Ethereal

Chapter 20

Her large wings stretched out far behind her, the silvery tips hidden in the mist, dragging behind her.

I gasped as they were unfurled, I knew she was an angel, and I had seen Noah's wings. Though his weren't such a shock. I had already seen them in my dreams.

But Jasmine, her face suited her angelic status nicely. She looked right with wings, almost like there was something missing when they weren't there.

"Okay. Come here." She told me, opening her arms out.

I stepped towards her, trying to be careful not to stand on her wings. I backed into her arms, which she carefully wound around me.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Yeah-" I had barely got the word out before her wings had beat, and we were zooming up into the sky like a rocket. I practically choked on the word from the shock of the sudden take-off.

As we flew upwards, she caught my feet between hers in the same way that Noah had, though I felt a little more on edge with Jasmine. Flying with Noah had felt natural, he was very conscious of the fact that I wasn't quite as durable as an angel it would seem, he flew slower, more carefully.

Jasmine's flight lasted only seconds before we were landing in a room, similar to Noah's. It was in the same building (they were both Searchers, after all) although Jasmine's room wasn't as high as Noah's, so she mustn't have as high a rank. The numbers weren't displayed on the outside of the room, so I couldn't say for sure how highly she was ranked (although she wasn't that far below Noah).

She dropped me right before landing, and though I had no warning, I still landed pretty gracefully (for me, at least. It was nothing compared to the grace of the angels) on my feet.

Jasmine receded her wings very quickly, so that she could immediately step into the room without breaking anything.

Her room was one of the crowded rooms, the shelves piled high with items, though her tastes did seem to differ from Noah's. Noah seemed to appreciate common, everyday human items, whereas Jasmine liked more unusual items. There was a stack of framed paintings in the corner, none that I could recognise, so most likely they were originals. A lot of her things looked to be handmade, like a carved wooden sculpture of a bird.

The biggest difference between their rooms was that Jasmine actually had a bit of furniture. It wasn't much, but she did have two white rails, filled with her clothes. "Here we are." She said, noticing what I was looking at. "Do you have any preference?"

"Um, no." I said, feeling the smooth fabric of a blouse. The fabric felt very light and thin, I was surprised it wasn't at all damaged.

I watched as Jasmine rifled through the stacks of clothes, occasionally holding one up in front of me as though to examine it on me, tossing it onto her shoulder if she liked it, and placing it back on its silvery hanger if she didn't.

Eventually, she handed me a stack of the clothes. Up close they weren't an opaque white, they had a silvery sheen that you could see when you moved them. "You didn't have to give me so many." I told her, a little surprised.

"It's no problem. I can make more. I like to refresh my wardrobe every now and again anyway." She replied with a soft smile.

I nodded and stared at the clothes for a moment. They were neatly folded, though I noticed something strange in one of them. A pair of parallel ridges, almost invisible, but not quite. Running my fingers across them, I found them to be slits.

"For our wings." Jasmine said, watching what I was doing. "It's tiresome to rip your clothes apart every time you take flight."

"So," I began, as Jasmine started to take the now empty hangers off the rails. "Where's Travis?"

"He's already on another task." She explained. "Helping a Guardian search for a stolen necklace. One of a kind, supposedly it's quite valuable."

"Right. He finds rare things?"

She nodded. "That's one interpretation of it."

"How come you didn't go? If you can find things that have been lost?"

She shrugged. "I would mislead them. The necklace wasn't lost, it was stolen. There's a distinct difference."

"Oh, I see." I nodded, "Are you going on any tasks soon?"

"If I'm needed." She said, walking over to the archway with the hangers in her hands. "We're supposed to go to the portal pretty often to check, I should probably do that soon."

"Are you going there now?" I asked, "Could you bring me with you? I... I want to see my dad."

"Of course." She sounded sympathetic. "We'll go right now."

True to her word, we took off flying once more (although she never let go of me in the way that Noah had when we took off from the archway), making a stop in my room for me to get changed and put away the rest of the clothes (so my room no longer looked quite as bare).

The dress I had chosen was just below knee length and flared out a little, sort of like a skater dress. It was a very simple design, and though I didn't feel quite like myself dressing this way, at least I fit in.

It was a step towards fitting in, at least.

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