Page 47 of Angel Lost

“Val…I swear if I walk in on hanky-panky…”

Her gaze drifts over my shoulder and she pales.

“So, it’s true?”

Zephyr.

I turn to the door, and the look of betrayal on his face nearly kills me. The others all push in behind him, a wall of bristling anger. Anger directed at me.

Farrell folds his arms across his crisp shirt and scowls down. “You are back. And Kai wasn’t lying—you’re leaving.”

Kai shuffles uncomfortably.

“I didn’t know where you were, chica,” Chano says, his eyes glowing dangerously purple. “That you were safe. Kai had to tell us.”

I lick my lips. I want to run my hands over them. They’re real. Alive. Not dead. I didn’t…

Chano leans into my face, a furrow between his eyebrows. “What did he do to you, Lorelei? What did the Angel King do? I knew we should have gone with you.”

He grips my chin between forefinger and thumb, forcing me to look at him.

I can’t tell them.

He wraps his arms around me, pulling me close, rubbing soothing circles on my back.

“He…the Angel King…made me choose between staying with him and attending the aether academy,” I say, muffled by Chano’s hoody.

“You’re going then? To the Gifted Academy?” Kai’s voice is hard. “You’re just leaving everyone. Off to ascend.”

“It’s part-time there, part-time here,” I snap. “And yes. I get to graduate a year early. Ascend, hopefully.”

Zephyr hisses in a breath somewhere behind Chano and I stretch out my fingers, taking his hand.

“We’ll find a way to get you out of it, Lorelei,” Zephyr says, a slight tremor in his voice.

No. No. No. They can’t interfere. The Angel King will destroy our allegiance. Destroy them.

“It’s my choice,” I say. “Not much of a choice, since the alternative was living away from you guys full-time, but I want this.”

“It’s a bad idea,” Kai says, and Farrell grunts his agreement. “Just refuse to go, Lorelei.”

I pull out of Chano’s grasp and round on Kai, poking a finger into his chest. “Why exactly? You think you’re the only one who should get to learn proper aether?”

The others exchange puzzled glances.

“Oh, yeah, I heard. You attend the aether academy too, wank stain.”

Kai. On the ground. Dead. My choice.

My fingers ache to touch him more, smooth his hair.

“Are you worried I’ll be stronger than you, Kai?” I demand, guilt riding me. He glares. “I am stronger.”

Kai’s fingers trace the tattoos on his exposed arms, faster and faster until he reaches up, runs his hands through his purple hair, and gives it a tug.

“I’m worried,” he finally says, “because my stepmom runs that school. And she’s a nutjob.”

Breakfast boot camp. What a fucking awful idea. I don’t care how many rips there are, this is inhuman. Wiping sleep out of my eyes, I force a smile as Jess bounces past, already on her second lap. The asphalt stretches out in front of me, and I force my legs to start pumping. My muscles, my joints, my everything hurts. After the aether trials I swear even my hair hurts. Slowly, with each lap, my muscles loosen. We did this all summer. Trained to exhaustion. It’s cathartic to fall back into it now. It gives me time to think. Space.

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