Songbird

Ch 8

Bae’s mother is easily the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.

It’s simple to say that I haven’t exactly run across many pretty women in my lifetime, but I hardly think that would make a difference. She is tall and athletically built. Her face is sharp and clear, with a pronounced jawlines and high cheekbones while she shares the same brown-blond hair as her son and the same crystal blue-grey eyes.

She opens the door before Bae gets the chance to knock. It’s very late in the night or very early in the morning, so I presume that she is expecting us. She looks at me, wide eyed and frozen, then turns her gaze to her son and throws her arms around him. I never took Bae to be the hugging type, but he embraces her back. I feel jealousy, and for the first time, I find myself wishing I had a mother who hugged me like that. I swallow the feeling.

“Oh, Wren,” she says, turning to me. The fact that she knows who I am makes me feel like a lot of time and effort went into this plan without any of my concent, like my marriage. I try hard not to grimace. Instead, I smile. “Come in. You look so cold, my dear. I’ll start a fire.”

Bae scoffs. “Why? It’s already so hot outside.”

I shoot him the darkest look I can muster. He flinches a little and I can feel the guilt seeping from him. “I’m-”

“Hush,” I snap in his direction. “I appreciate the whole barging into my room in the middle of the night and taking me away from everything I’ve ever known, but all I have is one request. And that’s to be told what’s going on.”

I hear laughter coming from the other side of the room. There are flames already dancing lively in the fireplace. I’ve never seen anyone start a fire that quickly. The thought comes out of nowhere, but I can’t deny it. She hangs a kettle in the fireplace and I know that she’s making tea. “You remind me so much of your father. He didn’t like being told what to do very much, either,” she says.

I’m stunned. “My...father?” I knew I had a father. It’s common sense. There needs to be two people to create a new one. I never questioned who those people were because I was all the proof I needed to assure myself that they existed. I kept on telling myself that my Grandmother could love me enough for both of the parents I never knew.

“Sit down,” she says, referring me to a comfortable looking chair by the fire. I do so grudgingly. “I’ve been a friend of your father for a long time. You could say that we went to school together.”

I bite my tongue to keep from asking her how it was possible that they went to school together. Women don’t get a formal schooling like men do. She continues.

“You’re special, Wren. I think you’ve noticed that. You see energy trails, as I’ve been told, and that’s just the beginning of it. See, you’re special because your father, he was special. I’m special. Bae’s special.” She said each word slowly and carefully. I frowned.

“Please,” I say as politely as I possibly can. I was raised to be polite and I found that it’s a powerful force. “I’d just like to hear it. I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t beat around the bush.”

“Alright then,” she nods her head, eyes closed like this is difficult for her. “Your father fell in love with a woman he was not supposed to. He was old enough to know that he was doing something wrong, but that hardly slowed him. After a few years, she became pregnant. He knew that he couldn’t raise you because people like him, people like us, we’re not supposed to fall in love like that.”

She stops for a long moment and Bae interjects. “Seriously, Wren’s right. Just tell her already.”

Bae’s mother looks up and locks eyes with me. After a long sigh she says, “You’re a Nephilim, Wren. Do you know what that means? I’ve heard that you read.”

I bite the bottom of my lip, deep in thought. Nephilim? I remember the term but not the definition. My heart begins to race. How can this woman know what I am when not even I do? How does knowing my father give her access to parts of my life that I’m denied?

“I’m afraid that I’ve forgotten,” I say softly.

“Well,” she says, “to summarize for you, it basically means that your father is an angel and your mother… well, dear, your mother is not.”

I look between Bae and his mother, expectantly. They look back at me, mirroring my expression. “And?”

“What do you mean, ‘and’?” Bae asks. The silence in the air is almost tangible.

“That’s not it. That can’t be it. That’s not possible.” I am hesitant. Both of them looked so sincere, so genuine, so honest. But was that honesty or overacting? I struggle to stay calm as the worst conspiracies take their hold in my mind. I followed a boy I don’t know out of the only life I’ve ever known just because I felt my nightmare coming? That was so stupid. And the longer they keep me here and peak my curiosity, the ransom they are probably holding for me will go up.

I can imagine it now. Mother and her illegitimate son running away together after so many years apart. Low in money, they need to get it somewhere. After the boy prepares to be wed off, they kidnap his bride-to-be to secure the gold they need before fleeing the country.

The rational part of me says that I haven’t gotten any sleep tonight and the backstory I’ve concocted for Bae and his mother doesn’t make the slightest amount of sense, but I can’t listen to the logic.

To my horror, Bae gives me a smile. “I knew you wouldn’t believe us. That’s to be expected.”

“Hush, Bae,” she tells him gently. “Wren just needs a little bit of proof. You didn’t believe at first either.”

She turns to me and slowly moves her hand up to her neck. She’s wearing a locket I didn’t notice before and she unlatches it. I stare at it as she sets it down on the table. I open my mouth to finally tell her off about all of this when I look up at her again. Suddenly, I’m frozen in shock of the image before me.

“Wren?” Bae asks tapping me on the shoulder. I barely hear it. “Wren? Come on, Wren. Say something.”

But I can’t. I can’t because sprouting from between his mother’s shoulder blades are two downy, snowy white wings.