Chapter 2
Six hours later, it was just passed 11pm, Ares was sleeping in the backseat of the car, the ibuprofen had worn off, increasing the pain to an almost unbearable level. I shifted uncomfortably, glad we were arriving, and pulled in front of the cabin, next to Simon's motorcycle. I had to put both hands on the car to pull myself out, Ares following close to me.
"You ok Iz?"
I shook my head.
"Hurts," I gasped out.
Simon cursed and scooped me into his arms, careful to avoid my shoulders where I could feel my shirt, sticky and wet, clinging to my back.
"Am I dying?" I mumbled.
"No!" Simon shouted, clearly panicked. He seemed to catch himself and took a deep breath before speaking again. "No," he said again, more firmly this time. "You're not going to die."
"Ares?"
"He's right here."
I relaxed in his arms, knowing that Ares and I were safe.
I felt Simon lay me down, most likely on a bed in one of the rooms of the cabin, and I groaned at the pain that shot through me.
My back was arched, just enough to make me uncomfortable, and try as I might, I couldn't flatten it. Finally I fell unconscious from the pain, the darkness a welcome relief.
I drifted in and out of consciousness, unsure how much time was passing. I dreamt about the past. The first dream I had was my mom teaching me to ride a bike with no training wheels. It was right after my dad left and my mom was trying to keep both of us busy so we didn't dwell on the fact that he was gone. She bought me a new bike with no training wheels and we spent the whole weekend outside. I remembered her brushing gravel and dirt from my knees and elbows when I fell, her encouraging words spoken softly to me when I wanted to quit, and most of all I remembered how happy and excited she was when I figured it out. Mom jumped up and down, clapping her hands with excitement as I rode down the street, laughing and smiling from ear to ear. It was the first time she'd laughed or smiled since dad had left, and I remembered feeling proud that I'd made her feel that way. When I woke, still hearing the echoes of mom's laughter in my mind, I was on my stomach. My back was bare, the tattered remains of my shirt and my unhooked bra folded against my sides so that only my back was bare, there was a warm damp towel covering it and from the waist down I was covered by a blanket. I folded my arms under my head and allowed myself to fall back into unconsciousness.
The second dream was of Simon and me. It was the night we'd camped out in his backyard when I was ten. We were laid out on a blanket outside of the tent calling out constellations. "I want to be an astronaut," I'd said. "I want to go to outer space."
"If you go to space I have to come too," Simon had replied. I laughed.
"Well duh. I wouldn't go without you."
Simon had smiled at me and then looked back to the sky with a delighted gasp.
"Look, a shooting star! Quick, make a wish!"
I remembered wishing that we'd always be friends. Always together. I woke again, my shoulder blades bare, my lower back covered by a towel that was mostly dry. I felt something tickling my exposed shoulder blades, but I lacked the energy to reach back and feel what it was.
The third dream I had was odd and hazy. It was a palace full of winged beings like Simon, but in different colors. There was a huge bonfire in the center of the room, with smoke leaking out of a hole in the ceiling. I could hear people talking but I couldn't make out what they were saying. But I saw someone speaking to me, someone with blue eyes and black hair. "Izabelle, my beautiful girl." I woke shocked and disoriented. I was covered by the same blanket that had covered my lower body since I'd woken up the first time, up to my lower back. The pain was gone, and I felt more relaxed than I'd felt since that first jolt of agony; however long ago that had been. My shoulders didn't tickle anymore either, but boy did they itch. I fell unconscious once more.
The fourth and final dream I had was another incident I'd had like my foot in the fire, but different. I'd been getting picked on by this boy at the park when I was six. He'd been taking my toys and refusing to give them back. I remembered crying and begging for the toys back and he would just laugh. Finally, I went from sad and hurt to angry, and I punched him in the nose. I felt cartilage crack under my little knuckles as blood spurted from his nostrils. A sense of satisfaction filled me as tears filled the bully's eyes and he started to wail. My mom scooped me up, grabbed my toys and we left, but I remember my dad's awed tone of voice when he said it was not normal for a six year old girl to be able to break a bully's nose. When I woke for the final time, I felt very well rested and ready to get up, if not a bit confused. And definitely ready to eat. I looked toward the door and saw Simon, passed out in a chair, his legs on either side of it and his head resting on his arms crossed over the back.
I clipped my bra behind my back, glad that Simon had opted to unhook it instead of cutting it, like he did my shirt. As I was hooking the last clip, I felt something soft brush my wrist and froze. Feeling panicked, I climbed out of the bed and ran over to the full length mirror on the other side of the room, sliding on my socks when I stopped in front of it. My jaw dropped and my hands flew to my shoulders, my stomach in my throat.
I admit that for the most part I looked the same. Same fair skin, same dark eyes, same black hair. But over my shoulders I could see wings, very similar to Simon's. They arched over my shoulders like his and hung down to my knees like his. Except where his were silver, mine were gold, and where the feathers on his were fluffy, like feathers in a down blanket, mine were sleek and sturdy; and when I reached my hand back and touched a feather, the edge of it sliced my finger open. I was hyperventilating before I knew it. I heard a whine and felt Ares rub his black face against my leg, his blue eyes looking up at me. I looked away from the-my- wings and met Simon's sleepy stare in the mirror. He'd moved quietly behind me, and as my panicked gaze connected with his, Simon brought one hand up and ran his fingers through my hair. The other hand ran a few fingers gently up and down my spine, between the wings, his gaze never leaving mine. I reached down with one hand and tangled my fingers in Ares' fur, right at the scruff of his neck as I started to relax, and reached back to grab one of Simon's hands.
It took a few minutes, but I was able to calm down, stop hyperventilating, and formulate words properly.
"How long was I out?"
"Two days."
"I grew huge wings, bone, muscle, and feathers in two days?"
Simon nodded and moved away, leaving the room. "You must be starving."
My stomach chose that moment to grumble. Loudly. And just like that, the tension in the room dissipated. Simon laughed, Ares' tongue lolled and I just shook my head, embarrassed, and followed Simon out of the room and into the kitchen for food.
"So have you put any thought into what we should do now?" I asked, taking a huge bite out of a sandwich I'd fixed.
Simon shrugged. "Well the first thing we'll have to do is figure out if we can control these things. They're attached by muscle and bone, so it's easy to assume that we should be able to learn how to use them like we did our legs and arms as babies. But before we can even do that I'll have to head to the nearest town and get you some shirts that can accommodate your new features."
I paused just before biting into my sandwich again, realizing that Simon had been careful not to look at me since we'd left the room. I looked down and yelped. I'd forgotten that I didn't have anything on except for a bra and some shorts.
I stood up abruptly, my appetite gone and my face burning, and practically fled the room.
"I'm going to put on a bathing suit and head outside."
"Your mom called," Simon called out after me. "You should call her back."
It might sound weird, but it felt much less intimate being around Simon in a bathing suit than in a bra, even though they covered about the same amount of skin.
Luckily, I'd packed string bikinis, so I didn't have to worry about straps.
Simon's parents owned all of the land around the lake that the cabin was built by, so I wasn't concerned about anyone seeing me. Ares ran passed me and straight into the lake. I'd spent weeks working with him when he was a puppy so that I didn't have to have him on a leash when we were out in a place like this. Typically huskies don't do well off leash, and to be honest if we were in the city I wouldn't risk him seeing a squirrel and taking off... Like he was doing now. I whistled and he turned around, running back to me, huffing with displeasure. I showed him the hollow ball I'd brought out with me and tossed it into the lake for him to play with. Then I found a large rock to sit on so I could start figuring out these new muscles and extremities.
I pulled my cell phone from my shorts pocket and called my mom back, seeing that I had one missed call from the previous night.
"Hey love, how's the beach?"
"It's good mom. Ares and I are having a blast."
"That's always good. You're being safe right? Not going off with strange boys, not getting too drunk around people you don't trust, all that jazz." I rolled my eyes, smiling. Chicago was our favorite musical to watch together, and we both used "all that jazz" liberally.
"Of course mama. I haven't even really been drinking."
She scoffed. "Sure you haven't. I was drunk almost continuously for a week after I graduated high school."
I busted out laughing, crossing my legs and playing with my fingers as I got into the conversation.
We spoke for about an hour, just chit chatting about the beach and her high school experience versus mine before I finally told her I had to go, promised to call again the next day, and got back down to learning my new extremities.
I started small, trying to lift and lower the wings like I would shrug my shoulders. The hard part wasn't the actual muscle work, it seemed that, though the muscles were new, they were as strong as the rest of me. No, the hard part was isolating the new muscles in order to move them.
Once I could do that with little effort, I started moving one wing at a time, alternating between left and right. I'd never been more grateful for the dance and gymnastics lessons I'd taken. I'm not sure I would have had the focus to work with my new wings if not for the classes I'd taken, in which you kept trying until you got it right.
By the time I'd gained full control of the part of the wing that connected to my back, the sun had started to set, Ares had gone inside, and Simon had come outside to join me in my exercises.
"I went and bought tons of backless shirts for you. And let me just say, I got a lot of weird looks for it, so you'd better be grateful," Simon said when he first came outside.
I laughed, startled by his sudden presence. I turned to thank him for his trouble and saw that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Probably something I needed to get used to, but this was the first time I'd really noticed him shirtless since he'd been covered in blood over a week ago. This time there was no blood to distract me from his body.
Of course he was freaking magnificent.
I'd been wrong about the six pack, it was closer to eight, he had a well defined chest, broad shoulders and his biceps were the size of my thighs. His waist traveled down to narrow hips which disappeared into jeans that hugged his legs in all of the right places. Combined with the wings, square jaw, high cheekbones, long eyelashes and warm, open grey eyes, I had another moment of insanity. I wanted...
I just wanted.
And it scared me.
"Isabelle." Simon's voice was soft as he moved close to me. I glanced up to meet his gaze, and I saw that thing in his eyes again. If I had to put a name to it, I'd call it affection, but if that's all it was, why did it scare me so much? I'd never been and could never see myself as serious relationship material. Especially with Simon Lewis. I wasn't capable of giving all of myself , of putting everything I had into another person and Si deserved that. I just couldn't give someone, anyone, the power to break me.
Like my dad had broken my mom.
I stood up and took a step backwards, away from him. The tension between us could be cut with a knife. It was like I'd opened up a chasm between us with one step and I had no idea how to close it. Simon's eyes darkened and his expression went blank, leaving me to only wonder at what he was feeling.
I'd never had to wonder before.
"Si, I-"
"I know Iz," he said sadly. "I know."
Then he turned and walked back into the cabin.
Walked away from me.
