by Lisa Hughey
“So you think the enemy has Uriel?” Nora’s face whitened further.
“We must continue to search for him,” Michael commanded shortly.
“Remiel has something larger planned,” Angelina said carefully.
Michael said solemnly, “Everyone must be hyper-alert until Remiel is found and bound again.”
The Council nodded and murmured.
“There is one more matter that requires our attention,” Nora stated baldly. “Raphael the Healer has broken the Law of the Realm.”
The entire council fell silent. As one they turned to stare at him. Michael frowned, his arms crossed over his chest. The rest of the council also looked confused. Except for Victor.
The only noise was the gentle rustle of their robes as they leaned closer.
Rafe shifted so that he blocked Angelina from the view of the council.
“He has had sexual relations with the Angel.”
She flushed as one by one they turned to stare, their gazes filled with horror. Rafe could feel the heat coming from her body. The room broke into a cacophony of sound as they spoke among themselves, gesturing and staring at the two of them.
He wanted the Council to be focused on him, not her. Angelina did not deserve their wrath.
Even Victor, who had agreed to grant Angelina her life back, shook his bald head. The natural light from the skylights bounced off his shiny skull, gleaming in the ambient light.
Rafe stayed silent. There was no defense against what he had done. However he refused to feel badly because Angelina had given him back his ability to empathize, a condition he had lost along the way. And to have lived within her sphere, even if his life was cut short, was far better than to have continued the way he had been existing.
“How do you go from being completely disconnected to...that?” Victor waved at hand at Angelina.
Behind him he could feel the anger rolling off Angelina. Victor was starting to piss her off.
“We need to discuss the judgment,” Nora said.
Rafe nodded silently, content with whatever sanction bestowed on him. He still hadn’t said one word to defend himself. He was saving his arguments for the one thing that mattered. Protecting Angelina.
“Sex with me is the worst action Rafe could take in the Angelic Realm?” Angelina faced the Council.
“There must be consequences,” Rafe said quietly. He laid his palm over her forearm, the gesture meant to be a gentle reminder to hold her temper. But with the tension he felt in her muscles, he might have to stop her physically.
The Council broke out into small conversations as the members argued about those consequences. As the discussion raged around them, Rafe turned to his back to the Council and curled over her, cocooning them in an intimate bubble.
“Please be silent and I will try to spare you from their anger,” Rafe said.
“You want me to just sit back and let you get in trouble?”
“That would be my preference, yes.”
“What if I can’t do that?” Her hazel eyes glowed with passion.
“I am begging you to let me protect you.” He brushed a hand over a stray hair and smiled tenderly. “You are such a warrior.”
“I can’t, Rafe,” she said. “They are making us sound dirty. That is not what happened.”
He nodded. She was right. But the Council did not labor under the directive to accept shades of gray. He only hoped they would grant him a chance.
“It is enough that we know the truth.” He wanted to kiss her, to give himself over to the most intimate act, and bathe in her purity of spirit. But Rafe would spare her the outrage of the Council. He stared into the multi-hued sunbursts of her eyes, and imbued all of his purpose and meaning and love into his gaze.
“What are they going to do to you?”
“It doesn’t matter.” As long as you are safe. “Promise me you will let me deal with the Council. I know the rules and I know their ways. Do you love me?”
She hesitated. “Yes. But-”
He put a finger to her lips. “Then trust me.” He turned around slowly, making sure Angelina was mostly visible but still behind the protection of his body. “I ask to address the Council.”
“As you wish.” His friend Nora was no longer here, for friendship had no bearing in a Council judgment. In her place, Madame Throne, the head justice, inclined her head.
“Angelina Guerisse, Angel, is not guilty of the transgressions you wish to blame on her. She did not willingly consent to break Realm law. I did this on my own.”
The room erupted again.
Rafe held up his palm to stop the chatter. “She has an uncommon ability to heal. We the Angelic Realm would be foolish to lose her talent.” Rafe could see he was starting to lose them. “In the coming war, the Realm needs Angels who can perform miracles. You need her.
While I understand that my punishment will be banishment.” Behind him Angelina gasped. “I request that you spare her any punishment and let her return to Earth.”
“We have not sentenced you yet, Raphael,” Nora replied. “Don’t be so hasty.”
The members of the table conferred with swift, furtive glances at Rafe and Angelina.
“Banishment?” she hissed from behind him.
“You are safe. That is all that matters.”
“Although you sacrificed for...her. This still does not preclude the need for the consequences of breaking the rules.” Victor scrunched his face.
Angelina practically vibrated with the need to speak. But she had promised. Rafe linked his palm with hers. Whatever happened, they would face it together.
It was the Thrones’ duty to dispense justice with perfect objectivity and without fear of pride or ambition. Rafe could only hope that they held fast to those tenets and did not let their feelings get in the way.
“Raphael, you are no longer ascending to the Second Sphere,” Nora’s face was unreadable.
“Fine,” Rafe agreed quickly.
“The Earth and the human realm have been far too removed from the influence of the Angelic Spheres,” Victor said in pompous tones.
Angelina said softly, “And yet you sit here and pass judgment. I’m surprised you aren’t just done with us.”
“Everything that affects the Earth affects the Angelic Realm as well. We live in duality. One cannot exist without the other.” Victor raised his eyebrows as if struck by her temerity. “The Angelic Realm needs to have a more active presence on Earth. I put a vote to the Council that all Archangels are required to spend a portion of their time in the human realm.”
Nora called for the vote as Rafe tried to process what that meant for him.
The ayes were unanimous. The Archangels would spend more time in the human realm. “So, I’ll be descending?”
Victor nodded once.
“Living on Earth.” Rafe didn’t hesitate. “I’ll take it.”
“You don’t want to think about it?”
“No.” Rafe smiled.
“You are most impertinent,” Victor snarled.
He was going to be even more impertinent. “I would ask for permission to perform the Khafi ceremony, if she will have me.”
The Council gasped, literally falling back from their positions at the table.
Angelina didn’t know what he’d just said but everyone in the room was shocked.
“What’s the Khafi ceremony?” The only ceremony she knew was the one that Victor had used to protect her soul from being removed.
“Place your Khafi against his and pledge your love,” Nora said softly. “This will bind your souls together.”
Their souls? Together? “Forever?”
Nora nodded.
Angelina looked around the room. The members of the Council eyed them both with rapt attention. They were not fooling around. He would be ever bound to her. Unable to leave.
“Are you sure?” Angelina had to ask. Couldn’t bear it if he decided to do this and then changed his mind. She couldn’t look away from the
love in his silver gaze. “What about my children? I can’t leave them.”
“I almost lost you once,” Rafe said tenderly. “I cannot go through that horror again.”
“Angelina Guerisse, Angel,” Nora’s voice grew louder, echoing throughout the room. “Do you accept?”
Just a few short weeks ago, she’d thought all she wanted was to be alone. With less responsibility.
But now Angelina realized that what she had always wanted was forever. Raphael, Archangel, healer, stood in a ring of Angelic Realm witnesses ready to pledge just that. She just hadn’t found the right forever before now.
“Yes.” With a shining face, love and trust flowed like a river. He wanted her forever.
A sigh of relief went through the Council.
“Place your khafis against each other.”
Rafe crowded so closely their bodies touched at six of the seven chakras. Crown, brow, heart, solar plexus, navel, and base. Rafe curled his arms around her, sliding one around her shoulders and the other around her hips. “Hold me the same way.”
She complied quickly.
“Raphael, do you vow to protect and honor Angelina’s spirit above your own?”
At that moment, he realized this ceremony was more for everyone else than for Angelina. She knew how far he was willing to go for her. “Yes.”
“Angelina Guerisse, do you vow to protect and honor Raphael’s spirit above your own?”
“I do.”
“It is done.” Nora sighed wistfully. “I wish you happiness.”
“Regrets?” Victor asked as if he just couldn’t help himself.
“Not one.” Rafe kissed her softly, in front of the entire Realm Council. “We found our destiny.”
Epilogue
Three months later
“Dinner’s almost ready,” Brandt shouted from the kitchen. Angelina put aside her Anatomy text book, pushed off the family room sofa and stretched. She wondered what culinary delight Brandt had tackled tonight.
Rafe and Lina were comparing music next to a pile of neatly folded laundry. “Do we have any protein bars? Just in case dinner sucks,” Lina grumbled.
“Your night to set the table, mom,” Brandt said.
Angelina smiled and walked into the kitchen. “I’m on it.”
Brandt and Lina disappeared. Likely so she wouldn’t rope them into helping with the table. Angelina walked into the pantry to look for napkins and Rafe followed.
He curled his arms around her stomach and slid his palms up to cup her breasts through the thin fabric of her dress, nuzzling her neck.
“Cut it out, the kids will be back any second.” She swatted at his hands half-heartedly.
“I talked to Michael today,” Rafe said softly. “They still haven’t found Remiel.”
“Any word on Uri?” No one in the Angelic Realm knew where he was. No one could sense his presence. It was as if he’d vanished.
“Nothing.”
Angelina turned in the circle of his embrace to loop her arms around his neck. “Don’t give up hope.”
“There’s always hope,” Rafe murmured against her lips. “I love you.”
“Love you too.” She was so lucky.
Gently, reverently his mouth worshiped hers, kissing her as if she were on her last breath.
“Will you two get a room,” her sister said from the doorway.
“Sorry,” Rafe apologized with a grin that said he wasn’t sorry at all. But he let go of Angelina and they moved apart.
The kids tumbled into the kitchen as Angelina finished setting the table. They all sat and Angelina took a moment to reflect on each face and give thanks that they had survived. They were all still adjusting to living in a multi-generational, multi-species household. The kids and Rafe had formed a tentative relationship but neither side was taking it for granted.
Moving back to Earth permanently had been a major adjustment. Rafe still had moments where he wasn’t too sure about the human race. So Angelina usually had to do some serious convincing. But he always said the side benefits were totally worth it.
Her heart filled with love. Maybe he’d need convincing tonight.
She needed to study for her exam tomorrow. She’d gone back to nursing school. She continued to heal but she wanted to blend the magic with even more knowledge. And yeah, it was hard some days. Two teenagers, a sister, the house, the bills, school, dealing with her ex, and finding time to be alone with Rafe. But since she’d found her purpose in the wonder of healing, life was one big adventure. Sure some days were hard, but she wouldn’t trade her life for anything.
If she were lucky, they could steal up to the tree house for an hour later.
Under the table, Rafe threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed. As if he knew what she was thinking his gaze shifted to the backyard and the tree house.
Yep. She’d be lucky.
***
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About Lisa
USA Today Bestselling Author Lisa Hughey has been writing romance since the fourth grade, which was also about the time she began her love affair with spies. Harriet and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys later gave way to James Bond and Lara Croft and Jason Bourne. Exploring the complex nature of a profession that requires subterfuge and lies fascinates her. She loves combining her two passions into fiction. As evidenced by her Black Cipher Files series.
Archangel Rafe was her first foray into the paranormal but after spending time in the Angelic Realm, it won’t be her last. At their heart, the Seven novels are about the dynamics of family relationships. But the really hot Archangels don’t hurt.
And recently she’s been immersed in the Stone Family novellas, stories about a blended family of brothers and a sister who have a lot more in common than they realize. But of course she couldn’t just write about family and romance. There are complex plots, bad guys, and suspense too.
Lisa loves to hear from readers and has various places you can connect with her, although, shh, Twitter is her favorite.
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Books by Lisa
Black Cipher Files Romantic Suspense
The Encounter, A Prequel to Blowback
Blowback
Betrayals
Burned
**These books are also available in paperback from Amazon.com
The Seven
Archangel Rafe
Archangel Jed (currently available in the Get Lucky: Seven Steamy Romances box set)
Archangel Zach…Coming Soon
Snow Creek Christmas
Love on Main Street: A Snow Creek Christmas – 7 Author anthology
One Silent Night (from Love on Main Street)
Miracle on Main Street (standalone novella)
Family Stone Romantic Suspense
Stone Cold Heart, (Jess, Family Stone #1)
Carved in Stone (Connor, Family Stone #2)
Heart of Stone (Riley, Family Stone #3)
Still the One (Jack, Family Ston
e #4)
Jar of Hearts (Keisha & Shane, Family Stone #5)
Queen of Hearts (Shelley, Family Stone #6)
Family Stone Box Set (Stone Cold Heart, Carved in Stone, Heart of Stone, Still the One, & Jar of Hearts)
Cold as Stone (John, Family Stone #7)…Coming Soon
The Angelic Realm
Angelic Realm: Three Spheres, Parallel Universe
First Sphere: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones
Thrones: Dispensers of Justice without fear of pride or ambition.
Second Sphere: Dominions, Virtues, Powers
Virtues: Warriors of the Second Sphere, their duty is to ensure that the cosmos remains in order.
Third Sphere: Principalities, Archangels, Angels (humans)
Archangels: Guardian angels of Earth. Each of the Seven have a specific dominion.
Angels: Humans on Earth with a little extra. They wield the power of the Vis viva.
The Banished Realm:
Remiel: Leader of the Grigori, the fallen angels. The eight Archangel who fell.
Grigori: Angels who are fallen because they lusted after humans and mated with them to produce hybrid half angel/half human beings.
Nephilim: Hybrid half angel/half human beings who brought destruction to the earth. Presumed dead from the flood.
Glossary of Terms
Banished Realm: The fallen angels are banished here. Trapped by Uri’s power. (Beneath Ley Lines)
Gabriel: The Archangel, Announcer and Herald. His weapon is a diving rod.
Grigori: Angels who are fallen because they lusted after humans and mated with them to produce hybrid half angel/half human beings.
Healer: A human angel with healing powers. Reports to Rafe.
Human angels: Humans with extra powers, typically descended through their mother’s line. They report to different Archangels based on their powers.