Angel Star (7 page)

The center of town was at least a mile behind us now; the houses were thinning out as we sped along. Finally, we slowed and turned left onto a narrow road that, surprisingly, I had never noticed before. My hands began to perspire. I stole a quick glance out of the corner of my eye at the beautiful boy next to me, wondering how I could have lived here my entire life and not know where the heck we were headed right now. I frantically noted the absence of a GPS on the dashboard as the lane narrowed even more. We followed it slowly, burrowing our way deeper and deeper into the thick, overgrown greenery that stretched before us.

One moment we were in the glare of brilliant sunlight, and the next in the dimming, mocked grayness of night. When the veil of the forest began to smother us, I looked up through the open roof of the Jeep in time to see the flanking limbs choke out the rest of the sun. Within what seemed like seconds we were in another world.

Garreth stopped the car in a clearing and stepped out, appearing cautiously excited as he turned to me, his outstretched hand at the ready for mine. The soft ground crunched slightly under the weight of my sneakers and my door shut with a stifled echo. I realized my mouth was hanging open. It was as though we had stepped into some fairy-tale forest one only reads about, a magical place untouched by time.

“This is amazing.” I stared at the lushness surrounding us.

“One of my favorite places in the whole world,” Garreth said with a smile.

The thick trees absorbed the sounds of our intrusion, covering our presence in the blanket of pine and damp earth. The sun forced its way through the canopy of conjoined oak and hemlocks, teasing its lazy light between the heavy branches.

Garreth led me forward, taking my elbow as we carefully picked our way through the crazy maze of underbrush and twigs, leading us up and over gnarled roots and hollows that twisted out of the earth and pushed the soft mulch carpet to its limit.

I looked all around us. It was breathtaking but unrecognizable as my eyes adjusted to the green cavern we were trailing through.

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked a bit hesitantly.

“You’ll see. We’re almost there.”

Every now and then a twig snapped somewhere in the density surrounding us. I would stiffen but Garreth never let go of my hand.

As if the woods weren’t awe-inspiring enough, a perfect little stone chapel soon stood before us. When I walked around the square building, I was reminded of a miniature one-room castle. A single Gothic stained glass window was set into each of the three walls and a heavy wooden door, arched and aged, took up its fourth. Although the gray stone slab above the door frame was engraved crudely, it was still legible and proudly bore the name Saint Ann’s.

“Coming?” Garreth’s voice startled me. He was waiting at the top of the stone landing, his hand on the well-worn, tarnished doorknob.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” I asked hesitantly. My own voice sounded alien in the undisturbed quiet of the woods. “I mean, is it condemned or anything?”

“Buildings aren’t made like this anymore. She might not look it, but she’s as solid as granite.”

He extended his hand, eager to help me up the steps. His blue eyes shone as if he were the very mason who had laid the stones of the little chapel, eager to show me the precious wonder waiting behind the door. I couldn’t help but trust what I saw in his eyes. Carefully, I climbed. The thick door opened, its ancient hinges barely keeping contact with the worn wood. It scraped across the landing and we pushed our way inside.

I walked around the tiny room, taking it all in: wild fern that grew rampant in the corners, stubs of melted candles, massive iron candelabras eaten away by patchy blankets of rust. Beautiful bits of colored glass crunched beneath my feet from stained glass windows of long ago. Although it was in obvious shambles, it was still breathtaking.

“What do you think?” Garreth spoke softly from behind me.

I turned to face him, noting how light it had become compared to the dim green of the forest outside. Looking up, I realized the roof was missing, allowing a glistening stream of gold to flood the tiny chapel.

“I think it’s amazing.”

“There used to be a tower long ago, but it was destroyed…” Garreth’s voice trailed off.

When I lowered my gaze, expecting him to continue, my heart tightened within my chest. It wasn’t because the most beautiful boy in the world stood before me, but instead as if for a secret purpose that ray of sunlight spoke to my heart, my senses…making me fully aware that I was seeing what my eyes up until now
couldn’t
see.

I
t could have been a trick of the light, or perhaps my subconscious finally revealing something suppressed and unknown. I could have tried to explain it to myself a thousand different ways when, in reality, it was right in front of me.

There Garreth stood, embraced by the most splendid set of pure white wings. From the top of his shoulders they arched upward, perfect plumes, soft and white. I had no doubt that if I were to touch them at that very moment my fingers would find a velvet so supple words could not express their softness. They curved and began their gentle descent past the length of his strong arms, to the glass-littered floor below. He was inconceivably beautiful, yet he emanated an indestructibility, an eternal force that left me in awe.

“You’re an…” but I was too speechless to continue.

“Yes.”

I brought my hand to my mouth. This was so unbelievable, yet it
was
believable. I looked up at him, knowing now that certain things made sense. How many times and how easily had my existence nearly been extinguished if it weren’t for the constant protection of my angel kissing life back into me?

My angel
.

Every molecule inside my body, every ounce of my blood that ran through my veins became acutely aware of only one thing at that one moment. Time stood still for us in the tiny chapel where we were surrounded by the trees, the stones, the silence, and finally, the most important element of all. The truth.

“Are you convinced now that I’m real? That I am just as real to you as every living thing you see in this forest?”

I nodded and, slowly, the shimmering wings folded back into secrecy once again.

Remembering my one vivid dream about him, I reached down and took his right hand in mine. He gave it to me willingly and I knew we had crossed some sort of barrier.

I turned his hand over, palm up, knowing what I would see. My dream foretold his celestial mark. The life line, health line, heart line, chained thumb, all that one would find on a hand, a human hand, did not exist on his. His lines formed a complete circle with eight points. An octagram.

“And this,” I glanced down at his palm again. “What does this mean?”

“It’s the symbol of rebirth. The octagram allows me to follow you through eternity. From the moment you were created, I was assigned to guard you, to protect you, and guide you. I never realized I would…” He looked at me so deeply, so lovingly, as if he finally found something he’d lost or been without for a very long time. I realized it was the look I had seen on his face the morning I met him in the courtyard at school and every day thereafter.

He looked away for a second, as if searching for the answer to be etched on one of the stones in the wall, so intent was he on choosing the right words.

My instincts prompted me to step closer to him.

“Teagan, this is all so new to me,” he said cautiously. “Angels are portrayed and referred to as messengers of God. We’re made of light. We represent hope. We’re an example of the purest form of love, though for us to love another, as a human loves a human…it’s unheard of. But yet, I feel that for you.”

His revelation fell on me with the crushing weight of a million mountains so that I could scarcely believe my ears. Yet, while I processed his words, nothing could prevent me from believing them. An angel,
my angel
, Garreth…loved me. His words flowed repeatedly through my brain, shifting and reshifting themselves. I found myself scraping the inside of my hand with what little fingernails I owned just to prove I could feel something because, logically, this really didn’t seem possible.

As if sensing the turmoil inside me, Garreth took a step back. “I’m not asking you to feel the same. I’m not asking you to love me.”

I shook my head. “I feel something, I…just don’t know what yet. This is all so sudden. Please don’t be disappointed.”

With that, Garreth closed the space between us and took me in his arms. Kissing the top of my head, he said, “You could never disappoint me, Teagan.”

This confession was beyond my wildest wishes, and so much more now that it was not just an ordinary human boy proclaiming his feelings for me. Garreth was so much more than that. I savored the realization of his words as he held me, feeling the wonder of who he was. Then the sweetness sank in. I was his, and in return, he was mine. There was absolutely nothing that could compare to this—an unbroken bond formed long ago in heaven, created and bound for all eternity.

“In my eyes, guarding you is like protecting another angel. Your heart is so pure.” He softly swept my hair out of my eyes.

I smiled up at him as his eyes caught and held the gentle golden light of the sun. He seemed a little nervous now that so much had been placed out in the open, wondering if I could reciprocate an emotion so foreign to him. An angel, nervous. It was almost funny to me. Here was a soul, one so perfect, made of love and light, wondering if I could love him back. Silently, I knew he was already everything I ever wanted. He was perfect, but I was trembling inside, wondering if this was all a dream, wondering if my instinct to jump into this blindly was wrong. A mistake.

“Why did you choose to come into my life now? It’s so hard to believe that three days ago I had no idea…” I shook my head in wonder as I took his hand in mine and traced the star that was in his skin.

“I couldn’t help but be drawn into your world. It was too hard to be outside it any longer,” he whispered against my cheek.

Garreth led me to a small bench next to the altar.

“But explain
your
world. You know mine, you’re here…you watch me every day.” I leaned forward, my elbows resting on my knees. I was eager to learn about this unseen realm, how easily it fit into the world I lived in. I found it fascinating. “Like this, for example. I want to know everything.” I took his hand again, turning it over, tracing the lines of his star with my finger.

“Generally, each point in the star represents a lifetime. You are now upon the Judgment Point of your existence, the eighth point that allows your purpose to come full circle, therefore completing the Order of the Octagram.”

“Judgment Point?” I asked.

“The Judgment Point is just as it sounds. It’s when your destiny is revealed to you. The circle closes and your star is complete.”

I looked at my own hand that was both plain and absurdly human, the bitten nails, the ragged cuticles, and tried to hide what I felt surfacing on my face.

“What happens after that?”

“It depends,” Garreth answered.

“Does this mean I’m going to die soon?” I whispered.

Garreth lifted my chin with one finger and tilted his head to one side. “No, you’re not going to die. Trust me, the universe has big plans for you.”

“But if this is my last life, then…will you still be with me? When it’s over?”

“Most likely, but I’ve never been through this with anyone before. I’m
your
Guardian.”

This was all so hard to digest but, somehow, I felt reassured by Garreth’s presence.

“Well, either way, you’re my angel and you’re here with me now.”

But instead of the radiant smile I expected, his face suddenly crumpled with concern. Beneath the quiet blue reflecting back at me I saw something deeper.

“What’s the matter?” I asked hesitantly.

“I’ve known you for so long that your life has become mine. I’ve tried so hard to ignore and to accept that you are my charge, nothing more…but I couldn’t.”

His brilliant blue eyes were suddenly full of something I couldn’t name and there was an edge to his voice that I couldn’t put my finger on.

“I asked for something nearly impossible.” His voice was distant, reflective, and when my silence prompted him, he continued. “If I could have one moment to know you and for you to know me, in eight days’ time, then I would feel my duty as your Guardian is truly complete.”

“Eight days?” That was all? I calculated quickly. Five days left. How was my heart supposed to live with that? Now I understood the protectiveness I felt whenever I was with him, the familiarity with him. My soul recognized my protector, my Guardian. And now I would lose him. The moment I first laid eyes on him that day in school, I knew my life was about to change significantly and now there was more to it: the truth, what he is, who he is…what we are to each other. I couldn’t give that up.

Not yet.

“Why only eight days?” I asked. It wasn’t enough.

Garreth looked at me with intensity, folding my hands within his own. “As each point of the octagram represents an incarnation, each day that I am allowed here with you is as significant as a lifetime. Life in general revolves around the number eight, the universal symbol for infinity. It’s all I have been granted,” he whispered softly, almost sadly.

I shifted closer to him, my body suddenly feeling an intense need to close the slightest distance between us. I watched his eyes turn softly toward me, watched the way the muscle beneath his jaw twitched as he focused on the words he was about to speak.

“I came to you to help you understand that light cannot exist without dark. The world cannot have one without the other. It cannot survive on monotony. And no matter how peaceful we make our world, no matter how safe, light is not always prone to strength…it isn’t foolproof.”

I forced my breathing to return to normal, although I couldn’t let go of the fact that we didn’t have much time left. And now he was cryptically explaining darkness and light? I was so confused.