Wingless

Chapter 16 [Lues POV]

My father and mother arrive, scanning the group of boys for me. He looks relieved when he sees me there. I wince. It was hard displaying me and Celeste's relationship to our friends; to our parents it will be twice as difficult. Celeste has her head ducked, she is biting her lip. Apparently she is thinking the same thing. But it's Now or Never. And I'd much rather let my father know myself than have him told. Or find out on Judgement Day.

The Drink takes a day to prepare and must be fresh, so we have one day to ourselves in which to share experiences, talk to each other, and that night we take the Drink. Those exposed are chained to the Judgement Wall and the next morning at dawn they will be made Wingless and thrown back to earth. A scary, efficient scheme. Hopefully me and Celeste can beat it. Cadi will help us. It's hard for me to put trust in someone who so obviously hates me, but I know she loves Celeste - as if she were a sister. When did Cadi and Celeste even meet, anyway? I never even asked how they knew each other.

I'll ask her later. Right now, we just need to make it obvious that we're in love. I wait for Celeste's parents to arrive. Finally they do. We press our lips together at the same time and lock eyes. We know that we must do it. And we're going to do it now.

"Angels, congratulations on your achievement," beams Celeste's father. "We're looking forward to hearing about your good deeds. Please make your way over here."

"Get yourselves down here now," growls my dad, "and I goddamn hope for your sakes that you all passed. Actually, that's a lie. I care nothing for you or if you're Wingless or not." We blink. Okay, we're demons and all, but that's a bit of a cold greeting. "Well!" he barks. "Why are you still standing there?" We rush over to him as the angels stroll towards the king casually, laughing and chatting. In this moment, I wonder if kindness and compassion actually makes sense once in a while.

But this is no time for Philosophy. Me and Celeste crash our lips together and we kiss, leaving our two fathers spluttering and gasping in shock and rage. Then her dad walks up to my dad and punches him in the nose.

Ouch. 

"Your son has corrupted my daughter!" he bellows. "Out with it, Demon! What has he done to her?"

"Done to her?" snarls Dad. "What has she done to him? Evidently it's some sort of spell. He'd never fall in love with a weak, useless thing like her."

Celeste flinches as if he's struck her. "And what would you know of me?" she snaps. "Or of love, for that matter?"

He looks as if he's going to strike her, but Mum grabs his arm. "We will discuss this development later," she says. You could chip ice off her voice as she stares at me. "But for now, I will remind both of you that we have made an alliance."

There is a lot of muttering. My father holds up a hand. "Due to a recent attack-"

"The Fallen Angels," I mumble.

He whirls on me like a hurricane. "How in Hell do you know about that?" he bellows, as if I don't have a right to know anything.

"I met two in the forest," I say. I don't think it's a good idea to mention that their names are Tanith and Cadi; considering we're apparently enemies, we shouldn't be on first name terms. And their names might be recognized: I'm not sure if they know that they used to be angels.

"And did you fall in love with them, too?" Raven asks sarcastically, from the corner. She looks really, really mad.

I open my mouth to reply heatedly, but Celeste lays a hand on my arm. "Lues," she says warningly.

"Aww, he listens to her. Cute," she spits back.

I move forward to slap her - she's just as strong as I am, and she deserves it - but Celeste holds me back with surprising and sudden strength. "She's not worth it," she says firmly. "Just leave it."

I throw my arms into the air, and stalk into the portal without looking back. Celeste rolls her eyes and glides loftily through the throng with a strangely dignified grace as she waltzes into the portal behind me. The last thing I see are their shocked faces.