Page 11 of 30 Ways to Fool an Angel (Tales of a Midlife Witch #7)

Chapter Eleven

R eaching under my arm to my back, I felt a protrusion with feathers. I turned my body trying to see if they were actual wings, but it was like a dog chasing its tail with no luck. What little I could see of them, my wings looked dark. Did dark wings mean something bad? Tony’s were shiny, light, and nearly transparent.

“I can’t see them, but I have feathered protrusions growing from my back. Tony isn’t here to verify but I’m fairly sure I grew wings when I stopped the witches. Do you know how I can get them to go back inside me?”

The urgent whispering of many voices suddenly filled my head. Listening to just one or two out of the crowd was impossible.

I clutched my head in agony. “Stop all the whispering— please . You’re hurting my brain.”

We do not know why you grew wings. We will look into the matter.

Fine. Just stop panicking over them. I’m not panicking. I just want to know what they look like and why I have them.

While I watched, the witches came out of their frozen trances and looked around. They looked at each other. Then they saw me and stared.

Not sure of what else to do, I fingered waved and walked toward them. I needed to make sure they were all coming back to their senses.

I smiled when they stared at me and backed up. What did they think I was? And why did I enjoy the fear in their gazes?

I probably shouldn’t be so happy about that.

I definitely shouldn’t feel so proud.

I felt the wind beneath my wings as I walked—as in I literally felt the air blowing through something on my back that was attached to me. My steps were bouncier as if at any moment I might launch myself up from the ground like a bird taking off.

Sighing, I pretended nothing strange was happening. The wings had helped me stop the witches. That was the important part and the only one worth focusing on.

I stopped in front of the young witch who was still bleeding. “That’s a nasty wound. You need healing from the coven.”

“What happened to my arm? It hurts,” she asked.

I didn’t answer her directly. Instead, I looked at all of them. “You’ve been under a spell. The person who spelled you is now in magickal custody. The spell on you seems to be broken. Now you need to help each other.”

The witches slowly pushed their hoods back and off. The older one who’d been carving on the younger one stared at me until I finally realized I knew her. “Ms. Templeton? Is that you?”

Gasping, she drew in a shocked breath. “Fiona? Good Goddess, you’re all grown up now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. I pointed at the woman with the hurt arm. “Your coven sister needs to be healed. Can you help her?”

“Amanda?” Sarah Templeton rushed over to the woman. “Goddess, what happened to your arm? You’re bleeding.”

Amanda frowned. “I don’t know.”

I could have explained what the spell made Sarah do to Amanda, but that would have only caused more trauma. The blood on her hands would clue Sarah Templeton in to her part in what went on.

The rest of her coven turned to investigate Amanda’s wounds and then rushed to add their support to Sarah’s healing chant.

According to Mom, the snake man had eaten a few of their fellow members. I could attest to that myself after pulling someone’s severed finger from Mom’s hair. She’d been worried sick about Sarah being one of the eaten ones. Mom was going to be glad Sarah had survived, but maybe not so glad to hear her witch friend had been the one carving on her younger coven member.

Despite my obvious success in breaking the spell, I still sighed in disappointment. No one had asked me about my wings. The eye roll I allowed myself was totally justified. Who wouldn’t be surprised by talking to a person with wings?

I’d forgotten my sidekick was still around until Tony sans wings suddenly appeared at my side.

“Hi. You missed me getting my wings. You could have warned me.”

Tony smiled at me. “Your wings are not normal ones. Don’t be mad at the witches. They saw them but couldn’t hold the memory of them in their minds. Did you do something you weren’t supposed to while I was gone? Protectors don’t grow wings.”

I stared at my alleged mentor. “Like you, I would never call myself an angel, even if I have grown wings. However, given how mad you make me daily, I’ve been an absolute saint about my training. That should net me enough points for a pass of some sort with your deity.”

Tony’s burst of laughter made me smile. I felt proud of myself to be the reason. It was a dangerous weakness to care for a being who didn’t trust me enough to know what kind of creature he was.

“Laugh all you want. The ring doesn’t know why I have them, either. What kind of weapon did Grandpa get from the ring?”

“Your grandfather had an invisible spear. Maybe your guardian blood gave you wings instead of a normal weapon. Maybe it’s making sure you can fly away from trouble you can’t handle.”

I grunted at his lack of faith in me. “My father is the child of a guardian but he doesn’t have wings. I think he had them when he turned himself into a monster, but Mom and Rasmus didn’t let him keep them. They reset his DNA until he returned to his normal, non-winged self.”

Tony turned to fully face me. “Didn’t your mother tell you that guardian powers skip a generation? Your grandfather was the child of a guardian as well. He was a seirim—a benevolent spirit.”

“ Seirim ,” I said, repeating the term. “The ring told me I was a shedu . Are we talking about two kinds of angelic beings?”

“No. And we’re not talking seraphim, either. Some considered seirim to be demonic, but they’re not. They are minor deities. The terms are Chaldean because their human culture created deities—or demi-gods—among their people. Protectors of the ring are chosen for their lack of affiliation to a specific line of religious thought.”

My conversation with Gigi about whether or not I was pagan came back to me. She’d said I was young, which now I figured meant I had plenty of time to puzzle out what I was later.

Tony grunted in mock disgust. “You need lessons about all of Earth’s higher beings. The deities you align with while serving the ring affect what you can manifest as a protector of the ring.”

“Is this a magick lesson I missed?”

Tony turned and brushed his fingers gently over my feathers. He smiled when I shivered at his touch. “It could have been but nothing about your training has been conventional. The beings in the ring should have explained the impact of your religious leanings before it let the ring give you wings.”

I leaned away from him but my wings stayed within reach. Obviously, my wings weren’t under my mental control yet. “The ring told me to state what I was and command the witches to stop. Magick surged just before my wings popped out. The ring told me to repeat the commands, so I did, and all of the witches froze. Did I stop time like you did on the plane?”

Tony laughed. “Possibly, but it was only for this one circumstance. The ring made the decision and used you to manifest its desired reality. Don’t get too arrogant about your new powers, sweetie. They will vary with your circumstances. You’re a specific protector, not someone like your mother who aggressively seeks a balance.”

“Don’t call me sweetie . I need you to stop trying to reduce my personal power with your denigrating pet names.”

Tony laughed. “You are cramping my style with all your rules.

I crossed my arms. “Just call me Fiona. I’d call you by your real name if you’d tell it to me.”

He didn’t take the bait. The being still answering to the name Tony smiled and winked at me.

“So are you the only being who can see my wings?” I asked.

Tony shrugged. “Yes, I see them, but I don’t know why, since the witches didn’t seem to. The ring typically considers me an onlooker rather than a protector’s partner.”

“This is all as clear as mud to me, you know.”

Tony laughed at my complaint. “I agree. And now you’re finally starting to learn the truth about magick. It controls you. You don’t control it.”

I snorted like I didn’t believe him, but I actually did. Even the being in the ring who claimed to be running the show didn’t seem to know everything .

I liked order and knowing what to expect, but things changing didn’t throw me off for long. I’d watched my mother adapt to many trials over the years. I knew doing things I didn’t want to do wouldn’t kill me. It would just set me back a bit, but I would eventually figure out how to use it to my advantage.

“Want me to teach you to fly while your wings are still out?”

I glanced up at the sky. Nope. Not today. I’d used up all my bravery. “My shoulders are still burning.”

“Not your shoulders,” Tony said, stepping close behind me. He ran his fingers over my wings again but this time I didn’t shiver. His touch landed under my shoulder blade and toward my ribcage. He pushed on a spot that had me yelping.

“Your shoulders are sore because the tendons are stretched too tight. Those run up into your neck as well.” His fingers moved up and massaged my neck under my hair. “Better?”

My answer was a groan. “Does it hurt when your wings go back inside you?”

“Yes. It hurts every time they come out too. But you get used to it. I think it’s uncomfortable more than painful.”

His hands moved to my shoulders. He massaged the muscles there. A sigh of relief shuddered its way out of my body as I trembled under his touch.

His hands grew still. “I wish the ring had chosen someone else as its protector. You do not deserve this fate.”

I swallowed, despite the lump of nerves in my throat. “Don’t you think I can do the job?”

He turned me around. I nearly backed away from his glare, but his hands moved to massage my shoulders from the front. The tension was still present in my muscles, but now it was tolerable. And so was my angel mentor in moments like this where I could tell he cared.

“It’s not about what I think, Fiona. It’s not about how much I like you or desire you or want to see you happy. I’ve cared for millions of people in my service to mankind, but I’ve never felt so much compassion for a being before. If I could, I would relieve you of this burden. No one should ask someone with your pure heart to keep her magick secret from the world.”

“I don’t think my heart is as pure as you think. I hate my father and may never forgive him for betraying me. I resent my mother’s powers. I envy others. I desire you back. And I enjoyed making those witches fear me.”

Tony mumbled something in a language I didn’t understand. I opened my mouth to ask him about it but he stopped me with a question I couldn’t avoid.

“Are you ready to retract your wings?”

I bit my lip. “I guess so. How badly is it going to hurt?”

“I have no idea. Do you want to walk around the rest of the day with them out? No one can see them, but you’re going to look strangely uncoordinated if you try walking around in a house or through a doorway.”

I sucked in a deep breath. “Okay. Teach me how to retract them. Is there a magick word I need to say?”

Tony laughed and relaxed a little. “No. Shift your shoulders as far back as you and squeeze your back muscles until you hear them snap. Your wings will go in after that. It’s the bone noise that activates the pocket dimension in your body so they have a place to go.”

“You sound like a strange doctor giving me crazy advice.”

“I’ve had time to learn every profession on this planet. What I know about wings comes from personal experience only.”

I nodded as I backed away from him. “Have you always had wings?”

“Yes. We got them when we came here. It was the time of dragons. Humans were still an experiment. The dragons altered their DNA and grew wings on their military people. The Creators decided wings could be useful for those given the task of protecting something.”

“Are dragons still around?” I asked.

“There are a few,” Tony said. “They tend to avoid all others.”

“But you can’t do that?”

Tony shook his head. “Caring for humans has always been my kind’s destiny. Humans were also our second chance to replicate the best of ourselves. The other beings we served before humans were merely for practice.”

“Rasmus told Mom that dragons were the first creatures to inhabit the Earth.”

“Rasmus is a scientist. He would know Earth’s creation story best.”

“What were you when you first started here on our planet?”

Tony smiled. “I was a benevolent leader with as pure a heart as a male can have. I was a lot like you.”

I moved my shoulders back and cringed at the soreness. Gritting my teeth, I squeezed until my spine cracked like an earthquake fault line ran through it. The process hurt and I called out as my wings slid smoothly, but painfully back into my body.

I was bent over and breathing hard when it was over. The witches lifted their heads to look at me. I waved a hand in the air. “I’m fine. Nothing to worry about. Keep healing Amanda.”

Tony snickered. “How do you know their names already? Did you ask them?”

“One of them used to babysit me when I was little. Dad stopped me from seeing anyone even claiming to be a witch after Mom was put in prison.” I stopped my explanation to chuckle at the irony of my life turning out worse than anything my father could have imagined. “Sarah Templeton is a real Salem witch. Her family was one of the ones persecuted during the Salem Witch Trials. She used to cackle like a TV witch to scare non-magickals who visited her store. She taught me to cackle when I was eight years old. I’d show you, but I don’t want to scare the witches.”

Tony looked at me. “I swear, you never fail to make me laugh. I went fifty of your Earth years without laughing before I met you.”

“At least I’m good for something,” I said, rolling my aching shoulders as I stood upright and walked away from him.

Wings now hid inside my body. It hurt when they came out and when they went back. It hurt to use my magickal voice. This training stuff sucked. Or maybe it was my teacher. In the last week, I’d been drugged, spelled, put in prison, and tossed through a portal.

Mom always said magick required a fee to be paid. I guess that was true as well.