Dominion (Guardian Angels) - By Melody Manful Page 0,3
playfully.
How did she do that? I thought.
“I’m just faster,” she said, answering my thoughts.
Like always, I pretended I spoke my words out loud because frankly, I knew only one angel who was able to answer the thoughts of others, and her name wasn’t Valoel.
“Son.” My father turned his attention to me.
This was new. My father rarely talked to me. Ever since I could remember, he acted as if I didn’t exist. He never talked to me about anything, asked if I was doing fine, or even said hello. I didn’t blame him though, who wanted an evil angel as a son?
My mother, on the hand, was brave, she always asked me how I was doing and tried to make small talk whenever I was home.
“Oh, come on!” I exclaimed. “We’re not going to have a father-and-son talk, are we?” I teased. “If so, I already know what you’re going to say: No alcohol, missing curfew is a crime, and…oh, yes, don’t get a girl pregnant.” Earthly human rules applied here at home as well. “I nailed it, didn’t I?” I glanced at my wrist as if I wore a watch. “Look at that! I missed curfew. I better get to bed then.” I made an attempt to walk away.
My father hissed, “The king.”
I slowed my pace.
“He wants you at the palace at sundown,” my father continued.
“Tell him I’m busy.” I kept walking.
“Gideon!” he called again. “This is important. You need to be there.”
“I can’t.” As guardian angels, we only went to the palace to be assigned to a human. And since I always killed the humans I guided, I practically lived at the palace. However, today I didn’t feel like going to the palace for another assignment.
“You have to be there. It’s important,” he said.
Why did he think he could tell me what to do? “I said I’m busy.”
“But Gideon, this is very—”
I didn’t hear the rest of my father’s speech because at that point I had reached my room and locked him and everyone else in my family out.
The only thing inside my room was a magical telescope. Every angel had one; it was to help us keep track of the humans whenever we left Earth, which was every day after the sun set. I hardly looked through mine because to me, humans were boring, clueless, and flat-out ridiculous. I didn’t like them, so I killed them, and no one dared tell me to stop because everyone was scared of me.
STATE OF GRACE
“There’s no easier way to say this,
but I’m the best, not because I say so,
but because your fears tell me so.”
Melody Manful
In the distance, the Grandinian palace looked like a forsaken fortress, its tall towers shrouded in shadows. As I flew toward it, the only illumination I saw was cast from two wooden torches flanking the main entrance.
I flew until I reached the tower, and I landed at full-speed in front of the immense turret, creating a hole approximately three feet deep in the dirt and filling the air with dust. With my dark wings spread behind me, I lifted myself and emerged from the hole.
The moment my feet touched ground again, heat emanated from my body. I stepped forward, leaving a trail of burning footprints.
“Gideon,” a shaken voice called from behind me.
I turned around, catching the eyes of a girl robed in a hooded gown staring at me. Apparently, the circus was in town.
“Can I help you?” I asked, folding my dark wings into my back.
“No, I—” the girl started saying, but stopped.
I heard her heart racing in fear.
“I’m…my name…I’m Princess Sela. Daughter of King Daligo. My father requests an audience in the Great Hall.”
Daligo sent his daughter to welcome me? He sure as hell knew how to appoint a welcoming committee.
“You’re her? The princess?” I asked. Sela was said to be the angel around, but looking at her, all I saw was another pathetic angel on the verge of collapsing from her own fear. “Well then, your Highness.” I bowed. “My greetings.” I stretched out my hand to greet her properly, but the very moment I did, Sela zoomed into the sky. I couldn’t help but smile. “Relax, I’m not here to hurt you. Well, now that I’m thinking about it, I just might do that.”
I turned and walked over to the main gate. I pushed it, and immediately it crumbled into a heap of dust. I stepped onto the palace grounds and glanced up at Sela, who hovered in the sky.