Wings of Boden (37 page)

We should go now
, said Dakarai.

Strands of hair drifted across my face. I
raked it away, drew in a high-altitude breath and nodded
agreement.

Dakarai fell off the ledge, then spread his
massive wingspan and caught the air, swooped down, leveled off to
fly.

“Source,” said Mom, “he is absolutely
magnificent
.”

“I just,” Dad said, “can’t believe that’s
Dakarai. Our bronze sentinel. All those years.”

Dakarai pushed his wings, looked back at us,
and pierced a call that matched his size,
KEE-EEE-AAR!
The
volume swept over the forest, knifed and echoed through the Crags,
sent the hairs on my neck to attention.

Dad let out some sort of impressed
chuckle.

“Oh, my,” said Mom.

“I think he wants us to hurry up,” Dad
said.

A few steps to the edge, and we fell into
thin air … caught up to Dakarai. While we pushed through the sky,
those below us yelled out a collective cheer, waving and hollering
something. I threw them a full-arm wave, as did Mom and Dad.

Then I noticed in the distance, the
unmistakable pink lettering on the side of a hauling truck as it
travelled down the two-lane road; an Angel’s Closet delivery was on
its way to Boden. The sight reminded me of all the grime on my
body, and brought thoughts of a shower and some pretty clothes.

Even as I rubbed at the itchy grit on my
arms, craving a bottle of lotion, Dakarai dropped down and below
me. When he swiveled an upward glance at me, I realized he wanted
me to ride on his back. So I drifted down and sat between his
wings, palms flat, hair mussing in the wind, and I could feel a
wide smile stretch my face.

To the distant left, just this side of Boden,
Quake Lake mirrored the blue sky and surrounding forest, and I
could see the dam dropping millions of frothy gallons to the river
below as it churned up clouds of mist.

Then the house came into view on the side of
Conall Mountain. Home. I’d thought I would never see it again.
Wants began to swirl through my mind: A shower, a tall glass of
tea, some comfortable clothes, and a fruit salad. Yes, a great big
fruit salad.
Yummy
. I could almost taste it.

Descending on a drift down to the house, Dad
zipped in front of us and spun around. He gave us a come-ahead
gesture for us to follow.

But, what about home, my bed, tea, fruit.
Ugh
.

We leveled and drifted behind the house.

A few minutes later, my gaze dropped into a
clearing, and there stood an immaculate log home; it was Mr.
Stearns house, I figured. Dad had mentioned that Mr. Stearn wanted
to see me about something, but c’mon, now? The home had a tall
pointed roof, wood shingles and a brick chimney, windowed gables
and a redwood balcony with french doors, and a porch deck wrapped
around the house. Seeming out of place with the surrounding pines,
a huge cottonwood tree stood on the expansive green-sodded back
lawn, leaves flipping on a breeze.

My hand slapped over a gasp, eyes widened. A
large pink ribbon hung off the balcony, along with a sign that
read,
Ellie and Angie’s Home
.

Dad and Mom set down near the front of the
house. Dakarai coasted down with me on his back as I strained to
keep from blacking out. He flapped a few landing flaps and settled
on the roof peak of my home.
My home!
My gaze went to Mom
and Dad as they stood on the dirt driveway.

Dakarai said to me,
It certainly is
lovely, little one.

With my hand plastered to my face, I sat
frozen on his back, staring at Mom and Dad as they floated a pair
of wide smiles up to me.

“Come on down here, Ellie,” Dad called
out.

After uncovering my mouth and placing my
palms on Dakarai’s back, I replied to myself, “Just, just, just a
second.” The image of me blacking out, tumbling down and falling
off the roof, hitting the ground in front of them in a puff of dirt
came to mind.

Minutes later, I let my wings carry me to the
ground.

Hugging Dad, with my cheek to his chest, I
said, “I can’t believe it, thank you
so
much.” There were
the tears again, but these were good tears soaking into his shirt
while he and Mom rubbed my back and wings.

Dakarai let out an earsplitting call over the
forest, drawing our attention as bunches of cawing crows startled
from the sound and lifted from the trees. He stood so majestic,
perched on my roof.

My roof!

“I think he likes it,” Dad said. “He sure
looks perfect up there. Looks like you have your own sentinel,
honey. And this one breathes.”

After a moment of viewing Dakarai, my
attention slid to Dad. “How did you build the house so,
fast
? I thought it would take—” I arched a brow. “Is that
what all the noise was from?”

Dad grinned. “It’s amazing what two hundred
angels can do in a short time. This is one of the reasons we didn’t
want you back here, to surprise you. Guess it worked.”

“Well, I’m just— Does Angie know?”

“No honey,” Mom said. “Why don’t you go get
her? We’ll give you the tour of your new home.”

My home!

Before anyone could say anything else, I was
already off and running to go get Angie. Thoughts whirled in my
mind, hysterical shrieks of laughter burst in waves while I hopped
and bounded through the forest, losing a shoe along the way.
Probably could’ve flown, but, whatever, pretty close to flying
anyway.

I burst into Angie’s room:

“Ah!” she squealed and jerked up to a seated
position against her headboard, clutching at her heart
“
Source
, you scared me. I was sleeping, Ellie.” Her eyes
went wide and bright. “Ellie!” She sprang off the bed, launched
into a hug, released back and held her eyes on mine. “I was so
worried about you. What happened?”

My words came out between breaths, “You, have
to come. Just, follow me.”

“Um, okay, I have to change clothes
first.”

“No. That’s a nice dress, it’s fine, you look
great, let’s go.”

“But—” Her eyes skimmed over my body. “You
look all …” She glanced down, crinkled up her nose. “Your feet are
nasty, Ellie. Where’s your other shoe?”

“Oh, I lost it, now c’mon.” I toed the
remaining shoe off, grabbed Angie’s hand, dragged her out the door
and down the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Ginelle called out from
the living room, causing Angie and I to stop in the foyer. “Is that
you, Ellie? You’re okay now?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Thank you. Come with us.”

Angie said, “I can’t believe you lost your
shoe, Ellie. Those were your favorite.”

My gaze went to the statue. “That’s a pretty
cool hawk, huh? Say hi to the hawk, sis.”

She gave me a funny look, curled up her lip
and raised one eyebrow as she said, “What? Um, what’s wrong with
you? Did you bump your head or something?”

“Let’s go, Mommy,” Steff’s little voice. “I
wanna see what they’re doing. Elle sounds really happy.”

Oh, she had no idea.

Ginelle said, “We’ll be right behind you. Go
on ahead. I know where you’re going.”

She knew? Well, maybe about the house, but
she’d never seen Dakarai.

“Okay, I’ll see you back there.” I dragged
Angie out the door while she hopped on one leg, trying to put on
her shoe.

Our new home started to become clear through
the trees. Angie ran ahead. Upon exiting the tree line, she started
jumping up and down on the driveway, puffs of dirt off her feet,
squealing like a wild animal. It startled me so I stopped to watch
her while I chuckled into my hand. One of her shoes flew off right
at Dad. He caught it with a grin.

“See, that’s where my shoe went,” I said to
myself.

Angie’s long hair flailed around, her
sundress and wings bouncing like a well-dressed hysterical chicken,
showing her butt to the world while she wailed and squealed in
joy.

Hey, those are Angel’s Closet underwear.

She finally launched into Dad’s arms. He
caught her and swung her around like a happy father with a toddler.
Mom had to go sit down on the porch steps, I assumed because she
was laughing so hard she couldn’t stand up.

Angie had looked ridiculous, but I knew how
she felt, so I sprinted up to them as Dad set her down. Seated on
the porch steps, Mom swiped funny tears from her face.

Tell her hello for me, will you
,
Dakarai’s voice in my head. He clicked his beak.

In all the commotion, Angie hadn’t even
noticed him. How, I had no idea. Before I could say anything, Angie
stopped and asked, “What was that sound?” She looked up and sucked
in the deepest gasp I’d ever heard, her eyes were the size of
dinner bowls. “What the flap is that?”

“He wants me to tell you hello, Ang.”

“What?” She couldn’t take her amazed eyes off
him.

“Dakarai says hello.”

“What?”

“That’s Dakarai. And he wants me to tell you
hello.”

“What?”

Ugh
.

“It’s true, Ang.” Dad helped me out.

“But that’s the— in the foyer.” Angie’s
confused gaze went to Dad. “Dakarai? No way. No flappin way.” Her
brows winged all the way up. “Are you serious, really?”

“Yep, that’s Dakarai, honey, and he’s on our
side.”

Her face lifted to Dakarai again. She exhaled
the words, “He’s so beautiful.”

Why thank you, Angelica. I missed you. Such a
beautiful sight you are.

“He said thank you, sis, and he said he
missed you, and you’re beautiful too.

Angie snapped eyes on me. “You, you can hear
him?”

“Mommy, Mommy, look at the big bird!” Steff
called out behind us.

We turned to see Steff attempting to pull
away from her mother’s hand. Ginelle stood at the tree line,
looking to the roof with the same gaze Angie had just
demonstrated.

Angie drew my attention, “How do you
understand Dakarai? And I thought—”

“It’s a long story,” I cut her off. “I have
so much to tell you.”

Dad said, “You girls should go on in. Your
mother will give you the tour of your new home. Ellie can tell you
all about it, Ang. It’s quite a story. We stocked the refrigerator
for you both. Your mother and I think we should have a family
dinner here tonight. I need to go check on the boys’ progress. They
should be here soon.”

“Jaydenn?” Angie questioned.

“Yes,” I replied, “and Vyn, too. He’s okay
now. You’re never gonna believe the day we had. Let’s go in.” I
raised eyes to Dad. “Thank you. Thank you
so
much.”

“Yeah, thank you,” said Angie. “We love you.”
She gave him her little grin, tilted her head. “And not because of
the house.”

Dad nodded, offered a touched smile.
“Anything for my angels. You deserve it, girls. And, Ang, I built a
play center out back for Emmelina, and there’s a rope swing on the
tree back there.”

Angie started crying and buried her face into
her cupped hands. Mom came over and embraced her, rubbing her back
and wings with a pursed-lip smile.

Dad looked away. I followed his sight
line.

Steff was attempting to rip Ginelle’s arm out
of the socket to get away. “C’mon, Mommy. Let’s go see. C’mon!”

Dad called out, “Get over here, cheerleader.
He won’t bite!”

The boys had escorted the humans up the
mountain and a celebration of friendship had taken place. We had
found out that the woman from the cave, Cathyryne, is little
Cassie’s mother. The thought of reuniting mother and child brought
more warmth to my heart.

That evening, the family had gathered on the
porch, relaxing in our new deck chairs. We had sat looking out over
the evening forest, listening to the cricket song under the
moonlight while a billion stars swept across the sky.

We’d discussed the future plans and such, and
we’d come to a mutual decision that we’re going to fix up the
Angelic Inn and create a mountain resort, run by all of us. I’d
decided to be the event planner. Angie would run the bakery, of
course, hopefully with Faye’s help. Mom would be in charge of
design and flowers. Jaydenn would run the bar. Ginelle wants to run
the restaurant, and she had said she wants Penny to run the pizza
kitchen, since Penny has all that energy. We would iron out all the
details later. Dakarai had stayed perched above with the occasional
word in which I forwarded for him. He had informed us that the
hunters are retreating from Boden, due to the discovery of the
light serum.
We will discuss this tomorrow, Dakarai had said. I
have much to reveal about our plans. Relax now, enjoy your
celebration.

That day was yesterday, part of the spring I
would never forget.

Gazing into the vanity mirror, I sat before
my new dressing table. Vyn was behind me on the edge of my bed. My
bedroom was a near copy of my mother’s, just as I’d always
wished.

Ginelle had chosen for me an appropriate
dress for the occasion: Powder blue silken fabric down to my
calves. The dress had a low scoopneck, slender spaghetti straps,
and a wrap tie around my waist. The most gorgeous dress I’d ever
seen. Angel-wing earrings dangled under my hair. A string of pearls
wrapped around my neck, which seemed to add ten years to my
appearance, though the mirror reflected a pallid bundle of
nerves.

While I contemplated my birthday, brushing my
hair and fidgeting, my stomach twisted into a knot so I placed a
palm over it, concentrating on slow breaths.

Riding on a light breeze, sounds of happy
conversation and laughter drifted through the thin lace curtains of
the open balcony door, mere feet away from me. Everyone had
gathered in the yard, waiting for me to come to the balcony.

“I’m scared, Vyn.” With my palms on the table
surface, I reminded myself:
Breathe. Breathe
, then said to
the mirror, “Oh, Source, please don’t let me pass out, or throw
up.”