2. ~Ariana~
~Ariana~
It felt like a nightmare, but looked like a dream.
I’d been dreading this night for the last couple of weeks since my family had announced their intention to throw this over-the-top party on my behalf.
And what had once been my safe place had become something else entirely.
At least for tonight.
It didn’t even feel like our family home with the influence of so many others crowding the mammoth space of the castle-like palatial estate where my three dads and my mom resided, and where I had as well until I’d moved out to study at Maven Academy three years ago.
They’d gone all out.
It was what they did, what they’d always done for me.
They treated me like a princess.
My family had given me the best of everything.
My mom, Mia Snow, was the daughter of a Fallen—more commonly called an Immortal. My dad, Jaxon Silver, was a hybrid: half Alpha wolf, half Immortal Descendent.
That legacy came with baggage—his ancestor was a brutal tyrant who’d terrorized the realms just before I was born.
Then there was Pops—Ryker Morgan—the most powerful sorcerer alive, and Papa, Lucian Black, an Ancient Vampire.
Together, they’d raised me in a beautifully supportive quad, each of them loving one another without hesitation.
I’d seen other strong relationships, too—like Grandpa Gabriel Morgan and his partner, Grandma Calla Coretti. Both were centuries-old magic-wielders who had moved out when I was little, settling into Papa’s old penthouse in a city a few hundred miles from here.
And then there was Cornelius Martel—my maternal grandfather, and the most infamous of them all. Once head of the Guardian Movement, he’d passed the role to Pops right before I was born. He lived nearby with Gramps Warlow Boyd, a wolf–sorcerer hybrid.
I bore the name Martel because it was my mother’s true name—one she’d had to hide for years, along with her Immortal status, back when supernatural society wasn’t so inclusive. Snow had become a part of her, but naming me Martel was her way of making sure I’d never have to hide who I was.
It was a sweet gesture.
One that had turned out a lot harder to live up to in reality.
I’d grown up infused with and surrounded by their love. They’d always made me feel safe, protected, and worth so much.
Little had I known that they’d been overcompensating for what would befall me once I ventured beyond our home.
I was different.
Beyond that, actually.
I wasn’t just a little odd, or in a state of still trying to find like-minded individuals who would share my interests and outlook.
No. I was literally one of a kind. And not in a good or special-beyond-all-others sort of way. In a freakshow way. A detrimental way.
The first ever angel to be birthed outside the Celestial Plane. A True Celestial who wasn’t tethered to the Celestial Plane like all others.
To my family, that made me a miracle, a precious gift.
To others, it made me a being to be wary of.
And to a few, it even made me an abomination.
As if I needed that last part highlighted.
But that was exactly what tonight’s celebration felt like it was doing.
As I made my way through the elaborate party my family had thrown for me, stares abounded as I passed on by, an unsettling mixture of intrigue and wariness emanating from so many.
Especially my peers from Maven Academy. While the current students gathered in their friend groups, I had no one to turn to, no one to gravitate to.
I was the outsider, the loner.
And right now it felt worse than that.
I was like an animal in a zoo to them, being observed with excitement and fear all at once. At a distance that excitement ruled. But any closer and their fear took the reins, so concerned were they of what I was capable of.
It really hadn’t helped my case that I’d had a few bouts of explosiveness when I’d been younger, via meltdowns at a time when I’d struggled to control my mammoth power, the potency unlike anything any magic-wielder had ever experienced.
Although, today was being framed as a celebration for my twenty-first birthday, it was really more than that.
My magic had reached maturity a few weeks ago, a big deal among all those who dealt in the magical arts.
It was a milestone that was unlike any other.
It meant I’d come into my full power, and also that I wouldn’t visibly age beyond this point.
It was the earliest any being on this plane had ever reached magical maturity. Even my mom, who had been the most powerful sorceress around before me, had only reached magical maturity in her late twenties.
That was yet one more oddity that belonged only to me.
I sucked in a breath and forced my thoughts away from all of that, focusing on the celebratory nature of everything around me. The decorations, the high spirits of my family. I fought to bury anything negative. At least for the time being.
The ballroom of my family home had been transformed into something akin to a spelled-laced fever dream.
Silver shimmer draped from the vaulted ceilings like enchanted constellations, catching the light from the floating chandeliers. The walls had been glamoured to reflect twilight, the sky outside mimicked in deep navy swirls. Starlight flickered along the edges of the arched windows.
My name glowed in silver calligraphy above the archway.
The supernatural guests filled the space in glamourous outfits.
There was a present mountain that sprawled outward, a glinting pile of intricately wrapped boxes tied with silk ribbons. Many were spelled to rotate and float slowly to showcase themselves.
Silver roses had been enchanted to bloom midair, scattering petals that dissolved before touching the floor. A constellation spiraled overhead, each star flickering beautifully.
Music pulsed from spelled instruments in the alcoves.
It was most definitely one hell of a supernatural spectacle.
“Ari!”
I turned at the sound of Dad’s roughened voice.
He’d gone all out when it came to his appearance tonight.
With his former background as Alpha to the largest wolf pack in the world, he’d been a rough and tumble guy, sporting the whole ripped jeans, tank, and well-worn leather jacket look.
He was more now—a hybrid being. The child of an Immortal, something he hadn’t found out until later on in life that had caused a lot of problems for him and my family, especially when it had been revealed that the Immortal blood running through his veins had come from the most despicable being of all, Draco, a true monster who had exacted a reign of terror over the supernatural world shortly before I’d been born.
He was sporting an all-black look in a tailored suit. Although, his tie had silver stripes, in keeping with the theme of the party—a nod to the color of my magic, which was the same as Grandfather’s.
He walked to me and threw his arms around me, bringing me in for a tight hug.
Well, with his hulking form, it was always more like a bear hug, him completely dwarfing my five-foot-five height.
“Happy Birthday, baby girl,” he said, as he pulled back, smiling brightly, and holding my hands between us.
He looked me over in my silver floor length dress, my golden waves flowing down past the jeweled straps.
“I can’t get over how grown up you are now.
No longer my little girl, but a flourishing young woman. ”
“Dad,” I protested, my cheeks heating at his overt compliments, and the whole flourishing young woman thing.
He chuckled, then told me, “Your mom is putting some finishing touches to your cake. She wants to know if you’d like to start opening your mountain of presents now, or save that for after the big happy birthday ceremony?”
Oh shit. Just picturing everybody here gathered around singing to me, then watching me blow out the candles on my cake in the form of a public spectacle, had my insides twisting.
I did better in the shadows.
Deep in the fucking shadows.
Thankfully, his insane intuition couldn’t pick up on that.
None of my family could.
I’d made sure of it, casting a spell to hide my true anxieties about this whole thing, so I didn’t ruin it for them, knowing they wanted this for me, this celebration, to mark the occasion.
Knowing that they’d been waiting on it for years, to celebrate this monumental milestone with their only child.
“I need some fresh air first. Then, I guess, the cake would be a good way to go. Maybe we can do the presents after everyone’s gone. I’ll send thank-you letters.”
He frowned and reached out, stroking my cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Are you good?”
“Fine, yeah,” I said, flashing a winning smile. “It’s just stifling in here with so many people packed inside our home.”
I wasn’t the best pretender or liar, and that was a well-known fact among my family. Apparently, it was something to do with my angel heritage.
Fortunately, the universe actually had my back for once, when a wild surge of energy had gasps erupting, people stilling, a moment before Pops teleported into the fray in a flash of shimmering green light.
Actual applause rang out, throngs of people gathering around at his presence.
Ryker Morgan was the most popular being in the supernatural world.
He had been before he’d even taken on his current role as Head of the Guardian Movement.
But his two-decade tenure had only increased that with the way he’d united all factions and actually worked for the will and good of us all.
It was a far cry from when Grandfather had run it.
It had been more of an elitist organization, verging on a dictatorship-style governance before he’d realized the need for a change and handed the role over to Pops.
I felt a wave of relaxation roll over the guests now that he was present.
As much as I was grateful for that change in the atmosphere, I hated what was at the root of it.