Celestra Forever After by Addison Moore

just imagine Gage writhing with hatred right about now. Marshall isn’t too high up on Gage’s list of favorite people. In fact, if there is a list, he’s nowhere near it. Marshall is notorious for making Gage miserable, but if there’s one thing I won’t let Marshall get away with this year, it’s tormenting Gage.
    “Mr. Oliver.” Marshall tips his chin, holding back that shit-eating grin. “There seems to be a clerical error. I’m afraid you’ve been scheduled to take this course in the next hour with Professor Lowery. That being said, you’re welcome to sit in for the time being if it pleases you.”
    “And there’s that.” I close my eyes a moment.
    “Pardon me, Ms. Messenger? Did you have something you’d like to share with the rest of the class?”
    My eyes spring open only to find his hotter-than-hell eminence advancing in my direction.
    “Here we go,” I whisper, digging my shoulder into Laken’s in a feeble attempt to take shelter.
    “Let me make one thing clear to any of my previous students who think this is a game; I take the value of your educational experience quite seriously.” The muscles in his jaw pop, making him look that much more vexingly handsome. “Besides, if there is one subject I’m most passionate about it’s history.” His eyes flit to mine. “Let us not make the mistake of forgetting the past. If we fail to carefully examine the pitfalls of our predecessors, we will undoubtedly repeat them.” He takes a step toward me with total disregard for the girl he’s just penned in with his crotch. “Or, in some cases, it’s best we carefully examine the perils of yesteryear because we are destined to relive them.” His eyes fixate on mine as if he were in a trance. “We’re going back in time, Ms. Messenger.” He steps in, his careful attention pinned square on me. “There are still missions to accomplish, wrongs to right. A path has been cleared for that very purpose and this”—he holds up a mammoth textbook in his hand—“is our ammunition.” He narrows those strange auburn eyes over mine. “The first time it was happenstance—a journey through destiny, unavoidable, nothing but a burden on the backs of your people. But this time—it’s personal.”
    You could hear a pin drop. Laken shudders, and I do the same.
    Crap. Things are about to get personal all right.
     

     
    An hour bleeds by as Marshall drones on about mundane things like the specs of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, the lack of food, and plague of death that overcame their passengers. For some strange reason I thought Marshall was going to take us all on one big light drive and show us how the West was won, firsthand . Thankfully no inter-dimensional fieldtrip ensued, and the class starts to drain without the post-traumatic stress that time travel could have caused.
    I gloss over the notes I took. Of course, they have nothing to do with any of Marshall’s ramblings and everything to do with the factions. Now that I’m the overseer, I’d like a refresher on who’s who and what they’re capable of. It’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact there are Nephilim offspring that roam the earth in five angelic factions, let alone that I belong to one—that I won a war on behalf of Celestra.
     
    Celestra
    1. Touch telepathy
    2 . Strength, speed, and, of course, the biggy that has the Counts panties in a celestial bunch,
    3. Time travel
     
    Countenance
    1. Strength, speed.
    2. Greedy as hell.
     
    Noster
    1. Strength, speed.
    2. See through walls.
    3. Teleportation.
    4. Levitate.
    5. The gift of knowing .
     
     
    Deorsum
    1 . Strength speed.
    2. Have the ability to influence people.
     
    Levatio I smile just thinking about my favorite Levatio, Gage.
    1. Strength, speed.
    2. Teleportation.
    3. Levitate.
    4. The gift of knowing.
     
    Logan and I belong to Celestra. He had just enough Count in him to swear over to the dark side as a means to gain footing on the enemy, but that never really