Chapter Nineteen
No matter how hard I willed them to, the hands on the clock wouldn’t move any faster, and so I was stuck in history class, dying of boredom. Ms. Carlson was discussing the progression of war, which led into the topic of when World War Three may or may not occur, which led into the predictions of Nostradamus. Could he have predicted the fate of humanity? Did he have any inkling back in the seventeenth century that something dark was lurking on the horizon, something no one would believe was coming? I stared at the clock and gave up wishing.
It was at that precise moment that I felt the draft.
I turned my head to my left, my hot breath billowing out in front of me, as if the room had suddenly dropped twenty degrees. The boy at the neighboring desk, Seth Robards, stared at me with a blank look on his face, his brown eyes glassy and vacant. His mouth was hanging open slightly, but there was no breath. Each puff of air I released only exaggerated the absence of his. I forced myself to look away.
The classroom filled with a sudden, numbing silence. The shuffling of papers, book pages turning, all came to screeching halt. Although everyone was still moving, their breath streaming out of their mouths, no one else noticed the chill. Ms. Carlson kept on talking but I couldn’t hear the words coming out of her mouth. All I could do was focus on her breath filling the air in front of her face. It was as if the room had become a vacuum. My intuition sparked to life and zeroed in on the only audible sound. It echoed in each corner and swiftly the room became hauntingly claustrophobic.
Everyone was oblivious to the horror only I seemed to know was coming. I felt the blood drain from my face as the noise grew louder. I looked from face to face. Nothing. No one seemed to hear it but me.
There was a rustling of feathers, growing to a deafening roar for my ears alone. The room grew dark, as though a large slow-moving cloud was passing overhead, but no one noticed that either. I couldn’t explain what I was feeling. Fear definitely stirred inside me, and strangely, a small feeling of relief. Relief that if it was going to happen, then let it come.
Bring it on, Hadrian. Let’s get this over with!
I clenched my jawtightly as I began to absorb the tension building in the room. The cloud moved downward, positioning itself directly in front of my desk, looming larger, touching the ceiling.
It began to take shape. I could see its outline, rough leathery tips that were tattered and frayed, darker than any shade of black I was ever taught in art class. My mouth went dry. I couldn’t swallow. My head tilted upward, straining to see the formidable shape before me. The shadow made a graceful sweeping motion and landed squarely on my desk. I couldn’t suppress the bloodcurdling scream that ripped loose from my throat.
“Teagan?” Ms. Carlson’s voice broke the silence.
Her voice was different, softer, perhaps even a little scared, and something told me she was no longer lecturing on the aspects of war. It was safe to assume Nostradamus had exited the building quite some time ago.
I sat up, startled, focusing on each confused face staring at me.
Great, I am a freak.
The room felt overwhelmingly warm just then and I looked down at my desk and quickly wiped away a glistening smear of saliva with my sleeve.
“May I go to the nurse?”
“Of course you can. Let me get you a pass.” She was trying to remain calm and in charge of things but the edginess to her voice was giving her away.
As far as I knew, I had fallen asleep in class, but by the looks on the faces around me, a little more must have happened. I stole a glance at Seth who still appeared dazed.
I gathered my things, avoiding the snickers growing around me that were abruptly halted by the exaggerated clearing of Ms. Carlson’s throat. Garreth was right, I had to get out of here. My legs trudged heavily up the aisle, as if sliding through pudding, but thankfully, they led me to the large wooden desk at the front of the room. I took the piece of paper, flashed an apologetic smile, then stepped out into the hallway.
Garreth was already there, waiting for me, his blue eyes distraught and clouded with unspeakable fear. “We have to go NOW.”
He handed me a yellow office slip marked “excused.” I had never seen him panic-stricken and immediately I was terrified. Had I done something to bring this on? I clearly remembered stating some sort of challenge in my dream, now that I knew it was a dream. Wasn’t it?
“How did you know I would be coming out of class?”
“There’s no time, we have to go.”
“But I had this dream, and…”
Garreth took a second to slow us down, placing his steady hands on my trembling shoulders.
“I’ll tell you when we get to the car. Trust me, it’ll be okay.” He protectively wrapped his arm around me, hurrying us to the main office. “Let me do the talking.” He opened the heavy door, and I reluctantly followed.
I stood by his side, as quiet as I could will myself to be, while he impatiently tapped his finger on the long wooden counter until an irritated secretary came over. She took the two passes Garreth handed her and looked at us both, long and suspiciously, then signed them and handed them back. I didn’t make eye contact with her, hoping she would take it as intense sorrow and take pity on me, therefore giving our early dismissal a sense of legitimacy.
We walked to the student parking lot as quickly as school rules would allow. Once inside the Jeep, I sat silently, praying the next words Garreth spoke would resemble something that made sense, but he was more silent than I. His hands gripped the wheel hard as he steered the car out of the school lot and onto the main road.
“Will you please tell me what that was all about?” I asked finally.
His eyes focused on the road, as though on a serious mission to get us far, far away from something. It was only when we were close to a line of trees I recognized that he took a deep breath and seemed more like the Garreth I knew.
“I knew Hadrian would be getting close, very soon too, but I wasn’t expecting this.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The closer he gets, the more he drains me and I have no way of sensing him anymore. But you can. Your dream wasn’t a dream. He was in that classroom with you.”
Okay, that didn’t just frighten me a little, it frightened me a lot.
“But, if you can’t tell where Hadrian is, then how come you were waiting outside my class, like you knew?”
“Aside from the fact that your scream wasn’t exactly silent, I can still feel when you need me near. I have no doubt you rattled the entire school back there.”
Great, another reason to transfer to another school.
We made the sharp turn that led us onto the narrow lane within the trees. I found myself eager to see the tiny stone chapel again, to escape all that was rapidly plummeting down on us, even if only for a little while.
Just like the first time I laid eyes on it, it sucked the breath right out of me with its simple beauty: the old stone, the wooden door, and the broken stained glass windows shrouded in roots and underbrush, as though forgotten by time. Something was different and I didn’t immediately know what, but I felt it, like something was waiting. I shook the feeling. After what had just happened in history class, no wonder I was on edge.
He took my hand and together we slowly approached the little stone chapel, looking around us every so often, as if trying to spy something among the trees. It looked the same, nothing appeared damaged, but why did it feel so…wrong? Then intuition took over and told me we shouldn’t go inside. I didn’t know if Garreth felt the warning. I wasn’t sure what angelic sense he had left and I was more than confused that I seemed to be the one feeling this extrasensory-perception thing instead of him. Like he said, he was my protector, not the other way around.
Instead, we sat on the fallen tree like last time. He took my hand, the burning one, and looked at it carefully, as though he were a doctor inspecting a freak of nature—which would be me.
“It’s form
ing correctly.”
I stared at him as he looked at my hand.
“What?”
“As your Guardian, I was given orders not only to protect you but to also be your witness.”
“Um, in English, please?”
“The Judgment Point of your existence has begun, the revealing of your purpose.”
“But...didn’t you already do that? I’m supposed to defeat Hadrian.”
He cupped his hands around my face and held them there, warming my skin with what little white light he had left. It was still in him. I felt it pulsing through his veins, felt it tapping against my skin. He closed his eyes and I watched him calm me, forcing his pulse to beat with mine. I had the urge to lean forward and press my lips to his and seal them there forever. But there was so much at stake. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take. Hadrian...angels... Couldn’t he and I just run away and be together?
Garreth opened his eyes and touched his lips gently to my hand, as if obliging the one wish he could give my heart. As soon as his lips met my skin, I felt so much more inside me that connected to him. It wasn’t just the life-light, or the calming of my emotions, it was beyond that. I could clearly feel that he and I would get through this unscathed.
We pulled apart and then, without explanation, he pressed his palm to mine. I felt searing heat from the octagram slice into my hand, burning it, and I wondered if he was healing the poison welting up my flesh. When the heat subsided and I was given back my hand, I gasped, staring at it in wonder and surprise.
“My hand. It’s…”
“It’s called the circle of unity. It represents the unbroken cycle of life, death, and rebirth.”
I held my right hand open in front of my face, so I could look at it more closely. It was absolutely beautiful and it was mine. I wanted to trace the simple scrolling with my finger but I was scared to. Would it hurt? Would it disappear? The fragile curve began its scrolling descent down across my palm in an elongated “S,” then repeated the shape behind itself. It was incredibly feminine and I was amazed how it suited me. It filled me with a strange sense of power and tingled against my skin as if resonating with magic.
So now I was no longer the damsel in distress but an equal to both Garreth and Hadrian. I belonged, inducted into a divine society...and this was too much. I suddenly felt overwhelmed, as if I had been given an expensive gift. Do I give it back and tell them I can’t accept? What if I can’t do what’s expected of me? But it made the task ahead of me all the more meaningful. Somehow, I would have to find the strength to believe I could do this.
I began to shake, the power inside suddenly retreating, leaving in its wake the timid seventeen-year-old Teagan I’ve always known.
Chapter Twentry
“Teagan,” he whispered, trying to capture my attention.
I had been staring at the beautiful mark on my hand for about ten minutes. A bizarre feeling swept over me but it wasn’t just because of my hand; it was all of me, my whole body, my insides.
“I don’t know if I can do this. I…”
“You’re scared.”
I nodded. His gentle words soothed the pain from my hand and the tremors of confusion from my body. And when I looked up into his pure eyes, I had no doubt that I could trust the unknown. He was guiding me. Protecting me.
We had three more days. Three more days to spend together and stop Hadrian and his plan.
Impossible. But was it?
Silently, I accepted my gift.
The sky had grayed quickly, covering the treetops with heavy, threatening clouds that forced me to shudder involuntarily. There was something more than the sudden change in weather that caused my arms to tingle and prickle, but I couldn’t figure it out. I looked at Garreth leaning against the imperfect bark and gnarls of the old tree.
“Come on, let’s go,” Garreth said, sensing my discomfort and looking upward. “I have a feeling the school might call to check on you.”
I rolled my eyes. School was the least of my worries these days.
The first plump drops of rain were just beginning to fall as we reached the Jeep. Garreth quickly started the car and turned the dial for the heater.
“You’re shivering.” He pulled me close and enveloped me with his warmth.
“Didn’t you feel strange back there?”
In the dim light, Garreth shook his head slowly from side to side. “What did you feel?”
His handsome face suddenly took on a boyish expression of uncertainty. He looked so innocent. No, he looked...human.
“I don’t know exactly, but something wasn’t right.”
With the heater cranked, I felt myself begin to thaw just a little but I couldn’t stop trembling.
“What?” Garreth asked of me. He had been studying me intently while I was off somewhere in my brain trying to figure all this out.
I let out a sigh. “I really don’t know. Obviously, Hadrian is playing hardball here. I mean, this army of his. There are so many already.” I shook my head as if disbelieving my very own words. “I see them everywhere now, the people who are losing their Guardians. There was a boy in my history class, and just like that, his Guardian was corrupted. It’s happening so quickly, Garreth.”
I let my head fall back against the headrest and I pressed my hands to my eyes. Everything inside me hurt. I realized I hadn’t let myself properly grieve for Claire, and that all this happening in my life was like a fast-forwarded episode of The Twilight Zone, starring yours truly.
Hadrian’s war was psychological, his victims affected mentally. Deep inside, I felt like I was going crazy. Maybe I had Hadrian to thank for that? Maybe I wasn’t too far off if I believed that he would soon drive everyone absolutely mad in order to reign. I had been chosen for a reason but, right now, that reason made absolutely no sense to me. I looked at my hand for reassurance. Everything happens for a reason. Nothing is coincidental.
Gently, Garreth took my hand and placed in it another gift. Only this one was hard and cold and very, very deadly.
The sheer weight of it held me and I couldn’t move, let alone take my eyes off the incredibly scary looking knife Garreth had just placed in my hand. I looked at him and he read the confusion in my eyes.
“It’s a dagger, by the way, not a knife.” He smiled in an attempt to pull me out of my deer-in-the-headlights trance.
“Oh, no. Don’t tell me this is how I’m supposed to destroy him?”
“It might resort to this, yes. I need to know that you’ll be prepared when the time comes. And it is coming. Soon.”
His eyes still held that gentle quality but his words and tone were absolutely serious. I looked down at the knife—excuse me, dagger—and turned it over carefully to admire the beauty of its design.
The gold handle was etched with endless scrolling, very similar in design to the symbol now embedded in my right hand. In fact, I curiously compared them and they matched. Perfectly. When I held the dagger in my right hand, warmth tingled against my skin as though it were teeming with life. The beautiful handle told the well-known tale of the Archangels and the struggle they endured in heaven, the story continuing down onto the shining steel blade. It was obviously very old, priceless in its craftsmanship.
“It just shocks me a little that an angel would be in possession of such a...weapon.”
“Under normal circumstances, we don’t take part in violence. Of any sort. You’re well aware this is not a normal situation. Besides, I’m not holding the weapon.”
I looked at my second gift of the day and sighed. “It looks old.”
“That it is.”
“Is it...yours?”
“It wasn’t made for me.”
Garreth’s voice was clear and strong, but it wasn’t his words that spoke so clearly to me; it was the fact that the time had come. The deadly instrument that would destroy a dark angel had just been delivered to me, and at that very moment I realized how very precious the circle of time and life is.
Chapter Twenty-one
My mother never questioned why I had come home early. She simply looked at me now and then with a soft worry in her eyes as we cleared the kitchen table of our silent dinner. Garreth had been right, of course. The assistant principal had called exactly ten minutes after I walked in the door, to make sure I had gotten home safely. Surprisingly, she informed me I was excused from all classes tomorrow to attend Claire’s funeral, which I had decided not to attend precisely five minutes before she called. But I kept that to myself.
I knew it was wrong. I knew full well that my mother, along with every grown-up in my school, would stress to me that it would give me the closure I needed. They were probably right, and deep in my heart I agreed with them. My mother would leave for work right after the funeral, so at least one of us was going to represent our little unit, leaving me several hours to get my bearings and search for a dark angel. If that was even possible. I didn’t know where to begin.
Tracking down Hadrian and following the path I had been led to had become personal—for Claire and for the preservation of my own sanity. There was no telling how much time was left. No telling who would fall next as Hadrian’s victim. No telling how long I had before he came for me.
Coming home to an empty house had been a blessing, allowing me to safely hide the ornate dagger under my bed. I wrapped it in a thick towel and covered it with magazines. It terrified me to think that thing was under my bed. I felt as if I had stolen a priceless piece of art from a museum. Every time I thought of its gleaming gold handle and silver blade nestled safely in the towel, I felt lightheaded and sweaty, which added another crease to my mother’s forehead by evening.
“Honey, are you feeling all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom,” I answered hastily, my mind occupied with thoughts I couldn’t share.
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