A bright light emitted. Everyone turned towards the brightness. Adrianna pulled out Metatron’s Orb.
“Are we close?” I asked.
Adrianna shook her head. “No, this is strange. We haven’t moved, yet the orb is getting brighter and brighter.”
The atmosphere darkened, and clouds like dark tendrils came down upon the Earth. The sky exploded with light as twenty silver winged angels hovered above us.
Lightning flashed across the sky as the dark clouds swept over the buildings. The wings of the angels glowed against the gloom.
“Nash,” I said, “do you see Raphael?”
“No,” he said. “But you need to hide. Get behind those ruins.”
A few feet behind us were the ruins of a fallen building. I snaked through the crowd of demon warriors and knelt behind the stone debris. I peered over through an opening in the stone and watched as an angel flew down in front of Nash.
My breath caught. The angel was a head taller than Nash. His long, white-blond hair flowed in the wind. His gray eyes glared down at Nash and reflected off the light of his sword that was bathed in cerulean flames.
They knew we were coming. That’s why Uriel had his weapon.
Uriel’s fiery, blue blade met Nash’s. “Hello, Nasriel,” he said.
Nasriel?
“How did you know?” Nash asked.
“Did you think Andromeda wouldn’t deliver the message to me?” asked Uriel. “You left her broken. Yet still, she tried to save her brethren. While you stand here a traitor.”
Of course, Nash wasn’t a demon. He was a fallen angel, and he was fighting his brothers.
Nash pushed him back, and Uriel sprung into the air and flew above us. Nash ran along the street and jumped over the debris and ruins of buildings. Uriel darted down to meet him. As Uriel landed in front of him, Nash met his blade. Sparks flew in the distance, and steel on steel echoed through the battered streets.
Uriel wrapped his wings around him as he spun. Nash’s blade hit upon the wings and sent sparks like a tire rim along pavement.
His wings were armored. They were dipped in Arcadian Steel.
My eyes darted to the others. Adrianna and Chandra fought back to back against an angel with silver hair. Kiran, Tom, and a few other demons battled angels not far from where I hid.
I glanced at the battle between Nash and Uriel.
Uriel flew to the top of one of the buildings. Nash climbed the metal stairway to the roof.
He was trying to wear Nash out, but when Nash reached the top, he didn’t even seem winded. The battle continued as their blades met once again.
Nash pointed his sword and impaled the steel into Uriel’s shoulder. He walked forward, sinking the blade in deeper, but Uriel grabbed him by his shirt and threw Nash into the air. Nash still held his sword tight, and the blade sailed from Uriel’s body as a spray of silver blood flew like splashed paint before it hit canvas.
As Nash was still in the air, Uriel lifted his blue sword. Uriel’s blade went through the center of Nash’s body. As he lifted Nash with his sword, Nash’s feet dangled from the ground.
Time stopped.
“No,” I screamed and bolted toward the building, too far away. I’d never make it through the throng of fighting angels. I wasn’t thinking straight. All I saw was red. I’ll make every last one of the them fall.
I stepped over the bodies of the fallen and dodged the blows of the fighters. No one aimed for me, yet.
An angel stepped in front of me as he battled with one of the demons. I touched his skin as I passed, not stopping to see his wings burst into flames, but I could hear his screams. They followed as I ran. They’d follow me forever and in my dreams to haunt me.
I raced through the crowd and tripped over the body of one of my allies. He lay in a pool of dark blood. His eyes were frozen, fixed on the sky. Alex. Tears painted my face, and I rubbed them away, smearing dirt across my cheeks.
As I scrambled to my feet, an angel landed in front of me and faced me. I withdrew my blade but hadn’t managed to swing before his steel-clad foot kicked me in the stomach. All the breath came out of me in a rush of air. My sword clattered to the ground.
The angel raised his blade above me.
This is it. I’m going to die, and my soul will be destined for Hell.
Right as the thought entered my mind, another angel flew down between us. His back was to me. He held a demon blade probably picked up from one of the dead.
His blade sparked against the rebel angel’s, and they turned to the side. I could see his face.
Adriel.
A thin, silver fabric covered his body from the neck down, and his wings were bathed in the same silver as Uriel’s. He was fallen-proof.
Adriel cleaved the angel in the leg, and the limb rolled out from under him.
“I have to get you out of here.” He offered me his gloved hand.
I took his hand, and he lifted me up. He put his arms around me.
“Wait,” I said, “Nash is up there with Uriel. He’s hurt.”
“Nash.” Nash’s name was natural on his tongue. Did he know him? Adriel looked toward the building as I pointed.
His wings unfolded, and he lifted me into the air with him.
I held my breath as I looked at the ground so far below us. A shiver went through my body. Only the warmth of Adriel’s arms gave me any comfort.
His feet cracked the concrete of the building as he landed and released me.
Uriel was gone.
Nash lay on the ground, blood escaped from the large wound in his chest. The blood wasn’t red or silver, but black.
“Nash.” I ran up to him.
Adriel stepped closer to us.
Nash looked at him as the glow of Adriel’s wings engulfed us.
“Get away from me.” Nash grimaced.
“You need to be healed,” said Adriel, “or you’ll die.”
Despite Nash’s protest, Adriel knelt and pulled off his glove. He touched the center of Nash’s chest. Light emitted from his touch.
I pulled up Nash’s shirt. “There’s no wound,” I said.
“He’ll be sore, but he’ll live,” said Adriel. “We have to go.”
“Get your people out of here,” he said to Nash as he pulled me up from the ground and back into his arms.
“Don’t you dare take her,” Nash shouted. He tried to stand, but he stumbled.
I didn’t want to go, but I didn’t have a choice. Adriel clasped me. The air whooshed around us as his wings lifted us from the ground. Nash’s form got smaller and smaller until he disappeared in the distance.
The Redeemer
TODD stamped the paper and handed it back to the small woman. “Move to aisle four and fill out form A3.”
“But I’ve been waiting here for seven hours,” the woman said. She had died in her nightgown, poor thing. Her gray hair frizzed around her face. Her pale blue eyes were stern and impatient. If she obtained a contract, that would all change. Todd wouldn’t be able to recognize her. She could look anyway she wanted. Most people chose to be young again.
Todd, like many people, thought he would want to look like a celebrity or someone ruggedly handsome. But when he got here, all he wanted was to look twenty again. He was thirty-four when he died: automobile accident. He spilled hot coffee in his lap as he drove to the boring job he hated and swerved into oncoming traffic.
“They said my husband was here. He died eight years ago, but I’d believe it, the old bastard. He used to kick the dog, you know, and boy, did he have a mouth on him. Cursing is against God.”
Todd fought not to roll his eyes. His first day on the job, he might have comforted a woman like this, told her that she would be with her husband soon, and that it was such a tragedy that either one of them had to die. But Todd had seen thousands of women just like this one, always looking for their husbands. Most men died before their wives. A lot of wives assumed their husbands went to Hell.
“You’ll have
to move along, ma’am,” Todd said.
The woman narrowed her eyes at him, but thankfully she moved along and left Todd to his boring job.
The intake office was beautiful on the outside like a medieval gothic castle with seven walls surrounding it, but inside it looked like the DMV: cold white walls, laminate tiled floors, and workers that were bored past death.
He idly wondered if Heaven’s intake office was like this: endless lines of people waiting to find out how they would spend eternity.
When he was alive, Todd used to do data entry for Flex Global. At the time, he thought that was the most boring job in the world.
He spent his day in an office much like this one while he was at a computer, typing in words and numbers into an excel spreadsheet. After a week, he stopped caring what those words and numbers meant.
What he failed to realize was that that job was temporary. What he was doing now, this was forever.
“Next,” he called.
A tall man in a black, hooded cloak stepped up to Todd’s desk. Todd looked up at the man. His face was shadowed by the hood. He had an odd presence about him, something lingering and ominous.
Looks like I’ve got myself a serial killer today, Todd thought. Although the idea of this didn’t amuse him. He had seen more old ladies, but many serial killers nonetheless. Enough that the idea of them bored him only slightly less than the old ladies.
“Form, please.” Todd held out his hand to receive the man’s form and move him along.
When the form wasn’t forthcoming, Todd looked up at the man.
“I need information,” the man said in a low voice.
“Form,” Todd said.
The man put his hand down on the table. Pinched between his two fingers was an insect a little larger than a watermelon seed with orange stripes along its back. “This insect doesn’t have a name because it has yet to have been discovered by modern man. The Egyptians used it to torture their enemies and get confessions. If I let it go, it will burrow deep beneath your skin and lay eggs. Those eggs will hatch, and even more of the little critters will crawl beneath your skin. It won’t kill you, of course. But you’ll have to tear the flesh from your muscles to rid yourself of them.”
Todd blinked. Was this guy for real? “Sir…”
“Do you want to test me?” His hand moved closer to Todd, and Todd flinched.
Being in Hell was one thing. But, being in Hell with a parasite crawling beneath your skin, unable to sleep, was quite another.
Todd cherished the time when he got to sleep. It was his favorite part of the day. He still dreamed that things weren’t as mundane as they were. It gave him a bit of momentary hope in the morning which he appreciated, although it quickly faded the moment he walked out the door.
“What do you want?” Todd asked.
“Information. I need to know if Lydia Chen has been processed.”
Todd went to his computer and searched. He wasn’t going to find anything. The Records Department had been slacking off since 1997, or perhaps even earlier than that. That’s just when Todd got there. “I’m not seeing anyone by that name.”
“What about her married name: Lydia Palermo?”
Todd typed. “No, not there either. Look, sir, if you’re trying to find your family, you’re not alone. It’s one of the first things people try to do when they get here. Sometimes, they get lied to. This Lydia, she might not be here. She might be in Heaven. I’m sor…”
“If she’s dead, she’s here,” said the man. “What about Robert Palermo?”
“I can’t sit here searching through all your relatives. Now if you would please just hand me your form.”
The man let the bug go. It raced toward Todd like a magnet. Todd shrieked, and a hand slammed down on the table. The man smashed the bug before it could reach Todd. He left the line.
Todd stared at the bug flattened against his desk. Its guts were splayed in crimson and black.
NINETEEN
ADRIEL’S arms protected me, like a winter coat, from the chilly air that whistled around us. We were far from the abandoned city. What had Adriel been doing there? That angel would have killed me. Could it really be that Adriel planned to deliver me to Raphael?
So many bodies littered the city’s cold ground. If we couldn’t take down an Archangel, what was the point? What if they came to every battle? What’s more, they had their weapons. They were on to us.
Adriel hovered in the air and sank to the ground. A cabin nestled in the woods not far from where we stood.
Adriel tucked his wings and walked toward the cabin. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll make you some tea. You must be freezing.”
I followed him into the cabin. It was the size of a dorm room with a sofa and a kitchenette off to the side. I sat down on one of the bar stools at the kitchen peninsula.
Adriel searched inside the cabinets. Most of them were empty. He found the tea. He fumbled around the kitchen until he found a pot which he filled with water and put on the stove. He sighed as if the whole ordeal was more difficult than fighting Archangels.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have anything here to eat,” he said. “I’ll get some food for you tomorrow morning. The sofa unfolds into a bed so you’ll be more comfortable.”
“I’m not staying here,” I said.
“Raphael will find you if you leave.”
“What do you think is stopping him from finding me here?”
Adriel turned to me with fierceness in his eyes. My heart leapt but calmed quickly. No threat tainted his golden eyes. “I’ve been trying to protect you,” he said. “You ran away from me and made a pact with Lucifer. Possibly the worse thing you could have done.”
“Worse than Raphael finding me?” I challenged.
“The Devil is not a cartoon character with horns and a tail. Lucifer is evil.”
“Take me back to Sheol.” I folded my arms. “If you don’t, Nash and the others will find me. I’ll go back anyway, and you won’t be with me.”
He hesitated at that. The thought of not being with me pained him. I could see it in his eyes. But he barely knew me. Maybe he was promised something in exchange for keeping me alive as Lucifer promised to return my soul if I completed my task.
“I bet you had a lot of trouble sprinkling salt in the snow,” I said. “You can’t keep them away from me.”
“I’m not going to hand deliver you to them either.” Adriel looked out the window above the sink.
“Will you look at me?” I shouted.
Adriel pulled himself away from the window. His golden eyes were trained on me. He was so tall, he looked ridiculous hunched over the sink like that.
“I know Lucifer’s a liar. I know she might not keep her end of the deal she made with me, but I need to do this. I’m not letting Raphael kick my parents out of Heaven. They deserve better than Sheol. People die every day, good people. I’m not going to let Hell be their only option.”
Adriel’s eyes softened like smooth, melted gold. He was beautiful, but every time I looked at him I couldn’t help but be reminded that beautiful creatures can do terrible things.
“Alright,” he said. “I’ll take you back, but I’m coming with you.”
Could he do that?
I didn’t know how Lucifer would feel if I brought an angel with me into Sheol. It had to be against the rules, but I was more worried about what Nash might think. For some reason, Nash and Adriel hated each other, and I had a feeling it went beyond simple angel versus demon hate.
After all, Nash wasn’t a demon. He was a fallen angel.
But so far, all the fallen angels I had seen had bones protruding from their backs where their wings once were. Did that mean that someone sawed Nash’s off? That would certainly explain the wounds. I cringed. I doubted the process was like pulling off a fingernail, probably more like sawing off an arm.
ADRIEL flew over Fengdu, China. The town nestled at the foot of a rolling, green hill. Set into the hill was a white tower with a f
ace carved into the anterior.
“Fengdu is a transitory place,” he explained. “Many souls stop there on the way to the afterlife.”
“Like ghosts?” I asked.
Adriel’s feet touched the stone steps, and he released me into the alley. The shadows receded away from the glow that surrounded Adriel. He glowed brighter in the Arcadian Steel armor than he did in regular clothes.
“Disembodied souls,” said Adriel.
“Yeah, ghosts,” I said.
Adriel shook his head.
We walked down the paved streets until Adriel stopped outside a small building with a green roof. The four corners of the roof sloped up to the sky, and a sign hung by two lengths of rope. I couldn’t read the Chinese characters.
“What does it say?” I asked.
“Miss Jiao’s Tea House.”
“What are we doing here?”
“We came here to pass over.”
My skin prickled. “Pass over means die,” I said.
Adriel frowned.
“It’s a euphemism,” I said. “It means die.”
“Why can’t humans say what they mean?” he asked. “We need to pass over into Sheol. Why would anyone say pass over when they mean die?”
“Because death makes us uncomfortable.” And sad.
We went inside. The wooden interior made the room feel warm. Flat mats and tables that you could only reach if you sat on the floor were situated throughout. On the long, narrow table in the back was a tea kettle. Steam issued from the kettle, and it smelled as if tea had been freshly brewed.
A woman, shorter than me, walked from behind the red partition that covered the back door. She had smooth, black hair and olive skin. She looked to be in her early twenties.
“What are you doing here, Seraph?” She folded her arms.
My jaw dropped. She could see him. She could see Adriel, an angel, standing next to me.
“Who’s she?” the young woman asked.
“Her name’s Lia,” said Adriel. “She’s like you.”
I raised an eyebrow at Adriel.
“No one’s like me,” said the young woman.
The Wings of Heaven and Hell (The Arcadian Steel Sequence Book 1) Page 21