Chapter 26

26

H adley | Sacramento, California | Early 2000s

The room had emptied, the chanting had stopped, and yet Hadley remained staring into that mirror at her wings. They were so beautiful, something that she could never have imagined. The windowlight hit them at an angle and they shimmered. Streaks of color flooded the carpet underneath her.

In that instant, she was a rainbow, yet she had a shadow so alive, currently in hiding. She wanted nothing at that moment but to learn about it and let it guide her.

Sheng walked up behind her, embracing that they were alone, grabbing her hips, letting his lips graze her neck, and kissing her wound.

"You want us to have children?" she asked, remembering his words from the last ceremony.

"We need to unite your kind and mine," Sheng answered coolly, stepping away from her. "We could create something this world has never imagined, or we will create an army to protect it. Either way, impregnating you was always the plan."

How boring , she thought, while a hundred more questions popped into her head. She selected her next one carefully.

"What if I don't want it? What if I leave instead? It looks like I can simply fly away."

Sheng genuinely laughed, grazing her wings with his finger and setting her on fire again. Her eyes fluttered, her body ached.

"No one here can teach you to use these wings properly. No one is willing, anyway. I might seem like the bad guy here, Hadley, but I'm only ever working towards one goal."

"And what's that?" she asked as she saw new movement in the mirror, the shadow of herself creeping back into her vision, walking on her tiptoes as if she were a cartoon character.

Hadley stared at her, her mouth opened and head cocked. Maybe this was the final straw. Perhaps she had finally gone insane.

Can no one else see you?

Sheng clicked his tongue, disapproving of her wandering attention.

"My creator is a jealous creature," he said in answer to her question. "Though all Vrae are her children, they are the only living thing she creates instead of nurturing in this realm. It's not enough. She hates this realm. She hates this planet. I think she seeks to destroy it due to her feeling of insignificance."

"Who is she jealous of?" Hadley asked, her shadow self now doing cartwheels in front of her reflection. She frowned at it.

"Isn't it obvious? Us. Any living being that has any consciousness or true life. I do know that my kind only exists to kill your kind. Your kind only exists to foster life on this planet."

Hadley nodded at Sheng to show her understanding and shifted her gaze back to her shadow, who began shuffling around the mirror, pretending to be nursing a large pregnant belly.

Was her shadow self . . . mocking her?

That's it. It's official. She was losing it.

"Sheng," she started. "I want to go home. To my home. "

Her body screamed at her in response as her mind found an opening to overcome the chemicals mixed in her blood from Sheng's bite. Hadley visibly tensed, her movement limited by the two very different directions.

Run. Jump out of a window. Go.

Stop. Listen. Stay. Your life will be so easy. You will be loved and cherished, always.

He took a few steps from her, shaking his head in response.

"It's not possible, what you are asking, Hadley. I need you to adapt to this faster than you are."

She thought she was taking this all in very well. The fight between body and mind, the sudden burst of wings, learning that the fantasy novels she read when she was younger might have some merit to them . . . yes, she was taking it well.

"I think that I've been more than a trooper," she said, smiling as she relaxed into the comfort of her shadow self, looking for her attention.

"Sheng," Amis' voice shouted from the intercom in the room. "Sheng, I need you to come to the door. It's urgent. They will recognize me."

Sheng eyed her curiously, and Hadley wondered for a moment if he could also see her shadow self. He shook his head and began walking out of the room.

"Stay here," he ordered, before disappearing into the hallway.

Sheng was the only person she had. She had sent Hector away, and he hadn't come back. He hadn't tried again.

Her shadow self had now come out of the mirror. It held up a hand, standing inches from Hadley, who relaxed into the energy. Hadley raised her hand in response, staring into the figure's blue-green eyes, and pressed their palms together.

Hadley felt hot wisps of air as her hand kept moving, not finding anything solid to stop it.

"Are you here?" Hadley whispered to her shadow.

The moment was interrupted by the faint yelling of a woman in the distance. Hadley snapped her head towards the door as her shadow self disappeared, bringing an extra tinge of heat into the air.

Hadley crept towards the hallway, hearing the same voice now conversing with Sheng. She was still too far away to make out the conversation, but her instincts told her that it was something she needed to hear. She knew that voice, but just couldn't quite place it.

Stepping as lightly as she could, Hadley's wings brushed against the wall as she gripped the rail descending the stairs. Once she reached the bottom, she waited for someone to discover and hide her, but nobody came.

She could hear the woman's voice at the door better now, and it finally struck her.

Reign .

Hadley moved through the room and into the hall, approaching the foyer. She stopped once she was at an angle where she could see the back of Sheng's neck, standing at the door.

"Coming back here was a grave mistake. I will give you this last chance to turn around," Hadley heard Sheng threaten.

"I don't think you know who I am." Reign's voice was clear, frustrated and unmoving. "I am not leaving this time until I speak with Hailey. I know that she is here, and if you refuse, then you should know that I have given her father news of her whereabouts. He will come for you. He will kill you."

My father ?

Hadley shook her head in disbelief. Was this someone who existed? She had heard Amis throw out that idea when she was shackled in that closet, but didn't think much of it.

She said he knew where she was. This man knew where she was and still wasn't there. This man, this person, abandoned her and her mother before she was even born. She was alone, but maybe she was better off that way. Maybe she didn't want to meet him. Maybe she didn't want him to save her. She could save herself.

"Reign," Hadley cried out, running into the foyer, passing the pentagram fixed into the ceiling. "Reign, I'm here. I'm ready to leave here with you. "

She ran right up to the door, and Sheng's lips pressed together tightly, clearly displeased. Reign's face looked relieved, and she opened her arms out wide as Hadley ran towards them. The two women embraced before Reign pushed her away, her eyes wide.

"Do you . . . are these . . . wings?" Reign asked, her arms brushing against them as they hugged. "Oh, Hailey, do you know, do you know what you are? I'm so sorry you went through this alone. I'm so sorry, Hailey."

Reign brushed Hadley's hair behind her ear tenderly. It seemed the opposite of the woman she knew. Reign was tough, forceful, and a bit scary. This woman was loving and gentle.

"Look at them. They are so stunning. I can barely even see them!" Reign exclaimed as Hadley teared up and let out a nervous chuckle.

"Come on, let's go," Reign said, grabbing Hadley's hand. Hadley felt a pulse shoot through her, and her body automatically complied without thought. She lifted her foot to follow the small, dark-haired woman before her.

"If you step out of that door, you will regret it," Sheng's stern voice interrupted the small hint of hope that filled Hadley's chest. "I don't make idle threats, wife."

"Wife?" Reign shot Sheng a look of rage on Hadley's behalf. "You are a complete beast, a monster."

"You are not saying anything that hasn't been said before," Sheng said, clicking his tongue and leaning against the door frame.

Walk out the door. Run.

The command that Reign had given her was still fighting her body while the chemicals in her blood began screaming against it.

Leaving him is a mistake. You belong here. You belong to him. You belong.

The conflicting thoughts were putting small spasms through her calves as her foot still hung in the air mid-step, waiting to cross the door's threshold.

Reign gave her arm a light tug, deciding for her as Hadley's foot hit the exterior front porch while her body screamed and writhed against it .

"No," she screamed as she pulled back.

"What's wrong? What did I do?" Reign yelled back in a panic as Hadley cradled her knees into her chest and shivered on the cement.

"It hurts. It hurts to leave," she sputtered out as her wings fell limp behind her.

Sheng gave a dramatic sigh and shook his head at the two in front of him as Reign kept hold of Hadley's hand, trying her best to pull her up to her feet despite Hadley's resistance.

"It will be a hard lesson to learn, wife, but I can't let you think that you can take advantage of me," Sheng said as he turned over his shoulder to press the talk button on the intercom.

"You can all come and have the dark-haired one, but do take care to leave my wife alone." Sheng sounded somewhat depressed, disappointed as his finger let go of the button. His eyes met Hadley's, a mixture of I'm sorry , and this is your fault , communicated through his gaze.

That's when she heard the growls, and Reign started tugging more frantically on Hadley's arm.

"Get up, get up," she pleaded. "We have to go now."

Hadley was transfixed by that sound, a sound that would have plagued her nightmares as a child, a sound that promised death, a sound of demons primed for a feast.

Reign let go of Hadley's hand as the growling grew closer and more vicious. The thundering of bodies hurling themselves down the stairs made the panic grow in her voice.

"I can't stay," she said, tears in her eyes, looking at Hadley, pleading that she come with her.

Reign arched her back as dark brown wings with gray speckles ruptured out from her. She turned to run, her leg caught halfway through a step as she began to lift off the ground.

Dark smooth bodies underneath hooded cloaks fought each other as they moved to get out the front door, moving so fast that Sheng's hair blew from his now expressionless face.

Hadley could feel them falling over her, long, long, sharp teeth from detached jaws snapping together right near her throat, right near her wings. It was her first time seeing them, what the priest, what even Sheng had warned her about, what the Vrae were. She didn't breathe. She didn't move. She just watched, her eyes unblinking, welling up with tears.

"I said leave her," Sheng said in a low, dangerous voice amidst the chaos. Hadley heard a blood-curdling scream, Reign's scream, as she looked at her friend who was falling toward the ground.

The monsters grasped Reign's ankle and tugged as the front of her body hit the cement in a violent smack. Dark blue blood stained the cement and stone under her.

"You will not touch me," she shouted, unable to lift her head to get out the words. That's when Hadley noticed it, the stiffening, the small signal of magic pulsing through the Vrae, who were all fighting one another for their chance to jump on her.

The Vrae blinked at her and slowly began to back away, clearly not having the same resistance to her pull as Sheng did. Hadley let out a sigh of relief. She couldn't apprehend what might have happened if they hadn't stopped.

She couldn't imagine such violence and suffering happening in broad daylight with neighbors nearby. Where were the neighbors? Why had no one come to help? Why had no one ever stared at them curiously, shotgun in hand?

"Do you know how tiresome it gets . . . having to take care of everything yourself?" Sheng asked Hadley as he stepped over her, passing the retreating Vrae. He moved until he reached Reign, and with the swiftest and most graceful scoop of his hand, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up to his lips. He tore out her throat with his teeth.

Reign grasped her throat, her eyes wide in shock, while she slumped back down to the ground.

"Sheng, what are you doing?" Amis's voice huffed behind Hadley as she stared at Reign in horror.

Six or seven Vrae jumped on top of Reign, her hand reaching for the sky as the sound of ripping flesh made Hadley's stomach turn.

"Have you never died before, Amis?" Sheng chuckled as Hadley found her voice and screamed in horror as she watched Reign get torn into pieces.

"You'll need to reach her father and explain what happened," she heard Sheng say to Amis. "We need them on our side."

"How would I explain this?" Amis asked.

"What? Oh, the blood? She's fine. My clan is satisfied. It's all in good fun."

A few minutes later, the Vrae left, licking their fingers, their robes stained and heavy with blue blood. Reign was unrecognizable. Discarded chunks of her wings were scattered around the ground like tossed scraps.

"He killed her!" Hadley screamed.

Where are the neighbors?

"He killed her, somebody help!"

Run, Get Out, He Will Kill You Too.

Hadley's mind pushed through the chemical bond in her blood just as a hand covered her mouth and pulled her inside.