finn was somewhere nearby. My wendigo wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me, even if he had to remain a wendigo to assure it, which I was still mad over.

  As dreams took over, I prayed to see him, but I couldn’t find him, no matter where I searched. However, it did seem that someone else was waiting for me to fall asleep.

  A beautiful woman stood in an empty space. There was nothing but darkness surrounding her. She was the only light in the room. Her skin was a light caramel, and her shiny black hair hung to her waist. She looked like a better mixture of Zoe Saldana and the singer Ciara.

  She cocked her beautiful face to the side. “I don’t know of these people.”

  She had read my mind. Of course she had. “They are famous people who live on earth.”

  She looked like she was still confused, but she nodded anyway. “Do you remember me?”

  I did. “I’ve seen you in my dreams before.”

  She looked a little saddened by this. “But you don’t remember me from your first life?”

  I wanted to lie just to ease the pain in which I saw on her face, but I said, “No, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Jophiel said. “I was hoping to visit with you soon.”

  I looked around in the darkness. This was the first time I had ever dream walked or been summoned through my dreams where the place felt utterly isolated and void of anything. There was no warmth or light anywhere to be seen.

  “Where are we?”

  Her beautiful face looked so sad that my heart hurt. “Unfortunately, this is my home. When your mother—when we—lost you all those years ago, some of my brothers and sisters were sent back to heaven by the blade that Azrael used to carry. We wept for those seven, even though, ironically, getting back to heaven had been our plan all along. Of course, none of us wanted to accomplish our goal by the end of the Flaming Sword. That would mean, when we returned to heaven, we could never leave. The issue with that is we had all fallen in love.” She gave me a beautiful smile. “With you. In you, we saw our hopes and dreams of what we wanted this world to become. After you were born, we all wanted to stay on earth; see how you fared. It’s bittersweet how things work out like that.” She let her chin drop to her chest for a second. “I miss my brothers and sisters.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I nodded.

  “The day of your wedding changed all of us somehow. The remainder of us scattered and, unfortunately, I am stuck in this place.”

  Now I understood why the beautiful creature before me looked so broken. “Tell me how I can help.”

  A smile lit her face. “I was hoping you would ask that. There is something you need to know about your love. The longer Finn stays a wendigo, the harder it will be to turn him back to the blessed that he is. Every day, he will lose a little piece of himself. The more powerful the blessed is, the harder it is to convert them back. I’m well-aware of what you are trying to do for the blessed who are trapped as wendigos, but you need to realize your limitations. Stop before you are too exhausted. What if you pushed yourself to the brink, and then the next one that comes up from the portal is extremely powerful? The Flaming Sword could combust inside of you, killing you.”

  “So, I need to rest and then force Finn to turn back before I lose him?”

  She shook her head. “No. He needs to stay a wendigo for the time being.”

  I was so confused. “But you just said that the longer he waits, the harder it’ll be to change him back.”

  “Yes, but there is a monster waiting in the plane that is extremely powerful. One that will attack you full force in wen
digo form, and you will kill yourself trying to stop it.”

  “You’re talking about the original wendigo?”

  “Yes, and killing the original wendigo will have repercussions.”

  I didn’t plan on killing any wendigos. “I will turn the original back to its true form.”

  “I need your Finn there to make sure that you don’t exhaust your powers.” I nodded. “I also need you to understand that the power a fully blessed holds is completely different from a wendigo. They are both powerful and strong, but in different ways.”

  “It was you who visited with Finn?”

  She nodded.

  “If I can get Finn back, I can pour some of the power from the sword into him. Uriel visited with me, and he said that there would be seven who carried it. Finn is the missing link.”

  She gave me a sad smile. “I’m afraid that he must remain a wendigo for the time being. It is the only way to save you from the original. Even with everyone you have given the Flaming Sword gift rallying with you, you are still no match. She is the original, the first wendigo ever created. She is hundreds of years old, and she will tear you apart. Her power will break all of you. You do not stand a chance. Not without a wendigo on your side. The favor I ask of you is do not try to convince Finn to come back to you. Not yet.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. “It’s not fair. I feel like there is always some huge obstacle in our way.”

  “A love like yours will prevail, even against death. In fact, it has already done so.”

  I dashed a tear away. “So, he has to stay a wendigo for the time being?”

  She nodded.

  “At least I’ll still get to dream walk with him until I can change him back.”

  She gave me a beautiful smile. “The more you use the power of the Flaming Sword, the better at it you and your friends will get. I know you are on a time crunch, but remember to stop before you get exhausted.”

  “Exhaustion is just a word. I’ve been nothing but tired here recently.”