eight
Her dark angel left her to the wolves. Again.
To be more specific, he flew off - confiscating her swords in the process - like dealing with her was something below his pay grade. Not that angels got paid. Which was a total scam in Lav's opinion; she'd seen enough movies to know free labor when she saw it.
She even mentioned it during her interrogation session with a stony female angel that didn't particularly care for anything except details from the demon attack and questioning Lav like she was personally responsible for everything that happened. Couldn't they see she was the victim?
Fledglings really got the shittiest rep.
On the bright side, her injured ankle healed up flawlessly. It took three days but the skin was smooth and good as new. Maybe it was silly, but she kept waiting for Obsidian to show up. Not for her sake - although a girl could secretly hope - but to check in with the other Guards. Because they never left the academy.
It was a weird and unwelcome reminder of how dark things were getting. Just remembering the faceless monster that had come close to eating her made her insides twist. She had escaped that fate. She still didn't know what type of demon it was or how she'd gone so fearlessly against it. However, the wings it had sprouted...
They had been the same cocoa colored feathers that Synth clasped in her hand that night.
Feathers from an angel's wings.
Rumors spread all over the academy and the gist was that the demon was a shapeshifter that had eaten the wings of a fledgling named Genevieve. She was dead. And now a demon had her wings, although they were no longer majestic. No, the wings were vile and horrific now.
Lav had witnessed it firsthand. No matter how much she wanted to forget, the image of those tainted wings was seared into her brain.
She hadn't actually known Genevieve but she remembered seeing her around. Flashes of rich mahogany hair and porcelain skin. Her chest felt strangely empty at the loss of this girl she hadn't known; this girl who never got to see a full century of existence and more.
All because demons had been welcomed to the academy. The biggest threat that could take place in the angel realm.
Elite Guards had been posted at the entrance and roamed the halls of each floor in intervals. The influx of cold angels had everyone on edge, more so than the skies that remained murky and foreboding despite the time that continued to pass.
Athena called it the perpetual gloom of doom. Dubbed the PGD for time-saving purposes.
Ever since the dawn of the PGD, Lav had lost her room. Actually, she'd lost her whole dorm wing thanks to Obsidian's orders and some demonic cloud of smoke. She was now residing in the south wing, which had a good side and a bad side.
The good side: it was the supposedly haunted part of the academy.
The bad side: Kaede lived there.
"I bet no one would notice if you stayed with me." Athena mused from the floor of her bedroom as she finished painting her toes a glittery sapphire. She leaned back on her elbows, spreading her legs wide and admiring her work with a wiggle of her toes.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Lav." Ellra sat up from the bed, tossing aside the nude magazine she was reading. "I overheard a couple of Guards on the way here and they've got it out for Athena."
A flattered grin painted Athena's face. "Was one of them a brunette with a lip ring?"
"Yep."
Intrigued, Lav sliced the last lime on the plate in front of her before swiveling on the chair at Athena's desk and giving the two girls her full attention. "I want details on this angel with a lip ring."
Athena practically lit up, "Well, I saw him naked at the Falls last night and Lavender, oh my sweet Lavender, these Guards are packing where it counts."
Her mind instantly went to Obsidian. Naked. All muscles and height and dark wings. Lav's stomach flipped and she felt warm. She wished she could see Obsidian naked at the secluded waterfall deep in the woods of the academy realm. He would be waiting for her, eyes dim with unrivaled desire and mind hazy with visions of her flesh sliding over his.
Obsidian would yearn for her endlessly and ruthlessly.
Ha. Lav bit the inside of her cheek to contain the miserable groan that was seconds from breaking free because reality sucked.
She returned her focus to bartending at the desk. Lining up three shot glasses on the platter in front of her, she filled each to the brim with tequila. "Isn't Madden going to be jealous you're playing with other Guards?"
"He can get jealous whenever he's done being mad at me."
Oh, right. After her last stunt with Ellra, Madden was furious to a point that he arrested Athena for failing to evacuate through the Veil. He hadn't spoken to her since. And vice versa. He watched her like a hound, though. As did every other Guard.
Good thing none could see into the confines of her bedroom.
Lav stood up and passed a shot and a lime wedge to both her friends. She picked up her own glass and raised it in the air. "I say we drink to all the well-endowed Guards."
"Hell yeah!" Ellra cheered and reached for the salt shaker on the nightstand. It was pink with cartoon cats all over.
Lav had the matching one beside her, which should've housed black pepper but was full of salt instead. Athena had a purple shaker with skulls on it. They were all collected items from the Forsaken City.
Pouring salt over the back of her hand, she licked it clean with a flick of her tongue and downed the tequila in an instant. The explosion of warmth expanding in her chest was pleasant. Yet nowhere near as powerful as quicksilver. She popped the lime wedge in her mouth and sucked on it.
Her room in the south wing was empty of all her belongings, which meant frequenting Athena's room and borrowing her stuff was quickly becoming the norm. That included things like alcohol.
Every single contraband item she owned was sitting in her room, probably wondering where the hell she was. She had tried to ask Madden if she could at least get some cute outfits and her favorite pillow but it was a firm 'don't even think about it.'
Of course she thought about it.
She hadn't slept in three days. She kept waking up from nightmare after nightmare. Sometimes she relived being chased by a faceless demon. Sometimes she was in some strange land she had never seen before. Sometimes hands grabbed at her from the shadows, trying to rip her wings off. It was all a blur each time she jolted awake to a bare bedroom that didn't hold her regular comforts.
If she could just sneak into her old dorm wing and get some sandman pills, it would at least help her to not look like a zombie. The Guards were keeping a strict eye on the cloud entity but that didn't mean it was impossible to slip through. As an unruly fledging, she knew the ins and outs of the academy better than anyone.
A plan for her mission was already brewing since she'd woken up from yet another nightmare at four in the morning. This time she had been flying over a black sea but it was like she was watching through the eyes of some other being. She couldn't recall what exactly had scared her, though.
I bet Obsidian has been sleeping like a baby.
The bitter thought couldn't be helped.
Twice now he had abruptly departed with no explanation. The first time had been during her arrest and the second after saving her from a hellhound.
Twice now he had humiliated her. The first being when he rejected her kiss and the second when he disregarded her presence as useful.
And not even a minute ago she had been lusting after a made-up image of him at the Falls.
The idea that he would desire her ruthlessly and endlessly might have seemed like a silly fantasy but she wasn't ready to put a torch to it.
Not yet.