Lapidary

The Infernal Peaks were the highest mountains in all Testatha, our hourglass-shaped world. The inhabitants here were often referred to as the Clepsydra-society. I wondered if the angels lived there so that they could feel closer to Heaven. The mountains were covered in snow, and I wrapped my coat tightly around my skinny body. On the Infernal Peaks, the angels had built a rectangular temple of white stone with big, spiral boulders at the entrance. The place was known for its beauty, but to me it looked too much like a hospital.

We parked under a large tree, and I got out of the car. A group of angels had gathered in front of the temple, close to the cliffs. There were archangels, normal, and lowers. I admired their white, grey, and brown wings and wondered what it was like to fly, to not fear heights. Six children stood in front of the crowd, looking nervous. Five of the six had wings.

“Is that a human?” I couldn’t understand why a human would live among the angels. Angels, like most beings, saw humans as less than ‘lowers’. As nothing.

“No, he is just a late bloomer. Some angels only sprout wings on their first flight,” Ace explained. “It looks like it is First Flight Day for those six.”

I got out of the car and stayed close to Ace. We stopped walking at the edge of the crowd, and I watched the first angel, a boy with white wings, leap off the edge of the cliff. My breath caught, but seconds later, he was soaring. The next four angels had grey wings. They leapt off the edge, and I couldn’t help but move closer, as if I could catch them. Moments later, they, too, were flying.

And lastly, the boy without wings jumped. I cried out and ran toward the edge, where I threw myself onto the ground, thinking he would fall to his death, like Ryker. I was aware that the angels were staring at me, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was that small body breaking on the rocks.

But then he sprouted wings and flew.

Ace was at my side, offering me a hand, but I rose on my own. He was tense. Had I embarrassed him?

“Do they always sprout wings?” I wondered.

“No, some are too weak,” Ace said. “Some beings are born with angel blood, but don’t have enough magic to ever grow wings.”

Like me.

Angels weren’t meant to stay on Testatha, and every year they grew weaker and weaker. The children who didn’t grow wings plunged to their deaths.

Ace held me upright and pulled me away from the drop, but my legs still felt numb. Slowly, the crowd thinned, but one white-winged angel remained. I recognized him, from the many times he appeared on TV, as Emperor Artemis Highstar.

Artemis wore a shirt as white as the clouds, with two golden stripes running down each shoulder. Instead of buttons, the shirt fastened with strings on his chest. It had slits in the back, to accommodate his large wings. He wore brown pants with boots fit for mountain climbing. We approached him, and I gripped Ace’s arm. Ace bowed low, and I mirrored his movement.

“Welcome to the Temple of Angels.” Artemis’s voice was fruity, deep, and rough in a pleasant way. “We should go somewhere private.”

I didn’t know what he wanted to talk about that no one else should hear, but I wasn’t about to ask, either. We entered the spacious temple, with its polished floor and magnificent chandeliers. We climbed the stairs until we found a room at the top of the temple, which I assumed was Artemis’s office. The archangel sat down behind his desk, and Ace closed the door.

“So,” Artemis said. “You are the ex-girlfriend of Ryker Featherswallow.”

The ring felt heavy on my finger, and my silence was answer enough.

“I appreciate you writing to me, Ace,” he said, “and I understand why a vulnerable, mortal woman moving to Vesea would want one of my feathers.”

“What do you want in return?” I was tired and not in the mood to play games.

Artemis smiled, but there was nothing pleasant about it. From his comfortable, seated position, I assumed he had all the time in the world.

“Do you know who Lakelyn Shelby is?” he asked.

If I wasn’t so tired, I would have cursed at him for thinking me incompetent. Everyone knew who Lakelyn, princess of Arameer, was. She was the mermaid whom Ryker dated, before me. She was the sister of Neron, and the daughter of Queen Coralia.

“Yes.”

“Did you know she and Ryker were still in contact?”

I tensed and reminded myself that Ryker had loved me and would never have betrayed me. If they had still been talking, it hadn’t been for romantic reasons. But, I also hadn’t known that they had still been in contact. Why had Ryker never told me?

“After Ryker’s suicide, the Sky Watch and I investigated,” Ace said. “I found a letter from Lakelyn Shelby to Ryker.”

My stomach turned. Why was Ace only telling me this now? “What did it say?”

“It said she had found the White Crystal in Deftones Deep and that she was sending it to him because she didn’t want anyone to open a rift from Heaven’s Window again.”

During The Shaking, Lakelyn’s father, King Tristen, had been caught in the tsunami which had slammed his body against the city and broken it. He had died.

“She found the white crystal…” I repeated.

***

I should maybe give you a brief history lesson, so that you understand the world of Testatha. Well, long ago the world was only inhabited by humans. But there were places in the world where the veil that connects this word to others was thin. Sometimes, the veil is so thin that it tears, creating rifts. The fae were the first creatures to travel to earth through these rifts and set up a permanent home – the five islands of Vesea. Other magical creatures, like angels and daimons, also traveled to Testatha and sometimes crossbred with humans – creating half-angels or half-daimons.

There was a fae male, now the most famous of all fae, named Duras Foreswift who established a permanent base in Ocelos, the main island of Vesea. He fell in love with the angel Paeris Venven, who occasionally used the ever moving rifts to travel to Testatha. Unfortunately, she belonged in Heaven and couldn’t stay with him. So, Duras Foreswift spoke to Ayana, his goddess, and begged her to help him. She warned him that if she helped him, the world would have to change. Persistent, Duras Foreswift begged for her help, and eventually she gifted him a white crystal with two incredible powers. It could bring anyone back from the dead, and it could open a full rift between worlds. Ayana warned Duras that the power of the White Crystal was unlike anything the world had ever known.

Duras didn’t listen. He rushed to the tallest tower, known as Heaven’s Window, in Vesea, a place where the veil was thinnest. He tried to open a rift to Heaven but succeeded only in opening rifts between multiple worlds. Angels fell from Heaven that day, and creatures such as centaurs, werewolves, vampires, spirits entered. The rift was so big that it shook the world, shook the tectonic plates, and caused a tsunami that claimed many lives. All the full-blooded daimons in the city died that day, as saltwater is deadly to them. Thus, only half-daimons remained. Many humans and fae also drowned, and the tsunami killed several merfolk. Some of the angels who fell from Heaven, plunged to their deaths. Others survived but were forced to stay in Testatha, unable to return home.

Duras, having seen what he did, realized how many lives he had taken. He had created chaos and ripped the angels from Heaven – but some, including his beloved Paeris, remained. He jumped from Heaven’s Window and killed himself. The White Crystal fell into the ocean, and until today it had not been found.

I reckoned the angels wanted it so that they could return to Heaven. The half-daimons wanted it so that they could return to the Netherworld. The elves wanted it so that they could remain in control of everyone. And the human rebels wanted it so that they could banish magic. The merfolk, who’d been living on this world almost as long as the humans, possibly wanted to hide it, so that no tsunami that big could ever be created again.

The elves fixed Vesea, upgraded it even, and that was where my family lived now. It was soon to be my new home.

***

“I want to see the letter,” I said.

Artemis met my determined gaze and opened his drawer. He handed me a scroll which had a broken shell seal on. I took a breath before opening it.

My dearest Ryk,

I know we haven’t spoken for a while and I know I promised I wouldn’t write. But, these are dangerous times. I have found the White Crystal in Deftones Deep and I will be sending it to you in an attempt to get it away from Heaven’s Tower and prevent another mass slaughter. Do with it what you wish – just be careful as I know everyone has been searching for it for twenty-two years.

Love,

Lake

My stomach felt sick, and I ignored the shorter versions of their names. Did Ryker call me Nat instead of Natka because his ex had shortened his name? I handed back the letter, knowing that it could ruin Lakelyn if this information came out. She had found the crystal, which meant she should have given it to the Sky Watch, who thought they ruled the world, along with the fae. It was a valuable letter that could be used against her. Artemis slid it back into the drawer then walked to the window closest to it.

“Did she actually send the crystal?” I asked.

“That’s what I would like you to find out,” Artemis said. “She either sent it to him and someone stole it on the night he died—”

Someone had broken into our apartment.

“-Or she never sent it and knows where it is.”

Either way, if she hadn’t written that letter, Ryker would still be alive. He either killed himself because he couldn’t handle it, or someone murdered him for the crystal.

I looked at Ace. “You knew…”

He seemed to shy away. “I couldn’t tell you. You were already so broken…”

But now I had a new hatred in my heart, especially for Lakelyn. Why did she have to write Ryker that letter? She had endangered him, and I had to find out what had really happened. But, if I went to Vesea, I risked getting possessed, and then I’d never find out why my fiancé had died. I needed one of Artemis’s feathers.

“Did you tell Bellevue?” I asked Ace.

“Of course not! I only told Artemis of the letter.”

This was another reminder that, in the end, angels stuck together. Ace lived in the Elvin Kingdom, under Bellevue’s rule, but his loyalty was to Artemis, emperor of the angels.

“I want you to search for the stone – it is white, round and as big as your fist,” Artemis said. “The mermaids won’t talk to us, or anyone, about it.”

“Why do you want it?”

“So, we can go back to Heaven, where we belong.”

I believed him. I thought of the young boy who had been a late bloomer because of the fading angel magic in Testatha. One day they might have no magic at all – making them like us humans.

“I’ll search for the crystal,” I said, “but I need a feather.”

Artemis plucked a small white feather from his wing, as easily as if plucking a hair. The feather would offer me immense protection, and it could only be removed by the archangel who had given it to me.

“Where do you want it?” he asked.

I lifted my shirt to reveal my pink bra and pointed to the spot between my breasts. He placed the feather there, and it tickled as it fused with my skin. I lowered my shirt.

Ace had politely looked away.

“You should move to Vesea as well,” Artemis said. “The human could do with extra protection.”

Their attention was focused on each other, giving me the perfect opportunity to slide my hand into the drawer and steal the letter. I tucked it into my coat pocket without anyone noticing. Stealing was one of the valuable lessons the streets of New Peace had taught me.

“Your year of living in New Peace, trying to find out what had happened, has gotten us nowhere,” Artemis said, with a click of his tongue. “Maybe the answers are in Vesea.”

“I’m not going with you,” I told Ace.

“Nat—”

“No! You had a year to tell me that the White Crystal was found—”

“That was, and still is, classified information.”

“You could have told me that someone might have killed Ryker for it. Or that he killed himself because he couldn’t take the pressure – not because of me.”

Ace’s face went pale, and his throat bobbed. I hadn’t meant to tell him how I felt. I hadn’t meant to sound so broken.

Maybe I wasn’t responsible for his death. Maybe I wasn’t a murderer.

“Stay away from me,” I told Ace, meaning it.

I stormed out of the room, and both angels were smart enough to stay put.