“I’m positive.” I didn’t feel wrong lying to him. I trusted Penelope totally, and I knew there could be problems if I showed any sort of power.

  He nodded again at me. “Alright, then. You will still need to come with us. I cannot leave here without the both of you.”

  “Or, to put it more gently.” Riyon said. “Will you both please accompany the three of us home?”

  “Where is home?” Mom asked. I hadn’t even thought to ask it myself. My mind was overwhelmed.

  Penelope turned to me then, and her eyebrows sank, her face apologetic. “Home is the Divine City, Erin.”

  I took a step back. “Um… what? The Divine City? Like, Heaven?” I looked at my parents and they held onto each other with worry. How could I leave them?

  Pen shook her head. “It’s not Heaven. That is where souls go to live after death. The Divine City is sort of a…” She searched for the right word.

  “An in-between.” Riyon filled in the words for her and she held a finger in the air like exactly!

  “Yes,” she continued. “It’s a place in-between Earth and Heaven. Unlike Hell or the Underworld, which are two entirely different places, as well.”

  I wanted to bang my head against something hard. In one night, I had been attacked by a Nephilim, saved by my Guardian angel, kissed my Guardian, lost him only moments later, and now been visited by a group of Powers that wanted to take me to an actual city of angels. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay put in case Zander came to find me.

  “I don’t want to go to your city, Osca.” I looked up at the tall angel. “I’m a human, and I belong here.”

  Penelope stepped in front of me before Osca could speak. “Erin, I know it sounds scary, but it’s a beautiful place, and you aren’t the only human going there. Remember when I told you that Guardian angels were human before they went to the City to learn to be angels?”

  I froze. She emphasized the word guardian for a reason. She was talking about Zander. He had been to the Divine City before he came to me, and maybe he was there again…

  I took a deep breath, trying to not look incredibly desperate to go wherever Zander could be, and I turned back to Osca. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”

  Chapter 3

  * * *

  Mom grabbed my arm. “Erin, no.” Her blue eyes pleaded with me, and new lines became canyons around them. I felt deep worry from her touch, and my own eyes wanted to water.

  I pulled her into a hug and tried to push whatever calm I could into her, even though I had almost none and I knew my power didn’t work like that. Power? I was starting to believe that I might actually have one.

  “Mom. I don’t want to leave you and Dad, but I promise I will be back.” I pulled back and tried to let her see my sincerity. “I think I kinda have to go… at least to see if I really am something different.”

  Her aura was blue with sadness. I wanted to somehow wipe the color away, but I knew better. The room was silent while I looked at my parents. They were my parents completely, even though I didn’t share their genes. Mom sniffled and wiped at her eyes. “We only came down here to check on you. How is this happening?”

  I had zero answers to that question. “I wish I knew, Mom. Maybe I will soon.”

  She nodded and Dad pulled me and her into his arms. He had always been able to hug the both of us simultaneously without issue. His arms fit around our small frames so easily… as if the two of us were made to be his girls. Fate.

  Penelope cleared her throat behind me, and I turned to see her looking almost shy. “Um… do you guys mind if I join in on the group hug?” She actually looked concerned that we would say no.

  I smiled past my sadness and my dad chuckled. He nodded. “Of course you can. You are family now, too.”

  Penelope’s whole face lit up and her aura brightened more than I had ever seen. I felt the urge to squint against it. She stepped beside me and squeezed herself into our bear hug. The four of us laughed, somehow feeling at peace for at least a single moment.

  “We’re gonna need another guy in this hug eventually,” Dad grumbled. “I’m feeling overwhelmingly outnumbered.” He stepped back and winked at me.

  I shook my head. “We’ll talk boy-talk when I get back.”

  All of our faces fell again with the reminder of my leaving, but I tried to give them one last smile before addressing the Divine entities in the room once more. I nodded my head at Osca. “So, should I pack a bag?” It felt like such a stupid question.

  He looked me up and down for the second time, and I was about ready to kick him in the family jewels, if he even had them. “Your wardrobe would not be acceptable in the Divine City. It must all be left behind.”

  I scoffed. “Well, thanks.” I was getting sick of his judgments.

  Penelope grabbed my hand. “The City has plenty of amenities and anything you’d ever need.”

  A furry head nudged my hip and I looked down to see Bruno’s puppy-dog-eyes staring back up at me. He let out a whiny groan, and I had the feeling that he knew what was going on. I knelt in front of him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry, buddy. I have to go, and I have the feeling that you wouldn’t be allowed on this particular trip.”

  I glanced up at Osca and he shook his head with a scowl, confirming what I already thought. I kissed Bruno on the head and looked at my parents again. “Will you guys take care of him?”

  Mom nodded. “Of course we will, honey. He’ll be treated like a king.” Dad mirrored her nodding.

  “We need to be leaving now,” Osca interjected and I rolled my eyes before turning back to him.

  “Do I have time to at least put on clean clothes?” I waved my hands to my dirty outfit.

  Osca nodded, so I hurried to my room to throw on a clean pair of jeans and a tank top with a white hoodie. I pulled my still damp hair into a messy bun, and took one last look around my room before returning back to the others.

  I sucked in a deep breath as I stopped for another hug from my parents. My dad’s musky scent filled my nose, mingling with the cherry from my mom’s overly-used lip gloss. It was the smell of home.

  “I love you,” I whispered to them.

  They responded in unison. “We love you more.”

  “Okay,” I grabbed Pen’s hand again and we followed the male Powers out the front door. “How does this work exactly? Traveling to another world..?”

  Riyon gave me a smile as we reached the front lawn. “You’ll see,” he said, sounding excited. The sky was dark, and still clouded from the storm that had since died down.

  Penelope pulled me to a stop behind her comrade’s backs. With a shiver, her wings burst out from her back. I nervously looked around at my neighborhood, worried that someone would see the display in my front yard, but the houses were all dark. I couldn’t feel any disturbances around the homes, which made sense considering it was deep into the middle of the night.

  I stood in the silence, my sneakers slowly filling with water from the wet grass. I was about to ask the same question again, when Osca reached back to one of his crimson wings and plucked a single feather from it. I turned with a questioning look to Penelope and she just nodded back to her commander.

  Osca glanced back at me, and made a show of slicing the sharp quil of the feather across his wrist, drawing blood. I gasped, even as his face showed no pain. He lifted the quil, dripping with red blood and began drawing some sort of symbols in the air before him.

  Incredibly, the symbols stayed floating with their deep red hue, like Osca was writing on an invisible canvas. It wasn’t any alphabet I recognized, though. One letter curved up like an upside down “G”, and back around into a flat table with two legs, and a lip off the end like the top of a capital “T”. The last three letters were distinctly different curly cues ending in a rounded “i” with a dot on the top.

  It was practically nonsense, but Osca wrote it with such ease that I was sure he must’ve done it a thousand times before. Once he dropped his hand with the feather back down to his side, the letters swirled together, turning faster by the second, and creating what looked like a spinning black hole.

  I stepped back, feeling a pull from the magical pit. I turned to Penelope, and she was unfazed just like her comrades. “A portal? Like… an actual magic portal?” I shouted over the storm-like sound coming from within the portal.

  She nodded, and gestured toward the other angels. “It’ll be fine. We travel like this all the time. Just hold onto my hand, okay?”

  My heart raced, and I felt like my stomach spun just as the floating dark hole in my front yard. I held tightly to Penelope’s hand, and my palms were already sweating. The three angels stepped aside and waved us forward.

  Osca gestured to the opening. “You both go ahead. We will follow.”

  It seemed like a kind gesture to allow us to go first, but I knew it was just so they could ensure we would actually go. “Thank you, brother,” Pen said, and she turned to Riyon. Their eyes met only briefly, before she stepped through the portal, pulling me with her into the nothingness.

  Chapter 4

  * * *

  It was the worst pain I had ever experienced. All of the contents in my stomach came to the surface for all of the Powers to see, but embarrassment was the least of my worries.

  “Dear Lord!” I shouted, heaving for the second time onto a big green bush by my feet. “Am I dying? It feels like I’m dying!”

  Penelope pulled my thick locks of hair behind my head and shushed me. “You’re going to be fine, Erin. It’s like this for everyone the first time they travel.”

  I took deep breaths in through my nose and glared at her. “You couldn’t warn me two minutes ago?” I wasn’t mad at her, but I was irritated a little bit by the lack of warning.

  Osca scoffed and I threw angry eyes in his direction. “We must get moving. The others are awaiting our arrival.”

  “Oh, so sorry.” The thick sarcasm in my voice made it clear how little sorrow I felt for delaying him. “Just a little carsickness.”

  Riyon snickered behind Osca, but quickly schooled his features before his commander noticed. I found I liked him more and more by the minute.

  I swiped at my mouth with the back of my sleeve and swiftly tied my hair up into a ponytail with the hair tie that I keep on my wrist religiously. “Okay. I’m ready, and five pounds lighter. Wahoo.” My sarcasm was going to get me smote by the Power angel, if that was even possible. I didn’t know much about the angel’s abilities, but I didn’t want to find out.

  I turned around in a full circle to study my surroundings and found only tall Aspen trees and a lot of lush nature in varying colors. A soft breeze brushed past my face like a caress. The air was somehow a perfect temperature, even though the sun shone brightly above the trees… or at least, I assumed the sun was the source of the bright light.

  I couldn’t see the round yellow ball anywhere in the sky, only light from all directions, causing the thick wooded area behind us to cast long shadows.

  Osca nodded toward a dirt trail to my right, and began walking with long strides through the trees. “It will be this way, Miss Porter.” So polite.

  Penelope took my hand and we walked side-by-side along the large trail. Even though it was a heavily wooded area, there were no stray twigs or loose rocks along the path. Everything was too perfect. Exactly in place just where it belonged.

  “Where are we?” I asked, watching my feet hit the dirt, but not pick up any dust.

  Penelope gestured to the world around us with a smile. “Right now, we are probably a mile from the Divine City. The woods are like this in every direction beyond the city walls, like a frame of nature.”

  “It’s beautiful, and somehow also really eerie. Why is it so quiet?” Even with the wind blowing and the leaves swaying, the forest was remarkably silent.

  Riyon turned his head to smile at me. “It gets really quiet when new people arrive. The phoenixes don’t do well around strangers.”

  I stopped walking and held my hands in front of me. “The what?” I whisper shouted the question, sure I heard him wrong.

  Pen stopped beside me and pushed my hands back down to my sides. “It’s alright. They’re very gentle.”

  “But he said phoenixes. He can’t mean those birds from Harry Potter, right? The ones that light on fire?” I prayed to all that was holy that a flaming bird wasn’t about to jump out at me.

  Pen, Riyon, and the still unnamed angel all laughed at me. That had to be a good sign that I was exaggerating, right?

  “Not like the Harry Potter ones, no. They’re actually white, but their feathers can still ignite into a white flame hotter than fire. It’s rare, though.” Penelope reassured me, but only slightly.

  I shook my head, ready to sit down though we were only a few yards into our hike to a city that shouldn’t exist. I started forward again, trying to catch up to Osca who led the way without slowing down.

  Just as I passed beneath a low hanging branch, I caught sight of white feathers passing above my head. I looked up into the higher branches of the tall tree and a large white bird rested above me, it’s eyes watching me.

  “Oh crap…,” I whispered, overtaken by a visceral fear.

  The words “large bird” don’t justify the creature. Even from a good distance below it, the bird looked to be as tall as myself, with round black eyes that curved to a point at the edges, having a feline effect. The feathers on its body bled from a pure white to golden tips. Wilder feathers sprouted up over the bird’s head and long white, silky-looking feathers spread out from behind it, like the tail feathers of a peacock.

  I had never seen something so beautiful, and I felt like I was dreaming, while also trying to hold back the fear inside of me. “Pen… please don’t tell me that’s a Phoenix.”

  She spun around to look at me, confused, until her eyes trailed up the tree and spotted the animal. She smiled, the complete opposite response to the way I felt. “Yes, it is. Don’t be scared. She will not hurt you.”

  The beautiful Phoenix tilted her head as she watched me stand frozen beneath her. I turned around and walked backwards up the trail toward Penelope, afraid to take my eyes off of hers. “Nice to meet you, Miss Phoenix. I’ll just be going now.” I nodded, and the bird must’ve taken the nod as a welcome, as she spread her silky wings to her sides and floated down to me.

  “Pen!” I yelled, moving faster. “What’s she doing?” My heart pounded as the Phoenix got closer, and stopped just feet in front of me on the trail.

  I was right in assuming that she was close to my height. Her large talons dug into the dirt where she landed and I couldn’t help but imagine how easily she could grab me and carry me off to nowhere… or feed me to her babies up in some giant nest on the tallest tree.

  I felt Penelope’s arms wrap around me and pull me back toward the men who stood watching our predicament. “Get back, Erin!” she yelled, and my eyes widened.

  “I thought you said she wouldn’t hurt me!”

  “Well, I might’ve been wrong… I’ve never seen a Phoenix approach anyone like that. Ever.” Penelope looked at me with her eyebrows pressed together and eyes as wide as my scared ones.

  I looked back at the Phoenix, and as I stared back into her eyes, a calm came over me. My heart rate slowed and I had the sudden realization that she wasn’t a dangerous animal… at least not naturally. I couldn’t see her aura, but I never could when it came to animals. I suddenly understood that she was just a curious creature, nothing more.

  I took Penelope’s hand off of my arm and took a tentative step toward the creature.

  “I wouldn’t do that.” Osca said behind me, but I ignored him. I didn’t have a lot of trust in him anyways.

  “Hey, pretty girl,” I said quietly, inching closer to her. “You know, I really like animals. All kinds. I’ve never met one like you before, though.”

  She tilted her head at me again, seeming to listen to my words the same way Bruno does. Her wings fluttered at her sides and I stopped for just a moment before continuing on. “If I touched you, would you catch me on fire?” I asked with a small laugh.

  I was only inches from her, and I reached my hand out like I always did for the new dogs that came to the shelter, offering my scent. The Phoenix bent her head forward, and with a small nudge, she stuck her beak into the palm of my hand and closed her round eyes.

  I gasped. “Woah,” I whispered, and tears came to my eyes. True magic existed and I was amazed.

  Penelope laughed behind me. “I always knew you had a way with animals, but I never expected this.”

  I turned my head slowly to her and gave her a surprised and happy smile. “Wanna come try for yourself?” I asked, and she shook her head vehemently.

  “Nope. It’s all you, girl.”

  Unlike the other angel’s happy smiles, Osca watched me with curiosity and a deep scowl. He clearly wasn’t enjoying the moment as much as the rest of us. “Enough playing with the wild animals, Miss Porter. We must be going.”

  I rolled my eyes and turned back to my new friend. “The grumpy angel has no patience,” I whispered to her, and if I didn’t know better, I saw what looked to be a smile at the edges of her beak. “Would it be alright if I gave you a name? In case we meet again?”

  She blinked at me and pressed her head down so my hand slid across the feathers on her head. It felt like the softest silk I’d ever touched. “How about Silkie, then?” I asked, and she blinked again.

  I let my hand fall off her head, and she stretched back up tall before jumping into the air with a single flap of her wings, curving easily through the air and disappearing into the trees.

  I spun around to Penelope and the others with a big grin on my face. “That was incredible!” I shouted.

  Penelope ran to me and gave me a big hug before whispering into my ear. “You’re the only person to ever touch a Phoenix. That includes angels. If Osca was unsure about you being special, his mind has been changed.”