The Sun Angel

by Ashley Martinez

  “You’re forgiven, but still, get out, please,” Mae walked out of the room. Jenna heard the door slam to another room of the house.

  Jenna stood in the entryway for almost five minutes before gaining the courage to leave. She and Will had flown here, so she wasn’t sure what lay between her and the Dwarves’ forest. At least she knew the direction; although, she was certain she’d get lost quickly. Looking up at the moon one more time to judge her direction, she took a deep breath and headed into the black forest.

  ***

  Will landed in front of Mae’s front door and tried walking in but found it locked.

  “Mae!” Will slammed his fist on the door. “Let me in!”

  No one answered, and Will kicked the door.

  “Fine, have it that way! I’ll just break down your door!” Will hollered backing up.

  “Will!” James grabbed his shoulder. “Maybe try knocking nicer.”

  “Are you serious?!” Will turned to James. “She never locks me out!”

  “She has to have her reasons,” James shrugged. “Try knocking nicely.”

  “Ugh!” Will shook James’s hand off him and gently knocked on the door.

  It opened, surprising Will as James gave him a smug look.

  “Shut up,” Will said under his breath. “Mae?” he called out softly.

  “You have a lot of nerve coming back,” Mae said coming down the stairs. She continued to walk up to him and slapped him smartly across the cheek.

  “What the hell was that for?” Will was angry at the gesture, not feeling her slap.

  “You turned her mortal?!” Mae shrieked. “Are you seriously that stupid?!”

  “I- wait,” Will was shocked into stillness and he glanced at James. “How do you know?”

  Mae’s eyes flickered with rage, “One of Jenna’s memories was the night you turned her mortal.”

  “What did she tell you?” Will asked.

  “She wouldn’t talk about it; I could barely get that out of her,” Mae crossed her arms.

  Will groaned and ran his hand through his hair, “Where’s Jenna?”

  “She left.”

  “You let her leave?!” Will roared his hands sparked with ice in his rage.

  Mae flinched back, afraid, “I did.”

  “You stupid witch!” Will turned on his heel and stormed out of the house in search for Jenna.

  ***

  “Have you spotted her yet?” Will asked James as they met up twenty minutes later.

  James shook his head, “No, she’s nowhere that I can see.”

  “She’s here!” Will spat.

  “I know, mate, calm down,” James held up his hand, “we’ll find her.”

  “I’m going to land and look on the ground,” Will said but was interrupted by a high-pitched scream.

  He turned and flew in the direction of it, searching frantically for Jenna.

  ***

  Jenna tripped and hit the forest floor hard. Scrambling to her feet, she glanced over her shoulder to see if the creature was still chasing her. She saw nothing and felt a sense of relief. She turned back to run fast and ran straight into a man who looked a lot like a mosquito.

  Jenna screamed as the creature threw her to the ground.

  “Yummy human!” it cackled leaning it’s long pointy nose down at her throat.

  She felt a sharp pinch as it pierced her neck. Struggling with the weight of the creature, Jenna tried fighting him.

  The bug man was pulled off her, and she looked gratefully for her rescuer. When her eyes found Will, a sense of loss and fear overwhelmed her.

  “Why’d you leave?!” He spat at her as he kicked the man back. “Now here I am, again having to save you!”

  Jenna felt her eyes narrow, “I can take care of myself!”

  “Prove it,” Will moved to the side and let the man pass him.

  She shrieked and moved to the side as the bug man ran past her, missing her completely. It hissed gearing up to charge again.

  “Here, Jenna,” James shouted throwing his sword to her.

  She jumped back letting it fall to the ground earning a frown from both Night Angels. She tried picking it up, but it was too heavy.

  The man was running right for her. She screamed again and swung with all her might using the sword like a bat. She cut through the bug man’s head as easily as cutting through butter.

  The momentum of her swing threw her to the side as she dropped the sword. She was going to land right on it and couldn’t stop herself.

  Will reached out and grabbed her, but she still hit the blade with her arm. A sharp pain coursed through her, and she leaned into Will.

  “Ouch!” she hissed as she held her arm tightly.

  “It’s okay, Jenna,” Will said holding her close.

  “No,” Jenna pushed weakly against him.

  “Why would you give her that sword?” Will asked James who knelt down beside them.

  “Sorry, old habits die hard,” he gave a tight smile and began the process of healing Jenna.

  “Habits?” Will gave him a sharp look.

  “We used to fight together,” James focused on his job.

  “Yeah, but that was years and years ago.”

  James shrugged, finishing up, “All done. How do you feel, Jenna?”

  Jenna shoved against Will, pushing herself up. Without saying anything she took off running into the trees.

  “Jenna!” Will shouted and was instantly in front of her.

  She shrieked as she ran into him, “Get away from me!”

  “Listen to me!” He growled and grabbed her shoulders tightly.

  “You’re the reason I’m in this mess!” She screamed at him.

  “Jenna!”

  “Leave her alone, Will,” James said quietly.

  Will closed his eyes willing patience into him. He ignored James and looked at Jenna.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “I turned you mortal.”

  “Why?” Jenna couldn’t move as Will held her in place.

  “It’s a long story,” Will shook his head.

  “I deserve the truth.”

  “I can’t give you that.”

  “Then let me go,” she looked up at him almost feeling defeated.

  “I can’t do that either.”

  “Will,” Jenna tried pulling away and he let her. “I don’t trust you. For all I know, you’re here to kill me.”

  Will shook his head, “No, Jenna. I could never do that.”

  “Tell me the truth!” she screamed balling up her hands in fists as a spark of irritation hit. “You turned me mortal! I deserve the truth!”

  “Fine!” Will snapped. “Just shut up!”

  “Don’t-“

  “I said shut up!” his hands sparked again causing Jenna to jump back in fear. “I started out with all intentions on killing you, but upon meeting you I couldn’t…I can’t.”

  “How do you expect me to believe you?”

  “You have to understand you don’t have the whole story between us. You don’t know our history. I don’t expect you to believe me now or to even trust me, but I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Why did you do it?” Jenna asked quietly looking at Will then James who stood off to the side staring at a tree. “You didn’t even tell me why.”

  “Later, Jenna,” Will sighed. “We have to get moving.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

  “You don’t have a choice,” He glared at her.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” Jenna whimpered, “haven’t you done enough to me?”

  “Are you really so stupid?” Will growled, “I’m trying to help you!”

  “Help me what?”

  “Jenna,” James moved forward. “We’re trying to save you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Jenna flew in James’s arms back to the dwarves’ forest because she refused to let Will carry her. She watched his eyes tighten in frustration but reluctantly agreed. When they each spread t
heir wings Jenna couldn’t keep the awe out of her eyes and watched the way James’ grey wings rose and fell with such power it left her feeling breathless. Gliding above the Earth helped Jenna’s anger ebb but her doubt in Will remained.

  She dared a glance at James and found his face a comfort. She’d known him since their junior year in high school, though they barely exchanged words he was the only who was kind to her and even now with him working with Will, she couldn’t help but trust him.

  Slowly they descended and James set Jenna down gently, “By the way, good job on killing that monster.”

  “Jenna!” Lena ran out of between some trees before Jenna could respond to James. “Do you have your memory back?!”

  “Yes,” Will answered for her giving her a pointed look, trying to tell her to keep her mouth shut.

  “Awesome!” Lena grinned. “Can we go now? It’s been horrible here! They wouldn’t let me do anything!”

  Jenna laughed realizing she’d missed Lena.

  “We’re leaving in the morning,” Will answered. “Jenna needs her rest.”

  She glared at him but followed Dorin into a massive tree opening leading down underground.

  “You live underground?” Jenna asked forgetting her annoyance towards Will.

  “It’s how we stay protected,” Dorin answered. “We’ve lived here now for almost five hundred years.”

  “Can I ask how long dwarves live?”

  He chuckled, “Sure. We live on average three hundred years.”

  “Can I ask how old you are?”

  “Two hundred fifteen,” He turned and grinned at her, “but I wouldn’t be asking that question to Thrina. She’ll beat you with that damn stick of hers.”

  Jenna laughed, “Thanks for the heads up.”

  “I’ll tell you though,” Dorin continued down the dirt path. “She’s three hundred eight.”

  “Isn’t that old?”

  He nodded, “She’s a hard one to kill. Refuses to die, I tell you! Well here we are!” Dorin waved his arm at a small cave. “Just holler if you need anything. I’ll have someone send you some food, but Master Will requests you sleep.”

  “Do you always do what Will says?”

  “He might seem cruel to you, but really he’s still kind hearted like always,” Dorin sighed.

  “How so?”

  “He’s the one who saved our village and found us this wonderful place to live.”

  “Will did that?” Jenna asked astonished.

  “I’m guessing you didn’t get your full memory back,” Dorin’s eyes twinkled. “Or else you’d remember all this.”

  Jenna shook head.

  “You only know the war side of Will,” Dorin put his hand gently on her arm. “Give him a chance; I can see he cares for you.”

  “How can you know?” Jenna asked desperately.

  “Because there’s no way he’d be here if he didn’t care.”

  Without waiting for a response, Dorin left Jenna alone in her new underground room. She sat down on a bed cut out of dirt thinking of her memories. How could Will possibly care for her after all he’d done? She laid down, feeling tired and was instantly asleep, falling deep into her usual nightmare of chasing Will, needing his help but mostly needing him near her.

  “Jenna,” Will shook her shoulder gently. “Wake up, Angel.”

  She stirred but remained asleep.

  “Jenna!” Will said louder, trying not to wake anyone else.

  She jumped and was about to scream, but Will clamped his hand down on her mouth. His cool hand sent chills through her.

  “Jenna,” Will whispered again. “Don’t scream.”

  She nodded and he slowly took away his hand.

  “What are you doing here?” She asked.

  “I need to talk to you,” he shifted uneasily.

  “About?”

  “You asked why I did what I did,” he reminded her. “I’m going to tell you, but it’s going to be hard for me.”

  “Okay,” she sat up straighter, eager to learn about their past.

  “It was a very long time ago, back when our kingdoms lived in harmony,” he held up his hand to stop her question. “We were engaged to be married, but shortly after our engagement you ran off.”

  “Why would I do that?” Jenna couldn’t help herself; she felt elated that Will had chosen her to marry and couldn’t imagine having a reason for leaving.

  He shrugged, “I don’t know that answer. After you left, rumors of war began surfacing. It was between the North and South Angels. Back then they were all Heavenly Angels. I wasn’t concerned about their conflicts but you were involved.”

  “How?”

  “Jenna,” he said annoyed.

  “Sorry,” She mumbled and pretended to zip up her lips and lock it.

  He gave her a peculiar look but continued, “I couldn’t leave you, so I went after you. I tried everything I could think of to get you to come home, but you were so caught up in their business that you wouldn’t listen.”

  Jenna bit her lip trying to keep the questions in. Instead she raised her hand in attempt to get some answers.

  Will smiled slightly and nodded to her.

  “What was the war about? How was I involved?”

  “The war in Heaven was about whether or not humans would have freedom and how you were involved, my guess would be Silas needed as many angels as he could get to use against their King, and you would be a very powerful asset.”

  “From what I remember in the little reading I did from the bible it was that Lucifer wanted to make sure everyone got back to Heaven,” Jenna said slowly. “What would be so bad about that?”

  “Think for a minute, Angel,” Will put his hand on her knee. “If you had to do what you were told despite what you really wanted how would you respond? Imagine going to an ice cream shop and being told you could only have chocolate but you didn’t want chocolate, you wanted cookies and cream but you had to have chocolate.”

  “I would hate it,” she couldn’t help but stare at his hand. As mad as she was at him it still sent shivers of pleasure when he touched her.

  “Exactly,” he pulled his hand back and sighed heavily.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “If only it’d been that easy convincing you from the beginning.”

  “Did you use your ice cream analogy?”

  Will laughed, “No.”

  “Should’ve used it,” Jenna smiled but grew serious, “So what happened next?”

  “The war happened, and the King, known to humans as God, damned everyone who sided with Silas, also known to humans as Lucifer.”

  “Everyone? But what about me?” Jenna asked when Will didn’t continue.

  He ran his hands through his hair and grinned, “I got you out before he could get to you.”

  Jenna’s mouth fell opened in surprise, “Why?”

  “We didn’t hate each other then,” he frowned. “It was after that when our own war started.”

  “What happened?”

  Will took a deep breath, “Well Silas came looking for you. I tried stopping you from going, but you told me you didn’t want me anymore.”

  “I, what?” Jenna said quietly.

  “Also you swore to me you were going to kill me.”

  “That was that memory!” Jenna exclaimed scaring Will.

  “What memory?”

  “Remember the dream I had before we left?”

  Will nodded then stopped, his eyebrows creasing in concern, “Was that one of the memories you got back?”

  Jenna shook her head, “No.”

  “Then how did you get it?”

  They looked at each other; Jenna was lost but Will was thinking fast, “Unless Mae couldn’t get all of them erased.”

  “Can that happen?”

  “Why not?” Will shrugged. “You’re an angel, a powerful angel at that.”

  “Will?” Jenna said after a few moments of silence. Her thoughts had returned to her memory.

&nbs
p; “Hmm?” he said distracted.

  “Why couldn’t you touch me?”

  “What?” he asked surprised.

  “In the memory, my touch burned you.”

  “A spell and potion Silas gave you,” Will’s eyes narrowed. “Later on, the Queen had the same ritual performed on me to ensure we wouldn’t ever be able to touch again.”

  “What?”

  “My touch would freeze you, and you would burn me. She did it to everyone affiliated with us.”

  “So none of us could touch?”

  He nodded.

  “But it doesn’t hurt when you touch me now,” she said reaching for him to gently touch his face. “Does it hurt you?”

  Will had to pause before answering; her touch was soft and he could smell her sweetness, “No,” he finally answered.

  “So then-“ Jenna sat up on her knees and with her other hand took his and placed it on her face. “Your touch doesn’t hurt. It feels cool, but not cold. Actually it feels quite nice.”

  “I don’t understand,” Will said letting her touch him and also keeping his hand on her.

  They sat there, staring at each other, neither one saying anything but both wanting more. Forgetting her anger at him, Jenna leaned forward wanting to see if his lips were just as cool as his hand.

  Reality set in for Will as Jenna came closer, her eyes closing. He quickly put his hands up to stop her, pushing her back softly.

  “No, Jenna,” he said sternly.

  Jenna’s cheeks flushed from rejection and she slid further away from him mumbling an apology.

  “Remember, we’re enemies.”

  “Why?” she whispered, trying to hold the tears at bay.

  Will sighed, “We have a history, even though you don’t remember much of it, I know you remember at least two incidents where we collide.”

  “But I’m not the same person!” Jenna choked.

  He clenched his teeth to keep from snapping at her. Will hated whiners.

  “We don’t work,” he said stiffly. “We always have fought, even when we were together. So no, Jenna, it won’t ever happen.”

  “You care too,” she pointed out.

  “I care only about one thing,” he stood, “that’s getting the sun back.”

  “But-“

  “We’re done here, Jenna,” he spat and stormed out of the room.

  Jenna sat dumbfounded. What had just happened? Was she so naïve she couldn’t even tell if someone hated her? She shook her head, no, she’d been hated all her life and knew when someone didn’t like her. So what was Will’s problem? Was it because he didn’t want to have feelings for her? She was even more confused with Will the more she learned about him. What had he gone through to end up so hardened?