Chapter 2

Humans. They think angels are divine creatures sent from the Lord to do his bidding. They're so blissfully ignorant of their surroundings; of the shadows that lurk in the light.

The shadows hurt. They look inviting and helpful, but once you're in them, you realize all they gave you were empty promises. You tried to escape, but you had already been consumed. Merely another tool to be used by the shadows.

She had always been a rebel though. That's what brought her to the darkness, and that's what kept her from giving in to its wishes.

She was running from the harsh judgment of the light and the sickly sweetness of the dark. Dark and light. Good and bad. Yin and yang. She was all of those, yet none of them.

She was currently a little more dark than light. The darkness was very hard to see in. It left her sight pitch black as if she was blind. All she could see was the auras of the animals. This helped her run from predators and prey on prey. The darkness couldn't take this ability from her. This is what made her special.

Unfortunately, the aura sight didn't apply to plants. It was very common of her to trip and hurt herself. The latest fall was down a hard, rocky slope. Luckily, Angels had very strong bones and she didn't break any. Unfortunately, they weren't invincible and they had a low pain tolerance. She had raised hers up to the level of a normal human's from the times she had hurt herself, but the fall gave her new scratches and bruises.

She tried to spread her wings and pain shot through her body. She tried again and another burst of pain went through her, this one enough to make her screech. Apparently, she had sprained one of the most delicate parts of her body. 'Great,' She thought to herself, 'I probably fell down a cave and there's no way to get out if someone doesn't help me.' Well, she probably couldn't get out without someone's help. She was a very clumsy angel and probably would break her other wing trying to get out.

"Hello!" She heard someone call from an unknown location. "Anyone here?" She tried to shuffle away from the sound, but accidently fell on her wing. This time she screeched even louder. Panting, she scootched away from the unknown someone, this time more carefully.

She lifted her head in the direction the sound had come from. No auras. Good, they probably left. No one could see her in this condition. Sure, she had once been one of the best known curationum angels, but now she was a fallen one, cast down from the heavens from doing some sort of bad deed. Well, she wasn't your typical fallen angel. When an angel is banished, they have their wings stripped and their magic privileges taken away. She, well she ran from the punishment. It wasn't easy, but she managed to keep her wings and magic. Sometimes she wished she chose the easy path. At least with no magic she wouldn't suffer the effects of using dark magic.

"What are you?" A voice shook her from her thoughts and she gazed at an aura of a bright blue color.

As soon as Nathan entered the cave the first thing that struck him was the darkness. It wasn't the normal darkness that came with night. It was pitch black; the kind that made kids check under their beds for the boogeyman. 'Actually, that seems like a good idea right now.' He thought to himself. 'I'll just head home none and forget this trip. I'm sure that I left my bed unmade. I better go make it.' He almost actually left the cave when he heard another rustle. 'I can't just need someone who needs help!' He scolded himself. He pulled out his flashlight and flicked it on. The cave was dark and wet. He could see several sharp rocks. As he looked around some more he saw some dark liquid on the ground. He bent down to inspect it closer. It was blood!

He hurried down the cave, one hand on his flashlight and one on the wall. After ten seconds he saw a humanoid figure in the light. The humanoid was deathly pale. Her hair, which was long and dirty blond, was tangled up into a giant rat's nest. She had bruises and slashes on her arms and one large scar running across her face. Speaking of her face, she had one of the prettiest faces he had ever seen. She had high cheekbones and full lips. She had long lashes and large eyes. Her eyes creeped him out the most though. They were fully black. That isn't exactly a natural color that occurs in humans or any other animal for that matter. Well, some spiders had fully black eyes, but hers didn't reflect any light. If anything, they seemed to absorb it. The thing that made him call her a humanoid wasn't her eyes though. It was the large pair of regal black wings behind her. As he took in her appearance, he asked a very good question.

"What are you?" Her head jerked towards him. She squinted at him, her large eyes scrunched up like a scrunchie. Her eyes then widened and her face morphed into one of anger.

"Mage." She hissed this one word at him like a terrible insult. "Are you here to take me back to Caelum so you can properly banish me? Take away my wondrous wings and rid me of my magic? Sorry, not happening."

"Huh? Sorry, but what're you talking about? You're the one with creepy eyes and giant wings. Explain that!"

Her eyes widened when she heard that.

"You're not a Mage? But you have a blue aura, only mages have that color of aura."

"Why would you think I'm a Mage? Mages aren't even real. The only reason I know what they are is because I read all the books on the summer reading list in my freshman year."

"What's a freshman?" She looked really confused as if she really didn't know what a freshman was.

"Wait, you don't know what a freshman is?"

"Should I Mage?"

"I'm not a Mage!" She chuckled at that for some reason.

"Of course you're not. You're just trying to get me to trust you so you can get me easily."

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm. Not. A. Mage!"

"The auras never lie." She said this with such conviction that he almost believed her. Almost.

"What even is an aura?"

"Seriously? You don't know what an aura is?" When she said this, she looked at Nathan like he had grown another head. "Isn't that one of the first things you learn as a mage? I once picked up a beginners mage book and that was one of the major subjects."

He groaned. "I already said this. I am not a mage."

"Doubt that." Nathan was getting really frustrated now. He was not a mage. How many times did she need that said to her until she understood.

"Ok, fine. I'm a mage. Now can you tell me what you are?" Nathan tried using a different tactic this time: lying.

"Ok, that has to be some of the worst lying I've ever seen. Wait, if you were lying then..." She started mumbling to herself, then a look of amazement came on her face. "You really aren't a mage!" Nathan nodded enthusiastically at that. Took her long enough!

"So, can you tell me what you are now that we've settled the fact that I am not a mage."

"No can do human. Although you do have magic in you." She trailed off on this and started thinking to herself. She shrugged. "Why not. You'll find out eventually. I'm an angel. Specifically a fallen slash dark one."

"You're an angel?" He stared at her like she was an alien, which she kind of was. "Like come from Heaven angel."

"Yup." She said popping the 'p'. "I'm from Caelum."

"Umm, can you show me your wings?" When he was a child had had been fascinated with Angels. It seemed like all he drew when he was younger were self-portraits of himself with wings.

She immediately perked up at this. "Sure!" She started to spread her wings but yelped in pain as soon as she did.

"Are you hurt?" He looked at her again and took in her bruises and cuts. "I'm so sorry! I was so distracted I forgot! Here let me help you." He sat his backpack on the ground and started rummaging through it. 'Extra jacket, sunglasses, water purifier, bananas, duct tape, medical kit!' He grinned as he pulled out the medical kit and walked over to her. "I brought a medical kit in case anything happened. Here, this might sting." He took his water bottle from his pack and rinsed one of her wounds. As he predicted, she winced and hissed when he did this.

"Ow! That hurt!" She complained as she swatted his hand away from her.

"Sorry! I'm going to have to do this in order to bandage it so stop complaining!" She silenced when he said that but muttered under her breath. He could only catch a few phrases that she muttered. "Humans have the oddest healing practices," and, "Now I know what my patients felt like." were some of the more common ones.

Nathan had just finished wrapping up the last bandage when he realized that he didn't know how to treat wings. He was majoring in medical sciences, not bird studies.

"My wing." The angel poked him on the shoulder when she said that. "You don't know how to fix my wing."

"How-"

"It was kind of obvious. You were sitting there doing nothing. You don't have wings. You're a caring person. Of course you were thinking about how to cure my wings." Her eyes seemed like they were looking into his soul. It was very creepy. Large, void eyes staring at him. How do those eyes even stare? They don't have pupils, just black.

"So, um. How do I heal your wings?" He stuttered over these words as he said them, still frightened by the empty stare she was giving him.

"There's no way for a human to do it and unfortunately if I could, I would have already healed my wounds by now."

"There's no way I can help you?" He was very worried when he said this. Not helping someone with an injury was like passing out on a full ride trip to Disney World for him. Completely unthinkable.

"Well, you aren't a typical human."

"What do you mean by that?" She glared at Nathan when he said that.

"Remember that whole conversation we had about you being a mage. Like I said the auras never lie, and you have one of a mage. Not saying you are a mage, but you still have mage blood in you." Oh, that's why she glared at him. He did forget the argument they had ten minutes ago.

"Oh, sorry. What does me having mage blood have to do with healing your wing." If it was possible she glared at him even more now.

"Seriously? Healing runes. Mages cast runes and one of the most simple ones is the healing rune. You have the makings of a mage, so all you have to do is say the words. You don't need any blood or internal organs to cast it."

"Internal organs!" Nathan was horrified that mages could sacrifice a person for their own gain.

She giggled at his response and replied, "No stupid. They only use animal organs and even those are only used in the most complex and dark spells.

"Oh good! I was really worried then."

"So do you want to learn how to make the rune or not?" She folded her bandage covered arms and waited for his response.

"Um, yeah. Can you tell me now?" She gestured for him to come closer.

"Place your hands on my wing and repeat after me. Hoc vulnus."

"Hoc vulnus."

"Sanare meam."

"Sanare meam."

"Unde exivi et virtus."

"Unde exivi et virtus."

"Caelorum et quo pertineat."

"Caelorun et quo pertineat."

A bright rune above her wing. It looked like it was made from pure light and had intricate designs on it. It spun around a few times before sinking into the angel's wing. Immediately when the rune touched her wing, she closed her eyes and yelled in pain. Even when the rune completely was absorbed into her wing she was still gasping from pain. Nathan grasped her shoulders and started to shake her.

"Angel! What's wrong? Did I mess up the rune?" He had been secretly worried that he would mess up the rune while he cast it.

She recovered from her phantom pain and pushed him away from her. "I'm fine. It has just been a while since I've been exposed to any kind of light magic in a long time. I've been a bit too far into the darkness." She opened her eyes and stared him straight in the eye. "So, how did it feel? Casting the rune must've been a very cool experience for you."

He gasped. Her eyes, they lost their darkness. They were a chocolate brown with small flecks of black. The colors seemed to be doing a dance in her eye. It was enchanting and beautiful."Your eyes, they're beautiful."

She looked very confused when he said this. She blinked a few times and then morphed her features into one of amazement. "My eyes! Deus meus! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She hugged him tightly. "I thought I was going to see in darkness for the rest of my time!" She pulled away from him and he noticed that her eyes were rimmed with tears. She wiped them away and sniffled. "Light magic really does the trick." She suddenly started giggling. "I can't believe I didn't even realize I could see again!"

"Wait, you couldn't see?" He was shocked that she had managed to stay alive in the wilderness without sight.

She shrugged in reply. "Ehh, it depends on how you look at it. I could still read auras, but that's more like a sixth sense."

"How did you survive?"

Her eyes seemed to darken when he asked this. "The creatures that live in the shadows can be very helpful if you know how to persuade them."