“Is this really going to work?” I asked as Zeekiel was buttoning his shirt back up.

  Raziel asked, examining the flowers he was carting, “What are you planning with all this?”

  “Zeekiel said this was going to help me make friends with Ellie,” I said.

  The four-winged angel’s lips drew to the side. “I don’t think making friends is as easy as giving them a barrel of flowers. Doesn’t it seem shallow?”

  “It better, I paid with my body for this work,” I joked, but Raziel’s face seemed alarmed.

  Zeekiel interjected, “It was a mutual decision. We should practice.”

  “So you plan to keep doing this with her?” the angel asked.

  The dark-winged void rolled his shoulders. “Yeah. Why are you squawking about it?”

  “You don’t think that’s going to hinder her growth?” Raziel said.

  I withdrew a deep sigh, which grabbed their attention long enough for me to tease, “I love when you guys get so lost in each other’s eyes that you forget I’m here.”

  Raziel frowned, and Zeekiel pivoted to my side, pulling me in under his armpit. “You hear her? This perverted duck needs me to teach her how to talk to people so she can make friends.”

  The prince chucked a sarcastic laugh. “I think you could learn some lessons, too.”

  “Talking is my expertise,” the demon started. “It’s just too bad you’re not good at listening to realize that.”

  I peeled myself away from his grip. “I was just joking. Anyway, I’m not trying to make friends; I want to learn how to keep myself safe… and maybe take out an army of angels to get my mom back.”

  “Oh? And how do you plan on doing that?” Zeekiel smirked, waiting smugly for my answer.

  “Working hard,” I replied confidentially, wiggling my staff at him. “And not with the power of friendship.”

  “Oh,” Zeekiel breathed. “Okay.”

  “Okay?” I mused.

  Raziel intervened, saying, “Zeek has a point, though I suppose those people skills he has don’t lend to proper explanations. If you want to master that staff to its fullest potential, then you’re going to need an entire network of angels under you to get to my level.”

  I remembered him telling me I needed more vows to finish our own, but as both of them explained more about what that was going to entail, I started to feel overwhelmed with the process.

  Zeekiel added, “There are still angels out there with wings, maybe even some like Ellie, but they’re not all going to share the same nest as you.”

  “Some of them won’t possess the same aeon you need,” the prince clarified. “And it’s fine to have a mutually cordial vow with someone, after all; the most basic essential to the bond is learning from them. But there’s potential in making that bond as strong as possible to get the most out of it.”

  “You want to play the game?” the demon asked, bumping my shoulder. “Then making friends is how to cheat it.”

  My stomach tightened. I was fine being friends with Ellie, but the idea of making multiple deep connections was daunting. There was no way of keeping that many friendships. I didn’t even keep one after I graduated. “Friends” were just easier when they were people I had to talk to because we shared the same space, but now I was going to have to go out and find them.

  “Game,” Raziel repeated, processing the word. “That’s a good analogy, but I wouldn’t say cheating. More like bonus points.”

  Zeekiel scrunched his face. “You make it sound like a test.”

  The four-winged angel smiled through his annoyance. “I clearly remember you getting bonus points for hitting the ball with the back of your wing when we used to play.”

  “We only played so you could learn how to move those limp wings,” the dark-winged demon grumbled.

  “Bonus points,” I said, refocusing them again. “What do I have to do?”

  “Learn something from them that corresponds with your shared aeon,” Raziel said.

  “Isn’t that the base?”

  The curls of his hair shimmered in vibrant colors under the sun as he shook his head. “No, you can learn anything they have to offer, like Ellie training you.”

  “That’s not a part of our shared aeon?” I asked.

  “It’s humility,” Raziel answered.

  “Well, how am I supposed to know what we share?”

  “You won’t be able to hear it unless you find an angel who has an ability they can teach and lend to you through the vow. You’ll have to rely on them to be honest with that.”

  “Honest?” I inquired.

  Zeekiel answered, “Not all your aeons are going to be as innocent. There are some toxic pieces of your soul you can share with even an angel.”

  It almost felt like their words were becoming drowned out. Though I physically moved with them, internally my mind felt like it was slowly submerging itself away.

  Why did the idea of talking to strangers feel so much more terrifying than facing down monsters?

  I wasn’t going to ask for more, but Raziel continued. “Aeons like that won’t bring your level down. But even if it enhances you, be mindful that too many connections like that may deter others you seek to make vows with. The network doesn’t just benefit you. As you grow more powerful, so will the others in it.” I nodded slowly. “Another way to solidify your connection is for you to teach them as well.”

  Before I could make another mindless reaction, Zeekiel’s words jolted my attention back to reality. “What’s this doing in my bag?” I watched his hand lift from his bag up to Raziel accusingly. Between his fingers was the long brown feather I found when I was still in Meddy and Gibel’s basement. Zeekiel left me his bag, so when I moved to Ellie’s I wrapped it into extra clothes Meddy told me to take.

  I snatched it from his hand. “That’s mine,” I said, taking in the sweet scent and fighting the urge to tickle my face with it.

  “It’s actually mine,” Raziel laughed. My face heated as he physically lifted his outer wing with his arm, showing his inner unspeckled feathers that matched.

  Zeekiel snickered. “Be careful, first sign of ink is balding.”

  “Thought we were past this kind of hostility,” Raziel remarked.

  “Friendly concern,” the demon declared, before flicking his wrist at me. “You should just leave that on the ground. It’s probably infected.”

  “You can keep it if you still want it,” the angel said to me.

  Zeekiel pulled the sack over to the other side of him as I tried to put it away. “Not in my bag.”

  “Our bag,” I corrected him.

  “I don’t remember ever calling it our bag.”

  “If you want to do this practicing thing between us again, then everything is ours,” I stated firmly.

  He surprisingly relented. I expected at least a bit more banter from him before I was the one to give up. Though he still made a show of twisting his head in disdain while he held out the bag.

  “You should hold on to it for as long as you can,” Raziel said as his eyes rolled over to me from Zeekiel. “Tokens of your bonds are also a bonus.”

  “That’s not true,” Zeekiel asserted.

  “Honest as the branches of my birth, I was going to mention next,” he swore. “Anyway, you’ll have some time to strengthen your bond with her. I’m still trying to figure out how you’ll do the ritual without either of you having magic yet.”

  “I mean, every time it’s happened to me, I’ve had my eyes burned out,” I said.

  “And it’s the wrong way to do it,” Raziel noted.

  Without thinking about it, I had allowed a fear to escape through a jovial tone. “Hopefully you figure it out then before Michael gets back.”

  His usual warm smile wavered. “Me too.”

  The walk back to the Sanctuary felt shorter than our walk to the town. It felt like there wasn’t enough time to prepare myself mentally. Especially after my talk with the guys; I didn’t feel confident at all.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Don’t overthink it,” Zeekiel advised as we headed down the dirt trail back to Ellie’s house. It was like he knew every step we got closer, my anxiety was making me sicker to my stomach.

  “You got in my head,” I replied.

  “Good,” he said earnestly.

  “I can help,” Raziel offered.

  “You’re going to leave the girls alone,” the demon said. “We can go talk for a bit.”

  The four-winged angel looked suspiciously optimistic. “I’ll take that offer.”

  At Ellie’s door, Zeekiel knocked, cooing her name, making her jerk open the door. “What now, Zeek?” she snapped, glaring at him.

  He moved aside to show off the wheelbarrow of flowers as he announced, “For you.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  The demon backed up over to me. “Ari said she wanted to get some stuff for your garden, so I helped her out.”

  “Really? Why’d you have to be an asshole about it?” the metal lady asked.

  “She didn’t want me to tell you,” he replied, so fluent in his lies that even I almost believed him.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know he was going to be like that.”

  She crossed her arms. “You shouldn’t have to apologize to him.”

  “Well, I’m going to leave this all for you guys. Take it back to Meddy’s for me, will you?” he said as he ushered Raziel with him. “Thanks,” he said before Ellie could respond.

  Now that it was just the two of us, I felt awkward. I didn’t realize how much I’d relied on Raziel the last few days to bridge our conversations until he wasn’t around. At night, we were mostly in a comfortable silence before bed after I ate at Meddy’s without her. Zeekiel was right when he noted we weren’t actually friends yet.

  “So,” I started. “You have tools or…?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I’ll grab the stuff.”

  Inside, she had some storage in the floorboards in the space before it dipped into her room. I helped her carry what we needed out, and she insisted I use the only pair of gloves she had. I told her I’d prefer if she wanted them to use them, which resulted in neither of us using the gloves.

  Crouched in the garden bed, we first started with weeding and pulling the dead plants. She seemed almost hyper focused on our task and I couldn’t tell if it was to ignore conversing with me or if she was really into gardening.

  My mind was more focused on all the things I could say rather than actually saying anything. Once half the garden was done, my heart started to race as fast as all the hypothetical trains of thought running through my mind.

  I was going to run out of time, and everything I was attempting to do would be pointless. I didn’t want to be here pulling thick weeds under the hot summer afternoon when magic was calling me. But to be my most powerful self, this was the work I had to put in.

  “Raziel told me about this game Zeekiel and him used to play,” I said, hoping this would get her to delve into what she talked about with him. I went into describing it the same as he did. I evoked a couple chuckles, making fun of Zeekiel in his reactions to things while we were out. After Zeekiel warned me that people might think it’s weird, I didn’t tell her anything about melding with the demon.

  It was reaching a point where I would have to ask directly until my prompting paid off. She recalled more pro-athletic games Raziel told her about back from his home. Her face lit a bit, almost excited and so I got excited too, fueling her to tell me everything she knew. Once she got going, she didn’t stop, which was easier for me. Somewhat. I still had to pay attention, which got hard sometimes. Obviously, as she told me new things, I forced myself not to get lost thinking about it for too long. Just her retelling me about fashion alone could have filled hours of my imagination before even sketching anything.

  But staying alert, I contemplated all the right replies to show I wasn’t just paying attention but invested and excited in what she had to say.

  I was getting tired, faster than even running laps and exercising. Maybe it was just the stress on top of already exerting myself physically, but my stamina was dropping fast by the time we actually started planting anything.

  Pausing to compose myself, I turned to look at Ellie. She’d stopped talking, struggling to make a hole. I leaned in closer to reach my shovel in to help and noticed she flinched back. “What? Are you afraid of me?” I teased.

  Her look at me was quick, before she peered down, saying casually, “Thanks.”

  I saw it though. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about her portrayed her sudden unease.

  “Wait…are you really afraid of me?” I asked, confused by why I felt so certain. I was just a lofty brain attached to jumbling nerves. What was so scary about me?

  “You know,” she said after a tense pause, putting down her gardening trowel. “No one will talk about her. Saniel, I mean,” she said, finally looking at me. “All I know is she’s the reason all the Guard Holders ended up the way they did.” Ellie hesitated, her gaze moving back down to the flowers. “It’s not about thinking you’re a threat. It’s about not knowing what she left behind…in you.”

  Okay, well. I was also a lofty mind, attached to jumbling nerves, and fueled by the soul of the “bitch-who-shall-not-be-named”. Fair enough.

  “I’m sorry, Ari,” she whispered.

  “Nah, don’t be,” I said through the tightening of my chest. “I get it, no one will tell me either. But I’d like to believe she was powerful and badass either way.”

  She didn’t laugh, making me concerned. “Do you ever feel it? Like some part of her inside you?” she questioned.

  “Um? No. Is that why you don’t want to do the vow?”

  Ellie nodded slowly. “I…really want to practice magic. After Uriel told me about the vowing thing, I was excited. But then everyone started whispering about her and even Zeekiel’s explanation put my off. I didn’t have the heart to tell Uriel what I was really thinking. I already knew all the logical things he would say.

  If we do this; we’ll both get more powerful. I’ll be the first and it feels like it’s on me if you end up using that power the same way she did.”

  “Well, thank you for being honest,” I replied, trying not to sound passive aggressive.

  “You’re welcome?” she said, her tone pitched in question.

  “I don’t know how to convince you right now,” I said. “But I’ll prove everyone wrong. I’ve studied how to be a hero since I was eleven.”

  She probably thought I was being na?ve, but at least I got a chuckle from her.

  Once we’d finished up and the garden filled out, she genuinely thanked me for my help. A long yawn silenced me before I could reply and Ellie told me to go relax while she picked up and took the barrow back.

  I intended to at least walk with her back to the farms, but as soon as my back sank into the cushions of the bed, I was gone.

  ?????°???°?????

  When I woke up, it was dark, and Ellie was already asleep next to me. Disoriented by the time, I rolled quietly from the bed and tipped over to the kitchenette. It was dark, and I had a hard time trying to find my way around until I opened a curtain and blinds. It was meager but enough to see the leftover personal pot pie that was left for me.

  At that point, it was easy to pick up the filling by the hard crust, but it was still amazing as always. The vegetarian filling was savory, but the carrots I had to spit out. Ever since I moved to the Sanctuary, I hadn’t had any meat and there were certain vegetables that made me feel like I was sucking on pocket change.

  Listening to the crickets sing while I ate, I realized it was the perfect time to wash up while no one was around. I tiptoed over to grab my clothes and the soap bar before quietly opening the door, cringing as it squealed.

  As soon as I stepped outside, the fresh air hit my face, and I quickened my pace towards the nearby washing area. The white, waxy bar of soap in my hand released a pleasant scent reminiscent of Meddy’s kitchen; a mix of lavender flowers and rosemary bushes.

  Being careful not to fall in, I kept my eye on the clear lake until I noticed the lit building; a stone structure that utilized the water. Inside, one half was like a sauna room and to the side there were closed off showers. The first time Ellie brought me to take a shower, I was surprised by how many walked around nude.

  Inside the shower, I washed quickly before realizing I had forgotten to bring a towel and had to make do with using my old clothes. Just as I was getting dressed, the sudden disturbance of people talking loudly had broken the calmness of the night.

  Nervously, I stepped out of the shower, where there was still no one around.

  Though once I began my walk back, I encountered Zeekiel emerging from the woods. Behind him, he was dragging Raziel’s limp body to the main path. For a moment, I was concerned until I looked closer and saw the angel breathing and his good-looking features undisturbed.

  “Trying to hide a body?” I joked, walking over to him.

  “You should run, there’s a monster in these woods,” Zeekiel smirked back before he noted, “Oh, how’d it go, by the way?”

  I admitted, “Um, I learned a lot that I probably didn’t want to know. But, it’s progress. So, uh, what are you doing to him?” I said, looking down.

  “Oh.” He glared back at the angel on the ground. “He was yelling at the birds.”

  “Trying to make a...bird thing,” Raziel slurred to the dirt.

  “He’s wasted,” the dark-winged demon explained, and nudged the body with his bare foot.

  “Angels get drunk?” I questioned.

  “Huge wine drinkers.” Zeekiel sank down beside Raziel. “Also, I drugged him.”

  I blinked at his admittance. “You…what?”

  “Yeah, those jelly beans we picked up,” he said.

  “'We'?” I asked. “I had no idea what you were getting.”

  “Oh, there’s an ‘our’ but no ‘we’?” Zeekiel pointed.

  “There’s definitely no 'we' when it comes to drugging someone.”

  “So, you think you’re the captain of the ship, huh?” he provoked.

  “I know I am, because I’m spider-man and your venom. Logically, if you turn on me, I’ll win.”

  “Talking like that’s going to make you look like a nerd,” he laughed.

  “Says the guy who talks in bird slang,” I shot back.

  Raziel murmured. “I wanted a bird.”

  “Why’d you do this to him?” I asked.

  “I was trying to find out what he was hiding,” the demon answered.

  “Did you get anything?”

  He frowned, shaking his head solemnly. “Honestly, it turned out worse than I thought.”

  “What’d he say?”

  “Oh, nothing. I just had to chase him all over the woods and make sure he didn’t drown himself in the lake. Now I have to carry him back.”

  “Glad you put those people skills to good use,” I remarked.

  “These are my people skills,” he replied.

  “Yeah,” I said, watching the four-winged angel pick at the grass. “I figured.”

  “You smell very good,” Raziel mumbled as he pointed at me. “I thought you should know.”

  I laughed and thanked him. “See? It’s impossible for him to lie like this.”

  “You don’t know him like I do,” Zeekiel said.

  “As captain of the ship, I think you should back off him a bit. You’re going to kill him if you keep this up,” I warned.

  “Do it. I give up,” Raziel moaned. He stretched his wings and shifted uncomfortably before dropping his face in the bend of arm.

  “When’d you start growing chickens’ wings?” Zeekiel jested before he bawked. I glanced over at the dark-winged young man, worried his remarks were pushing it. “You’re the one who wants to be King, right?”

  “I wanted more support,” Raziel grumbled.

  “You have support back home,” Zeekiel cooly pointed out.

  “I can’t go back. They’re going to know I’m not being held against my will.”

  “Just go back,” Zeekiel said.

  “Stop it. You have so many followers, I know…you know. Even back home, I’m not as popular as you... Abandon everyone and people still love you.”

  The demon paused before saying, “Because I don’t have followers; I have respect. And I don’t give two shits about anyone up there. My home is here.”

  Raziel was silent. His wings moved gently under his breath while we expected him to reply. Zeekiel leaned over to shove him. “Finally, he’s asleep,” he said as he picked himself up and hoisted Raziel over his shoulder. The angel’s wings and head bobbed awkwardly from Zeekiel gesturing me to follow. “Come on. You shouldn’t be alone. I’ll drop you off at Ellie’s on the way back.”

  As we walked, he broke the silence by asking, “What’d you learn from Ellie today?”

  “That everything’s always your fault,” I answered.

  “How’s everything my fault?”

  “Because you won’t tell me about Saniel.”

  “And I still won’t,” Zeekiel said. “Anyway, I did say they weren’t all going to share the same nest as you.”

  “I thought you meant aeons,” I said.

  “That’s what Raziel said. All I was trying to say is you’re not going to get along or be able to convince all of them.”

  “Just because of my soul?” I asked, appalled.

  “Yeah,” he said, his tone unfazed. “Or because you’re a huge nerd. Get this: someone could even tell you no just because they don’t like your face.”

  “Okay, alright, I get it.”

  As we reached Ellie’s house, he finished, “It’s uncomfortable hearing that, but if you want to keep going, then you’re going to hear a lot of uncomfortable shit getting to know people. And don’t leave your staff alone. You need to protect it.”

  I nodded and told him good night before I went back inside, carefully laying down on the edge of the bed. Sleep wouldn’t come easy, as I fantasized leaving my own legacy so great it overshadow whatever Saniel’s story was.