Awakening (Children of Angels) by Jessica Gibson Page B

followed, I am skilled at skipping Truths myself, it is the easiest way to make sure one is not followed by the enemy. If you are skipping through a great many and varied Truths, and the same person keeps popping up, it’s a dead giveaway.” She winked at Mia before continuing. “It took us a long time to find out that you were still alive, and it was from them that we learned it. I think it must have been the boy who found you. They had reason to look, yes, but we would be more likely to be the ones to find you - we are your family, Mia, and as one of our kind you would be easier for us to find that for them to. You have sort of a…a natural cloaking ability, which shields you from being found. Even by us - and that we did not bet upon. We should have been able to find you, as you are essentially a human born of an Angel. The human part in you should have overridden a lot of your Angel traits, and you should not have been able to hide.

    It is fortunate, in a way, that you were hidden. I am certain that if they had picked up on your trace, we would not be having this conversation right now, because you would be dead. He is like you, though, and so it is possible and indeed likely, that he was able to find you. He would have had to trace you though…I wonder how he did that. To be able to follow you to the present day, he would have had to start at a point where he knew you had been, and follow your Trace from there. But you have been lost since the day you were born. And to be able to get into your dreams…” she trailed off and sat there in thoughtful silence.
    “Wait…do you mean…do you mean that he would have to be somewhere I had physically been? Like the place I was born?”

    “ Mm, ” Leonara nodded absently “ yes, but he hasn ’ t been there. I ’ d know if he had. Besides, I tried tracing you from there and it didn ’ t work, because of those hours in between, when you were lost. It ’ s funny, how that works …”

    A realization dawned on Mia, and a picture flashed into her mind. A picture of a blurry figure in the background of a photograph.

    “ Or the place I was found ” she whispered.

    “ Hmm? What ’ s that? ” Leonara asked, snapping out of her daydream and clearly curious as to what Mia knew. “ The place you were found? Of course, we went there, with your father, but we were too late and you were gone. But if we were there at the moment you were found, we could have traced you. Yes, that would work - if there was a clear and unbroken line, that you were always found up until the present day.”

    Excitedly, Mia explained about the newspaper cuttings. She showed Leonara the photographs, in which she’d spotted the boy. The Angel smiled grimly.

    “ He is a clever one. Yes, I believe you Mia. I believe that he went back to the Truth of you being found at that place. Certainly your mother could have told him, or one of their kind, where she had left you. Indeed, she must have, to send them to find you. When they sent him to find you, he was inexperienced at shifting Truths - he must have been, to be caught on camera. He, or one of his superiors, must have realized the mistake and corrected it, which is why he disappeared from the pictures. But you say he disappeared the moment you noticed him? ”

    Mia explained that he was gone by the time she handed the picture over to her parents to examine, and the Angel’s brow furrowed into a frown
    “ That, Mia, is not good. That means they are watching you, even now. They knew that you had noticed and corrected it quickly. It would otherwise be too much of a coincidence. And coincidence is another of those silly human fancies - there are no coincidences in the lives and deeds of Angels. Why then, have they not taken you?” she pondered, and although she had asked a question, Mia got the feeling that it was not directed at her, rather that Leonara was speaking aloud to herself.

    Mia mulled over the question herself anyway, why hadn ’