The Crown's Obsession (WN)
chapter-333

"What are we doing here?" asked Madeline, looking at the open ground and trees around them. Calhoun had flown far away from the castle to the deepest heart of the forest.

"To have some time for ourselves," answered Calhoun who had let her down on the ground. The enormous black wings that had appeared suddenly before, had now disappeared, "With everyone asleep and no one to disturb us at this hour of the night, I think it is a perfect time."

Madeline didn't know what Calhoun was exactly speaking about. Except for the moonlight, everything else emitted darkness. The trees far away from them seemed quiet but the crickets around them chirped.

"Stand here, sweet," said Calhoun, leading her to stand almost at the centre of the open ground. She saw him walk away from her, entering the forest before he returned with some branches in his arms to drop them down on the ground while having a decent distance between them.

"What are we doing here, Calhoun?" questioned Madeline.

"I want to see how much of your ability has developed since the last time," Calhoun offered a kind smile to her.

His intelligent red eyes looked at her. He had tried to find from other sources about the fallen angels and the dark angels, and he found some interesting things about them. It was time for Madeline to bloom in many ways and he didn't want to curb it like her grandparents. To think that the sweet smell of rose had stuck to him all those years. Calhoun believed that they were meant to be together. It didn't matter if one was good and the other was bad.

Was he planning to throw the branches at her? Asked Madeline in her mind, seeing him play with one of them, "I don't know how to harness the energy."

"You usually feel the burst of energy through your fingertips when you feel you are in danger. Would you believe if I said that an angel's child was stolen?"

Madeline looked confused, "What?" But Calhoun didn't wait to clear her doubts. He broke the branches into sharp stakes before throwing one of them at her with less force so that she could catch hold of it.

She caught hold of it immediately in her hand, "What did you mean by that?"

"The story you mean?" asked Calhoun, his voice nonchalant as ever, "There are too many stories, Maddie. The question is, which one you believe and which one is the truth," he said, throwing another stake at her.

"Tell me the one that you believe," her voice louder because of the distance they had between them.

"Catch all of them, and I will tell you," chimed Calhoun before throwing the next stake, using more force than the earlier stake he had thrown at her.

Madeline didn't know why she and Calhoun were playing catch, but as she caught the stakes one after another, Calhoun increased the speed of the stakes at her. It was as if he was testing and pushing her. Trying to see if she would do anything about it, but so far all she had done was catch them with her hands.

When the next one was thrown, Madeline staggered back as she could see that Calhoun was being serious. Somewhere she could feel that he was enjoying throwing the stakes at her. She could feel the burn on her palms because of the stakes that she caught. Did his affections for her fly away when they were up in the sky? questioned Madeline.

"You are doing better compared to the time when you were shot by the arrow in the forest," said Calhoun.

She was doing better now because she knew he was throwing the stakes at her. What happened when they went hunting was something she had not expected to happen.

Calhoun could tell by Madeline's body movement that she was picking up speed as if going on a flight or fight mode. Wanting to push her, he threw another stake right after he launched the previous one. Madeline had been busy concentrating on only one, and by the time she saw the second one come close to her, her body froze. But instead of piercing her, the stake caught fire and turned to dust in an instant.

Madeline saw the dust shimmer away in the wind. Wanting to test her further, he threw three more stakes at a time, and her eyes widened, but when the stakes came near her, they caught fire and turned to nothing less to stardust.

"It's right there with you," stated Calhoun, his eyes staring at her. The angelic abilities resided in her human body, showing up only when it was needed.

Madeline was confused looking at the dust on what happened as she had not even attempted to touch them. Looking at her hand and then at Calhoun, she heard him say, "I met a woman who once knew a fallen angel. The person said that the angel named Paschar left the sky because he fell in love with a human," explained Calhoun, "When he descended down the earth, some of the angels were not happy about an angel having a relationship with a human. You know how the angels have double standards," he threw shade at her grandparents.

Calhoun had taken Madeline's hands, running his finger over her palms to feel the scratches.

"Spiteful, that no punishment was delivered to the first angel they made up a rumour of redemption. To hunt down the children of Paschar."

"This is very confusing," confessed Madeline. To understand what Calhoun was speaking, she needed to sit down because she could feel her head spin, "Do you mean to say, I am the child of that angel?"

"It sounds bizarre, but it is how the story goes. While he willingly descended, the fallen angels were thrown out. You see the difference?" asked Calhoun to her.

"How is that possible? I am the granddaughter of my grandfather, and he should have turned to one of the dark angels before I had my turn."

"It is the soul that is important, Madeline. It is possible that in the need to protect, the dark angel's ability was hidden for many years to only show up now in you. The few fallen angels, like your grandparents, they were involved with demons. Friends?" Calhoun had a thoughtful look on his face, "It isn't too different from what we heard earlier. That Paschar was trying to collect the dark angels so that he could protect them and kill the people who wanted to use his children as a sacrifice. The fallen angels are called fallen for a reason because they are turning to demons. You need to remember that demons and fallen angels are different, things are not the way humans perceive it to be. After some time, fallen angels transition to demons."

So it was angels, then fallen angels and then demons, thought Madeline to herself. Where some had directly turned to demons since the very beginning.

"You are a demon too," stated Madeline before whispering, "But you are different."

Calhoun offered her a charming smile. "Did this woman say where to find Paschar?" asked Madeline.

"Now that is the tricky part," smiled Calhoun, "No one has seen or heard about him for centuries."

Madeline frowned at this, "Where is this woman? If she knows, we can go find more from that fallen angel that she heard the story from. Like, follow the bread crumbs-"

Calhoun saved her breath by saying, "She's in the graveyard."