Wicked Wings

35

“For the first test, we ask you to demonstrate your utmost loyalty to the Order. To do so, you must steal an item from a professor, or even the headmaster, if you so dare. Make sure you don’t get caught, as you will likely be suspended or fired for such an act. You have a month to procure this item, after which you’ll receive another invitation to the next meeting, where you will present it to us. Make sure it’s something good, or we might reject your offering. Should we accept it, you’ll be given the second test. Good luck.” With those last words, the golden-robed people step back into the darkness of the forest and disappear, leaving those of us in the white robes standing around awkwardly. We glance at each other, but since we can’t recognize anyone, we can’t really size up our competition.

I can’t help but wonder who nominated me. I don’t meet any of their criteria, and I find it hard to believe they would invite the half-human with unknown parentage. Either someone knows who my father is, or I’ve been invited for some other reason. For all I know, it’s a prank. Or maybe the invitation was meant for someone else, and it got put in my room by accident.

Whatever the reason, I’m taking advantage of it. I have no interest in actually becoming a member of the Order, or in any of the things they believe in, but I feel like I’m on the right path. My gut tells me this secret society is the key to finding Jonah, which means I’m going to pass whatever tests they throw at me. Bring it on.

A

fter I return to my room, I find myself unable to sleep, and my mind drifts back to the night I met Jonah.

A noise outside my window got me out of my bed in a hurry. Father had just left, and Mother rarely came to see me, except in dreams sometimes. Whoever was out there couldn’t mean anything good for me.

My current round of foster parents didn’t pay much attention to me, so they hadn’t noticed when I hid a baseball bat under my bed. I grabbed it and flattened myself against the wall, then peeked out the window with the braveness of a ten-year-old who was used to taking care of herself, but also knew there were definitely monsters out there that might get you.

To my surprise and relief, a gangly boy about my age pressed his face against the glass. I was on the second story, but his wings kept him hovering at my level. I gaped at him for a minute, and then I cracked open the window, raising my bat, just in case. “Who are you?”

“Jonah,” he said, a little too loud. “Who are you?”

“Shhh! I’ll ask the questions.” My foster parents watched a few too many police shows on TV and they were rubbing off on me. “Why are you flying around outside my window?”

“I came to see why my dad was visiting you,” the boy said. “I followed him here.”

“Your dad?” I blinked at him and lowered my bat, then spoke without thinking. “He’s my dad too.”

“Really?” Jonah’s face lit up.

Uh oh. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about my real parents. Father was teaching me about my people, and he warned me many times that if they found me, they’d want to hurt me, but I was too excited at the prospect of meeting someone else like me. I opened the window all the way and waved Jonah inside.

“You have to be quiet.” I sat on my bed and set the bat beside me. “I’m Olivia, but you can call me Liv.”

Jonah didn’t sit, and instead vibrated with excitement, his wings still out. They were sparkling white with silver streaks, and I really wanted to touch them, but I knew that wasn’t okay. “You’re my sister?”

I nodded while biting my lip. His hair was dark blond and his bright smile looked nothing like my own, so it was hard to believe we could be related. His blue eyes were almost gray, while mine were a strange green that people usually commented on when first meeting me. “How can you fly? I thought angels don’t get their wings until they’re twenty-one.”

“I got mine when I was seven,” he said, as he looked around the room, checking everything out. There wasn’t much there, since I’d only moved in a few weeks ago. “Mom says it’s rare, but it happens sometimes.”

“Who is your mom?” Could it be possible? Was there someone else like me?

“Archangel Ariel.”

“Oh,” I said, disappointed. He was a full angel, and I was…not.

All of a sudden, Father appeared in the room in a flash of light, and Jonah and I both let out a cry of surprise. He took us in, looking stern and scary. “Jonah, what are you doing here?”

Jonah looked up at his dad with defiance. “I wanted to know where you sneak off to sometimes. Why didn’t you tell me I have a sister?”

“It was for Olivia’s protection. No one is supposed to know about her. Not even you.”

“You should have told us.” I got a little warm glow in my chest for siding with Jonah. I had a brother. I wasn’t totally alone anymore.

Father pinched the brow of his forehead with a sigh. “Perhaps you’re right. But Olivia is safer if no one knows about her. Jonah, I’m going to have to get Jophiel to wipe your memories. I’m sorry.”

“No!” we both cried out.

I grabbed onto Father’s sleeve and looked up at him with eyes on the brink of tears. “Please, Father. I don’t have anyone. Don’t take Jonah away too.”