by Tamsin Baker
I reached out for Tabitha and lay a hand on her shoulder. “You have been my saviour for over three centuries, Tabitha,” I said. I knew my words were stilted, probably something she did not want to hear. But I could not imagine my life without Tabitha. I needed her more than I realized, more than I was willing to admit to myself.
“Thank you, Gabriel,” she said. She cleared her throat and clapped her hands together. “But we are going to lose this war if we aren’t careful.”
“What war?” Simone asked, looking at Tabitha with a furrowed brow.
I sighed. This was not a discussion for humans even ones with magical abilities.
“There has always been a war between good and evil,” Tabitha said, giving them a modified truth. “The Demons fight on the side of evil, and with their growth of power, comes a blow to our side. This has been going on for centuries but I believe it’s finally reached its climax with the born of the saviour. We can’t let the Demons win the war, because we have no idea what they’ll do if they succeed in overcoming us all.”
Kadie shifted as she sat up straight. “Not to be selfish in any way, but what about me?” she asked. “Am I to die like a normal human?”
Kadie looked to me and I looked to Tabitha for the answer. I didn’t know.
Tabitha pulled herself up straighter just as my son burped, and I knew the answer wouldn’t be good. “My mother died at a normal age for a human of her era,” she stated. It wasn’t exactly an answer but it was enough to know what that meant.
“Which was when, exactly?” I asked.
“1310,” Tabitha replied, a slight twitch at her shoulder belying the pain she’d gone through in seeing her mother die so soon and living without her for so long.
Kadie slumped in her chair, pain rippling over her face. “And your father?” she asked.
Tabitha turned away as she began to rock our child. “Gone also,” she admitted. “At the hands of a Demon. Very soon after my mother died.”
A shiver coursed up my spine at the images those words invoked in me.
We rarely lost a Fallen Angel to a Demon unless there was a group attack, or the Angel was compromised in some way. Heart-sick at the loss of Tabitha’s mother, perhaps? Was such a thing even possible?
“Tabitha?” I managed to ask, though the question I wanted to know couldn’t be voiced.
She stared straight at me for long moments, as though she was able to read my mind. “You know that Angels love with all their hearts Gabriel,” she said.
Tears threatened my eyes as I looked away.
I did know that, and I’d once thought my love for Teramea would be my undoing. But as I looked at my son in Tabitha’s arms and Kadie resting, alive and smiling, I now knew what true love was.
Kadie caught my eye and she pulled herself up. “I need a shower and some food, and we need a plan,” she said, ever practical in times of doubt. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not really interested in sending my newborn son off to war at all, let alone without me.”
Fire burned in my gut as my blood began to pump around my body with renewed heat.
I did not know what was going to happen. I did not know if we were going to win. All I knew was we would fight – even if it came to our death.
Kadie put a hand on my arm and I turned around to her.
“What do you think about the name, Nathaniel?”
Love blossomed in my chest and I let a smile spread across my face. Hope was not dead.
“I think it is just... perfect.”
THE END of part 2.
FIND THE NEXT INSTALMENT here: https://geni.us/avenging