[1] Fallen

LORD HANS WORTH'S LIPS hovered right above mine, our breaths mixing. His exquisite grey eyes searched mine, digging into my soul, he knew of my desire for him. His fingers trailed up the hidden pathway up my skir-

"Talanda?"

My eyes quickly snapped up, my hand instinctively slamming the book shut as I came into eye contact with my mother. My fingers trembled nervously pushing the book aside as I tried to pull off the most innocent look I could master.

Her soft cocoa eyes studied me from the front of the jet, leaning beside one of the seats, a smirk plastered on her face, watching over me like a guardian angel.

It was a description that fitted her perfectly with that loose yet flattering white Armani gown she was wearing, only paired flawlessly with our traditional green and white colored ekusi beads matched with some plain golden hoops. An identical fit to the one I was wearing minus the hoops.

She sent me one of her sunny smiles, her healthy midnight skin glowing even without the help of the sun, this high up in the clouds. I looked down at my hands for second, eyes widening heart thudding, I didn't expect her to be back so soon from the pilot's cabin.

My ears picked up the sound of her footsteps as she moved towards me, only glancing up to see her shifting her gown to the side, taking a seat across from me.

My eyes moved to the front of the plane once more, before giving her a questioning look.

"Everything's fine, Gravis is taking care of it. You don't have to worry," she eased.

On any other occasion I would have nodded and taken this time to watch the swirling clouds that formed around our presidential lift, seeing as there was no way I could read my defiled book with my mother seated right in front of me.

Besides, it was my favorite thing about flying, knowing you were above everything, that nothing else could touch you this high above the world.

This however, was not one of those times.

If everything was okay then why did we have to leave Dad at the international head of state summit in Switzerland? I mean I knew that this summit was extra important, heavens forbid I ever forget my current affairs.

The summit was called after the Converts attacked Pretoria last week, but no matter the reason, we've never left Dad behind before.

I've been following him and Mom since I was in diapers, they never left anywhere without me and were rarely ever separated.

What was more alarming about the situation is that we had left in the middle of the night and I hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Dad properly, though he did give me a kiss on the forehead like he always did as he pushed me away toward the plane.

8hrs later and we were still high above the clouds speeding homeward.

I felt a gentle yet cool touch on my knee, looking up to my mother, she rubbed it softly.

"Don't over think things Tala, we are just taking precautions," she soothed. I raised an eyebrow curiously and she sighed. "Honestly, it's not a big deal..." she trailed off.

Laying back in her seat, her eyes set back on me for a minute giving me her confident smile, one that had provoked many a man and had never failed to make me feel safe.

"I think you're old enough to know..." she began with a gentle smirk. She crossed her legs, leaning her elbow on her knee as she leaned in, "It is- was suspected that some Rogue Converts orchestrated the hit in Pretoria. In accordance to that," she continued with a sigh, "there are some rumors that they are targeting the summit as well. So, to protect us, your father and other heads of states thought it was best to take their families home. They are just rumors but you know your father," she rolled her eyes, yet a grin played across her lips, "he doesn't take chances, so here we are," she hummed, her eyes trailing toward the book I had laid beside me.

My breath hitched as a smile made its way to her face.

I had so many more questions to ask about the summit because something about her explanation didn't add up, like where the Rogue Converts came to play in all this when the Pretoria massacre was all about rights of legal Converts and the unconverted not accepting the converts in, not treating them fairly even after Kingsland. However, my mother's cool demeanor and the way she was currently examining my novel right now, succeeded to take me away from it all, sucking in sharp breath as she examined it.

Please don't recognize it, please don't recognize it

"What is this?" she asked playfully, giving me a knowing look. I gritted my teeth still hoping she didn't recognize it. "I remember this," she continued.

Someone shoot me dead.

"Oh My, I got you this two years ago for your 15th birthday," she gasped flipping it over. "A Winter's Kiss."

She read the title and I felt my face heat up. I was not ready for this. Not now, not ever. She took my uneasiness as a sign to pry as she often did.

"As I recall," she dragged, her fingers tapping her chin lightly, "you said you didn't like this book, I guess it's not too bad now, huh?" she asked a wide smile now permanently placed on her features as she wiggled her eyebrows playfully.

My hands shot up to my face as her rich laughs filled the plane. I peeked through my fingers and she grinned, "Lord Hans Worth is amazing, isn't he?" She joked her teeth tugging at her bottom lip.

I immediately covered my face again, this time completely embarrassed, of course she had read the novel. I had this sudden urge to burry my face into my seat but I felt her push one of my fingers to the side, so one of my eyes could look through the opening.

"You're 17 now Talanda, you were bound to read this book sometime. I'm actually surprised you haven't moved on to further...reads, I recommend fifty shades of grey," she trailed off a smirk playing against her lips.

I took a deep breath letting my hands fall to the side in defeat. She chuckled at my reaction, her hand reaching out for my face. She gently touched my chin expecting my face.

"Wow, I didn't think Zali's cream would work, but your face is starting to clear."

I smiled this time, unable to hide my pride. Actually glad the conversation had shifted.

My battle with acne was no secret. I had inherited almost everything from my mother, from my melanin enriched skin, to my rich dark fizzy hair which I was proud to say was an inch longer than her shoulder length hair and this is not only because she trimmed it last week, to her full lips and large coal eyes.

Yes everything except my acne, I don't know where I got that from, dads skin was as smooth as a baby's butt, too smooth if you ask me.

Mom said it was just a phase that came along with puberty but as the years passed we dove into the cream business, that is, finding a cure for my awful acne and we did it all, from expensive creams to natural herbs but that didn't work, well that is until Zali, head of household affairs in the palace introduced us to her family secrets.

"Someone deserves a raise," she hummed.

I nodded eagerly, she deserved more than a raise in my opinion, Zali was the only other female I was close to other than my mother, even if she was busy all the time. I lifted up my hands and signed:

'She definitely needs a raise, bribed with the secret ingredients,' I joked

My mother watched my hands move, her smile faltering for just a second. So fast I barely caught it, but I did, I always did. She never noticed I did until now, her hands took a hold of mine but I dared not look at her. I knew what she thought of me. I had never once doubted her love for me but I saw it in her eyes and the eyes of my father, the eyes of Gravis, the eyes of Zali and my own eyes when I looked at myself in the mirror, or through the reflection of my eyes through the small jet window.

I was delicate and gentle, with low self-confidence and unspoken which would do well if I was a Disney princess but I was not. I was going to be queen one day, Queen.

I felt cool fingers brushing my chin, lifting my head up as I got locked into my mother's eyes, her look hardened as if the next words she would tell me would be something I should never forget. Her hands gripped my chin confidently.

"You will be more than alright."

The words resounded through me as I stared on, her fingers moved back to my hands, gripping them tightly. She kissed the top of them.

"You'll be great."

The plane suddenly shook for five seconds too long causing me to move forward slightly and my mother jut backwards, my eyes furrowed as my mother looked around, she turned back to me with her usual confident smile.

"Just a little turbulence nothing to be afraid of-" A large force pushed the plane to the left, rattling our bodies tremendously and then...all hell broke loose.

Everything happened so fast yet seemed to go in slow motion before my eyes, my mother raised out of her seat crashing into the other side of the plane, me following right after, all the air knocked from my lungs upon impact.

I struggled to breathe and stop my head from spinning, trying to block out the warning alarms that sounded inside the plane. Within seconds, arms where around me, my mother's soothing voice asking if I was alright but I couldn't do anything over the ringing noise in my ears. The door was busted open and Gravis stumbled in holding on to what he could as the plane tilted.

"Queen Nalima!" he called out to us, gripping the chair as the plane tilted. My mother looked over to him, as the expensive glasses we had been drinking from smashed around him.

"Gravis! What's going on?!" she called over as he approached us, one arm around me protectively.

He reached us, barely able to squeeze into the space my mother and I were occupying due to his rather tall nature, standing at an impressive 6ft 7, which served to his intimidation as chief bodyguard.

He was usually always around Dad which further added to my suspicions as to why he was here and not Lance. His face was lined by a neatly shaved beard and was by far the lightest shade of brown I had ever seen, adding to his unique features.

"We are under attack," he rushed taking off his jacket, his large muscles coming into view as they clung to his white shirt.

I caught sight of dark stains that looked suspiciously close to blood as he threw his jacket away, his tie dangling in front of my face as he pulled us closer to him, looking around frantically. He didn't seem hurt so where did the blood come from?

I could feel myself panic at this news, not that I wasn't panicking already but rather, it had just hit me the sort of situation we were in.

"The pilots are down," he continued.

As I was saying, it had just hit me the sort of situation I was in. My eyes widened glancing at my mother.

"What?!" she screeched, "h-how?" she asked, a perfectly relevant question in my opinion.

I glanced at his blood stained jacket one more time as he answered, his gaze also momentarily shifting to it, our eyes met for a second before he turned to mama.

"We'll discuss that later!" He yelled over the shattering of glass, " we need to get both of you in parachutes," his gaze darted to the other side of the plane as it shook again, "there!" he pointed

"Wait! Who is attacking us?!" my mother screeched grabbing a hold of his arm, while being forcefully pushed forward as the plane shook once again.

Hell, I wanted to know the answer to that, but even I knew this wasn't the time for such questions. Besides, we didn't have to wait long to find out.

My gaze froze, locked on target, spotting what seemed to be a bird headed for us through the tiny plane windows, but as it drew closer I realized no bird was that big or bore a startling resemblance to that of a man.

It stopped a little way from the plane, my hands shaking as I touched my mother's shoulder, motioning a finger at the window.

My mother and Gravis looked up to see what I was seeing, a blurry black masked figure flying above the clouds, a pair of large dark wings beating behind him.

I couldn't see his face, but it was pretty apparent to all of us he was looking straight at the three figures crouched in the plane.

That didn't stop me from wondering how well he could see us through a pinky sized window about ten feet away, against the air pressure and passing clouds but then I realized it didn't really matter if he could or could not.

Plus it seemed like he brought back up. My eyes widened noticing that many winged masked figures had now surrounded the plane.

What sort of converts where those? I never knew they were so... alike.

The treaty of winged Converts began to circle the plane so fast, it felt like we were wrapped in a black sheet cyclone, failing to see the rest when Gravis pushed us to the floor by literally tackling us.

"GET DOWN!" he yelled.

It was too late, everything was too late. One second I was in my mother's arms, the next the plane had split beneath us, the other half spiraling out of control, no Gravis in sight, probably falling to his death as I was in this very moment, everything passing by me in a daze, the bits and pieces of the plane, the look of my mother with outstretched hands reaching for me as the other half of the plane with her in it spiraled out of control, our hands growing farther apart.

I don't know where it came from, I don't know how it came but I heard it, she heard it. My voice ripping through me, screaming her name as I tumbled from what felt like 6 000 feet in the air, head spinning, ribs aching, hands reaching, flailing, failing, falling and screaming.

From the corner of my eyes I caught sight of a long stray piece of metal hurtling straight for me, but I had already lost everything.

I could imagine how I looked like in this moment, a girl in an elegant white Armani gown falling from the sky, an iron spear like piece of metal chasing after her.... This is probably how the angels felt when they fell from heaven.

Even upon impact and the eager hands of death consuming me, I inwardly chuckled at my own dark sense of humor.

17 years of being alive, being punished for bad grammar by teachers from far and wide, and the very first word I choose to utter is 'mama?" my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

How original.