Page 62 of Fallen Angel

“How are you feeling?” Callan asked, his face stone cold.

Hannah opened her mouth, but before she could get a word in, Mara answered for her. “Quite rested, I would imagine.” She came to the edge of the altar and looked down at Hannah. “You slumbered through the night.”

Hannah felt an immediate sense of relief and gratitude. She was unsure whether to attribute it to the fact that she had a full night’s sleep or that she was still breathing after being defenseless in the company of two dark witches.

“I am not sure why you look so pleased,” Mara continued. “You have delayed my plans half a day’s time.”

Hannah wished she knew a spell that would banish her from this earth for good. A spark ignited in Hannah’s mind. She needed to get back to Raven’s spell book. There had to be something in those pages that could help her. In order to get out of here alive, however, Hannah had to continue to play along. Mara was supposed to be her master, so Hannah was forced to act as though she was a willing and dutiful follower.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so embarrassed. Guess my magic can’t protect me from my aversion to blood.”

Mara stepped off the altar and came close to Hannah. She caressed her face with her long, bony fingers. Hannah looked directly into her demonic red eyes.

“Do not fret, dear. I shan’t have you draw any blood.” Though this provided Hannah with a small sense of relief, it was short-lived. “You simply must bring the witches to me, and I shall do the rest.”

Hannah’s heart sunk, but she couldn’t let it play on her face. She now had to perform the duties that drove Callan to so much guilt that he imprisoned himself and all witches into stone for hundreds of years. She wouldn’t let that happen. Not only did she not want to betray the white magic that, as Raven put it,chose her, but she also knew that if Mara turned the awakened witches into her creatures, she would not stand a chance against them. If Hannah failed, then she would be happy to die on her eighteenth birthday. However, that meant she would be reborn into a world plagued by darkness. If Mara broke her curse and allowed Hannah to live, then she’d have to run for the rest of her life, always looking over her shoulder. Or she’d probably die trying to stop Mara. Hannah’s mind raced with the endless possibilities of what could happen, but she needed to focus on one thing at a time. Step one: Escape. Step two: Protect the re-awakened witches. Step three: Defeat Mara and free Callan.

“Thank you.” Hannah bowed her head. “I will do as you please.”

Mara grinned and puffed her chest.

“Mr. Delmonte,” Mara called. “You shall take our sweet Hannah to the highest point in the cliffs, and you are to show her how it is done.”

“Right away,” he said.

“Will you not be joining us?” Hannah asked. Her absence would make it easier for Hannah to escape to the Occult and Mysticism room. She would also be better able to gage how lost Callan truly was.

“I must conserve my strength and prepare. The outside world shall know me soon enough.”

Hannah nodded, feigning disappointment.

“Not to worry, dear,” Mara continued. “We shall be reunited soon enough. Tonight, with your help, our long-lost brothers and sisters shall join our cause.”

Callan smiled with pride and exhilaration. She swallowed her disgust.

When Hannahand Callan left the library, she squinted her eyes against the daylight. She considered trying to convince Callan to go back up the stairs to the Occult and Mysticism room, but she didn’t want to risk him seizing Raven’s book and bringing it back to Mara.

She sucked in the cool air and felt as if she was emerging from the underground cave as a new person. She could feel her light magic filling every crevice of her body with strength and hope. And despite the discouragement Hannah felt at not having Callan on her side and going up against the Devil herself, she took solace in the fact that she was able to resist the most powerful compulsion the world had ever known.

“This way,” Callan said, pointing up the edge of the cliffs.

A few students walked along the cobblestone paths. The rest of the campus looked empty—quiet and desolate. She imagined that most students were sitting in classrooms, learning the information that was supposed to prepare them for the rest of their lives. That was her only days ago. She imagined her professors scoffing at her lackluster attendance so early on in the semester, but none of it mattered now. Unlike Hannah, her peers had lives left to live.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, trudging beside Callan up a narrow path along the cliff’s edge. “What is it like for you, being back under Mara’s command?”

Callan looked straight ahead and kept pace. “I feel valorous. Lighter.”

“What do you mean, lighter?”

“All the guilt I carried with me ’twas akin to having a massive boulder glued to my back. I was miserable and moaning and…I cannot quite understand why I ever desired to leave Mara in the first place.”

“You told Raven you thought Mara’s actions were wrong.” Hannah snorted a laugh.

Callan halted his feet against the gravel and dirt and looked down upon Hannah. She worried that maybe she pushed too far.

“Is that what you believe? That all of this is wrong?” He stepped closer to her. “Embracing the potential of our magic and doing whatever we desire without consequence?”

Hurting people.

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