by Delia Latham
So.
He turned the knob and shoved the door open. “Did I hear something about somebody praying for me?”
Behind him, the quiet click of the closing door boomed like a gunshot in the answering silence. Corbin took in David’s amused grin and Aria’s horrified grimace and realized he had no idea what to say next.
2
Aria mulled over the events of the morning as she drove from the church to Jewels for the Kingdom, where Pia would keep her busy the rest of the day.
Her cheeks burned with a flush of hot embarrassment even now, recalling the youth minister’s deliberate crash of her supposedly private conversation with Pastor David. Of the three of them, only Pastor had seemed unaffected by Corbin’s sudden appearance. After his initial, over-bright outburst upon entering the room, even the interloper himself seemed lost as to what should happen next.
Pastor grabbed an extra chair, planted it as close to Aria’s as it would fit, and pointed Corbin into it. “Sit.”
Only after the younger man hesitantly obeyed did the pastor roll another chair into the three-way circle for himself.
“What am I going to do with the two of you?” He wagged his head back and forth, but couldn’t quite hide the twinkle of humor in his eyes. “You’re my strongest ministers for the youth in this church, but this animosity between you has got to stop. It’s not the kind of example the young people need.”
Aria lowered her gaze, shamed by the truth in that remark. Beside her, Corbin squirmed in his chair. Apparently, Pastor David’s straightforward approach pierced through even the oversized, big-city ego the youth minister had brought all the way to Angel Falls.
“Look, kids, I don’t have a clue what’s up with y’all, and to be honest, I don’t care. I just want it to stop.”
“Pastor—” Aria tried to speak up, stung by his inability to see in Corbin what she saw so clearly.
He held up one hand and shook his head. “Not now, Aria. If you still feel the need to discuss it a week from today, we’ll get together again. For now, however, here’s what I want to see happen.” He leaned forward, propped his elbows on his knees, and clasped his hands together. Then he pointed both index fingers at Aria and Corbin. “The two of you are going to spend thirty minutes of your prayer time every day this week focusing entirely on praying for each other.”
Corbin’s head snapped up right along with Aria’s. “What?” They spoke in complete unison—probably the one and only time they’d ever be in agreement.
The pastor’s smile encompassed them both. “It’s hard not to care about someone you’re praying for. I don’t mean just saying words; I think you both know that. Sincerely, from the depths of your souls, you are to pray for each other. Every day. Starting today.”
He stood. “In the meantime, try not to step on each other’s toes, if you can help it. I have better things to do than play referee.” He rolled the chair he’d borrowed back to where it belonged and disappeared into his office, leaving Aria and Corbin alone.
When she finally found the courage to look up, she found his translucent blue gaze fixed on her in what appeared to be genuine confusion. Seeing he had her attention, he lifted one shoulder in a tiny shrug. “I’m in the dark right now. I don’t have a clue why you dislike me so much. But I’ve been taught to obey those who have the rule over me, and while I’m attending this church, that means Pastor David.” He stood and rolled his chair back to its place. “So I guess I’ll be praying for you this week, Aria.”
And he walked out of the office.
Aria had sat with her head bowed, feeling about half an inch tall.
By the time she pulled her Mustang into a parking slot next to the dilapidated blue sedan Pia Myers stubbornly refused to replace with something more eye-appealing, she’d worked herself into a nervous tizzy. She pushed through the door, eager to absorb the serene peace she always experienced in the large, neo-modern room that displayed Pia’s jewelry designs in minimalistic, innovative settings.
Instead, she was greeted by Pia’s disembodied voice, which sliced through the silence of the shop with uncharacteristic sharpness. “Aria, I hope that’s you. You are late!”
Aria froze. “Pia?” Her voice sounded half-frightened—which she kind of was. Pia had never snipped at her before. The whole world seemed off its center beam today.
“Well, who else?” Pia’s head poked up from behind a nearby counter, where she’d obviously been rooting through a cabinet full of tiny gold boxes. Her tousled hair bespoke the mad effort she’d made to find whatever it was she sought. A pair of almond-shaped eyes sparked with green fire as she glared across the room. “Are you going to stand there all day, or come help me—” She broke off and confusion clouded her stormy eyes. “Help me...find…that thing?”
“Just a sec.” Aria hurried into a smaller storage area, where she stashed her purse and pulled in a deep breath before returning to kneel next to her pastor’s wife. “Sorry I’m late. David needed a couple of extra things done before I left. He sent his apologies.”
She hardly knew how to approach this new version of the fun, vivacious woman for whom she loved working every weekday afternoon. The two had become close over the past months, forming a deeper bond than the typical employer-employee relationship. They were friends.
Except right now, Pia neither looked nor acted like herself. A chill snaked its way down Aria’s spine as she captured the other woman’s hands and held them in a firm grip.
“Pia. What’s going on?”
For about half a second, pure, undiluted rage zipped across the lovely green of her friend’s eyes. Then it was gone, and Pia’s entire body slumped.
“Aria! Oh, honey, I’m so sorry! I don’t know what came over me.” Her hands trembled in Aria’s grip. Tears welled up in her eyes along with a massive dose of confusion and fright. “What am I doing?”
Aria forced a light giggle. “Well, I think it’s safe to say that, one, you’re working way too hard. And two,”—she raised a rueful brow and pointed her chin at the disorganized mess of tiny boxes and sparkling gems strewn all over the floor—”you’ve been on quite the treasure hunt. What in the world are you looking for?”
The moisture in Pia’s eyes overflowed and ran down her cheeks. She gently pulled her hands from Aria’s grip and covered her lips with trembling fingers. “I have no idea.” Her gaze swung from one side to the other, taking in the mess she’d made behind the counter. “Dear Lord…am I losing my mind?”
****
After giving her a tight hug, Aria shooed her rattled boss into the back room, away from the chaos she’d created. She set herself to returning order to the room, all the while praying beneath her breath.
Something was definitely not right in Angel Falls.
While walking from her car to the door of Jewels for the Kingdom, she’d noticed the same heaviness in the air that she’d experienced earlier outside her Heart’s Haven cottage. The strange, prickly air had been much less noticeable on her walk into the church and back. So…pockets of overpowering humidity within the same eco-region? That seemed unusual. No…unheard of, in Aria’s experience. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the weighty air was more than a weather anomaly.
Something about it felt…malevolent.
Another chill traveled the length of her spine just as the phone rang. “Sit still, I’ve got it.” She hurried across the room, calling out to Pia on the way, and hoping her voice didn’t reflect the panic starting to take root in her soul. “Jewels for the Kingdom. This is Aria.”
“Hi, Aria!” A bright sliver of light sliced through the darkness in Aria’s heart and a tiny smile tickled her lips. Though it wasn’t one she recognized, something pure and sweet in the female voice on the line soothed her troubled senses. “My name is Zoe Manning. I have a very important message for Pia. Is she available?”
“Yes, of course, Zoe, just a moment.” She punched a button on the phone, hung up the receiver and hurried down the hall.
/> Pia sat hunched over the small dining table in the kitchen area, her head buried in her arms. Aria touched her shoulder. “Are you up to taking a call?”
“Who is it?” Pia’s muffled voice sounded nothing like it should.
“Zoe Manning. She said she has an important message—”
Pia jumped up and scrambled for the phone on the wall. “Lady Zoe! Oh, sweetie, I’m so happy to hear from you!” Tears overflowed Pia’s big eyes and made twin trails down her cheeks.
Aria turned, intending to allow her boss a bit of privacy, but Pia held up a hand. “Excuse me, Zoe. Aria, please stay. Just go lock the front door and come back. I have a feeling we both need to hear this.”
Puzzled, Aria nevertheless hurried through the shop and locked up. Pia’s voice sounded stronger by the time Aria slid into the seat across the table, and the smile the Pia offered as she reached across to squeeze Aria’s hand seemed more relaxed and familiar.
“OK, sweetie,” Pia spoke into the receiver. “I’d love to just sit here and listen to your voice all day, but Aria is back, and we need…something. I’m putting you on speaker now.” She pushed a button that opened up the line for Aria to listen in. “Aria, Zoe is a dear, sweet friend and sister in Christ…and she has a connection with God unlike anyone else I know.” Her gaze met Aria’s and held it as she spoke to Zoe. “Zoe, honey, what have you got for us?”
“Ladies, Zack and I have been battling Satan on your behalf for days. But I knew this morning that I had to call in some back-up. Things in Angel Falls are about to take a turn for the hellish, and you’re going to need every piece of spiritual armor you can scrape together to keep the church afloat. And…” She paused.
Aria heard her draw a deep breath.
“Now, Miss Pia, there is no time for panic, but you should know that the enemy is going to target David in particular. I don’t have a lot of details, but I do know this—you need to put together the strongest prayer team you can, starting…well, sometime last week, I think.”
Zoe’s voice took on a deep urgency that communicated itself, even over the phone line, and squeezed Aria’s heart in a painful vise-grip.
“This battle will not be lengthy, but make no mistake—it will not...be...easy. The enemy is swooping in hard and fast. Dark forces are seeking to destroy that amazing foundation of love in Angel Falls. Without it, the church there is lost, and Satan knows that.”
Aria couldn’t quite break eye contact with Pia. She saw, in the slightly uptilted eyes, something that was almost certainly reflected in her own: Fear. Stark, unbridled terror.
Zoe paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was quieter but no less direct. “Girls, I need you to hear this. Are you listening?”
In the silence that followed, Aria realized the woman actually wanted a reply. She sent a silent question to Pia, who nodded and spoke in the strongest voice Aria had heard from her today. “I’m listening, sweetie.”
“Good. Aria?”
“I—I hear you.”
“All right. Do not allow fear to have its way with your spirit. It will weaken your prayer force. The enemy is strong and determined. But hear this, my sweet sisters—God is stronger, and mightier in battle, and He’s already sent in an entire league of angels to fight with you.” The sweet voice suddenly took on a note of pure steel, and Aria felt the force of that iron spirit zip through her own. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!”
3
Aria went about her duties that afternoon in a quiet, meditative mood, but something in her spirit tossed in restless anticipation of a coming storm. From the other room, Pia’s voice drifted in. She was on the phone, setting up a round-the-clock prayer team. Each church member she brought into the circle was made aware of what was going on and asked to spend an hour of prayer each day in The Falls Tabernacle prayer room. Based on Aria’s descriptions of the thick atmosphere she’d encountered everywhere except at the church that morning, they’d decided their safest battleground would be the church itself.
Aria requested the prayer time immediately following her morning hours in the church office. She could walk into the sanctuary and spend her hour there each day before driving across town to work with Pia.
She peeked in on her boss once, and a glance at the list on the table surprised her.
“Pia…you have David on the team?”
“Of course!”
“But…I thought…”
Pia’s smile was a little strained. “Sweetie, if David is going to be targeted specifically, he needs to be aware of the invasion and part of the defense force.” She lifted one shoulder in a little shrug. “Besides, I happen to know my husband is a very strong prayer warrior.”
“I know he is. That makes sense.” Aria scanned the list and bit at her lip. “Mr. and Mrs. Hart?”
Pia actually chuckled. “Oh, yes! No prayer team at The Falls Tabernacle is complete without Uncle Andy and his…friends.”
Aria eased into the chair across from her boss. “You’re talking about angels, aren’t you?”
Pia studied her for a moment, and then nodded. “Yes.”
“You believe he sees them? That he actually talks to them?”
“I do.”
Aria drew a deep breath. “That’s good enough for me.” She pointed to the name above her own on the list. “Corbin Bishop?” Despite her best effort, a note of displeasure colored her tone.
Pia hiked a dark, wing-shaped brow. “You have a problem with Corbin praying with us?”
“No! No…of course not. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to question your choices.”
Pia reached for her hand. “Honey, what is going on between you and Corbin? He seems like a fine young man to me. And handsome…” She picked up her list and playfully fanned her face with it. “Oh, my word!”
Aria sighed. “Yes, he’s handsome. And I’m sure he’s nice. I just—oh, Pia, I don’t know. He’s done nothing at all to make me react the way I do, but—” She shook her head. “I rear up like a kitty in a dog kennel any time he wanders into my range of vision.”
Pia laughed outright.
Aria rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. But I just can’t seem to help it.”
“David said he had a little”—Pia gnawed her lip, and then an impish grin lit her face—”well, a little chat with the two of you this morning.”
“Yeah.” Even to herself, Aria sounded like a disgruntled child. “We’re supposed to pray for each other every day for a week.”
Pia grinned and gave Aria a proud thumbs-up. “That man of mine is more than just a handsome face, girl. He’s about as smart as they come!”
Aria shook her head and stood, but she found a smile dancing at the corners of her own lips. “Praying for each other? That’s your idea of ingenious thinking?”
“Why, sweetie, of course it is! Prayer is always the best answer.” She picked up the phone and ran a finger down the list to the next name. “And right now I’ve got more prayer business to take care of myself.”
****
After his unexpected morning discussion with Pastor David and Aria, Corbin spent the next couple of hours feeling a bit subdued, even fighting doubts as to whether he’d been wrong to come to Angel Falls. The move had felt so right in the beginning, but now….
Then he’d received a strange call from Pastor David’s wife. She mentioned a call she’d received from a missionary friend in Haiti, and asked him to be part of a prayer team she was putting together to battle an oncoming spiritual storm. They would all meet at the church tomorrow night for further information.
Corbin agreed without hesitation, but not because he had any great belief in this kind of thing. Spiritual forces usually referred to things like angels and demons, mostly indefinable, completely intangible entities. Things about which he had serious doubts.
He believed in the church as a whole—of course, otherwise his entire profession would be a sham. But to Corbin, “the church” meant the people who gathered insi
de physical frameworks of brick and mortar to worship together. Those people certainly underwent periods of discouragement and trial. And if the people at Angel Falls Tabernacle were going to be deluged by some kind of mass oppression, then of course he wanted to hold up the hands of the weary and encourage the faint of heart.
He could get on board the prayer train. But he had a hard time relating to the idea of “spiritual warfare”—and those two words had been key players in Pia’s hurried explanation.
He smiled. She’d referred to the round-the-clock prayer effort as a “prayer wheel,” and even given the prayer team a name. Prayer WINGS—Prayer Warriors in God’s Service.
Corbin was still smiling about Pia’s fanciful terminology when he turned out the light in his Heart’s Haven cottage and climbed between the sheets. Maybe the meeting tomorrow afternoon would eliminate some of the surreal atmosphere the woman had created with her weirdly worded telephone plea.
Mere seconds later, he tossed the sheet off his clammy body, vaguely uneasy about such overpowering humidity this early in the year. But the day had exhausted him, and he fell asleep without much thought toward the unseasonal weighty air.
He jerked his head sharply from a spike of hay that poked with painful insistence at his face. Whoever thought up those stupid movies where folks slept on piles of hay like they were the next best thing to a feather mattress had, without question, never spent any time on a hay bale. The one pressed against his cheek stank of mold, and sharp fingers of the dry stuff tickled his nostrils and made him want to sneeze.
Lower on his body, it chaffed and itched against his bare skin. His old man had once again stripped him right down to his chonies before spread-eagling him face down on a “pallet” made of six or eight bales of hay. His wrists and ankles burned from repeated efforts to pull free of the strong rope looped around them and tied to four metal stakes driven into the ground.