Airel - Aaron Patterson [83]
Then an even stranger thing happened: Kale chuckled. It was as if he had read my thoughts as all this had flooded in upon me and thought it was amusing. All I could do was sit there and worry about drooling out of my open mouth.
Now that Kale had my attention, he drove it home. “The half-angel children would grow up normal. Their superpowers were never triggered unless they came into contact with what we call the Brotherhood. Don’t worry; we will get into that some other time. The point is, if these hybrid children never got awakened, they would simply live normal lives, growing old and dying just like a normal man or woman. The verses you picked out for me tell about their origin. I hope you see what I’m driving at—or do I have to spell it out for you?”
My hands were cold. The pit of my stomach clenched tightly, feeling slightly like hunger pangs. My mind replayed for me the night I had cut myself, how I had healed without even a scar to show for it. I thought about the way my skin had become so milky, smoothed out, pure. I thought about my hair; how it was so perfect, so strong—that was decidedly not normal, not—human. And now, as if to complete the internal mutiny against my average teenage life, I heard fluttering. Pages of a book. Wings. She, in the back of my mind, stood up.
Everything I had ever known, wanted, dreamed, desired, and planned in my entire life was now almost visibly crumbling before me, and I could not stop it. I was furious.
Kale sat silently, allowing me to ponder the information further. Even Michael seemed to be too shocked to say anything. I figured he was putting it all together as well; he had seen enough to make him wonder what was wrong with me. But I couldn’t know what he was really thinking.
Like a shout in the darkness, I heard my name. “Airel.” It was Kale. The killer. The stalker. The kidnapper. “Airel, listen to me. I am not your enemy. I am your friend.”
Chapter XVII
First love. First kiss. First night spent away from home. These are the things that leave their mark on everyone. These were true enough for me, but there was also the time I almost drowned, the first time I rode a horse, and now there was the day I sat in front of my kidnapper and realized that everything in my once-happy life was all just an illusion. Congrats, girl, you’re a half-breed, the love-child of angelic aliens and ancient hut-dwellers. Oh, really? Wow, sweet…
I didn’t remember standing up, or even the long walk down twisting stone steps. All I could feel was the long wet grass on my bare feet as I walked through the meadow.
I felt like I was in a fog, that what I had thought was real turned out to be just a curtain. Now the curtain had lifted, and what was lying in wait behind jumped out and ravaged my mind. I can’t really believe this lunatic murderer and kidnapper, can I? I had no way of knowing if what he had told me was true. But, wait… I shivered. His last words echoed through my brain, threateningly. I was beginning to understand the meaning of risk—because I was starting to doubt everything I thought I knew.
The end of our conversation played in the large space of my freshly expanded mind:
“How did you know that the story I wanted to read to you was in Genesis chapter six?” he had said.
I had stared at him in utter amazement. “It was a lucky guess,” I had said flatly.
“Was it?” He had raised one eyebrow, a small smile lifting the right side of his mouth. “I was thinking of the book and chapter in my mind. You read my thoughts, Airel. I suspected you might have that gift, among others…”
“Who are you?” I had nearly shouted it at him, and would have if my voice had not been on the verge of cracking. It’s funny, but I didn’t let him answer me—or if he had, I didn’t remember what it was. I had stormed off the porch, letting