Monsters are real and Catia Delos lives to fight them.
After her father's tragic death when she was a child, Catia was sent away by her stepmother to the Guardians, a race of demigods who live to fight the monsters that threaten the world. To Catia...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Despite the early morning, the air was close and heavy. The chill of the evening was already vanishing, quickly turning humid. The sunshine was just creeping over the line of trees that lined the edge of the Oakdale skyline.
Anen woke from her sleep, feeling uneasy. Her dreams, though she didn't remember them, always left her with a weird feeling that crawled over her skin. Sweat stuck to her skin, making her feel damp and disgusting. On mornings like these, she wanted nothing more than to take a long, hot shower.
But there were other reasons today that had Anen wanting to take a shower. Today was Anen's last day of school for her junior year, and she didn't want to show up with frizzy hair and oily skin. No, today was the day that she would get Ben Rivers to notice her.
After nearly three years of crushing on him, today she would finally work up the courage to talk to him. And if she made a fool of herself, the summer would give plenty of time for the embarrassment to die down. At least, she hoped it would.
Lila, her little sister, wasn't going today because she was too upset about the family cat's death. The night before, they'd had a funeral where they'd buried him in the backyard. Since it was the last day of school, it wasn't like she'd miss any important information.
Anen grabbed the outfit she'd carefully picked out last night. It had taken her hours, along with the help of her best friend, Isabelle, to choose. But she needed it to be perfect.
After grabbing her clothes, she moved into the bathroom she shared with Lila. She cranked the hot water all the way up. Even though it was supposed to be warm today, nothing beat a hot shower.
She tried to shower as quickly as possible to give her an appropriate amount of time to do her makeup, but she also wanted to be thorough in making sure that none of the sweat from earlier still clung to her skin.
The same care was taken with her teeth as soon as her shower was done. Her makeup took considerably longer than she'd bargained for, since she kept messing up her attempts at a cute, winged eyeliner look.
She messed up for the third time when Lila started banging on the door. "I have to pee!"
Frustrated, Anen wiped away the black line, which had gone jagged. "Use the other bathroom!"
"I wanna use this one!"
"I'm busy!"
"I'm telling mom!"
Anen heard Lila's feet stomping away from the bathroom and rolled her eyes. Around her right eye, where she'd wiped off the old eyeliner, was a little red, but she hoped her concealer would cover it.
She finally finished her makeup and admired herself in the mirror. Wearing makeup was rare for her, but she had to admit that the wings really set off her pale blue eyes.
