The Angel Trials- The Complete Series

by Michelle Madow

  “I’m the only one left,” he said. “That’s why Azazel keeps me here. I’m a reminder about what he and the Foster witches can achieve while they’re working together. I’m not on his side. But I’m pretending to be.”

  “You want to gain his trust,” I realized.

  “Exactly,” he said, and just like that, a connection forged between us. “Complacent potion is difficult to make, which makes it rare. Azazel doesn’t want to give it to us—he has to. So I want him to think I’m on his side, so he stops giving it to me. Once that happens, I’ll escape.”

  “Azazel would never fall for that,” I said. “Not after what he did to you and your coven.”

  “He’s so egotistical that he might,” Derrick said. “I’ve spent enough time with him by now that I’m starting to understand the way he thinks. He values self-preservation above all else. That’s why he wanted to work with the alpha of the Montgomery pack—Flint. Azazel saw some of himself in Flint. But I’m getting off track, and we don’t have much more time. There’s always a way out of every situation, so my plan’s at least worth a try. And I want you as an ally. Your gift is impressive. We can do great things if we work together.”

  We were huddled so closely together under our umbrellas that anyone looking at us would probably assume we were lovers having an intimate conversation. Not that anyone was looking on. Derrick had made sure of that.

  “Azazel has commanded that I only do tarot readings for him,” I said. “So as long as I’m under complacent potion, I’m bound to comply to his order. And while maybe he’ll eventually believe you’re on his side, he’d never believe that about me. Trust me.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not. Either way, you’re not confined to your room anymore. It might be worth it to venture out tomorrow and try making connections with the others at the compound. Not that there’s much left of them to connect with anymore…”

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

  “If you want to find out, you should see for yourself tomorrow,” he said with a knowing glint in his eyes. “But we’ve been standing here for long enough, and I don’t want to test our luck. Allow me to escort you back to your room?”

  He held out his elbow like a gentleman from one of those historical movies.

  Since he was an immortal vampire, maybe he had been one of those gentlemen at one point in his life. There was a lot I wanted to learn about him. But later—when we weren’t trapped in the scorching sunlight. Because even through the umbrella, the sun burned.

  And now that I was trapped in the Montgomery compound with nothing to do except a tarot reading for Azazel every few days, I had tons of free time.

  “Thank you.” I linked my arm into his, a newfound sense of power filling my veins at the thought of having some sort of plan. Sure, the plan wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. “And Derrick?,” I said, prompting him to look over at me in curiosity. “I’m glad we had this chat.”

  “So you’ll consider my offer?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said with a small smile. “I most certainly will.”

  26

  Raven

  The doors to my room slammed open, startling me out of a deep sleep.

  I groaned and turned over to see who was there.

  Darra stood at the foot of my bed, staring me down. She wore the black Avalon Academy training outfit, her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, and she had a sword strapped to her belt.

  She totally could have killed me in my sleep.

  It was a good thing we were fighting on the same side.

  I glanced at the window—I’d purposefully left the curtains open so the natural sunlight would wake me up. We weren’t supposed to start training until sunrise. But it was still dark out. So why was Darra here?

  My thoughts instantly went to the worst possible scenario.

  “What happened?” I sat up quickly, fear rushing through my veins. “Is Noah okay?”

  “Your future mate is fine,” Darra said, her voice steady and calming. “But the sun is about to rise, and you’re starting training at sunrise—not after it. So get out of bed, get dressed, and meet me in the dining hall.”

  She turned on her heel and left, not giving me time to ask any questions.

  After freshening up in the bathroom—which I didn’t have to share with anyone, since the bathrooms were also separated by species and gender—I got dressed as quickly as possible. The black training outfit was a one-piece pull up thing made of a comfortable, breathable, stretchy material. I felt like I was putting on a costume for a superhero movie. And the matching black sneakers were bouncy and comfortable. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail, since obviously I’d need one today, and was ready.

  Darra was the only other one in the dining hall when I arrived. She was sitting at the long table by herself with a plate of mana and glass of Holy Water. There was a matching place setting across from her. “Eat.” She motioned to the food across from her. “You’ll need the energy.”

  That was foreboding. So much for hoping I might be eased into my training.

  I sat down and started to eat. The mana tasted like chocolate chip pancakes. Delicious.

  “Where’s everyone else?” I asked, looking around the otherwise empty room.

  “They won’t wake up until a bit later,” she said. “You need an earlier start, since you have a lot to cover.”

  I sighed and finished up my breakfast. I was not a morning person. Luckily, the Holy Water was making me feel more awake and alert, like a strong cup of coffee.

  Once I finished, Darra led me out to the back of the manor house. The first rays of sunlight were beginning to peek their way over the tallest hill in the background. Straight in front of us was a track and another large building—the gym. Violet had pointed the gym out to Jessica and me during our tour yesterday, but hadn’t shown us the inside.

  Looked like I was going to be seeing it now.

  “Get on the track and run,” she said, motioning to the oval track in front of us.

  I groaned inwardly. I hated running. “For how long?” I asked.

  “Until you can’t run any further.”

  She sat down on the bleachers and made herself comfortable. Right next to the bleachers was an old, stone well. Hopefully it functioned. Because I was definitely going to need water after this.

  With Darra’s eyes on me, I grudgingly stepped onto the track and started to run. At first it felt good, with my hair flying behind me and my sneakers padding along the track. It was like the mana and Holy Water had given me bonus energy. Call me crazy, but I could almost say I was enjoying running.

  That didn’t last for long.

  First, my legs started to feel like lead weights. Then my chest hurt each time I took a breath. I felt like an out of water fish gasping for air, but each breath sent slicing pain into my lungs. Sweat dripped down from my hairline, and I wiped it away from my eyes so I could see. This was awful. I tried pushing through despite the pain, but then the stomach cramp hit. Sharp and jolting, it made me grab my side and forced me to stop running.

  I would have collapsed on the spot if my body wasn’t screaming at me to give it water. So I hobbled over to the well, where Darra had thankfully already reeled up a bucket of water.

  I reached for the ladle inside and downed it, dipping it back in and drinking until I couldn’t drink any more. Judging from the kick of energy it gave me, this was Holy Water, just like all the other fresh water I’d had so far on Avalon.

  “How did I do?” I asked Darra once I’d caught my breath enough to speak.

  “Terribly.” Her eyes were hard, and I could have sworn I saw a trace of worry in them. “You didn’t even complete a mile.”

  “Was I at least close?”

  “You were close to completing a mile.” She nodded, as if giving me credit where it was due. “But one of your trials is to run a marathon.”

  “Oh.” My heart sunk into my stomach. “How many miles are in a mara
thon?”

  “Twenty-six point two.”

  “Crap.” I stared at the track in defeat. Running for that long sounded impossible.

  Completing a marathon had never been on my bucket list, and there was a good reason why. Gym had always been my least favorite class in middle school. Especially when we were forced to run around the field to warm up.

  But I didn’t come to Avalon to give up on the first morning of training. And regular humans on Earth ran marathons all the time. Athletic, strong, sporty humans, but humans nonetheless.

  If they could train to run a marathon, then so could I. Especially since I was a gifted human fueled by mana and Holy Water.

  “So… how do I train to run a marathon?” I asked, trying to force excitement into my tone that I definitely didn’t feel.

  From the sharp look Darra gave me, she didn’t buy it. But she continued anyway. “From your starting place—which is basically the very beginning—training to run a marathon will take anywhere from twelve to twenty weeks,” she said.

  “Oh.” I smiled. “That’s not as bad as I expected.”

  “What did you expect?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “A year?”

  “God help us if it takes a year,” she said, and I felt the full pressure of her words on my chest. Because we really would need some kind of Heavenly intervention if no humans were able to pass the Angel Trials.

  The reminder of why it was so important that I do this gave me a wave of energy. Well, that plus the Holy Water I was still sipping on from the ladle.

  “You’ll be running three to five times a week,” she said. “You’ll start from your base point, which we just found out was one mile. You’ll gradually increase the amount you’re running each time, until you’re able to do the full marathon.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, since that didn’t sound too bad. “I can do that. And I’ll be running five times a week. Not three.”

  “That’s what I like to hear.” Darra looked pleased for the first time since she’d sent me out onto the track. “Now, follow me to the gym,” she said. “It’s time for interval training.”

  27

  Raven

  I. Hated. Interval training.

  It was similar to the type of training I had to do in the bunker, which meant it was torture. Each session was only twenty-eight minutes long, which didn’t sound bad when Darra first told me. It was broken up into sections of seven minutes of going all out, with one minute to rest in between. It was ridiculously hard, and I was a sweaty, disgusting mess once I finished.

  If you could even call what I did “finishing.” Darra had told me that the gym was there specifically for humans doing training, so luckily there was no one else in there but the two of us. Because I struggled hard.

  The worst were the burpees—a full body exercise that Darra promised would help me gain strength and endurance. She’d asked me to do ten of them.

  I could barely manage three in a row before needing a break. But somehow, I huffed and puffed my way through all ten burpees, with lots of breaks in between. It wasn’t pretty. Especially when they popped up in the workout again. They were harder the second time.

  Then there were the push-ups. Just like in the bunker, I still couldn’t do a push-up. Darra had me do them on my knees to build up my arm strength so I’d eventually be able to do them for real. But I even struggled with those, needing breaks in between.

  The easiest were the squats. At least I could get through those without feeling like I was going to keel over and die.

  Until Darra told me to do jump squats. Ugh. They were awful.

  The entire session was awful. Even though the intervals were only seven minutes, each one felt like an eternity. An eternity of me huffing, puffing, sweating, feeling like my muscles were jelly, and barely being able to breathe. At least I had the minute between each interval to somewhat catch my breath and drink some Holy Water. I couldn’t have gotten through the exercises without it.

  I didn’t even want to think about how sore I’d be tomorrow.

  Finally, Darra led me through the cool down, and I collapsed onto the mat in a heap. “That was terrible.” I sneaked a peek at her, embarrassed by my performance.

  From her crossed arms and closed, pursed lips, she clearly agreed with me.

  “You’ll improve,” she said. “Interval training is a fantastic way to build both muscle and endurance. Many of the humans who trained here started off worse than you did. But they all improved quickly—especially with the mana and Holy Water fueling their bodies. I expect that given your gift, you’ll improve faster than they did.”

  “And how often do I have to do this type of training?” I took a deep breath, expecting bad news. Like, seven days a week or something insane.

  “Four times a week,” she said. “Three of those are for interval training, and one is a general challenge day based on your progress.”

  I groaned inwardly. It wasn’t as bad as seven days a week. But it was still four times a week of this torture, plus five days a week of running. Ugh. I’d never been the sporty type, as evidenced by my terrible performances today.

  But the world needed me, as did my mom. So I was going to do what I needed to do to pass these trials. Maybe I’d even grow to like working out.

  Fat chance. I didn’t understand how anyone could find this enjoyable. Luckily, I didn’t need to enjoy it. I just needed to get good at it.

  That was something I could force myself to do. It was going to be grueling and it was going to physically push me more than I’d ever been pushed in my life. But I could do it. I had to do it.

  “How many weeks is the interval training?” I asked, so I could mentally prepare myself for what I was in for. I was still sitting on the mat on the floor, and after that workout, I didn’t intend on getting up until Darra told me to.

  “As many weeks as you need to strengthen up to complete the obstacle course.”

  “What obstacle course?” I looked around, since there was nothing remotely resembling an obstacle course anywhere in the gym.

  “Come.” Darra smiled slightly and motioned for me to get up. There was a scary twinkle in her eyes—the type that said I was in for another surprise. “I’ll show you.”

  28

  Raven

  Darra led me out of the gym. The sun was now fully up, and I saw movement through the windows of the manor house as the students walked around and got ready for their day.

  Hopefully Jessica’s first day was getting off to a better start than mine was. The vampire girls better be acting nice to her.

  “The obstacle course is on the opposite side of the island,” Darra said. “Near where the supernaturals train.”

  “Why do they train so far away?” I asked. It seemed like it would make more sense to put their training area near the academy.

  “Have you ever heard supernaturals train?” She smirked and continued before I could answer. “It can get loud. So we put the training area as far away from the residential area as possible.”

  “Got it.”

  “And while supernaturals can run fast, we’re not as fast as wyverns and unicorns,” she said. “It’s why we ride them to get to training—along with the fact that it’s therapeutic to have an animal companion.”

  My chest sparked with joy for the first time since Darra had told me to run on the track. “Do I get to see Annar now?” I asked, although I quickly realized she might not know who Annar was, so I explained, “she’s my unicorn from the simulation.”

  “You do.” She smiled. “Just think about her, let her know that you need her, and she’ll appear.”

  I did as instructed. A moment later, two unicorns stood in front of us.

  The one closest to Darra was the same one she’d ridden in on yesterday—the spotted gray one with a crystal horn. Next to her was the majestic, white, silver-horned unicorn from my simulation.

  Annar.

  I squealed her name and ran up to her, throwing m
y arms around her neck in a hug. She nuzzled into me, happy to see me as well. I definitely understood what Darra meant when she’d said animals were therapeutic. The moment I touched Annar’s silky fur, it was like all the stress from the insane workouts I’d just been through melted away.

  Once we finished hugging, Annar lowered her head to press the point of her horn gently upon my forehead. “Welcome to Avalon,” she spoke into my mind. “I knew we’d be seeing each other again.”

  “I’m so glad to see you,” I said. “This is quite the place, isn’t it?”

  She didn’t have time to respond, because Darra called down to me—she was already seated upon her unicorn.

  “You’ll be able to spend time with your unicorn later,” my trainer said. “But the other students will be heading out for the day soon. I want us to leave before they do.”

  I looked at Annar’s back. In the simulation, I’d only been able to get up there by finding a tall rock to stand on. Trying to jump from the ground had just ended in embarrassment.

  After how much I’d embarrassed myself at the track and the gym, I didn’t have much to lose. But I still didn’t want to give Darra another reason to think me incompetent.

  Annar must have sensed my worries, because she lowered herself onto her knees, allowing me to easily climb onto her back.

  “Thanks,” I said, patting her neck gratefully.

  She stood back up, and we were off.

  Riding a unicorn across Avalon was incredible. Like in the simulation, I held onto Annar’s mane as she ran across the ground. And it wasn’t only ground she could run across. Because it turned out unicorns could run across water, too.

  I screamed when she headed toward the lake, but Annar’s hooves glided across the crystal clear water like magic. Once I realized we weren’t going to drown, my screams turned into ones of glee. I would have raised my arms in the air and tried to imitate that scene in Titanic when Rose was at the front of the ship and said she was flying, but Annar was running so quickly that I’d surely fall off her back if I tried.