Grey

Chapter 35

The weeks leading up to Christmas were spent with Riel, obsessing over maps and scouring through the debris that I had left scattered around Grey's living room. All we had found was some dark gravel atop the black burn on the hardwood floors, a pine needle, and a few lone dark grey feathers strewn across the floor. Despite my insistence that perhaps the feathers could've been from another Fallen and that maybe it was them who had taken Grey, Riel hadn't believed my theory. He had insisted the feathers belonged to Grey, that the gravel was likely from the driveway outside, and that the pine needles could've been from anywhere in the surrounding area and weren't necessarily linked to the incident. He was less than encouraging.

When we'd scoured the maps of the area, I'd pressed Riel on if he'd known of any locations that someone could hide an Angel, he'd insisted he knew of none. He'd explained that keeping an Angel locked up was no easy feat, and that it likely wouldn't be anywhere near civilization. Riel had further elaborated, saying that especially for Grey, it wouldn't be wise to keep him near people. He would cause too much destruction and inevitably escape.

So, following the exhausting weeks of disappointment and irate fury that ensued Grey's kidnapping, I'd decided to return home for the holidays. Riel wasn't aware that I'd left, and I'd wanted to keep it that way. Despite my refusal at the beginning, he'd insisted on trying to train me. When I'd finally obliged, he never left me alone. When I wasn't obsessing over Grey, I was training with Riel, if you could even call it that. He mainly just made me go on long runs with him and watch him demonstrate fighting techniques. I wasn't entirely sure why he thought that a combination of those two things was somehow going to force my stubborn soul into Maturation. If Grey flipping me onto my back hundreds of times a day wouldn't do that, I doubted a mundane run and fighting demonstration would do the trick.

Aside from the constant wear on my mind and body, I hadn't been able to sleep since Grey had been taken. Every night, I'd been plagued with nightmares of him screaming and thrashing back and forth in chains, pleading for mercy. In the mornings, I'd wake up covered in a freezing sweat with salty tears burning my cheeks. I guess I hadn't realized how attached I was to him until he was taken from me.

"You okay?" I heard my mom's voice and quickly turned around to face her, a concerned expression straining her features. She had just picked me up from the airport, and when I hadn't reacted with the same excitement as I normally did when I saw her, I could tell she knew something was up. My mom excelled at reading people, and I was no exception.

"Yeah, just stressed about school," I lied, turning back to look out the window, my breath fogging the glass.

"School is done for the semester. Now you're home and can relax," she offered, and I could feel the sadness in her voice. No doubt she'd been disappointed at my reaction to her picking me up. If only she knew what was going on, that I had lost someone I'd grown to care about deeply, and that it was all my fault. However, I knew I couldn't tell her. The more people that knew about Angels and Demons, the more I put them at risk. I needed to protect her from this.

"Yeah, I know, I just feel like I have unfinished business back in Washington," I replied coolly, watching the little white snowflakes descend sideways past the car.

"What do you mean?" She pressed. I turned and looked at her once more, noting the hope in her eyes that I might indulge a little. I wanted to, really I did. But I knew it was my turn to be the protector here.

"I don't know. Probably just residual stress from finals week," I lied again, earning a disappointed purse of my mother's lips. Final's week hadn't gone the way I'd hoped, but I wasn't entirely surprised given the circumstances. My focus hadn't been on school in months, and as much as I hated to admit it, education was no longer my first priority. I had become entangled in the war between Heaven and Hell, and that seemed like it had precedence over my organic chemistry class. Dr. Turner might beg to differ, but I hardly cared what she and her weird hippie skirts had to say.