How would I ever repay him?
“So you intend to renounce them?” I whispered, aghast. I couldn’t imagine what fate awaited my brother were he to be stripped of his angelic identity. I didn’t want to think about it.
“No,” Gabriel replied. “But they will renounce me once I fail in my duty to serve.”
7
College Kids
“I can’t believe this is happening,” I said. “I can’t believe God could be so angry with us that He would unleash the Principalities.” I couldn’t make the idea gel in my head.
“Bethany,” Ivy said, her oval face full of sadness. “This is not God’s doing. Surely you know that?”
“How?” I asked in confusion. “Everything that happens only happens because it is His will.”
“On earth that is true,” my sister said. “But the angelic hierarchies settle their own disputes; they have not sought His counsel.”
“The Sevens especially,” Gabriel cut in, “are a rebel faction; the Covenant struggles to keep them under control.”
“Are you saying God has no idea what’s going on?” Xavier asked.
“I cannot speak for Him,” Gabriel said. “But you must not blame Him for your troubles. It is the Sevens who seek retribution.”
Gabriel leaned forward over the wheel and rubbed his temples, scraping back the blond locks that fell in front of his sculpted face. Ivy looked equally glum. I knew she was worried about their future. This was not the outcome either of them had hoped for.
“You don’t have to do this, Gabe,” I said earnestly. “I know how much this is costing you both.”
“You are my family, Bethany,” replied Gabriel. “I won’t just hand you over to some unknown fate.”
“Thank you,” I said humbly. “I’ll never forget this. You are by far the best brother anyone could ask for, human or angel.”
Gabriel seemed unsure of how to respond to such praise, but I saw the corners of his mouth lift in a smile.
“So what now?” Xavier asked, steering the conversation in a more practical direction.
“We keep running, I suppose,” said Gabriel.
That just didn’t sound like my brother. Since when had Gabriel ever supposed anything? He was the one I consulted for answers when I had none. Life might be a constant puzzle for mortals, but Gabriel knew the reason behind everything. Among angels his wisdom was unquestionable. His uncertainty now cemented my deepest fears. The Sevens were going to try and tear Xavier and I apart, and everything so far indicated that they would eventually succeed. There was only so far you could run, only so many places you could hide. If I were taken away, I knew I wouldn’t get Xavier back until his soul eventually ascended to Heaven. That was if I could find him … Heaven was vast. And by that time I might be nothing more to him than a faded memory. I knew I ought to feel devastated, but instead I was tired. Tired of fighting, tired of arguing, tired of always second-guessing.
“So, if you’re not taking us to the Covenant … where exactly are we going?” said Xavier, trying to dispel the grim silence that had descended over us.
“You need to go into hiding again,” Ivy said.
“Oh, no,” I groaned.
“But this time it’ll be someplace harder for them to track you.”
Xavier was skeptical. “Does a place like that even exist?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Ivy replied.
“I don’t care where we go so long as Beth doesn’t have to be locked up. She didn’t handle it well.”
Xavier’s comment seemed to trigger something in Ivy. A sudden spark appeared in her eyes as a new idea took shape.
“Maybe we need to do the opposite,” she murmured cryptically.
“The opposite?” I echoed. “What are you thinking, Ivy?”
“The Sevens expect us to hide you in some remote location. Those are the areas they search out first. Maybe it’s better to get lost in a crowd.”
“That could work,” said Gabriel, catching Ivy’s drift before either Xavier or I did. “The Sevens have finely tuned sensors that pick up electrical currents emitted by angelic beings. The more humans around, the more diluted those currents become.”
“So where’re you taking us—China?” Xavier asked.
“Actually somewhere a little closer to home.”
“I don’t get it.” I frowned.
“Think about it,” replied Gabriel. “If circumstances were normal right now, where would you two be going?”
“Home?” I asked.
“Think harder,” Gabriel urged. “Where is Molly planning to go this fall?”
“How would we know?” Xavier said, irritated with the code cracking.
I touched his hand suddenly. “Wait. Molly’s going to Bama … to college.”
“You’re joking, right?” Xavier sat upright, as if the prospect had ignited something in him. “You want us to go to college?”
“The Sevens will never see it coming,” Ivy replied. “You’ll be right under their noses and they won’t even know it.”
“Are you sure about this?” Xavier’s brow creased.
“You won’t use your real names,” Gabriel said. “That way you can’t be tracked through records.”
“This could be like starting a whole new life,” I said. I could feel the excitement building. “We can be anyone we want to be.”
“I thought college was going to be on hold for us for a while,” said Xavier. He sounded like someone had just handed him back a part of his life.
“Well, don’t get too excited. Who knows how long you’ll be able to stay.”
“I guess we’ll take it one day at a time,” Xavier agreed.
“Does it matter where we go?” I asked Ivy. She read my thoughts.
“Why not go where you planned to go before everything got so screwed up?”
Going to college was still a fantasy in my head, like a picture-perfect world inside a snow globe that I could never reach. In my mind it embodied everything there was to love about the human world. I had never thought I’d be lucky enough to experience it firsthand.
“Well then,” I said. “I guess we’re Oxford bound.”
I deliberately wound down the window and took a deep breath as the wind unravelled my hair. Mentally, I was bracing myself for the next challenge in our unpredictable lives.
We had a brief stopover in Venus Cove overnight to get organized, which proved harder than I thought. I got to see Phantom again and realized how much I’d missed him. Xavier had to deal with the frustration of being within reach of his family yet barred from contacting them. He kept pacing around the living room and balling his hands into fists.
“I’m sorry it’s happened this way,” I said, trying to be of some comfort.
“They’re my parents,” he said. “I can’t just cut them out, pretend the last eighteen years of my life never happened. And my sisters, I want to be there for them. I want to see Jasmine and Maddy grow up.”
“You will,” I said forcefully. “You’ll be back someday, I know it.”
“And I’ll just be the brother and son that ran out on them.”
“They’ll love you no matter what. And maybe one day you’ll be able to tell them the truth.”
Xavier laughed humorlessly. “Somehow I doubt that.”
“I know how hard this must be for you,” I said, taking his hand, but Xavier pulled away from me. That was not something that happened very often and it took me by surprise. When I couldn’t offer him comfort, it meant something was really wrong.
“How would you know?” he asked. “You’ve never had parents.”
I was quiet for a moment as I thought about what he said. Xavier pressed his head into his hands. “Beth, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s okay,” I said, sitting down on the edge of the coffee table. I could see that the anger in his voice and in his eyes wasn’t directed at me. He was staring out the window at the invisible enemy that could be anywhere. “You’re
right,” I told him. “I’ve never had parents like yours and I don’t know what it’s like to be part of a human family. But I do have a father and right now He’s seriously angry with me. Everything I do just disappoints Him more when all I really want is to make Him happy. I don’t know if my Father is ever going to forgive me, in fact He may cast me out of my home … but yours will never do that, I know that much. Your father will always love you.” I smiled to myself. “In fact, my Father will always love you too. You’re His child as well.”
Xavier looked up. “And you’re not?”
“I have a slightly different relationship with Him,” I said lightly. “Your kind was created to love, my kind was created to serve. He has always loved humans above all else. He sacrificed his only son, remember? So you see? He will protect you.”
Xavier wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Then I guess it’s up to me to protect you.”
* * *
IN the end Xavier settled for writing his parents a letter. He didn’t read it to me and I didn’t ask what it contained. I wasn’t even sure whether Ivy and Gabriel would decide it could be delivered, but I thought it was probably just as important for him to write it.
Ivy took charge quickly, organizing and packing what she thought was necessary for college life. Of course we had to focus on the essentials. There wasn’t time to pick out comforters and wall hangings like the other freshman girls, and I figured I could get anything else I needed once I got there.
I knew our college experience was going to be vastly different from everyone else’s. There would be no emotional parents, no prolonged good-byes, and no time to stress over rec letters and signing up for classes. Even so, I was nervous. Xavier had been prepping for college his whole life. His father and grandfather had both pledged Sigma Chi and college football was a family tradition. I, on the other hand, had no prior experience and no family history to guide me. I had only just found my place in the world of high school and the idea of adjusting to a new and even more mysterious world worried me a little. I knew I’d have Xavier to guide me through it, but I needed to do some homework of my own if I wanted to be self-reliant.
“What exactly is a sorority?” I asked finally as Xavier loaded our bags into the trunk of the car.
“It’s like a sisterhood,” he said. “They have houses on campus and you do most activities with them. Fraternities are the male equivalent.”
“Do you just pick one?”
“Not exactly. They have to choose you and you have to choose them.”
“What happens if a girl picks a sorority that doesn’t want her?”
“Then she doesn’t get into that one,” Xavier explained. “You’re supposed to choose carefully.”
“How do you work out what each one’s like?”
“During rush week,” Xavier said. “Over seven days all freshmen get to visit the sorority and frat houses. You sort of get interviewed. Then you get a card that tells you which ones have invited you back. You have to rank your preferences and get a bid.”
“Aren’t there hundreds of students?” I asked. “How can they possibly know who they want?”
“They’ll check up on all the girls before they let them in,” Xavier said.
“How am I supposed to learn if you won’t take my questions seriously?”
“I’m not kidding. That’s what they do.”
“Isn’t that going a bit far to recruit members?”
“That’s just how it works. It’s a long-standing tradition. For example, say there was a girl coming from Alabama to Ole Miss. The Tri Delts at Ole Miss would contact the Tri Delts at Alabama who would know someone who went to high school with her. Of course, they wouldn’t find much if they tried to check up on you.”
“Thank goodness. It sounds mean.”
“They do a lot of good stuff too—support charities and work in the community. Anyway, you don’t have to worry about it; I doubt we’ll get involved.”
I knew next to nothing about Greek life. In high school I only knew the sorority my best friend Molly wanted because she talked about it all through senior year. Hallie had even told her she needed to cut it out because she risked putting all the other sororities off. At the time I didn’t really listen because it sounded like they were speaking a foreign language. But it was funny how a conversation you thought was lost came filtering back when you needed it.
“Who’s doing your rec letter for Chi O?” Hallie had asked Molly.
“Ryan’s mom. She was a Chi O at Duke.”
“Are they your first preference?”
“It’s my only preference,” Molly had declared. “They’re the only sorority worth being in.”
“That’s a big call,” Hallie had snorted. “There are plenty of others.”
“Not for me.”
“You do know Chi O has the highest GPA requirement, right?”
“Are you calling me a grade risk?”
“No, I’m just saying you might want to be careful spreading that around. If you get dropped from Chi O, no other sorority will touch you.”
“Don’t be stupid. I won’t get dropped.”
I remembered tuning out. Now I wished I’d asked a few more questions. Despite his initial excitement, Xavier was withdrawn on the drive to college. Because he hadn’t been able to go home, he’d been forced to leave his beloved Chevy behind. I knew he wasn’t happy about it even though there’d be a new car waiting for him when we arrived as compensation. He just wanted his old life back. I wanted to take Phantom with me and cried when I had to leave him even though Ivy reassured me that Dolly Henderson would take responsibility for him while we were away. I hoped she’d find time to walk him in between visiting the tanning beds and catching up on neighborhood gossip.
I would miss not having Molly with me at college. She would have made the transition a whole lot easier. A new thought occurred to me.
“Hey, Gabe, won’t there be kids from Bryce Hamilton going to Ole Miss this fall? They’re bound to recognize us.”
“They’re mostly headed to Alabama and Vanderbilt,” said my brother. “There were one or two from Venus Cove but they’ve been taken care of.”
“Oh my God, you didn’t—” I gasped and Gabriel glared at me.
“Don’t be so ridiculous. We made sure they were offered scholarships they couldn’t refuse at other SEC schools.”
“Oh,” I said, impressed. “You’re good.”
* * *
THE road trip to Mississippi was peaceful except for the debate that ensued about the choice of music. Gabriel had a habit of playing hymns no matter what the occasion, while Xavier’s Chevy was set permanently on classic rock. I voted for country, while Ivy said she preferred silence. Gabriel’s idea of a compromise was setting the station on Southern country gospel. Although I didn’t say so aloud, I quite enjoyed it.
I was struck by how green the landscape lining the highway was. It flowed around us like a mantle. Cattle grazed in paddocks, squirrels scampered up the trees, and cotton fields quivered in the wind. Every so often we’d catch a glimpse of deer darting through the woods.
When we took the turn for Oxford, my mood lifted and I could feel excitement starting to simmer. I’d never seen the town, but I’d heard enough about it. I knew it was the birthplace of William Faulkner and home of the Ole Miss Rebels. I opened my window and sweet Southern air washed in. It smelled fragrant and dewy and I already knew I was going to like my new home.
The town square was as pretty as a postcard. I felt like I’d stepped back in time. Everything was perfectly preserved, not dusty and rundown but polished and well kept like it had just been built. I wasn’t prepared for how manicured and quaint all the stores were. Oxford reminded me a little of Venus Cove.
The eateries and the streets were full of eager freshmen and their proud parents. When we pulled into the University itself, I peered out the window at Fraternity Row, admiring the stately pillared homes and the gold letters of the Greek alphabet that marked e
ach one like a badge of honor. Boys in polo shirts were gathered on the front porches, talking and laughing among themselves. It was an oasis for the preppy, elite children of the South. It was its own secluded little world and nothing within it felt real. I fell in love with it almost immediately. The humid air was syrupy sweet and relaxed me. I liked the way it slowed things down, made it impossible to do anything in a hurry. My skin moistened the moment I stepped out of the car but the air was so clean it didn’t matter.
Just before Gabe and Ivy dropped us off to find a parking space they handed us each a manila folder.
“These are your new identities,” she said. “Everything you need is in here—birth certificates, student ID, high-school transcripts.”
I flipped through the enrollment papers Ivy had handed me. “Good-bye, Bethany Church and Xavier Woods,” I said. “Hello, Ford and Laurie McGraw.”
“Hold up,” Xavier said. “We share a last name? Seriously?”
“You’re brother and sister while you’re here,” said Gabriel. He made an apologetic face. “We thought that made sense seeing as you’re going to be spending so much time together.”
“Great,” Xavier said, rifling though the papers.
“It’s not ideal,” Ivy acknowledged. “But it’s the best we could do.”
“Okay,” Xavier said, leaning over to show me our transcripts. “We’re from Jackson, Mississippi. You’re an honors student fresh out of high school and I’m a junior transfer from Bama in Sigma Chi.” He stopped and looked at Gabriel. “You remembered?”
Sigma Chi was the fraternity Xavier’s father and grandfather had been in before him. I was surprised at my brother’s thoughtfulness. Gabriel only inclined his head as if to say You’re welcome.
“A junior, huh?” I asked. “What does that make you, like, twenty?”