The Ascended (The Saving Angels 3)

"When she chooses to fully accept what she has become, yes."

"That's so frikin' cool, Krista," Lynn said, looking at me like I had sprouted angel wings.

"Yeah, I guess," I said, not entirely sure how I felt about my new status. Reading minds sounded cool, but did I really want to know what everyone was thinking.

"It's totally awesome," Sam said, practically jumping with glee. "Too bad we're still not in school, we could have had some serious fun with that," she continued mischievously.

Her words made us all laugh and soon everyone else was throwing out their own suggestions, each one becoming more and more outrageous. I watched from the corner of my eye as Haniel quietly left the camp. I was tempted to call him back and ask him the one question that still lingered inside me, but I fought the urge, scared of what his answer would be.

Dinner was more quiet and subdued as we ate the most delicious stew I had ever tasted. It had been slow cooking over the fire the entire day. I wolfed down two bowls before my friends' had finished their first. Skipping breakfast and lunch had left me famished and the savory flavor and heartiness of the stew filled my grumbling stomach.

I watched my friends closely while I ate. I could feel their gambit of emotions over what they would be facing the following night. I used my new powers to smother out their erratic feelings and calm the mood. My interference did the trick and all the tension seemed to float away. Lynn smiled at me gratefully, knowing full well I was responsible for lifting the weight off their shoulders. I returned her smile, rising from my spot to rinse out my bowl with the water we had stowed in jugs and stored by the campfire.

Sam and Lynn joined me with a stack of bowls they had collected. We made quick work rinsing them out and drying them off.

"You girls ready?" Robert asked grabbing the clean stack of bowls from Lynn's hands.

"Yep, I'm bushed," Sam said, yawning exaggeratedly.

"Me too! I woke up way too early this morning," I said, stifling my own yawn. It had been decided that our group would sleep first, that way I could be on hand during the middle of the night in case Victor sent in another attack. My accelerated powers gave us a sense of security since they had proven to be highly useful.

I lifted the flap of the tent and crawled in first. After pulling my boots off, I slipped comfortably into my down sleeping bag. I was half asleep before my friends could get in their own sleeping bags. Sam mumbled a good night, but I was already halfway into a dream.

My eyes blinked in the bright light. I could tell I was dreaming from the familiar haze that surrounded me. Everything else about the dream was foreign though as I took in my surroundings. Over the last few months, my dreams had been filled with an oppressive darkness that filled me with dread and threatened to smother me. And before that, my dreams had always taken place at dusk with the soft sand of our beach beneath my toes and the smell of the sea air tantalizing my nose.

This dream was filled with bright sunlight and rough grass that tickled my feet as I walked. Looking down, I saw that I was wearing a long flowing white dress that wrapped around my ankles as the wind blew it back and forth. My hair whipped around my face making it hard to see. I reached back, dragging it over my shoulder and gathered it together in my hand, holding it into place. With my hair no longer a hindrance, I was able to take in my surroundings and realized I was standing atop a cliff that I could have sworn was the same one that held the hotel we had attended for prom. I turned in a slow circle, looking for the hotel, but it was as if it had been plucked off the cliff and placed elsewhere.

As I finished my slow observation around, my heart lurched when I saw a lone figure standing at the edge of the cliff in front of me. The broad shoulders and windswept brown hair was as familiar to me as my own hand. My heart began to beat erratically, leaving my pulse racing when he turned to me and smiled the crooked grin that I loved so much. I knew with every fiber of my being that I was dreaming, but none of that mattered as I raced across the short distance to get to him. He gathered me into his arms, swinging me off my feet. I sighed in pleasure as his scent filled my senses. I buried my head into his neck relishing in the heat of his skin.

"I've missed you," he said, startling me.

"I've missed you too," I said, tilting my head so I could gaze into his eyes. "I've missed the way you feel and smell," I added, burying my head into the crook of his shoulder.

"I've missed the way you feel too, but something seems off. You feel different somehow," he said, sounding puzzled.

"What?" I asked, confusion clouding my voice. "Why?"

"I don't know, it's like there's no connection between us," he said, taking a step back to study me.

I glanced behind him at the churning waves that beat relentlessly against the side of the cliff. His backward motion brought him inches from the cliff's edge.

I opened my mouth to warn him, but before I could get the words out, he took another small step backwards. In slow motion, I watched as he teetered on the edge, his arms flailing around trying to help recover his balance. I raced forward, reaching for his hand, but grasped only air as gravity pulled him backwards away from me. In an instant, he was gone, snatched from me once again. I stood at the edge of the cliff searching frantically for him, but to no avail. Tears burned a path down my cheeks and without hesitating, I stepped off the cliff. My scream tore its way out of me as I plunged toward the threatening rocks and waves below.

My scream filled the small confines of the tent, waking my friends. I placed a hand over my mouth to muffle the sobs that ripped through me. The heartbreak of being separated from Mark, even in a dream state, was devastating.

"Are you okay Sis?" Shawn asked, switching on the flashlight.

I nodded my head, afraid that if I opened my mouth to speak, the screams I was so desperately trying to hold back would rise to the surface.

"You sure?" He asked again, concerned. I nodded again, lying back down as I turned to face the nylon of the tent with tears running hot and fast down my cheeks. Shawn clicked the flashlight back off and the tent was once again immersed in darkness. I could hear the rustling of sleeping bags as the rest of my Band settled back down to get a few more hours of sleep.

Soon, the sound of soft snoring filled the confines of the small dome tent. Eventually, my tears ran out and I could feel them drying on my cheeks. My dream shouldn't have surprised me. I suspected when Haniel had made his announcement earlier that day about my new status of being Ascended, that Mark and I would never be the same. Even if the outcome of the battle my friends faced swung in my favor, my link with Mark was gone. For months, I had been trudging along, waiting for the moment that I could look into his eyes one last time and see if he really was Victor's puppet. All my hopes and dreams had clung to the slim chance that it all could be fixed. My new role now had changed all that. Even if I was able to Guide Mark back to our side, he would no longer belong to me. By surviving our separation, I had ruined any chance of us ever belonging to each other.

Chapter 9

My own chattering teeth woke me up before dawn. I pulled my sleeping bag up to my chin, trying to ward off the chill. Squinting in the dim light I could see Lynn and Sam snuggled tightly in their sleeping bags also, but Shawn and Robert were nowhere around.

I wonder why no one woke me up for my watch shift. I thought to myself, curiously. I grabbed my hoodie out from behind my head where I had been using it as a makeshift pillow. The heat from my head had kept it relatively warm and I sighed with pleasure as some of the morning chill dissipated when I slipped it on. I pulled my cheapo mittens out of the front pocket of my hoodie and stuck my icy fingers into them.