by Josh Raymer
“We have to check out that red dot that crashed, right?” Peter asks, only half-joking. I was thinking the same thing. This is the dot I saw in my vision. I thought it might be an archangel originally, but they’re all dead now. Could it be Michael’s flaming sword? Perhaps Augustus sent it down here as a gift to help us fight the demons, or maybe to guard the angels’ zone like it guarded the Garden of Eden.
I lead the way as we jog toward where it landed; as we go, I send a telepathic message back to Augustus that the angels are headed our way. We round a small hill and fight our way through some thick brush at the base of the crater. Before we make our way up to the lip, I send another message to Augustus.
A red dot crashed among the angels. Did you send us Michael’s sword?
As we begin to climb the sloping wall of the crater and my curiosity crescendos, something odd happens. My neck prickles with heat…and I catch a whiff of something rotten. Like spoiled milk and week-old eggs left out in the sun.
No, I still have Michael’s sword.
Augustus’s reply sends a shiver down my spine. Not so much because of the words he said, but because of the dread I could hear in his voice. When we reach the lip of the crater and look down, I understand why Augustus responded the way he did…and why my demon senses have kicked into high gear.
Curled up in the pit ten feet beneath us is a demon with black craggy skin and rivers of lava crawling across his body like fiery snakes. But unlike his son, this demon is easily ten feet tall. As we all stare down at his hulking form, our mouths agape, Augustus’s voice makes me jump.
Oh my God, Silas. He got free. He was part angel at one point, so when Lightfall was activated, the cage must have been thrown open, and he was cast down. I didn’t know. I swear to you, I didn’t know. You have to get out of there, Silas. Run!
I grab the others and throw them down the side of the crater. We’re running because I don’t have to tell them whose body is lying in that hole. I don’t have to describe the sheer terror I feel reaching its icy tendrils down my throat and threatening to strangle me—because I know they’re feeling it too.
The sky’s ablaze now as the falling angels draw nearer to our location. Any second, they’ll begin raining down all around us and cratering the ground where we stand. We have to get out of here right now, so we run. We run, and we don’t look back, even as the white light is replaced by a brilliant red glow coming from behind us. I don’t stop even as the heat and the stench claw at my eyes and my throat.
Run, Silas. For the love of God, run!
There’s no escaping, though. My powers are shot from the tornado I created earlier. I don’t even have the strength to muster a wormhole and teleport us away. The cars aren’t an option either. We’ll be crushed by a falling angel (or several) before we get out of the clearing. We’re trapped here. Trapped with fallen angels and something much worse. Something that wants to tear me limb from limb for what I did to his son, for what Augustus did to him all those years ago.
Asaroth wants me dead, and he’s going to kill me if the angels don’t do it first. But neither of them gets a chance because as we round the hill by Bron’s body, he’s not lying on the ground anymore. He’s standing up, arms wide, sweeping us into an embrace that isn’t a physical expression of his happiness that we’re alive. It’s the contact necessary for what comes next: as the first angels begin to land—thoom thoom thoom—all around us, a warm golden light pulls us away from the chaos.
As we soar backward, holding tight to Bron, a voice follows us into the void, one that only I can hear. A recognizable voice that is also terrifyingly unfamiliar.
I am coming for you, Silas Ford.
Acknowledgments
I wrote The Devil’s Halo over the course of three years. Once I found the start of the manuscript—which I wrote in ENG 203 at Western Kentucky University, taught by Sandra Wales—and realized how bad it was, I started working to rewrite it. If I remember correctly (doubtful at this point), that process started in 2011.
A few years later, in 2014, I published the book. Basking in the glow of that feeling all authors secretly relish, I can remember very clearly having this thought:
At least I know the next one won’t take as long to write.
Well…about that. The book you’re holding began shortly after I published its predecessor. On May 18, 2015, to be precise, with the opening line that didn’t change in the (gulp) nearly six years it took me to finish Fall of the Angels.
I’ve changed so much as a writer since I created that Google Doc. I started working as a freelance editor for a company called Book in a Box (BIAB) in December 2015. In June 2016, I quit my job to focus more on the writing assignments I was being offered by BIAB. I helped craft nine books for the company before being hired full-time in January 2019 by BIAB, which was now called Scribe.
It’s been this journey with Scribe that both elongated my writing journey with Fall of the Angels and made me capable of finishing a second book, which I found to be more strenuous than writing the first book. In the pages that follow, I would like to thank some of the wonderful people from Scribe who made me into a better writer and, directly or indirectly, contributed to a book I’m proud bears my name.
First, I’d like to thank Harlan “Hal” Clifford. I knew of Hal early in my days as a freelancer with Scribe. He was like the final boss in a video game: if you talked with him, you were either a “boss” yourself…or you were about to be vanquished.
Later, once I became a Tribe member, Hal became my Whole Self guide, and I realized he wasn’t quite the boogeyman I made him out to be. We talked once a month about what I wanted for my work, myself, and my relationships. For over a year, I talked to him about my desire to finish the book. As Scribe’s Editor-in-Chief, Hal knew exactly what to say to encourage me and guide me toward the finish line. Hal, thank you for the continued support and push I needed to get this done.
Next, I’d like to thank Rose Friel, my publishing manager. Even though I work with Scribe and know exactly what goes into publishing a book, it’s still a leap of faith (and a bit nerve-wracking) to hand over a manuscript that’s like your baby. Rose was a faithful partner from the beginning and inspired confidence every step of the way. Rose, thank you for making this process smooth and painless for me.
I’d also like to thank Erin Tyler for her stellar work on my cover. I once heard Erin described as “one of the best cover designers in the world.” I think that’s selling her short, don’t you? I think she is the best cover designer in the game right now. Erin, thank you for bringing your insane talents to my book. I’m forever grateful.
I’m also grateful for Scribe’s leadership—namely JeVon McCormick and Brittany Claudius—for deciding to honor our company’s mission by publishing the books of Tribe members free of charge. For those who don’t know, that’s a $12,000 service they offer to Tribe members who’ve worked with Scribe for at least eighteen months. Seriously, how many companies do you know that do this?
Scribe is special for many, many reasons, but this gracious gift is perhaps the best indication of why I’ll be working with Scribe until I retire: they walk the walk. So, to JeVon and Brittany (and all our other leaders), thank you for this gift.
A lot of people have believed in me since I started working with Scribe, but none more so than Zach Obront. I once said I’d only leave Scribe if Zach left, and I wouldn’t need to know where he was going or what he was doing. I’d just turn in my letter and help out however I could (unless it was hanging drywall or something like that—I would be useless there unless his company needed ad copy written).
While I was a freelancer, Zach brought me into a new offering where I learned to write short-form content under the tutelage of Caleb Kaiser. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if it wasn’t for what Zach and Caleb taught me during the brief time we were all together. About six months after I joined the Tribe, Za
ch became my direct support, and I’ve never had a better boss. Zach is somehow both utterly brilliant and incredibly supportive. How many bosses have you ever heard described that way? That’s right: approximately zero. So, Zach, thank you for believing in me. You’ll never know how much that belief means to me.
Finally, I have to thank Tucker Max. The most challenging part of my job was working with Tucker to craft stories, blog posts, and ad copy for Scribe. I don’t mean that Tucker was challenging—if you know him from his I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell days, he’s NOTHING like that person anymore. He’s not only the smartest person I’ve ever met (by far) but also possesses the rare ability to truly see people and understand what makes them tick. If you’ve been to a Guided Author workshop that he helps facilitate, you’ve seen this superpower firsthand.
So, when I say that working with Tucker was challenging, what I mean is that it forced me to raise my game. Tucker expected me to make that leap from Double-A to the Major Leagues when I got hired. The only problem? I wasn’t quite capable of hitting metaphorical ninety-eight MPH fastballs yet. That said, I was terrified to let Tucker down. He’d gone to bat to get me hired, and I believed I owed it to him to justify that faith. That’s why I was overcome with dread every time I sent him my work to review: I knew it would come back peppered with comments, and in my mind, each line he crossed out translated to an extra layer of disappointment in me.
Looking back now, I realize something: I wasn’t scared of Tucker. I was scared of the writer he was turning me into, one edit at a time. Like a personal trainer, he was whipping me into shape with every “Make this sharp and interesting” comment he left for me in Google Docs. It’s hard to put a number on it, but if I had to estimate, my writing improved 100 percent thanks to Tucker’s coaching, feedback, and edits. That’s not an exaggeration. I’m twice the writer I was in 2019, and Tucker is the main reason I can say that with confidence.
Tucker, thank you for seeing a better version of me when we started working together, and thanks for pushing me—hard—to become that person.
About the Author
Since he was four years old, Josh Raymer has been writing stories. Back then, it was construction paper and crayon drawings. Today, it’s the first two novels in the Silas Ford series: The Devil’s Halo and Fall of the Angels. Josh hopes the story of Silas’s ongoing battle against the forces of darkness will be celebrated and shared by bookworms and reticent readers alike.
In addition to his fictional work, Josh also writes professionally for Scribe Media. His articles have appeared in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and Harvard Business Review. When he’s not writing, Josh enjoys traveling with his wife, Ali, and their son, Paxton. On Sundays, you can find him watching Colts football games with his family and friends. He has three dogs named Clark, Bruce, and Wally (named after Superman, Batman, and The Flash, respectively). You can follow him on Twitter @joshraymer and find his fantasy football takes on The Big 3 IDP Podcast.