Court of Nightfall (The Nightfall Chronicles #1)(38)

"That religion is outlawed now," I said. "Anyone caught practicing is sentenced to death." I walked around, admiring the architecture as Evie pulled up footage of the cathedral before the war. I scanned the articles briefly. "It looks like this place was destroyed during the war and all the worshippers were hanged as heretics and traitors."

I stepped on something soft underfoot and bent to pick it up. A doll. Old, torn, weathered, but once belonging to a child who had lived here, who had played here, and who had ultimately died here.

"Do you believe Nephilim are gods?" I asked.

"No, I do not." His lips were set in a grim line. "But people should be allowed to believe as they wish and worship as they are led, as long as they do not harm others."

A memory returned to me, one I hadn't recalled in many years. I was young and the Nephilim War had just erupted into international news, but no one knew what the outcome would be. No one knew the devastation that war would cause for all involved on both sides.

I remembered sneaking downstairs one night to watch the news with my parents when I was supposed to be asleep. They showed a clip of several Nephilim in flight, their gorgeous wings outstretched, some blue, some purple, some bright gold or yellow, all captivating to a child who dreamed of nothing but flying.

My dad caught me and walked me back to bed.

"I want to be Nephilim when I grow up, Daddy," I told him as he tucked me in.

"Why is that, my little Star? They're the enemies."

"Because they can fly and they don't even need a plane. And besides, you always say that no group is bad, that individuals in any group make their own choices. Couldn't I be a good Nephilim?"

He smoothed my hair off my forehead and kissed it. "I suppose you could, Star. If anyone could, it would be you."

Zorin tore the boards from the front door of the cathedral and walked in, then turned to look at me. "This is where we will train."

***

"Wow, you're really just going to throw me off the roof of this cathedral? That's your brilliant training plan?" I stood at the edge and looked over the fields around us. The wind blew against me, and I breathed deeply of the fresh country air.

"Your wings are like a new limb. And like any limb, they are best first used by instinct. The height will motivate you… even if the fall doesn't kill you, it will hurt. Before we start—"

Without letting him finish, I ran to the opposite edge of the roof, building momentum like I would in airplane, and I jumped off the edge.

I didn't so much fly as I fell. And fast.

My heart raced in my chest, knocking against my ribs as if it could escape this fool body and find someone with better self-preservation instincts. But I knew I could do this. I was born to do this.

Come on, wings, do whatever you're supposed to do. Now!

I closed my eyes and let all my fear go. I focused on the feel of the wind, on the momentum of my body, on the sheer bliss of being airborne. I'd been flying my whole life. This was second nature to me.

It happened in a flash. First my shoulders burned and my back felt on fire, and then the air currents changed as my body expanded and grew new limbs. I opened my eyes and saw that I was racing over the ground, no longer falling toward it.

Joy, intense, visceral joy overwhelmed me. I turned my head and saw silvery feathers made almost of light shimmering at my back. I wanted to touch them, to feel their texture, but that could come later. For now, my wings and I were ready to soar.

I flew over the woods and dove toward a lake, letting my hand trail in the water and splash around me. I could see my reflection and the light of my wings in the water. I looked otherworldly.

Zorin joined me, his wings dark to my light. The night before, in the dark, I thought his wings were entirely black, but in the light of the sun I could see they had blue mixed in. I wondered how it would feel to touch his wings, to run my hands over them.

I blushed and pulled my eyes forward.

He chuckled as if he knew what I was thinking. "Let's see how fast you can go, shall we?"

He sped up, turning into a blur as he flew, and I pushed myself to match him.

We became sparks of light twirling through the sky. When he finally slowed down and let me catch up with him, I could tell he was impressed. "You surprise me, Scarlett. It's been a long time since someone has."

I grinned, still in flight, so very happy that I could almost forget the horrors of the last few days or why I was really there with Zorin. To train. To learn as much as I could in the next two days so I could save Jax.

"Now, let's stop," he said, and he hung mid-air, suspended as his wings kept him from falling. Like treading water.

Only I didn't know how to tread. Airplanes couldn't tread. At least, not the ones I flew. I kept flying in a blind panic as I tried to slow my wings to stop without falling out of the sky.

And instead I crashed into a tree and fell to the ground like some kind of miserable cartoon character.

He floated up next to me and reached out his hand to help me up.

"We'll work on that," he said, smiling a tad too brightly.

***

Zorin held a stick out to me and kept one for himself.

I glared at mine. "A stick? When do I get a fancy sword? Or even one of those wooden swords kids train with? Why a stick?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Because I don't have any wooden swords on hand, and you aren't ready for a real one. You'd end up hurting yourself and we don't have time for that. You don't have time for that."