Page 386 of Castings & Curses

"Please, take me to him," I replied, urging her to lead the way.

MELINDA

I awakenedas a glow filtered through the curtains from the early morning light. The bed was pleasantly comfortable, and I was in no hurry to get up. It took me a minute to realize Aurelia wasn't there.

I'd actually rather enjoyed the angel watching me, as odd as that might've sounded. I might've felt unsafe around most angels right now, but not Aurelia. It was as though she understood me, and I felt her heart was in the right place. She was the kind of angel who'd inspired me to join the angelic hierarchy in the first place, out of a desire to help people and be a part of something greater than myself.

Perhaps it helped that Aurelia wasn't angel-born. I wasn't sure of her heritage, but it was clear she'd begun as an outsider. She'd obviously been with them for a while in order to accrue the abilities she had. In time, I might develop new abilities too, if I remained steadfast and true to their cause, and if they kept me on.

I wasn't counting on that to happen.

I thought about returning 'home' to my other hotel room and picking up some things. There was also my main home where I'd been staying while I was working as Misha's muse.

I didn't need to stay at the hotel anymore, but some voice at the back of my mind told me to hang on to my hotel room, just in case. I'd enchanted it to mask my presence there, the same way the pin did before I gave it to Raphael.

It was too early to disturb Riga, and I didn't want to worry my angelic compatriots or risk danger just yet by leaving Enchant.

I picked up the remote control off the chest of drawers beside the bed, and switched on the television. I laid in bed watching my way through morning cartoons before the news came on.

The news anchorwoman's face was deeply disturbed as she reported the destruction of a Manhattan hotel by a meteorite. That area sure looked familiar. There was a reason for it!

I sat bolt upright in bed. It was the hotel where I'd been staying. If I hadn't come to Enchant, I'd likely have been killed.

All of those other poor people at the hotel — gone! I felt sick to my stomach. This couldn't be pure chance. Someone had targeted the place, likely because they thought I might be there. How did they even know about it? I hadn't told anyone at all. I reasoned that they must've known since I'd first checked in.

And who in this day and age had the ability to throw meteors about? Literally no one, or so I thought.

Where was Aurelia? I wanted to tell her what was going on. Even the archangel Raphael would've been good to talk to, but they were gone. Maybe they'd already learned of this and they were investigating it?

Turning back to the news, I listened for more information.

"This may be the start of a much larger meteor shower. Only small objects have been detected so far. As we can see, they are still capable of causing serious damage. We encourage residents of the Greater New York area to stay in your homes. We will share a map of areas that could potentially be affected as soon as one becomes available."

Could this be a precursor to a more sinister attack? I couldn't help feeling that we were standing on the brink of an even greater peril than we'd imagined.

I looked around at my room at Enchant. I knew Raphael had shielded the building to some level, but would that shielding stand up against a physical threat from meteorites? I had my doubts.

I climbed quickly out of bed and hurried down the hall to Riga's room, still dressed in my pastel pink nightdress.

My knocks on the door went unanswered for around a minute until Riga called out, "What do you want? It's six fucking thirty in the morning and I need to fucking sleep."

"Riga, it's Melinda," I said. "My hotel was destroyed by a meteorite and I fear Enchant might be next. Please let me in!"

It took a very long time, by my estimation, before Riga opened the door.

"Start at the beginning," she said.

* * *

It tookover forty minutes before the physical shield went up, protecting the building from meteorites and other material threats. Enchant was practically empty at that time of day, so for now it wasn’t much of a problem. That might change if more people tried to enter the premises later. I wasn't sure what else we could do. It was that or we wouldn't have had any protection against physical threats like this.

With a sigh, I put the news back on and listened for more new information.

"It's common to see meteor showers on any given night, especially away from the bright city lights. What's rare is to see damage such as this from meteorites in a heavily-populated area."

I winced, unable to draw my attention away from the television. It wasn't a good situation at all. The news anchors explained that meteorites were what meteoroids were called after hitting the ground, while meteors or meteor showers were like falling stars.

I glanced out my window and saw the shield around Enchant shimmering in the morning light. Its presence was reassuring, but then I heard a clatter above, and I knew it had to be something bouncing off the shield. It didn't take a genius to figure out what it was. I rushed downstairs and outside into the beer garden to get a better view.

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