One of the angels left the melee and swept down to Chloe, Horace, and Kaitlyn.
“Come. We have not much time.”
His huge arms easily gathered the three of them up out of the water. Two of the dark ones darted down for them, but three light beings flashed into their path and headed them off before they reached Chloe and the others.
Their rescuer sped them away from the blazing battle. His wings beat the air sounding like tympani. They flew through the night sky and the sounds of battle disappeared behind them. First the sky deepened in darkness, and then the black shifted to charcoal then gray. When they reached somewhere silent and light, they descended from the air and set down on an island.
The angel let down the girls first onto the sand, and then he lowered Horace. Chloe hadn’t realized how shaky her legs were. She stumbled and caught herself on Kaitlyn, who threw her arms around her and held on tightly.
“Horatius, awaken.” The angel laid his hand on Horace’s shoulder and he opened his eyes. “You must hasten away. Go far and stay unobtrusive for a long while.”
Horace struggled to sit up. “I must take the girls—”
“I will see to the girls. You must go.”
“We have to get back to my house!” Chloe said.
Horace struggled to his feet. He teetered and stumbled. “I need help. I tried and I could not trans—”
He exploded into his titanic brilliant self.
“Your powers are unblocked. Now go!”
He turned to Chloe and Kaitlyn and said in his kettledrum voice, “I beg your forgiveness for everything. I have no choice.”
Kaitlyn extended her hand up. “It’s been a pleasure.”
“You can’t leave me,” Chloe squealed and knocked down Kaitlyn’s hand. “What’s happened to my family? We have to go back and do something.”
“I have been commanded. I cannot disregard it.”
“Go now,” said the angel. “All is set for—”
A purple missile blasted right through the space where the angel had been standing, taking both the missile and the angel into the crust of the earth like a crashing meteorite. Horace didn’t waste a breath and grabbed both Chloe and Kaitlyn and shot back into the stratosphere.
CHAPTER 24
Something dark had flashed before them, the big white angel disappeared, and Horace grabbed Chloe so forcibly she got whiplash.
They were back in the air and flying at such an astounding speed, everything was a blur. Horace had Chloe under one arm and Kaitlyn under the other. Chloe reached out to Kaitlyn and grabbed her hand.
“Did you see that?” Kaitlyn asked. “That poor angel. Squished just like a bug!”
“Do you think he’s dead?” Chloe said.
“They are eternal,” Horace said. Chloe didn’t know he was listening, he was so busy rocketing through the sky. “They cannot be killed. They diminish and disappear from where they are—and their pain is excruciating—but they appear elsewhere and recover. They lose their dominion in the sector, but they don’t die. Not as you know death.”
“It sure seemed like that mean one thought he was going to kill you,” Kaitlyn said.
“I’m not like the others. I can be killed. And so can you, so we have to get somewhere safe.”
And Chloe thought they were going fast before.
With the surge, everything changed. The molecules of the air detonated around them and nothing was the same. For a moment—or perhaps hours—they went backwards, though they still plunged ahead. Or sideways. Or somewhere. Chloe’s senses couldn’t process what she felt. Kaitlyn gripped her hand and the pressure of her grasp was the only sensation close to normal. Chloe felt twenty feet long, then two centimeters long. Her head was the size of a hot air balloon, then a marble.
When the speed changed enough that Chloe could see again, Kaitlyn squeaked.
“My hand,” she said. “You’re crushing my hand.”
“Oh! Sorry,” Chloe said and released her grip. “I think I passed out. Or dreamed, or something. Something happened. I feel so weird.”
“Me, too,” Kaitlyn said. “I was about to say something, but now it’s gone.”
Beneath them was the checkerboard of farms and roadways visible from a plane, but they didn’t look solid. Their substance shifted and moved, like a reflection in water.
The sky was light, but there was no obvious source of light—no sun, no lamps. “Where are we?” Chloe asked Horace.
“I am taking you somewhere safe.” Something ahead made him react with a string of expletives that Chloe didn’t think angels would know.
Four winged beings came charging at them through the sky.
Horace didn’t change course and kept right at them, like some game of chicken. Chloe grabbed Kaitlyn again and braced for impact.
The foursome split to either side of the trio as they passed.
“What are you thinking, Horatius?” one yelled.
“…bringing them here?” said another.
“You've led Fallen in by the hundreds. Get out!” a third cried.
Several more profane words erupted from Horace’s mouth. He turned a hard right and headed in a different direction. Or a different dimension. Chloe couldn’t tell anymore.
Her inner ear whirled around like a windmill. Chloe focused on one spot in the distance trying to manage her nausea. The spot disappeared and once again she couldn’t tell if she was asleep or awake, or a mile or an inch long.
And as quickly as it all came on, the sensations stopped. They were in tranquility. Brilliant light illuminated the air around them, but not blinding light. It was warm, comfortable, and it encased Chloe in such contentment, she wondered how she had endured any previous moment elsewhere.
Music was in the air, but she didn’t hear it with her ears. It was part of the particles washing across her skin, that she breathed. She savored it, felt it inside her lungs like an aroma so fabulous she could taste it. It felt like thick chocolate melted on her tongue. It seeped into her being and filled her soul and mind with an awareness of its presence. The music was unlike any she’d heard—more beautiful, more complex than what she could have imagined any harmony could be. She was part of the melody.
All the panic vanished. In its place, peace prevailed. She was one with the music, the fragrance, the moment, and none of the past pain had power over her.
In front of them was what might have been a wall, or a mountainous barrier, or something where all things stopped or all things began. In the middle of the enormous luminescent wall was a portal. It didn’t look like any door or gate Chloe had ever seen, but she knew what it was all the same. It radiated beauty and tranquility so tangible, joy permeated her. She longed to go through it.
The tranquility didn’t penetrate the angel who was hovering in front of it, looking around nervously. His face contorted into a painful look of fear.
“What are you doing? You cannot bring them here, Horatius! They are Unexpired Humans. Did you get clearance from They? Did you even think to ask? I have heard nothing of any Elijah Recovery, no Fire Chariot commissioned. Oh, you have disrupted the equilibrium between corporeal and spiritual. You cannot just bring them here! And the Escorts! What will this do to the Escorts? Go! Shoo! You cannot stay here.” His wings stood straight up and shivered with indignation.
“We need help, Darryn,” Horace said.
“By golly you do,” the nervous angel said. “More than ever before. Unprecedented, I tell you,” he moaned. “What will I tell They? I am not taking this on. You have to deal with this.”
“Please help us. Just this once,” Horace said.
“Just this once. As though you have never asked for help before. Or will never ask again. Well, maybe not again, since this is going to send you somewhere from which you will not return!” His agitation shook him so, Chloe wondered if angels could have heart attacks.
“Excuse me,” Kaitlyn said. “Darryn?”
“She is talking to me,” he said in hysteric
s.
“Please help us. Things just aren’t going too well right now,” Kaitlyn said.
Though the panic was gone, Chloe still knew her family needed help. “My family—they’re in trouble. Please help them. My house is on fire.”
“Horatius, is this a joke? Is this some kind of Unprecedented Supplication? I am not a Request Processor. I do not take requests. I monitor the High Corridor. I facilitate the Escorts. Did you tell them I take requests? Horatius, did you tell them that?”
“We are in a bad spot,” Horace said. “Have you heard what is going on? Satarel is on some kind of all-out assault. He called in the Prince.”
The sound of anguish that escaped the nervous angel made Chloe tuck in closer to Horace.
“Did you make him do that?” he asked. “Did you provoke him into it?”
“I am just trying to save the girls.”
“Did I not say that would be a bad idea? I told Mebahel it was a bad idea. Bad idea. You are not equipped. You are no Guardian. For heaven’s sake, you were a—” He slapped his hand over his mouth with an expression of shock that he nearly uttered a bad word. “Go, go. There are Escorts on their way right now. You cannot be here when they come.”
“But where should we go? We can’t travel anywhere safely.”
“Of course not, not with the Prince moving against you. Go somewhere quiet, where no one will look for you. That will be your best option.” He stopped and appeared to be listening to an unheard sound. “They says you must leave immediately and then the Corridor becomes off limits to you and your kind and Unexpired Humans until he says otherwise. No more of this. Now you never have trouble doing the unexpected. Do something unexpected again. Now. You cannot be here. Go!”
“I feel a bit off. Will you give us a boos—”
Before he finished saying it, a boost of powerful energy grabbed them and swept them away. The farther they got from the musical light, the weaker the peace was that had encompassed Chloe. The tranquility disappeared and she felt a great loss. And the fear returned, reminding her that she’d left her family in the burning house, and she had to get back to save them before it was too late.
CHAPTER 25
The boost with which Darryn of the Gate expelled them was too powerful. Horatius tripped as though he were running too fast, falling headlong in an extended, uncontrolled tumble through the heavens.
He held the girls close and protected them from the forces. He stumbled through different dimensions, unable to contain or control their descent. The finicky nature of the Chronos Band—letting Nephilim in only when she pleased—and his breakneck nose-dive, made it improbable he could plunge into the year he wanted.
They came in low and fast, hitting a tall cornfield. Horatius turned his back and took the impact. He knocked through the corn stalks like a stick down a picket fence. The girls screamed as though they were on a bungee cord free-falling.
When they’d cut a swath all the way across the colossal cornfield, they hit a haystack. It exploded with their impact. Pieces of straw sprayed everywhere. The stack absorbed their speed and slowed their harrowing reentry. They tumbled a short distance more, going through the open doors of a barn. Just before the back wall, in another giant pile of straw, they came to a stop.
Horatius looked down and saw only Chloe, tucked in a ball on top of him.
“I’m okay,” a shaky voice yelled out from in front of the barn and many rows of corn away. “I’m okay. I’m over here.”
Horatius lifted his head to look out the barn door. Kaitlyn staggered to her feet, waving at him while plucking bits of stalk and tassels from her torn sleepwear. The white ponytail that once bounced on the top of her head sagged behind one ear. “Really, I’m fine. Just kind of…full of corn.”
With Kaitlyn clearly okay, Horatius put his attention back on Chloe. She looked so vulnerable curled up on his chest. And desirable. Something had happened between them. During all that chaos, something had blossomed toward her. A tenderness, an attraction. And it was more than his usual casual interest in women. He'd been through enough with Chloe to establish a friendship. And it felt like even more than that. Somehow, with all her ridiculous decisions and insecurities, he was drawn to her. He wanted to take care of her. More than just a Guardian would do.
“Are you okay?” Horatius spoke softly to Chloe, who still hadn’t looked up from where she hid her face on his chest. “Chloe, it’s all right. You’re safe.”
She finally peeked out. Pieces of straw were tangled in her curly, thick hair and dirt was splattered across her face.
“Is my family dead?” She was clearly bracing herself to hear the worst.
“No, they are not.”
“Really? How can you be sure?” A shadow of dread was already breaking through her resolve to be strong.
“I’ve brought us back in time a bit, before anything even happened. Your house hasn’t caught fire yet.”
She stared at him interminably. No sound, no change in expression. He couldn’t fathom what she was thinking.
“Okay. I believe you.” She scooted up closer to his face. His crumpled wings beneath him propped up his head. Chloe was eye to eye with him. “Are you okay? You’re wings are a mess. Is one broken?”
“Nothing that can’t be repaired.”
She looked down at his chest and pressed it with her palm. “I only just that one time barely touched you when you were like this. You kind of glow. You don’t really have clothes—not normal clothes—but you’re wrapped up in light. I mean, you’re not naked or anything—” She blushed. “Angels don’t wear robes like in paintings. It’s more like you wear…light.”
“And I better change out of it before I give away where we are.” He was glad she was watching him. The intimacy was pleasing. He concentrated and transfigured back into his human form, with Chloe still lying on him. He dressed himself in clothes he hoped would be appropriate for where he thought they might be.
“Wow.”
He raised inquisitive eyebrows to Chloe.
“Wow, that was incredible. I felt you change under me. You’re closer to my size now, too. Not such a giant.” She smiled and scooted up even closer to his face. She traced his lips with her finger.
The touch startled Horatius. He didn’t expect it and it confused him. That never happened. She’d actually rendered him dumbfounded. Tongue-tied, he couldn’t think of what to say. So he wasted the moment and said, “We should get you and Kaitlyn changed, too. If you’re seen in your sleepwear, it might cause some unnecessary problems.”
“I don’t want to move.”
“I don’t want you to move.” Maybe he could get the moment back.
They stared at each other, taking turns smiling.
“I, ah, hate to interrupt you two lovebirds. I tried to give you a minute. But I see some people riding horseback coming this way. Maybe they’ll help.”
Kaitlyn stood in the doorway, with a little less corn and grass on her now. The strap from one side of her outer tank top was torn and hanging, and one leg of her pajamas was ripped open from the knee down. She was trying to turn on her iPhone.
Self-conscious with Kaitlyn there, Chloe got up off Horace. Her legs were shaky, but she wasn’t sure if that was from the terrifying flight or whatever had just happened between her and Horace.
Horace sat up and used a post to get to his feet. It took way too long. He didn’t look steady at all. Or strong.
“I’m going to change your clothes to something I think to be more appropriate. I just need to think a moment.”
By the way he teetered and his color drained away, Chloe knew something wasn’t right. It was taking too long. When he’d changed the water into wine, it happened immediately. And with a lot less tension in his face.
Then all at once, she felt heat and movement all around her, tightly against her skin. Her hair buzzed and her skin tingled. Fabric swirled around her body. Her hair wasn’t where it had been. Chloe looked down at what was happening to her clo
thes, and then over at Kaitlyn. They were dressed in some kind of crazy mutant Renaissance clothes. Chloe’s had an extra sleeve coming out of the stomach and Kaitlyn’s sleeves were attached to the sides of the dress so she couldn’t lift her arms very high. Crooked neon green and purple stripes crossed Chloe’s dress. Her bloomers beneath were neon pink. Kaitlyn’s orange and blue polka dot gown looked like it was on backwards. Both of them had hairdos as big as giant lamp shades. Kaitlyn’s hair had a nest with birds—real birds—attached above her forehead, like a little hat.
“I don’t know what just happened but it fixed my phone,” Kaitlyn said watching her cell light up.
“Forget your phone. Look at your clothes, Kaitlyn. Look at me. We look ridiculous.”
Chloe turned to ask what in the world Horace was thinking, but he was lying on the ground having what looked like a seizure. She dropped down next to him and took a hold of his giant, rigid, twitching hand.
“Horace, what’s wrong? What’s happening? Are you okay? What are we supposed to do? Kaitlyn, call nine-one-one!”
Kaitlyn waddled over, walking like a penguin because of her puffy hem with two holes where her feet came out. “I don’t have a signal. No bars.” Pointing with her elbow trapped at her side, she said, “Those riders are going by. Maybe they can help.”
Chloe didn’t wait to hear any more. She jumped up and ran out of the barn and waved down the riders.
The horses stamped and one bucked high when pulled to the quick halt. The men were costumed in kilts and dirt and all kinds of accessories and weapons. Are we near Larkspur? Chloe ignored their festival getups. “We need help. Please, will you help us?”
They all stared at her. The biggest, dirtiest one smiled.
She focused on him. “Please call for help. We need a doctor.”
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