9
Gabriel
Leigh-Ann's jaw had dropped to the floor.
"That's insane!" she screamed. "Mad; bonkers; over the top; INSANE is what that is!"
"Who is the insane one?" Magnus pointed, meaning how she had started acting.
"Summoning an Angel; especially an Archangel is dangerous!"
"Yes, it would be, if it weren't an Angel who summoned them up."
She was taken aback. "What?"
"All I have to do is show you how to summon an Angel and we'll do it. Considering you know that summoning an Archangel is dangerous tells me that you already know how to do that, don't you?"
Her face flushed and Jace's eyes flashed to her. "How would you know that?"
"I…I read my Aunt's books a lot. She had a book on summoning Angels. I assume if she really were an Angel, she was summoning up whoever's daughter I am. I guess that would mean to inform them on how I'm doing."
"Well, since you know how, all we need is a lot of open land."
"Why would we need that?" Jace asked.
"Archangels are extremely large," Leigh-Ann answered.
"Where are we going to be able to go?"
"Further out in the country; we'll use one of your special runes, won't we, Leigh-Ann?"
"…How do you know about that?"
"Special runes; what are you talking about?" Jace asked Magnus.
"All Angels can create new runes. We'll use hers to create a portal."
"You can create runes, too? What else have you not told me?"
"It's not like I had the time. We've had several distractions," she replied, flustered.
"I thought doing portals not under surveillance by the Clave was illegal," Jace said.
"They can't sense mine for some reason. It must be an Angelic quality."
"You can bicker later," Magnus said, waving his hand. "Right now, we need a portal, so Miss Taylor, if you please."
"Leigh-Ann will be just fine, Magnus," she replied, before pulling out her stele. Reaching out to the wall, she began drawing a rune. About a moment later she stepped back and watched as a portal emerged to the outer parts of the suburbs of New York.
"Ladies first," Magnus said, gesturing toward the portal.
She did not deny him as she stepped through. A cold sensation ran through her and she felt as if she were spinning, though she wasn't. She inhaled before opening her eyes, seeing the green all over.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she jumped, forgetting that she was not alone. Jace had bent down and whispered in her ear.
"I'm sure. They wouldn't kill their own kind."
Would they? She thought and shuddered.
"All right; let's make preparations," Magnus said.
Leigh-Ann looked at the summoning circle and sucked in a breath.
"You'll need this," Magnus told her, handing her the book of summoning the Angels. She nodded before walking toward the circle.
"Wait, Leigh-Ann." She turned around to Jace walking over to her. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to you. You know that, don't you?"
Her smile was bleak. "It's not that I want to; it's that I have to." She turned away from him, trying to hide from him that she was absolutely horrified by this idea, but walked to the center and began the chant.
After she had continued for a few moments, a blinding light began to show and she flew backward. She didn't have time to scream, for the shock was enough to take anybody's breath away.
Jace's voice could be heard yelling her name. She put her hand over her eyes, recovering from her shock to look up at one of the most known and tallest of the Angels.
"Gabriel," she muttered, reaching for her seraph blade habitually. She'd never lost this one for she favored for some reason and it kept its name.
"Leigh-Ann Grace Taylor," Gabriel boomed.
"Y-You know who I am?" she called up to him.
"Of course I know who you are, sweet girl," he replied.
"…I…I need your help, Angel Gabriel."
"You want to know how to gain your wings, don't you?"
"Well…yes actually… exactly that."
"As brave and strong that you are, it is not difficult for you to figure out how to gain them."
She knit her eyebrows. "That's it? You're not going to tell me?"
"You're a clever child. I've been watching you, Leigh-Ann from the Heavens."
"Why has an Archangel been watching me?"
"In due time, dear Leigh-Ann," he responded. "Your patience is wearing thin because of that blood, I see. There's a word I know that you do not appreciate at all, isn't there?"
"So?"
"Well, that word is what you are; literally. Demon blood seeping in you is making you not want to become it."
That would explain it. It doesn't want me to be what I'm supposed to be.
"You've grown to be absolutely beautiful," he fawned. She could not help but blush at that comment; from an Archangel at that. "I can't wait to have you up here in the Heavens with us all."
"Do you…believe…I can gain my wings, Angel Gabriel?"
He bent down, though it did not do much good with the consideration of his height.
"You are the daughter of an Angel, Leigh-Ann Grace and no Angel has ever failed to regain their wings and earn their right to come back to us in the Heavens. And besides, you're much more special than the rest of them."
"How?" she breathed.
"In due time, Leigh-Ann Grace," he repeated before rising. "I must go now."
"Wait-"
"Do not disappoint me, Leigh-Ann," he boomed, a smile going across his lips before disappearing. She fell backward as he did. She stared for a moment in awe before sobs escaped her lips.