Glorious Companions

by Summer Lee

  “This is so hard,” she said. “You convinced me that you were a good angel, and I chose to believe that. You have failed me. No, more than that, you have failed us.”

  “That’s not true. I told you early on that I have a dark side to my soul. And please know that there are things that I still cannot tell you, for humans cannot know some of the secrets of the lives of the higher angels.”

  “I wish I could understand it all.”

  “It is too much for humans to know. As I told you before, they cannot bear this dark knowledge.”

  “All of those times when you left me, it was to obey God in your darkest task as an angel?”

  “Many times, it was.”

  Her chin trembled. “All of those times you left me, I feel those times as failures because you were broken away from me when you went about your secret business of the higher angels.”

  “Yes.” He clasped her hand. “If you want to talk about failures, we could talk about your attraction and flirtation with the ship’s captain of the Yarona. You kissed him while you were married to me.”

  She tightened her lips. “True.”

  “I loved you in spite of your weakness. I forgave you almost instantly because that is who I am and because it is the nature of angels not to be vengeful, under God’s laws of compassion and mercy.”

  “That also is true. You have been so good to me,” she said. “I just don’t want you to be mean ever again.”

  Sammael’s mouth was firmly set, making his sharp-featured face seem hard. “I have tried to stay completely good, but could not. If you want to go back home to your mother and father now, you can.”

  “I already lived at home with my parents. It was boring and I was under their rule. I wanted excitement and freedom and I found it with you.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I do not want to ever go anywhere without you. I want my home to be with you, now and forever.”

  “I know.” He paused. “But I also know some things about God—things He planned even before He laid the foundation of the Earth and created humans.”

  “What do you know?”

  “I know that humans will get a chance to choose whether to please themselves or please God. Punishment follows when they make the wrong choice. They get a substitute when they miss the mark that will take their punishment for them. They can go free, but it’s not so for angels. The angels who displease God will pay the price. We have no redeemer, no sacrifice we can make. We are bound to God’s laws and there is no escape from it. We are His.”

  “I don’t like what you are saying,” she said. “I don’t want to talk about it any longer, or at least not at the moment. I can’t bear the thought of you being punished for loving me, just because I am human. I think we need to go home. Our home.”

  “Well then, let me take you back to our palace in Babylon, my love.”

  “Please do.” Holding her, he rose into the sky and flew back over the hills and valleys.

  Riding in the arms of the flawed angel who she loved so dearly, Rachael was horrified to see that Sammael cast no shadow. The night skies were turning gray. The swollen clouds were heavy with moisture. Everything was changing—fast.

  He set her down in the palatial yard. He now had no solid body. She could see right through him. He was fading from sight and when she tried to touch him, her hand passed through him. The wind stopped blowing completely. Silence immediately settled over the land, and Sammael vanished. He was gone.

  Alone, she walked toward the palace, weeping.

  Aaron met her at the door. “Where is Sammael?”

  “He has gone to pay the price to God for loving me, for loving a human,” she said. “What do you know of it?”

  “Perhaps it is only my belief,” he said, “but I would say that the prince is not coming back. Not ever!”

  “I agree. Sometimes, you just know when it is final,” she said, sniffling. “If he does not return, will you care for the palace?”

  “Yes, I will.”

  “It is yours until you hear otherwise.” Rachael made her way carefully into the big room. Servants of every age, shape and size met her. As she went inside, they all bowed deeply. They sat around the room like wailers at a funeral. She could tell that they, too, all knew that Sammael was gone.

  Hannah said to her, “Princess, my heart is moved to sorrow at your loss of Prince Sammael.”

  “How did you know?”

  “The grief is written upon your face.”

  “My thanks for your kind words,” Rachael said. “Does anyone else want to share their thoughts of the Prince? You are all welcome to speak your hearts.”

  Many of them did. The first one said, “I really liked Prince Sammael. He was always fair to me.”

  “He was such a good man,” said another. “He helped the poor.”

  “He could work magic,” said a young maiden. “I saw him do it in a healing.”

  “What happened to him?” Hannah asked.

  “I don’t know,” Rachael said.

  “Did he die?”

  Rachael said, “No. He has gone away.”

  “Why did he leave?” asked a young boy.

  Rachael did not know how to explain without giving away his secret. “I believe that he went away for training in God’s work.”

  The servants nodded their understanding and quietly spoke among themselves.

  Lightning suddenly split the clouds apart, followed by a boom of thunder. She guessed that it had something to do with Sammael going before the court of Heaven to face his Maker. She would have to let him go.

  The servants screamed and ran from the thunder and lightning.

  Only Rachael walked to the window and looked out. “I will miss you,” she whispered into the sky, her face upturned toward the darkening clouds. Rachael blew him a kiss.

  Sammael was gone.

  Yet, he had left Rachael with many gifts that she could still unwrap for the rest of her life. He left the gift of mornings, the gift of evenings, the gifts of fall, winter, spring, and summer, and the gift of hope that she had a future. In each gift, there would be a presence to thrill her soul. Each of these would change forever how she would view the world around her. She would find wisdom in the gifts and perhaps the wisdom would soothe her aching heart.

  With Sammael gone, there was no reason for Rachael to stay at the palace. Aaron and Hannah would care for the place properly. She packed a satchel and tied it to her back. Walking to the barn, she asked to have her mare saddled.

  The time had come to awaken a new passion within. She chose to go to Sammael’s garden to live for the rest of her life—alone. She would feel close to him there. That was the best place for her, in the place where they had been unto each other and where no others had ever intruded. It was their special place.

  She rode her mare out of the palatial yard and across the backfield. She traveled over the hills and down into valleys. Finally, she went down the last trail into his garden.

  At that moment, Rachael felt drawn to the rear of his garden. She felt new energy and began to run, heading straight for his little hut. She would set up homemaking here. She could make fires and cook just as she saw Sammael do it. Here, she would feel close to Sammael. She would learn to pray for Sammael, hoping he would encounter God’s mercy and not his punishment.

  Rachael longed for Sammael to come. She longed to be with him again. She would keep the place just the way he had. That would make it feel like he was here.

  Not expecting to be heard, she spoke aloud. “I love you, Sammael. Why do I love you? What spell have you cast over me to cause me to love you forever? Why do I feel your love so strongly, even now?” she asked.

  While she was talking, a wind came up. As her words floated on the wind, a breeze meandered through the arbor, bringing with it the fresh scents of his fragrance to her nostrils. Is it possible?

  She looked around. “Sammael, I don’t care what you’ve done. Can you hear me? You once said all I had to do was call and you w
ould come back in the blink of an eye.”

  The wind died down and the breeze grew softer, finding passage to her skin. The swirling stopped, but the fragrance stayed at her feet.

  She inhaled with pleasure.

  As she did, she saw another pair of feet right in front of her. Beaming, Rachael looked at the feet. And then, she followed them up the body to the face.

  She laughed. Her heart filled with joy!

  “Sammael!”

  She continued to laugh, because she was now face-to-face with her very own angel-prince.

  Rachael threw her arms around his neck. He swept her into his arms and squeezed her tight. She kissed him all over his face as he held her close. Tears of joy streamed down both their faces. She said, “I had a feeling that if I came here I would feel close to you. I hoped you would be here, in spirit, but I did not think it was possible in the flesh.”

  “I went before the heavenly council. Since you are so full of love, it was determined that I could live here in the garden with you. I can stay for the rest of your human life. So, I will be here with you for a long time. But there was one condition.”

  “What was that?”

  “I was not to entice you. I had to wait and let you choose to come to me of your own free will.”

  “What will happen to you when I die?”

  “We won’t even think of that day.”

  “I have come. Can we always live here in the garden together?”

  “We can enjoy each other as we please.”

  Sammael kissed Rachael’s cheek. For these two, this was the Garden of Eden. Reaching up, he picked an apple and gave her a bite. “This is good fruit, and carries with it a blessing.”

  Epilogue

  The Guardian Angel

  Her guardian angel, Aurora, appeared in a spray of diamond dust. Rachael was not certain how long she had been there before she spoke.

  “Choosing Sammael was not a wise decision, Rachael,” said Aurora. “Such a thing has never been done. God will not allow it to ever be done again.”

  Sammael stood in silence, waiting to see what else Aurora knew about him. Rachael clasped his hand.

  Aurora continued, “I am breaking his spell from you, so you can now leave the angel of death, if you so desire.”

  Sammael did not move or attempt to stop her words. He had tears in his eyes as he waited for Rachael’s answer.

  Rachael said, “I have known who you were since the day you struck me down as a lightning bolt and I saw a glimpse of Heaven. And then, because you could not bear to kill me, you brought me back from death. I know that you were judged harshly because you obeyed God by killing me, but then disobeyed God by filling me with the breath of life again. And then, you had to go away from me to stand in the angels’ judgment.”

  “Oh, Rachael. You knew all of that?”

  “Yes, I figured it out, that it was decreed I had to die by your hand because that was the only way it would end your forbidden desire for living a human life. But, Sammael, if your greatest failure means that you risked your existence as an angel to save my life as a human, then you have passed some sort of spiritual test, at least, in my eyes, and perhaps in theirs, as well, for they let you return to me. I will never leave you,” she said, looking in his eyes with love.

  “Rachael!” he said. “My love!”

  “Know this, Sammael. When you come for me again, as the angel of death, because God tells you to do so, I will not be afraid, for I have seen Heaven.”

  Sammael wept in her arms at her immense love, bravery, wisdom and forgiveness. It was almost beyond his ken that a human could put into words what had been the rage inside of him, the angel of death, for millennia. But now, that rage was quelled. And he was here again. With her. Through God’s mercy and by the grace of angels, he no longer felt divided between good and evil. He had been made whole.

  The self-loathing and deceitful nature dropped away and were replaced with a feeling of being cleansed, forgiven and understood. As he lifted up his arms in thanks to God, the first raindrop fell on his upturned face. And then another and another fell, until the ground was tap-tapping with the first true rainstorm of Earth.

  Rachael turned her face to the sky as well. “What is happening?” she asked.

  “God’s will,” he said.

  Aurora turned her back to Sammael and Rachael. The angel reached her hands out in front of her, opening her arms wide. When she did, a multitude of people appeared in the distance. Rachael saw them as if in a vision. There were millions and millions.

  With a mighty voice, Aurora shouted to the multitude, “The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: ‘I live in that high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I, your God, refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts.’”

  Raising her eyes, she saw seven gold lamp stands. Standing in the center was one wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were bright like flames of fire. His feet were as bright as bronze refined in a furnace. His voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. And his face was as bright as the sun.

  He said, “See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay all according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. See! I am coming soon.”

  The End

  Also, the end of the

  Glorious Companions Series

  Thank you for reading!

  God bless you!

  Return to the Table of Contents

  Also available:

  Beach Angel

  A Young Adult Novel

  by Summer Lee

  (read on for a sample)

  Chapter One

  It was a dry, hot June afternoon in Southern California, and I was bored. Unlike some of my friends, I didn’t have a girlfriend to hang out with. At least not yet. I was planning on changing that someday soon. Either way, I was alone now, my chores were done, the house was empty, and I was bored senseless.

  I dropped in front of the TV, flicked it on, scanned through the channels, and then turned it off in frustration. There was nothing worth watching. I drummed my fingers on the coffee table, which I had just polished. My fingertips mucked up the newly waxed surface. I didn’t care. It was just going to get mucked up again anyway, right?

  I called my best friend, Alex Martinez, a kid I had known virtually all my life. Alex was always a little bigger and a little better than me at everything. And I was already pretty good, anyway. Which meant that Alex was always the star, and always got the girls. But Alex, to his credit, never rubbed it in or even seemed to acknowledge his superiority in just about everything. One of the reasons we were friends.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “Nothing, I’m pretty bored,” I answered back.

  “Me too. Let’s shoot some hoops at the school. I’ll help you with your crossover dribble.”

  “It really needs work?”

  “It’s like watching a dying seagull.”

  “Not all of us have been blessed with freakish ability like yourself.”

  “That’s why I want to give back. You know, to the little people.”

  “Ha ha, very funny Alex. Don’t forget I was taller than you when we were in the fifth grade.”

  “What happened?”

  “Genetics, I guess.”

  “My dad is five feet seven and my mom is five feet.”

  “Well maybe Shaq is a distant cousin or something.”

  “You want to play or not?”

  “Yeah,” I said, grinning. “That would be fine.”

  The club tryouts were soon and I wanted to start on my team. I was a good shooter, but Alex, of course, was much better and I needed him to trust me on the court. Because he would be the point guard and I need my touches.

  “Meet me out front,” he said.

  I stuffed my cell phone in my pocket and got my
basketball out of the closet. I then went outside to wait for Alex. It wouldn’t take him long to get to my house. He only lived two blocks away.

  As I dribbled the ball on the sidewalk, I thought about Alex and all the fun we had playing basketball together when we were young. We both always made the teams through grade school, and again last year in the seventh grade. Most games were played on outdoor courtyards.

  We both went to an after school program at a local church called Integrity Boys Club. They played a lot of sports against clubs in other cities, especially basketball. Now we were getting ready for a winter league.

  The Integrity Club was planning a basketball camp for this summer, to further develop our skills. Alex and I both planned to go. That would be cool. I hoped to get more of the fundamentals down so that I could play more competitively in the eighth grade at school. Our parents thought alike and said it would be a good experience for us. As my mom says, “An after school sport would keep you boys busy.”

  Only one person could interfere with my having a great life at Buena Vista Junior High. That was public enemy number one, Chopper Cruz. I knew that Chopper had been after me ever since I took him on last year. I stuck up for my little buddy, Tim Ho, when Chopper punched him. I attempted to kick Chopper’s butt for that.

  But that wasn’t the only time I tried to teach him a lesson. I bloodied his nose last spring when he was pushing some girls around. When they called out for help, I had to defend them.

  Word was out that he now planned to smash my face in. He was a bully who picked on small boys and helpless girls. I was tired of fighting with him, but if he started something, I’d finish it. I hadn’t decided yet what I’d do to him. I couldn’t let him get away with that kind of talk. I had a reputation to defend, after all.

  Respect was big in our junior high. You respected a person stronger than you. I had a feeling that before the year was over I was going to face off with Chopper. One of us would then learn the meaning of the word respect. I preferred it to be him, rather than me.