Page 60 of Wings of Death

I move through the doors and into her quarters, rubbing my arms as I shiver and am thankful to be back in the warmth. She moves to the fire, and with a wave of her hand, it ignites.Her powers have always amazed me, and it makes me wonder if I might be able to light a fire with my own. I’ll have to try it sometime.

The fire quickly warms me, and I settle into an armchair next to it as Lissian prepares us some tea. She places a small tray with a cup of tea next to me and folds her arms, awaiting my response to her earlier question.

“I’m sorry if I startled you,” I say, breaking the silence. “I didn’t want to be seen.”

She raises her brows in a knowing expression. “Ahh,” she says, taking a seat in the armchair opposite mine, “makes sense now. May I ask why you didn’t want to be seen?”

I take a sip of my tea before placing it back on the tray. “A lot has happened since I became a guardian. There is much to tell.”

She waves a hand around her quarters. “I have time,” she says with a kind smile.

I fill Lissian in on all the details since becoming a guardian. How the watchers have been attacking, how someone is leaving me clues surrounding my mother’s murder, and how my human, Kyle, is actually a fallen angel from Zarquon.

Lissian’s gaze snaps to mine at the mention of his name. “Kyle?”

I furrow my brows. “Did you know him?”

“Zarla dear, he used to visit you here in the Kingdom. I never quite understood how he could pass through into our Kingdom, being from Zarquon. The two of you seemed to gravitate toward each other. I would often find you building huts in the Dark Forest, despite my concerns of him being caught.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, blinking back tears. She knows Kyle too?

She gives me a knowing look. “Something tells me that Kyle is the reason you’re here.”

I nod, clearing my throat. “Kyle has powers. He didn’t know who I was. He didn’t even know who he was before he awoke on Earth when he was thirteen, with no previous memories. I took him back here, to the sacred golden fountain.”

Lissian’s eyes widen. “Were you seen?”

“No,” I quickly tell her, “we were careful. The fountain gave him his memories back. Well, not all of them. Some are still filtering back to him now. But….” I hesitate with my next words. “My memories of him haven’t returned.”

She takes a long sip of her tea, staring off into the flames. “I always wondered why you stopped speaking of him. And why he stopped visiting. I thought perhaps his family caught on to his little visits and banned him from returning. But it seems to me something more sinister may have happened, hence your lack of memory, too.”

I bite the inside of my cheek. “The first memory that came back to him was of a conversation he witnessed within our Kingdom. A female and a male were discussing my mother’s death. How they…” I pause, swallowing the lump forming in my throat. “How they murdered her.”

Lissian drops her teacup, and it smashes on the floor at her feet. She’s as still as a statue, as if she hasn’t even noticed. “He’s sure?”

I nod.

“Did he recognise them?”

“From what he’s told me, I think it was Hethenos. But I’m not sure who the male was.”

Lissian rapidly blinks and then gets down on the floor, picking up the pieces of the broken teacup. I wonder if she’s heard what I said when she looks up at me.

“What happened after he witnessed that conversation?”

“She took his wings and his memories and threw him down to Earth.”

She gasps, covering her mouth. “By the gods…”

I stand and pace before the fire, pressing my fingers into my temples. “Kyle has lived on Earth since he was thirteen, with no memory of who he really is. He grew up feeling alone and confused, and even now that he knows the truth, he has no wings. He cannot return home.”

Lissian hurries to my side as tears spill down my cheeks.

“It’s not fair. He didn’t deserve that. And neither did my mother.”

She pulls me in for a hug and strokes my hair. “Shhh,” she whispers, “it’s going to be okay.”

“What do we do? About Hethenos?”

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