Page 75 of Stealing Embers
Leather creaks as Sable leans back in her chair. Her arms are folded in front of her and her head is tipped back.
What’s up there that everyone finds so interesting? I don’t see anything but white ceiling paint.
“I wish you were wrong, Steel, but I can’t say that you are.” Pushing out a lungful of air, she sits forward and reaches for the phone on her desk. “I need to call Deacon.”
“Wait.” I cover the receiver with my hand. “Before anything else happens tonight, someone needs to explain to me what a metamorphosis is. Am I going to turn into a butterfly or something? And why everyone is so freaked out about the Council of Elders? Are they a group of old angel-borns who wear long gray robes and chant over a special stick or something?”
“Chant over a stick? Really?”
I swat at Steel without looking in his direction. “How in the world am I supposed to know what your Elders do? I didn’t even know they existed before coming here.” Popping my jaw, I slouch in my seat.
“That’s fair.” Sable says. “Metamorphosis is the final stage in a Nephilim’s development. You know that new powers are only ever manifested in us once a year—on our birthdays.”
But it’s not my birthday.
“Our young adults usually go through a phase where stronger powers develop. It typically starts on their eighteenth birthday and ends on their twentieth. That’s why our students don’t graduate until they’re twenty.”
“Are you saying I’m going through Neph puberty right now? Because that’s a whole bag of unfair.”
“I suppose you can think of it that way. Different side effects though. You don’t need to worry about hormonal surges and acne. And from the looks of it, it seems you may have just blasted through the whole stage. I can’t imagine you have any more abilities that will develop. Not to mention how soon it happened.”
“Has anyone else ever gone through it early?” I chew my bottom lip, unsure what I want her answer to be. Sable’s eyes slide to Steel.
Oh, great.
“It happens occasionally. Steel here started on his seventeenth birthday and recently finished the last phase when he turned nineteen. That’s why he’s been going out on some missions. Technically speaking, he could have graduated early and left the academy on assignment somewhere.”
I twist to Steel. His jaw is set and his eyes are fixed forward.
“Well, why haven’t you left then?” I ask.
He grinds his teeth together, clenches then releases his fists. He’s not going to answer me.
Sable clears her throat. “The more pressing matter is that it’s not your birthday.”
Exactly.
“Starting and even perhaps completing metamorphosis early isn’t particularly alarming. The fact that it happened at a seemingly random time is. Can you tell me again what happened right before your wings appeared?”
“Well, um, the Forsaken said they were going to kill Steel and I just kind of reacted.”
“Hmm, interesting.”
“You don’t think it has anything to do with him.” I point my thumb at the silent jerk next to me.
“Probably not, but it’s a possibility. I’m afraid to say that there’s still a tremendous amount of mystery surrounding you. I wish I had more answers, I really do. The best I can do right now is educate and train you to the best of my abilities, and try to help you navigate all of this.”
I let my head thump back against the chair and squeeze my eyes shut. “There’s just so much I don’t know. Being a woman of mystery might sound exciting, but it’s darn inconvenient in an angel-born world.”
Sable’s gaze is sympathetic when I lift my head. “So, about this Council.”
“Right, they’re a little easier to explain. The Council is made up of the oldest Nephilim in each line. So there are seven Elders, one from each line of Nephilim in existence.”
“There’s no seraph or angel Elder then, right?”
“Correct. A chair on the Council only opens up if someone dies. Then the next oldest takes their place.”
“What if they don’t want to be an Elder? Or what if they stink at leading?”