by Kate Hall
“What’s up?” I ask, slinging my bag over my shoulder.
Gabriel’s eyes pierce mine, and I shiver. He’s always been a bit off-putting, but right now, he looks especially dangerous.
“Let’s speak in my office,” he says with a frown. I shrug and follow him, sitting in one of the chairs across from his desk. He sits in the leather chair behind the desk, setting his elbows on the mahogany surface and twining his fingers together.
“Is there something wrong?” I ask. I just have to be casual. The only thing he could possibly need would be for me to pay more attention in class.
He blinks slowly, then reaches in his blazer’s inner breast pocket.
“Is this yours?” he asks, and the last thing I’m expecting is in his hand.
My black crystal phone.
I swallow, and my heart beats harder than ever. I just have to stay calm. Maybe he doesn’t know what it is. It’s not angel technology, after all.
Although I guess that’s part of the problem. My palms begin to sweat, and I keep my hands rested in my lap.
“What is it?” I ask innocently. His eyes instantly harden, and the door shuts behind me. I startle and turn, and Azrael is standing behind me, a grim expression on her face.
“There’s no point in lying, Avery,” she says. Her tone is filled to the brim with disappointment, and her eyes betray her broken heart. I swallow.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My voice comes out as a strained breath, though. It would be obvious to anyone that I’m lying, and these two are ancient beings who’ve lived through the spark of humanity.
Gabriel sighs and drops the black crystal on the desk. It clatters, and I tense like I’ve just heard a gunshot. “We found this in your room,” he says. Then, his jaw ticks. “The first time I caught you with the demon,” he spits, “I left you a warning in hopes you would confess.”
My heart sinks. It hadn’t been another student, but Gabriel all along. Why hadn’t I considered this to be a possibility? Strategy-wise, it makes sense. It’s a lot easier for him to prove my guilt when he’s been spying on me throughout the term.
He continues, “When you didn’t, I left you a final note. You have been given three chances, Avery, and you’ve failed us at every single turn.”
I gape, opening my mouth to speak, but I don’t have the words. There’s nothing I can say. I’ve been found out. The Archangels know.
Azrael’s hand rests on my shoulder. “I don’t want to do this,” she says. Before I can ask what she means, the world goes dark.
Chapter Nineteen
There’s a prison in the bowels of Theaa Academy. I had no idea it existed until now, as I await my trial. The bars are made of solid titanium, and my cot is nothing more than a thick slab of marble. My wings are bound to my back by an enchanted silver chain not unlike those used to restrain demons, and they strain to break free.
Does Nicolai know what happened to me? Do Gabe and Huỳnh? I shiver at the thought of what they might be doing to me. Will I be killed again and sent to purgatory? Will I be imprisoned for eternity?
Will I be sent to Hell to be tortured?
I try to keep my breathing steady, try to keep my thoughts from spiraling. Maybe I should have forced Desireé to tell me what they’d done to her in Hell. At least then I’d be prepared.
The waiting is the worst part.
Finally, after three days of sitting around expecting my punishment, the door directly across from my cell opens. I half expect it to be Desireé, here to rescue me and take me away. Maybe we could hide out on Earth forever, hiding from the angels so that we never get punished.
Instead, though, it’s Azrael. Her expression is different from the last time I saw her. Before, it had been filled with pity and sadness. Now, though, it’s hard and cold.
“Avery,” she says.
I walk up to the bars and wrap my fingers around them. “Azrael, please,” I say. I know that begging won’t get me anywhere, but I have nothing left to give. “Cain switched us. Desireé isn’t supposed to be in Hell. I only did it because I knew she was innocent.”
This is a half-truth at best. Even if she’d done something to deserve Hell, I don’t know that I could have washed away my love for Desireé as easily as I claim. My time with her would have happened if she’d been the worst demon of all.
She might be, I remind myself. Marcus’s words course through me.
She shakes her head. “It’s too late for that.”
I close my eyes and nod. I knew that there was a risk in seeing Desireé. After everything, though, I know for a fact I would do it all over again. As long as Desireé is safe, I won’t regret my actions. I won’t regret loving her.
“What’s gonna happen to me?” I ask.
She frowns. “We haven’t gotten to that yet.”
I evaluate her face, looking for a motive and coming up short. “Then why are you here?”
It can’t be anything good.
She sighs. “The demon…Desireé, has been brought into custody.”
I suck in a breath. “You can’t,” I say, my voice going from hopeless to desperate in an instant. “Please, I’ll do anything.”
“She’s a demon, Avery. How do you not understand this? Demons must be eliminated.”
Tears openly fall down my cheeks, plummeting to the floor like rain. “Please,” I gasp. “Please.”
It won’t help. Of course it won’t.
Azrael shakes her head and walks away.
Why would she come here just to tell me that? I tug at the bars, but they don’t so much as rattle. There’s nothing I can do.
Chapter Twenty
A rustling in the night wakes me. This must be it. I take in a deep breath, then sit up and look around.
A mumbled, “Shit,” draws my eyes to the floor.
“Nicolai?” I ask.
He’s lying on the ground, trying his hardest to bring his wings back under control. He must have tripped over them in the cramped space.
“Shhh,” he says, rushing up to the cage bars. He uses them to pull himself back to a standing position. “We only have a few minutes.”
“What are you—” before I can ask, though, he covers my mouth.
“They’re going to kill you. Soon. Huỳnh is distracting them, but they’re on the way.” He swallows and looks around. “They’ve brought in Michael.”
The name sends shockwaves through me. Michael. The Archangel Michael. The biggest, baddest angel there is.
“What are you gonna do?” I ask.
He looks over his shoulder, but nobody seems to be coming.
Yet.
“What I have to.”
He takes my face in his hands, and, for half a second, I think he’s going to kiss me again. I very nearly recoil in preparation. Instead, though, he mumbles a few words in Enochian.
“They’re going to keep Desireé for the end of term ceremony,” he says after he’s finished his chanting. My mind begins to turn to fuzz. I have to repeat his words in my head to process them. What has he done to me?
“But what—”
He shakes his head. “There’s no time. We’re going to try to get her out, but if we can’t…”
He doesn’t continue. I blink, and his face begins to turn blurry. What’s happening to me? I try to speak, but my tongue is too heavy.
He presses his lips to my forehead affectionately. “It’ll be okay,” he promises, his words slurred like he’s speaking to me underwater.
At that moment, an impact slams into me, knocking the breath out of me like I’ve been hit by a truck.
The screeching of metal and rush of water overtake me, and I fade away.
Chapter Twenty-One
When I open my eyes again, I have to blink away the light. It’s nothing like the mystical brightness of Theaa Academy, though. It’s an artificial fluorescence, and I lift my hand above my face to block it out. When I take a breath in, I choke on the tepid air filled with chemicals and death.
“You’re awake,” someone says, their relief palpable. A hand wraps around mine, and I snap my head to the side.
What the hell?
His face is somber and worn, but sober. Something I haven’t seen in a long time. Years. Still, I know the face instantly. A face I thought I’d never see again.
“Dad?” I say.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I’m on Earth.
Earth.
I’m not dead. This isn’t purgatory.
Nicolai’s Enochian words begin to solidify in my head, but I can’t be certain of the translation. It had all happened so fast, and my brain is still a bit mushy.
“We thought we’d lost you,” Dad says. His words don’t make sense, and his words are filled with grief.
I shake my head. “No, I don’t…” But there’s nothing I can say. The words just don’t come to me. One minute, I’d been in the dungeon in Theaa Academy, and the next, I was here. In a hospital room, my father by my side.
How is this even possible? I’ve been dead for nearly a year!
Huỳnh’s words fade into my mind. Time works differently in Heaven.
Had Nicolai sent me back? To the moment I died? Am I alive?
Am I...human?
I sit up, expecting my head to rush. After all, I’m in a hospital. I should feel woozy. But I don’t. I feel great.
I stand up, half expecting my once bad ankle to bring me crashing to the ground, and Dad reaches out like he’s going to grab me, but he seems unsure of his actions. “Uh, I don’t think you’re supposed to move.” He seems desperate and confused, though, so I rush to the restroom and stare at myself in the mirror.
My hair is back to its normal dark blonde color, but it’s still got that wavy sheen that it had when I was in Heaven. I don’t have any bandages on, and there isn’t even an IV in my arm like I’ve seen in movies.
Would a needle be able to penetrate my skin? A human needle surely wouldn’t be able to hurt an angel.
I turn around, and the back of the paper dress is open from the waist up. There’s an upside-down V shape on my back, almost like a bruise.
My wings.
They’re still there, somewhere. Somehow. But I have no idea how I’d even summon them on Earth. I whisper a spell I have memorized by now, and my sword materializes in my hand, its pearlescent handle reassuring.
It had been real. It had all been real.
And I’m still an angel.
A knock sounds at the restroom door.
“Avery, sweetie,” a female voice calls gently, “I need you to open the door.” I spin around and look at the weapon in my hand. I whisper another Enochian spell, and it disappears.
If Nicolai had been able to send me back in time, would he have done the same with Desireé after rescuing her? Is she somewhere nearby?
I open the door, and a tall woman with golden-brown skin and dark hazel eyes stares down at me, a gentle smile on her full lips. She’s wearing a doctor’s outfit, scrubs and a long white coat. She even has a stethoscope around her neck.
“See? That wasn’t so bad,” she says. She rests a gentle hand on my upper arm. I have to find Desireé. Now. “Let’s get you back in your bed. You had quite a fall.”
I shake my head. “I can’t—”
But another interruption stops me. Another woman enters the room, this one wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I recognize her.
Why is Desireé’s mom here? Is Desiree in a room near mine? She looks totally shell-shocked, and she rushes over and pulls me into her arms, something Dad hadn’t done. The difference between my distant parent and Desireé’s affectionate one is stark.
After a moment, her body begins to tremble.
“Are you okay?” I ask, pulling away. She’s clearly not. Now that I have the chance to study her, her eyes are red and puffy, and her hair and clothes are distressed. “What’s going on?”
She looks at the doctor, then at my dad, but she doesn’t make eye contact with me.
“Sweetie, we need to talk,” Dad says.
Every part of me freezes, and in that moment, I know exactly what he’s going to say before he says it.
“Desireé is dead,” he says.
They’d failed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I’m trapped in the hospital for another two days, although it’s unclear why. I have zero injuries, and Dr. Nassar doesn’t perform any tests on me, other than asking me how I feel. Multiple times. It’s frustrating and impossible. I have to get out of here, find out how to get to Desireé and save her, but I don’t actually know how to teleport anywhere. That’s a skill I haven’t learned yet. How am I supposed to do anything productive if I can’t fly or teleport? All I can do is summon my sword, but that’s not helpful when I can’t even find the enemy.
Dad is uncharacteristically attentive, and it frustrates me to no end.
The day I’m finally given the go-ahead to check out, Dr. Nassar comes into my room while Dad is signing paperwork.
“How are you feeling?” she asks for what must be the billionth time this week.
“Fine,” I say.
She frowns, her face going from friendly to intimidating in a snap. She glances at the door. Dad is at the nurses’ station, signing page after page of release forms.
“And how do you plan on rescuing Desireé from Heaven?”
It’s like all the air has been sucked out of the room. I dart my eyes to the door after making brief eye contact with her, but it’s closed now. What the hell is this?
“What are you talking about?” I ask, trying to play it off.
Dr. Nassar rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly feeling more exposed than I ever have. If this woman knows about the war, about my situation with Desireé, then how can I trust that she has my best interests at heart?
She sighs. “If I wanted to send you to purgatory,” she says slowly, as though I won’t be able to keep up otherwise, “I would have had plenty of chances before now.”
My throat closes up, and I swallow so I can speak. “Which side are you on?”
She smirks and sits in the leather chair my dad has been spending a lot of time in. “People like you and me don’t have sides.”
I want to tell her that’s untrue, but I’m not sure if I can. I’d been wrongly placed in Heaven, and then I’d been cast out for pointing out the unfair system. And there’s no way I’d ever be accepted by Hell, not without extreme measures.
“Fine,” I bite back, standing up. “I don’t have a plan. I have no idea what to do, no idea where they’re even keeping her.”
Dr. Nassar raises an eyebrow and waits.
“Seriously! I know that demons are kept in a warehouse somewhere on Earth. But they could be anywhere!” I ball my hands into fists. I want to scream, want to hit something. Now there’s someone here who knows the situation, but I can’t express myself to her properly.
Just then, the door opens, and Dad peeks back in. “You ready to go home, kiddo?” he asks. He looks horribly drawn, and I almost want to hug him for the first time in years. Almost.
I grit my teeth and nod.
“Well,” the doctor says, standing. “Don’t let me keep you. I just need you to come back for a checkup in one week. Otherwise, my door is always open.”
Dad smiles wearily and shakes her hand. “Thanks for everything, Dr. Nassar,” he says.
She smiles, the expression wicked rather than friendly, and looks at me while holding out a business card to Dad. “Please,” she says, “call me Lilith.”
Copyright © 2019 Kate Hall
This edition published 2019
Cover Art © 2019 Kate Hall
Published by Lost Window Publishing
Neosho, Missouri
United States
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. c
opyright law. For permissions contact:
[email protected]
eBook ISBN: 9781950291182
Jacket Design by Kate Hall
Interior Design by Kate Hall
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
About the Author
Available Books:
Join me at KateHallBooks.com for more content!
Chapter One
I am about to meet with Lilith. My leg bounces as I sit in the waiting room, eyes darting around nervously. Dad is sitting awkwardly next to me, somehow still sober even though my accident was nearly a week ago. He hasn’t gone without drinking this long in years. Not since Mom died, at least.
“What time is the funeral?” I ask. Desireé’s service hadn’t been announced in the papers, only the fact that she died. Her mom doesn’t want everyone in a hundred mile radius showing up, mainly because the only funeral home and cemetery in town can only hold a hundred or so people.
He watches my face carefully, still waiting for me to freak out, I presume. I haven’t cried since he told me that Desireé, my girlfriend, is dead, and it seems like it’s starting to worry him.
“Five,” he says, then chews his lip. Just as he’s about to open his mouth to speak, a nurse with a long beard and teal scrubs calls my name.
I stand up and rush to the door. I don’t want to have an emotional conversation with my suddenly concerned father. It’s not going to help anything, and, for now, I need to focus on rescuing Desireé from the angels that have taken her captive.
