Fate

1

Chapter 1

The living room windows were closed and the blinds were pulled down. The doors were locked all through the house. Aryan's glasses were sitting on the coffee table beside his phone. Lucy's phone was sitting beside it. All the lights were turned off.

I closed my eyes and pictured Lucy. "Lucy, can you hear me?"

Julia, I can't talk right now.

"No, I want answers. Now."

I didn't know this was going to happen, Julia. I didn't know Aryan was going to take off.

"Why did you leave?"

I'm trying to find him. I want him back just as much as you do.

"You didn't think to take me?" I could have helped her. I could have done something to find Aryan. I wasn't dead weight.

I didn't want you getting hurt. My father is still out there and who knows what will happen. You're safer at the house.

"I can't just sit here and do nothing."

Scour the house for anything out of place. Go through his phone, my phone, Kellan's phone. Do whatever you can but don't leave, do you hear me?

I groaned. "Fine. But I'm not going to be happy about it."

Thank you.

I opened my eyes and looked at Kellan. "She said she doesn't know why he left."

"What do you think?"

I got to my feet and started pacing. Under the bandages, my wings were itching. "I want to believe her but nothing feels like the truth anymore."

"She wouldn't lie to you."

I gave him a look. "My whole life has been one lie after another. Why stop now?"

"Julia." There was that 'I'm your father' voice. It made my skin crawl. I knew he was my father but for so long, I didn't know that. I didn't believe it, either. Habits were hard to break, especially ones I wasn't too keen on breaking.

I ran a hand through my hair before grabbing Aryan's phone and held it out in front of him. "How do you use this thing?"

"You think I know how?" He asked, looking up at me with surprise on his face.

"You're old. Way older than me. And this is the first time I've ever seen one of these in person."

"Thanks for that." He took the phone and pushed a button on the side. The screen lit up and a picture of the ocean appeared with the time in big, white letters.

I sat down on the coffee table. "Lucy said to try and see if there's anything on there that would give Aryan away."

Kellan pushed down on the left side of the screen then pulled it to the right. It made a clicking noise then opened to a new screen. There were small boxes with different images and names on the screen. He tapped the phone image and a list of numbers popped up. It listed the time under each number. Some were red and some were green.

"Who are all these people?" I asked.

Kellan shrugged. "Beats me."

"Go to the one with the bubble. I think it said messages."

He opened it up and the only message was from Lucy.

I groaned. "So unless Lucy helped him, we're at a dead end."

"Let's just wait until Lucy gets back and we'll have her look."

I got to my feet and headed for the kitchen. "I'm not going to stop looking."

"I think you need to get some sleep. You're working yourself too hard."

Was he serious? Aryan was missing and Lucy was off looking for him. I had no time to sleep. I wasn't going to sleep until I found him.

"I don't have time to sleep."

"Julia-"

"Aryan's gone and I have no idea where Lucy is. I'm not about to sleep and let something bad happen."

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little?"

I rolled my eyes before heading into the kitchen. Of all the people to be left alone with, it just had to be him. I was over him wanting to kill me but that didn't mean I was letting my guard down. It also didn't mean that I was going to start being nice to him all of a sudden.

I climbed onto the counter and looked on top of the fridge. Then I looked above the cabinets to find only dust and dead bugs.

I groaned and jumped down. I opened the drawers and started going through them, looking for any hidden notes or words carved into the wood. I kept coming up empty. I opened the last drawer and pushed the tongs and spoons aside and something sharp grazed my skin.

I cursed and pulled my hand back. There was a giant cut on the side of my hand and there was already blood running down my arm.

I slid to the floor just as Kellan walked into the room. "Julia, what happened?"

"Just-I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"You seem to forget who I am."

I sighed.

He walked around the island and grabbed a towel. He got it soaking before he knelt beside me. "Clean the blood off with this."

"What, no first aid kit?"

"No, I want you to heal it yourself."

"I'm not exactly in the best position to do that."

"You need to learn how. You almost died in the woods the other day. If you had known how to heal yourself, and Aryan, you wouldn't have had to call for Lucy and I."

I pulled my hand away from him. "I don't need your help."

"Yes, you do, Julia. You need Lucy and I to show you what it's like to be an angel. Your reckless and it's going to get you in a lot of trouble."

I didn't take advice well. I didn't take it much at all, really. And I hated the idea of Kellan telling me what to do, family or not.

But he was right. And I needed to learn soon if I wanted to help Aryan.

"Fine." I mumbled. I took a deep breath before healing the wound. The itching in my back went away.

"Come on. Let's go train." He said, patting my knee. He stood up and stretched his arms out behind him.

"You'rejust as bad as Lucy."