As the weeks slowly draped into December, Jay, Asbel, and Natasha began to grow more and more concerned about the fact that they had not yet been Claimed. More and more other students at school got their Claiming, and word soon reached us that the general age to get Claimed was twelve. This in particular struck a nerve as Jay, Natasha, and Asbel were the eldest out of us all. They were all already twelve because it had been Jay’s birthday just last Thursday.
It was the last day of school before the Christmas holidays and spirits were high. The three of us who had not been Claimed didn’t let that fact disturb them. They all enjoyed the looming happiness of Christmas, whilst I had the trouble of crushing thoughts almost constantly. Even though I tried not to let them bother me, they always found a way. Always.
Christmas had always been a sore one for me. It was a time to be joyous with your family and loved ones. The problem with that? I didn’t have any family or loved ones. For reasons that shouldn’t have to be explained. All of my friends (with the exceptions of Maltor and Quinn) got to sit around the fireplace and happily open Christmas presents, without having the unbearable constant burden that their entire family was dead. Speaking of Maltor and Quinn, the three of us had agreed to celebrate Christmas together. We’d buy presents for the other two and exchange them in the lobby of The Tower. Just the three of us. No moms, dads, siblings, aunts, or uncles. Maybe you could count Grandad as a relative, but it certainly wasn’t the same as what you could say was a traditional Christmas.
I tried to ignore this as I walked to school with the two of them that day. It had been exactly one month since I had fought Amy, and neither she nor Robert had shown their face since. Of course, fighting continued to rage on the north side of the Valley, but none of it actually came down towards the city centre. A group of them got close, they managed to weasel their way into the Valley, and got a few blocks away from The Tower, before meeting their demise in our own forces.
Over the course of that month, my friends and I had become substantially better at fighting, both with wands and swords. We could brew more potions, fire more spells, hold a sword better, combine it with a shield, we could do everything we’d only ever dreamed of. Natasha in particular seemed to have taken quite a liking to using a sword and a shield, but whether that was out of joy or because she was good at it I did not know.
Although I still definitely preferred using my sword or knife, I was also quite good at using magic, and so was Maltor. The two of us frequently sparred with each method. We’d sneak into an empty classroom before or after school and tarnish it with our fighting. The best bit? We knew enough spells to put the room back to how it was at the beginning. Somewhat. It was an imperfect system, magic. Swords were definitely better.
Light rain trickled down the front of my head as the three of us walked slowly up the main path into the main building. Quinn’s medium-length brown hair was decorated with sporadic water droplets. Even since the fight with Amy a month ago, he had only said a few words to me. Even when I tried to approach him in conversation, his answers were five words long, at most. Even in Sparring Club, he barely spoke to me. The two of us would silently clash with our swords; jabbing, slashing, kicking, punching. All in complete silence. Not even his eyes gave a hint of his inner thoughts. He seemed to have grown closer to Maltor, but when I asked about what I’d done to Quinn, Maltor always gave me vague answers, and it was different each time.
When I walked into Form, I quickly noticed that I was the last one. Everybody else was already there. They all turned as one to stare as I slowly walked over to my seat between Ethan and Josh. I wasn’t even late, but apparently, my walking into the room was the highlight of these people’s days.
Ever since my Claiming, Josh had continuously gone on and on about it, and it had been nice at first, to have someone consistently talking to me about how great and powerful I supposedly was, but after a while, it became more of a nuisance than anything.
‘Do you think Titan’ll give you a Christmas present?’ he asked on that day.
‘If I get one then he better give one to Ethan, too,’ I said glumly.
‘I knew you were a descendant of Titan, you know,’ he continued. He had told me this multiple times already. ‘I mean, everybody did. The Santrrer family, rule-’
‘Shut up,’ I whispered hastily. ‘Remember what I said?’
‘O-Oh, yeah, sorry,’ Josh whispered back.
‘What?’ Ethan said, intruiged.
‘The Santrrer family,’ Josh continued, evidently trying to find another thing to say, ‘you know, the Santrrer family, murdered by Amy Wright. Everyone knows the story. Catherine Santrrer, descendant of Titan. Come on, Ethan.’
I tutted. ‘So now everyone in this city knows more about me than I do.’
Josh grinned. ‘I doubt it. Not everyone knows about your wings.’
‘Yeah,’ Ethan added. ‘No chance this whole city knows about them.’
‘Loads of people at school do, though,’ I grumbled. ‘Everyone saw it that one time, remember?’
‘Should be more careful then,’ said the boy on the row in front of us.
From the back, all I could see was his dirty blond hair, apparently styled in a bowl cut. Why anyone would do that to themselves was beyond me. It was even more so beyond me how someone with such bad hair could be so rude.
‘Pardon?’ I said instantly.
He turned in his seat. Daniel. He wasn’t in any of my classes, but I hadn’t realised that he was in my Form. He was one of those kids where you either loved him or hated him. And only two people loved him. Renowned troublemaker, class clown, class idiot, and a bad person in general. Known for bringing a girl in his Maths class to tears because she was ginger. And now known by me for eavesdropping.
His face was just horrible, too. It was like he’d been placed in a hydraulic press. Nobody’s chin should be that close to their forehead. Nobody's. His brown eyes sparkled in manic glee as he spoke.
‘Are you stupid? Maybe if you didn’t fly out in the open then people wouldn’t see you.’
‘Are you stupid?’ I retaliated. ‘Where else could I fly? Underground? The lobby of The Tower?’
‘Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,’ he said simply. ‘And your wings are tiny anyway.’
Blood rushed to my face as the two girls in the front row turned to listen.
‘Like you’d know,’ I said. ‘You saw them from dozens of metres below me.’
‘So wha-’
‘Talk to me when you have wings of your own,’ I said quickly. ‘Or when you fix that face of yours.’
The two girls giggled as Daniel’s face flared. ‘Like you can talk. Talk to me when you have parents, Albert.’
‘Oi!’ Ethan said aggressively. He began to rise from his chair but I grabbed his arm roughly and dragged him back down into his seat.
‘Daniel, man,’ Josh said, sounding almost tired, ‘that’s too far.’
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‘Got nothing to say to that one, have you?’ Daniel continued, ignoring Ethan and Josh. ‘No mommy or daddy to come back you up, is there?’
My throat began to burn.
‘Daniel, right?’ Ethan said angrily.
‘Shut up, lisp-boy,’ Daniel replied scathingly.
Ethan went silent. I felt anger rise in my chest.
‘Daniel, just leave it, man,’ Josh pleaded. ‘It’s not his fault he doesn’t have parents.’
‘His fault he whinges so much,’ Daniel replied, shrugging.
‘Have you fought her?’ I asked quietly.
‘Huh?’ Daniel said, a sarcastic grin quickly spreading on his squashed face.
‘Are you deaf? I said: ‘Have you fought her?’.’
‘Who? Amy? Are you mad?’ he said, awkwardly laughing. ‘You’d have to be an idiot to fight her.’
Ethan and I sat in silence, dark looks coating our faces.
‘Wait a minute,’ Daniel said, his eyes widening.
Grandad had put in a lot of effort to make sure that nobody at school found out that Maltor and I had fought Amy. And I had just blown it all away in a single sentence.
‘I’m an idiot that fought her,’ I said darkly.
‘And you’re alive?’ Josh spluttered.
‘I survived once. It was no problem surviving a second time,’ I lifted my head and glared at Daniel. ‘Suggest you quiet down, Daniel. Humble yourself before I do it myself.’
‘Damn!’ Josh whispered, clapping my back.
Daniel didn’t say a word for the rest of Form. I spent the rest of my time sitting in cold silence, both anticipating Period 1, where I had Charms, and wanting to be swallowed by the ground.
It was a low blow, bringing up my dead parents. Sure, I was somewhat surprised that it had taken this long for someone at school to mention it, but in that manner? That was a very low blow. I had done crimes worthy of Satan – Hades – and I wouldn’t even have stooped that low. So what if I insulted the way he looked? It's not like I brought up the fact that his parents had been murdered. Maybe because they hadn’t been, but even so, I couldn’t get over how harsh that was. Joke or not, my Gods.
Ethan and Josh didn’t even try to break my silent thought train. The two of them exchanged conversation whilst I was sat in the middle wishing I was anywhere else. My whole body felt cold, numb. It was one thing being taunted by the criminal herself, but it was another when it came from someone you were supposed to trust and get along with.
Charms was very good, to say the least. In the previous lesson, we had learnt the spell Exarow. Easily my favourite spell. It was a disarming spell. Our teacher had described it as ‘easy to learn and hard to master’, but even she admitted that I had gotten the hang of it much faster than usual.
Natasha and I paired up, as was standard in magic lessons by this point and took ourselves to the quietest corner of the room. We raised our wands into position, yet neither of us fired.
‘What did Daniel say in Form?’ she asked.
‘It’s not-’
A red jet flew from Natasha’s wand, smacking into my wand and sending it flying upwards. It bounced off of the ceiling and I jumped up to catch it.
‘What did Daniel say in Form?’ she repeated quickly.
‘You…’
I fired my own Exarow. She deflected it with another spell. The two charms clashed midair and bounced off of one another, flying into separate walls before fading from existence.
‘Why do you want to know so badly, anyway?’ I asked.
‘Because it obviously bothered you, you didn’t say a word afterwards,’ she explained simply.
I stared at her, firing another Exarow. The red jet smacked her in the shoulder, causing her to stumble backwards slightly before she quickly fired her own back at me. It hit me perfectly in the stomach, sending me a few steps backwards.
‘Just tell me,’ she said sweetly, causing me to flush slightly. ‘You trust me, right?’
‘Y-Yeah, but I said it doesn’t-’
She fired another spell. This time, however, I leapt to the side and fired another Exarow, and it hit her wand. It flew towards me and I caught it with my left hand. It felt strange in my hand, so I tossed it back to her effortlessly.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ I repeated. ‘Why do you care so much?’
‘Because we’re friends,’ she said, taking a few steps towards me, but not lowering her wand.
‘He brought up my dead parents, Natasha,’ I snarled, jabbing my wand forward. A yellow spark shot from the end, catching Natasha in the stomach. Her legs gave way beneath her and she crumpled to the floor in a heap.
Once I had helped her up, her eyes were wide.
‘H-He did what?’ she breathed.
‘You heard me,’ I growled, letting go of her arm.
‘That…that…filthy…’
Then the bell rang. All the way to Maths, Natasha continuously made snide comments under her breath about Daniel, and she did it in such a way that made me unsure as to whether or not she knew I could hear her.
Maths was another touchy lesson, but this time for Asbel. Harry asked about his Claiming.
‘I feel forgotten,’ Asbel said glumly, underlining the date in his book messily. ‘You’re supposed to get Claimed at twelve, right?’
‘Yeah, usually,’ Sophie said. ‘Why? Are you-’
She stopped herself after seeing the dark look on Asbel’s face. She turned to me.
‘Are you tw-’
She stopped again as I shook my head. She and Harry looked down at the table almost pitifully.
‘Don’t worry,’ I assured Asbel. ‘Even if it takes a while, the feeling of getting Claimed is like nothing else.’
‘Yeah,’ Harry added. ‘Made me feel like I was on top of the world.’
‘Easy for you to say, Albert,’ Asbel mumbled. ‘You are literally descended from the most powerful God that’s ever existed.’
That shut me up. For the rest of Maths, Harry, Sophie, and I tried our hardest to act as though nothing were wrong, but Asbel had such a chilling glare on his face as he stared at the table that I was half surprised it didn’t evaporate.
I questioned Jay at Break, and he seemed unbothered by his lack of a Claiming.
‘I don’t really care,’ he said plainly, tossing a tennis ball to Peter. ‘I’m here, aren’t I? I can do stuff without any God powers, right?’
‘Yeah, it’s not like the Claiming activates them, apparently,’ I replied nonchalantly. ‘I punched Robert with a flaming fist before the whole Titan thing.’
‘Yeah,’ Natasha added. ‘I dunno why Asbel’s so upset about it. We’ve only been here a month.’
‘I mean, it’s kinda understandable,’ I reasoned quickly. ‘In the span of a week, most of us got Claimed.’
‘Yeah, but how long has Peter been here?’ Jay argued. ‘He’s gotta be patient.’
‘Exactly,’ Natasha said. ‘If we can wait, so can he.’
I tried not to let the thought bother me. Whilst that proved to be a difficult task, I distracted myself in English by laughing with Peter for almost the entirety of the lesson. Asbel sat on my left, a chilling look still coating his face.
But his words continued to run circles in my mind. ‘I feel forgotten’. What kind of parent would do something like that to their child? Of course, Quinn was going through something similar, but that didn’t mean we should ignore Asbel’s pressing issue. I hadn’t paid much attention to the thought of being Claimed before it had happened.
I thought back to something Asbel had said when we had first come to the city. ‘A God’s a God, you know?’. It seemed strange to me that he’d talk about the Gods in such a casual manner and then let it bother him so much just a month later.
Nevertheless, it clearly meant a lot to him, so I tried to block any negative thoughts about the situation. It wasn’t my place to dictate what my friends could and could not feel. If they were upset, I’d help, not tell them that they shouldn’t feel that way.
I pressed Grandad about the issue after school. The two of us met on the roof of The Tower, which was evidently marking its territory as our meeting spot. I enjoyed it up there. The wind stabbed through my body and the fresh air filled my lungs to the fullest. It made me feel happy. Made me feel a part of both worlds: human and bird.
Grandad sighed when I first asked. ‘The Gods tend to be a bit – how do I put this – lazy when it comes to Claiming their children.’
‘What?’ I asked incredulously. ‘Why would they hesitate to show affection to their own kids?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Grandad replied, sounding like a man that felt he was utterly useless. ‘What I am sure about, though, is that it’s not your friends in particular. Loads of children get Claimed late. Saying that you have to be Claimed at age twelve is partially used to bully peers, and partially used in a desperate attempt to pressure the Gods to Claim their children as soon as possible.’
My jaw dropped slightly. ‘Do you know which Gods my friends come from?’ I asked slowly.
‘I have ideas, but who doesn’t?’ Grandad said plainly. ‘I don’t know for certain, though.’
‘When did you get Claimed?’ I asked.
‘I wasn’t.’
‘Pardon?’
‘I was just told by my dad,’ Grandad said, staring up at the sky. ‘Technically, I was supposed to tell you, but Titan specifically asked me not to; he wanted to do it himself.’
‘So, they only Claim you if you’re their child?’ I said, urgently trying to piece together what I was being told.
‘Not exactly,’ he said, smirking.
‘Why can’t they just be simple with things, you know?’ I asked, looking up at Grandad.
He coughed dryly. ‘Who knows? They Claim when and who they feel like.’
‘That’s just rude,’ I said simply.
The two of us stared at each other and chuckled. The sound seemed to echo throughout the entire city, even though that wasn’t possible. Grandad only stopped because his laughter was soon replaced by chesty coughs and splutters.
‘Grandad?’ I asked, calming myself down. ‘Are you okay?’
He looked down at me, his eyes glossy. ‘Yeah, I’m more than fine. Don’t worry about me. Actu-’
Then someone opened the hatch behind us. I turned around quickly, planting my feet on the floor in a fighting position. The last time Grandad and I had been interrupted on the roof of The Tower, things had not gone well.
But it was just Henry.
‘Albert?’ he said. ‘I thought I’d find you here. Can you come with me, please? Charlotte and I want to talk to you.’
‘Uh, sure?’ I said slowly.
I turned and hugged Grandad goodbye, before following Henry down the hatch. As the two of us took the lift down to the lobby, I couldn’t shake the horrible sinking feeling that was gripping my chest. I shouldn’t have left Grandad.