Free Embers (The Wings of War Book 1) by Karen Ann Hopkins

me.  I stopped eating the delicious vegetable casserole to butter a slice.  It was strange dinner talk, for sure, but I felt lighter than I had in years.  My entire life finally made sense.
    “There have been Watchers in our bloodline since the beginning of time.  In our family, the tie is passed down to the female offspring.  In the past, whenever a child was gifted, she was taken from her family and raised by the Watchers. 
    “In the days when I was young and growing up in England, there were many of us and we had fellowship with one another.  We were strictly disciplined, governing ourselves by laws passed down for thousands of years.”  She paused, glancing at the darkness past the window before continuing.  “In the later years, everything changed for our kind when we became persecuted by the very creatures that our fathers had been sworn to serve. Resentment grew among the Watchers, especially those born through the male bloodlines.  There was a rebellion and mankind would have been lost if enough of the Watchers hadn’t stood up for the first oath that their ancestors had made to protect the humans.  Watchers dying in servitude of mankind…”
    Aunt Ila wrinkled her nose and puckered her lips in disgust, and I found myself holding my breath, suddenly very worried about what she was about to say. 
    “…was the way of Grace.  The laws from before the first book were upheld, and the surviving Watchers went into hiding, both the good…and the evil ones.” 
    I finally took a deep breath and asked, “What exactly are Watchers?  Where did they come from?”
    Her green eyes were sharply focused, but when she spoke, it was only a whisper. 
    “They are the decedents of the one’s that God adored first, the ones whose favor was replaced by humans—the ones who hated men, but fell in love with their daughters.”  
    When the room fell silent, I heard Father Palano’s words all too clearly in my mind.
    “Creatures that the Bible speaks of and that I’d imagined figuratively are real.  Very real, and they walk among us. The mating of God’s sons and man’s daughters in the beginning created all manner of half humans, some good and most evil.  They’ve been among us forever and we never even realized it.”
    It made sense, in a disturbingly crazy sort of way.  I couldn’t deny that I’d stood in a fire that had melted everything else around me or that my entire life had been injury and sickness free.  Nor could I ignore that Aunt Ila was confirming what the priest had already told me.
    Still…it hurt my head just thinking about it in terms of being realistic.
    With a shaky breath, I faced Aunt Ila and said with purposeful slowness. 
    “So I’m descended from an angel?”
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Matthew 24:31
    And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other .    
     
    Ember ~ Nine
     
    H er single nod confirmed it.
                                I was suddenly very tired.  The cloud of doom and gloom that I had managed to keep somewhat at bay for months flowed freely in.  I just wanted to sleep— and never wake up.
                                Plain and simple, I wanted to die.  Tremors of chaos and struggle pressed into me and I had a sickening premonition of a world of war, decay, and fire.  My soul was wimping out.  I didn’t want to face any of it.  I wanted peace.  But that was impossible now. 
                                Aunt Ila continued to watch me.  She was waiting for my reaction, holding her own breath at what I would say, or do.
                                I chose the path of grudging calmness.
    “Do Watchers live forever?”
    “Nothing lives forever my dear, but most Watchers enjoy the longevity that the first men did.  Eight hundred years is not