A Toy With Wings

One

(Please note: I won't be using emojis inside this book much. I hope you don't mind the swearing.

T.C.)

"Are you sure that will work?" I deadpan.

She responds with a grim nod.

"But...is casting down two lives worth it?" I ask again.

This time, she ignores me.

"Fuck," I mutter, annoyedly. Then I raise my voice. "Is casting two lives down worth it or not?"

"Orson, can't you be any more annoying?" She sighs.

"Guess I can't, so give me some answers!"

She rolls her eyes and brandishes a knife at me.

"You act like that Kore girl. You know, the elf." I taunt her. Kore is disabled.

"You act like you like her," she replies.

I don't even like Kore! Kore must have been at least 40! "I don't!"

"Lovebirds, lovebirds, flocking in a herd..." she mocks.

"Is that even a nursery rhyme?" I deadpan.

She shakes her head, sending her dark curls flying, and continues to chant, "lovebirds, lovebirds, your deception's so absurd..."

Fuck her.

I slouch angrily through the corridors of the organization. Sure enough, I could have flown, but I'm scared of heights, and I don't dare.

So what if I won that argument with my apprentice, Evangeline-I'm-so-smart-and-beautiful-and-oh-so-humble-Youngspire? That hadn't stopped me from getting a white flame knife in the shoulder.

Is she even Angel? Is she even worthy to become one of us? How did she deceive the All-Father to let her into the organization?

Lost in thought, I absentmindedly crash into a boy, and I get a glare from his fierce cocoa eyes.

Shit.

I decide to head to the library, but I forget to keep my wings folded up properly, and knock over a child.

Shit!

When I help the kiddo up, he yells at me and rips off five of my feathers.

Fucking shit!

When I get to the library, my mind is so clouded with shit, I storm in and slam the door after me, getting a small fine and a murderous glare from the librarian.

I find myself a quiet corner and a nice book (leather bound), and then...

"Can you tell us a story?"

I look down to see a little girl Angel of about five, begging me. She was flanked by about a dozen friends.

"Shit!" I yell.

The librarian glares again. She's an old woman with wings that were withered grey from age, and a silver bun.

"Fine," I say, softly this time.

"What does 'shit' mean?" asks a little boy innocently.

"It's...it's a word you should never say to others." I tell him.

"But you said it to me..." the boy protested.

"That would be because I am a big bad angel. Are you a big bad angel?"

The boy shakes his head. "No. Mummy says that if I am bad, the tooth fairy will take all my teeth."

"Exactly. Anyway, what story do I say?" I sigh.

The children are silent. Then a girl pipes up. "Tell us the story of Cinderella!"

I roll my eyes. That fucking fairy tale again. But I tell the story anyway.

"Once upon a time, there was a stupid bitch called Ella. She was as dirty as the mice she kept as pets, so they called her Cinderella. Her parents died, so she lived with her stepmother and stepsisters. Waa. Boo-hoo and all that. One day, the Prince of the kingdom wanted to find a wife, so he had a ball, and invited all the girls in the land. Including toddlers who can barely walk like you fuckers. Ella want go ball. Stepmother say no. Ella make dress for ball. Stepmother lock her in house. Ella cry like a baby. Fairy godmother appears and lets Ella go to the ball. Seriously, who would go to a ball with millions of girls and only one boy? Very unsexist.

"Ella meets the prince, and the prince falls in love with her. Since Ella is a slut, she falls for him too. Ella goes, but the pervert prince doesn't want her to go. Ella leaves behind a magic glass slipper, and the prince finds Ella with it. They get married, and live their whore lives together for years and years. Until Ella broke up with the prince because he farted. The end."

The kids didn't get a thing I said.

Suddenly, a hooded person interrupts, and tells a perfectly child-appropriate version of Cinders. The kids applaud.

A kid asks for the hooded person's identity, and she replies, "Miss Melody."

I could tell that something was up. I ripped off Melody's hood, and glare at the person under it.

It's Youngspire.