“The Seraphic Council decided that our only hope was to start an evacuation.” Nate’s eyes flicked to Alex’s. “To here.”
“The Invasion,” said Alex.
“The Invasion,” confirmed Nate. He took a breath, tapping his fingers together. When he spoke again, he sounded as if he was choosing his words carefully. “The evacuation has been planned in waves. What you call the Invasion was the first; there are still several more to come.”
At first Alex didn’t take it in, and then what the angel was saying slammed through him like a tsunami. Beside him on the bed, Willow had gone very still, her lips white.
“Jesus Christ,” he whispered.
“The First Wave was primarily to see if it could be done,” said Nate heavily. “Could angels survive in this way? And the answer seems to be yes. Most angels have taken to feeding off humans with alacrity. Enjoyment, even.” His face twisted in disgust. “So, it’s been deemed a success. The news came through about six weeks ago; the Second Wave has now been authorized. When it occurs, it will roughly double the number of angels currently here.”
“When?” asked Alex. His throat was dry.
Nate’s eyes met his. “Tomorrow,” he said.
“Tomorrow?”
Nate nodded. “The plans have been in place for more than two years; once the green light came six weeks ago, things happened quickly.”
“Here, look at this,” said Sophie, reaching for her briefcase. She handed over a white flyer with silver-and-blue lettering. It had the Church of Angels logo of an angel with outstretched wings and arms, and it read:
THE ANGELS ARE COMING!
OCTOBER 31ST IS USUALLY ALL HALLOW’S EVE, BUT THIS YEAR IT’S ALL ANGELS’ EVE.
We have prayed, and the angels have answered. By their loving grace, our world is about to be blessed with an even stronger angelic presence. The angels have heard our pleas, our hopes and dreams, and they are coming to us. Be there to help herald in a new, better world with the angels.
SPECIAL SERVICE AND CELEBRATION
CHURCH OF ANGELS MAIN CATHEDRAL, DENVER, CO
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31ST, 4:00 P.M.
Alex stared, at a loss for words. The Invasion had been bad enough. He tried to imagine the number of angels on earth doubling and then more arriving after that, and even more after that. It would be wholesale slaughter of humans at that point.
And from the sounds of things, he was the only Angel Killer left.
“How can they . . . do this so publicly?” whispered Willow, touching the flyer.
Sophie shrugged. “It’s the usual thing, hiding in plain view. Those who don’t believe will just think there’s nothing to it, that the Church of Angels is full of loonies.”
Willow hugged her elbows. “So all these people are going to come, to celebrate the angels — and the angels are going to feed off them?” Her voice sounded harsh with sorrow and revulsion.
Nate shook his head. “The arriving angels won’t be feeding just yet; this world will be totally new to them. It’ll take them some time to get settled, get acclimated. . . . Then it will start. But, yes, it’s still obscene — the thought of the crowd being so thrilled to see more angels arrive.”
Alex frowned, trying to picture the scene. “How are they supposed to see them, if the angels aren’t feeding yet?”
Nate snorted. “It’s a special occasion,” he said. “The angels are going to lower their frequency on the ethereal plane as they fly through the cathedral — it’ll mean that the audience will be able to see them as they arrive. They’re looking forward to all the cheers.”
Cheers. Alex pitched the flyer onto the table, feeling sick.
“This wave, and the ones planned for following it, can’t be allowed to happen,” said Sophie intently, leaning forward. “We were losing ground against the angels already. If even more arrive on this scale, we won’t have a chance — society as we currently know it will probably be gone in ten years.”
Willow made a small noise. Alex gripped her hand and glanced back at Nate. “So fill me in on the angels’ grand plan,” he said. “If you infect all the humans with angel burn, how are you supposed to feed once they’re all dead?”
The angel looked reluctant. “As long as humans have children, angels will have fresh energy sources. I believe there are plans afoot to begin encouraging larger families among followers.”
It figured. Alex grimaced, unsurprised. At his side, Willow had gone pale, her green eyes wide with horror. “Oh, my God,” she murmured.
“As I said, the Second Wave can’t happen,” put in Sophie. “We have to stop it; it’s our only hope.”
“How?” said Alex after a pause. “Is there any way?”
There was a slight shift in the room as Nate and Sophie glanced at each other. Suddenly Alex knew without a doubt: he wasn’t going to like whatever they suggested.
Slowly, Nate said, “There’s a thin . . . wall, let’s call it, of energy that separates our two worlds. When it was only small numbers of angels coming across on their own, the wall remained fairly stable — its energy was briefly disturbed by those passing, but it could restore itself. However, an exodus of this scale is very different. A special opening — a gate — has to be generated, so that hundreds of thousands of angels can pass through the wall in a short time without destroying it altogether. The wall will be extremely unstable for the twenty minutes or so that it will take for them all to fly through — it’s a very delicate operation.”
“It’s planned that the gate will open in the main Church of Angels cathedral at six tomorrow night, two hours after the service starts,” said Sophie, indicating the flyer. “We’ve got someone inside the Church who’s helping us — we know all the details, including the exact position of the gate.”
“Right,” said Nate. “And what we think is . . . if the wall is disrupted just as the gate is starting to open, it’ll set off a chain reaction that will make it unusable. Effectively, it will slam shut for good, keeping the remaining angels in our own world, away from this one.”
Alex sat listening, rapping his fist against his knee. “So how exactly do you disrupt it?”
Instead of answering, Nate reached his hand out to Willow. “May I?” he asked.
She hesitated and then put her hand in his. Nate closed his eyes; Alex could see faint movement behind his lids, as if the angel were watching unseen images. When he let go of Willow’s hand, he sat and gazed at her for a few moments without speaking.
“Paschar was right,” he said.
“Paschar?” asked Willow. “Was that Beth’s angel?”
Nate nodded. “He saw that your very existence is a danger to the angels; you have the means to destroy us all. I’ve just seen the same thing. Some of the images are unclear, but . . . ” He turned to Sophie. “It’s our best chance.”
“What is?” said Alex sharply.
Reaching into her briefcase again, Sophie pulled out a small stone and placed it on the table. It looked almost like molten lead, gleaming with silvery lights. Nate picked it up. “This is a piece of angelica,” he said. It was oval, just small enough to be hidden in his hand if he closed his fingers over it. “It’s from my own world. It has several unique properties; one is that on the ethereal plane, it has a sort of . . . consciousness. If communicated with, its physical form will emit short, rapid bursts of energy at a very high frequency — more than enough to disrupt the wall when it’s in such a vulnerable state.”
His eyes rose to Willow’s. “You’re as unique as the angelica,” he told her. “Your angel form exists at the same time as your human one. That means you could communicate with the angelica, activating it at the same time that you place it within the opening gate — none of the rest of us could do that.”
Alex stiffened as he realized. “Wait. You want Willow to be the one to do this?”
“She’s the only one,” said Nate.
The angel handed the stone to Willow; looking stunned, she took it in slow motion, tur
ning it over in her hand. She bit her lip and glanced at Alex. “If I did do it, then what would happen?”
Sophie’s expression was anxious, tight with tension. “We hope the gate would be destroyed, closing the wall for good.”
“You hope?” said Alex, his words razor-sharp. “So you’re not exactly positive, are you?” Their silence was assent. “And what would happen to Willow? Would she be destroyed, too?”
Sophie winced. “We don’t know that,” she said finally. “The wall will become extremely unstable; we don’t know exactly what form that will take. But, Willow, with you standing right beside it . . . ” She didn’t finish.
Fear and rage leaped through Alex; it was all he could do not to start punching things. “And how would she get into the cathedral in the first place? It’s going to be a madhouse — tens of thousands of Church of Angels fanatics, who all want her dead! Just so she can do this thing that might kill her, that you hope will work?”
“We can get her in,” said Nate. “Our person in the Church will help. We’ve got a plan in place that will put her close to the gate without attracting notice.”
“Yeah, great,” said Alex harshly. “And even if it all works, what happens if standing next to the gate doesn’t kill her? The angels don’t arrive, and everyone’s seen that she’s the reason why — are they all just going to say, Oh, well, and go home?”
The agents didn’t answer. Alex glared at them. “They’d kill her, and you know it,” he said in a low voice. “A small army couldn’t keep her safe in that situation.” Then he saw the truth on their faces, and his jaw hardened. “Oh, except that you don’t think that’s going to happen, do you? You think the gate’s going to blow her to pieces, no matter what.”
There was a long silence, and then Sophie let out a breath. “Willow, he’s right, it’s tremendously dangerous. The gate’s reaction when the angelica touches it is likely to be . . . quite violent.”
“No way is she doing this,” said Alex. “Seriously. No way in hell.”
“There’s more, though.” Sophie glanced at Nate, who nodded.
“Angels are creatures of energy,” he said. “We all come from the same original source. So we’re individuals, but we’re also linked — whenever an angel dies, we all feel it. If the gate is closed and the wall disrupted, then those left in our own world would perish soon. With casualties on such a massive scale, it’s only a matter of time before the angels here would perish as well. We couldn’t survive for long with so many of us gone.”
Willow looked up at Nate. “But — if that happened, then you wouldn’t survive, either.”
“No, I wouldn’t,” said Nate. He fell silent, tapping his fingers together. “The betrayal of my own kind isn’t a thing I take lightly,” he said finally. “But what’s happening is abhorrent. Even if it’s to save ourselves, we angels can’t cause such death and destruction to another race; we simply don’t have that right.”
Another time, Alex might have been impressed by Nate’s selflessness; as it was, he just wanted to strike him. “Yeah, that’s really noble, but you’re not the one taking the risk here, are you? You’re asking Willow to do that, when nothing’s even certain.”
Sophie’s voice took on an edge. “The thing that’s certain is that if we do nothing, more angels will invade our world. If we act, we at least have a chance to destroy them all.”
Willow was silent, turning the silvery gray stone over in her hand. Finally she said, “You really think it has to be me, don’t you?”
Alex felt his stomach go into icy knots as he stared at her.
Nate nodded. “With the way your dual nature works, you’re the only one who can do it. Plus, it’s written all through your psyche — you’re the one who can destroy us.”
Willow was still gazing down at the stone. “And . . . how likely is it that the gate would close?”
“I can’t give you odds,” said Nate levelly. “We can’t really know what will happen until you try.”
Sophie leaned forward, watching her intensely. “Willow, time is already extremely short,” she said. “If you agree to this, then we need to leave immediately, so that we can brief you and get things ready.”
“Willow, no,” said Alex. He gripped her arms. “No. There is no way that you can do this. Just no way.”
She looked up at him, and he saw that she was close to tears. She took a deep breath. “Could you excuse us, please?” she said to Sophie and Nate. Leaning over, she placed the angelica back on the table.
“Yes, of course.” Sophie put the rock in her briefcase and snapped it shut; she and Nate stood up, scraping their chairs back. “We’ll be outside.”
The door shut behind them; Alex hardly heard it. “You can’t do this,” he said, still clutching Willow’s arms. “You can’t. Tell me that you’re not serious.”
She was pale. “Alex, I . . . I just don’t see that I have a choice.”
“Weren’t you listening? Willow, they think the gate will blow you apart; they don’t even know whether you can close it or not!”
Very slowly, she nodded. “I know,” she said.
Sudden fury gripped him; his voice rose, ringing around the tiny cabin. “You cannot seriously be considering this! Have you gone completely insane? Do you want to just throw your life away? Is that your plan?”
A tear streaked onto her cheek, but when she spoke, her tone was almost steady. “What else can I do — go to Mexico with you and ignore all of this? How could I live with myself, knowing that maybe I could have stopped the angels forever and I didn’t even try?”
“Willow, this isn’t the way. All this is going to do is kill you! Look, we’ll find a way to fight them; we’ll —”
He was holding her arms too tightly; she pulled away, her face agonized. “Of course this is the way! This is what it all means — don’t you see? My premonition last night, and Paschar’s vision — I’m the only one who can stop them. This is how I have to do it!”
Terror that she was right turned his veins to ice. “No. You are not doing this; I’m not letting you.”
Her expression was so torn, so full of sorrow and love for him. “Alex, if there’s even just a chance that I can stop the angels, then I have to try. You’ve fought them your whole life; you must understand —”
“Not like this!” he shouted. “This is suicide; they can’t even tell you if it’s going to work or not! Does throwing your life away really sound that good to you?”
“It’s not like I want to do it!” she cried, her eyes bright with tears. “All I want is to be with you and for things to be like they have been!”
“Then do that,” he said. He gripped her hands hard. “Willow, please — you don’t have to do this —”
She ducked her head, her mouth twisting against tears. The pendant that he’d given her had worked its way out from under her sweater. Letting go of his hand, she reached up and touched the crystal, stroking its facets. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Without looking at him, she rose from the bed and moved stiffly to the table. She started to tuck the clothes that she’d left out for the day’s journey into her bag.
“No!” Alex leaped up, grabbed them away from her. “No. Willow, no — you are not doing this, you’re not —”
“I have to!” she burst out, spinning toward him. “Don’t you get it? I don’t have a choice!”
She was actually going to do it — this thing that would kill her.
The world pounded in Alex’s ears as he stared at her. All at once his chest felt tight; he could hardly breathe. Oh, God, no. Not again, not someone else he loved. Why had he allowed himself to believe that this time might be different? How could he have been so stupid?
“OK, so I guess you’ve decided,” he said finally.
“Alex, I — I could never live with myself otherwise,” she said in a tiny voice. “I’d see my mother’s face every day for the rest of my life, and — and what about Beth and your family —?” She broke off wi
th a sob, covering her tear-streaked face with her hand.
He wanted so badly to comfort her. Instead he found himself glaring, almost trembling with anger. “Don’t bring my family into this. If you’re going to kill yourself, do it for your own reasons.” He shoved the clothes at her.
Willow gulped; her hands were unsteady as she put the clothes away in her bag. “Alex, please understand. How could you and I ever have anything good together, if I walked away from this? I feel like it would — would poison things between us; we’d always know that —”
He wouldn’t have thought it possible that he could hate her, but right then it felt close to it. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare say that you’re doing this for us,” he interrupted, his voice shaking. “There won’t be any us after you do this.” Her bag wasn’t fastened; roughly, he reached over and tied it shut, then thrust it at her. “Just — go,” he said. “Go on. They’re waiting for you.”
Swallowing hard, she clutched the bag to her chest. “Will — will you come?” she asked faintly.
Her eyes. Her face.
The words felt like ground glass in his throat. “No, thanks. I’ve seen enough people I care about die.”
Her face crumpled. She looked away, her mouth trembling. “I — I guess I’d better go, then.”
“Yeah, I guess you’d better.”
Slowly, Willow started for the door, then stopped and flew back to him, hugging him tightly. “I love you,” she said as she started to sob. “Alex, please. Please don’t let it end like this.”
He ached to hold her. He couldn’t do it; he was frozen. “Just go,” he said through clenched teeth.
Willow pulled away, gazing up into his face. Her green eyes were stricken. “I know you don’t mean this,” she whispered. “I love you, Alex. I’ll always love you.” He stood unmoving as she kissed him; he could taste her tears. She turned and ran for the door.
Then she was gone.
As if from a great distance, Alex heard the sound of voices from outside, then footsteps moving away. Silence. He stood alone in the center of the room, his muscles quivering. Abruptly, he picked up one of the chairs and hurled it across the cabin, sending it crashing against the wall. Sinking down onto the edge of the table, he shoved his hands through his hair, breathing hard. Around him were the still-rumpled sleeping bags where they’d slept the night before, his black nylon bag, packed with both their clothes. Willow’s purple Converse sneakers still lay in the corner, one of them on its side. What had happened? What had just happened? For several minutes Alex sat clutching his head, emotions crashing through him so violently that it felt like they’d tear him apart.
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