04 Shadow Blood - Witch Fairy by Bonnie Lamer

energy is slowing be pulled from me.  Trying to clear my mind from everything else, I imagine my wings in their full glory.  Their downy soft feathers a shield that will protect me from this evil.  I imagine the blinding light that pushed through me when I thought that Zac was being hurt by the Witches.  The light that gave those around me flash blindness.  And then I imagine it a thousand times brighter.  I imagine I’m the sun. 
     
    Suddenly, I’m not on my knees anymore.  I’m standing erect and my feet are rising from the ground.  I feel the light coming from my pores, from my eyes, from my mouth.
     
    I don’t dare open my eyes to look, but I feel my body shedding the darkness.  The feeling of leaches is gone.  The only thing I feel now is the reverberations of the screams bouncing around the corridor as the Shadows fall away.  I don’t know if my wings upped their ampage because I wanted them to, or if they escalated their defense on their own.  And, frankly, I don’t care.  I’m free of the Shadows.
     
    Slowly, my body lowers and my feet touch the ground as the light fades.  I finally dare to open my eyes and I find a shocked Adriel standing in front of me.  I guess that’s better than disdain and hostility. 
     
    She doesn’t say anything for so many heartbeats that I’m starting to get uncomfortable.  I can’t take it anymore.  “What?” I ask.
     
    Shaking herself, she pulls it together.  “One of the reasons I was surprised that Rashnu wanted me to bring you here was because only Angels of Death are immune to the Shadows.  She must have known about you; known that you could fend them off as well.”
     
    Well, glad everybody made sure that theory was correct before I entered the Shadow realm.  Not exactly something that could be covered by a ‘whoops, we were wrong’ kind of thing, since the end result would be me being devoured by evil in hell.  You know what I need?  I need an agent or a manager.  Someone who could iron out all the little details before I commit to things that are dangerous and stupid.  “So, you thought I was a goner just now when I was attacked?”
     
    “Yes.”
     
    I love the honesty of magical beings.  It’s so refreshing.  At least, when it doesn’t pertain to me, it is.  “Were you planning to save me?”
     
    She looks indignant now.  “I was pulling back the Shadows as quickly as I could.  I would not leave you to die at their hands.”
     
    They don’t have hands.  But, I’m going to assume I shouldn’t take that literally.  I may be just a touch sensitive at the moment.  “If only an Angel of Death can fend them off, how come I could?”
     
    She looks stumped as she thinks about that.  Finally, she says, “I do not know.”
     
    Where’s Urim when you need him? I could really use his take on my fate at the moment.  I sigh.  Even if he was here, he wouldn’t tell me anything useful.  He’d be in trouble with Tabbris if he did.  Stupid free will and all its trappings.
     
    I sigh heavily.  “I’ll just add it to my list of ‘I don’t know why I can do that.’”
     
    “It is a long list?”
     
    I study her for a minute to determine if she’s making fun of me.  I don’t think she is.  “Yeah, it is.  There’s never been one of me before with Witch, Fairy and Angel blood all mixed together.  Nobody knows all the limits and abilities I have.  It’s really frustrating and sometimes discouraging.  I can do really cool things like I just did, but I have trouble doing the most simple magic.  It doesn’t help that my mom kept the fact that I was any of those things a big secret until my seventeenth birthday.  I wish there was a Witch/Fairy/Angel for Dummies book I could read.”  I know she won’t get the reference, but I don’t care.  I don’t even know why I’m spilling my guts to an Angel of Death who doesn’t even like me.  Maybe because she can only tell my secrets to dead people.