Blood of Destiny (Witch Fairy #6) (3 page)

She laughs.  She has the pretty laugh of the Angels.  Her long silvery blonde hair and beautiful face make it hard to believe she’s an Angel of Death.  Her mouth doesn’t.  “If you had been any louder, half of us would be deaf.”

I put my hands on my hips and try to give her a hard look.  She doesn’t look affected.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.  I was in the Fairy realm, now I’m here.  I didn’t even move a muscle, so how could I have made noise?  And don’t you say hello?”

She laughs.  “Sorry, good manners are not exactly a job requirement for me.”

Good point.  “I need your help.”

Adriel crosses her arms over her chest.  “Apparently manners are not in your repertoire, either.” 

I look at her sheepishly.  “Sorry.  Hi Adriel, how have you been?”

She’s somewhat appeased.  “I took in a really nasty Shadow just before you got here.  Most of the soul had to be removed.  I believe I still have some of it under my fingernails.”  She looks down at them to check.  Eew.

“Can I ask you for help now?”

She gives me a ‘that’s a pathetic attempt at being polite’ look.  “No,” she says.  “First, I am going to explain to you what I meant about making too much noise when you arrived, so you will not do it again.”

Great, Angel lessons.  I’m a little more concerned about my relationship with Kallen right now than proper Angel etiquette.  But, I know Adriel and she won’t help me until she speaks her mind.  “Okay.”

She starts pacing in front of me.  “I’m trying to think of a way to explain it that you would understand.”  She snaps her fingers and stops pacing.  “It is like hearing traffic in your realm.  If you are inside with your window closed, you can still hear it a little bit, but you hardly notice it.  Until someone drives by honking their horn.  Then, you hear it better and it’s more annoying than the quiet white noise you were hearing before.”  Okay, I get it.  I was the one blowing my horn.  “But, what you just did was drive into the house and shattered the window.”

I scowl.  “I don’t believe I was that loud.”

She laughs.  “Trust me, the house is crumbling around you.”

I sigh.  I don’t think she’s teasing; I think I was that loud.  “Then how do I not make noise when I come here?”

She starts pacing again.  “Travelling with your wings takes finesse.  You need to gently coax them where you want to go.”  She stops in front of me again.  “You were not gently coaxing them.  You were shouting to them at the top of your lungs, telling them to find me.”

Is she saying what I think she’s saying?  “You could hear my thoughts?”

She shakes her head.  “No.  It is not like that.”  She stops to think for a minute.  “It is like your wings are a radio.  They broadcast your location all the time.  If you tell them quietly where you want to go, they will bring you there with whisper.  If you are screaming at them in your mind, it is like turning the radio volume up all the way, and the sound waves can easily be heard by other wings.  They interpret the signal and let the Angel they belong to know what is going on.  As soon as you started shouting in your head, the signal was sent.  Does this make sense?”

I nod.  “I think so.”

“Good.  So next time, coax your wings calmly and they will bring you wherever you want to go.”

A thought strikes me.  “Does that mean if I teleport without my wings, you can’t hear me at all?”

The smile is instantly wiped off her face.  “What did you say?”

Uh oh.  I bite my bottom lip a second debating if I really want to repeat what I said.  Adriel puts her hands on her hips.  “Xandra, say that again.  I want to make sure I heard you correctly.

I sigh.  “Fine.  I said, does that mean if I teleport without my wings you can’t hear me at all?”

I believe she’s in shock because she doesn’t say anything for a minute.  Finally, she says, “You can move from place to place without the use of your wings?”

“Um, yeah.”

“That is impossible.”

I roll my eyes.  “I get that response a lot when I do things.”

She’s pacing again.  “Xandra, that simply is not possible.”  She shakes her head as if that will negate my ability.  I’m just going to stand here quietly while she works this through in her head.  “One of the things that make losing our wings so horrible is not being able to get anywhere.  And being able to teleport in mortal realms…”  She’s shaking her head again.  “That is unbelievable.”

“Adriel?”  She stops pacing and looks at me.  “Can we move this along?  I really want to ask you something.”

She gives me a sour look that conveys how she feels about that, but she still manages to look, well, Angelic.  “Please forgive me for pondering the ramifications of your latest impossible ability.”

Ramifications?  That doesn’t sound good.  I’m about to ask her what she means, but that will just put us back in the ‘it’s impossible/I can still do it’ loop.  “How can I get out of a deal I made with an Angel?”

Her brows slam together.  “What kind of deal?  And with whom?”

I cannot believe the number of people I have to talk about my sex life to.  You know, if everyone else my age had to talk about their sex lives with their parents, their grandparents, the King of their realm, the Angels, all the neighbors, all their friends, and wear a ring that glows if you have sex – I bet abstinence would be a little more widespread amongst teenagers.  Adults, too.  Then again, that didn’t stop me and Kallen.  But, we did have the added push of the Apsaras magic.

“Xandra, I am waiting.”  Adriel has her arms folded across her chest and is tapping her foot.

Fine.  If she’s going to be that way about it.  “I had sex with Kallen and Ambriel said he wouldn’t record it if I did a couple of favors for him.  But now, I want everyone to know so they believe that Kallen and I should get married.”

It’s amazing how pretty she is with her shimmering silver blonde hair and perfect skin.  Even when she’s wearing an ‘are you freakin stupid’ look on her face.  “You made a deal.  With an Angel of the Powers.  To erase something from history.  And you owe him favors.”

I take a deep breath, then say, “Yes, I had a momentary panic attack and he took advantage of it.  He appeared after Kallen and I had sex and he offered to not write it down if I would do two favors for him.”

Her face is getting red and her eyes are narrowed down into tiny little slits.  She sort of looks like she needs glasses.  I wonder if Angels ever do need glasses?  “So, you broke an oath you took, wanted to lie to the universe about it, and made a deal that you now want to back out of.  Did I miss anything?”

Yes, my boyfriend doesn’t trust my feelings for him, now.  I put my face in my hands and moan.  “I know, it all sounds so bad.”  I peek at her through my fingers.  “But, I want to go back and fix it and do everything the right way.”

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head.  “I will add ‘wants to change everyone else’s history to suit her own needs’ to the list.’”  She starts pacing again.  “What could he possibly want from you?”  I think she’s talking more to herself than she is to me, so I don’t respond.  After a moment, she stops in front of me.  “I am assuming that you did not know that seeking to erase something from history is a crime?”

My voice squeaks when I say, “A crime?”

Adriel shakes her head again.  “You are so naïve; and equally as rash.  Until your knowledge increases, I would seriously suggest a muzzle, for your mouth continuously gets you in trouble.”

I give her a sour look.  “When you’re done insulting me, can you please tell me how I get out of this deal?”

She looks shocked.  “Get out of it?  Xandra, you cannot get out of a deal you have made with another Angel.  It is forbidden.”

My turn to be shocked.  “So, it’s a crime to make the deal, but forbidden to break it?”  What kind of sense does that make?

Her head is going to fall off if she keeps shaking it like that.  “It was not making the deal that was illegal.  It was the changing history part.  Any agreement, legal or not, made between two Angels cannot be undone.  There is no way to break it short of ceasing to exist.”  She raises an eyebrow.  “I am assuming that is not the course you would like to take?”

I roll my eyes.  “Of course not.”

She starts pacing again.  “I cannot figure out why he did it.  It is unlikely that you would be punished because you do not know all of our ways.  It is still possible that you would be stripped of your wings.  For Ambriel, he is not ignorant.  He would have his wings stripped and would Fall.  Without possibility of returning to us.”

Now I’m getting scared.  “Can you help me?”

Her facial muscles relax and I can see her anger slipping away.  “Xandra, you got yourself into a mess this time that’s too big to have an easy fix.  You are part Angel, you have to honor your word or you will lose your wings.”

Lose my wings?  Completely?  “I want to keep my word.  I want to marry Kallen like I was supposed to do if we had sex.”

She shakes her head again.  “You cannot pick and choose who you keep your word to; you have to honor all of your agreements.”

Oh, crap.  “So, I have to figure out how to get Kallen – and my family – to believe we have to get married
and
I have to honor my word to Ambriel and do two favors for him?”

She shrugs.  “I do not see any way out of it.”

She’s not as much help as I hoped she’d be.  “What do you think he’ll ask for?”

“Knowing Ambriel, it will probably be something ridiculous.”

“Like what?”  I know she can’t tell me exactly what he’ll want, but I’m hoping she’ll have some idea.

She shrugs again.  “Ambriel is odd.  He hates his job, and he is constantly complaining that he is underappreciated.  Maybe he will want you to take over his job for a while or something.”

Recording every bit of history?  That sounds like a job that I would hate, too.  “So, I have to suck it up and do what he wants me to do.”

“I fear that is so.”  Worry has taken up camp on her face.  “Be careful, Xandra.  And know this – there are limits as to what he can ask you to do.  For instance, he may not ask you to kill anyone.  Nor can he ask you to give up your wings.  But there are many other things he could ask of you that are not for the greater good.”

That’s good to know.  I press my lips into a thin line.  After a minute, I say, “What I don’t get is why he needs favors from me at all.  What can I get him that he can’t get for himself?”

“That is what I am wondering, as well.”

Great.  “So, is Ambriel a bad Angel?”

Adriel sighs.  “Not that I know of, but bad is relative.  He has never been in danger of having his wings taken.  He has also never taken pleasure in his job.  Like recording things is not better than stripping souls of their darkness.”  Oh, is that bitterness trying to leap out of her mouth?  “We all must do things to keep the cosmic order.  That is the role of Angels in the big scheme of things.”