Wings of the Wicked - By Courtney Allison Moulton Page 0,134
me, with my dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. Beside me was Will, with a genuine smile on his face and one hand on the shoulder of a young, lanky man with shaggy hair. I brought the photo closer and squinted to make out his face. The boy’s eyes and smile gave him away, and in my mind I pictured him laughing. It was Frank Meyer.
My entire world—everything I knew—spun through my head like a tornado. “I can’t believe any of this. I can’t … get my mind around it.”
She smiled and slid an arm around my shoulders. “I know. When I found out, it was impossible for me to believe this little fire-haired girl was the archangel Gabriel. I felt so much for you. Your nightmares, your slipping grades, the sneaking out. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d been you. I should have been there for you, but I was terrified of messing up your cycle.”
“You wouldn’t have messed anything up,” I said in a small voice. “I needed my family more than anything, but I understand why you did it.” I took a deep breath of relief, feeling the weight melt from my shoulders. In spite of myself, I smiled. “You can’t know how good this feels.”
Her own smile brightened. “Oh, I do, believe me. I’m so happy that you know who I am as well. I want to help you in any way possible. Whatever you need to do, please don’t worry about making up a story to do it. I understand this is your duty, who you are. But don’t forget, Gabriel, that you have to be Ellie too, or you’ll lose yourself.”
Lose myself. Something I was terrified of. “I need to go back to school. I need to have a life on top of all this. I need some kind of normalcy.”
She nodded. “Good girl. Let’s get you back into school, then. But eat your soup first. I don’t want to see a speck left in that bowl before you go to bed.”
I smiled and picked up the spoon. “Okay, Nana.”
The next few months until graduation were going to kick my ass sideways. Nana scored me visits with my principal and counselors, to get me on a track that would catch me up in classes. She explained that after the horrible events I’d gone through, I went to stay with other family—which wasn’t entirely untrue—and my school was sympathetic and willing to help. I had a new determination in me to prevent any more demonic things from stealing the rest of my youth.
Managing my time between patrolling for reapers and spending extra hours at school with my teachers was exhausting. The Saturday after my return to school, Kate demanded that I get to her house at eight for a “small thing” and to bring Will. I figured after visiting Kate, Will and I could go kill stuff. I got ready, just pulling on jeans and a sweater over a tank, and waited for him to come over. Tonight we had plans for Nana to meet him, especially since she knew his—and my—true identity. She was very curious about him, as all psychics and angelic reapers tended to be about the both of us. We were like Elvis—minus the drugs and triple the bluesy angst.
When he arrived, I let him in and he followed me through the house to the parlor where Nana sat with a cup of tea and a thick, old leather book. Her eyes instantly rested on him and she smiled. She put her things down and climbed to her feet rather gracefully for her age.
“It’s a pleasure to meet Ellie’s Guardian,” she said, and held out a hand to shake his firmly. She studied him curiously, her gaze lingering on his tattoos.
“You, too,” he said politely. “She’s told me great things about you.”
She smiled. “Forgive my excitement. I’ve heard about you my entire life—you and Ellie, or rather her previous incarnations. It’s taken quite a while for me to get used to the knowledge that my beautiful granddaughter is the vessel of Gabriel. But Frank Meyer knew her as soon as he saw her.”
Will nodded and his lips tightened. “Frank was a great man and a good friend.”
Nana’s expression grew serious. “I’m sorry he didn’t have a way of contacting you sooner to tell you he’d found her. No one knew where you were. We all know you exist, but so few of us had ever seen