Free Veiled by Silvina Niccum Page B

of
spirits showed up and Eros told us how he had planned this and had
turned out better than he had imagined, and how he would be
rewarded and blah, blah, blah. Then Max went crazy and demanded
that they take him and let me go, I had no idea where Richard was
at that point, it was like he saw trouble and ran for it. Then I
looked back at Max and…it hit me!” She looked at me
significantly.
    “ What, what hit
you?”
    She looked at me with
dismay. “That I loved him and what an idiot I had been, for not
seeing it before.” Her face was expectant like I should be able to
relate somehow.
    “ So…you are in Max’s clan
now?” I asked, a bit bewildered.
    Celeste looked at me like I
was an idiot and started to say something about Alex, but he was
gliding over to our side, so she just said we would talk about that
later.
    “ What are you two up to
now?” Alex asked brightly.
    “ I was just telling Tess
that she was right and I was wrong. There. I said it. Are you happy
now?” She grinned and bounced off to join Max, and subject herself
to his tight grip.
    Right then the Herald’s
trumpets started sounding through our calling stones. They were
quite musical, and their sound got better as more spirits assembled
together. Each individual’s sound coming from each call stone
sounded more triumphant and glorious as the crowds increased. Once
we were all assembled the music from the trumpets was at its height
of beauty and perfection.
    “ The time has come,” the Eternals announced. “Prepare yourselves to choose.”
    The meeting place was a
vast uninhabited span of space where, it was speculated, our future
planet would orbit. The spirits gathered were too numerous to
count, but somehow I could sense them all. Since I started seeing
auras my world had taken on a new awareness. As each clan arrived,
I felt as if a proverbial piece of a puzzle had just aligned itself
into place. Not that I knew them individually, but their presence
felt familiar to me.
    The gathering of spirits
was even more grandiose than ever before. I could now see how
unique and different we all are and how beautifully we shone. Each
spirit had his or her own look about them—all unique in his or her
own way—and just as colorful as our auras were. My own clan was
very diverse both in aura colors and appearance. My hair was black,
and my skin darker than everyone, with the exception of
Dorian’s.
    “ What is it, Tess?” Alex
asked with an intense look in his face.
    “ Our aura colors, they are
all different…and beautiful,” I told him while I examined his aura.
I thought that it was probably one of the most distinct ones of
all. It was golden and bright, easy to spot and very, very
alluring, but I would never tell him that.
    Off to my side, our whole
clan was laughing, and Katie looked as if she had been part of our
clan from the beginning. I still hadn’t talked to her. She seemed
nice, but for some reason I resented her a little and was putting
off our formal introduction.
    The last group of spirits
arrived all together, fortunately as individuals and not as
“Legion”. Their auras were gloomy shades of murky green, red, or
just plain black. They were quiet and somber. Some looked proud,
defiant, and bold. Some others looked worn down, beaten, and low.
The Second One lead them as they entered the assembled group. To
his side were some of his most ardent followers, among them Agatha,
who didn’t look her normal impudent self. Those who had arrived
first were down low, closer to where the Eternals were. As more
spirits arrived they started placing themselves just slightly above
those in front of them, making tiers that went up higher and
higher, and then off to the sides. When the height was too great,
some other spirits started forming more tiers behind the
Eternals.
    As usual the Eternals were
accompanied by two Seraphs, a male and a female, and two Cherubs,
both males and each holding a flaming sword. More Cherubs were
lined at each