Shadow of the Sun (13 page)

“
No worries. We’ll be fine,” he said softly to me, his voice soothing.

That’s when it all happened. That’s when he
jinxed
us. The plane jolted as if another plane had hit us. That wasn’t the case. I saw what happened: lightning. The plane spun around once before instantly dropping down through the storm cloud. Suitcases appeared everywhere. My drink flew to the other side of the cabin, and my book lodged between piles of bags. The oxygen masks popped out, and I reached for mine, arms flapping though the air until I grasped it and placed it over my mouth and nose. Joseph’s actions mirrored my own.

My eyes squeezed shut, and I hoped we weren’t all going to die. I thought of Karen and my eyes snapped open like window shades wound too tight. The plane nosedived, and all the debris slid forward. I spotted Karen. Her brown hair was in a mess, but I was relieved to see that she was all right. What I didn’t expect was for her to unbuckle her seat belt and head my direction, literally climbing up the aisle.

Joseph’s hand seized mine, and I saw the horror-stricken look on his face. He could probably see the panic in my eyes too. If I was going to die, at least I could stare at the magnificence of his face in my last moments. Karen reached us, and the plane jolted several more times as it tumbled through the sky. I wondered if the pilots were still trying to save our lives.

“
Are you all right?” Karen yelled through the noise. What a stupid question to ask.

I shook my head back and forth against my seat. “You’re an angel,” I shouted back. “Can’t you do something?”

Her eyes shot nervously to Joseph. Seriously, what did it matter if he knew? We were about to die. Maybe I was fulfilling his dying wish to know a semblance of truth.

“
I must save you, but I don’t know how,” Karen yelled back.

“
Can’t you fly?” It seemed obvious to me. “Where are your wings?”

She shook her head, and it was then that I looked out the window and saw that our view was no longer clouds, but the solid ground below. We had seconds.

Karen sent me waves of tranquility. It didn’t matter at this point. Nothing did. This was it. This was the end. I looked toward my Guardian, and she wept golden tears.

CHAPTER
10: CRASH

For once in my life I thought I’d found meaning. A purpose to exist. And then it was all taken away. Was this what happens when fantasy becomes reality? The perfect man beside me held my hand as his eyes filled with tears. He and I were just humans; we both knew we were going to die. But I didn’t think that was why he was weeping. It was my confirmation about the creature before me: the angel. Her cheeks were covered with golden tears, her lips moved at an unreadable speed, and her skin glowed like the sun. She was radiating power, though her eyes were full of panic.

Through the window I saw buildings take shape as we rocketed toward the Earth. I closed my eyes and begged for help—any kind of help. If there was a god, I didn’t think he’d answer me. And he didn’t. The plane continued its journey toward our doom and shook violently as another bolt of electricity slammed into the side of the cabin, as if Zeus himself was angry it was in his sky.

“
I wish I could have helped,” I cried out to Karen. “I’m sorry.”

Her hand came up, and she traced the line of my face, her deep eyes hopeless. The air whistled around the plane as the ground beckoned us below, the outlines of the town threateningly clear. My eyes closed to greet the end.

But it wasn’t the end.

Warm arms wrapped around my body as electricity shot through me. It was a feeling I had never felt before, strangely calming. My seatbelt fell from my waist. Still, I kept my eyes closed. The seatbelt wouldn’t save my life anyway. The oxygen mask was pulled from my face. I didn’t care. The arms around me felt protective, comfortable, as if the plane was no longer about to crash to the ground. I gripped the only fabric that clung to the warm body, and my arms found their way around a neck. This must be my subconscious giving me something of comfort before my final moments. I’d take it and be grateful.

But those arms, they felt so real. Electricity coursed through my veins. My eyes flew open, and I felt hope for the first time since our descent. Four angels were in my view; the one cradling me in his arms had liquid-gold eyes and long black hair, the same angel I had first approached in the boxes in the lab. But now he was alive—real—and staring at me.

“
Clear the path,” he instructed, looking up. The words were English, but his accent was thick Italian.

The blonde male angel ripped the emergency door off its hinges, his red eyes staring at us expectantly.

“
Out. Now,” my angel ordered. I didn’t see what happened as I held on for dear life.

Another second passed, and we were out the open door, the humans in the plane staring in wonder as we leapt from the opening. My heart broke. What about the others?

I thought we would tumble toward the Earth, but we floated in the air. The angel’s voice was low as Italian spilled from his lips. There was a loud explosion below us, and fire flew up into the air and surrounded us. The heat was overwhelming, but we were protected from it. The angel must have done something to protect us. As smoke curled around us, my heart broke and tears descended my face as I thought about all those who had just been killed in that one second. Tears were such a rare concept for me, but Joseph’s face flashed in my mind. I shook fiercely at the thought of his death. Besides Jenna’s husband, I’d never lost anyone before. Tears only made sense at this point.

The whole time, the angel never looked down at me, though I couldn’t keep my eyes off him. His skin was a rich brown, his jaw a perfect square shape of beauty, and his black hair was plastered on his cheeks from the rain that washed over us. I leaned my head against his chest, trying to control my sobs, giving into all my fears. This was real. No dream, no funny drugs slipped in my coffee. This was true, brutal, and hard.

Then the angel’s finger gently wiped away the tears on my face and lifted my chin. He was using magic to hold me to him. He stared directly into my eyes, and the depths of his were amazingly golden, like treasure. It wasn’t like looking at Joseph. This angel was different. We were linked, connected somehow. How I knew this in only a matter of seconds was beyond me. Everything else seemed ordinary compared to him. The electrical current continued to burn through me, though it was painless.

“
Siete al sicuro
,” he murmured. I melted into his embrace as he used both hands to hold me again.

I had no idea what he said, but the words soothed me. “Thank you,” I barely mouthed.

He must have understood, because he gave a small nod of his head.

We floated in the air for another moment before we descended. Below was chaos. Screams reverberated and sirens echoed. Lights flashed all around, coming from every different direction, all trying to find a way to the crash site. Fire flared from the middle of the cluster of trees where the plane had hit. From the twisted metal and downed trees, smoke rose rapidly into the air. It was like a beacon to the rescuers. Good, I thought. They needed to find the wreckage quickly.

We submerged into the trees a few hundred feet away from the crash. When we landed, the angel gently put me on my feet. The only thing I could think of was to get to Joseph and Sally. Maybe they had survived, though deep down I knew it was impossible. Unless they were immortal like Karen.

I ran toward the fire, splashing in the mud. There was the sound of rushing wind overhead before the angel dropped in front of me. He had flown over my head.

“
You cannot help them,” he said, his accent richly Italian.

I tried to pass, but his warm arms wrapped around me again, this time constricting me and holding me to his chest. “I cannot allow you to go. You could get hurt.” His voice was abysmal, firm, and final.

“
No,” I cried out but didn’t fight him. It was a cry for the souls who lost their bodies. I went limp, though the angel held me up until I regained my balance.

“
Thank God you’re all right,” said a male’s voice behind me.

I whirled to see Joseph. I blinked in the rain, not believing.

“
I thought we were all dead,” he said, a distraught look on his face.

“
Joseph!” I ran toward him, hugging him as if I had known him my whole life. He embraced me back just as fiercely, and that same electric current ran through me and into him. It wasn’t like before; this was almost painful. When I stepped back I could tell he had felt my jolt of electricity, though he seemed to be okay. “How did you . . .” I trailed off, seeing three angels and Sally behind him.

Joseph smiled brilliantly, which I had thought I would never see again. “They saved us. I don’t know how, it was all a blur. One moment we were plummeting to our death, and then a hole opens up, and the next moment we’re on the ground.”

I didn’t have time to think about what that meant because my knees went all weak again, this time from relief. The angel who saved me caught me as my knees buckled, and there was another undercurrent between us, this one pleasant.

“
I think we need to get her some medical help,” he said over my head to Karen.

“
No,” I insisted. “I’m okay.” I tried to smile, though it was hard. The day was still a disaster, and many lives were lost.

“
Gabriella.” Karen sighed.

“
Really,” I persisted.

The angel released me, and I sank to the forest floor, overwhelmed. I took several long deep breaths, trying to regain my composure. We survived.

Sally, her red hair tangled in her face that was darkened with ash, was crying, which left more streaks through the soot that was washing away by the rain. Joseph’s face was also blackened with the ash, though his dark eyes showed a weird mixture of sorrow and relief. Karen stared at me, concerned. But what interested me most were the now very alive angels, no longer corpses.

“
Andrew?” I canvassed. I remembered the names the Elder’s had given.

The angel who rescued me lowered to the ground. His golden eyes searched mine for a second, eyebrows creased. “I’m Andrew,” he stated. Then he said over my head, “This one is special.”

“
Yes,” agreed Karen, and she dropped down next to me. “Gabriella’s the Illuminator.”

“
She’s the Darkness Illuminator?” the female angel asked. I guessed it was Lucia. She looked identical to Luke. Her eyes were also pools of frosty blue, and her hair was the same deep auburn.

I nodded slowly.

“
What’s a Darkness Illuminator?” Sally asked. They all ignored her.

“
The Illuminator? You’re sure of this?” the other male angel asked. I assumed this was Ehno. Karen nodded. “She’s special indeed,” he said in awe.

He bent to grasp my hand, but when he touched me electricity shot through my palm, more powerful this time. I yanked back my hand and watched as electricity crackled between my fingers like blue lightning.

“
What was that?” I gasped. Had I been struck by lightning?

“
Your gift,” Lucia said like it was obvious.

“
My gift?” My eyebrows shot north.

Ehno stared at me expectantly, his white-blonde hair rounding his angular cheeks. His red eyes practically glowed. When I didn’t speak, he turned to Andrew who nodded as if they had just communicated with each other.

“
Yes,” Andrew confirmed. He seized my hand in his. The current raced between us. I didn’t let go because it was different this time, like it was mixed with something else: patience, concern, anxiety, affection. “You’re strong. I can sense your power.”

“
How’d she get these powers?” Karen asked.

Lucia stared at her like she was from another planet, which perhaps she was. “The Halo of the Sun have always given those who are worthy their powers,” Lucia said matter-of-factly.

“
Who’s the Halo of the Sun?” Karen looked at her with her eyebrows raised. “And Gabriella is a mortal. How could she have the strength of mind and body to possess powers?”

I stared at them, waiting for the answers. Sirens blared in the background as they grew closer, but I was too engrossed in the conversation.

“
Are the Halo of the Sun no more?” Ehno’s red eyes went wide in shock.