Feathers and Scales

By Jessica Krueger

Chapter one

Acadia National Park, Maine

Present Day

Although Izzy had researched the ultimate death for her kind, she never planned on being a participant. But as the moonlight bathed over the monstrosity at the mouth of the cave, she, as well as the epinephrine and noradrenaline punching through her human veins, knew she’d unwillingly become one.

She ran. Gravel skidded out from under her racing feet. Tree limbs slapped numbly against her spirit skin. The logical part of her brain screamed at her to shift, but her fight-or-flight response had rendered concentration impossible. Lurching into a rocky clearing, an open tent and crackling fire stopped her. Is a human here?

The Archfiend materialized before her.

Mottled skin stretched over the bones of his hollow cheeks. Time and decay had stripped any recognizable features from his face. Torn clothing that might have once been contemporary during ancient Greek times covered his human-sized body. His sunken, inky-black eyes blazed with lust for her spirit power as he glowered down at her. Heaviness weighed down her limbs. That was her future if she didn’t find a way to collect her feathers and return to Heaven. Not that it mattered if she couldn’t escape this monster first.

“Hello, Isidora.” His voice snaked over her like a crushing wave of darkness. “It’s been too long.”

Petrified to the ground, she trembled. “H-how do you know that name? W-who are you?”

“It’s tragic you don’t remember me.” He chuckled maniacally, the skin of his lips peeling back. “I’m just an old…rival.”

Violet shards of light came at her.

Drawing energy from within and focusing it outward, she raised a shield of yellow light. Sparks sizzled from the contact, and she flung her arm back to deflect. Laser-sharp stings sliced over her fingers. Her light was too weak to block the his attack. She rammed back into a solid body. Grunting from the impact, she glanced over her shoulder. A muscular camper stood behind her and grabbed her arms in his sweaty hands.

“Let go.” She yanked against his bruising grip. “We have to run.”

“Why would we do that?” the camper asked in a trancelike voice.

She glared at the Archfiend and spat, “Influencing humans to do your work?”

The Archfiend’s laughter crept like insects over her skin. “Why not? I save the best parts for myself. Now tell me if this hurts.”

He drew back his benitoite sword and impaled her to the hilt.

Pain ripped through her chest.

He raised the blade, dangling her. Her scream echoed around the rocky terrain of the secluded campsite and into the darkness of the boreal forest.

“I’ve been waiting so long for this,” he said.

Her glowing spirit blood trickled, turning the sword’s crystalline blue surface crimson. Despite the distance from her human body lying far away, her strained spirit connection flooded her with rumbling terror and anger. Her spirit dimmed, blinking out of the visible spectrum.

Behind her, the camper croaked, “What h-happened?”

He must have been shocked free of the Archfiend’s Influence. Run. She tried to form words with her trembling lips. Get away while you can.

The Archfiend was so close that his foul energy was stifling against her being. “It’s been fun hunting your Fallen brethren to get to you. You’ve always prided yourself on being so intelligent. Look at you now. What little energy you possess is mine.”

How dare he gloat about killing other Fallen angels. She screamed, jammed her thumbs into his eyes, and shot the last of her power in a piercing yellow light from her fingertips.

Black smoke crested his brow bone, and the acrid smell of burned flesh filled the air. He jumped backward with a roar, flinging her from his blade. “You arrogant wench. I hope you suffer to your last breath.”

She landed on the cold ground with a cry, the skeleton of her wings falling behind her. Useless. She choked out a breath. Hot, metallic spirit blood gurgled in her mouth. Dread settled into her bones. The sword had punctured her spirit equivalent of a lung. She would drown in her own blood.

The Archfiend shielded his bleeding eye sockets and faltered away from her. He collided with the young camper, who stood frozen in terror of the Archfiend. With his lip twisted in disgust, the Archfiend grabbed the man’s head.

“Leave him alone,” she shouted with her hand outstretched, calling on the last of her withered voice. Yellow power tingled at her fingertips but barely flared to life.

The Archfiend twisted the camper’s head with a snap.

“No.” She cringed as the limp camper crumpled to the ground. Tattered gray wings unfurled from the Archfiend’s back. The bare flaps of mangled skin attached to bone embodied the greed that made him an Archfiend. He knitted his wings with a stream of blue light to fill the gaping holes.

“Enjoy your slow journey into Limbo,” he spat, and launched into the air. His power held him up as he flew east toward the ocean.

Fear slithered up her spine and created a vise around her throat, killing her in a way the Archfiend never could.

Limbo was fathomless. A prison where she’d never complete her wings and return to Heaven. Scrunching into a tight ball, she shivered.

She had expected him to stay to confirm her death, but he had probably flown away to heal his blindness. If that were possible. She closed her eyes and tried to will herself back to her body. Nothing happened. She didn’t have enough energy.

Her only hope of survival was to hide in a living human’s Spirit Cavity and siphon her host’s energy to heal. Even if she mustered enough strength to run for help, her chances of finding someone in the middle of Acadia National Park were slim. Braving her plight, she looked from the dead human male to his small, open tent, hoping for a solution to her dilemma. Her eyes would mirror his lifeless gaze if she didn’t act quickly.

Tears fell from her fragile hold as she convulsed on the hard ground. Another twinge of agony seared her torso. She wiped her cheeks with shaky fingers. Her hands came away streaked with red spirit energy. Her spirit tie to her human body sent her emotions and sensations, ones she had tried to shove to the side in order to endure her long existence on earth. But all her suppressed pain and grief burst through the ether, rushing to drown her just as her blood would in her last moments on Earth.

Glaring at the sky, she inhaled a shuddering breath and wheezed to the Supreme, who’d punished her. “You know I tried, right? Collecting all my feathers within one human life is impossible. You forced me and my kind to become evil. But you never cared, did you? Just left us here…alone.”

“You’re not alone, child.” A raspy timbre, breezing by with the wind, spoke in ancient Greek.

A smile tugged at her lips as wetness trickled down her cheek. “But I am, Fotios. You’re just a delusion.” She closed her eyes, envisioning a stoic man with wavy brown hair and laugh lines. The face of the father figure and mentor she had cherished—her previous Coheart—the human who taught her countless lessons in life, including one that left an indelible mark: caring for someone only leads to vulnerability.

“I’m a memory.”

“Correcting me even after your death? Any useful advice?”

“Stop letting your emotions control you and use logic to find a solution. You promised to end your punishment and meet me in Heaven.”

“I will find a way back.”

Her skin prickled. Leaves rustled and twigs snapped behind her, growing louder by the second. Struggling with the pain, she wrestled to roll onto her side. Black dots filled her vision as she fought to stay conscious.

A man emerged within the fire’s glow, similar to how a figure became visible in the light of a laser beam scattering off particles in a mist.

She blinked. I must have lost my mind.