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Prologue

“Gum or lollipop?” Ella Shyld asked her best friend with a mischievous grin. She waved the two edible objects in front of his face. He swatted her hands away in annoyance.

“Is it not painfully obvious that I am really trying hard, really my best here, to finish my math homework?” Devon asked, gesturing wildly at his math textbook.

“This is an important decision Dev, if I don’t choose the right candy it could jeopardize my whole exam.” She stated, giving Devon the most serious face she could muster.

“Really now.” Devon said, evidently not sharing Ella’s opinion on the matter.

“Yes, this is a matter of life and death. You need to help me choose!” Ella said, shaking her fists impatiently, nearly squishing the two candies.

Devon sighed and passed a hand through white-blond hair. “How about you don’t take any at all? They rot your teeth anyway.”

Ella unhappily narrowed her eyes at him. She rapidly poked his vulnerable side and jumped back a few steps to prevent a counter attack.  Devon involuntarily let out a small shriek, already regretting having left himself so open. His cheeks were already starting to flush as Ella laughed at him.

“Both it is then.” She smirked plopping the gum in her mouth and unwrapping the lollipop.

“You know, I do believe studying is a lot more effective than eating candy.” Devon said as he regained his composure.

“Oh, but these are good luck charms.” Ella managed to say with her mouth full. Devon rolled his eyes and leaned back towards his homework once again.

Ella hopped onto the short stone wall that surrounded the school’s outside resting area.  She tied her long dark red hair up into a ponytail with a spare elastic band as she twirled the lollipop and the gum inside her mouth. Little did Devon know how much she actually studied.

Ella Shyld was a hard worker at home, there wasn’t much else to do in that dump. She spent most of her nights catching up on her homework so she could have fun and relax outside of home. She didn’t know quite how Devon managed to work surrounded by such a wonderful environment.

The leaves were an amazing spread of bright colors. Anywhere Ella looked she could see spots of red or yellow coloring the trees. Fall was her favorite season and there was no way in hell she could concentrate on some flimsy mathematics when leaves were being blown into the wind.

A bright red leaf drifted onto Devon’s textbook and he irritatingly swatted it away, making it flutter into the light breeze. Like a dog chasing a butterfly, Ella ran after it, and caught in between her red-tipped nails.

Devon looked up from his homework, already exasperated by one of the exercise, and observed Ella as she played around with the leaf, her red ponytail flowing in the air along with it. Devon and Ella had known each other for a long time. She was practically his sister, though he’d found on more than one occasion he’d wished they were something else. Ella was gorgeous, funny and easy to get along with. Devon had never seen an angel before, but he thought it ought to look like Ella.

Nothing had changed recently, they still got along really great, but Devon had been getting an unfamiliar and unwanted feeling lately…almost as if he and Ella were actually growing apart or were about to. Devon pinched himself and turned back to his homework as the unwanted feeling came back. He was most likely being paranoid. This was Ella’s last semester of university after all. She’d decided to jump into the working life sooner than he had.

Ella sat down on the ground beside Devon. She looked up at the sky, pulling out her lollipop and comparing it with the sun as she chewed on her gum.

“I think it’s going to rain today Dev.” She said in an odd distant voice. Dev looked up at the sky, but there wasn’t a cloud in sight.

“The weather didn’t say anything about rain.” Devon replied, but he oddly also had the feeling it was going to rain.