Page 28 of Heavensent & Hellbent

“Don’t worry about it. It must have been from our clothes or something—the shock, I mean.” Zain gently bit down on his bottom lip as he drove, like he was deep in thought. I didn’t know what to say, think, or do and moved my gaze ahead as he effortlessly weaved around cars, bypassing traffic and taking us toward the highway.

It vaguely occurred to me that I was doing exactly what the police who came to my primary school told usnotto do. Get in the car with strangers. Especially if you considered that I had seen him kill something—be it a jinn or not. Even if I hadn’t seen that, I knew better than to get in a car with someone I barely knew.

And yet, here I was. But I didn’t feel unsafe. In fact, I felt safer with Zain than I did at home, or than I had in a very long time.

—

“How was training?” I asked when we left the car and began the hike up to Red Rocks.

The rocks were rusty, like a Martian landscape in one of the sci-fi movies Ehsan made me watch. The orange mountain park stretched beyond my sight, and to the side was the amphitheater, which was closed for Boygenius playing there later. I told Zain I wished I’d gotten tickets, but the concert was sold out. And he said, with a wink, not to worry about it. I briefly considered what he meant but pushed the thought aside as quickly as it had arisen.

The surrounding area of the park was quiet, with one family far in the distance. The air was cooler, a welcome breeze brushing my hair off my face. I reached up and tied my hair into a high ponytail, allowing the air to hit the back of my sticky neck. I didn’t love having my ears exposed because they were large and I was often called Dumbo at school as a kid, but I was forcing myself to accept them.

“Tiring,” he said, giving me nothing.

“What does training for an angel consist of?” I pressed.

“We have to be prepared to fight, so a lot of the week we were sparring with each other, doing drills, strength training, practicing our powers. That kind of thing.”

“About those powers…” I began.

His lips quirked up. “Soon.”

I frowned but continued anyway. “So, I did some angel googling.”

“Of course you did.”

“Is it true that angels watch over humans? Like, are you a guardian angel for a specific person or every human?”

“Along with our powers activating when we come of age, we’re each assigned a human to watch over.”

“So, everyone has an angel looking out for them?” I asked.

“Not everyone, no. Only people who will have some impact on the good in the world in the future. Like if we know a person will find the cure for cancer one day, they’ll be assigned an angel to guide them, to try to stop anything from happening to them.”

“Right…And do they know they have an angel?”

He shook his head. “That’s the trick: You need to get close to them, befriend them, without them ever knowing.”

“So, who’s your charge?” I asked lightly.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, like he was weighing how much he should tell me.

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“I’ve already said too much. Way too much.”

“What’s one more secret between friends?” I said jokingly.

He rolled his eyes but ultimately gave in. “I recently took a job as a football coach for middle schoolers so I could be close to one of the kids starting there, a Palestinian boy named Hassan. He’s only ten, so it’s just about watching out for him, being there when he needs someone, I guess. He came over from there not too long ago and lost both his parents, so he is living with a relative here.”

“Do you know what good he’ll do in the world?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No, that’s not the kind of thing they tell us.”

I wanted to ask who “they” were, but Zain spoke before I could. “Do you want to do the easy trail or the harder one?” he asked. At first, I had no idea what he was talking about, until I looked around and saw the path we were walking had diverged.

I wanted to say the harder one, to be the kind of girl who would enjoy that, but since I was averse to exercise, often skipping PE with Nic to have cheesy chips at the local café, I didn’t. That, and I wasn’t dressed for a hike. I was wearing a midi dress and Docs. Though I was aware we’d be coming here, I imagined more of a gentle walk. I hadn’t even packed any athletic shoes, my singular pair of Converse in storage for when I moved on campus.