Defiant Destiny

by Madison Cumbee

  “Let me go,” I told him as my tears started coming back. I didn’t want them back! Even if these were different; they were angry, helpless tears instead of sad, fearful ones. Why couldn’t they all just leave me alone and take the huge archangel with them when they left? “Let. Me. Go.” I glared up at him, but he didn’t release my arms. He didn’t even speak. Why wasn’t he talking? Why wasn’t he moving?

  My emotions merged and poured forth. I was suddenly infuriated at anyone and everyone I could think of, but URIEL was closest, so I let it out on him. “Why are you just standing here? Why don’t you go off and help them? If you really are this great and powerful being, then why aren’t you out there fighting Amir and the others? You can destroy your brother when Uriel’s a baby but now when he’s older, you’re just going to let him take on Amir without your help? What kind of uncle does that? What’s wrong with you?”

  URIEL remained impassive as he said, “My kind cannot interfere with these things. It is dangerous.”

  “Well screw your stupid non-interfering rules! This is your family and you’re not helping them fight that creep from your Other World. They could get hurt! Why don’t you care?”

  “This is the guild’s purpose, Keira,” the archangel told me calmly while I went on expelling all the bodily fluid in me through my tear ducts. How do I have this much liquid in me? Did I take in some of the pool water yesterday or something? URIEL continued in the same, even tone, “You have to be patient, Beloved. In a few hours, everything will be over, as Uriel promised you.”

  “You can honestly swear to me that there is no chance that any of them will get hurt? Including Elly?”

  He never looked away from my eyes, which were hurling daggers at him, but did take an unbearably long time to answer me. When he did, it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “I cannot swear to that.”

  I gaped at him. “You have to do something! Or at the very least, let me go! If you’re not willing to help them, that’s on your soul, but I have to try whatever I can! Let go!”

  He only held my arms tighter and my best attempts to escape were useless.

  In the end, I started flat-out bawling when I couldn’t turn my sobs into yells any longer. I was past feeling awkward for crying in front of someone; I was too tired and disconcerted to worry about any of my classmates having heard my rant or finding me pulled against a fiery-haired giant’s chest in the middle of the hallway.

  UREIL did not speak another word to me while he let my eyes run dry. Instead, he held the back of my head into his massive midsection as his other hand turned tiny circles across my shoulder blades. The action was unexpected but kindly comforting. It seemed to help my calming come about more quickly for after a few minutes, I stopped crying. And once the tears were departed, my words came back to the forefront of my mind. How could I have said those things?

  I sniffed unattractively before craning my neck to look into the archangel’s face. “I am so sorry about the things I said to you.” My voice sounded as disbelieving as I felt about my ability to blame the innocent being who had been nothing but benevolent to me.

  He returned his hands to their previous position on my arms, this time in an endearing gesture. “They are already forgotten,” URIEL rumbled gently. “Are you better now, Beloved?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered slowly and honestly.

  “I believe it would do you well to return to your class as soon as you are able, perhaps find some form of distraction in whatever the teacher is discussing today in order to pass the time more swiftly.”

  “Sure,” I agreed weakly.

  URIEL’s stone face took on an expression of concern as his eyes remained carefully unemotional. He squeezed my arms once and then lightly pushed me toward the class I was tardy for.

  I didn’t bother asking how he knew which one I was meant to be in; he had that impressive sense of power that made me think he simply knew things. His sense was a hundred times what Azra’s intuition felt like. I also didn’t bother looking back to see if he was still watching me as I opened the door for my School Publications class.

  The teacher took one look at my haggard and reddened face and let me off with nothing more than a stern glance. The other students stared for longer but presently turned back to their computers and continued to work on their assigned school newspaper articles, leaving me to sit at a desk with my head down as I rested my heavy head.

  I tried not to think about anything as the seconds ticked by, but failed more times than succeeded. When the bell rang for second period, I rose from my seat and acted out a zombie part in one of Dagan’s games while I retrieved my backpack from the hallway where I had dropped it at the sight of Uriel.

  Ooh, just the thought of that name made a zombie state difficult to maintain. My emotions were threatening to surface and I was afraid that if that happened, I’d have a repeated occurrence of the giant angel holding me while I broke down in a public place. And I did not want that to happen again. So I walked to my study hall.

  Ten minutes in, I recalled URIEL’s advice to focus on the teacher’s topic and frowned at the fact that my first two classes that day did not include any lecturing subjects. I’d have to suffer until Pre-Calculus. I never thought that would be my wording; usually it’s something more along the lines of: I’d have to suffer through math class. But that just tells how bad the situation really was.

  Thirty minutes into study hall, I started tapping my foot on the desk in front of me. My teacher told me to be quiet and stop irritating everyone, but I couldn’t control my impatience. Five minutes later, I asked to be excused and was unquestionably granted my request.

  There was no sign of URIEL as I walked to the front desk, signed out, ignored the return time space, and drove away from High Point Academy at an easily illegal speed.

  It still wasn’t fast enough. My patience had run out and my stomach was aching from hunger, so I detoured to my house to grab the first edible substance I could find and switch out my cars.

  Then it was a speed race to Glade Valley that I was determined to win.

  Mêlée

  Chapter 24

  Uriel

  Four months’ worth of observation, preparation, and waiting was about to pay off. The drive up to the valley had been tense with doubtful thoughts about Keira’s and Zev’s friend’s true participation, but once we arrived at what Zev directed was the correct clearing, everyone instantly switched into our practiced battle manner. Zev and the rest of us stepped out of the car with an almost tangible somberness. We silently spread out to explore and learn our battle field.

  The valley was pleasant. Mountains were on the horizon, bordering the open acres were trees that were somehow still holding on to a few of their multi-hued leaves, the grass was mostly green with a few brown patches here and there, and the sky overhead was nicely blue, broken by only a handful of wispy clouds. The sun was shining down on us from an angle that told me the time was about mid-morning without my having to check the clock on the Escalade’s dashboard.

  After an hour of close examination, everyone met back at the car. From there the guild walked, led by Azra, into the trees and on for several minutes before coming to a halt and forming a standing circle. This had been our pre-battle way since the beginning of our combative missions. The five of us always arrived early to discuss what was to be done and how, and then we waited for the enemy to come to us. With missions that were based on a single member of Chaos, we had to seek him or her out. This was much easier.

  “When?” Azra broke the silence.

  “Within minutes,” Zev answered.

  Azra nodded and we waited.

  “Now.” Zev looked to the patch of sky that was visible through the treetops and held his arm out when the same eagle from Sunday night flew into view. She landed smoothly on my brother’s forearm and they shared their mystical communication.

  “Thank you,” he told her. “You are free from your service and are appreciated.”

  The e
agle screeched in response and flew back up to the sky in all of her aerial majesty.

  “They’ll be in the valley within fifteen minutes, same as usual,” Zev reported.

  “Let’s go over the strategy,” Azra began. “There are four Watchers and five of us. Two-”

  “I want Ira,” I interrupted.

  My family’s eyes shifted to me, caught off guard by the venom in my voice.

  “He’s mine, but I’ll finish with him quickly.”

  “Emotions hold no place in a battle, Uriel. That’s how mistakes are made,” Azra warned me.

  “I can govern my emotions,” I said, my tone carefully devoid of its prior bane. “Ira is mine.”

  After a moment, my brother nodded. “That leaves Amir, Arien, and Elly. We don’t know much about the young Nephilim, but we understand that her power is to imprint her feelings and emotions onto others. Zev sensed that she has great power, so we will make certain not to underestimate her. Know which feelings are your own and master any others. Whoever comes against her-”

  “I want Elly,” Zev cut in.

  Azra drew a controlled, measured breath. “Are you prepared to eliminate her if you find that she-”

  “Yes,” Zev insisted.

  “Very well then. Dagan, you have Arien. Do you know what you are to do?”

  Dagan was as staid about the day as Azra was; he may be a goofball, but Dagan always takes battles seriously. He answered, “I’ll make sure the slippery snake doesn’t get the chance to run.”

  Arien had been Amir’s flunky in three of our battles within the last couple of centuries, and every time, evil was defeated but Arien somehow managed to slither away when our attention was focused elsewhere. It was a tendency that bothered Azra to no end. There was only one tendency that irritated and confounded Azra even more than the snake’s- Amir’s inexplicable way of always living.

  We had never found a way to kill this Original Watcher and keep him killed. Five times we’d stopped his heart, and five times, he’d popped back up years later. The first time, Odeda had hurled a large plank of wood right into his chest. It hadn’t even made it all the way out his other side. The only reason she’d been able to penetrate the Old One was because of her power which made her very nearly as strong as he was, but still, it wasn’t enough to exit Amir. The plank was wedged in his limp, supposedly lifeless body. We left him where he lay for the animals to find.

  The second time was Zev’s turn. Everyone was disbelieving that it could be the same Watcher, but there can only be one Otherworlder with the same scar, voice, and knowledge of our guild. Zev had some monstrous grizzly bears help him claw Amir to death, and afterward, Odeda beheaded him, just as a precaution.

  It apparently didn’t take the proper effect because we had to destroy the resilient Old One three other times. The last of which, Azra said we weren’t taking any chances. We stopped Amir’s heart, burned him, collected the ashy remains, put him into three specially made capsules, and buried them in three different corners of the world.

  Each time he came back, he seemed to return stronger and more difficult to kill. Original Watchers are meant to become weaker the longer they are separated from their homeland, but Amir looked as if he was the exception. We asked URIEL for assistance once, but he said he couldn’t. After the Hierarchy had thought Earth was free of Original Watchers, it made a binding vow to never intervene again. Only a handful of the banished Old Ones had slipped through the Hierarchy’s notice and survived. My uncle believes there is still a way for us to destroy Amir, but speculates that there’s something in his specific power making him impervious to remaining dead after our killings. But we knew it was possible to destroy Original Watchers because we’d done it successfully twice before we’d gone against Amir for the first time all those centuries ago.

  “Odeda and I will keep Amir occupied while you deal with Ira,” Azra spoke to me. “Once you’re finished, we’ll distract him long enough to hopefully make it easy for you to plunge the blessed knife into his heart- or where his heart should be, since we don’t know how he can possibly still have one.”

  Azra, in his ever-prudent way, had prepared for the possibility of Amir coming back from the dead for a fifth time by seeking out a Nephilim of the Light with a talent for endowing objects with power. He wanted me to be the one to deliver the killing blow because of my… prevailing lineage- and because I could summon the knife right before Amir’s hopeful demise so there was no way for him to take it from any of us.

  The guild’s leader instructed, “Dagan, when you are done, assist Zev with Elly, and we should be concluded here rather quickly.”

  “Right.”

  “Stay focused, unattached, and calm at all times. Personal feelings have no place in a battle field.” Azra spoke to everyone but only fixated on Zev and me. “Are we ready?”

  The four of us nodded once each.

  “Keep your heads at all times.”

  If it had been any other day, I would have pointed out that keeping our heads and not losing them- literally- is something that even a rookie would know. But it wasn’t a day for light-heartedness so I kept my wisecrack to myself.

  We made our way back out of the trees and into the opening of the valley we had entered by. From left to right, Azra, Odeda, Zev, me, and Dagan stood in a line on one side of the clearing and waited for the arrival of our opposition. I concentrated on my part of the mission and on not allowing a satisfied smirk to appear on my face as I thought of how much I would enjoy disposing of Ira. As a half of my father, I have an penchant for battling, but this time, it was more than my hereditary war-mongering; seeing Ira bleeding would give me pleasure, and I wasn’t certain if that was a healthy desire or not.

  It didn’t take long for Amir to appear. He walked out of the surrounding trees, spotted us, and continued calmly toward us from the other side of the valley. Close behind the scared Old One was the newest addition to his following, Elly- who had mutated from what I’d seen her as just weeks before. The sixteen-year-old girl who had been Keira’s and my brother’s friend was now noticeably stronger and wore an expression of such hatred that I wouldn’t have recognized her if I hadn’t know who she was. Beside the new Nephilim, Ira sauntered. They were lined up perfectly to our planned pairings. Arien was not with them, but we hadn’t expected him to freely join the battle at its beginning. He had always preferred staying back until he thought we were distracted before he came out of hiding and attempted to curse us. That was his gift: evil enchantments. Arien was skilled in the art of jinxing. He’d once made Zev land on his foot awkwardly during a battle and the dislocation was so severe that it had taken two weeks for my brother to heal.

  Amir and the others stopped thirty yards from where we stood.

  “What took you so long?” the blond Original Watcher asked in that infuriatingly unaffected, casual way of his. “I’ve been ready for you for days.”

  “Sorry we kept you waiting; the guild had a visitor who occupied our attention a few days back,” Azra replied as coolly as the other.

  “Anyone I know?” Amir inquired indifferently.

  I spoke then. “My uncle says hi.”

  Amir’s impassive expression vanished and for a moment, I saw the fear he still felt toward UREIL. The flash of emotion was repressed and his face returned to careful nonchalance. “Don’t bother thinking to return the greeting; you’ll all be dead in a matter of minutes.”

  “What could possibly make you think that, Amir?” My sister shared her husband’s irritation at the Watcher’s recurrences. “You haven’t been able to kill us in the millennia we’ve been after you, and we’ve destroyed you five times already.”

  “Have you? Do you really believe I have resurrected so often?”

  Amir was toying with our minds. We knew he had been destroyed, just not exactly why or how his gift had granted him the ability to come back from the dead so many times over. His attempt to make any one of us doubt ourselves wasn’t working.

  �
��It doesn’t matter how many times we have to kill you,” Azra said. “We’ll keep doing it. Eventually, some form of death has to stick.”

  “Keep telling yourselves that, half-breeds,” Amir sneered.

  Elly, who had done nothing but scowl at us from the first sight, flicked a surprised look toward her leader. I assumed she wasn’t used to hearing her teacher use his favorite term for Nephilim. But the girl quickly decided against questioning him and turned her gaze back to us, retaining the same malicious glint in her brown eyes.

  “Dagan, would you mind bringing Arien to the field so we can get this over with?” Azra asked politely.

  “Not at all. It’d be my pleasure,” Dagan returned with a smile.

  A second later, there was a tremor in the earth beneath our feet that I knew intensified as it traveled out from where we stood. An angry hiss sounded clearly from the trees to the right of where Amir had entered the valley. Dagan focused his attention and power to the area around the hiss, and seconds later, Arien stumbled onto the field looking disgruntled and irritated. He made his way helplessly to stand in front of Dagan- it was either that or continue being shaken out of his wits.

  Once he was satisfied with Arien’s position, Dagan allowed the ground to return to its natural, stagnant state. “Good of you to join us,” the smallest of our guild taunted Arien.

  “Amir, let’s get this over with,” Elly spoke for the first time.

  “Gladly, my dear,” Amir said as he took a step forward.

  Then the battle began.

  Arien shot an enchanted bolt at Dagan who elevated a block-shaped piece of ground in front of him as a shield while at the same time raised a twenty foot earth-wall between Ira and Arien. He would continue doing so until Arien was completely surrounded by rock and had no way of escape. It was our solution to the problem of the Watcher’s slipperiness that Azra had envisioned the night before.

  “Angel of Light, do I have the privilege?” Ira asked me when he was cut off from his ally.

  “No,” I answered, “the privilege will be entirely mine.”