Dominion (2 page)

Okay, so we were not doing the ignoring thing today.

“
How–how was your day?” she asked.

I didn’t know why my mother even bothered speaking to me when she was clearly scared of me. I wanted to answer her, to tell her about my day, but how could I have said, “My day was awesome. I went to Earth and killed a little human boy and his guardian angel.”

Yeah, I was sure that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. So, I said what I always say, “Why do you even bother, Mother?”

I turned to Valoel when I noticed she hadn’t said a word. Perhaps she was finally scared of me, just like the entire race of guardian angels.

“
So?” Valoel started. “Did you get me something?”

I
really
didn’t like her. Hoping to get Valoel to shut up, I created a flame in my hands and hurled it toward her, but it hit the ceiling. Valoel appeared at the other end of the room.

“
All you had to say was no,” she said playfully.

How did she do that?
I thought.

“
I’m just faster,” she said, answering my thoughts.

Like always, I pretended I spoke my words out loud because frankly, I knew only one angel who was able to answer the thoughts of others, and her name wasn’t Valoel.

“
Son.” My father turned his attention to me.

This was new. My father rarely talked to me. Ever since I could remember, he acted as if I didn’t exist. He never talked to me about anything, asked if I was doing fine, or even said hello. I didn’t blame him though, who wanted an evil angel as a son?

My mother, on the hand, was brave, she always asked me how I was doing and tried to make small talk whenever I was home.

“
Oh, come on!” I exclaimed. “We’re not going to have a father-and-son talk, are we?” I teased. “If so, I already know what you’re going to say: No alcohol, missing curfew is a crime, and…oh, yes, don’t get a girl pregnant.” Earthly human rules applied here at home as well. “I nailed it, didn’t I?” I glanced at my wrist as if I wore a watch. “Look at that! I missed curfew. I better get to bed then.” I made an attempt to walk away.

My father hissed, “The king.”

I slowed my pace.

“
He wants you at the palace at sundown,” my father continued.

“
Tell him I’m busy.” I kept walking.

“
Gideon!” he called again. “This is important. You need to be there.”

“
I can’t.” As guardian angels, we only went to the palace to be assigned to a human. And since I always killed the humans I guided, I practically lived at the palace. However, today I didn’t feel like going to the palace for another assignment.

“
You have to be there. It’s important,” he said.

Why did he think he could tell me what to do? “I said I’m busy.”

“
But Gideon, this is very—”

I didn’t hear the rest of my father’s speech because at that point I had reached my room and locked him and everyone else in my family out.

The only thing inside my room was a magical telescope. Every angel had one; it was to help us keep track of the humans whenever we left Earth, which was every day after the sun set. I hardly looked through mine because to me, humans were boring, clueless, and flat-out ridiculous. I didn’t like them, so I killed them, and no one dared tell me to stop because everyone was scared of me.

STATE OF GRACE

“
There’s no easier way to say this,

but I’m the best, not because I say so,

but because your fears tell me so.”

Melody
M
anful

š›

I
n the distance, the Grandinian palace looked like a forsaken fortress, its tall towers shrouded in shadows. As I flew toward it, the only illumination I saw was cast from two wooden torches flanking the main entrance.

I flew until I reached the tower, and I landed at full-speed in front of the immense turret, creating a hole approximately three feet deep in the dirt and filling the air with dust. With my dark wings spread behind me, I lifted myself and emerged from the hole.

The moment my feet touched ground again, heat emanated from my body. I stepped forward, leaving a trail of burning footprints.

“
Gideon,” a shaken voice called from behind me.

I turned around, catching the eyes of a girl robed in a hooded gown staring at me. Apparently, the circus was in town.

“
Can I help you?” I asked, folding my dark wings into my back.

“
No, I—” the girl started saying, but stopped.

I heard her heart racing in fear.

“
I’m…my name…I’m Princess Sela. Daughter of King Daligo. My father requests an audience in the Great Hall.”

Daligo sent his daughter to welcome me? He sure as hell knew how to appoint a welcoming committee.

“
You’re her? The princess?” I asked. Sela was said to be the  angel around, but looking at her, all I saw was another pathetic angel on the verge of collapsing from her own fear. “Well then, your Highness.” I bowed. “My greetings.” I stretched out my hand to greet her properly, but the very moment I did, Sela zoomed into the sky. I couldn’t help but smile. “Relax, I’m not here to hurt you. Well, now that I’m thinking about it, I just might do that.”

I turned and walked over to the main gate. I pushed it, and immediately it crumbled into a heap of dust. I stepped onto the palace grounds and glanced up at Sela, who hovered in the sky.

“
You coming, Princess?”

I walked toward a transparent door that led into the palace. Even though I was always at the palace, I had never been inside the Great Hall because that area was private. I always met the king in the Assignment Hall, which was another fancy name for an office.  The first thing I saw when I entered the Great Hall was a black grand piano that stood at the far left end of the hall between two vast, golden marble arches, with statues of ornamented creatures beneath them. Gold-tinted walls were adorned with intricate, golden carvings and antique paintings.

The yellow-and-brown marble floor glittered with gilded flourishes and a black-and-brown design of the Grandinian coat of arms. Our coat of arms was a golden shield with a pair of angel wings extending from each side. A diamond located in the center was segmented into four pieces, each piece representing one of the four neighboring worlds. The northern most section represented Lumens, the eastern section Earth, the southern section Grands, and the western section was for the Underworld.

The vividness and orderliness of the interior of the palace took me by surprise because Grandinians were supposed to be evil. In the middle of the hall, an oversize golden table surrounded by ten ornamented granite chairs hovered in mid-air. Carvings of lions holding swords in their teeth adorned the tops of the chairs.

Huge chandeliers floated in the air beneath an enchanted red sunset. There was no ceiling, but when I looked skyward, it appeared as if the heavens were close enough to touch. The inside of the palace reminded me of an ancient Greek palace, particularly Mt. Olympus’ architecture. Somewhere, a symphony played, and angels sung sweet olden melodies.

Everything I looked at seemed to be laden with gold. It was ostentatious, and I hated it. I had no idea why a smoggy and cold place like Grands would have a beautiful hall when the rest of the palace looked nothing like this room.

“
Where am I?” I asked, thinking the door had been a portal to another realm. Like Lumens.

Lumens was a kingdom located between Earth and Heaven. I had heard that Lumens was an enchantingly beautiful kingdom. The sky was always blue, and there was laughter everywhere. I had never been to Lumens because I couldn’t stand to be around people who were selfless and good. There, King Babylon and his wife Queen Charmeine ruled. They had a son, what’s-his-face.

“
This is the Great Hall.” Sela landed, puffing out her gown.

I laughed. “Nice try, Princess.” This couldn’t be the inside of our palace, because Grandinians were evil, and nothing beautiful came from us. “Okay, where’s the catch?”

“
Humph…I’m not sure what—”

“
This is a joke, right?” I explored the room, walking over to one of the statues and pacing around it. “Is this a reality show host?” I pointed at the statue. “Because his face looks familiar, and it’s not Alexander the Great.”

“
This is the great…great…” Sela murmured.

“
What?” I was confused. “This is really the inside of the Grandinian Great Hall? What the hell?” When I first entered, I had thought it was a cover-up, but then I thought someone was trying to make fun of me. “What the hell happened? Did you rent it out to Aphrodite as a camp?” I’d have understood if they did because Aphrodite was, after all, the goddess of love and beauty. The moment I asked this, I heard Sela’s heart pound violently.

I appeared right beside her and smirked when her heart stopped altogether. “Are you scared of me?” I leaned into her and gently placed one of my hands on the back of her neck. “Is this really the inside of the Grandinian palace?”

“
This is the…” Sela paused. I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t.

“
Well, then.” I moved my hand from her neck to her shoulder. “How about this?” Before Sela even blinked, the hall looked like a bomb had exploded. The chairs were wrecked, the piano and pillars lay shattered on the ground, and smoke and dirt filled the air. Now if I’d entered and seen the Great Hall like this, I’d have been right at home. “It looks much better now, don’t you think?” I leaned closer into Sela.

“
We should—”

I bent and whispered in her ear. “We should have dessert.”

The moment I said this, a male voice called out from behind.

“
Father,” Sela gushed and quickly flew away from me.  When I turned around, King Daligo stood with two guards behind him. The guards froze in fear the moment they saw me.

“
I think we’ll hold off that dessert for later,” I said with a forced smile.

“
My lord.” Sela bowed to her father. With a wave of the king’s hand, the hall returned to its original beauty.

I walked over and sat on one of the chairs, propping my black army boots on the table.

“
You may leave, my Princess,” Daligo said, and with a bow of Sela’s head, she disappeared.

“
Hai chiesto per me
?” I asked the king.

“
Yes, I did call for you.”

“
Well, I haven’t got all day.”

“
You’re here because of the énas you killed this morning after you Shifted,” the king explained.

“
Shocker! I didn’t see that one coming.”

The angels from Lumens were guardian angels who were sent to Earth to guide the humans. The human of a Lumenian was called énas—meaning “one,” because the guardian angels became one with the humans they were assigned to.

Grandinian angels, in contrast, went to Earth and tried to harm the humans the Lumenians protected. The whole point of this, of course, was to keep life balanced. Good versus evil, the living versus the dead, right versus wrong.

To keep the balance fair between our two kingdoms, King Daligo’s job was to make sure that he assigned each Grandinian to an énas, but we didn’t have to stay with the énas we were first appointed to; we could move to another énas if we wanted, and this was called the Shift. Some angels chose to Shift when they became bored with their assigned énas or just wanted to have fun with another énas.

“
As if killing that énas wasn’t enough, I learned that you killed four Grandinians after that,” the king continued, turning to the paintings on the wall.

“
Well done, Captain Obvious.” I stood and walked toward the artwork, seemingly to admire them. “So tell me, who did these paintings? Was it someone blind?” Daligo glanced at me in surprise. “Or was it you?” This time he laughed.

“
Gideon, the Elders are not happy,” he said after his laughter died out.

Although Lumens and Grands were different, we were still connected because a powerful immortal family who lived in Guardian Paradise, a domain which was said to be located between Lumens and Grands, ruled both our kingdoms. These powerful immortals were known as the Elders.

They were said to have descended from the first king of Grands and first Queen of Lumens. Their purpose was to make sure the two kingdoms flourished and did the jobs they were born to do. Since the family was immortal, the parents would cross over to the land of the dead when they thought they had served their purpose as rulers and they were sure their children could take over their ruling duties. This happened from generation to generation. Personally, I found it incredibly stupid that someone would knowingly give up immortality.

The current Elders had a daughter, and her name was Madalong. She was said to be the heart of our kingdoms, she could foresee the future, read minds, and travel through time. There were also two princes—twins—called Sun and Moon, who were the very reason why our worlds were balanced. I had never seen the Elders or their children, nor had I ever stumbled across Guardian Paradise.