by Cara Wylde
“You’re Mila Morningstar…”
“Spare me, okay? You saved me before you knew…”
“The field trip to Heaven,” he changed the subject in a split second. “My parents want you to join us for dinner after.”
“What?!”
He rolled his eyes. “You heard me. You’re invited to dinner. They want to meet you.”
I laughed out loud. “You’re joking, right?”
“No. They want to meet Morningstar’s daughter. They invite him over all the time, but he keeps ditching them. Says he’s busy reaping. Do me this favor, please? They told me to ask you. I’ll never hear the end of it if you don’t come.”
I shook my head. Suddenly, I didn’t know what I was doing with these guys here. I hadn’t managed to find out a thing from neither Francis, nor Sariel. And now the archangel had dumped this thing on my head. His parents wanted to meet me. Fucking great! And I was going to Heaven anyway, so how could I refuse? It wasn’t like I was busy reaping, like my father.
“Okay, but GC and Pazuzu are coming too.”
“What the fuck?! My father is an archangel, and my mother is a seraph. Do you really think they want to have a false god and a demon over for dinner?”
“No deal, then.”
He thought for a long moment, staring me down. I stood my ground. Honestly, I hoped my condition would get me out of this. When he finally said “okay, fine, you have a deal,” I blinked a couple of times, threw my hands in the air, and stomped out of the cave, my fake pigtails swinging behind me.
Life as Mila Morningstar sucked balls.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
There were eleven entrances to Heaven and eleven entrances to Hell in the world, and two of each were in North America. The four cabals were taking the field trip to Heaven separately, on different days, so as to not overwhelm our hosts. As usual, the VDC was first, and Heaven sent a private airplane for us. The entrance we were going to use was on Mount Shasta in California. Normally, the plane could have dropped us right at the gates of Heaven, but for our first experience, Professor Maat wanted us to take the stairs.
“There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold, and she’s buying a stairway to Heaven…” Pazuzu sang in my ear.
“Shh… knock it off!” The other VDC guys had noticed, and they were starting to sing, too.
We were off the plane, on a snowy plateau, up in the clouds. We walked for a while, and I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to ward off the sharp bite of the freezing wind. Why hadn’t Mrs. Maat told us it was going to be fucking cold up here?! Oh, right. Because she’d forgotten she had a human in the VDC. The only girl, and the only human. Or maybe, because she knew I was Morningstar’s daughter now, she thought some of his powers had rubbed off on me? As if that made any sense… She started leading us upslope, and my stupid ankle boots proved useless on the ice and rock.
“Stairway to Heaven my ass,” I cursed under my breath and grabbed onto Pazuzu’s arm. He was nice and warm, and also steady.
“Are you okay?”
“Do I look okay?!” I yelled at him, frustrated. Everyone seemed to be fine. I was the only one struggling. GC was right behind me, making sure he was ready to catch me in case I slipped. Thank God I have two boyfriends… In situations like this, one wouldn’t have been enough. I chuckled to myself. If all goes well today, maybe I can thank God in the literal sense. Though I doubted it. If God and Satan had one thing in common, it was that neither of them received any visits.
“Look!” Pazuzu pointed ahead.
“I don’t want to look.” I kept my head low. It had started snowing, and the sharp wind was hitting me right in the head, making my sinuses ache in protest.
“Mistress, I can help,” Corri flapped her wings incessantly, flying from left to right and right to left. “Just say the word.”
I didn’t want to use her anymore. Since Halloween, I had barely asked her for a thing. She’d told me she’d gone to Japan to get my costume, which meant she was willing to go to great lengths to fulfill my wishes. That made me feel uncomfortable.
I tripped on something and almost lost my balance. Pazuzu pulled me up, and I saw what it was. A step made of a material so white and pure that it was out of this world. I thought ivory at first, but that couldn’t be it. It wasn’t just white. As I climbed the next step, then the next, I saw something sparkling inside it. Like gem dust had been mixed into the base material before it was poured into the matrix to build the stairway to Heaven. We’d found it.
The wind stopped, and so did the snow. Suddenly, it wasn’t freezing cold anymore, and I dared to look up. The stairway was huge. So large that ten people could climb it at the same time, and so long that it disappeared into the clouds. I knew that at the end of it we’d find the mighty gates of Heaven, and Saint Peter would usher us in, not before giving us a lengthy speech about safety and how we were supposed to stick close to Nefertari Maat, our teacher, and not wander around like lunatics.
This is amazing!
We climbed for what seemed like forever. I was panting, my poor leg muscles were starting to get crampy, and it was almost impossible for me to keep up with everyone. Paz and GC stayed behind with me, but the rest of the VDC was way ahead of us. Sariel was flying, and so was Raziel, the angel. I hated them. At least Mrs. Maat hadn’t shifted into her sphinx form, in which she had wings, too. She was loyal to the rest of us, non-winged creatures.
When we finally reached the tall, white gates, I was a sad, sweaty mess. I wanted to take off my uniform blazer, but that would have looked silly and unprofessional. I met Corri’s almond gaze, swallowed heavily, and nodded.
“Okay, you may do your thing. Like… I need a fan or something.”
She beamed at me, swirled in the air twice, snapped her fingers, then held her palm up and blew some sort of gold dust toward me. I closed my eyes and let it envelop me. Not only did it dry the thin sheen of sweat on my skin, but it also calmed my wild heartbeat and soothed my muscles. Magic. Oh, how I loved magic! Too bad I couldn’t do it myself.
As Mrs. Maat had warned us, Saint Peter kept us at the gates for half an hour. He was an old man who looked like he could use a promotion, but I stood still and tried not to make fun of him. It was hard when GC and a bunch of guys were mimicking him, and Paz was snickering beside me. I elbowed him.
“Stop it. You’re being disrespectful.”
“Please! Saint Peter is a relic. He should have retired a long time ago. It’s not like there are many jobs in Heaven. He should step aside and let someone young earn a living.” He leaned in to whisper in my ear conspiratorially. “I heard Heaven has the highest unemployment rate. You’ll never see something like this in Hell. Even Earth has it better.”
I looked at him as if he were speaking in languages. Which I was sure he could, since he was a demon. Finally, Saint Peter deemed us worthy of walking through his beloved gates, and we followed Mrs. Maat inside to visit the First Sphere of Heaven, which was the realm of the angels and the souls who’d abandoned their vows in their previous lives. The angels were there to guide them, so when they reincarnated, they wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. Breaking a vow wasn’t bad enough to send a soul to Hell.
The First Sphere was under the rule of the Moon, the cosmic body that, with its waning and waxing, represented inconstancy. It was bathed in an eerie, silvery glow. The streets were narrow and dusty, the houses were simple and close together, and all the trees, flowers, and bushes were silvery and ghostly. I immediately thought of the First Sphere as this small, quaint town that never saw the dazzling light of the sun and could never tell the difference between day and night, because they dwelled in the haze before daybreak forever.
The Second Sphere was the next, under the rule of Mercury, and the home of the archangels and the ambitious souls whose own ego had landed them here. Still, having a huge ego wasn’t enough of an offence to get one into Hell. This was where Sariel’s parents li
ved, in an imposing mansion up on a lonely hill, and where I had been invited to dinner later. I would finish my field trip with the VDC first, have lunch with everyone at a nice hotel restaurant in the Fifth Sphere, see the rest of the Spheres, then Sariel would take me, GC, and Paz to his folks’ place. They had already talked to Professor Maat, and they’d taken it upon themselves to get us back to the Academy safely.
On the one hand, I hated myself for not refusing the invitation firmly. I had a long day ahead, and the last thing I needed was to play the grateful guest at the end of it. On the other hand, though, I was crazy curious to meet his parents and see what all the fuss was about. Why was Sariel so terrified of them? I’d heard his sister would be there, too, and Francis had been invited as a family friend. Great! I was going to be trapped at a fancy dinner with the Mighty Jerk Cabal, and no, it didn’t count that two of the guys were my lovers. I knew they would be total jackasses. Heaven, with its stupid rules, was the reason why the ancient gods and goddesses had been branded as false, so GC was not a fan, by default. He and Sariel were buddies just because Sariel seemed to hate Heaven, which was very unusual for an archangel. And, of course, Pazuzu was a demon, Hell and Heaven had been at odds since the beginning of time, so he was going to be a jerk at dinner out of principle. Although, he himself had admitted this whole kerfuffle was mostly for show.
The Third Sphere was ruled by Venus, and it was bathed in the soft, orangey glow of the lovers’ planet. The principalities dwelled here – angels with wings of gold and eyes of emerald, wearing crowns upon their heads, and scepters in their hands. The souls who’d loved without restrain in their previous lives were sent here. Love was not a sin in and of itself, but when it was only focused on other human beings and not on God, well… Heaven saw it as only worthy of the Third Sphere. Which wasn’t that bad, but there was a freakishly long way to go if you wanted to reach the Ninth Sphere, which was basically dedicated to the souls that were the embodiment of perfection. I wondered how populated it was…
By the time we reached the Fourth Sphere, which had been my assignment at the beginning of the semester, I was dead tired and super hungry. I was the only one who seemed to be suffering, and that was frustrating. I tried to hide it, but GC and Paz had seen me hangry countless times, and they knew the signs. We had a reservation at Hotel Fortitude. The building was like nothing I’d seen before. It was built like a stair pyramid, with angel wings protruding from its sides. There were rooms both inside the pyramid and inside the wings, and Professor Maat told us the ones located in the wings were crazy expensive. At the top of the wings, there were two restaurants, and we were going to have lunch in the left wing one. As we walked through the sliding doors – because, yes, everything was modern – I couldn’t even comprehend how the thing was built. Physics said it was impossible – at least, the Physics I’d learned in high school.
I had so many questions.
“Stop stressing and just enjoy it,” Sariel whispered in my ear.
Where had he come from?! I looked around me, but Pazuzu and GC had walked away, fascinated by the strange architecture, eager to explore. They’d left me alone, and I hadn’t even noticed. I’d been staring at the ceiling and wondering how they’d managed to install the incredible chandelier that was hanging from the very top of the pyramid, going down down down, and looking as if it was made up of smaller chandeliers, one for each level.
“This is breathtaking,” I said.
Sariel beamed at me, and that took me aback. Was this the first time I saw him smile? I was pretty sure. I mean, he’d smiled and laughed before, but always at my expense. This was definitely different. It was as if he was happy that I liked Heaven. His home.
“Come on. You must be starving.”
“How did you know?”
“Humans are hungry all the time.”
I sighed. “That we are…”
The view from the restaurant was unbelievable. We all sat around a table on the terrace, looking over the Fourth Sphere of Heaven. In the far distance, if your eyesight was sharp, you could see the Fifth Sphere. The ones who gave their lives for God dwelled here, along with the angels called virtues. These were the heavenly beings through which miracles took place. Crying statues and the like.
After lunch, we had a quick tour of the Fourth and Fifth Spheres, then moved on to the Sixth. The field trip was going faster now, and Professor Maat urged us to move move move. It wasn’t because we were all tired. In truth, I was the only one who was tired. It was because these were the most exclusivist regions of Heaven, and very few people were allowed to see them. The students of Grim Reaper Academy were an exception because we’d become Grim Reapers one day, and that meant we’d be called to reap everywhere around the world, Heaven and Hell included. Angels died, too. It didn’t happen often, but just in case, we all had to be ready.
“I don’t get it,” I said to Sariel, who was now walking by my side. Pazuzu and GC were ahead, arguing over some stupid thing. As they did. Francis was a few steps behind me. Since the five of us were going to have dinner together later, there was no point in being at odds anymore. “Why would Violent Reapers ever be called to reap in Heaven? If you ask me, only the NDC and the MDC should have taken a field trip to Heaven.”
“You’re working on a wrong assumption,” he said mysteriously.
“And what is that?”
“That angels are perfect. We aren’t. The threat of falling from grace looms over us since the day we are born. The rigors of being who we are weigh heavy on our shoulders, and every once in a while, some of us are crushed under them.”
“And what happens then?”
He shrugged, but a shadow had fallen over his beautiful silver eyes. Francis took over.
“I heard Paz say Heaven has the highest unemployment rate. It’s true. It also has the highest rates for depression, anxiety, and attempted suicide.”
“Say what now?!” I’d been a little too loud. GC shot me a questioning look. I smiled and waved at him.
“That’s where we, the VDC, come in,” Francis continued. “We don’t reap a lot in Heaven, but we do talk a lot of angels out of taking their own lives.”
“This is crazy! I don’t believe it.” We’d reached the Sixth Sphere, the home of the just. “If there’s any place in this world where everyone, and I mean everyone, should be happy, it’s here.”
Sariel shook his head. “How is that possible when there are so many restrictions? When everything outside of those restrictions is a sin?”
“You wanna see happy, my dear?” Pazuzu fell in step with me and took my hand possessively. “Wait until next semester, when we visit Hell. Now, that’s where the party’s at!”
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
“Look around you. Do these people look happy to you?”
The Seventh Sphere was the next, the home of the contemplatives and the thrones. We moved quickly to the Eight Sphere, which I knew was the home of the saints and the cherubim, but the streets were empty, everyone was inside, and I barely managed to see a face or two. It was as if these souls didn’t even want to interact with each other, let alone with strangers. The Ninth Sphere was next and last, and as I’d thought, it was mostly empty. We didn’t stay here long, and I was glad, actually, because the sky was too bright. I had to shield my eyes and ask Corri to get me a pair of sunglasses. No wonder Sariel’s mother, who was a seraph, had preferred to move to the Second Sphere with his father, who was an archangel. Her Sphere was boring as fuck, which was, apparently, another definition for pure perfection.
“Not many souls dwell here,” Sariel explained.
GC snickered. “I bet the perfect ones get here, see what’s what, get reincarnated quickly, then make sure to commit a sin or two, so they wouldn’t end up in this boring place again.”
The archangel rolled his eyes. “That’s not what happens. It’s empty because not many souls get here in the first place. Anyway, it sucks because that means le
ss jobs for the seraphim.”
“Does your mom work here?” I asked.
“No. But it’s okay, she’s got many things to do at home, in the Second Sphere. She keeps busy with parties, clubs, meetings for the souls still struggling with their egos. It’s voluntary work, but she enjoys it.”
I nodded. Meeting the Gracewings was going to be quite the experience. We gathered around Professor Maat, who wrapped up the field trip with a short speech, then a weird flying shuttle came for me and the guys. I’d seen the things parked here and there, but I’d had no idea they flew. Our ride was a white, oval machine that reflected the bright light of the skies off its shiny surface. Inside, the seats were in a circle, and I squeezed in between GC and Paz after GC gave me his hand to help me up. Francis and Sariel sat opposite from us.
“Nervous?” Paz whispered in my ear.
I bit the inside of my lip and thought for a second. Was I nervous? Probably. Was my nervousness justifiable? Fuck knew. I’d find out soon enough.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Compared to the higher Spheres, the second one was well populated. The shuttle landed in the main courtyard, behind the imposing gates of the mansion, and my guys helped me out. Mr. and Mrs. Gracewing were waiting for us at the top of the stairs. A young, beautiful woman stood beside them, and I immediately guessed she was Sariel’s sister. The introductions were made, and two minutes later, Sariel’s parents and I were on a first-name basis. They insisted. GC and Paz weren’t given the same privilege, though.
The mansion was truly impressive. White, silver, and gold were the main colors – walls, floors, furniture, – while the ceiling was painted in light blue. The dining room had already been prepared for us, and we sat down to eat. For such a small family, it gave me the impression they had more servants than it was necessary. Must have been then whole “not enough jobs” story, and since the Gracewings could, apparently, afford to pay a few dozen lower-ranked angels, why not?