Page 41 of Rejected Darkness

"Divine, there's more?" Harper squeaks loudly her eyes widening as she looks at me. "I don't think I can handle more."

"Yup, there's more." I really wish there wasn't more, but for some reason, life seems to have it out for me and everything is following me around, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. I just don't know which to tell them next, Phoenix being my mate or about the journal and my possible connection to Lucifer. Maybe I should just let them choose one or two and go from there.

"Dear Divine, what more can there be?" Isis sighs dramatically rolling her eyes. "Let's just rip the bandaid off. Hit us with it."

Shrugging, I decide to give her what she wants. "If you insist. Phoenix is my mate, Rhys did the Fallen ceremony to confirm while we were sleeping last night. Oh, and I found a journal mixed into my belongings when I got here. A journal about Lucifer, and in it are details about some of his powers. One of which matches something that I can do, and it's a power passed down through bloodlines."

"WHAT?" they both shriek together and begin talking over themselves asking a million questions a minute. I can't even get a word in edgewise around them. Between them freaking out over me having a third mate, let alone one who is a Fallen, and the fact I also have a power that's passed down through Lucifer's bloodline. Yeah, I can understand why they are freaking out. It's the same thing I have been doing since I discovered it.

"Wait, wait, wait," Harper holds up her hand cutting Isis off and turning to stare at me. "There's no way that you can have any blood relation to Lucifer, or well at least not a descendant from him. I remember when they told us about his downfall and the creation of Fallen in school. After I did more research because I found it interesting. When he was on trial and sentenced, the Seraphim Council tore off his wings, made him celibate, and I hate saying this, killed his daughter. So there is no way it's possible."

"I remember that," Isis adds. "Admittedly I was fucking around in classes that day but didn't they also say something about destroying his mate bond and forcing his mate to bond with someone else?"

"Yes, but her name was stricken from the records. Not one mention of who she was. It was weird," Harper continues toexplain. She's right, that's all the same information I found as well.

"What's even weirder? The journal was given to me by my great-grandmother Aurora. She had Warrick give me it and told me it was important that I got it. How the hell did my great-grandmother get her hands on the journal and why was it so important I got it?" All this has done has led to more and more confusion. Every time I get an answer, it leads to more questions.

"Wait you said your great-grandmother gave you the journal? How old is she?"

"Uhh, a couple of centuries old at least," I answer confused about where she is going with this. My parents have always tried to get me to steer clear of her so I didn't get to visit as often as I would like to with her. They also made sure only certain topics were talked about. Maybe they were trying to hide something from me.

"Could she have been alive during Lucifer's time and knows something about him?" Harper inquires. She doesn't seem judgmental in the least. If anything she looks like she really wants to help me.

"It's possible. The only way to know would be to ask her but she doesn't exactly do technology and we don't get passes to visit home. " I shrug wishing what she was asking was possible. If we could just call her it would make everything easier. "Maybe Warrick could go if we have a list of questions?" It might be a reach but right now it's the only solution I have. He knows I was given the journal not what was in it, but eventually, I'm going to have to tell him everything. Maybe this is the time to do it.

"Does he know about the journal? Like it's content?" Isis asks. I can see in her eyes she is trying to come up with some sort of plan. Anything that can help us figure out all of this and why I have a power that I really shouldn't have at all.

"He has no idea what's in it. We haven't exactly had time to sit down and talk about things. Plus, honestly, I've been scared ever since I learned of having the same power. It's not one that I use, if ever. The times I do use it, it's by accident because I have no idea how to control it. Warrick doesn't even know about the power." Dropping my head into my hands I sigh realizing just how fucked of a situation I'm in. Not even my best friend knows everything about me. How is he supposed to take me seriously as a mate if I don't tell him everything? Shit. How did my life get this messy?

"Don't get mad at me for asking this," Isis prefaces before continuing. "Do you trust him to tell him about this power and what's in the journal?"

"Since he's my mate I feel like I don't have a choice, but yeah I trust him to know. Especially now that we are away from my father. Warrick won't tell anyone."At least I hope not, I add mentally. I've trusted him with everything for the most part. Why I held back on my manipulation power I have no idea, except for fear. I guess it's time to rip the bandaid off and tell him everything. Maybe I'll get lucky and he will know something to help me put more of the pieces together.

"I have a mentoring session this morning with him, I can talk to him then." My decision has been made. He needs to know and I need his help. The girls can't help me with this except to be supportive. I told him eventually I would tell him everything. Looks like today is going to be that day. Though, maybe I won't bring up Phoenix just yet. One problem at a time, mainly because Phoenix is currently on my shit list after everything this morning. He should have talked to me, not put distance between us and been cold. That was unacceptable. That hurt me.

"Okay, talk to him and tell us how it goes," Harper nods in agreement before looking up at the clock on the wall. "Shit, guys, class start over ten minutes ago. We need to go now."

"Ah, hell, I'm going to get so much shit for being late," Isis groans. "Talk to Warrick, and we will discuss the whole Phoenix thing later today. Dinner?"

"Sounds perfect. I'll come to your room. Phoenix and Rhys have decided that I'm staying with them for however long, so it will be nice to get away from them for a bit," I agree desperate for some girl time. "Then we can also discuss more about the break-in too."

"Deal!" Harper smiles, standing at the same time Isis and I do to grab our bags. "I may have detention after this so let's plan for around six with pizza rolls."

"Sounds heavenly," I hum already excited for what's to come. Girls night is starting to become a thing and I'm not mad about it. Divine, am I thankful that both of them are still standing by me even knowing I possibly am somehow connected to Lucifer. I really thought they would leave me when they found out. My friends back home definitely would have left me out to dry the second I told them what I'd discovered. I guess coming to this school has brought one good thing in my life.

Chapter 23

Warrick

Ever since I got the report from Councilwoman Talia that Arabella's dorm was broken into I have been on edge. I wanted to run straight to her and make sure that she was okay but I couldn't. Damn, this position and the rules put in place. If only I had told Arabella we needed to tell Talia the truth about us being mates. If we had then I could have been there to help her. Heck, I could have provided her a safe place to sleep until whoever did this was caught. Instead, I was stuck waiting and pleading for her to come find me. I lasted all of twelve hours before I sent my first text just saying "hello". I didn't want to draw any suspicion toward us. I know she had told her roommates about us being mates but just in case anyone else was around it would only look like a friend was checking in on her. Thank the Divine that Talia was already aware of Arabella being a friend from home and didn't see an issue with me being her mentor. If anything she welcomed it, especially when I had Seraphim Cassiel's blessing. Then again according to the email I received on Monday, he was just banned from R.I.S.E. Academy grounds.

Good riddance.

"Come on, Arabella," I mutter, pacing my work office and staring at the clock for what feels like the hundredth time. She is already ten minutes late to our mentoring session. Never, once in my life have I known her to be late to anything. That may have been from the fear her father instilled in her from his beatings, but it's still something I know or at least thought that she was always on time. I had checked her file when I first arrived here and was assigned students to mentor. She didn't have any strikes for tardiness in her file. The only thing I saw was a complaint about disrupting class. After I read the teacher's notes about what happened I knew she wasn't at fault and decided to pretend it didn't exist.

Grabbing a stress ball from the side of my desk, I continue my pacing back and forth. It's taking everything in me to not go storming through the halls trying to find her. Heck, if I knew where she was staying I would check there as well, but I don't. Talia said it was all in hand and that she was safe. It was the only answer I had gotten, despite my many protests. I even tried to question Isis about it during her mentoring session yesterday but she said everything was fine. I could tell she wanted to say more but she hadn't, even with me pushing slightly. Whether it was because she had the answers or she didn't I wasn't sure.

"Gah!" I shout, throwing the stress ball against the wall. Never in my life have I been this worried before. Well, that's not true. I was worried every time I had to leave Arabella alone at her parent's house. When she was younger, I tried to stay over, or at least sneak in so that I could watch over her and keep her safe. It seemed her father never would wake her for a beating. No, he did it during the day or before she would go to bed so her body had time to heal overnight. It was disgusting but I had no way to stop it. I still don't. He's too powerful and I honestly don't think most ruling members of the Seraphim Council would even care.They would chock it up to disciplining a difficult child and leave it at that. Disgusting.

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