Praefatio: A Novel (15 page)

“No, it’s OK. Trust me. You’re going to need all this and more.” Caius tried to reassure me, then turned to Arcturus with a worried look. “Dude. I don’t know what we did with it.” He looked around in all directions, then spun toward me and said, “Hang on a second, Grace.” Caius disappeared.

Arcturus smiled weakly. Caius reappeared holding a black duffle bag and looking stressed.

Arcturus looked suspiciously at Caius, then at the bag. “Is that everything?”

“You can always get more, less, whatever.” Caius handed me the bag and added, “It was Arcturus’s idea. He thinks you should dress the part.”

I placed the bag on the bed then unzipped it. Inside were two silver cuff bracelets with Latin inscriptions on them. I held them up; the left one read “
Angelus
” and the right one read “
Coadunatio
.” Caius took the cuffs and put them in the opposite hands. Left:
Coadunatio
. Right:
Angelus
. A joining of angels. There was a pair of leather gloves and another pair of near-identical ones missing fingers; a pair of greaves, for my calves; a full metal battle dress like ones worn by ancient Greeks; and a chlamys. It was like fifth grade all over again. I just couldn’t see myself wearing any of it.

“No shoes in there?” Arcturus rushed the bag and searched frantically. “Ah-ha!” He turned and presented me with a pair of shoes that I was no way ever going to wear. Ever.

“Uh, thanks. But who are you guys again?”

Arcturus laughed. “Cherubim. Your cherubim. I’m here to train you in celestial matters and combat. Caius here will keep you in great physical shape and make sure you have everything you need to survive.”

“Cherubs. I thought you were supposed to have four faces. A lion, a man. Ugh. I can’t remember the other two. Anyway, I guess that’s not true either, huh?”

“We can look like whatever we want when we interact with humans. If you prefer we appear in our natural state, we will. Just say the word. Otherwise, I’ll stick to my cornrows.” Arcturus’s face blurred for seconds, and beneath it I saw him, as he really was. Lion, ox, man, and eagle. He smiled. “We do our best to show humans the face we think will be best received.”

“And you thought I’d best receive cornrows?” I kind of mumbled to myself.

“Speaking of humans, you need to keep your strength up.” Caius put a hand behind his back and then put it out in front me. In his hand were jumbo red strawberries, a brown liquid, and a loaf of bread.

What an odd gift
, I thought and said, “Thanks.” I even tried to smile.

“Strawberries have anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are like antioxidants. Oxygen can damage your body’s organ systems, so you’ll need anthocyanins to protect your cell structures. This will come in handy since yours is still a human body despite its celestial capabilities. You need extra protection now, Grace, as your body will be expected to perform outside of its comfort zone.” He seemed to be searching for the right words to convince me I needed his yummy strawberries.

The more he talked them up, the hungrier I got. “Uh-huh.”

“You’ll be eating a lot of berries in the coming months. We’ll want to prevent the emergence of free radicals—which you are now more prone to due to the planned changes in your cellular structure,” he concluded in his perfect English schoolboy accent. “Oh, and that stuff? It’s manna and honey.”

Holy cow
.

The last thing I needed was to be mutated into a
total
freak. I’d learned about free radicals in school and how they are created when the body metabolizes oxygen and some of the cells get damaged. Mr. Sleezack had said, “Free radicals become problematic when they seek out other molecules to pair with, robbing those molecules for what they lack—like the Robin Hoods of molecules. It’s like an evil molecule rampage.” Just like that, I would have eaten anything he gave me, including poisonous apples. I grabbed the food and ate.

My thoughts turned from poison apples to Gavin kissing me awake and asking me to live with him at Kheiron. I considered calling him, only to realize I didn’t have his number. According to Gavin, it was not safe for me to be alone. Now that I had Caius and Arcturus, I wasn’t. So maybe things were going to be OK. Maybe Mom and Gavin and Dead Dad were wrong.

Neither Arcturus nor Caius had said much of anything since I’d tried to kill them with my bag of eyeballs and short sword. They kind of gave me my “stuff” and seemed content to stay out of my way. They were huddled over, reading something that was partially obscured by Caius’s body.

“Form,” Caius said. “We do not have bodies. Humans have bodies;
we
have forms. What form we take depends on our Order, post, and talent. As light beings we can inhabit another being or take on its form. No other being can inhabit or take on the form of an angel.” He smiled and returned to his reading.

“I can inhabit stuff? And take on the form of anything I want?” I thought flying was going to be the best of what I was capable of.

“We can only inhabit forms that have a life source or that are alive. Sometimes, we are tasked with guarding populations, but can only do so while inhabiting inanimate objects. When that’s the case, we are given a Divine Dispensation. Ever hear humans say they feel statues looking at them or the Mona Lisa’s eyes following them?” He gave me a look as if to say, “Are you ready for this?”

I inhaled deeply and held it.

“It’s one of us,” Caius declared with a giant smile.

I exhaled. It was worth waiting for.
Mona Lisa. No kidding
.

I couldn’t help but return his smile. I sprang from my bed with much more force than I intended, sending me flying forward before I crash-landed into the desk chair, knocking it over and into Arcturus. He stopped the chair about an inch from his form and smiled at me as if he were watching a clown perform at the circus.

“Happy to amuse you,” I offered, glancing at the chemistry textbook atop my desk. “Do you think I’ll be able to go back to school?”

“Oh, you’ll be going to school. But not the sorry one you used to attend. You’ll learn astrology, etiquette, religious studies, politics, sports, marketing, world studies, aviation, art, geology, chemistry, medicine, architecture, biology, meteorology, finance, agriculture, government—”

I disrupted Arcturus’s rant. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Do I look like I’m joking? That’s like the first two days or so—
and
—that’s just the academics part.”

“Yeah,” Caius chimed in. “Then you have to do weapons, intelligence, and self-defense, and combat training.”

I stood staring at the two of them, who looked as if we were having the most natural conversation in the world. Arcturus laughed and said, “Yeah, and wait till finals. You’re gonna wish you’d stayed human.”

Silence.

More silence.

Deafening silence.

I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“When am I going to get to see Gavin?”

Arcturus made a sour face, then said, “We cannot take you to him, nor can you summon him here.”

“Well, if I can’t see Gavin, can you take me to see my dad?” It was the same thing Remi had told me when he’d found me writing letters to
Him
, before I knew who he was. He told me I shouldn’t summon him.

“Sure! We can take you to see Gabriel.” Caius seemed proud as he stood with his chest out and offered me his hand. “Arcturus, alert the guards.”

“There are only three of us; we don’t need to alert the cherubim guards, doofus.” Arcturus thought for a second and added, “And you’re gonna need a decoy so your humans will think you are safely tucked in bed, resting from your stint at the hospital.”

“A decoy? Like a body double?” My mind was racing with wild scenarios, none of which made any sense.

“Yep. You’ll be able to teleport the part of you that is conscious while your unconscious body remains asleep in your room. You’ll have limited response capabilities, and if you need to quickly return to your body for any reason, you can reanimate it within seconds. No one will notice a thing. No human, anyway.”

That must have been what happened the other night when I left my body at the hospital and no one could actually see me—except Remi. I shook my head in disbelief, then walked over to my bed and climbed in. I pulled the covers over me, closed my eyes, and drifted into a comfortable but not fully-asleep sleep. I called my conscious spirit awake and out of my body. It separated and walked toward the boys, while my body lay in bed. They smiled, grabbed my hand, and pulled me into the Garden.

***

The cherubs frolicked in the water, and as I noticed them noticing my every move, I pondered what my life had become. Though we had barely spoken since meeting, I felt completely bonded with these boys. I felt as though they were a part of me. I knew I would come to rely on them, that maybe I already did. A smile crept onto my face as I watched them.

While they played in water, neither of them was at all wet. As each bead of water caught the light, a full rainbow formed from one to the next.
Is everything celestial so stunning?
I wondered.

I heard his approach before I saw him. Dad walked clear across the field from behind the tree that lived in the center of the Garden.
The Tree of Life
. Even before I thought the questions, the answers came to me from information stored in my mind from childhood, past experiences, books I’d read. Dad stood right in front me, smiling like a proud father. He looked real, whole, human, only more … divine, as light emanated from him.

We embraced.

“Gracie, I missed you,” Dad whispered as he pulled me into a walk beside him.

Four curious and protective eyes followed me as I took my first step.

“Dad,” I held his arm tightly. “I missed you too. Things seemed so final at the hospital. Jenny was attacked, and now she’s sick, and Gavin said I had to go and live with him, and Remi’s acting all weird, blocking his mind from—”

Dad cut me off. “Gracie, please. You must calm down. Just listen, okay? Can you listen to your … can you listen to me for a minute?” he pleaded and turned slightly to face me. In the spot where we’d stopped walking, a stone bench with intricate carvings of lions, lambs, and angels appeared in front of us. We sat and faced one another.

“When I no longer had a human body to inhabit, it was impossible for me to stay with you and Remi. I was tasked with the training of your cherubs.” He beamed. “Because I was closest to you, I was asked to weigh in on what you would need in order to make a proper transition from pure human to Archangel. We wanted to make your ascension easier, less troubling. We also wanted to protect you from those who seek to destroy you.”

More answers invaded my head. Dad had died for me, to protect me. He had completed his task of raising me as a human, and as I was about to ascend, I needed even more protection and teaching.

I couldn’t decide whether to convulse in guilt or hug him. Tears refused to be held back.

The sky darkened above us, and the sound of a sword being unsheathed echoed in the air from across the clearing. I turned to see Arcturus running toward me. He had a look on his face, the same one from that night with Jenny. It was not comforting.

Rain fell around us, but the cherubs remained dry. Tiny circular pellets formed rainbows in the air as they fell from Caius’s hair and exploded in a spray of color and light when they reached the ground. Caius readied a sick-looking crossbow, and when I looked around it was as if everything was happening in slow motion. Not again.

Someone’s going to die.

Caius and Arcturus stood ready to attack what or whomever it was that needed attacking. I saw no one.

Claps of thunder ripped through the darkened gray sky one after the other. Then silence.

I turned to Dad, but he was staring at the ground below, which had begun to rumble beneath a torrential downpour. Thunder cracked the sky open, stopping the rain, and for a split second, we heard nothing. Everything had stopped. I opened my mouth to speak. Then I looked around and saw that everything in the Garden was dark, dreary, and nearly dead, except the Tree.

“Dad?” I inched closer to him. What force could do such a thing?

“The Fallen are moving low in the sky. We must be on alert. But now that you’ve ascended, I suppose you can see. Look up.”

Oh my God. The dark clouds moving aren’t clouds at all!

“That’s right. They’re the wings of newly Fallen being escorted out of the heavens. Escorting Fallen requires various alert systems, which translates often into bad and sometimes severe weather, if a Fallen or two tries to escape to earth or becomes otherwise rowdy. The storms can get pretty bad.”

With tears in my eyes, I watched as they passed overhead. It was like I’d been asleep my entire life. To see the world as an angel was to see the world completely awake—alive.

“So not all angels fall to earth?”

“No. Most of them are sent … elsewhere entirely.” Something grabbed Dad’s attention away from blowing my mind.

Dad reached down to pick a newly sprouted dandelion from the ground in front of him. It had grown as a result of the strange, awful weather. He pulled the flower out of the ground. It was … alive. He handed me the yellow flower, then leaned back.

The thing had a face. It opened its one bug eye, blinked deliberately, looked straight at me, and began to speak. I nearly dropped it, but Dad propped my hand up and steadied it. Arcturus and Caius were both ready to take it out—Arcturus, to chop off its tiny head, and Caius, to shoot it, dead.

“I am Proseran, a Fallen Angel, a Watcher. I sit between the edge of the heavens and
your
earth monitoring the activities of my brethren. I’ve been granted Divine Favor in this time of great need. Let me please say, it is an honor to meet you.” The thing bowed its petaled head. “High Priestess Tia has allowed me entrance, to address you here … in
this
place.” He paused and then offered, “I apologize if my presence has caused a disturbance. But the transport provided me with cover—so it would not be discovered that it was I who hath aided in your escape.” He bowed again and looked around nervously.