I wanted to ask her what would happen if I were to save Tristan and not Abigail, but I knew the answer myself. I’d personally help D destroy the world if I lost Abigail. Because what would be the point in living if I had nothing to live for? D was right: whatever choice I made, I would lose.
“I’ll give you a hint,” she said. “Two lives you hold. Choose for blood and save one, or choose for pride and lose them both.”
I replayed D’s words in my head.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked, but all D answered with was laughter.
If I were told to choose between Tristan and Abigail when I was first assigned to them, I’d have chosen neither. If I were to choose between them last week, I’d have chosen Abigail. Now I didn’t know whom to choose, because whatever choice I made would hunt me forever.
If I chose Abigail, the world would lose its hero and savior. Frankly, it fell in my favor, there would be no Tristan around to stop me from hunting and killing humans and angels. But I knew Abigail would be miserable if D followed through with her plans for war. She’d always cry for Tristan, and she’d blame herself for being saved instead of him. Her unhappiness would make me unhappy.
Abigail finally spoke, and her voice was a tiny whisper. “Gideon, save—” Abigail didn’t finish what she wanted to say because D snapped her fingers and tied her mouth shut.
I couldn’t stand it anymore. “D, I’m not—”
Abigail started screaming at the top of her lungs.
D shouted over Abigail’s screams. “I told you not to move!”
“Stop!” Tristan shouted. “Please, stop. Don’t hurt her anymore. I’ll cross over!”
“No, Tristan, don’t you dare!” My eyes met Tristan’s for half of a second. He looked apologetically at me, and without another word, he crossed over the red line and disappeared.
I shouted, “Tristan, no!” But it was too late. He was already gone.
“D, you—” I started, but before I could utter another word, I crashed onto my back. Abigail screamed, and the graveyard started burning.
HEAVEN CAN WAIT
“Make no mistake, when the trumpets sound.
I won’t be among the people running, praying, or crying.
I’ll be the one who looks up and yells,
‘Shut the hell up, and get it over with!’.”
Melody Manful
Tristan was really gone. It should have been the best news I’d ever heard, but it wasn’t, because I knew I’d only suffer from his absence.
I got up from the ground with difficulty and looked around me at the fire that was spreading through the gravestones.
“Calista, let her go!” Valoel shouted.
At the sound of Valoel’s voice, I turned to see her standing in front of D. When I saw Valoel, my mouth fell open. Both her hands were burning with flames. I understood then where the spreading fire came from.
“Madalong,” D said casually, as if greeting an old friend. “Nice of you to finally show up.”
Calista? Madalong? What the hell was going on?
I didn’t recognize my sister’s voice when she spoke because it sounded so cruel. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Calista,” Valoel threatened.
“What are you going to do? Kill me? We both know you can’t,” D said with a wicked smile.
“You make me tell you one more time to let her go, and you’ll wish you could be killed.”
Valoel’s rage-filled voice sounded unfamiliar to my ears.
“Put her down, you say?” D asked.
Within less than a second, Abigail was falling. I barely moved an inch before Valoel stopped Abigail’s body in midair. A second later, Abigail was floating inside a shimmering ball of light. Valoel hurled a flame at D, smashing her deep into the earth behind her. I started to rush over to Abigail, but Valoel pushed me back.
“She’s unconscious. The light will protect her, but if you get near it, you’ll burst into flames,” Valoel told me.
I looked up at Abigail. The floating sphere encasing her lit the whole graveyard. The fire was still spreading, and now more voices screamed and called for help. Dirt and smoke choked the air.
I turned to my sister. I barely recognized her because the sister I knew was annoying and a know-it-all. This one beside me looked lethal. I realized now she had been pretending all those years to be someone else.
It was at that moment that I started to see the truth, and the truth was that Valoel was Madalong, the most powerful angel alive, which meant she was hundreds of years older than me, not to mention immortal. I wanted to ask why she and my parents hid her true identity from me. Did that mean my parents were the Elders? Were we the immortal family from Guardian Paradise? I had a lot of questions, but I knew now wasn’t the time to ask them. Frankly, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to ask them.
Valoel looked around her. “Where are we?” she asked.
“Are you sure you want to know, Madalong?” Valoel’s real name felt foreign on my tongue. I was angry that I had been duped.
“Moon, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but—”
I shouted at her, “Gideon! My name is Gideon!” I felt like an exploding volcano, hatred burst inside my chest.
“I know how you might be feeling at the moment, but—”
“You lied to me, Valoel!” I shouted as the voices around us crescendoed.
“I wanted to tell you, and I tried. I’ve…” She paused and looked around her. “Where’s Tristan?” she asked, turning to me.
My eyes met hers, and then I looked down, ashamed.
“Where is Tristan?” she demanded again.
I was about to answer when D’s laughter rang throughout the graveyard. With difficulty, she inched closer toward Valoel and me.
“I won,” D said, sounding happy, really happy. Her face shone with the kind of happiness that made her face brighten, although it was dripping with blood. “I finally won.”
“You didn’t win, Calista. We have—” Valoel stopped abruptly. “No, it can’t be…” She began shaking her head in disbelief. Whatever D’s thoughts were, it appeared as though Valoel was reading them, and she didn’t like what she was hearing.
D started laughing. I looked up at the sphere where Abigail lay. She was still unconscious.
“Gideon, where is Tristan?” Valoel asked.
Either Valoel didn’t believe the obvious, or she wanted a different answer than the one she knew to be the truth.
“He…” I turned to the red line. “He was…I tried to save him…”
“Tried?” Valoel asked me with pain filling her voice. “Gideon, you watched your twin brother die!” she shouted at me, and then immediately, tears started running down her cheeks. I, on the other hand, went into shock.
“I did what I could…wait, brother?” I could barely speak the words. “Twin brother?” Someone definitely owed me answers. “Twins?” If we were twins, it would mean that Tristan and I were Sun and Moon, and that was why the angels said we were the reason the world was balanced. Tristan was Sun, and I was Moon. And at the moment, it seemed the world would have to live without its Sun for quite some time.
Valoel wiped her tears and said, “Calista, it’s me you want to hurt. Take me in exchange for Tristan,” Valoel offered, heading straight to D. I now understood why D brought Tristan to the red line. Immortals couldn’t be killed, but they could cross over the red line willingly, and D used Abigail to force Tristan into crossing over.
D laughed, “Madalong, taking Tristan wasn’t even the best part.” She snapped her fingers, and a brown scroll appeared. I’d seen the scroll before, and I knew it carried the names, places, and dates of the souls who were about to die.
“This,” D said as she displayed the scroll, “says Abigail Cells will die in exactly thirteen days.” D laughed harder. “Now, Madalong, let’s press play and watch as your little brother destroys the world for me, when he loses the one he loves.” D’s laughter grew lou
der and more sinister, and Valoel shouted something I didn’t hear.
I had heard there comes a moment in everyone’s life when one wants to speak but the words wouldn’t come. In that moment, one would give up anything just to manage a simple shake of the head, or even a whisper.
This was not one of those moments.
“Over my dead body!” I yelled and then I lunged for D. She screamed and twisted just in time. I flew past her and the ground shook as I slammed onto it. Rage filled my body as I shot back into the air. I turned in circles, searching for D. When I finally caught a glimpse of her, I launched a fireball, but before the flames could explode on her back, she stopped it and turned the flames into smoke. I watched D, aghast, as she turned and fled into the darkness. Thoughts of betrayal flooded my mind and wrenched my heart as I gave way to chasing her fading figure deeper into the darkness.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Silence please. Lights please. Cue the applause.
Now, let the gratitude show begin!
This book has given me a new life. And I wouldn’t have gotten that life without the love of the almighty God, my family, and my friends. I’d like to take this opportunity to give special thanks to my mother, Joyce, who heard this story, first. To my brother, Isaac, and my sister, Rodny, who had to listen to me read Dominion aloud over and over again. I’m sorry, and I love you guys.
To my awesome dad, Michael, thanks for believing in me and always being there. To my amazing, incredible editors Jennifer Moorman and Lauren Barron, you two rock! Jennifer you made Dominion the book it is now; without you I’d be lost, and words can’t explain how thankful I am. Lauren, thank you so much for jumping aboard this project and making it amazing. I might have said thank you twice, or maybe three times, but here it comes again … Thank you!
Also to Steve Fortosis who spent hours and hours on this book; thanks for your understanding and guidance. Pamela Gifford, thanks for giving it to me. You’ve been a huge help! Kate Koller, you were a great help.
To Andrey and Daniel, who did the front and back covers. I’m positive I’ve bothered you guys more than enough with my un-creativeness misunderstanding in the art department, so thank you guys for taking what was inside my head and creating a beautiful cover for this book. I’d also like to thank everyone who made this possible; I’ll forever be grateful. Lastly, to my awesome friends, this book is for you all. I know you all want to know what’s in my head, so here’s a grimace .
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I felt like I shouldn’t say this but I have to – I just couldn’t help myself.
Guardian Angels.
I’m sure all of you have heard about them one way or another. Some of you believe in the great unknown, and others don’t. Well, that’s the beauty of life to have the will to believe in what we want to believe. This story is just a creation of my imagination; it’s what I imagine guardian angels do when they are sent to guide mankind. My late grandmother ☹ was a priestess; so growing up, the Bible has been a great part of my life. Guardian angels watching over us were just one of the many stories she told at night, although she didn’t mention there were guardian angels like Gideon (that part was my own, an infection from watching too much TV – )
It was what she said about guardian angels once that became my inspiration for this story. All her guardian angel stories described characters like Tristan, and that was how the inspiration for Tristan was born.
I know each one of you have your own thoughts and understanding of what guardian angels are. This story isn’t supposed to take your own beliefs away, but simply entertain you from my point of view.
Table of Contents
Dominion
PROLOGUE
Midpoint
Dominion Page 24