The difference is…I had Riley at my side. My best friend. My saviour who fought off the bullies who called me names and told me I was weird. He was always at my side, always fighting in my corner, and now I’m alone, betrayed by everyone who I trusted more than my life. Trust is a fragile thing, and once broken, who knows how to fix it again. I would be better off falling to the earth, being lost and dead like I should have been before I was turned into an angel.
I can’t trust anyone. Not even my family, because if I can see ghosts and only the bloodline of the most powerful vampires can see ghosts…it means more secrets have been kept from me. Has my whole life been a giant fat lie?
The very fact is I’m not sure if staying alive is a fate worse than death at this point.
“You must not die, Kaitlyn Lightson. I chose you in the darkness and gave you a second life. You belong to me, your soul is in my debt, and you do not have the choice to freely give it away.”
I gasp, looking around me but seeing nothing, only clouds, the night sky, and feathers flickering off my wings into the air around me before the wind whisks them away. I’m alone. I know I am. The voice felt like it was in my head, like a voice I’ve heard before, and I wonder if I’m losing my mind and conjuring new voices to speak to me in my final moments. I would laugh, but sadness has a choke hold on my heart, pounding into my chest and squeezing tight. I soon see that I’ve fallen through the portal to earth, spiralling endlessly and forever on my way down. The wind is a little colder here, but the night sky seems the same, as the stars never change, and they are my company for now.
My light in the dark night that feels endless and as lost as I am.
“You will pay back your debt to me as the fates descend. Fly, Kaitlyn.”
Like someone reaches into my chest, I jolt, my once exhausted body feeling full of life and energy suddenly, and I snap out of the haze I was in.
I want to live. The thought is so much more vivid than the voice speaking inside my head, and I know it wasn’t me who healed myself. Someone is with me.
I blink back the tears in my eyes as I turn around, noticing that I’m above a dark sea with only one modern looking ship nearby, its lights flickering as the waves push the large ship around. Spreading my wings out, I let the breeze stop my fall and glide me over the sea as I suck in a breath of relief. I can land on the ship and figure out the rest of my plan; I just need to stop for a moment. I’m free…but Vesnia and Thallon are not. Despite what Ren, Riley and Henry did and lied about, I can’t leave my real friends to suffer. The Angel Academy is controlled by vampires now, and who knows what Ren will do to the angels, let alone to Thallon, who might be a skilled fighter, but he lacks his wings. Flying towards the ship, I sense the presence that has been with me since I fell.
“Who are you?” I ask the sky, and I don’t expect an answer, but I get one anyway.
“My name was lost to angels many years ago, but you would have heard mention of me. I am the light above, and your soul belongs to me. Survive this.”
Just as his voice leaves my head, a wave higher than where I’m flying crashes into me, pushing me into the cold sea with its strength. I gasp, sucking in cold water as my body freezes while the water pushes me around in its depth, the swirling ocean’s power nearly impossible to resist. I can’t scream for help, I can’t fight the sea as black dots spot my vision, and I take in far too much water. I can’t see the surface as I struggle, fighting the current of the strong water as I search for anything.
I’m going to die. The sea is going to drown me just as I decided to live. Can half vampires, half angels even die?
Suddenly, warm arms wrap around my body and pull me up, straight to the surface of the water. The cold air brings much relief as it hits my lungs, and I cough out water as the stranger holds onto me, both of us being pulled fast through the water to the ship. The moonlight shines down on the man’s soaking wet blond hair, and his green eyes reflect the beams of light, catching my attention like a lighthouse in a storm. His mouth moves, but I can’t hear him as everything feels fuzzy, dark spots cloaking my vision until I can’t see his eyes anymore. I can’t focus at all on anything but his warmth seeping into my body, pushing the cold water to the back of my mind. I wrap my weak-feeling arms around his neck as everything goes blurry, and I vaguely realise we are being lifted out of the sea. Hazily I open my eyes to see bright light as it shines down on us just before I pass out.
Chapter 30
I snuggle into the warmth at my back as I wake up, wondering what exactly just happened and where the hell I am. Hidden under a thick white duvet, I peek out at the cabin room I am in as the room moves slightly, letting me know we are on a ship of some kind. The way the room moves softly reminds me of a trip my parents once took me on. We had to go on a ferry from the south of England to France before driving to Disneyland. My heart hurts as I remember how Riley came with us and how happy he was on the rides. How we made a pretend tent in the hotel room and fell asleep in it before we could get to bed. That holiday, like many others, is etched into my mind even as the rocking lull of the ship makes me sleepy once more.
Wait, ship??
How the heck did I get on a ship? Jogging my memory, I think back to what just happened to me even as my thoughts are foggy and jumbled, and I feel so weak that even stretching my legs out on the bed hurts somewhat. I was at the academy, and then Ren was there…oh god. I jumped and fell into the sea, and a man saved me.
“Ah, you’re awake,” a man with a slight Scottish accent mumbles behind me, and I spin around, realising the warmth I was pressed against was a shirtless man who looks around a year or two older than me, but his piercing green eyes are hauntingly familiar. I run my gaze from his messy blond hair that is sticking up in all directions, to his golden skin and toned six pack that my hand is resting right next to. He has shorts on, tied up with white string, and I pull my gaze to the men’s shirt I have on and black shorts. Who the hell dressed me?
“Why don’t you have a shirt on?” I demand, shuffling away in the bed. “And who dressed me?”
“The quickest way to avoid hypothermia is with body heat. We both could have died otherwise, and I didn’t undress you, my mother did.” He pauses, and I calm a little. I don’t get the sense this stranger is going to hurt me, but apparently I make shitty choices for friends, so I don’t trust my senses right now. They are broken. “We both needed body heat, and it was better we both slept off the cold. My mother is a healer, and she checked you over; turns out you’re fine,” he softly tells me as he leans up on an elbow, and my eyes flicker to his muscular arm. My cheeks flush as I climb out of the bed, and I realise my damn wings are still here as they knock into my butt. I mentally try and make them hide behind my back, and when I feel them settle, I open my eyes. The blond guy is sitting on the edge of his bed, running his fingers through his hair.
“Are you human?” I turn and ask, and his brow furrows. “I mean, don’t the wings scare you?”
He frowns. “You’re an angel, and I’m not human. I know of your kind, but we don’t mix with you lot often. I’m a wolf shifter, and the name is Myles MacCailein.”
I nod, remembering hearing about wolf shifters at the academy; we did a class on them. They can shift into actual wolves of all sizes, and their wolf guides them through their lives. They have heightened senses, make true mate bonds with one person who their wolf claims as theirs, and they live in packs. There is always an alpha, alpha female, healer and beta. Feeling awkward as I stand in front of Myles, in only a shirt that falls to my knees, I drop my gaze from his to anything else. My hair stinks of salt, and my skin feels dry under my hands as I press them into my arms. I don’t want to correct Myles that I’m not exactly all angel…not anymore. I feel the difference now, and a strange ache builds up in my teeth as strong as the pulse I can hear chanting away in my ear. It’s not my pulse I’m sensing, it’s Myles’s, and I hate myself for it. I did not want to be a vampire any more than I wanted to be an angel, but it seems I don’t get a choice anymore. “Well, thank you for saving me, and my name is Kaitlyn Lightson. Are we on a ship?”