“We are Angels of Moirai,” he said calmly and softly.
“We? Moirai?”
“There are many of us. Moirai is what they call us. In Greek mythology, there are three goddesses called Moirai.”
James held his palm out over the water creating a wake before us. Three small water figures formed, appearing almost like water without gravity moving in the shape of three women. Their curly hair hung down their backs and they dressed like ancient Roman women. One of the women held a spinning reel in in her hand, the thread coming off it trailed behind her, weaving in and out of the droplets. The second woman held it up, measuring it out between her hands.
“Clotho is the Greek goddess who spins the thread of life and Lachesis determines the length of the thread of life.”
I watched on as the third woman held a pair of scissors up and cut the thread abruptly.
“Atropos cuts the thread of life.”
The thread vanished as it fell. The women began to spin back into the water until the lake consumed them.
“In Roman religion, or myth, the Greek equivalent is the Parcae, the female personifications of destiny, often called The Fates in English.
“There are many different cross-cultural parallels to the Moirai. We are not any given one. We only call ourselves the Moirai. A name which we have been known for as long as I have served our creator.”
“So you choose people’s fate?”
“No. Our job, as you would call it, is to ensure that every mortal follows his or her fate. A fate that not I, or anyone else can determine. A fate that has been designed by The Creator.”
I believed what he said. There was no doubt in my mind what he was telling me was the truth. I wasn’t a gullible person, but I knew after everything that had happened, and the feeling I felt deep down that there was more to James than what I had first come to know about him.
I felt uneasy about what James was telling me. Although I believed that everyone had a destiny, and we of course would all die someday, some sooner than others, it scared me to hear it first-hand. My fate had already been decided and I had no say in it whatsoever.
“Is that why I could see you, see you as an angel?” my voice trembled. “Am I going to die?”
James grabbed my hands. “We all die someday, even I did, but no, that is not why you can see me in my true form. I have no explanation why you are able to see me in The Shadows. That has never happened before. We are more here to provide guidance to ensure that the ‘grand design’ continues as it should.”
“Do you know when I will die?”
He hesitated. “Your fate has already been chosen, Lila. My knowing of it will not change the outcome, but no, I do not know when you will die. We only know our purpose at the present. We can feel it like the wind that blows on your face right now.” He touched my cheek with the palm of his hand. “It’s like their fate is brought upon us. It is as if we are being told what will happen, without a word being spoken. We know what will happen and what role we have to play.
“We are not all about death, Lila. We are here for life. The birth of life and the journey to death, even if it is not in the immediate future.”
“So last night, the car accident, was that meant to happen?”
“No, that was not meant to happen,” he said very bluntly, his jaw clenching.
“But you said…”
“I know what I said,” he snapped, pausing briefly. “Luck. Circumstance. They can change one’s fate. You still create your destiny. Different choices you make will lead you down different paths; altering your fate, but the car accident was neither of those. It was so much more than that. It was evil.”
My stomach sank.
“With good there is always evil. Evil can come in many shapes and forms. They can choose to move in The Shadows, as we do, or present themselves. They are demons who manipulate the world to their liking. They have the ability to change a person’s fate, possess their thoughts… make them think and do things that only pure evil would do. They also have the power to kill.”
I stood up, my breath hard and heavy. I paced the jetty.
Truthfully, I hadn’t prepared myself for this kind of truth. It all was so much to take in at once.
James was by my side in an instant, his hands on my shoulders. “I will never let anything happen to you. They got near you once, and it will never happen again. I don’t know why they were after you. We can sense one another, and they don’t normally show themselves around us. I’m sorry for what happened to you, truly, but I will protect you, Lila. You have nothing to fear.”
Although I was reassured by his words, I couldn’t shake the feeling of fear that the demons would try again and next time, James wouldn’t be there to save me.
“Can all angels heal?” I asked, briefly remembering that James had been able to heal me completely after the car accident.
“Yes, along with other things.”
“Like...?”
“Well, you’ve already witnessed the flying and manipulating the elements like water. There is also our strength, among other things.”
I nodded slowly. “Wow.”
“I think you should sit back down,” James instructed.
I agreed, feeling a little dizzy.
After several minutes of processing everything I know, I asked, “You said earlier that you died too. Were you once a human?”
“Yes, a very long time ago.”
“How long?”
He smiled. “A thousand years, give or take.”
My mouth dropped. “How old were you when you died?”
“I can’t be certain as we didn’t celebrate our birthdays the way you do now, but I would say maybe seventeen or eighteen.”
“How did you become an angel then?”
“Sometimes, when humans die before it is their time, they are given an opportunity to stay on earth as an Angel of Moirai. Not everyone chooses this fate though. I was young and felt cheated by my death, so I chose to become an angel.”
I hesitated. “How did you die?”
“Let’s just say that last night was not the first time I came across a demon trying to kill someone I cared about.”
I shuddered at the thought, and knew I would not press him any further on the subject.
“Now, I think it’s time you ate something. You must be famished.”
“I’m okay,” I said urgently, ignoring the sudden desire for food. “I want to know more about you.”
“You will, but not right now,” James said. “You need to eat. You have had to take in a lot tonight and I want you to rest more. Hayley will be home tomorrow and I don’t want you acting strange around her. Only you can know the truth.”
“Okay.”
We went back inside the house and I sat on the stool at the kitchen island and watched as James insisted on making me dinner. The sun was well and truly setting, and I always loved watching as it disappeared below the lake, the rays beaming into the house until the darkness set in.
“You know you don’t have to do this. Anne, my housekeeper, probably left some meals in the fridge.”
“She did,” James replied, but didn’t stop cooking on the stove.
“I barely see her anymore,” I said thinking aloud. “She used to be here all the time, but my parents keep cutting her hours…”
James plated up my meal and placed it in front of me. My eyes widened at the sight of it. The amount that was on my plate was three times the normal portion I would have.
James handed me a fork before turning around and cleaning up.
I looked between him and the plate confused. “Aren’t you having some?”
“No.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind sharing.”
James turned his head towards me, his lips curling into a smile. “I don’t eat, Lila.”
My mouth opened and closed in understanding. “Oh, right… Because you’re an angel… and angels don’t eat.”
I almost laughed at the word
s coming out of my mouth.
James smiled broadly. “Right,” he agreed. “Now eat up.”
For someone that doesn’t eat to survive, he made one hell of a spaghetti bolognaise. I ate over half of my meal, surprising myself that I was even capable of fitting that much into my stomach. James kept himself busy cleaning and offering me water while I ate. When I was finished, I naturally made my way to my bedroom. I didn’t really go anywhere else in the house unless Hayley and I were going to watch a movie. It wasn’t until I was in my room that I realised that James was in fact, the first guy I’d ever had in my room.
I tucked my hair behind my ear and tried not to look at James as he stood at the doorway looking in.
“Would you prefer I leave?” James suggested.
I shook my head at him. “No, no. I just… I don’t know,” I laughed. “It’s fine.”
“Only if you’re sure? I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”
I chewed my bottom lip. He unnerved me, no doubt about that, but I didn’t want him to leave either. I didn’t feel safe without him.
“I’m sure. Stay.”
He nodded his head slightly and walked towards me. My breath caught in my throat and I tried to think of a million other things than what was racing through my mind at that moment.
Pineapple. Pear. Yoghurt, I rattled off in my head, desperately trying to stay calm.
He looked into my eyes for what seemed a lifetime. My body was frozen still. A smile crept on his lips, and breaking my trance, he walked towards the desk chair and sat down casually.
“So, you want to know more then?”
My body relaxed at his change of pace and I took a seat at the end of the bed. “Yes,” I replied, “I want to know more. Like, where was I when I saw you in my dreams? How did that happen?”
“We call it The Shadows. It’s like limbo. It’s neither life nor death. Heaven nor hell. It’s where you go when you die, but usually only briefly before you pass on. Angels, like me, use them as a form of travel. We can move through The Shadows undetected. It allows us to appear and disappear at will, although we don’t magically disappear, we just fall into The Shadows and vice-a-versa. Time moves differently in The Shadows though, and can make it difficult to move quickly from one place to another. Not all angels walk the earth as I do. Some choose to stay in The Shadows.”
“How come you don’t?”
“The Shadows can do things to the mind, even an immortal one. Living with humans enables us to keep some sense of realism and truth. Without that, it can be very dangerous,” he paused. “We are not the only ones who move through The Shadows…”
“Demons?”
He nodded.
We were silent for a moment as I took everything in. There was still so much I wanted to know.
“Just ask,” he said with a smile, “I will answer truthfully.”
“Wha…” I stuttered. “You can read minds as well?”
He laughed. “No, but I can read your face. You’re frowning and have that look about you that tells me there’s more questions on your mind.”
“Oh,” I replied, “well, there are a few. That man with you were with outside of Dale’s party that night,” I hesitated, “who is he?”
James nodded. “Do not be frightened by him, Lila. His name is Mark. He is an Angel of Moirai, like me. He will not harm you.”
“Is he always so…”
“Yes,” James replied. “It’s just his nature. We’ve been travelling together for a few centuries now. He wasn’t always like this, although, he is getting better. Any more questions?”
“Your wings,” I said quietly, “how do they just appear suddenly?”
“They grow.”
“Grow?”
“They grow from our backs when we want them to, and when we need them to be hidden, they shrink back into our back, so to speak.”
“So, you don’t always have them?”
“Not in that sense. They are always within us. It is just merely a way we can conceal them from humans.”
“Right. Are they heavy?”
“No. Light as a feather. Pun intended.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ha. Ha.” I made myself more comfortable on my bed. “So, you’ve obviously travelled the world?”
“Many times over.”
“And you’ve been around for a while,” I stated.
“Yes…”
“So you’d know things… things that others don’t?”
“You could say that.” He frowned at my vagueness.
I paused, and then said, “Oh, what the hell, what’s the whole deal with the Stonehenge in England?”
I nearly thought James was going to fall off his chair when he laughed so hard at what I’d just asked.
“I’m serious!” I said laughing with him. “It’s one of the world’s greatest mysteries!”
“I said I was old, Lila! Not that old!”
“Fine,” I said rolling my eyes. “I thought maybe being an angel and all,” I mocked, “that you’d have some sort of insight into those kind of things.”
James smirked. “Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll never know.”
“You’ll tell me,” I assured him, “one day you’ll tell me.”
I could feel the mood shift in the room, as the smile on his face became firm and his eyes narrowed in on me. I looked away from his gaze, watching as my chest breathed hard and heavy.
The way he looked at me… It did something. Something to me mentally, emotionally, and physically. He unravelled me.
“What stories can you tell me then? Stories I’m allowed to know,” I mumbled, trying to deviate from the tension in the room.
“Well, there was this one time, I was talking to this guy called Einstein, don’t know if you’ve heard of him,” James smirked. “We were playing around with these two tiny structures…”
I smiled as I listened to him tell one story after another well into the night. I took some of them in with a grain of salt; his storytelling was to be admired, and to be questioned. I raised my eyebrows at some of the things he claimed to be the person who invented it, and laughed my head off at some of the ridiculous scenarios he played out.
“You? In floral flared pants?!” I held my hand on my stomach as I couldn’t help imagine him bopping along to some sixties tune.
“It was the sixties!”
I laughed some more as he tried to defend his actions. I couldn’t help but feel jealous of all the things he’d seen and been a part of. Although an angel, he lived and breathed the history and the amazing achievements and events that changed our lives. With beauty, there would always be pain, and I could feel his pain in some of his stories. He was an angel, an angel that wasn’t meant to feel as a human would feel and get involved, but he did…
The hard exterior I’d once come to know slowly peeled away the more we talked, and I couldn’t help but feel, however crazy it must have been, that James was more human than angel, and maybe we weren’t so different after all.
7… TORMENT
I pushed against the roof of my car, shards of glass digging into my exposed skin. I watched as the dark figure closed in on me. There was barely any air left in my lungs, my breath searching desperately for more as I pushed through the window onto the road.
I looked up for James. He should be here by now- he should be saving me. He said he would protect me.
In one long stride, the shadowed figure was in front of me. I looked up towards it. From afar, it had looked like he had the body of a human wearing a black cape to hide his face, but as he bent down to look at me, I saw his face. Like a demon of pure evil, his face appeared, or what was left of a face. Pieces of flesh hung from his muscle in his cheek and jaw. His bones protruded through his grey coloured skin. The eyes of a bloodshot man with a deep gouge travelling down on the side of his face stared at me.
My hands trembled as I tried to back away.
The creature’s high pitched cry pierced my ears as he reached out, b
urning my air like a hot Iron. I cried out in a vivid pain and sickening fear.
I woke still screaming. James pulled me into his arms instantly.
“Shhh, it’s okay, Lila. I’m here,” James breathed into my hair, consoling me.
We were both sitting up on my bed, his back resting against my headboard. I held onto his waist, my head buried into his chest.
“It was a demon,” I whispered. “The car accident, the demon was there… but this time, you didn’t come. You didn’t save me.”
“It was just a dream.”
I pulled my head from his chest and looked up at him. “But what if next time it’s not a dream. What if they come for me again and you’re not there to save me?”
James reached down and touched my cheek. “No harm will come to you as long as you’re with me. I promise you that.”
“When I’m not with you, what will happen then?”
“You are protected, Lila. Even when I’m not with you, you will be protected. I can sense when you are in danger.”
“What if you don’t get to me in time? What if they kill me before you have to chance to fly to me, or whatever you do?”
“There are others like me. There will always be one of us close by to protect you. They know what you mean to me. They will come to your aid if anything happens.”
I looked back and forth between his eyes; those eyes that looked right into my soul. His hand moved gently across my cheek making me glow inside.
They know what you mean to me, I repeated his words in my head.
Had he meant that I was just someone he’d been able to tell his secret too, and now he wanted to keep me safe? Or had it meant more than that? He couldn’t mean more than that. He was an angel. An angel. I was a human, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the two were never meant to be anything more than that.
I looked down and shook my head, pulling my hands from his waist, and jumping off the bed. I walked out onto the balcony, the breeze hitting my flushed face as I closed my eyes thinking how stupid I was.
“Lila.”
I turned to see James standing at the doorway.
“What did you mean, when you said ‘they know what you mean to me’?”
Angels of Moirai (Book One) Page 9
