Year 3: Rebellion (Guardian Angel Academy) Read online

  Year 3: Rebellion

  Guardian Angel Academy

  Tamara Hart Heiner

  ebook edition

  copyright 2021 Tamara Hart Heiner

  cover art by Fantasy Designs

  Also by Tamara Hart Heiner:

  Guardian Angel Academy series:

  Year 1: Renegade (Tamark Books 2021)

  Year 2: Redemption (Tamark Books 2021)

  Perilous series:

  Perilous (WiDo Publishing 2010)

  Altercation (WiDo Publishing 2012)

  Deliverer (Tamark Books 2014)

  Priceless (WiDo Publishing 2016)

  Vendetta (Tamark Books 2018)

  Goddess of Fate:

  Inevitable (Tamark Books 2013)

  Entranced (Tamark Books 2017)

  Coercion (Tamark Books 2019)

  Destined (Tamark Books 2019)

  Kellam High:

  Lay Me Down (Tamark Books 2016)

  Reaching Kylee (Tamark Books 2016)

  The Extraordinarily Ordinary Life of Cassandra Jones:

  Walker Wildcats Year 1: Age 10 (Tamark Books 2015)

  Walker Wildcats Year 2: Age 11 (Tamark Books 2016)

  Southwest Cougars Year 1: Age 12 (Tamark Books 2017)

  Southwest Cougars Year 2: Age 13 (Tamark Books 2018)

  Southwest Cougars Year 3: Age 14 (Tamark Books 2019)

  Springdale Bulldogs Year 1: Age 15 (Tamark Books 2020)

  Eureka in Love series:

  After the Fall (Tamark Books 2018)

  Shades of Raven (Tamark Books 2020)

  Tornado Warning (Dancing Lemur Press 2014)

  ebook Edition, License Notes:

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  About the author

  In the beginning, angels were ordained to minister to mortals and aid them in their journey back to Shamayim. But the damned souls of Sheol had their own plans to prevent mortals from attaining any degree of glory.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The rain fell upon the city of New Orleans. A constant drizzle that forced the inhabitants to don raincoats and open umbrellas while complaining about the cooler weather plaguing them.

  But I wasn’t watching them. I was watching the mortal boy, Logan, whose soul was in peril. He’d withdrawn from his friends, and even though he sat beside DeeDee and Henry at the lunch table, his thoughts were far from them. A bitter Darkness ate at his heart, and guilt ate at mine. I had not put the shadows in his soul, but I hadn’t helped him, either.

  My bed sank slightly as my roommate, Iblis, sat down beside me.

  “Jez,” she said, her eyes sympathetic as she looked between me and the open window, “you’ve got to stop this.”

  “I know.” I waved a hand, dissolving the window between Arcadia and New Orleans. But even though I could no longer see the rain and the city’s soaked inhabitants, I knew it still fell. “I can’t control it.”

  Iblis reached a hand out and stroked the edges of my wings, then wrapped her arms around me in a hug. I inhaled as she rocked me, feeling the comfort of her touch.

  “I didn’t know it was possible for an angel to be so sad,” she whispered.

  “I haven’t mastered my emotions.” I shuddered as the tears crept down my face. “I needed more time.”

  Unlike the rest of the angels at the academy, I wasn’t born a mortal. I didn’t live out my life on earth and die before coming to the academy. I was created in hell. Because of my lack of human compassion, the archangels sent me down to earth for a crash course in feelings.

  Which I failed, in every possible way. Except one.

  I now felt human emotions. In fact, they ruled me. I felt them all at once, magnified, too large for my angel heart to handle. They overwhelmed me. My heart had become my soul, and I was blue and broken and desolate.

  “But New Orleans,” Iblis said, keeping her face close to mine. “You’ll drown the city in your sorrow.”

  I resisted the urge to open another window and peer down at the city on earth, to check on Logan again. While New Orleans had been the source of my greatest failures, it had also been the place where I learned what love was. Where I felt love for the first time. I longed to go back. If only I could undo the past two weeks and return to those moments of happiness.

  But it wasn’t the past two weeks that turned Maalik against me. It was what I’d done a decade earlier. And there was no undoing it. There was no fixing it. There was no atoning for it.

  “I’ll stop crying,” I whispered. Somehow, I’d created a connection between me and the city, and the weather in New Orleans was directly tied to my own feelings.

  The residents cursed me without even knowing it. Two weeks of dismal rain.

  “It’s time for the Progression Ceremony,” Iblis said, pulling me to my feet. “You don’t want to miss this.”

  “Yes, I do,” I said, resisting her pull. “Put on a white dress and pretend I’m excited for the coming year? I don’t think so.”

  “You will be.” She tugged harder and managed to get me to stand. “Things are going to get better, Jez. You know this.” Her tone carried a note of chastisement. “This too shall pass.”

  This too shall pass. It was their motto, the angels. Every hardship, every heartache, would eventually pass, they believed.

  They were wrong.

  “I don’t care anymore,” I said. “I don’t want to be a third year. I want to go back to Sheol. That’s where I belong.” Maalik had said as much the last time we spoke.

  She jerked my arm, forcing me to lift my eyes. “You belong here,” she said, her clear eyes sparking. “You belong with us.”

  “I’m not one of you,” I said.

  “Oh, enough of this pity party, Jez. You are one of us. You’re an angel too.” She cupped my face in her hands. “And Maalik is going t
o forgive you one day.”

  “He won’t,” I said the best I could as she squished my cheeks together.

  “He will. He’s an angel. It’s what we do.”

  I kept silent as she opened my wardrobe and pulled out the white ceremonial gown.

  She didn’t know Maalik the way I did. She didn’t know his rage.

  “Change,” she said, tossing the gown at me. “We’re both moving up to third year. You should be proud.”

  Should be. A few weeks ago I’d received the Light of the First Emissary, which enabled me to touch and be touched by my fellow angels. Today I’d receive my white wings. In a few months, I’d receive my first official assignment as a GIT, or Guardian in Training.

  On paper, it looked as if everything were going my way for the first time since my creation a millennia earlier.

  In reality, I couldn’t care at all. I might not have ever died physically, but I felt spiritually dead.

  *~*

  I sat with my fellow third year students, marveling again at how I felt no pain when their wings or shoulders or elbows bumped into me. I’d gotten so used to the shocks, the constant reminders of my Darkness to their Light, that even now I flinched when they neared me.

  They knew what had happened with Logan on earth, when I killed Maalik’s assignment. But none of them treated me differently. His death had been an accident, and even though I’d broken rules and skipped protocol by borrowing a dagger, it had shown determination to protect a human at all costs. While I felt as if I should have been punished or cast into hell for the deed, I was found redeemable. Barachiel, our eldermaster and an archangel, believed me capable of great goodness. He had enough sway with the other angels to convince them.

  But none of my fellow students knew what I’d done to Maalik’s family. If they did, I was certain they would not forgive so easily. I was surprised Maalik hadn’t told them. He could turn the whole student body against me with a few well-placed words. And I would accept anything they dealt me, because I deserved it.

  Master Selaphiel stood on stage, smiling, though an aura flickered behind her, one with shades of gray worry. I tilted my head, studying her more carefully. The masters and archangels controlled their emotions so carefully that I rarely saw their auras. For me to perceive anything now testified of how deep her concern ran.

  I turned to Iblis and whispered, “Do you see her aura?”

  Iblis nodded. “I’m sure we all do. What do you think it means?”

  I didn’t dare speculate. But I sat up a little taller and paid attention.

  “Congratulations on finishing another school year, students. We are so proud of you and what you’ve accomplished, no matter what level you are or where you’ll be next year. Many of our fourth year students are graduating this year and moving into positions as Guardians. Other are accepting positions in Shamayim under various capabilities. Please come to the stage when I call your name.”

  The fourth years moved up to accept their positions one by one. Although the passing of the years didn’t show on their immortal faces, they radiated Light and determination and success. They accepted their placements and their halos, their resplendent white wings beating with anticipation, opening and closing and creating a small breeze in the closed auditorium.

  I pulled my own black wing around so I could see the feathers. How I loved these wings. I’d only had them for a year. Maybe I wasn’t ready to be a third year. Even if my masters recommended me, I could decline, decide to stay in the year I was.

  But I would lose Iblis, and as I watched her clap for each name as it was called, I realized I couldn’t. She was all I had left. My roommate, my best friend, my family. My sister.

  The tears sprang unbidden to my eyes, and I tried to force them back by imagining more rain falling on New Orleans. I didn’t want to drown the city anymore. What an emotional sap I’d become.

  Iblis glanced over at me, and a gentle smile spread across her face. “Crying again?” She took my hand in hers.

  I was grateful for her concern, but I knew she didn’t want to baby me. Jerahmeel, her boyfriend, for lack of a better word, sat on her other side. He had been especially kind with me since I’d returned from earth, but I felt like the unwanted member of their group. I pulled my hand free and offered a stiff smile.

  “No tears. See?”

  She laughed and leaned into Jerahmeel, who put an arm around her and tugged her against him.

  Master Selaphiel stood up front again, and this time she had more control over her aura. “Congratulations to our former fourth years. Now for the third years who are moving up to fourth year. Having proved themselves capable as Guardians In Training in their third year, fourth years will receive a year-long placement without the supervision of a Guardian Mentor. Please come forward when I call your name and receive your assignment.”

  I willed myself not to react, but my skin flushed hot, while my body ran cold at the same time. I froze in my place.

  Maalik would be in this group.

  I hadn’t seen him in two weeks, not since he told me to go to hell and stay away from him. I moved around campus with my head down, not daring to look up for fear I’d see him. At first, I’d tried to stagger my meal time so I wouldn’t see him, but on occasion he’d walk into the cafeteria while I was still there, or I’d walk in and see him, and I’d have a verifiable panic attack.

  So I quit going to mealtime. I didn’t need to eat, anyway. While food was a quick and easy way to replenish our Light, I could get it from prayer and Shema also.

  My efforts were working. We hadn’t crossed paths.

  Fourth years were still GITs, but this time when they received an assignment, they were expected to handle it on their own, without a mentor. Instead, they would also juggle the responsibilities of overseeing third-year angels on ministering assignments. They spent hardly any time on campus.

  Which will only be a good thing, I told myself. The less chance we’d run into each other.

  So why did my heart squeeze so painfully in my chest? It was a visceral reminder that feelings were spiritual and not reliant on a physical body to house them.

  Master Selaphiel began calling out the names, and my breath grew a little more ragged with each one. Any moment now, she’d call out Maalik’s name, and I’d be able to gaze on him from my row without censor.

  Or would he notice me from there? Would his glare burn into me like hot coals for daring to cast my eyes upon his face?

  “Now for our third years,” Master Selaphiel said. “Moving from second to third is a special year, when students progress from apprentice to trainee. This is the year angels receive their white wings, something you will carry with you for the rest of eternity as a symbol of your study and devotion.”

  Wait a minute.

  “You will also spend the interval between school years in practical application ministering to humans on earth before receiving your assignment during the first semester.”

  “Wait a minute,” I hissed, clutching Iblis’s arm. “She missed a student.”

  Iblis had her gaze glued to Master Selaphiel’s face, anticipation bright in her eyes. “What?” she asked, not taking her gaze from the stage.

  “Arella,” Master Selaphiel said, calling up the first of our classmates.

  “Maalik,” I said, shaking her arm to get her attention. “She didn’t call Maalik’s name!”

  Iblis faced me finally, missing the moment when the Light fell over Arella and changed her wings from black to white. “What?” she repeated, but this time I knew she was listening.

  “Maalik,” I repeated, breathing hard. “Why didn’t Master Selaphiel call him up with the other third years?”

  Iblis blinked, silent for a moment as another name was called. “She didn’t?”

  “No!” I trembled, trying not to panic. Was he here? Had he left the academy? Did he hate me so much he would rather forsake his education than spend another moment at the same academy as I was? Or had he requested a
transfer to one of the other campuses?

  “I’m sure there’s a logical explanation,” Iblis said. “Stay calm, okay? We’ll get to the bottom of this as soon as the ceremony is over.”

  “Maalik,” Master Selaphiel said.

  Both Iblis and I spun our heads toward her voice. I watched, stunned, as Maalik stepped onto the stage.

  “Oh, Father,” I whispered. I felt wholly unworthy to even utter the holy name of the Great Father. But now my heart was breaking for a different reason, and the prayer was not uttered for my sake.

  “He’s repeating the year,” Iblis said, speaking what we both realized.

  It wasn’t unheard of. Angels frequently repeated years if they had more to master before moving on, and there was no shame in it.

  But not Maalik. He had already repeated year one four times. He was one of the most advanced angels I knew. And his soul was pure and undefiled.

  There was only one reason I could think of for him to repeat the year, and it pointed back to me: Logan.

  Logan had died under Maalik’s care. He’d been Maalik’s assignment. But the fault had been mine.

  Maalik showed no emotion as he stepped up to Selaphiel and accepted a rolled parchment. He already had his white wings and thus did not need to linger on the stage to receive the greater output of Light.

  Maalik held his chin up as he moved offstage, and all I could do was stare until he disappeared in the crowd of students. Then I buried my face in my hands.

  Just one more reason to hate me.

  Jerahmeel was called up next, then Iblis, and a few angels later, my own name was called. I rose slowly, feeling the uneasiness all the way into my core. I felt as if every eye stared at me, judged me, though I knew it was my own paranoia. There was only one person present who judged me, and he was probably doing his best not to look at me.

  “Congratulations, Jez,” Master Selaphiel said quietly as she handed me my rolled parchment. She gave a smile.

  I tried to return it, but a moment later a rush of warmth and Light enveloped me. I closed my eyes against the brightness. A soothing feeling like sunshine brushed along my wings and tingled my shoulders, and with it came a sense of peace and hope.