Adryel placed one hand over her mouth as she stifled a cry. She’d not even allowed herself to think this might be true. With her other hand, she reached out and caressed his face.
Suddenly realizing what she was doing, she dropped her hand to her side.
Adryel sensed that Adonai was smiling.
“I love her too,” he said.
The cloud seemed to glow even brighter than it had before, and Adryel began to cry.
You will find that love never ends, he had told her so.
“And she wants to be forgiven,” Dariel screeched. “After all that she has done? She is evil. Forgiveness only goes so far. She must—”
A low rumble came from the cloud causing Dariel to stop in mid-sentence.
“You ask forgiveness, Adryel?”
She tried to speak, but again the words would not come. She dropped her eyes and swallowed hard. “I. . .I was wrong. I was lied to, and I was misled, but the decisions. . .they were all mine. What I did was my fault, my own shameful fault. . .and I’m sorry. I. . .I wish I could turn back time and. . .I renounce Lord Lucifer and all. . .all of his works and plans and schemes.” Adryel’s voice began to shake and she gave in to tears. “But I’m not worthy of forgiveness. I asked it of Ramael.” She shook her head. “I dare not ask it of anyone else.”
Even the seraphim ceased their chant. Adryel imagined the silence could not have been greater when Adonai had existed alone, before the angels or any of the host of heaven.
After a moment, Adonai spoke, his voice both booming and non-existent at the same time. “Michael, can you forgive her?”
Michael nodded, a smile playing around his lips. “I can.”
Dariel rose to his knees. “No,” he wailed. “No forgiveness. No forgiveness.”
He sprang to his feet and rushed toward Adryel, poised as though he would attack. She held her breath and braced herself, but Michael sprang up, reaching out to seize him.
“Dariel, stop!”
“Restrain him,” Gabriel shouted.
One of the guards seized Dariel’s arm and wrestled him to the floor. The other one leaped forward and together they grasped his arms and legs, lifting him off his feet. Dariel struggled against them, twisting in their arms, kicking, striking out. As they carted him from the room, he screamed for help. He cursed Adryel.
As the sound of Dariel’s cries died away, Adonai’s cloud drew nearer, finally resting so close that Adryel could reach out and touch it, had she dared.
All of creation seemed to pause and wait.
“You, Ramael, can you forgive her?”
Adryel’s body tensed. She needed his forgiveness. After that. . .
“Can one forgive the Mistress of Hell?” Ramael searched the faces of those near him, a look of confusion on his face.
Adryel felt her cheeks burning. Of all she had done, becoming Lucifer’s mistress was how she had betrayed her pair.
Every face turned toward Ramael.
In the silence that followed, Lord Michael placed his hand on Ramael’s shoulder as though encouraging him to say what he truly felt.
Ramael looked to Michael, then to Adryel. Tears forming in his eyes, he again faced Adonai and nodded his head. “I can.”
Tears filled Adryel’s eyes now—tears of happiness.
“I do,” he added in a voice so quiet that Adryel was not certain she’d actually heard it. She gazed up at one of the seraphim, who seemed to be whispering to Adonai. The lights that circled the cloud began to emit an iridescent glow.
“I forgive her, too.” As Adonai spoke, the seraphim smiled.
Adryel began to sob and laugh simultaneously, clutching at Ramael, never wanting to leave him again.
The cloud began to drift away, and it felt as though a hand rested briefly on Adryel’s head as it passed. Then it floated across the room, through the opening, and out onto the portico. The square, always noisy, fell silent.
Adonai’s voice sounded to Adryel like great claps of thunder, but the words were unmistakable. “Adryel, my daughter, has come home. She who was dead. . .is alive. She who was lost. . .is found. Rejoice with me. Rejoice with me.”
Adonai’s voice seemed to roll across the city, and as he finished the echo bounced back.
. . .my daughter has come home. . .Rejoice with me. . .
The words, she was sure, had been heard in the farthest reaches of creation, had caused humans on Earth to lift up their heads, had even penetrated the dark caverns of Hell.
She might have imagined it, but Adryel was certain she heard Lord Lucifer howling like a wounded ox, and it caused her to smile.
As an example to the others, well, she could be quite useful. So Lord Michael had said.
The sound of cheers rose from the square. The angels around her in the council room stood and applauded. It seemed to Adryel that all the host of heaven and all of Adonai’s creation joined in the celebration of her return.
Renounce Lucifer. . .and you may come home. How many times had she heard the words?
The rules had not changed after all.
As the cheers died away, the cloud returned to the room and passed through it toward the door, the seraphim close behind.
Ramael took Adryel’s hand and helped her to her feet. “Come. Let’s go home.”
“Home.” It was the one and only word Adryel could manage.
At that, the cloud stopped, turned back, and everyone fell silent.
“Home,” Adonai repeated.
Then, as the cloud drifted from the room, more words floated down the long hall to reach Adryel’s ears. . .the unmistakable melodic voice of Adonai. . .
“Perhaps one day the others, too, will come home.”
Adryel raised her eyes to Ramael and nodded. “Home.”
Other books by David Burnett
Click on the title for more information about a book.
Those Children Are Ours
Jennie Bateman screamed at her daughters, cursed her husband and walked away. How can a mother abandon her children?
Once and Future Wife
When Jennie Bateman tosses her medication, the demons of her bipolar disorder, the same ones that shattered her marriage two decades earlier, return with a vengeance, conspiring to prevent her from securing the love and happiness that finally seem to be within her grasp.
To Fall in Love Again
Class warfare may be less violent than it was in the past, but when Drew invites Amy to the St Cecelia Ball, battle lines are drawn. Family, friends, co-workers all weigh in on their relationship and choose sides.
The Handfasting
Steven is not Katie’s only suitor. Bill has long planned to wed her, and when she and Steven fall in love, he finally decides to stake his claim. His courtship turns violent and Katie must decide what kind of life she wants for herself.
The Reunion
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could crawl through a worm hole and find ourselves in high school, again?” Michael asks. He doesn’t men it literally, but when he begins to enjoy the same activities he did when he was young, his life begins to change.
About the Author
We recently moved to our new home near Charleston, South Carolina. Three of my four books are set in Charleston, and I’ve always enjoyed the Carolina beaches. I now have the opportunity to walk on the beach almost every day and to photography the ocean, the sea birds, and the marshes that I love.
I love photography, and I have photographed subjects as varied as prehistoric ruins on the islands of Scotland, star trails, sea gulls, and a Native American powwow. My wife and I have traveled widely in the United States and the United Kingdom. During trips to Scotland, we visited Crathes Castle, the ancestral home of the Burnett family near Aberdeen, and Kismul Castle on Barra, the home of my McNeil ancestors.
I went to school for much longer than I want to admit, and I have degrees in psychology and education. In an “earlier life” I was director of research for our state’s education department.
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sola Deo gloria
Between Heaven and Hell Page 26
