Page 1 of Wings of Torment
1
Everyone stares.
Professors. Students. Even my friends, though they at least look happy to see me.
I feel their approach, but I can’t focus on them. I can’t seem to focus on anything but the utter destruction around me. The familiar ring of trees that once circled this old well has changed. Broken stumps and uprooted trees surround me, and the few that appear nearly untouched now hold up the bloodied angels watching me.
How did this happen?
Footsteps crunch over the scattered ash circled around me, quickly drowned out by the frantic thump of my heart. I should be used to the stares by now, but at least then I knew what they were for. Now I’m stuck in a vortex of confusion, and it doesn’t feel like I’ll ever escape.
A hint of leather fills my nose, so I know Zeke is close. He grabs my arms, and our eyes lock. His are full of concern as he trails them over my face and down my body. I’m sure my eyes must be wide and unhinged, but that doesn’t stop him from pulling me into an embrace.
When his arms envelop me, all I want to do is collapse. I hold on to him, whether for comfort or balance, I don’t even know, but I feel safe here.
His husky voice vibrates through his chest, but I can’t focus enough on the words to understand. Before I know it, I’m being pulled away by soft fingers.
“By the Archangels, Hayles. Are you alright?” Dina asks, pushing the hair from my face.
“Yeah. I think so.”
No one buys it.
Raphael hugs me next, pressing a kiss to the top of my head, and then his words are in my mind.You gave us quite the fright, sunshine.
I squeeze him a little tighter, pushing my words at him with ease.I’m just glad you’re all okay.Nothing can get to me as long as I stay entwined with him. I’m protected from the world.
He turns me around and presses me into another warm body, this one unfamiliar yet recognizable all the same. Theo. He’s never held me like this before, or at all, really. But within the confines of his arms, I feel nurtured and cared for.
“Are you sure you’re fine?” Theo asks, pulling back to look at me.
I nod but can’t stop the question from surfacing in my mind. Am I? Can any of us really be fine after what just happened?
Then I notice the blood. Theo’s clothes are covered in it. He and Dina have faded claw marks on their arms, and Raphael sports a rather gnarly looking gash on his thigh, but I can’t tell the severity beneath all the dried, crusty blood. Zeke is the leastbloodied, with only a torn uniform and dark droplets of what can only be demon blood splattered across it.
“Enough about me. Are you guys injured? This isn’t all yours, is it?” I eye the impossible amount of blood coating Theo’s shirt, my heart pounding as I wait for a response. Have I failed them? These angels who have become my closest friends, were they harmed while trying to protect me?
“No,” he replies, clasping my hand in his and poking a hole in my ever-growing worry. “We’re actually considered the lucky ones, compared to what we saw of the other students.” His grimace paints enough of a picture for me to believe him and forces my mind back to the day of the assembly. After that incident, I knew whatever happened in his past had to have involved demons. If his trauma had risen again during the battle, who knows what might have happened to him?
“Breathe, sunshine. We’re all a little banged up, but we’ll live.”
The knot that had formed in my chest while I hid beneath my wings loosens, and I can finally breathe a little easier. We survived. Sure, with a few scrapes and bruises, but we’re here. We’re still breathing. As much as I try to focus on that, I can’t shake the confusion. How did we, and everyone else, defeat a horde of angry demons? Had the Guild finally shown up with their special swords? That would explain the pile of ash at my feet, but I don’t recall seeing anyone in a Guild uniform except for Zeke in front of me. The last thing I remember is the awful snarls from the encroaching circle of horrid beasts while I hid.
“What happened here?” I try to keep my voice steady but fail miserably, the words coming out shaky and soft.
Zeke is the first to respond. “You don’t know?”
I shake my head. “I just remember hiding with my wings like a coward until I heard you all call for me. Then I was just so fucking angry and worried that one or all of you would get hurt.Next thing I know, there’s a blinding light and the demons are gone.”
My words don’t ease the confusion from their faces like I’d hoped.
“Babe,” Dina says, her voice soft. “That blinding light came from you.”
Her words hit me harder than any demon had. The light came fromme? But that doesn’t make sense.
I gaze around my circle of friends, then beyond them to the still-gawking group of angels. It’s thinned out some, but enough remain to make me wary. Keeping my voice low, I ask, “What do you mean?”
Raphael steps closer, sensing my unease. “The moment your wings opened, light flashed. Almost like you held a tiny storm within your wings and, as soon as they unfurled, a thousand bolts of lightning escaped.”
