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"So you're grounded for a week? That's not so bad!"

Lia childishly crossed her arms and looked away across her large bed. Of course, Megan wouldn't understand. The library was her only solitude and it had been taken away from her. For what? Reacting the way anyone else would if they saw someone murdered in front of them? She could still see the pitiful way his body had jerked in its final moments, the ways his fingers constricted as if to-

"-Besides I'll just come and visit you every day so you're not bored. I can even get the books you want from the library!"

Lia quickly perked up. 'Really?' she wrote. Megan nodded emphatically, her hair bouncing up and down like a puppy. For the first time since the previous day, her lips curved into a small smile.

"There it is! I saw it! A smile!" Megan clapped enthusiastically and Lia's grin bloomed into a silent giggle. 

"Just write down a list of whatever books you want and I'll fetch it for you when I have time. Oh my god! It's 10:15 I have to go attend breakfast with Lord Xantho. See you later, alligator!"

Megan skipped out abruptly, the gold links in her jingling like bells. Odile opened the door for her and Megan was gone in a flash. Immediately, her smile dropped from her face and Lia let out a loud sigh. It had been nice to speak to Megan, but deep down she knew that most of Megan's cheeriness came from the fact that Lia had pissed off Lord Xantho and wasn't in favor. Not that she had ever been. 

Of all the concubines, she never 'serviced' Xantho so her jewelry and adornments were minimal compared to the rest. 

"Mistress," said Odette, pulling Lia out of her thoughts. Lia looked up at her curiously as Odette reached behind her black and white attendant uniform to reveal a small book that was delicately bound with gold thread. She quirked up a brow to inquire what it was.

"The guard Bronn was kind enough to get you a book from the library about a topic perhaps you hadn't really read much on." Odette leaned in and continued in a quieter voice. "I believe this is his apology to you."

Lia frowned. Sure Bronn had been the guard to catch her in her mild lapse of sanity but it could've honestly been any guard. She didn't bear any ill will towards him and took the book from Odette in exchange for a small note explaining that she was in way mad at Bronn. 

Examining the small book, she wiped a bit of dust of the cover to make out the title, her eyes widening instantly. Angels? She looked up at Odette for an explanation but the quick-footed maid had already left. Brushing even more dust off she could make out an angel that had been engraved and painted by hand with gold on the cover. It was so life like for a drawing the artist must have taken hours. Her index finger delicately traced one if the angel's wings, marveling at the attention to detail. The book was very finely made, so why was it so dusty and unused? 

Settling into the bed, Lia opened the book, ready to devour the contents but she never got the chance. The minute her hand touched the first page, everything around her disappeared and turned black. She was floating in darkness. Lia looked down and her body was gone, only her consciousness remained. There was nothing.

Before she could properly begin to panic however, her consciousness began to get tugged along into the darkness. Unable to do anything but watch, Lia saw her the first hints of color among the darkness, her environment slowly morphing to one with color and life. But it wasn't her room. She was somewhere outside far, far away she realized as from a great distance she spied the shining towers and white walls of the city she had been trapped in. She was in the desert now and but it wasn't as swelteringly hot as it had been when she had arrived in Aether. But she wasn't alone. Sitting on a finely woven blanket on the sand were two men conversing. The first, to her jaw-dropping surprise, was Rhiannon. 

Unlike last time when she had seen him in her weird vision, his hands were unbound and he looked relaxed in a traveler's cloak. The other man did not look nearly as calm. And before Lia had finished picking her jaw up from the ground from seeing her kidnapper again, they hit the ground again as she got a good look at the other man, no... angel. The angel was easily one of the most beautiful people she had ever seen in her life even though he was covered in sand dust, making even Xantho look like a normal chap compared to him. He was similarly garbed like Rhiannon in traveler's clothes but his were filthy and ripped. Everything about him was golden, just like the angel on the cover of her book. His hair was the same shimmery color as the precious metal, as were his wings and eyes. But his wings! Lia couldn't stop staring in awe. Of everything she had seen in Aether, they were the most spectacular. Each feather shining beautifully under the rising sun.

Suddenly in the middle of their conversation, the golden angel looked up in annoyance. His eyes scanned his surrounded before, to her abject horror, landing on her. She let a strangled noise at being caught staring and instantly looked away. Wait, noise? Lia's hand flew to her throat and the first word she said was, "Hello?"

"Hello to you too, Ophelia. Come join us." Rhiannon spun around from where he was seated. For the first time ever, the slightly chubby ginger looked mature and smart, as if he had all the answers in the universe. Him looking at her coupled with the flat gaze of the golden angel led to a few moments that Lia would forever regret of her gasping and staring like an idiot. Definitely not her finest moment. 

Like a faun walking on new legs, Lia slowly made her way to where the two men were before sitting on the farthest corner of the blanket away from them. She sat cross-legged, her hands digging into the luxurious fabric below. A random breeze blew by and no one said anything.

"So...", Lia started, tired of them just looking at her. Instantly Rhiannon perked up.

"Lia you must have many questions for me. Ask away." He flicked his hands in a carefree manner as if they were discussing the weather, not her kidnapping.

"Ask away?" Lia began quietly. "Well in that case, why the HELL did you kidnap me? Why did you lead me to that shady club where they dragged me and 5 other girls away from everything we've ever known and sold us like cattle in this crazy world? Why, Rhiannon? I can't believe I actually thought you were a nice guy at the mall, you are the worst of the worst! The lowest scum of this world, to willingly kidnap and sell people!" Lia paused for a moment, breathing heavily. But she wasn't done. All the pent up rage from the past few months had just been unearthed.

"Look at me!" she screamed, pointing at herself. She gestured at her harem outfit, the fine cherry colored fabrics feeling like tight confines. "Look. At. Me," she repeated in a quieter tone, enunciating each word. "You put me somewhere I am expected to fuck a crazy, lustful beast of a man! And you have the nerve to look cheerful!" She wanted nothing more to slap his merry expression of his face, which had looked apologetic for a moment before his irritating smile reemerged. 

"Would you be more understanding if I told you the reason?" Rhiannon said cautiously, probably not wanting to instigate another screaming session. The golden man didn't say anything, his flat gaze not changing once. She would inquire about him later, for now, she wanted to hear whatever excuse Rhiannon had that would somehow justify dragging her out of her life. Even now, just looking at him brought back the terrifying memories of the kaleidoscope mirror and Jonah's crew. 

Rhiannon passed her a flask of water which she refused before speaking. "300 hundred years ago, there used to be humans in Aether." He paused for a moment, drinking from his flash and giving Lia a minute to process the information. 

"Used to be?"

"Yup. Until they were massacred by angels. Every single one of them, except for me." He laughed bitterly, his cheerful look gone. Lia looked apprehensively at the golden angel, who just raised a brow at her. She looked back at Rhiannon, perplexed at how he had the otherworldly glow of the Aether when he was 'human'. 

"This was all because of my abilities. We, humans once had our own kingdom in the outer lands. As you can imagine being a weaker race without abilities we were easy targets for food or to steal from. But we had protection in the form of Gatekeepers, a human with special gifts that helped protect the population. The Gatekeeper abilities passed from parent to child and with them, humanity was able to flourish on Aether despite our shorter life spans and weakness. Everything was going well until one day the angels descended from above. They were so beautiful." His voice cracked on the word beautiful. 

"At this point, we still thought that angels were good so I dropped the barrier and let them in. I let the enemy into our home. How could I have known that the moment the barrier dropped them would begin to raze our home and kill everyone? They quickly sought out my father and right before my eyes, ran him through with their celestial swords. I was completely hidden, my father told me to use my abilities to hide myself so that after the attack I could go help the wounded. But everyone died!" he cried out. 

"I searched for days. Days! Going through the rubble and finding nothing but broken, mangled bodies. And that day I vowed to myself that I would destroy the angels, make them pay for what they did." His eyes were wide and crazed, with a strong resolution. But as heartbreaking as it was to hear about humans and what he'd been through, Lia was still a bit confused.

"Why did the angels want to kill everyone because of your abilities? And how are you still alive and young? Are you really a fae like everyone seems to think? And most of all, what does humanity being wiped out have to do with me?" 

"No one knows the specifics. But I along with Michael," he said, nodded at the golden angel, "suspect that it must be that the Gatekeeper's abilities can kill even angels, who are immortal." 

"As for why I'm still young," he said cracking a smile as if he hadn't been salivating for blood a minute before, "My mother was fae so I live a lot longer than humans. It also helped me escape the massacre since they didn't know that the Gatekeeper was half-fae but they now know after I opened that portal, I'm afraid. Do you remember when I told you that the Gatekeeper abilities pass from parent to child?"

Lia nodded exasperatedly, unaware of the shocking his next words would be.

"Well, every now and then the child wouldn't be worthy of the abilities. In which case the Gatekeeper can be passed on to another human who is deemed 'worthy'. I did that to you and passed you my abilities, which are just now starting to show themselves, am I right?"

For the third time that day, Lia couldn't stop her jaw from dropping open.   

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