by Linda Foster
“You will learn to use your powers,” he told me with a smile. “You will discover everything you can do, learn defense. Learn to fight the demons that hunt you. And I have the perfect teacher in mind. She can protect you until you can take care of yourself. Until we find out why Adrian wants you dead.”
I eyed him, feeling uneasy. Learning to control my powers. I was going to need that to survive. And to save Ash.
“Who?” I asked. An angel trainer would be helpful, but if he trusted this girl so much why wasn’t he putting her in charge of these demons?
“She was one of the strongest angels I knew,” he told me with a half smile. “She was resilient, and incredibly powerful.”
“Was?” Did he think that was going to slip by me? I wasn’t that stupid. She was a strong angel, meaning she wasn’t one anymore. She could be dead, a ghost, but I doubted that was the case here. Could angels even die? Could they become ghosts?
Then I realized. If she wasn’t an angel, there was really only one other possibility. My teacher would be a lost freaking soul, which meant I was going to be taught how to be an angel by a demon. Every time I thought this situation couldn’t get any worse, it did. I stared blankly at him, hoping this was a sick joke.
“Her name is Kali,” Michael replied.
Okay, not a joke then, if she had a name and everything.
“She stopped the last war in Heaven before becoming a demon.”
I let out a shaky laugh, knowing that was meant to comfort me. “Redeeming qualities aside, the girl is still a demon. How do you know she’s not one of the assassins sent to kill me?”
“She is important,” Michael replied passionately. “She was a friend, and she is capable. I taught her myself. She knows everything you will need to learn. She can protect you better than anyone else, and while you study, you can keep an eye on her.”
Ah, he trusted her with my life, but not with being a well-behaved demon?
This wasn’t good. I didn’t feel confident about the situation, and I definitely wasn’t happy about being taught by an angel-turned-demon who may or may not want to kill me and trade my life for whatever bounty the ruler of Hell was offering.
In fact, I couldn’t even believe I’d had that thought at all. This was definitely more than I’d counted on when I woke up this morning.
But this was the best shot I had at saving Ash and myself from the fates we were stuck with. I desperately needed to learn to use my powers. Not only so that I could protect myself, but so that I could focus on the only other thing that mattered. Ash. I still had no idea how to help him, but maybe Michael…
Then I realized something else. I had been searching for answers, looking for information on the creature my brother had made the deal with. And Michael had to know how that worked. In fact, he was making a similar agreement with me now. He’d promised to let me back into Heaven, and was making deals to let demons have their souls back. I gasped, my mind reeling. Did he have the power to save Ash’s soul as well?
“What about my brother?” I whispered.
“I have no use for your brother in my group,” Michael replied with a frown.
“I want you to help him,” I told him slowly, because clearly he didn’t understand my request. “He only has three months before the demon comes to take his soul. I have to save him. He doesn’t deserve to go to Hell.”
He shook his head firmly. “I’m not sure I can do that. The Archangels are already wary of the ones I’ve helped. And Ash would be of no use in the war. He’d still be human if I saved his soul. Besides, he would have to earn his redemption like the others. His soul is still tainted and marked for Hell.”
“Then give him a chance to earn his redemption!” I exclaimed, more than a little irritated that this was even a question. If he could help, why wouldn’t he? It was the right thing to do. I didn’t care that there was nothing in it for him.
But this confirmed what I’d discovered earlier: Angels really were nothing like I’d thought. It was clear now that he had an agenda, and only cared about what was best for him.
I was going to have to give him some incentive.
“My brother and I are a package deal,” I told him, squaring my shoulders. “Save him or I won’t help you.”
“An ultimatum?” Michael asked, his cold eyes narrowing. Inside I was shaking, but I tried to keep that fear from reaching my expression. “No human or angel makes demands from me like that. You are either very stupid or you love your brother very much. Without me, you are still stuck on Earth, a half-angel who can’t control her powers. At the mercy of the demon assassins, as you call them.”
He paused, crossing his arms over his chest, and I raised my chin and met his gaze, refusing to back down from my request. My heart was going a mile a minute, but all I cared about was saving Ash.
“Please,” I said steadily, keeping my head up. I was desperate. “I have to help him.”
“You would do anything for him, wouldn’t you?” he asked, eyeing me.
I nodded, a tear running down my check. I quickly wiped it away.
“Fine,” he snapped, and my heart filled with happiness. “But only if you can show me your dedication. That you are truly putting everything you have into helping me in my mission.”
“How do I do that?” I asked, feeling that hope quickly draining away. There just had to be a catch, didn’t there? Nothing could ever be easy.
“You could be the turning point in our war,” he told me. “Your powers are unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and it is obvious that you’re important. The demons believe you are, if they’re trying to kill you. With your help, my mission might succeed—and we would be safe again. But you must master your powers. And you must prove to me that you’ll be able to do it. Three months should be sufficient time if you really want this badly enough. If you can do that, I can trust that you are dedicated to my cause and I promise you that I will help your brother.”
My heart leapt back up into my throat.
“When do we start?” I asked without hesitation, a feeling of panic and joy overwhelming me. I could finally save us both. We could survive this horrific ordeal. He wasn’t giving me a long time, but I was determined to do it. Besides, I would have a teacher—a demonic one, but a teacher nonetheless. I wasn’t exactly ready for this, but it was happening. My brother’s year was quickly coming to a close, and there was no time to waste. I would save him. I just had to master my freaky angel powers. How hard could it be?
Three months. That was plenty of time. Right?
JOURNAL ENTRY—MAY 10
IF KALI DOESN’T kill me, I just might kill her. I have less than one day left to master my powers so that Michael will save Ash from his fate. I’m failing, and I fear my panic is not helping. Kali certainly isn’t. Please don’t let my brother die…
“Arg.” I mentally slammed the door to my bedroom, clenching my fists as I paced the small room. I was glad that neither my parents nor Ash were home to hear me slamming doors at five in the morning, or to see me doing it without using my hands. My parents had taken a trip to visit my grandparents, and Ash had spent the night at his friend Jason’s house.
“Someone’s in a bad mood.” Kali’s voice was flat. “And I don’t blame you, little Miss Clipped Wings.”
I glared at her, and she ran her fingers through her long, black hair—which somehow had the most beautiful copper highlights—and turned to stare at me. For a moment her bright green eyes flashed demonic red, and then she smiled coldly and turned back to the mirror. She enjoyed irritating me. She knew I hated the nicknames. And she had an endless supply of them for me. Clipped Wings, Flightless Angel, Angel Reject—they were all insults, insinuating that I had more in common with the demons in Hell than I did with an angel. After all, the only angels without wings were the ones who’d been thrown out of Heaven.
I kept the sting of her words from my face. Any human being would have been able to tell I wasn’t in the mood for snide comments right now, bu
t of course Kali wasn’t human. She was a demon, and one of Hell’s original seven. One of the first to fall with Adrian from Heaven. And according to Michael, a good girl, deep down. Seemed contradictory to me.
At the moment, she was simply a pain in my butt.
“What?” I growled, trying not to throw something at her. Still, the lights in my room began to flicker, and then one of the bulbs popped.
Kali ignored it.
And she did that because she knew I’d come at least far enough to be able to harness my telekinesis. I could stop this if I wanted to—if I focused. But I wasn’t in the mood to calm down right now. Inside, I was all nerves. Tomorrow was the day the demon would come to collect Ash’s soul—the deadline, the day it would all come down to a finish—and I still hadn’t mastered my powers. I only had one task left—call a freaking angelic weapon—and I hadn’t accomplished it yet.
If I couldn’t do it in the next fourteen hours, Ash’s soul would be going to Hell, and there was no coming back from that. I was panicked, frustrated, and terrified.
We’d just gotten back from killing a demon. Well, I had just gotten back from watching Kali kill a demon, honestly, because I couldn’t call my weapon to me. Which meant I still wasn’t capable of killing them. Defending myself, yes. Killing them, no.
And therein, good sirs, lay the problem.
Kali had demonstrated how to do it about a billion times, showing me how she called her hellfire to her. As one of the original seven, and therefore one of the most powerful demons in Hell, she had the ability to harness the fires of Hell itself and use them in combat. She just sort of willed the fire to herself, allowed it to encompass her arms and turn them black, and then shot it from her hands. When she aimed it at her target, wham—it burned and turned to dust.
It made her nearly unstoppable.
Kali said it was just a matter of reaching deep within yourself, calling all your power to the surface, and having it take form. But that didn’t tell me anything, and no matter how many times I attempted it, I still couldn’t do it. Despite the fact that I was trying with every fiber of my being. So instead, I had watched Kali dispatch demons when I failed. Again and again.
And now I had one freaking day left. How was I going to figure out how to call my weapon within the next twenty-four hours? I had tried for three months. Kali had used her own missions—killing demons, thanks to some sort of pact she’d made with Michael—to train me in everything else.
Her deal with Michael forced her to do that. The demon killing. Being one of the original seven meant she was one of Adrian’s right-hand demons.
Which was, I guessed, part of the reason Michael picked her as one of his projects.
But she’d also been important in Heaven, once, according to her stories. And close to Michael. In fact, she had stopped Adrian’s first attempt to overthrow Heaven, and had only fallen because Adrian—the king of Hell—had dragged her down with him.
So even though she didn’t really trust Michael—for reasons she hadn’t exactly made clear—she’d been willing to take this chance at redemption to get out of Hell and away from Adrian. And there were a handful of other demons doing the same. Making the deal with Michael, I mean, about killing demons. In order to show him they were serious, and to prove they were worthy of going back to Heaven, they had to destroy one demon for every human soul they’d sent to Hell. Balancing the scales, so to speak.
They were helping Heaven take out enemies, and making a small dent in Hell’s armies, by taking out demons who would never want to return to Heaven. Major offenders who were beyond help. The large-scale plan was that if Kali and the others succeeded—and kept helping—it would prove to the other Archangels that demons could be rehabilitated. And if more demons were given the chance, then it could cut Hell’s current numbers drastically, and slow down their progress. It was already showing promise.
And a lot of that was down to Kali. I didn’t like her, but she had a very large number of souls to account for, and I had to hand it to the girl, she was working hard for it. Last time she’d spoken with Michael, the scales had slowed down, and even inched the tiniest bit in Heaven’s favor.
But the small tip wasn’t enough to win over the rest of the Archangels yet. Kali and the so-called Chosen had to complete their missions before the others would put their faith behind Michael’s proposal and help him carry it out on a larger scale.
The plan was brilliant, but I still had reservations about demons being capable of reform. I hadn’t moved into my part of the scheme yet—I had to master my powers before I became Keeper of the Demons, or whatever—so Kali was the only demon I really knew. And she certainly hadn’t shown any remorse, or behavior that I would consider a change of heart. To be honest, I thought she was doing this almost entirely for her own benefit. She wasn’t worried about Heaven winning the war, or whatever. She just wanted to go home. In her defense, I hadn’t known her long, and she definitely wasn’t someone who wore their emotions on their sleeve.
But she wasn’t giving me much faith in Michael’s theory.
And at the moment, she was only increasing my disbelief in her worthiness to be welcomed into Heaven. And pushing every button I had in the process.
“I’m supposed to be teaching you to use your angel powers,” Kali sighed.
Oh goodness gracious. I rolled my eyes so hard I thought they might get stuck up there. Not this again. Grace, you’re not really an angel. You aren’t learning fast enough. I was better than this with half the training you’ve received, and I’m an excellent teacher. Michael’s going to be pissed if I can’t get you to learn basic angel powers.
Blah, blah, blah.
She was finding every reason in the book to blame me rather than herself, and I knew why. Part of her mission was to teach me. And my failure meant she was failing, too.
“You should have learned this already,” she scowled. “Michael was very clear with me—I’m supposed to help you master all your powers. You learned so much so quickly, but the weapon? Nothing. It’s like you aren’t even trying, and I’ll be damned if Michael doesn’t take this failure as proof that I don’t deserve to go home. If he cuts me because you can’t call a freaking weapon, I’m seriously going to kill you myself. What does he even see in you? How are you supposed to help win this war? I swear he’s making me do this just to try my patience. I have thousands of souls left to tally before I can be free of Hell and finally make it home. And the more time I spend with you, the longer it will take me. You’re dead weight, Grace. I need to focus on my actual mission, not babysitting duty.”
Jab, jab, jab. I bit the insides of my cheeks, glad she knew nothing about the deal for Ash. If she did, she’d no doubt be talking about how I was letting him down, too. But I hadn’t trusted her with that. It wasn’t her business, anyway, and at times like this, I was extraordinarily grateful I’d kept my mouth shut. She was already hitting every other insecurity and fear I had. Trust me, no one was more disappointed or angry with me than I was with myself.
Still, it wasn’t like I hadn’t accomplished anything. I had made progress in the three months we’d worked together. I had learned to move objects and teleport perfectly. There were no more unwanted craznados. I hadn’t had an outburst of unwanted powers in over two weeks. Minus the spirits. I couldn’t do anything about actually getting rid of those, but Kali had showed me how to tell the difference between them and the living. So at least I wasn’t in danger of talking to one, thinking it was alive, in front of people. She’d showed me the faint blue and red glow around them on almost the first day. Auras, she’d called them. Blue represented Heaven, and red for Hell. The auras of the spirits I saw were a mixture of the two colors because they didn’t belong to either. They were stuck in limbo, too pure for Hell but tainted enough that they couldn’t be allowed into Heaven. It was nearly impossible to have your spirit stuck directly in middle ground—but it did happen. And when it did, I got to see them every freaking day.
Being
able to see the pesky spirits for what they were was the first thing I figured out. And then I’d started getting control of some of my powers.
But as much as I’d accomplished, it didn’t mean anything if I couldn’t call my angelic weapon. We’d gone out hunting every single night for three months. I could hold my own to a point, keeping the demons at bay with my power to move objects and teleport out of their way before they landed a kill shot. Still, Kali had to step in every time to actually dispatch them. Without the ability to call my angelic weapon, I was useless to Heaven.
And to Ash.
Because I didn’t think Michael would give me an extension. He’d been clear about mastering all of my powers in a given amount of time, and he wasn’t very forgiving. In fact, I thought he was more of a wrathful angel. And if he wasn’t willing to take pity on me, there’d be nothing I could do for Ash. Because my contract with Michael was about to expire. Without me knowing how to kill a demon. Which mean Michael wouldn’t have to fulfill his promise about saving Ash.
One day. I had one freaking day to come through on my deal with the angel. And I had no idea how to do it.
“I’m not sure I should even be teaching you anything,” Kali suddenly said. “I don’t see why Michael thinks you’re worth it. He doesn’t care about anything but the higher cause, anyhow. What purpose could you possibly serve to that?”
Instead of answering her question, I went right for the kill.
“Let’s go again,” I said, unable to stay here for a second longer. I needed to figure out how to do this, and I was itching to get back out there, to try again. I knew I needed to calm down first, but that was impossible when the clock was running down so quickly.
“Why?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Because I can’t—” Let Ash die, I didn’t add. “—Just sit here and be a failure. I need to figure this out. Come on, you aren’t tired, are you? Losing your edge?”
