Lipgloss on your Wings - Branded Angel Novels book 1

Chapter 15

   I’d stopped crying by the time we got to his house. I squashed myself into the sofa cushions. Ori was rummaging in the kitchen and Jarryd was sat opposite me, giving me nervous and confused glances because he knew what I was feeling but no idea why.

   I buried my face in my hands and rubbed my eyes. Ori came back in carrying a mug of hot chocolate, I took it gratefully and sipped it taking advantage of the scalding drink to anchor me back to the present. Ori began to walk away.

   “Please, stay. I think you need to hear this too.”

   She curled up on the sofa next to me and I took comfort in her warmth and gentle presence.

   “It started yesterday.” I began. I explained my first dream, everything that I saw and figured out. The connection between Fetherham and the first of the Sicarius beginning here. I explained the second dream and understood it was a prequel to the first. How I found out that the guardian angels were here due to a dark force. I had a feeling they weren’t the first.

   “You think I’m going nuts, huh?” I looked at my audience, not picking up on anything they were thinking from the way they were staring at me.

   “Actually, no. It makes sense.” Jarryd had a deep in thought expression, “When you dream I can tell. It feels different to when you’re awake, but this? I felt it yesterday and I felt it tonight, at first I thought you’d been drinking, it feels similar. I only noticed the difference when you started to feel stronger emotions, it made it clearer. It’s an outside influence.”

   “Like an out of body experience?” Ori chipped in.

   “More like… someone else is showing her this stuff, allowing her to see.”

   “You said this all took place in Fetherham, yes?” Ori turned to me.

   “Yes, I’m sure of it.”

   “And in the woods in particular?”

   “Mmhmm.” I had no idea what she was getting at.

   “Well, lets go then!”

   I downed my hot chocolate as Ori and Jarryd sprung into action. Shoes, coats, the usual attire for a midnight stroll through the woods. I was still in my fluffy slippers and faux fur coat, the hem high enough to reveal a fair amount of my turtle patterned pyjama bottoms. 

   We went out into the night and walked around the back of the house to cross the tree line.

   After a good ten minutes walk we came to a giant yew tree, the biggest I’d ever seen. Its trunk looked as if it was a giant hand, fingers bursting from the palm each topped with hundreds of tendrils spinning green in every direction.

   Jarryd and I stayed back as Ori approached the ancient tree, she looked back at us and gave us a wink.

   “Watch this!” She ran a single index finger along the trunk, nothing much seemed to happen. All of a sudden the trees around us started to shiver in an invisible breeze, they appeared to lean and reach out to the heart of the forest that was the majestic yew. Even a mere mortal like me could feel the gathering of strength being lent. Ori then placed her palm into the open centre of the tree, it started at the tips of the smallest branches right at the top, trickling down in thin lines of electric light, gathering momentum as each string combined, headed towards a single destination. The faint glow beneath Ori’s hand flared a brilliant orange for a split second before dying down, the trees around us stilling once more.

   I was rooted to the ground as she came back over to us, a triumphant but sad smile on her face.

“You’ve been shown the truth. Everything you’ve seen happened here.”