Michael (The Airel Saga, Book 2) - By Aaron Patterson Page 0,95

My own most recent fair city. I’ve been known to haunt Sydney and London from time to time.”

“Wait, I thought you were from Portland. Or Seattle,” Michael said.

“You assumed. I carry documents too numerous to list. What the documents say on their face is what allows people to draw their own conclusions in concert with how they think. And when you’ve got as much experience as I do, you know how to make connections and how to use them. At the moment, officially, I’m a dual citizen of ol’ Zed-A and the USA—”

“Zed-A?” I asked.

“South Africa’s official initials, girlie. Anyway, I guess you could say in regard to my American citizenship that I’m African-American. Though with skin this fair in an intellectual climate as intolerant and closed-minded as America is currently, I know it’s the unpardonable sin for me to say so. If the world even believes in sin anymore.”

I laughed at her little rant. I supposed she deserved it. “So you’re from Cape Town? Is it cool?”

“Crikey, yeah. I’ve been all over the place. Quite literally. And Cape Town is one of the most naturally gorgeous spots on earth.”

“Why did you lie?” Michael blurted out.

I felt a little ashamed at myself, feeling like a too-eager turncoat. That, plus his question made me blush a little, but I nevertheless waited for her answer.

“That’s easy, mate. You can’t trust anyone these days. I have a lot to lose. There’s a lot at stake here. Actually, you should feel privileged that I shared the truth with you even now. You ought to feel some measure of gratitude that I’m demonstrating enough faith in you to confide this.”

“Okay, but why?” he persisted. “Why did you have to keep us in the dark at all? Are you even here because of El…and orders…or was that all just a lie too?”

Ellie leaned across the table toward us and lowered her voice. She pointed to me. “Airel knows the answer to that already.”

After a split second of confusion it did indeed become clear as a bell to me. I looked at Michael and said, “She’s here to protect me.” That’s crazy! How could I be that important? And of course it was beyond prudent for her to keep that to herself for as long as she dared. She must think we’re headed for something enormous, then…still though…little ol’ me? She’s here to protect me?

But I knew. After all, I knew, and it was flooding into me. After all I had read in my grandfather’s Book, after all I had experienced, after all the impossibilities of my own resurrection from the dead, my still-developing abilities, and the fact that I could now call the Sword of Light at a whim and wield it in battle, the very Sword my grandfather had been the only angel to possess… well, perhaps technically it had belonged to his brother Tengu, before he had joined the rebell—all of it came crashing into me with brute force. I grasped the edge of the table to steady myself. I was breathing hard, like I had just run a sprint. “Whoa,” was all I could articulate.

“See? She knows,” Ellie said. “Now, Michael, how ‘bout let’s fill her in on the rest of the plan. The why of it. The danger. She’s gotta know. She’s gotta know now.”

For the next hour we sat at the table as they filled me in on how we were going into, basically, the lion’s den. And how not just Kim was effectively the bait, but me as well.

Kreios, I thought desperately, you had better freaking show up. We are taking some huge risks now. Risks that might change the whole world forever.

We bought a few little souvenirs from the street merchants before catching another taxi back to the airstrip. “Wideawake; what a cool name,” I said. I was thoroughly engrossed, and as it turned out, clueless. I should have known better.

The bottom of our little world didn’t drop out until we boarded the plane again: Kim was gone. At first I thought she had just woken up and needed to use the bathroom or something, that maybe she had gone into the hangar for some reason. Something temporary, something that meant she would be back.

But she was gone.

Ellie was as angry as I had ever seen her. “We’ve gotta find her. NOW.”

“That’s a good girl, Kim. You’ve done well. Very well.”

Kim had been faking it for hours on the plane, pretending to be asleep. It was so crazy how