Angels Falling

by Harriet Carlton

  “Are you referring to my quietness?” asked Michael.

  “Obviously.”

  Michael chuckled. There was no humor in the sound. “I am worried what Vortigern’s next move will be, Imorean. You are his goal, his target. I do not know what boundaries he will not push to get to you. If he is willing to bring memories of your mother into this, then there is no sacred ground for you.”

  “I don’t think there was much sacred ground to start with, Michael.” Imorean swallowed. “He’s really out to kill me, isn’t he?”

  “He wants you destroyed. He does not have to kill you to do that.”

  A chill swept over Imorean’s body and he turned his eyes back to the water. Behind him, Michael shifted his weight, his shadow on the water clearing a fraction. Something in the dark glinted against the morning light. Without a second thought, Imorean plunged his hand under the cold water. How had he lain unconscious in this for hours the night before? Fingers grabbed at something in the murk. Something metal. Something familiar. He had felt this before. Relief washed him. It was the buckle of his watch. Found. Gripping it tight, he brought his hand back above the water. Before his grimy fingers even broke the surface, he knew something was wrong. It was too light. Preparing for what he was about to see, Imorean pulled his hand above the water. It was the buckle of his watch. Just the buckle. The rest of the timepiece was missing. A quiet gasp escaped his mouth. Why? How? How could this happen? This watch … it had been the only heirloom given to him by his father. The connection to his past as Imorean Frayneson the mortal, normal human. Muscles at the sides of his mouth twitched. This was cruel. Just cruel. His eyes welled up with unwelcome tears. Had he not lost enough?

  “Imorean,” said Roxy.

  He turned to look over his shoulder. Roxy and Diniel stood behind him. Diniel sighed and passed him a small piece of a leather strap. It was sodden and nearly black from the water. Imorean looked closely. This piece would have attached to the watch itself. Roxy pressed a second piece of strap into his hand.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I know how much it meant to you.”

  Imorean’s throat felt as though it was swelling shut. The last birthday present his father had given him before he died. Gone. Shredded and useless. Beyond repair. A third piece appeared on a weathered, long-fingered palm. Michael. The metal case. Not looking up, Imorean took it and turned it over in his hand. The bottom of the case was intact, the small dent on the underside still visible. The top side, though, was a different story. The glass had been shattered. Half the white face had broken away. Both hands were missing. Tiny pieces of the watch that could never be recovered. One of the few items that had brought him comfort in a world that was all too strange had been torn away. He closed his eyes. He should have seen this coming. Movement felt robotic as he stood up. He felt removed from his own body. He turned to Michael, the broken pieces lying in his hands like a fragile treasure.

  “Fix it.”

  Michael inclined his head, dropping his glowing wings. “Pardon?”

  “Fix it. You’re the most powerful Archangel in the world. Fix it.”

  Green sympathy brushed the side of Imorean’s head. “Without all the pieces, I cannot repair what has been broken.”

  “But …” Imorean let his sentence trail off and looked again at Michael, imploring him. Michael blinked and looked away. Imorean turned to Gabriel. He felt so helpless.

  “I can’t do it either,” said Gabriel, shaking his head. “Like Michael says, to fix something like this, we need all the pieces.”

  This wasn’t how he had pictured losing his watch. He had never pictured losing his watch at all. He wrapped a shaking hand around it, holding the wrecked timepiece close. He was returning to Felsenmeer in a matter of hours. This time, though, he was leaving behind the piece of himself that felt like home – the piece of himself that felt familiar. It was like the last fragments of his ties to humanity were being torn away.

  Chapter 23

  Naked. It was the only way Imorean could think to describe how he felt. Through the airports, he had kept checking his wrist to look at the time, only to find that the time was no longer there. Only a swathe of bandages remained, wrapping the area the Hellhound had clawed. Several times before they left Raleigh, Michael had called him over to look at watches. None were right. Imorean blinked. It was as though Michael couldn’t or wouldn’t understand how he felt. His watch hadn’t just been a watch. It had been a companion. It had been with him since before he started his time with the angels. It was part of him. He didn’t want a new watch. The last item he had had to remember his father by couldn’t be simply replaced. Now, back at Felsenmeer, he supposed he had missed his last chance to get a new one.

  Imorean sat up in bed. He and Michael had arrived at the base late the night before. Briefly, Imorean considered getting up. It was just him, Michael and an absolute skeleton staff here. Roxy, after much protest, had been left in North Carolina to spend time with her family under Diniel’s guidance. Gabriel had stayed behind to keep up the barriers around the students. Imorean sighed. He was fated to spend these next few weeks in isolation. Michael wasn’t exactly the best company. They got along better than they used to, but Michael wasn’t someone he wanted to watch TV with or swap stories with. He flopped back on his bed. He wouldn’t be surprised if he started making friends with inanimate objects before long. For the first time since he was a small child, he wished he had a stuffed animal with him. At least it would be a friendly face. Someone to talk to. He glanced at his bedside table. The framed picture of him and his parents stood there, as well as the one Michael had found. Words couldn’t express how glad he was that he had brought them.

  A knock at his door made him jump. Michael was on the third floor. The staff never made much contact with the students. Wildly, Imorean wondered if Felsenmeer was haunted. Would a ghost knock at his door? Could he see them if he wasn’t on the astral plane?

  “Imorean?”

  Imorean started. He knew that voice. He was off his bed and at the door in seconds. Nearly ripping it off its hinges, he pulled it open. “Colton?”

  Through thick, round glasses, the youngest member of his squad stared up at him. A small smile worked its way onto Colton’s face. “Hello to you, too.”

  Imorean shook himself. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m here with Raphael. He said you and Michael got in last night.”

  “Wait, wait, wait, wait.” Imorean shook his head. “Didn’t you go home?”

  “I decided to spend the summer here to keep studying. Mathematics don’t stop developing just because a person gets made into an angel-human hybrid, you know.”

  Imorean blinked at him.

  Colton took a deep breath. “I’m also here because Raphael wanted to try an experimental procedure to give me back my wings.”

  Before he could stop himself, Imorean’s eyes flicked to where Colton’s cardinal wings used to be. Of all the damages Vortigern had made against his squad, Colton’s injuries had arguably been the worst. He looked wordlessly back at Colton’s face.

  Frowning, Colton started to turn away. “Nice to know you’re happy to see me.”

  Imorean shook himself and fell into step next to him. “Hold on, Colton. That wasn’t what I meant. You just surprised me is all. It’s just, I had given myself up for being alone until the others got here. I thought I was going to be making friends with the tables and chairs before the end of the week. I’m glad to see you, believe me.”

  Colton laughed. “I suppose I could have told you I was going to be here.”

  “How have you been surviving here for a week?”

  “Well, Raphael is fantastic company. So many stories. Did you know he’s been trained as a trauma surgeon, battlefield medic and psychiatrist?”

  “I didn’t know for sure,” laughed Imorean. “But I should have guessed from all the stuff he does. What else have you been doing other than crowding Raphael?”

  “I haven�
�t been crowding him,” scoffed Colton. “He comes to find me. He’s very talkative. Can’t get him to stop once he gets going. We’ve been spending a lot of time in the library. Did you know that Vortigern named himself out of history?”

  “Named himself?” asked Imorean. “After what? Dictator? Terrorist?”

  “No. Vortigern’s name comes from one of the first kings of ancient Britain. Some relation to King Arthur. There’s a book in the library about him. Raphael wrote it. The original Vortigern was a warlord. He was the first human our Vortigern ever possessed. It was the first time since Babylon that Raphael and the others had encountered him. He vanished again not long after that.” Colton shuddered. “Can you imagine that? Wearing a real human’s name like some sort of trophy. The book doesn’t say much else, but the picture of King Vortigern looks identical to ours.”

  Imorean’s stomach turned uncomfortably. “Something tells me that Vortigern would have taken more than his first, well, victim’s name.”

  “Do you think Vortigern is … still inside his original person?”

  “Seems like the sort of thing he’d do,” shrugged Imorean.

  Colton rubbed his arms. “Well, now I wish I’d never brought this up. Wearing someone like a – a meat mask.”

  Imorean frowned at him. “When you put it like that, I wish you’d never brought it up either.”

  “Why are you back so early?” asked Colton. “I thought you would be home for two weeks.”

  Imorean pulled up a sleeve, glad that he couldn’t see the tan line from his watch, and exposed the bandages that wrapped his arm from his elbow to his wrist. “I got attacked in North Carolina again. Shocking, I know. I just get luckier and luckier.”

  “By what?” cried Colton, his bright, blue eyes widening behind his glasses.

  “A Hellhound,” he replied, pulling his sleeve back down. “Michael pulled me out as soon as he could.”

  Colton opened his mouth to speak, but Imorean cut him off. He didn’t want to talk about what had happened in North Carolina. Hearing his mother’s voice and losing his father’s watch were both still at the forefront of his mind.

  He changed the subject. “Have you eaten yet?”

  “Oh, erm, not yet,” replied Colton. Imorean heard the confusion in his voice.

  “Let’s go get something. Are you meeting with Raphael today?”

  “I should be, yes. We’re talking more about how we should proceed with making new wings for me,” said Colton.

  “Well, let’s get something to eat, then meet with Raphael.”

  “A sweet sentiment.”

  Imorean leaned over the railing to look from the second floor into the lobby. Standing in front of one of the fires warming his hands, clothes dusted with a light amount of ice, stood Michael.

  “I feel like there’s a ‘but’ at the end of that statement,” said Imorean, resting his forearms on the railing and shaking out his wings. Michael had obviously been out for a flight. His own wings itched with the temptation to do the same.

  “There is. I need to meet with you as soon as possible.” Michael darted a glance at Colton. “No offense to you, Colton, but I need to speak with Imorean in private.”

  “None taken,” replied Colton. “I can’t take Imorean into an appointment anyway. Raphael’s all about patient confidentiality. He’d probably throw him out of the room.”

  “I would indeed,” said Raphael, walking inside. His black hair was swept away from his face. His blue-black wings paled with frost. “Why did I let you talk me into that, Michael? It’s barely above freezing out there.”

  “Imorean was sulking.”

  Imorean snorted. “I was sleeping, actually. I’m still part human, remember.”

  “He’s right, Michael,” said Raphael with a smile. “Why don’t you boys come on down and we can lay out a few plans?”

  Imorean spread his wings and prepared to leap over the railing to sail down to the first floor when he caught sight of Colton. Wingless, Colton could no longer do this.

  “We’ll be down in a moment,” said Imorean, folding his wings up and moving toward the stairs. He felt a hint of relief and knew in his chest that it came from Colton. He frowned. Ever since he had summoned fire in the physical realm, his Archangel senses seemed to have been heightened further. He wasn’t sure if he liked it.

  Imorean flashed Raphael a quick smile as he and Colton arrived in the foyer. The two Archangels sat close to the fire.

  Raphael inclined his head. “I hear Diniel took good care of you a few days ago.”

  “She did,” nodded Imorean. A strange warmth took hold of his chest as Raphael’s eyes softened.

  Raphael sighed in quiet relief. “Good.”

  Imorean nodded and sat down on the couch next to Michael.

  “So, shall we give them the news?” asked Raphael.

  Michael nodded, unlacing his boots. Imorean narrowed his eyes. There was something up. He wondered how he hadn’t noticed it earlier.

  “All right, guys,” said Raphael. “We’re going to be busy for the next few days. Colton, you and I will be doing research on prosthetics and whether or not I will be able to manipulate them in order to support you in the air.”

  “Prosthetics?” gasped Colton. “Raphael, if you’re able to make them work it would be a medical marvel!”

  Raphael looked away. “Well, it will be the experimental, if it works at all.”

  “What if it doesn’t work?” asked Colton.

  “Then we will keep trying. I will not stop my task until you are back in the air.”

  “Seems like it could be pretty risky,” offered Imorean, looking between Raphael and Colton. He understood how fitting and working with prosthetics could keep Colton and Raphael busy, but him as well?

  “It could be. I hope you’re prepared to take a few tumbles, Colton.”

  “I think I am,” nodded Colton.

  Raphael looked at Michael over the rims of his glasses. “Michael. Your turn.”

  Michael looked up, green eyes shrouded. Imorean flinched as he felt a strange wobble in the air. Disbelief, Raphael. Defensiveness, Michael. Annoyance, Raphael. Heightened annoyance, Michael. An argument? He adjusted the way he sat as Michael frowned and turned to look at him.

  “You will be spending your time working with a new squad member.”

  Imorean choked on his own spit. “What? You can’t!”

  Michael glared. “Sorry though I am for your loss, the fact of the matter is that you have lost three members of your squad. This leaves you, Roxy, Ryan, Baxter and Colton. Colton himself is handicapped. As it currently stands, only four of you are capable of doing field work. If I were to send you out on a mission and you were attacked, you would stand no chance. Your numbers play against you.”

  “I didn’t ask for a new squad member. We all know each other really well by now. Bringing in another person will mess us up.”

  Michael folded his arms. Imorean felt a wave of anger from him. “Funny. I thought having lost three members of your squad would have ‘messed you up’ more than anything else.”

  “Sorry.” Imorean looked at the floor to gather himself. “How is this new member going to pick everything up, though? It took all of us months.”

  “She is coming here in advance for a crash course in training.”

  “She?”

  “Roxy’s argument from the winter still stands. For there to be only one female on a squad full of males is lonely. As it happens, the top student that we surveyed was a young woman. She was the logical choice. The only unfortunate feature is that she does not have raptor wings.”

  Imorean sighed. “Who is she?”

  “I do not believe you know her. She was from the South Carolina group and not in your wing class. Kadia Palmer.”

  Colton’s face lit up and Imorean felt his enthusiasm.

  “You’ll love her, Imorean,” said Colton. “Kadia was in my wing class. She’s really driven.”

  “What’s her wing base
?”

  “Sparrow,” said Michael, his face hardening. “She will be slower in the air than most of you.”

  “Most songbirds are,” shrugged Colton. “She’s smart and reliable, though.”

  “Indeed,” sighed Michael. “If Colton does not return to the air, we will work something else out. I am hoping, though, that everything will go according to plan. If we are lucky, Imorean, you will have a functional squad again in the next few weeks.”

  Imorean nodded and frowned at Michael. “So, when Kadia arrives, you’ll be giving her a crash course on basic angel stuff then tossing her into the lion’s den to come hunting artifacts with us?”

  “Me?” chuckled Michael. “Oh, no, Imorean. I will not be teaching her. I prefer to work with Archangels.”

  “Then who …?” Imorean inclined his head as Michael looked at him, one eyebrow raised. “No. No, don’t you look at me like that.”

  “You already have experience with teaching and leading a squad. One person should be easy, should they not, Imorean?”

  “You make it sound so simple. When is she arriving?”

  “Tomorrow,” replied Michael.

  “I think what my brother means,” said Raphael, offering a smile. “Is that he wants you to be nice and to be prepared for her to arrive.”

  Imorean nodded. He forced a smile of his own. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Kadia to arrive. It was that he didn’t want Mandy and Dustin to feel as though they were being replaced so soon after their deaths. He rubbed the spot on his wrist where his father’s watch had once rested – another thing he didn’t want to callously replace.

  “I’ll be as ready as I can be.”

  Chapter 24

  The midnight sun was something Imorean knew would take adjusting to. He was glad of the orange blackout curtains over his sliding, glass door. It was still strange to wake up early in the morning to find the sun already up. It never quite dropped from the sky. Even at midnight, it remained on the line of the horizon, a burning, orange ball. He had a horrible feeling Michael would use this to extend their training hours.