Captured: Academy of the Seraph

by Brandi Elledge

  “This is a different type of exhaustion. Your vision will cloud, and you will see black dots. More than likely, your nose will bleed because, at this point, you’re hurting internally, and Chamuel’s power will be screaming for you to stop. If you don’t listen to your instincts, you will die.”

  “Thank you for the warning.”

  “One more thing, Gabriella. Thalan used dark magic to give the headmistress the power she needs to call the wendigos. They all belong to her. As long as she lives, the wendigos can and will be used against you. Even the wendigo who loves you, and the longer he lives as a wendigo, the harder it will be to disobey her commands. Never forget that.”

  Her hair shimmered as she turned.

  “You’re leaving?” I asked.

  “Yes, my love. This exhausted me. Hopefully, I’ll be able to call you back soon, though. Take care, niece.”

  I exited the sad void just as quickly as I had come into it. I woke up feeling drained. All four of us were crammed on the tiny bed.

  I quietly pulled back the covers and went to the window where it overlooked the backside of the academy, where the forest and lavender fields lay. I placed my forehead up against the cold glass plane, wondering what Finn was doing right now. Would we ever get out of this mess? Could we ever just be normal?

  The four of us got a couple of hours of sleep that night before the brothers, Trev and Ezra, came to get us. It was time to have a meeting, a game plan of sorts. My room was overcrowded, so we headed toward the school library, which was a joke in comparison to the Academy of Seraph’s library. This room was more of a make-out session for students. We each had to go down the rows and break couples apart before we had them exit. Hannah’s skin was as bright as a flame by the time we ushered the last grabby couple out of the library. Then we grabbed a table in front of the doors to make sure no one entered without us noticing.

  After we all took a seat, we waited for someone to start the conversation. I cleared my throat.

  “So, we all got a few hours of sleep. It’s not ideal, but it is good enough for us to continue with the releasing of the blessed from their wendigo bodies. I don’t think any of us need to fully exhaust ourselves today.”

  Trev nodded. “Agreed. I also think one of us should not use the Flaming Sword today. We could all rotate on who should or shouldn’t use the power. That way, if something bad does happen, one of us will be refreshed.”

  That was actually a good idea, except I didn’t believe I should be a part of the group that sat by and did nothing for the day. Especially since I could convert more wendigos back to their original form, but I kept my mouth shut. I would cross that bridge when I came to it. Besides, the way Trev looked at everyone except for me, I had a feeling he knew that I wouldn’t agree to those terms either.

  Remy said, “It’s been quiet for almost twelve hours. The headmistress needs the wendigos.”

  I nodded. “She’s not that powerful without her creations.” If she had been, she wouldn’t have looked at me with fear in her eyes. “It’s just a matter of time before she comes back to try to claim them.”

  “We need to set up a guard in the gymnasium,” Ezra said. “Maybe a couple of us.”

  “Are any of us powerful enough to stop the headmistress without Gabriella?” Luna asked.

  “I believe so,” I answered.

  Trev ran a hand through his hair. “But I don’t know if any of us are strong enough to hold back an army of wendigos.”

  I thought about Jophiel’s message to me in the dream. Any of us could be killed. I needed to stop acting so hasty when it came to the lives of the people sitting at this table. Finn decided to remain a wendigo for the time being. I needed to focus on the job I was born to do and make sure no one I cared about died from my poor decisions. That would be something I couldn’t live with.

  I gripped the edge of the table. “I received a warning on the limitations of our powers yesterday.”

  “Another archangel?” Trev asked.

  “Yes. If we over-exhaust ourselves to the point of self-destruction, we will get warning signs first, like cloudy vision and nosebleeds.”

  They all remained quiet as they digested my words.

  “Okay, who is on the first watch?”

  “I think Remy and I can go on right now?” Trev said.

  She gave him a thumbs-up. “I’m good as long as another wendigo doesn’t try to play tonsil hockey with me.”

  “Then Luna and Ezra next shift,” Trev continued. “Hannah and Gabriella the next.”

  I was already shaking my head. “No. Let Hannah pick which group she wants to join, and I’ll stay with each group.”

  Hannah grabbed my hand. “You have to eat and sleep at some point.”

  I pushed back from the table. “We should have had this meeting in the gymnasium. The headmistress could be attacking now, releasing wendigos.”

  “Not likely,” Ezra said. “I found capable seniors who, considering our circumstances, have leveled up to guards. They would have notified us.”

  “Are we sure that the pull lever, along with the button, are the only things that will release a wendigo from the container?”

  “Ninety-nine percent positive,” Trev said.

  “Then that’s not good enough.” I was walking toward the doors. “Hannah, pick a group.”

  I heard the disagreement and mumbles behind me, but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t exhaust myself. I could sleep in front of the golden doors, but our main concern right now was not to allow the headmistress to release the horde of wendigos.

  Once everything was settled, I said, “I have a few things to do to try to protect these walls. I’ll meet all of you in the gymnasium.” With that, I pushed through the doors and headed outside. A smile was on my face as the five of them followed behind me like ducks. “What are you guys doing?”

  “I don’t know about them, but I personally want to know how you are going to protect these walls,” Remy said.

  I shook my head as I came to a stop in front of the academy doors. “Fine, but please stay back.”

  Closing my eyes, I let the power coil around me before it lashed out. Wave after wave flowed from me to the woods that surrounded the academy’s front and sides. “Come to me,” I whispered, though I knew my call traveled down the steep mountain and past the lavender fields. Minutes went by before the first few animals arrived. Within half an hour, the front of the school was packed with rodents, reptiles, and mammals.

  Hannah whispered, “It looks like the Garden of Eden.”

  I looked at all the eyes before me. “I need you all to guard this mountaintop. If anyone tries to come into this area, I need you to stop them.”

  I extended my arm to an owl. With incredible gentleness, he landed on my arm. “Hello, friend. Please scout for us. Let us know if anyone is heading this way.”

  In answer, he flew from my arm. His magnificent wings spread beside him as he soared to the sky.

  “Do we have food for them?” I asked Ezra, who had come up beside me and was staring in awe at a wolf.

  “Most of what they would normally eat is sitting or standing beside them.”

  “Well, we can’t feed them to each other.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, of course not. I’ll find food.”

  “And leave it out here? When they are hungry, they can come for it.”

  His eyes swiveled to a large elk. “So strange. I don’t know why I’m surprised. Yeah, I’ll have them food left out here.” He took one last look at the wolf then went back inside.

  I smiled at the animals. “Thank you, friends. Please go now and guard the mountaintop.”

  Little feet hopped off toward the border of the top of the mountain. Others crawled or trotted, but all obeyed.

  “So creepy,” Remy said.

  “If you thought that was creepy, you should probably go inside with Ezra,” I said. Then I closed my eyes and reached for that thread that I felt inside of me, the one that allowed me to connect wit
h Remy while she was in her ghost form. A burst of cold air surrounded us.

  I opened my eyes and looked at the six figures who were steaming mad at being summoned. When my eyes lit on the last figure, my power surged within me.

  “You,” I said.

  Remy’s mouth dropped open. “Is that …?”

  “Who?” Hannah shouted. I guessed she couldn’t see her, yet Remy could, as she was a ghost, too.

  I took two steps closer to the ghost. “I see that you decided not to pass through. The only problem is that you are not welcome here. Not even in death.”

  Mrs. Fields glared at me. “How dare you summon me? You don’t control me, nor do you scare me. What are you going to do? Kill me again?”

  Letting my power naturally flow, I watched as Mrs. Fields tried to leave but couldn’t. My power had anchored her down to the ground. The more she struggled against my hold, the madder she became.

  “Who is it?” Hannah asked again.

  Remy sniffed. “It’s that old, fat face, Mrs. Fields.”

  Mrs. Fields glared at her. “You know, Remy, I was there the night you died. It’s a shame that you can’t remember it. I wonder why. Must have been a gruesome death.”

  I saw my sassy, strong friend blanch.

  “No!” I shouted. “You have done enough damage. I want you to pass on. I have a feeling where you will be going will be of a warmer nature.”

  She shook her grey head. “No. You can’t make me.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Really?” Spreading my arms wide, I watched as a brilliant white light pushed out of me and landed on the wild-eyed Mrs. Fields. As soon as the light touched her, she burst into a million different images. It was like looking through a kaleidoscope.”

  Remy gasped. “Dude, did you just blow her up?”

  My arms fell to my sides as the light around me died down. “No. I sent her to hell.”

  Hannah had tears running down her cheeks as she came up beside me and grabbed my hand. “I wish I could have seen it.”

  Not letting go of her hand, I pushed the power that the angels had blessed me with toward her. Letting all my walls down, I said, “And why can’t you?”

  I watched as her eyes grew round, and then she was smiling as tears streamed down her face. “I hated that bitch.”

  I laughed. “I think we all did.”

  Luna and Trev were looking at each other with confusion. Remy clued them in.

  “Gabriella just sent Mrs. Fields’ ghost to hell. And now she has five other ghosts looking at her like they are about to be sick.”

  Whoops.

  I faced the other ghosts with my hands up. “Sorry, guys. There is no need to be afraid of me.”

  “I can see them now that you’re touching me,” Hannah said. Then she let go of my hand. “Yep, can still see them.”

  Luna and Trev shoved her out of the way so they could each hold my hand.

  Remy fake-yawned. “My girl isn’t a circus attraction, people.” She looked at me. “Right, freak?”

  I rolled my eyes. Ignoring Luna’s and Trev’s astonishment, I shook out of their grasps while I talked with the remaining ghosts in front of me. “Do each of you know the headmistress?”

  They all nodded, and some added a few choice words.

  “I know. She wasn’t the best person. I’m very sorry that you all have …” I waved a hand in the air, looking for the appropriate terminology.

  “Are sleeping with the fishes, kicked the bucket, bought the farm,” Remy supplied.

  “Okay, they get it,” I said.

  Luna said, “At least she isn’t clapping.”

  That was true.

  Turning back to the ghosts, I said, “If you want help passing on to the next life, I can help you with that.”

  There were a few murmurs.

  “If you’re ready now, you can go, but if you would like to hang out a while here, you can. I would like to ask that you keep a watch out for the headmistress.”

  A chubby boy said, “She’s the one who killed us. I’d like to stay and look for her.”

  It seemed that everyone agreed.

  “That would be great. And whenever any of you are ready to cross over, find Remy, and she can find me.”

  The ghosts seemed excited as they took off to find the headmistress.

  Remy snorted. “Find Remy? What am I now? The official ghost liaison?”

  Remy was talking to Luna and an unfortunate Trev about Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze as Hannah and I went back inside. I was getting stares. Some were intrigued by me, but the vast majority were scared. Their fear permeated the air, and I couldn’t help but sigh. There was nothing I could do to reassure them that I wasn’t the headmistress 2.0 version. They would just have to wait and see that I meant them no harm. Now, the headmistress was a whole new ballgame. I couldn’t wait to cause her harm.

  Trev and Remy met me inside the gymnasium. I was already gearing up to convert as many wendigos as I could today.

  Turning to Trev, I said, “You talked about them being on a plane that was neither here nor there until they were released into their glass enclosure. Do you think that there is another exit?”

  “No, not that I’m aware. But if there was, then that would mean that wendigos could escape, so I doubt it.”

  I sighed. Again, I didn’t like the fact that we weren’t a hundred percent sure. “Can she make more wendigos without Thalan?”

  He shrugged. “Anything is possible. But if she did find someone as powerful in dark magic as Thalan, they would still have to find the right people to turn into wendigos.”

  “You mean, like a fully blessed?”

  “The rumors are that there was something extraordinary about that first wendigo. There are too many fully blessed just under this roof to be ‘very’ special, and I guess, if we don’t know what that is, we won’t know what to look for. It took her hundreds of years to create a wendigo. I doubt that she will be able to just create another so quickly.”

  Remy said, “It sounds like our best plan of action is to guard these wendigos so that she can’t get to them, and when the headmistress comes for them, we kill her.”

  Trev narrowed his brown eyes in concentration. “I just don’t see her coming here by herself. What do you think, Gabriella?”

  “That she is too scared to come back here, but she is out of options. She can run, or she can fight. I don’t think her pride will let her run for too long. She may have figured out that the sandstorm that rained down havoc on her academy was Finn. It’s also a possibility that she will try to find him, command him to do her bidding. Maybe he’ll succumb.”

  Trev and Remy didn’t say a word, but they were both digesting my words.

  I shrugged. “That’s what I would do if I were in her shoes. She can’t go up against me, not without the power of her wendigos. The most powerful one of all is outside, roaming around.” My gut tightened with fear. If she found Finn, the things she could do with him by her side was cringe-worthy.

  “Jophiel came to me in a dream the other night,” I said. “She warned me that the struggle of maintaining who Finn once was before he was turned into a wendigo will be harder for him as each day goes by.”

  Remy bit her lip. “That sucks.”

  “Yeah.”

  Trev took a couple of steps away. “I’m going to go make sure we have enough blankets for the blessed we bring over. I’ll give you girls a few minutes.”

  As soon as he was a reasonable distance away, Remy said, “You think she is out scouring for Finn now?”

  I nodded. “I do. Why not use the most powerful, especially if he isn’t behind enemy lines?”

  “Do you think you could dream walk to him and communicate that we need him here? Or at least tell him to go somewhere the damn headmistress couldn’t find him?”

  “Yeah, if he wasn’t dream blocking me.”

  Remy laughed. “Sorry, that was funny. My mind went in a different direction.” She took one look at my face and dropp
ed her grin. “Okay, back to serious mode. All we can do is try to find him through your dreams again tonight.”

  I nodded. “You’re right. We have a full day ahead of us without me borrowing trouble.”

  “You’re just being proactive. But, since there is literally nothing we can do, we might as well focus on the task before us.”

  My brows crashed together. “Whoa! Remy, when did you become so mature?”

  She stumbled back as a hand came up to her chest. Her eyes were widened with fright. “Don’t you ever direct those kinds of harsh words at me again. Mature? Why not just knife me where I stand? It would have been less cruel.”

  We were laughing as she left me to approach the glass enclosure.

  “Hey, Remy, I know you don’t want to talk about what happened the day that you died, but if or when you’re ready, I’m here.”

  She nodded. “I know. It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it. I just don’t really remember much.” Without looking at me, she said, “I actually think I’m blocking my memories. Maybe I wasn’t in a place to know what happened before, but I think I’m stronger now.”

  “I could find out for you, if you want me to.”

  She shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Just not now. Let’s wait until things calm down a bit.”

  She was still terrified of what she would learn.

  “Okay, just let me know when you’re ready.”

  Seeing that we were wrapping up our conversation, Trev yelled out, “If you girls are ready to tango with some wendigos, I’m ready to hit this button.”

  “Let the good times roll,” I said.

  It might not have been a rip-roaring good time, but we were accomplishing what we needed to. However, the day dragged on. Remy was able to convert two wendigos back into their blessed form, but she was scared to do a third. Trev transformed an additional six blessed, and my count was ten before we all decided it was time to rotate. On the next shift, I didn’t help out until the very end, after Ezra, Hannah, and Luna all took turns. I had officially been on my feet for ten hours when Remy and Trev returned. Someone had made me a makeshift bed in front of the doors. I climbed on the sleeping bag and watched them work from a pallet on the floor. My eyes were closing as Trev brought one more blessed over.