my head. He told me it was my destiny to finish the vampires off and stop them spreading across the world like wildfire. And I believed him.”
“Still do?” I ask. “Do you still believe the angels are blessed and the good guys?”
Knowing exactly what I’m talking about, his face drops. “I regretted killing Erendriel the second I did it, but a part of me knew it was for the best. The master vampires were once twelve families, and they swept over the world, killing and turning whoever they wanted. No one could stand against them until the angels decided to,” he tells me. “All the families were killed in the name of the light, no child or woman spared, but Erendriel did escape after seeing his entire family murdered. I hoped he would go into the world and live a good, quiet life, but he did not. Erendriel only ever sought vengeance and, in the end, became what he ran from.”
“So the angels killed his entire family, and you wanted him not to come back and fight?” I question in anger. That is disgusting and wrong on so many levels.
Gabriel sighs. “Lass, our people, the angels, did what was best for the world. There was so much pain and destruction caused at the vampires’ hands. You could not imagine it, child. The world was burning under the rule of the vampires, and if they rule once more, it will burn again.”
Knowing there must be a point to him telling me this story alone, I wait.
“I wish the burden of my next question would fall on an older angel, but it must be you. The light above has spoken to me,” Gabriel starts. Yeah, me too. He sounds creepy as fuck. “You must kill Erendriel before he destroys the world.”
I knew he was going to ask that—I felt it in my heart, if not my soul—but the words still shock me.
And a feeling of sickness bubbles in my throat. Kill Ren?
I turn away and walk nearer the edge of the ship as I hold my shaky hands together. “And if I do not?”
“You will be seen as a traitor to the angel race, and he will come for you. The light above will demand your soul and wings back, Kaitlyn,” he softly warns me, but I don’t doubt he is sugarcoating what taking your soul and wings back means. “I do not want that future for you. Please do the right thing. Promise me you will do the right thing.”
“I promise,” I say, feeling like the words bind my soul to something I wasn’t ready for.
Gabriel smiles. “Blessed be the angels.”
I turn around, having no clue what I was going to say, but it doesn’t matter as Gabriel is gone.
If the right thing is to kill Ren…then the wrong thing is to leave him alive. I may hate his guts for what he did to me, but another, deeper part of me worries I wouldn’t be strong enough to kill him.
My heart doesn’t seem to want to let him go. I stare at the horizon as the sun slowly appears, flickering oranges, yellows, reds and purples across the sea and sky like a brush paints across a canvas. How can my world be so beautiful and so destructive all at the same time?
“Good luck, lass,” Myles’s mum, Helda, softly whispers to me as she draws me in for a hug before leaning back, resting her hands on my upper arms. Helda has the same thick blonde hair as her son, but he must get his eyes from his dad. “My boy has been searching the sky and stars for years for something. Ever since he was a wee boy. Then you fall out of the sky, and he is there to catch you. If that isn’t fate, what possibly could be?”
Before I can answer her, Myles steps up to us and grins at me. “Ready, my angel?” Then he pauses. “In fact, how are we getting back to this floating academy island?”
“Do you like horses?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow as I dig out the whistle necklace from around my neck and walk a good distance away from them all after saying goodbye. Gabriel and Madi were gone before I woke up yesterday morning, and I suspect they know my answer to the whole killing Ren and being a spy issue. I use the whistle, which sounds like no noise at all to my ears, but I know Ayda