Page 2 of Touched By Sin
The teacher smiles at her. “Go on, Freya.”
“Love is patient and kind. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
“Very good.”
“You’re a teacher’s pet,” I tease, leaning in.
“I don’t deny it.”
“Aurelia,” the teacher says, and I snap to attention. “How does fear relate to love?”
“There is no fear in love. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
“Very good.”
I preen, too. How can I not when my teacher looks at me like an exemplary student? I’m not. I’m too restless and curious-minded to be a teacher’s pet like Freya. I’m always pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable here in Eden with my endless questions and wandering feet. It will get me into a lot of trouble one day.
ChapterOne
AURELIA
“Show us your wings,” Freya says to Oliver after class, batting her wispy eyelashes. My attention is elsewhere as I stare longingly at the path that leads to the gates.
“Wow,” she gasps behind me, “they’re amazing!”
I walk away, my feet padding on the soft grass. Freya won’t notice I have left. Not when Oliver flexes his impressive wings. He’ll have the pick of the crop one day when it’s time to choose a wife. I wouldn’t say no, but he doesn’t excite me either. Unfortunately, there’s not much choice here in Eden unless you’re into blonde-haired boys with blue eyes that shimmer like the fish pond in my backyard.
I’ve never seen a dark-haired boy. They only exist in the fairytales we’re told around the campfire about dangerous boys with hellfire in their eyes and sin at the touch of their fingertips—the fallen angels, banished from the Garden of Eden.
It doesn’t take me long to reach the tall and majestic gates lined with white roses. They shimmer gold up ahead, the flowery fragrance tantalizing my senses as I near. Birds sing in the trees, and the breeze lifts my hair off my shoulders. I’m closer than ever. Close enough to be in serious trouble if anyone sees me.
I look behind me, but there’s no one around except a deer munching on the grass by the tree line. It flicks its ears as I reach my fingers out to trace the green leaf of a white rose. The petals shimmer like everything here in Heaven.
I draw in a breath and my hand retreats but soon moves back in to slide over the gate’s smooth surface. To my surprise, it creaks open enough to allow me to slip through. I hesitate for a brief moment. Will I find my way back if I leave? What if I get lost? What if Freya comes looking for me?
Before I can think it through, I sneak out. The air is different out here, denser somehow. It’s colder too, and shivers run down my back as I step further away from the gate. The dark, gaping forest, with trees that appear like demons with claws and fangs, draws me closer until I stand at the edge with my heart in my throat, barely daring to breathe. My arm brushes up against the scratchy branch of a tree as I debate turning back.
I don’t.
“Come closer,” the darkness whispers, reaching for me like tendrils in the night, long, crooked fingers tangling in my hair and pulling at my pale skin. I gasp and step back. My heart thunders in my chest, and I’m more alive than I’ve ever been. I should turn around and walk back to safety, but I step forward instead.
With one last glance behind me, I disappear into the shadows, my wings kept tucked close to my body. My cascading hair snags on the branches, and it’s not long before damp leaves and twigs stick to the tangled strands. It’s silent in here except for my racing heartbeat and the throb of it in my ears. It’s chilly, too. My breath is visible in the air and my skin swells with goosebumps. There’s no bird song, no deer munching on leaves, and no hares twitching their ears. It’s just me and the tall, spindly trees that reach for my limbs and tangle in my hair while whispering untold secrets.
I keep walking deeper into the forest, pulled forward by my own unsatiated curiosity. The woods whisper my name, welcoming me home. As though I were a visitor in Eden, and this is where I belong.
There’s a sudden sound to my left—a twig snapping—and I whirl around, stumbling back when three boys emerge from the shadows. Boys unlike anything I’ve seen before. Boys with hellfire in their dark eyes and sin at their fingertips.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” the tall boy to the right asks, cocking his head to the side and smiling cruelly.
The boy in the middle chuckles darkly. “Are you lost, little angel?”
My feet carry me backward until my spine connects with a tree. I try to move around it, but the boys are faster.
“Where are you going, pretty little thing?”
Dark hair, darker eyes, black wings. They’re fallen angels, the monsters from the fairytales of my youth.
“What’s an innocent little thing like you doing out here?” one of them asks as I back away. They circle me like predators circle prey. “You never know what monsters lurk in the shadows.”
