04 Shadow Blood - Witch Fairy Read Online Free PDF Page A

just going to save them and leave.”
     
    “You will do no such thing.”
     
    Now I’m getting mad.  “Who are you?”
     
    “I am Adriel.”
     
    Wow, that helps a lot.  “Why do you care if I go into the Shadow realm?”
     
    “Only an Angel of Death may open a gateway to the Shadow realm.”
     
    “Why?”
     
    Now, she’s looking at me like I’m a moron.  She has Tabbris beat hands down in the abrasive personality department.  What happened to all the nice Angels?
     
    “If others are allowed to open the gateways, the Shadows would have too many opportunities to be liberated or escape.”
     
    I guess that makes sense.  “Look, I’m only going to open it this one time, and we have defenses in place to prevent that.  As soon as I have my brother and aunt, I promise, I’ll forget that the realm even exists.”
     
    Finally letting go of my wrist, she says, “I forbid it.”
     
    “What?”
     
    She pulls herself up to her full height, which is only about an inch or two taller than mine, and repeats, “I forbid it.”
     
    “I heard what you said; I just don’t know how or why you would stop me.  What difference can it possibly make to you?”
     
    “I am an Angel of Death and the Keeper of the Gateways.  No one may enter or exit without my knowledge and permission.”
     
    My eyebrows shoot to the top of my head.  “You’re an Angel of Death?  I thought you guys wore black robes and carried scythes.”
     
    She tilts her head to the side and gives me an impatient look.  “I have heard of you and your blood.  I was not told how ignorant you are.”
     
    Seriously, I’m getting insulted by the Angel of Death?  My life has definitely taken a wrong turn somewhere.  “You’re right; I don’t know much about Angels.  It’s not like my grandmother (the Angel of Love and Conception) was all that forthcoming with information since during the first seventeen years of my life, I didn’t even know she existed.  I’ve met Urim twice and Tabbris and Valoel once.  They must have forgotten to give me a hierarchy chart and pictures of what to expect from all the Angels.”
     
    “You are being disrespectful,” she says in a voice that fills my head with an overwhelming sense of fear.  “Perhaps it is time to cleanse your soul.  Would I find it to be pure?  Or perhaps you have been touched with darkness when you intentionally caused pain to others?”
     
    Oh, crap.  Maybe I should tone down my attitude with the Angel of Death in front of me.  I don’t think she’d really take my life, Urim would probably step in then, but that soul cleansing thing sounds a little nasty.  And painful.
     
    “I believe I will have a look,” Adriel says as if she’s reading my mind.  Her wings fold out in an intimidating show of power as she waves her hand in front of me.  Presumably to cleanse my soul.
     
    A powerful pinch on both sides of my back tells me my own Angel wings have come back.  I see that as a good thing and a bad thing.  A bad thing because they only come when I’m really in trouble – meaning Adriel was about to do something really nasty to me.  A good thing, because they wrap around me, stopping her from doing whatever it is she’s trying to do.
     
    Adriel lets out a frustrated growl.  “You should not have wings.  How did you get them?”
     
    I’m tempted to say that I bought them at Wings R Us, but even if she wasn’t so pissed, she probably wouldn’t get the reference anyway.  Peeking over the tops of my white feathers, I say, “I’m part Angel.  Why shouldn’t I have wings?”
     
    “It is impossible to only have wings sometimes.”
     
    I roll my eyes as I let my wings loosen their hold on me.  “I know, I wasn’t supposed to be born and all that.  I was, I’m part Angel and I have part time wings.  That’s just how it is, whether it’s impossible or not.”
     
    Folding her wings back and her arms across her chest, she glowers at me as if she’s