My friends, along with Sable and Deacon, are the only people at Seraph Academy who know the suspicions about Camiel. So far, all we have to go off of is Tinkle’s word. And although I don’t think the Celestial would outright lie, he does have his moments of confusion and purposeful misdirection. Anything short of the great and mighty Camiel dropping from the sky and declaring me his daughter is going to be hard for me to believe. It’s the main reason why I think finding him should be a priority.
Sable tips her head in acknowledgement. “And because of that, the Council feels like the best way to move forward with this situation is for them to meet you.”
Boom, there it is.
I’m not exactly jumping up and down at the idea of meeting the oldest Neph in each angel line, but worse things have happened to me.
Sable shifts again, and clears her throat for the second time.
“Is that all?” I prod. “They just . . . want to meet me? What exactly do they think that will accomplish?”
“Yes, they want to meet you. You are extraordinary in ways we don’t fully understand. And from what Deacon tells me, you’ve only begun to tap into your abilities. I can’t fully speak for the Council members, but I believe they’re searching for some understanding of your powers and limitations.”
“Limitations?” A snake of unease slithers in my belly. Sable didn’t say anything unreasonable, but even so . . . “When will they be coming?”
“They aren’t coming here. You’ll be traveling to their compound to meet them.”
The bottom of my stomach drops out.
“You’re sending me away?”
“No, no. It’s not like that at all.” Sable waves a hand through the air, dismissing the idea. “It will be a quick visit. I’ll be coming with you, and we’ll return to the academy together after the holiday break. I think this will be a good thing for you. You’ll get a chance to see more of our world, get a better understanding of where you come from. And maybe after meeting them, some of your fears about the Council can be put to rest.”
Standing, she rounds her desk and leans back against it. I have to tip my chin upward to hold eye contact.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Emberly. We’re at a bit of a dead end. We haven’t been able to uncover any of the mysteries surrounding your heritage. Tinkle has certainly been helpful, but the information he provides us is sporadic at best, and unverifiable.”
“Any luck tracking down dear ol’ dad?”
Sable shakes her head. She’s told me more than once Nephilim don’t have a way to communicate with angels, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying.
“If your father truly is a seraph angel rather than a Fallen or Nephilim from one of the other represented lines, you’ll have your own spot on the Council. That alone should give you an incentive to want to meet them. And we still have a big question mark when it comes to your mother. None of the reported fatalities around the time you were abandoned were female angel-borns who had recently given birth or were even reported as pregnant before their deaths.”
Pushing off her desk, Sable crouches in front of me and takes my cold hands in hers. “I think it’s a good idea to shake things up a bit and see if we can find any new leads. I told you we’d do our best to try and learn about your history, and I meant it. I believe this is the natural next step.
“The Elders have millennia of experience under their belts. They’ve seen things the rest of us haven’t. I’m hoping that if they see you transform, it might trigger something in their memories. If the information Tinkle provided us proves untrue, perhaps our original conclusion has some merit and you are actually a descendant of the angel line. And maybe there are more of your kind out there. Maybe you aren’t the only one after all.”
I’m glad Tinkle isn’t here to hear his word questioned. He’d probably take it as some sort of challenge and transform into a unicorn in Sable’s office.
“Have any of the Council members ever met a Nephilim from the angel line?”
The corners of Sable’s lips pull down in a frown. “Those Nephilim were said to be a very protective group. Even before their line went extinct, they kept to themselves.”
Disappointment saturates my body and leaks through my voice. “Why were they declared extinct if they were always a private group? Maybe they just went into hiding or something?”
“Their village was found over two thousand years ago. It was a massacre. Not a single angel-born was found alive. Declaring their line extinct was a fair assumption to make at the time, but it may very well have been an incorrect one.”
“That’s a big ‘oopsie.’”
“You’re not wrong. Since your discovery, the Council has shoveled resources into searching for the lost branch of angel-born.”
A spark of hope starts to warm my chest. I’m much more comfortable being a regular Nephilim descended from a previously-believed-to-be-extinct line than the only living Nephilim to have been sired by a full-fledged angel.
“But I wouldn’t get too excited about it. If they do exist, they’ve gone to a lot of trouble to remain hidden. Saying it’s going to be difficult to find them is an understatement.”
The flickering hope immediately snuffs out.
“But you won’t regret this trip. I promise.”
The look on Sable’s face is so earnest, I do my best to smile back, hoping she’s right. I live with enough burdens—I’m not looking to add regret to the pile.
When I leave her office, I pull out my phone and type out a short message to the group. We need to talk.
Chapter Four
Sterling slams his hands against the library table. I jolt back, the front two legs of my seat lifting off the ground as several students shoot curious or annoyed glances our way.
“You absolutely can’t go.”
“Don’t hold back. Tell me how you really feel.”
“I’m serious, Emberly. If you go, you may never come back.”
“Geez, Sterl. Dramatic much? She said Sable was going with her.” Nova files her nails, looking completely bored. I didn’t even realize she’d been listening. Tinkle is who-knows-where. Probably napping. “The Council of Elders is not the Illuminati.”
“Are you sure about that? Do you remember Jude? Here one day, gone the next.”
“Because he transferred to another academy.”
“That’s what they want you to believe.”
Nova shakes her head and goes back to her nails.
Sterling’s reaction to my Council announcement makes me want to burst out laughing as much as it makes me want to run and hide. Anything that could possibly lead to the loss of my freedom makes me twitchy. I trust Sable, but . . .
“Stop, Sterling.” Ash leans forward and points a finger in the twin’s direction. “You’re going to freak her out. We all know Sable has been sending them updates about Emberly since Blaze and Aurora were kidnapped. They’ve had weeks now, months really, to pull Emberly out of the academy and ship her to an undisclosed location, and they haven’t. That has to count for something.”
I offer Ash a weak smile. She’s trying to reassure me, but that wasn’t the strongest argument. Just because they haven’t tried kidnapping me—again—doesn’t mean they won’t. I don’t have the best track record when it comes to authority figures. Granted, up until I learned I was a Nephilim, all the adults in my life had been humans who were genetically predisposed to be wary of me, but still, when you find out someone is trying to have you committed, that’ll do a number on you.