Forsaken (Book #1)

The next few weeks passed by slowly yet it also felt like time had passed too quickly. There was only a week until Halloween and things were not going smoothly. Anais had stuck around even after Elysia had cleared her to go to Eraphim the capital of New Haven. Since she hadn’t left things were tense and awkward between all of us. It was hard to get any training done when Anais kept clinging to Grayson and staring at me with distrust in her eyes.

I wanted to roll my eyes and remind her that I was the one who gave them at least a little advanced warning of the attack but I knew that it wouldn’t do any good. She’d still remain distrustful of me. At least things with Grayson were going smoothly. We were still a little unsure around each other but we did occasionally joke around and were on our way to becoming close friends again.

The weather had turned unbearably – and strangely – cold. Many of the trees had already lost their leaves and snow was already in the forecast for the next week. It was really strange and I wondered if it was because Darya’s summoning was getting closer. When I had asked Elysia she had confirmed it, yet I still found the whole thing strange. I headed outside, closing the door softly behind me.

A thin layer of frost coated the ground, and the air was chilly. I tucked my hands into the pockets of my coat and carefully made my way down the stairs. The sky was overcast as usual, and I could see the first vestiges of snowfall. I sighed, my breath appearing in the air and shuffled slowly down the sidewalk keeping my head ducked.

I was heading to the gym for training. Ordinarily I would have walked over with Grayson but Anais had insisted that she come along too, so in everyone’s best interest I decided it was best that I just head there on my own. I pushed open the door for the gym, feeling warmth settle in my bones and muscles.

The gym had changed since I had last seen it. A security system had been added, and it had been recently painted and given new flooring. They had also gotten new desks, and every employee now appeared to carry either pepper spray or a stun gun. I smiled at the employees, heading to the second floor and to the room where Grayson and I normally trained.

I tensed a little when I saw Grayson sitting on the ground and Anais standing before him, a smile playing on her lips. She tossed her hair flirtatiously and edged a little closer to him. I cleared my throat and she jumped away her cheeks turning pink. Grayson climbed to his feet and greeted me with an easy smile on his face.

“Hi,” Grayson said, taking my jacket. “You ready to train?”

“Yeah.” I answered, tying my brown hair back into a ponytail. “It’s really cold outside.”

“Perfect, then that’s where we will start training.” Grayson said his eyes glimmering with mischief.

“No,” I whined. “Like its freezing cold, Grayson and it’s starting to snow. Unlike you, I am actually susceptible to the cold.”

“It will be cold when you have to stop the Afterdark from summoning Darya,” Grayson reminded me.

“I suppose,” I muttered not keen on the idea of jogging outside.

I grabbed my coat from Grayson and walked downstairs and then outside. Thankfully, he followed me and we set about with jogging. We mostly jogged in silence, and a few laps in I could feel myself starting to tire and my lungs starting to burn.

“Come on,” Grayson chided me.

I ignored him, focused on keeping myself at a steady pace. After a few more minutes Grayson declared that we were done running and it was now time to spar. I followed him back inside the gym, pressing a hand to my chest as I fought to catch my breath. We walked back into the room and I was a little surprised that Anais had remained there while Grayson and I had been out jogging. Looking at her though, it somehow didn’t surprise me.

Anais appeared – and acted – very vain. She was more concerned about looking attractive. If only she realized that her somewhat foul personality detracted from her physical appearance. I turned to ask Grayson a question but instead I found Ilya’s swords flying towards me. I deftly reached out, and caught them twirling them in my hands and getting used to their weight and balance again.

Then without preamble Grayson leapt at me. I dodged to the side, bringing up my blades to block his hit and used as much of my strength as I could to push him back. He barely stumbled. Grayson stepped to the side, pivoting on his left foot and slashed wildly for my upper body. I jumped backwards, nearly tripping over my own feet.

Hurriedly I brought up one blade to block his hit and with the other I aimed for his neck. Grayson moved so fast that he was just a blur as he blocked that hit and kicked my hand away from him. I was a blur of movement as I parried and dodged his hits.

If he was moving at supernatural speed then I needed to too. A tingling sensation in my back nearly distracted me and I stumbled almost walking right into his sword. Grayson kicked me away, curiosity bright in his eyes.

I shook my head, deciding to ultimately ignore the tingling sensation. The last time I had felt that was at the city and my wings came out. The sensation only seemed to intensify as Grayson and I continued to spar. I jumped away from him, and just like that the tingling sensation was gone. In its place was a heavy weight and I could barely feel the wings brushing against my back.

It was an odd feeling to feel the weight of the wings and the softness of the feathers brushing against my skin.

“Did my shirt rip?” I asked twisting to get a look at my back.

Though my wings had appeared before I had never noticed the damage that they had done to my shirts. I had just assumed that my clothing was fine but this time with the appearance of my wings I heard a very distinctive ripping sound.

“Yep.” Anais smugly said a grin appearing on her face.

“Focus.” Grayson snapped.

I turned my attention back to our fight. Experimentally I flapped the wings, getting used to how they felt. Then I pushed off the ground and was hovering in the air watching Grayson. I dived towards him and the fight began anew. I fought with renewed vigor, returning each blow with a ferocity that surprised me.

I feinted to the side and was surprised when Grayson actually bought in. I leapt at him, using my wings to propel me and wrapped an arm around my neck pressing the blade of one of the swords to his neck while I pressed the blade of the other to his stomach.

“Good job.” Grayson panted.

I relaxed my stance allowing him to slip out of my hold. The weight of the wings disappeared and I rolled my shoulders.

“Thanks,” I murmured, lowering the swords. “I…I don’t know what came over me.”

“Well it should happen more often. You fought like a trained Valkyrie would fight Calla,” Grayson complimented me. “But, your wings they looked different.”

“Different?” I felt a little worry. “What do you mean different?”

“I mean, the first time that I saw your wings they were gold.” Grayson explained.

“And now?”

“And now there were a few black feathers,” He continued.

“Is that bad?” I was almost afraid of the answer.

“I don’t know.”

* * * * *

Throughout the rest of training I felt this sense of nervousness. Last time my wings had been gold and now they were starting to turn black. I had done research on Valkyries a while ago and they all had either gold or white wings. None had pitch black wings like I was starting to get.

Grayson ended up calling training off early, noticing my distraction. I looked away from his probing eyes and wiped a hand across my sweaty forehead, pushing back sodden strands of hair.

“I’ll call Elysia or Liyana.” Grayson told me after pulling me to the side. “See if they know anything.”

“Thank you.” I whispered. I glanced over my shoulder at Anais who was watching us with a calculating stare in her gaze. “Do you think that I’ll be ready?”

“For Halloween?” Grayson checked. When I nodded he continued, “I think that you’ll be as ready as you can be. Just do what you know how to do and everything will be fine.”

I nodded. There was silence for a few minutes and then I decided to head home. I waved to Grayson and gave a cordial nod to Anais before heading to my house. Usually when I would head to my house after training Lucian would have been waiting there. But since our falling out a few weeks ago I hadn’t seen him or heard of him at all.

I didn’t know where he was or if he was even alive. I was concerned but I did my best to hide it. Showing concern or worry for Lucian would be more enemies than friends, and I had just started winning back the trust of Elysia and Grayson. I couldn’t afford to jeopardize that.

I headed inside, glad to be in a warm, insulated area instead of outside in the bitter cold. I shrugged off my jacket, hanging it up and went to sit on the couch to wait for Liyana or Elysia, assuming that they would arrive tonight. Or if they didn’t, that Grayson would come over with some information.

The hours passed, and no one showed up. I quickly grew bored and decided that I wouldn’t waste any more time waiting for them. I’d go to bed and hope that when morning comes that there would be information.

I headed towards the stairs. I took one step and then there was incessant knocking at the door. I bolted towards it, peering through the peephole and was relieved to see Liyana’s face.

I opened the door and she walked in without saying hello.

“Show me your wings.” She said after I had shut the door.

“What?” I asked her.

“Show me your wings.” She repeated in a hard voice.

I stared at her in stunned silence unsure of what exactly to do to make my wings appear. Whenever they had appeared I had been in the midst of a fight or in a high adrenaline situation. I searched for that same feeling within my being that I got when I was training with Grayson and that was there when I was attacked. The tingling sensation returned to my back and then there was that familiar weight pressing on my back, and the light brush of feathers against my back.

Liyana’s eyes went wide as she stared at me. “Oh Eluria,” she breathed.