catches his shoulder.
“I didn’t know until I did it. Sorry if you hate me for that,” I say.
“I don’t hate you, but I don’t want to fail this academy and die,” Riley all but shouts, and my cheeks light up as I know everyone is staring.
“Riley, I’m not your enemy, you know that, right? This isn’t a competition,” I remind him.
“I know that,” he softly says, his whole attitude changing as he realises he has pushed me too far. “But it’s hard to share you with this academy. It just used to be us, you know?”
“In a small town with nothing to do, I remember,” I say with a smile. “We could get back to that one day.”
“We will always be angels, and angels don’t belong in tiny towns in the Lake District,” he reminds me, and I know he is right. Maybe we both need to look for a different future now.
Chapter 12
“Please find a seat, angels in training,” Professor Nina suggests as I get to the clearing in the gardens outside. There are little cushion seats dotted all around the clearing, and I close my eyes for a second, enjoying the warm air and the feel of the light on my face. The smell of all the plants nearby makes the air sweet, and for a moment, it doesn’t feel like I’m somewhere I don’t want to be, it feels relaxing. I find Riley near the front, and Vesnia follows me over as we both find a cushion nearby. He looks back, smiling tightly.
“Things are still weird with you two then?” Vesnia whispers to me.
“Same as always. Since we came here, that is,” I whisper back, wondering if there is some way I can fix my friendship with Riley. I know it’s super complicated between us, but I’m not sure how to fix something I don’t know how was broken in the first place. We can’t go back to the town where it was just us, day in and day out, but surely Riley knew that. No matter what paths our future took, it would change us.
Either way, he is my best friend, and I need to figure out a way to make him happy.
Professor Nina claps her hands a few times, and we all turn to see her stood in front of four light angels. “I will be handing you over to the final year light angel students after some brief words. As you all know, this year for new angels is a choice between the light angel side of your soul and the dark angel side. These two days once a week are to help you see what comes with the choice you will make. As the light angels are going first this year, I will leave you in their hands to explain more.”
Professor Nina spreads her wings wide and flies into the air, leaving us all staring in wonder until she disappears from sight.
“Right, it’s always awkward to begin with, but I’m Oliver. This is Teddy, Mike and Dave,” he introduces his friends, still with that overly big smile. “Light angels are the good guys, that’s what you should know first. We love to heal, to be kind, we cannot lie, and we are blessed with good luck. It comes in handy when you make a partnership with a dark angel and you are given a human to look after.”
“Are partnerships always between light and dark angels? Not two lights or darks?” Riley asks.
“Mr. Becker, it’s an honour to meet you, and the answer to your first question is yes. They must be a balance in the human’s decisions, an angel on each shoulder, if you will. Dark angels corrupt their human’s souls with sin and greed, and our job is to show them light,” he answers.
“Is it true that light and dark angels can’t have children together or be together in any sense?” Vesnia asks.
“That is true, but it’s more a choice than a rule. Light and dark angels do not make the best of friends, and that will not change in any future. When you make the choice, you will feel the difference the power of an angel makes in your soul,” Teddy answers her to explain.
“But enough with the depressing stuff, right?” Oliver says with a big grin that for some reason, I don’t want to smile back at. “We are going to start the class with meditation and then a small demonstration of your powers you could get as a light