Falling From Grace (30 page)

“That is true, but you’d think that’d he at least tell you some of the basics.
 
Instead he went all theatrical on you
—
trying to get you so frightened, you’d cling to him.
 
Typical male.”

I thought about that for a bit.
 
“Well, could
you
tell me the things that he didn’t?”

Her face looked thoughtful.
 
She approached me, and very quickly, before I could retreat, scooped me up in her arms.
 
“I’ll tell you as much as you want to know that I can.”
 
And she pushed off with her feet, launching us into the sky…and we were sailing.

The awkward feeling of being carried by Lark kept me from talking for a few minutes, despite the flood of questions that was threatening to breach the levies of my self-control.
 
She carried me in a way that made it feel like I were a pile of dirty laundry.
 
She didn’t want me to drop, but at the same time, she didn’t want me to touch her either.
 
And, much like with Robert, we were surrounded by what looked like smoke.
 
It almost looked like our feet were on fire, and at any moment, bright orange and yellow flames would start licking at my legs.

“Why the smoke?” I asked finally, starting my inquisition.

“Well, we’re kind of conspicuous
—
two people just indiscriminately flying around—so this helps to hide us when we travel this way.
 
It’s sort of like angel camouflage.”

I nodded, understanding the need to remain unseen.
 
Now that the first question was out of the way, I couldn’t stop the current that had been pent up too long.
 
Instead, I just let the first question to fall out next have its chance to be heard.
 
“What kind of special abilities do you have?”

“Well, you know how my mother was talking about how our minds are always open, and connected?
 
That we can always hear each other?”
 
I nodded as she continued, “Well, she wasn’t exactly telling the truth.
 
She wasn’t lying, of course.
 
You already know about that rule.
 
It is true, our minds are all connected, but for most of us, we have to be near each other in order to hear each other’s thoughts.
 

“I, on the other hand, don’t need to be near anyone.
 
I can hear the thoughts of anyone, anywhere.”
 
She had a smug look on her face, as though she were proving it right now by listening in on someone she probably shouldn’t.

“Whose thoughts are you listening to now?”
 
I asked, curious.

She gave me a wicked grin.
 
“The President of the United States.
 
He’s playing a game of Battleship online by himself and is mad that he’s losing.”

I couldn’t contain the loud snort of laughter that burst out of my mouth.
 
She couldn’t lie, so I had no reason to doubt her, which made the whole image in my mind just that much more comical.

“What else do you want to know?
 
I know that can’t be your only question,” she said, trying to control the corners of her twitching mouth.

“What are some of the things you can’t do?”

“Hmm…well, the list is pretty long.
 
How long do you plan on living again?”
 
She raised a solitary eyebrow and looked at me
—
well, it looked like she was looking at me
—
and smiled slyly.
 

I looked to the side, her sightless, yet seeing eyes giving me the creeps.
 
“I’ll live for as long as it takes to learn everything about Robert I can.”

The smile on Lark’s face grew wider.
 
I assumed it was because she was looking forward to a lot more occasions where I’d be turning her brother down for one thing or another.
 
“Okay then, let’s see…we’re not allowed to tell anyone about who or what we are without a good reason.
 
It’s pretty self-explanatory why, but the good reasons part is kind of confusing.
 
Some things that I’d never figure to be a good enough reason turns out to be perfectly fine.
 
It’s all circumstantial, basically.
 

“We’re not allowed to lie.
 
We physically cannot do it
—
the consequences against us are instantaneous and…severe.
 
We’re not allowed to take a human life without just cause.
 
The punishment for that can be very severe.
 
But as with the lying, for the most part it is physically impossible for us to do it.”

We swayed to the side a bit
—
a flock of birds passing us as though we didn’t exist
—
and Lark smiled a knowing, semi-amused smile.
 
“Just for your own future reference, animals don’t see us.
 
Dogs, cats, wild ferocious lions
—
we simply don’t exist as far as they’re concerned.
 
There are some of us who can
speak
to them, but for the most part, we’re just an aberration of space.
 
It was be explained in the bible, if you’ve ever read it, that God gave man dominion over the earth, blah-blah-blah.
 
Long story short, we’re air to them.”

She watched the birds sail through the sky, and sighed, continuing with her list.
 
“We’re not allowed to use our powers for personal benefits outside of what we need.
 
We don’t live hand to mouth, of course, because that wouldn’t be believable for society.
 
They see us
—
so beautiful and graceful in comparison to you
—
and they can’t believe that we’re poor or uneducated.

“For whatever reason, you humans seem to think that beauty and intelligence go hand in hand, so we fill the roles that society and humanity dictates we belong in.
 
It is the easiest way to blend in, and we don’t fight it.
 
Besides, the money we get as a result can be far more attractive to you humans than any innate charming ability we possess.

“No angel can break our laws without judgment from the Seraphim, and punishment from the Thrones-”

“Seraphim?
 
Thrones?”
 
I knew I sounded confused because I genuinely was.
 
“You have punishment thrones?”

“The Seraphim are the elders, some of the oldest of our kind who hand down judgments either for or against our actions, while the Thrones…they’re the angels who actually dole out the punishments to the condemned that are handed down by the Seraphim.
 
When one of the rules are broken, and a sentence has been handed down, they are the ones who carry out that sentence,” she explained, her eyes shimmering like iridescent glass
—
cold and hard with an ethereal light that had no explanation…no source.

She closed them, realizing that I had been staring, and gave me a half-smile.
 
“Now, where was I?
 
Oh yes, there can be no interfering in the destiny of a human.
 
We can see the destinies of most people, and sometimes, our nature dares us to interfere, to help or punish as we would see fit.
 
But, the majority of us are not Seraphim, nor Thrones, and for good reason.
 
If you want to know, most of us are your typical, push you out of the way of a moving vehicle type guardian angel.

“What else?
 
Oh!
 
We’re not allowed to harm wing-bringers-“

“What are wing-bringers?”
 
I interrupted, the name sparking an immediate interest in me.

“Yes, Robert didn’t tell you about that either, did he?”
 
She shook her head.
 
“A wing-bringer is someone who is the catalyst to the rebirth of an angel, meaning they are the person who triggers the growth of an angel’s wings.
 
Call it puberty for angels.”

I looked at her, shocked.
 
There really were winged angels?
 
After seeing all three of them without wings, I had assumed that they were merely symbolic, or a part of the mythology that was told to throw humans off of the truth.

She shook her head again.
 
“Just because you don’t see them on us, that doesn’t mean we don’t have them.
 
Well…Robert and I don’t have them.
 
We haven’t met our wing-bringers yet.
 
That reminds me of another one of the rules; we’re not allowed to show our wings in public.
 
Even in flight, most of the winged ones don’t use them.
 
They’re merely decorative, from what many have told me, and bear no real purpose when it comes to flying.”

“So why the significance of the wing-bringer, if the wings aren’t all that important?” I asked.

She turned her head to look at me, her face very serious then.
 
“Wings are extremely important.
 
We cannot get into Heaven without them.”

I looked at her in shock.
 
“But, you’re angels!
 
Isn’t that where you belong?
 
Isn’t that where you live?”
 
The few stories and the pictures that I knew all told a different story entirely compared to the confusing one that was now being laid brick by brick in my mind.

“Grace, toss your preconceived notions about those naked, harp playing sissies you’ve seen painted on church ceilings out of the window.
 
Angels are born on earth, just like humans, and live on earth until such time that we’re deemed worthy to enter Heaven.
 
But
—
and I want this to be perfectly clear to you
—
we do not live there.
 
Simply being an angel doesn’t mean that we’re automatically granted access
—
it is not our dream to end up there like you humans do.
 
You should know above all things that there are no guarantees in life.
 
That rings true for human and angel alike.
 

“Robert is over fifteen-hundred years old.
 
He hasn’t even seen a feather pop up, much less a complete set of wings.
 
He knows his destiny is to ascend and answer the call.
 
It is all of our destinies.
 
We’re just not sure when exactly that will be and what it will be.
 
I’ve only been around for five hundred years; that’s practically an infant when you compare me to some of the others.
 
I might have to wait a millennia before I even get an idea as to what my call will lead me to, and even then, only after I meet my wing-bringer and the circumstances are right.”

I felt breathless at all of the information that she was revealing to me
—
so many secrets and yet, I knew that this wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg
—
there was so much I still wanted to know.
 
“So, this wing-bringer…what exactly does he or she do
—
how do they
bring
wings?”

She seemed to contemplate that for a bit.
 
“You know, I don’t know.
 
It’s not something that is written down as an exact science.
 
Wing-bringers have been human lovers, human enemies, complete strangers, newborns, the aged and the infirm.
 
The belief amongst some of the elders is that there must be a great pull of emotions for the wing-bringer in order to trigger the change.

“For example, love is a very powerful emotion, but rage and jealousy can often times be more so.
 
Mother’s wing-bringer was a man whom she thought she was in love with.
 
She thought he loved her too, but unfortunately, he was in love with another woman.
 
When she found out that he had been wed to her in secret, she became incensed, and nearly killed him in a fit of jealousy and rage.
 
Her anger triggered her change.”

After meeting her, and talking to her, it was difficult for me to picture Ameila as anything but serene
—
despite what I had already seen from Robert
—
so the idea that she could become so angry that her body suddenly sprouted wings just went beyond the scope of my imagination.
 
I looked down at the darkness below us and asked the one question that begged the loudest for an answer, “What’s ‘the call’?”

Lark was silent for the first time since we had started our flight.
 
I didn’t know if I had asked the wrong question or not, but remembering how Robert had reacted when I had asked him what he was that second day, I feared I had once again over-stepped my bounds.

“You did no such thing.
 
Stop being such a ninny,” she snapped, annoyance dressing every word.
 
“You’re right
—
I’m annoyed.
 
I’m merely trying to think of a way to explain it.
 
I don’t exactly get to reveal these kinds of things to people on an everyday basis, so I’m trying to find a way to do so without using terms that you’d just ask me about immediately afterwards.”