A Matter of Time (The Angel Sight Series)

by Lisa M Basso

  “If any of us do,” I mused, releasing him and bolting outside.

  If I only had a few seconds left to live, I’d be damned if I’d spend them with Cam. And if Rayna thought a half-hearted kiss on the shoulder was the kind of sendoff I deserved, then she was in for some serious disappointment.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Rayna

  Angels clashed with Fallen everywhere I looked. In the street, in the air, even as close as the park. In the clutter it took me some time to spot Elyon, at the peak of the park’s hill where he stood among a rather large group of angels not yet engaged in battle. Strategizing, I realized when I got close enough to hear him bark out orders, sending several groups to different locations.

  By the time I reached the top of the hill, Elyon stood alone. My first instinct was to put my balled fist to good use. But I figured that might not place me in the best headspace for taking out an entire species of Fallen. If, on the off chance I lived through this, I could clock him then. And I’d make damn sure it was a good one.

  “Any last minute instructions?” I asked Elyon, not bothering to look away from the battles.

  “You will have to be sure, one hundred percent with no doubts. You have to be willing to give up everything.”

  Everything.

  I thought I’d done that already. Several times over. But this meant everything and everyone.

  I could do this. I had to do this.

  Kade ran out the door of angel headquarters and up the hill, stopping by my side so suddenly we almost toppled. “It’s now or never, kid.”

  “What took you so long?” I asked, the sight of him lighting me up with a goofy smile.

  “Traffic,” he joked, watching the madness surrounding us on all sides.

  “I don’t know if I can do this—working with him, it seems wrong,” I confided in Kade. “I’m tempted to exterminate the angel race just to watch him die. What’s wrong with me?”

  Kade’s fingers tangled in my hair. When his hot chocolate gaze met mine, everything else fell away. “That’s not you, Ray. I know you’ll do the right thing. But, damn, am I going to miss you.”

  My brows pulled together. “What are you talking about—”

  Understanding smacked me with a nail-spiked two by four. My knees gave out. Kade was there to catch me. With his injured hand on my low back, he pressed me against him.

  Exterminating the Fallen would kill Kade as well.

  Tears blurred my vision, clouding what could be my last look at him. Ever.

  “No.”

  He pulled me closer, so I could feel the entire length of his body against mine. He kissed my bloody forehead.

  “No, no, no, no!” The tears spilled over my cheeks.

  Kade’s lips never left my skin.

  “Rayna, time is running out!” Elyon’s voice was so far away, muffled with strain.

  I opened my eyes, and all I could see was Kade. Dark hair made darker by the blood and ash smeared through it. His tan skin sooty and swollen. And that look in his eyes as he studied my face, memorizing me the way I was him. This was how I wanted to remember him, strong, determined, so much more noble than he thought himself capable.

  Even if I’d wanted to kill the angels to save Kade, the only person that had really mattered for years, I’d be killing Cam and damning Earth to a life not unlike Hell.

  I clung to the love of my life for everything I was worth, choking back sobs.

  Someone had to die.

  “It’s time,” Kade said to me, a single tear cleaning a line of ash from his skin.

  “No,” I choked. “We just found each other. I can’t lose you again!”

  He wiped away my tears with his thumbs. “If you don’t get over there and blast those bastards, I’ll walk into the middle of this shit and wait for someone to run a blade through my heart.” His eyes searched mine. “But I’d rather it be you.”

  Cam charged in front of us. I broke a hand away from Kade’s hold to grab Cam’s arm. “Get Kade out of here. Take him somewhere far away!”

  An apologetic look ghosted over his face. “I don’t think that will help, Rayna. Not if this works.”

  He was right, of course. There wouldn’t be anywhere for him to hide, if Elyon and Lucien’s information had been correct.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Kade said, pulling me close again. So close I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I closed my eyes tight enough and prayed hard enough, the world would melt away and leave us the hell alone. Let us to live out the rest of our lives together, in peace.

  Oh, God. The pain in my chest multiplied and kept growing until there was no room left for air.

  “Rayna,” Kade whispered, breaking through the black. “They’re coming. We’re out of time.”

  I opened my eyes to what looked like a scene from one of Lee’s favorite Lord of the Rings movies. The one jam-packed with the epic battle scenes. The park was brimming with hundreds of men, swinging swords at each other. Cam fought alongside Elyon, less than twenty feet from where we stood, holding the Fallen back so I could work. Blood flew. Black and white wings mixed. So many angels were on the hill below us the entire place glowed gold. They were being cut down, dying, because I’d been selfish, because I’d wanted to wish it all away, because I’d wanted another minute with Kade.

  Seeing it made me realize all the lives on Earth were worth more than mine and Kade’s. With any luck, wherever we went, we’d be together.

  I looked at him one last time. My very last.

  “I’m so sorry, Kade. I love you.” This time my tears wouldn’t ruin this picture, the one I’d keep at the forefront of all my memories, for the rest of my life.

  He brought his lips to mine, rough and hungry and filled with need. He pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes. “No one on this Earth for all of history will ever forget how much I loved you, Rayna Evans.” He held my hand and smiled. Smiled. Like our world wasn’t about to shatter apart.

  God, I loved this man.

  With tears pouring from my eyes again, I squeezed his hand and closed my eyes.

  In my mind, I pictured a set of black wings. Azriel’s, as he ripped them off atop the Golden Gate Bridge to open the gates of Hell. Lucifer’s, as he stretched them out across his throne of ice. Kade’s, as he swooped down to save me from a deadly fall when we discovered my wings were never made for flight.

  Kade’s warm arms around me in Hell, his wings covering us like blankets. The way water sheeted off them in the shower. The way his silhouette seemed so different without them when he returned to me on Earth. Even when I could barely remember him, I knew who he was and what he meant to me.

  My wings began to vibrate before I fully centered myself. Thoughts of Kade were drawing my focus away. As much as I hated to do it, I pushed him out of my mind, replacing his face with another image of black wings. Black wings and all the hurt and horror I’d seen them cause. Death and destruction. Slaughtering angels. Sucking the life from humans, murdering the species they had once been tasked to help. The pleasure they took in watching those in Hell receive their punishments. The attempted annihilation of my planet.

  Warmth built inside my stomach. One set of wings morphed into two, two into four. They kept multiplying until they cloaked everything in my mind black.

  In the darkness, I pictured the world without Fallen, people walking the streets again safely, even at night. I pictured families sitting in a park like the one we stood in, having a picnic, with angels watching over them. My dad, Laylah, Lee, his mom, even Gina. I pictured them together, happy and safe because I’d given up everything to save them.

  A force built up inside me. I held it back, expanding like a balloon until there was nowhere else for it to go.

  I imagined the world whole again. People returning to their homes, rebuilding. Daring to try again, not just at life in the city, but at community, friendship, and … love.

  Pain ripped me apart, restructuring every cell in my body just so it cou
ld tear through me again and again. My vision went white. My blood boiled from the inside. Too much. It was too much. I fought as hard as I could, longer than I believed I could last. When I couldn’t hold on any longer, I let myself go and exploded.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Rayna

  Bright yellow light bathed me in unexpected warmth. After feeling cold and lost for so long, whatever this new sensation was, it was a welcome one. I fought my eyelids open, squinting against the brightness. I shielded my hand against the light shining in from a window on the right side of the room. Blinking my vision clear, I noticed the source of my cold. An IV line dripped clear liquid down a tube and through the needle stuck into the back of my hand.

  My heart jumped. I touched my face, my neck, my chest. Below me a mattress with sheets and a blanket.

  I was … alive.

  Either that or Heaven was a hospital … or Hell was up to some new tricks.

  I yanked the needle from my skin and watched the liquid drip onto the parquet wood floors in the massive room, empty with the exception of the bed and IV set up. I dropped out of bed. My legs wouldn’t hold me and I slipped right onto the floor.

  I blinked away the pain, savoring it. Because I was alive!

  I crawled to the window where the sun streamed in and pulled myself up to my knees to peer outside. A different view of Lafayette Park greeted me through the wavy glass. Piles of gray ash coated the park’s new lawn.

  I turned and sank back against the wall beneath the window. It wasn’t a dream. The remnants of the Fallen proved that.

  Something else was different. It had registered in my brain, but not as clearly as the bodies. I peeked out one more time. Before, where the streets had been little more than broken asphalt, they were now completely intact. On the undamaged streets below, several men stood guard at the gate of Angel Headquarters. Men, not angels.

  I snatched up the bathrobe lying at the foot of my bed, slung it around my hospital gown, and inched toward the door. In the spacious mansion, it took me a few turns to find the stairs, not to mention my legs refused to let me walk faster than a shuffling snail’s pace.

  A man at the bottom of the stairs nodded to me once then averted his eyes.

  Odd.

  The same thing happened at the front door, and when I left the gate. Winded beyond belief once I crossed the street, I waited to catch my breath, and then crawled up the hill to the center of the park. Once I could see to the other side of the block, I dropped to my knees again.

  My gray Victorian with the forest green door stood the same way it had the day we moved in. Even the street was intact. The damage that had ravaged the city was gone. All of it.

  My eyes burned, but only half as bad as my legs as I made my way to the last spot I remembered. The grass was burned black where I had stood, a circumference of at least twenty feet of black, except for two still-green footprints beside my black mark. I collapsed beside the footprints.

  Kade.

  I trailed my fingers over the last place he had stood.

  A shadow stepped into my light. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the two men standing there. Again, men, not angels, though they had definitely been the two guards flanking Elyon the last time I saw him.

  I didn’t bother getting up. “I need to talk to Cam,” I said, voice hoarse. I really wanted Kade, but I knew he … couldn’t have survived the blast.

  I swallowed. I just needed Cam. He was the only one I could trust now.

  They both stood there, as if I hadn’t said a damn word.

  “Get Cam.” It came out more of a choked plea than the demand I’d intended.

  One of them said, “You need to rest.”

  “From the look of things, I’ve rested enough. Cam. Please.”

  Both men parted, heading in different directions. The closest one circled wide around me.

  They returned shortly with another set of footsteps behind them. I pulled myself to my feet, hoping Cam would hold me and tell me everything would be okay. It wasn’t what I wanted, or needed, but it would suffice until I could find Dad and Laylah.

  Elyon stood behind his guards. His tall frame was wrapped with lean muscle, his rectangular jaw clenched only slightly. His mild brown hair was trimmed, neat, and well combed.

  I was physically sickened to see him alive, while Kade and so many others were not.

  “Where’s Cam?” I barked, bending at the waist to project my voice and stop myself from crumbling apart. “You’re the last person who should be anywhere near me right now.”

  He strolled around his men. I couldn’t see so much as a single feather trailing behind him. “You have expelled all your power. There is nothing you can do to me now.”

  I peered over my shoulder to find another set of wings missing. My own.

  I guess that meant I couldn’t see the wings any longer. The loss was as much a blessing and a curse as the power to see them had been.

  Here, now, me without my power—without my usefulness—I was on my knees, and all Elyon had to do to be rid of me was swing his sword.

  I should have been worried. Or kept my word and punched him as hard as I could. Instead I sighed. Without Lucien’s essence my anger was no longer an all-encompassing thing. Hitting him wouldn’t have been worth my time.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “You succeeded,” Elyon said. “The Fallen are all gone. Ash amidst the streets.”

  Tears broke the surface, swimming in my vision but not falling. “Where’s Cam?” I asked again.

  “Camael isn’t with us anymore,” Elyon replied.

  I narrowed wet eyes at him. “What exactly does that mean?” My fists clenched in the dead grass by my sides. “If you did anything to him—”

  A new figure ran up Sacramento Street, blowing through several piles of ash on his way up the hill to us.

  It was another man with no wings. This one was blond. As he got closer, I noticed he didn’t have the same perfect complexion as the others. He was pale, and sweat tacked some of his hair to his forehead. I looked again.

  “Cam!” I jumped to my feet and ran into his arms, nearly knocking both of us to the ground. Puffs of ragged breaths expanded his chest as our hug dragged on. “You’re alive.”

  “I’m more alive than ever,” he said, holding me at arm’s length.

  “Really? Because you kind of look like shit.”

  He laughed, that sound of large, heavy bells reminding me of sitting across from him in History class, ten lifetimes ago. The sound was almost enough to make me laugh. Almost. Until I remembered why I might never so much as smile again.

  I let him lead me to the nearest bench, watching over my shoulder as Elyon and his guards strolled down the other side of the hill toward Angel Central.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m sitting, which is what you want, because I imagine you have a lot to tell me.”

  “Are you sure you’re ready to hear it all?”

  “Listening is about the least dangerous thing I’ve done in as long as I can remember. I have to know.”

  “After the Fallen were destroyed, your wings burnt away and a blast of wind took their remains and spread them over the city, healing it from the war. ‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing.’”

  “Was that … from the Bible?”

  Cam nodded. “Malachi. Chapter four verses one through three. Almost like it was written about you.”

  A strange swirling formed in my stomach. “That was beautiful and all, but I could do without the Bible right now. What else happened?”

  “In the aftermat
h, I followed Elyon up to Heaven again, without his knowledge. I snuck into another meeting with the Governing Fifteen. I told them how, without the Fallen, our way of life was going to have to change. Not only our work, but our choices. It took some time, and I almost got myself thrown out more than once, but I convinced them to listen. I told them how angels should be allowed to choose a new path. Rather than risk Falling, they should be given a choice, choose to be human. We know the resources of changing an angel were available to Lucien, so why not our side?”

  His eyes were all over the place, wild and bright, fresh with a new light I’d never seen before. Like a child at Christmas.

  “When they finally agreed, and settled on a way to institute the change, I volunteered to be the first to make the transformation.”

  My mouth hung open. I touched my fingers to my lips. That’s why he looked so different. Cam had finally been given a chance to be human, to experience all the things he’d always wanted, the way real people do.

  “I’m so happy for you, Cam.” I reached out and hugged him. He was human now; no one had the right to judge him for what he did anymore.

  He’s all I had left. And I was so glad to have a friend.

  I swallowed back my own tears, happy for him, but afraid of what I had to ask next. “Are all the Fallen … ?”

  “They’re … they’re all gone. But”—the way his eyebrows rose in excitement gave me a sliver of hope—“there are rumors. Several angels claim to have seen a few Fallen they recognize, those who were rumored to be wingless.”

  “Wingless?”

  My hope bottomed out along with most of the strength I had left. What a cruel, cruel world. The worst of the worst would survive, and the best man I had never known was … was … I wiped at my tears. “How did they survive?”

  Cam didn’t get a chance to answer.

  “Those of us without wings did.”