Black Halo (Grace Series)

by S. L. Naeole

  Lark’s face as she began to hear an unfamiliar sound—neither thought nor memory; her fighting against it as she tried to focus on getting a glass from the cupboard shelf; her body growing rigid with the increasing insistence of the audible demand; recognition: these filled my vision.

  Her head lifted, rising towards the ceiling—no, not towards the ceiling, towards the sky—and she smiled. The back of her shirt bulged with intent and I felt my mouth open in awe as her wings burst through the material, slicing through the fabric like feathered razors. She closed her eyes and smiled, her face beaming in delight, and it was difficult not to do the same.

  It was with that smile that she appeared in the room, the vision in my head blending with the vision before me, two perspectives melding into one.

  “It’s come,” she said breathlessly. “My call has come.”

  Graham stood up and rushed to Lark’s side, his hands hovering over her arms, hesitant to touch her for some strange reason. “That’s great!”

  Stacy eased herself forward and her mouth lifted into a joyful smile. “Pure awesome!”

  “I didn’t even know what it was—I didn’t recognize it, didn’t expect it to sound the way it does,” Lark began to ramble. She raised her arms to cross behind Graham’s neck as she pulled him forward and pressed her lips against his.

  I knew I should have looked away but I couldn’t. I played the role of the voyeur as I watched them embrace in quiet celebration, and I knew that I wasn’t alone.

  Stacy cooed at the scene before us, even going so far as to clap her hands.

  Robert, on the other hand, fumed beneath his calm exterior. I knew that Stacy couldn’t see it, and Graham definitely was oblivious to the rising heat that brewed within Robert, but I saw it. Against my better efforts, I had become far more attuned to him than I had liked, and I sensed his emotions almost easier than I could detect my own.

  My thoughts were enough to distract him. His steady gaze turned to mine, and I felt almost trapped in its hold as he searched. I could see the shimmering flecks of platinum in the liquid mercury of his irises and I swore that if I didn’t look away soon, I’d fall into them and drown…but what a way to die.

  “I have to go,” Lark said, breaking the bond between Robert and I, and I uttered a curse and a prayer of thanks at the same time.

  “Wait, what do you mean, you have to go?” Graham asked, upset. “Go where?”

  “Oh Graham,” she lamented as she cradled his face in one of her small hands, the other held fiercely between his. “I didn’t think that this was coming so soon. I thought I’d get more time with you before this happened; I have to go…up there-” she pointed up with a free finger “-to speak with the Seraphim, to learn the full history of my kind, and to learn about what my call truly is.”

  Graham’s head bobbed at each word, but it was clear he didn’t understand what she meant. “So you’ll be gone what, a couple of days? A week?”

  She shook her head slowly, painfully. “I don’t know. I can’t give you an honest answer because there’s no way of knowing.”

  She turned to face Stacy and her face sunk further with the slowly burgeoning depression. “Stacy, I didn’t expect this to happen, I didn’t know—I can’t believe I’m going to leave you like this.” She walked over to her and sat down beside her, adjusting her body so that her wings brushed up against the side of the bed.

  Stacy gave her a bemuse smile and gave a soft jab to Lark’s knee. “You’re not leaving me like anything. I’ll be fine. It’s not the cancer that knocked me out today, it was my own stubbornness. I’ll ease up on the exercising and as soon as the nausea goes away, I’ll start eating like Graham.”

  “Oh, don’t do that, Stacy,” Lark laughed softly. “You’ll end up looking like a blimp and won’t be able to fit into your prom dress.”

  “Prom?”

  Lark glanced at Stacy and I and her forehead developed questioning, frustrated grooves.

  “Yes, prom. You guys have thought about it, right? It’s less than a month away!”

  Stacy and I shook our heads. “You’re heading off to fulfill your destiny, something you’ve waited five-hundred years for, and you’re worried about my prom dress?” Stacy asked, bewildered. “Your priorities are a bit skewed, don’t you think?”

  “I think that we’ve both been too preoccupied with other things to even consider prom, Lark,” I voiced to her, my head full of new thoughts and new concerns. “I never thought I’d be going anyway.”

  “Well why the hell not?” Lark protested. “It’s Senior Prom! You only get one shot at it—well, if you’re a human, you only get one shot at it—so why not go?”

  Robert approached his sister and looked at her determinedly. “Lark, it’s time to go. They’re waiting for you.”

  “No, I’m not leaving until I get an answer as to why they’re not going to prom. This is supposed to be a significant event in a human girl’s life and you two are intentionally missing out on it for reasons unknown,” she argued, her wings shivering with agitation.

  “Well, I have no date so there you go,” Stacy replied easily.

  “I hate dresses,” was my response.

  Lark threw up her hands in defeat and spun around on her heel. “Fine. Spend the biggest night of the year at home like two old ladies.”

  Graham grinned like a fool at her exasperation, his hands shoved in his pockets as he kicked at the floor sheepishly. “I didn’t even realize that it was so close either, and now it looks like I won’t have a date, too, and since I hate wearing dresses almost as much as Grace does, I guess I’ll be staying at home as well.”

  An amused smile crawled across her lips as Lark looked at Graham and his supportive posture. She walked over to him and I turned away, knowing that the moment had suddenly become too private for viewing. Stacy, too, turned her head, finding something quite interesting to stare at on the wall.

  A soft coo was our only hint that we had been joined by another as Ameila appeared before Lark, her hand pressed over her heart with pride.

  Graham walked away from them and came to stand by my side as Robert, Lark, and their mother stood in a small circle, their heads bent towards each other, their hands clasped. I saw Lark’s body ripple with amusement and she looked up to grin at Robert, a smug grin that brought a smile to my own lips.

  “You were always the good child, always the one who did what he was told, while I was the black sheep who ran off with the loser boyfriend—how does it feel, Robert, knowing that it took me one-third the amount of time as you did to get my wings and my call?”

  Robert shrugged, his face showing no emotion. “I’m just glad that you’ll finally give mother a reason to be proud when she mentions your name, Lark.”

  Though their words hinted at animosity, their faces spoke volumes as to their intense fondness for each other. I envied it; I couldn’t help it.

  “Will you both be coming with me?” Lark asked her voice now suddenly quivery with nerves.

  “Only I will be going. Someone has to remain here to watch after Grace,” Ameila responded.

  Nodding in understanding, Lark turned to look at us one last time, a proud smile on her face. “I’ll see you all later.”

  And without another word, both she and Ameila were gone, their departure so quick it was difficult to discern just how they had left. Graham walked over to the window and peered out, his gaze lifting upwards, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

  Stacy stared at her hands in her lap as she fidgeted with the comforter, a few visible drops of moisture visible on the edges of her thumbs.

  Robert’s eyes were closed, seeing the journey his sister was making behind his closed lids.

  And I stood away from it all, Lark’s departure causing a confused muddle of happiness and grief to form within me. It was painful to see such distraught faces among the people I loved so much, knowing that no matter what any of us felt, this was merely a waiting game to be played out between us.

>   It would be the hardest on Graham, of course, since he didn’t quite understand what was truly happening, much as I had been unaware. I wanted to reassure him that she’d come back to him unchanged but I knew that would be impossible without lying. However, I didn’t worry about him. He had enough faith in his feelings for her that he’d understand and forgive anything—he forgave me for lying to him, didn’t he?

  No, I worried the most for Stacy who had found support and sympathy from Lark while I had wallowed in my own self-pity. I couldn’t ignore the fact that I had been a horrible friend, all things considering, and despite the huge insult, I couldn’t blame Sean’s anger towards me. I had hurt Stacy emotionally while her cancer attacked her physically—I had done what the cancer couldn’t, and there were few words to express just how horrible that felt, but I ignored this.

  Stacy had given me her friendship when no one else would, and I couldn’t skirt around that anymore. I had to admit now that I had been afraid of the commitment required of such a friendship, afraid of what it would cost me if the friendship soured.

  But this was not about me. That time had passed. Stacy was dying and there was nothing I could do about it.

  Graham coughed and dabbed at his eyes with a closed hand. “Ugh. Dust in my eyes. Lark’s gotta vacuum this place more often.”

  I looked over to Robert, his eyes still closed, his body unmoving, deep in the vision of his sister’s welcome.

  “Did you want to go?” I said aloud.

  When his lids lifted and his shimmery grey gaze reached mine, the bed offered me the support I hadn’t been prepared for needing. “I’m exactly where I want to be,” he replied in a low voice.

  “In your sister’s room?” Stacy murmured as she lay back, burrowing into the mountainous pillows.

  Ignoring that, Robert once again closed his eyes, but not before he smiled at me, able to see just how disconcerted I had become by the silent ferocity that lurked behind them.

  “Oh, what am I going to say to my parents—how am I going to explain this?” Stacy moaned as she wrapped an arm around a bright orange bolster. “They’re probably frantic by now—it’ll appear as though I just vanished and my mother is such a superstitious person, she’ll swear I was kidnapped by demons.”

  “No, just us,” Graham mused.

  “Your parents aren’t worried too much, Stacy. They have been given an explanation that is satisfactory to an extent,” Robert comforted, though he did not look at her. “A car will arrive in an hour to take you home, and a doctor will accompany you so that your parents aren’t given additional cause to worry.”

  “You mean she’s not staying here?” I asked, my voice sounding almost frantic in its desperation to keep her near.

  “It’s not possible, Grace,” Robert sighed, his eyes open now. “She has a family waiting for her at home, two concerned parents who care for her welfare.”

  “And I don’t,” I mumbled as I stared at the floor.

  “Your father loves you like no other father ever could, Grace, but deep down he knows that you’re safe, otherwise he wouldn’t have allowed you to stay at home unsupervised.”

  I glared at the unmoving floor and found fault with it, knots and scuffs that marred the surface becoming the scapegoats to my anger at my lack of response. He was right—I couldn’t’ argue against that, and that infuriated me.

  “Grace, I’d love to stay here with you and have an extended sleepover, but even I know that staying away from my parents after what happened today is not going to do me any good. It’ll be a miracle if I’m even allowed out of the house after this.”

  “Stacy, you should get some rest before the car arrives. I have a feeling that you won’t be getting much after today.”

  Stacy nodded at Robert’s instructions and closed her eyes, shutting out the world as she quickly fell into a fitful slumber.

  I walked over to the window where Graham stood and pressed my hand up against the large glass pane. “She’ll be back,” I told him.

  “Who, Stacy? Of course she’ll be back. She’s too nosy to let her parents keep her chained to her bed.”

  I felt my eyes turn upwards at his comment and I kicked his shin lightly, annoyed. “No, not Stacy; Lark’s going to be back, Graham. Robert returned after a month, so you might get to go to prom after all.”

  His laugh sounded more like a choking cough as he processed that thought. “You know how I know that we were meant to be friends, Grace?” When I shook my head, he smiled and continued, “I didn’t even think about prom either.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded and began to rub the back of his neck, embarrassed at his lack of awareness. “I mean, yeah, last summer, Erica spoke about prom and like an idiot, I agreed that I’d take her, but that was the last time I even thought about it. I’m not exactly looking forward to wearing a monkey suit, but if it means that Lark will come back, I’d do it.”

  “I don’t doubt that you would, Graham.”

  “What’s he doing?” he asked in a hushed tone as he motioned to Robert with a quick flip of his chin. “It’s like he napping or something.”

  “I can only guess that he’s watching Lark’s welcome,” I replied. “It’s probably Ameila’s vision he’s seeing, but it’s coming from Lark.”

  “So how did Lark know that this was her time? I mean, I know that she hears something, but what? I thought I’d have a lot more time to ask her these questions, you know? Now I’m asking you, like you’d know,” Graham said resignedly. “I’m sorry, Grace-”

  “God, don’t apologize, Graham,” I cut him off. “You need to know these things if you’re going to be with Lark,” I voiced to him in as encouraging a tone as I could muster; it was difficult, the rational yet irrational fear of him getting hurt slowly pushing itself to the forefront of my thoughts.

  Robert’s voice startled me when he began to speak, his eyes open and focused on the two of us, his posture loose, his face relaxed. “When an angel hears their call, it’s a song meant just for them. They hear in it the purpose for their birth, the history behind the position they take among those who have ascended before them, and the future that they will help to ensure by fulfilling their destiny. It all plays out in a melody of the voices of those that came before them. One day, another angel will receive the same call, and he or she will hear Lark’s voice singing among the others.”

  “And what is she hearing?” Graham asked, his face marked with curiosity. “What’s the call telling her?”

  “I can’t tell you that, Graham—her call is her own to share or not.”

  “Well, can you at least tell me if I have to go and rent a monkey suit or not?”

  Robert’s eyes closed and he shook his head. “It doesn’t appear so.”

  A mixture of relief and disappointment crossed over Graham’s face as he sagged against the wall. “Well, that answers that, I guess.”

  I smiled at him and shook my head. “You already bought one, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah,” he answered, looking away as he rubbed his eyes.

  A QUESTION

  As I had expected, once Stacy had been dropped off at home, it became nearly impossible to get in touch with her. Phone calls had always been difficult with her mother not approving of them before a certain hour, but now they weren’t permitted period. To add to the near-imprisonment, when she was finally allowed back to school, it was under the strict supervision of her brother, Sean. She was dropped off precisely one minute before the bell rang at the start of school, and immediately after the last class was over, Sean was dragging her back towards his car.

  Stacy admitted that her parents tried to get her class schedule altered so that we weren’t in any of the same classes anymore, but with the end of the school year so close, it was impossible. Instead, Sean escorted her to and from every class, skipping homeroom entirely to sit beside Stacy and prevent us from having any type of normal conversation.

  It was only during third period that we were finally
able to discuss what had been going on since her collapse and Lark’s receiving of her call.

  “The worst thing about all of this is that doctor who comes to the house every other day to check on me agrees with every single thing that my parents say. I could kill Robert for that,” she complained, pounding the table with a balled up hand.

  “Robert was only doing what he thought was best,” I argued.

  “Oh, look who decided to figure that one out a couple of weeks too late,” she said in retort as she shook her head. “I know he was thinking about my health, Grace. I’ve got cancer, remember? Not Alzheimer’s.”

  “Sorry,” I muttered. “Dr. Ambrose isn’t that bad, is he?”

  “Dr. Ambrose? Is that his name? He kept telling me to call him Dr. Bro for some reason, but I think I like Dr. Ambrose a lot better. How do you know his name?”

  “It’s a long story, one that I don’t think I can get through in just third period,” I said lightly. “But I know that he’s a pretty nice guy, once you get past his…quirks.”

  “Oh, you mean like how he always wears gloves, and how he only washes his hands in ice water?”

  “Uh…yeah,” I agreed, nervously looking away before she saw the lie in my eyes.

  “Anyway, tell Robert that I appreciate his help and get him to tell Dr. Bro to tell my parents that I’m okay. I’ve spent the past three days at home, listening to Korean soap operas and my mother making my father miserable with her complaints about me—if I don’t get a reprieve sometime soon, I might be forced to take drastic measures.”

  “Like…”

  “Like wallpaper the kitchen with all five of my brother’ skin mags—and maybe a few of my dad’s—or hide some kim chi underneath the couch cushions; I don’t know, Grace! I’m a prisoner in my own home! I can’t even talk to you during school hours without Sean the Warden standing nearby, ready to start cussing you out in the only Korean he knows, that stuck up little sh-”