Angel's Light

Prologue

There are so many reasons I didn't let Rory play outside. There were reasons we stayed at the cabin. There was a reason I was the only one who ever went into town. Reasons I protected them. Reasons we were running. 

Maybe I'll explain. I'm Quinn, and I'm 17. At least, that's what I can guess. I live with two other kids. Nova is 14. She's shy and enjoys reading books and doing crafts. Rory is 11. He loves being outside, and, no matter what I tell him, he always finds a way to sneak past me. 

We had been together for our whole lives. We weren't siblings, but we were the closest to a real family that any of us could get. When we escaped the lab, we had never looked back. There was no going back there. 

I was the only one of us who understood what had happened. The three of us weren't human. Rory and Nova had been a little bit too young to really understand. The lab had altered our DNA to create human-avian hybrids. We all had wings that folded neatly against our backs and other hints at the more avian sides of our genetics. I had figured it out the older I got. The others hadn't and I couldn't bring myself to tell them.

My wings were a cream color with tawny speckles, like a mix between a barn owl and a snowy owl. My hair was the same tawny as the spots on my wings.My eyes were a seas green with flecks of silver. I was 5'5" and I had some curves. 

Nova had dark red hair and the wings of a red tailed hawk. She was built small in height and general size. Her eyes were a dark brown. 

Rory had golden hair and blue eyes. His wings were similar to a golden eagle. He was the size of an average 11 year old. 

We had all changed a lot since we had left the prison that was our home for so many years. I had been twelve. That put Nova at 9 years old and Rory at 6. The five years of living on our own with no life experience had given us he chance to gain a lot of personality. 

Like I said earlier, I was the only one of us who went to the town a few miles away from our cabin in the woods. I knew how to keep my wings out of sight. I took care of the shopping. This was because I knew that the scientists who kept us like lab rats were still out there. Chances were that they were looking for us. I had some idea of what to do to protect myself. The kids didn't and I couldn't keep all three of us safe at once. 

The one person I was most worried about coming after us was Lee. He had been in charge of keeping us healthy at the lab. He was the most likely to recognize us on the streets. That was the other reason I went out alone. Since it had been five years, I could guess that there were other teenage girls who looked like me. If the others were added in, we would make a strange group. It would stand out. It made us easier to catch. 

If we were going to live peaceful lives, I needed to figure something else out. It wasn't like that was easy. I did my best, but there was a lot riding on my shoulders.