My whole life, I fantasized about larger-than-life scenarios. Like one day, I’d suddenly be able to fly or develop superpowers. But then I experienced it and realized I was afraid of heights and probably too unstable for bravery.

  I kept trying to appear far more put together than I felt. To attempt easing some of my anxiety, I started to work out. It probably wasn’t the type of training Uriel intended when he asked Ellie to teach me, but I figured if I gained strength, I’d feel more confident in defending myself.

  With two water-filled milk gallons Dana prepared, I walked around the house, lifting them. I didn’t know what I was doing, but starting anywhere gave me some sense of accomplishment.

  As I paced around with my eyes closed, listening to what Dana was watching on television, I collided with Zeekiel yet again. With frustration mirrored in both our faces as I looked up, I could tell we were both getting annoyed.

  “Do you just walk around with a blindfold on?” He asked.

  My embarrassment bit back, “You need to get a bell on you or something, because you may as well be a ghost.”

  Annoyance pinched his face. “Unfortunately, you need me here because your little workouts aren’t going to help you,” he remarked, pointing down at my makeshift weights.

  “Oh, you’ll see; I’m going to punch an angel right in the face,” I declared.

  He huffed out a mocked chuckle. “Look, you can get as much muscle as you want, but you only need your staff.”

  “Because you think I’m uncoordinated?” I assumed.

  He lifted one brow, slighted confusion squishing his face. “What? No. Because you’re human. Let everyone else be strong, because you’re the only one who can use the staff.”

  I wouldn’t have admitted it, but his rationality gave me a bit of comfort. Still…. “Well, I mean, that would be nice, and all, if I knew how to use it.”

  “You stab it.”

  “Huh?” I hummed, feeling Uriel explained it to me way more complicated than that.

  “Yeah,” he said, making a fist and stabbing it through the air as if he had a spear. “Just like that.”

  “Even with no magic?”

  “Don’t worry about all that. Where is it, anyway?” I revealed it was in the closet of Dana’s room, and he looked displeased. “You should really keep an eye on it,” he said. “It's your job to keep it safe now.”

  I hadn’t expected Zeekiel to be kind, waiting for him to treat me with the same disdain he showed Raziel, but he was surprisingly tolerable. Ever since Uriel asked him to keep watching over Dana and me, he spent more time inside with us, but barely engaged in conversation with Dana and me. Sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder if he was upset that Uriel stuck him here with me.

  There was one late night he engaged me out of nowhere with a bag under his arm. “Need you to do me a favor,” the demon said, coming in from the back door. “Keep this with you.”

  It wasn’t a question, but somehow I was taking it from him as he handed it over. “I guess,” I replied. “Why?”

  “I’ve been going in and out of form, I just want somewhere to put my clothes. Wouldn’t be the worst if you could throw them in there for me.”

  I gave him a teasing smirk. “You’re pushing it now.”

  “I’ve brought some compensation.” He rummaged through the sack in my arms before his face lit with a self-satisfied smile.

  He presented a used black sketchbook with a wrinkled bind. I flipped through the pages and found the sketches at the beginning were all portraits of birds drawn on thick medium surface paper. But most importantly, a majority of it was blank. Surprised, I looked up at him and asked, “Did you draw these?”

  “Nah, my friend does art; she likes to draw birds. That one is me.” He pointed to a sketch on the following page. “I liked yours too, but it was weird seeing myself next to…myself,” he laughed. “You can draw in it. I think she’d like to see them.”

  I blushed, feeling embarrassed as he reminded me of the sketch of him on my wall. “I’m sorry,” I said

  “Don’t be; I liked it,” he said.

  I reluctantly confessed, “It was for a story idea.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  His eyebrows shot up in genuine interest, intrigued by the thought. I couldn’t help but crack a small smile at his reaction. “Glad I could be an inspiration for good this time,” he quipped. “What’s it about?”

  My mind raced to come up with an answer to his next question. “I mean, it’s not like it’s fleshed out or anything, but I was thinking about some adventures for this guy and his crow companion.”

  He nodded along before saying, “It should be the guy turns into a raven.”

  “Well, I was thinking maybe he can summon the crow out of the shadows and control it. It’s my idea; it’s whatever I want it to be.”

  “Technically, it’s my story. Plus, you drew a raven,” he taunted.

  “I can change it,” I threatened.

  Over the next few days, our interactions became more frequent and cordial. Despite our growing friendship, his habit of flipping the channel during the news infuriated me. I would get upset, but I couldn’t express to him why I wanted to watch it.

  I was trying to see if my mom would be found. As far as I knew, it didn’t even seem like anyone knew we were missing. It’s not like I had anyone outside my mom to know I was gone. I thought I had friends until I graduated and no one bothered to reach out to me. And after only working a day, they must have just assumed I was a no call-no show.

  Mom, though, she had friends and work that relied on her. Was none of them concerned?

  The days passed and turned into weeks, and I still had no information on what was going on or what I should be doing. The news stations never revealed anything, Uriel was absent, and Ellie never showed up to train me.

  My anxiety and agitation was rising with the summer heat. Dana didn’t own an air conditioner, but it didn’t seem like the weather bothered her or Zeekiel. I spent most of the days sleeping and quickly I reverted back to my night owl routine. It was best, anyway, so neither me nor Dana were stuck sleeping on the couch.

  Though my new routine was going to be taken away from me soon when Dana announced I had run out of time to stay with her. Some person named Avery was arranging to get me down to Florida without being noticed so I could go to a protected area in what they called “The Ring”. A realm that veiled Earth where supposedly dragons lived. It was hard to be excited when Dana said Zeekiel was the one who was going to escort me in a few days. It meant she wasn’t coming, and the demon expressed he wasn’t crossing over with me.

  Zeekiel often sat outside on the porch and I was too afraid to go out there while Dana was sleeping, but I didn’t have a lot of time left to ask him about Saniel. As I silently sat beside him, the topic lingered in the back of my mind, tugging at my curiosity. With my heart racing, I finally whispered, “Can you tell me about Saniel?”

  Zeekiel’s silence lingered as he gazed up at the meager stars above us. His face was impossible to read and when he finally spoke, he said what I obviously already knew. “She held the Moon Staff,” he said.

  “I know that…” I replied. “But what was she like?”

  The demon’s expression hardened as he turned to face me. “What do you think you’re going to get out of knowing?” he asked, his tone a heavy warning.

  “I don’t know. I just wanted to know was she, like, a hero?” I muttered.

  His lips pressed into a thin line, his gaze turning cold. “I guess it depends on who you’re asking,” he retorted with a sharp edge to his voice.

  “I was asking you,” I replied, as I rose from my seat to go back inside. I wasn’t going to beg or pry the information out of him.

  But Zeekiel’s words followed me as I opened the back door. “She thought she was right and started a war in my name.” At his words, I turned and paused in the doorway, sensing his stare upon me.

  His eyes, once dark, turned purple with a distant gaze, as if he were looking through me. “She was stubborn. Refusing to compromise on her beliefs, even if it meant sacrificing a flock of others in the process. She destroyed everything. A whole world, the Guard holders and herself.”

  I stumbled back into the house, the weight of his words hitting me like a punch to the gut.

  “And now we’re both stuck here, thousands of years later, because of her actions,” he muttered.

  I nodded silently, still trying to process the information I asked for. Once I thanked him sheepishly, I slipped back inside and poured the last cup of cold coffee from the pot.

  Eventually, Zeekiel came back in to relax in the living room with me. We sat silently next to each other, and I relented for once and changed the last run of news to a sitcom rerun.

  As Zeekiel and I broke the uncomfortable silence, laughing together over a show, there was a thud.

  At first, I wasn’t alarmed, believing the noise came from the TV, but Zeekiel quickly slapped the remote to turn it off. Then, it came again; a loud, insistent pounding on the kitchen window.

  The demon was already running to the noise when he urged, “Wake up, Dana, and get your staff.”

  I hurried past the kitchen and down the hallway to Dana’s room. The lights flicked on as I entered. She stirred in her sleep, shielding her eyes with her arm. “Something’s wrong,” I said, grabbing my staff from the corner.

  “What is it?” Dana jolted out of bed and followed me back into the kitchen.

  Zeekiel was leaning into the sink, looking out the window into the backyard. We rushed to his side as the pane echoed with desperate pleas for entry.

  Reluctantly, I stepped closer, my heart pounding in my chest as I watched the shapes outside the window. Three creatures reflected behind the glare of the kitchen light in the window. The creatures before me were grotesque and unnatural, their limbs bent at impossible angles and twisted into warped, animalistic forms. A thick layer of dark, shivering goo covered their faces, obscuring their features, that seemed to pulsate. As a wave of revulsion washed over me, I instinctively stumbled backwards, my body shuddering at the sight.

  “Damn it,” Zeekiel muttered, pulling his gaze away. “Once these fuckers realize how to get in, they will.”

  Dana’s voice pinched with anxiety. “Fuck, people are going to see this. There’s more this time.”

  “Those holes…” Zeekiel muttered before he snarled in Dana’s direction. “They’ve been underground in your backyard this whole time.”

  “How would I know? Acting as if I put them there,” she yelled back as her words picked up speed.

  “Seriously? You didn’t notice three body sized piles of dirt out there at some point?” he kept accusing.

  “How about you?” Dana charged back. “You’ve been out there far more than I have. How’d you not notice?”

  My insides coiled as the staff trembled in my hand. Their argument distracted both of them from noticing what I had.

  “The knocking stopped,” I announced.