by Leia Stone
Mom’s home. Those two words hit me with the realization of what had happened. I’d gotten my mom out.
“I’m going to need more batter. Especially if we want to take some to Bernie,” my mom declared.
“Oh, I’ve hooked Bernie up,” Lincoln replied, eyeing the piping-hot waffle coming out of the chipped red maker, my mom brought from home.
I looked at my boyfriend. “Oh really?”
He chuckled. “I told Raph about the situation. He said it’s no problem for Bernie to come to the cafeteria and eat after the students have eaten their meals—before they’ve put everything away.”
My mom met my eyes, and I could see she was totally planning our wedding in her head.
“That was very sweet of you, Lincoln. Thank you,” she told him.
I smiled, getting on my tippy toes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”
Lincoln’s cheeks were red, and he mumbled a “you’re welcome” to both of us.
My mom held up a dish towel. “Hang on, you call him Raph? The Archangel of Healing?”
Lincoln chuckled. “Yeah, it felt weird at first, but he asked us to. He doesn’t want to seem above anyone. He’s a friend.”
He is a friend. A very good friend.
My mom started to tear up, looking down at the floor.
“Oh, Mom, what’s wrong?” I crossed the kitchen to be by her side.
She wiped the tears and patted my hand. “Nothing. I’m just… happy. I haven’t been happy in a long time.”
Silence descended upon the kitchen. I knew she’d had it hard in Demon City after I’d left, then doubly hard when Mikey was having his issues. Now I could see the stress it had caused her. Close up, she looked tired with bags under her eyes, hair limp and dull.
“Lots more happy days ahead, Mom,” I assured her.
Lincoln stepped in front of us. “Absolutely, but only if I get one of those waffles right now.”
My mother’s laughter filled the space around us, and my chest felt lighter and lighter as each person joined in.
This, our little family moment right here, was one of the happiest days of my life.
Chapter Twenty-One
The nightmares didn’t stop.
Six weeks of never-ending nightmares. Hell. Demons. Lucifer.
It was awful, and I’d turned into an insomniac because of it. I did anything to avoid sleep now—coffee, energy drinks, going for late-night walks. I just didn’t want to be sucked back into that place. It was making me scared to close my eyes. It all felt so real.
And to top off that shit storm, my mom couldn’t find a job. Apparently there was no room for a Necromancer in Angel City—other than tending to dead flowers and decorating cakes, but those jobs were given to Necros who grew up in the city, and graduated from the academy. My mom having been a raiser of the dead in Demon City was akin to having a criminal record.
The one good thing going on in my life at the moment was Bernie. He was thriving. He’d put on some weight, looked clean and happy with his daily showers and shave. Raphael had even given him a small job folding sheets and towels. After the school maids washed them, they’d drop them off at Bernie’s trailer, and he’d fold them. He said it gave him a purpose, but the only drawback was trying to keep Maximus off the clean folded sheets.
Now, I was being called to Raphael’s office between lunch and battle class. I didn’t know what it was about, but I hoped I wasn’t in trouble.
After knocking on the door, Raphael called out for me to enter. Pulling the big heavy door back, I stepped inside to see him standing at his desk.
I smiled. “Hey.”
Please don’t be in trouble for something.
“Hello, Brielle. How are you healing?” Raphael asked kindly.
Okay, that didn’t seem like something you’d ask someone in trouble.
I rolled out my shoulder, which had healed weeks ago. “Great, sir. Thank you.”
He chuckled. “Oh, come on. It’s coming on two years now that we’ve been friends. You can call me Raph or Raphael. All the other students do.”
I sighed in relief. “So, I’m not in trouble?”
He frowned. “Of course not. Why would you…? Oh, right.”
He seemed to just now realize he’d called me to his office in the middle of the day.
“I wanted you to come by because the Fallen Army is giving Lincoln a promotion, and it’s a surprise. I know he’d like you there when it’s announced. It’s this Saturday. He thinks he’s going to be giving a fellow comrade an award, but really I’ll be promoting him to captain.”
My heart nearly burst with pride. Lincoln was one of the most deserving people I knew. He took his job seriously, and was completely dedicated to the war beyond the city’s walls.
“Of course I’ll be there.” I smiled so wide, that I thought my face might crack.
Raphael beamed, and his wings glowed a honey color as his mood seemingly lifted.
“Perfect! You’ll need to be there at six sharp. I’ll have a table for you and his friends, Noah, Darren, and Blake. Lincoln’s been through a trying few years, and having you all there to cheer him on will mean the world to him.”
He had been through a trying few years, and the fact that Raphael had asked me to be at his table meant the world to me.
“It’ll be amazing,” I assured him and eyed the door. I needed to get to battle class.
“Before you go…” Raphael took in a deep breath and stood, crossing the room in elegant strides that would make a cheetah look clumsy. “Lincoln told me about the nightmares.”
Great. Lecture time.
The nightmares were absolutely horrible, and now when I drifted off, I was so full of fear that I’d jerk awake mere seconds later, heart pumping with adrenaline. Maybe Lincoln was right to tell Raphael.
“Sit down. I’ll give you a note to excuse you from class,” Raphael offered.
I sighed and dropped my bag, collapsing onto the couch.
“Why do you think you’re having the nightmares?” he quizzed, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of me, wings outstretched behind him. He was so casual, it felt like we were just two old friends having a little chat.
I didn’t keep many things from Raphael. Mostly, he knew about my dark magic whip and everything that had happened with Sera in Hell. He was easy to talk to, and never judgmental.
I fingered the pendant around my neck. It was a new one Mr. Claymore had made for me to replace the cracked one, but it didn’t work as well as the first one did. I hadn’t been able to produce anything even close to a Celestial orb.
“I think when I took the necklace off to get Sera… my dark magic took hold and… I dunno, I guess it’s in control now.” I needed to talk to someone about this, and Raphael was the best person to share my true feelings with.
“Wrong,” he admonished. “You are in control, always. You just need to work on a few things.”
I groaned. “Like what?”
Raphael gave me one of his loving looks, the one that usually preceded some hard-to-hear advice.
“That dark magic you house, dies out quickly in the presence of Celestial light, which you are consumed with.”
I chewed my bottom lip, my heart thumping wildly. It reminded me of what Michael had said, that I had the brightest light he’d ever seen in a human, but that the darkness was akin to a moth being attracted to a flame. “Then why is my dark magic still… alive and well?”
If it couldn’t be sustained in the presence of the Celestial light, then what the hell?
Raphael looked up at me sadly. “Because you constantly feed it with resentment and anger. So much resentment, it’s making you sick. It’s feeding the powers you inherited from the Dark Prince,” Raphael stated, staring at my chest like some alien was about to pop out.
I frowned. “Resentment at wh—”
“Me, for not healing your father. The world. Angel City. God. Everyone who let you down, and let your father die.”
&nb
sp; Raphael’s words ripped open my chest, a physical pain pinched my heart, and I gasped. Tears started to trickle down my cheeks as every repressed emotion I’d held bubbled to the surface.
“Why didn’t you?” I shouted suddenly. “You’re the archangel of fucking Healing, and you didn’t even touch him!”
My words turned to short sobs and I realized how badly I’d wanted to ask him. He was there in the hospital when my father had been undergoing the initial tests. He was always at the hospitals, praying for people and trying to comfort them, but not once had I heard of him healing anyone.
Raphael looked at the floor. “For purely selfish reasons. If I heal anyone in a miraculous way, I can’t go home.” The way he said home was heartbreaking, like he longed so much to go back to where he came from. Mr. Claymore had alluded to something similar, but to hear Raphael say it was crazy.
I sank back farther into the couch.
“What?” That was asinine. Once again, I wanted to inform him that he was the Archangel of Healing. How could he carry that title if he never actually healed anyone?
Raph shook his wings a little, as if shaking off old memories. “It is my penance for starting the fallen war.” His voice was so soft I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
“Wait… y-you started the war?” Now I was sitting forward so far, I was afraid I might fall off. “I heard in fallen history class that Lucifer tried to break into Heaven with his demons, and you and the other angels met them halfway, stopping them.”
Raphael nodded. “Partly true. Lucifer first came to Earth with his demons, and started to terrorize the humans. I… left my home without permission and intervened. Against free will.”
My mouth popped open. Free will was super important to the four archangels. The way Raphael said it made it sound like he’d committed a heinous crime.
I was enthralled. “Then what happened?”
Raphael ran a hand through his hair. “My best friends followed me down here, and fought by my side, thus starting the fallen war.”
Whoa. “But if you hadn’t come down here, humanity would be completely enslaved by Lucifer!”
Raphael arched one eyebrow slightly, like maybe that wasn’t the truth. “Lucifer was once my friend. Did you know that?” he asked me.
Now that did shock me. “I knew he was an angel too once.”
Raph nodded, staring out the window, seemingly lost in old times. “I should not have robbed humanity of the spiritual development they would gain from fighting Lucifer on their own, for they are more than capable.”
His words gave me chills. Humans? They’re the weakest race alive.
“No. They’re not weak.”
Freaking mind reader.
“But you were helping!” I defended him.
He sighed. “Part of me was helping, but part of me wanted to get back at my old friend for leaving. Show him how powerful I was, how capable of protecting the humans I was. I fought out of anger and resentment.”
“Oh.” I sat back. Yikes, that didn’t sound good. It sounded quite familiar, actually.
He shook his head. “And so to prove his power, instead of the dozen or so demons he’d brought up to Earth that night, Lucifer unleashed thousands, and we fought. We infected humanity, and it was all my fault.”
I slid off the couch and knelt before the fallen angel. His whole body was sunken in, his expression defeated.
Grasping his hands, I looked into his deep blue eyes. “I forgive you.” Those words seemed to unlock something in my chest, and a sob racked me from head to toe. “For my dad, for the war, for all of it. I forgive you.”
His face contorted as he seemingly held back tears. Then the angel’s arms came up and embraced me in a hug. I suddenly felt lighter, as if a fifty-pound weight I’d been carrying all this time, had finally fallen off.
When we pulled back, I saw we were both crying. I laughed and wiped my eyes. “I have so many more questions, so many things I don’t understand.”
Like if the other side, or Heaven, was so great, then why did they come here at all?
Raphael chuckled. “There is nothing I could say to answer those questions that your earthly mind would understand fully. It’s hard to comprehend on this side of the veil.”
The veil. They’d referred to that in my fallen history class. It meant while I was alive, I wouldn’t understand. When I died and crossed the veil to the other side, all would be revealed, or some philosophical shit along those lines.
“Okay, one more question.” I held up a finger.
Raphael smiled. “Okay.”
“Is reincarnation real? Because growing up we had a dog, Pepper, that drowned. Yet, not a year later we got a new puppy, and it had all the same mannerisms and personality. I swear it was the same dog, so we named it Salt.”
Raphael chuckled good-naturedly. “Yes, of course reincarnation is real. You think you can figure it all out, and learn your soul’s lesson in one tiny human lifetime?”
Whoa. My mind was blown.
‘This is intense. Ask him if Michael has a human wife,’ Sera commented. I nearly jumped, having forgotten she was with me.
“Does Michael have a human wife?” I blurted out the rumor about the most popular archangel.
Raph’s eyes glittered. “Are you going to keep my answer confidential?”
My mouth popped open. “He does?”
The archangel nodded. “And a daughter.”
What! “How old is she? Where do they live? How long have they been married? Is his daughter human or—”
Raphael’s belly laugh stopped me in my tracks. “I think it’s time you got back to class.” He stood swiftly, pulling me up by the hands as he did.
Damn, I was so close to learning all of the answers to life’s most sought-after questions.
Raphael patted my shoulder. “Some of life’s most satisfying answers come from things we learn ourselves.”
Ugh. Boring.
My eyes bugged suddenly as a new thought came to me. “Was my dad reincarnated? Is he a kid walking around somewhere on Earth?”
Raphael smiled again and shrugged. “Probably not. He’d want to wait for your mother before reincarnating again, since they’re soul mates.”
The wind was knocked out of me at that simple yet sweet declaration. Are. He’d said they “are” soul mates, not “were.” Like my dad wasn’t really dead.
“Of course,” I muttered, trying to hold my shit together. I’d cried way too much for one visit.
I grabbed my bag as Raphael scribbled a note for me. When he handed it to me, he beamed. “Brielle, may you sleep soundly tonight.”
And I did. I slept without any dreams at all, just a deep, restful sleep, and a knowing that the darkness within me was no longer being fed.
It had actually retreated.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It was Friday morning, the day before Lincoln’s big shindig, and I awoke to a grinning Shea hanging over my bed with a note.
“Geez! You scared me.” I shrank back into my pillow as her psycho grin ramped up a notch.
“This was slid under our door in the early hours,” she squealed.
I sat up, yawning, and plucked the envelope from Shea’s grasp. It was some thick fancy cardstock, and when I pulled it out, I grinned, recognizing the handwriting immediately.
What: The most epic, random date night of your life.
When: Tonight. 7.
Why: Because I love you.
“Am I stupid smiling?” I asked Shea, who was peeking over my shoulder.
She nodded. “Totally.”
I sighed. “Why is he so perfect?”
Shea shrugged. “I don’t know, but Noah could take some notes in the romance department. His idea of a date night is watching old Predator movies, and winking at me while we eat stale popcorn.”
I chuckled. “But you’ve finally had sex.”
She swooned and fell on her bed. “Finally. And it’s amazing, and I think we’re going to
win the sex Olympics.”
I laughed so hard my stomach started to hurt. “How am I supposed to get through classes today knowing Lincoln is taking me on some special date!” I stood and started to rifle through my closet, looking for the perfect outfit to wear tonight.
“I’d say we should ditch, but today we learn to shoot guns in weapons class, and no way in hell am I missing that,” Shea declared.
“Totally,” I agreed.
“And if I accidentally shoot Tiffany in the foot, oopsie,” Shea added.
The Tiffany war was in full effect once again. She was constantly calling us nasty names, and trying to get in the way of our successes. Recently, she’d been part to helping Shea fail an important magical exam. That girl was downright evil.
“All right, I’m gonna shower. I’ll see you at breakfast,” I told my bestie.
She nodded and picked up the note Lincoln had sent. “You guys are lucky to have found each other.”
We were. I focused on that thought all day.
Lincoln had rented a limo! He’d also hired private security to shadow us to the fanciest restaurant in Angel City.
As we waited for the check, he peered at me with his crystalline blue eyes. “One more stop before we head home, okay?”
We could make ten more stops before home. I didn’t care. This was the best night of my life. After he paid the bill and we climbed back into the limo, I watched as it headed away from the city I knew and into unfamiliar territory. Our SUV of security guards was right behind us.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
It was fully dark out now, and the streets and highways were hard to make out, especially since I hadn’t exactly traveled around Angel City much.
He grinned at me devilishly. “You’ll see.”
Ugh. I wiggled in my seat. Patience was so not my virtue.
When the limo slowed and pulled up to two very large, extremely familiar gates, my throat tightened with emotion.
Lincoln’s hand slid across the seat and rested in mine with a squeeze. We were at the cemetery where my dad had been buried. I hadn’t been there in years, not since we’d laid him to rest. The limo seemed to know just where to go.