Page 370 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

I’d learned that day that even I could play the fool.

Dick had kept me locked away.

Four years later he’d told me I had a new task to complete.

I’d been brought to the shifter realm with three young girls who were backup genetic experiments. They provided the perfect cover.

My task was to infiltrate the family and get close to everyone. All with the aim of forming a relationship and becoming the guardian of one of the people I’d mutilated four years earlier: Aran.

This time, they hadn’t pretended to offer me freedom.

Dick had ordered me to follow his directive.

Or die.

Mortality was the universal motivator of all species.

The High Court was direct with me. They didn’t manipulate me like they did to every other person in the realms.

They were desperate because my initial task had messed with Aran in unexpected ways, and because of what I’d done, I was the only person who could connect with her and join the Angel Consciousness.

Apparently, all angels were assigned a guardian to help them earn their wings and keep them in check after they did so.

Someone strong who could help them.

It was an extremely prestigious position.

They had no choice but to give it to me because no one else could form the mental bond with Aran.

After an angel earned their wings, their guardian could send shock waves of punishment through their mental connection if they acted out of line.

The angel captain with heterochromia had it happen to him after the second competition.

The measure made sense.

As one of the few sentient species with wings and the ability to wield ice, angels were powerful in ways that weren’t easily controllable. They were also highly intelligent. As a result, the first angels had committed horrible atrocities in other realms and were unstoppable.

Angels were strong enough to commit horrors and cunning enough to evade capture.

The High Court had intervened to keep the peace.

The Angel Consciousness and guardian system were ways to keep them in check, and I was the unlucky person assigned to help guide Aran.

Some angels never earned their wings, and from what I could tell, there were no repercussions for the assigned guardian.

Not in our case.

Dick had cheerfully informed me that both of us would be murdered if Aran failed. It was imperative that she earned her wings.

According to him, the fate of all civilized society rested on her earning them.

I highly doubted it.

But it didn’t matter what I thought. I hadn’t been given a choice.

How bad could it be? I’d asked myself at the time.

Indubitably, it had gone way worse than I’d expected.

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