Refusing to panic, I studied the white wings rising behind the one in front of me. They were massive. Impressive. My eyes locked with the angel’s and I shivered. I’d never seen such coldness in anyone’s eyes, not even a demon’s. But then again, he wasn’t an ordinary angel. He was an archangel, an annihilator, one of the angel hordes that had defeated our forefathers and sent them to Tartarus.
I swallowed and glanced at Dante, who was to my right. His eyes didn’t shift from the archangel, though his expression was amused, which didn’t make sense. Dante wasn’t the smiling kind.
“Everything will be okay, Lilith,” he reassured me softly.
We’d be lucky to make it off the roof in one piece. The archangels were big and buff. The blond facing me wore a white tunic like a suit of armor, along with a gold kilt-like wrap, gold sandals and a matching cape. His eyes were an indeterminate color. The sword sheathed on his side was long, the hilt golden too, but he didn’t pull it out. Instead, he crossed his arms and studied me like a principal who’d caught a student ditching school.
I stared right back, realizing he was trying to get inside my head.
A flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes, then disappeared. My heart pounding, I glanced over my shoulder. Esras, the twins and Kael had closed in, their backs to us in a defensive stance, weapons ready. They were no longer covering their ears. The other two archangels faced them, their attitude equally condescending.
“Dante,” the one in front of us said in a deep, rumbling voice that vibrated my bones. A sneer marred his perfect face as he stared at Dante. “I can’t say it is nice to see you again. How long as it been?”
“A couple of centuries. Give or take a decade. What do we owe the honor of your presence, Raphael?”
“We want the girl,” the archangel said without glancing at me.
“You can’t have her,” Dante declared.
“My fight is not with you, Dante. Not this time,” Raphael said and pulled out his sword. “But I will fight you to get her. The little imp is an abomination.”
“She is just a little girl,” Dante retorted, stepping forward, wings flexing.
“If only that were true, but you and I know what she will become. She was never meant to be born.”
Dante chuckled. “Yet here she is. Once she was, there was no stopping those sworn to protect her. How long have you been searching for her now, Raphael?”
The archangel didn’t like that. His hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. “Were you the one hiding her before her powers manifested? Is that why we couldn’t find her?”
“No, love shielded her. I’m just one in a line of her protectors. You can’t stop her from fulfilling her destiny.”
Hysterical laughter filled the air, but I didn’t realize it came from me, until the archangel turned those cold eyes on me. What color were his eyes anyway? They seemed to change every few seconds.
“What is so amusing, imp?” Raphael thundered.
“You,” I said, surprised at how calm I sounded. “Don’t you know that love trumps hate?”
“Don’t lecture me on love,” he bellowed.
“As an archangel, all you know is how to follow orders. You don’t understand love, not like we and humans do. It explains why you hurt all those people. Most of them sold their souls in the first place to help those they loved.”
“They will understand that every action has consequences.”
“How? You wiped out their memories,” I retorted.
“They will have their memories back once they die, and an eternity to relive their past.”
“That is what all this is about—free will. Master Haziel’s ramblings about fates and my survival makes sense now. My survival was guided by love, not fate. I mean, what are the odds of a powerful Cardinal falling in love and marrying a human? Very low, but they chose to stay together and damn the consequences.”
He glowered. “Your grandfather started this chain of events with his recklessness. Your leaders should have stopped him.”
“Perhaps they knew the kind of Guardian my grandfather is, the kind that doesn’t give up when faced with obstacles and believes in the power of love. My parents falling in love wasn’t fated either. They chose each other despite the odds.” Even though Raphael didn’t respond, his eyes said I was right. “Are Bran and I fated to be together because of the choices those who loved me made or the choice he and I have made and will make?”
The archangel took a step forward. “You and the young man—”
“Will survive this,” Dante finished, shifting, so he stood slightly between me and the archangel.
“That is the problem with your kind. Too many choices,” Raphael said without any inflection in his voice. “Look at you, Dante, her champion. You are ready to die for her, yet the last time we met you were in the service of her father and believed in his cause. Fickle as humans and twice as arrogant, your loyalty is worth nothing.”
Dante chuckled. “That is the beauty of having free will, Raphael. Something we have, and you don’t. We can think for ourselves, make our own decisions. Like the child said, you do as commanded, without thought, questions or doubt, like a puppet on a string.”
There was a roar and Raphael charged. Dante boldly moved forward too, but the clash of steel against steel didn’t follow. Instead, a whooshing sound came from above, then a wing dropped on the roof between them with a sickening thud, forcing both of them to stop. White feathers floated in the air just as another wing followed. Though chopped from their bases, there was no blood, just a weird glow where flesh should have been.
We all looked up.
Bran gave a mocking bow toward Raphael, his wings flapping furiously. “Sorry for my untimely arrival. You can either continue and lose more of yourselves, or find your friend before the humans do, archangels.”
“This is not possible,” Raphael bellowed, pointing his sword at Bran. “How did you do this, Nephil?”
“Easy. With this,” Bran raised his dagger.
“Find Samuel,” Raphael yelled to the other two angels. “And get him too.”
While he issued orders, Dante issued his own by telepathing something to Kael. All I managed to hear was “now”, then Kael grabbed my arm. “Follow me. You too,” he added to the three Cardinals.
We took off at the same time as the other two angels. The surprised look on Raphael’s face was the last thing I saw before we disappeared, though I wasn’t sure whether it was from seeing us teleport or Dante rushing him.
We spanned the globe—Chicago, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and London, then materialized on an empty floor of a building. Lucien stopped peering at the sky through the floor to ceiling windows when we appeared.
“Finally,” he said, hurrying to us. “I thought you were dead. He…the other nature-bender said you were in trouble and ordered me to stay put or he’d make me sorry. Where is he?”
“Making sure we got away safely,” Kael snapped, then walked to the window to study the sky too. I wanted to follow him and reassure him, but first things first.
I turned to face the four Cardinals. Every conversation we’d had zipped through my mind. I’d treated them like newbies, and they’d let me. I walked to where they stood and handed Esras the sword. My voice was calm when I spoke, even thought I was furious. “Why wasn’t I told you were Cardinals?”
“I didn’t like the idea to begin with,” Esras said, then glanced at the twins. “It’s why we arrived late in the alley.”
“Was this some sort of practical joke you three cooked up or another one of Master Haziel’s brilliant teaching moments?”
This time, no one responded. Either they didn’t want to tattle on Master Haziel or they were guilty. I couldn’t look at them without feeling like a total idiot, so I turned and rejoined Kael.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I will be.”
“What happened?”
The urge to vent washed over me, but I squashed it. His concern for me was instinctive, but he was more worried about Dante, who still hadn’t appeared.
“Long story,” I said and glanced out the window. Below us, the city spread like an oasis in a desert. Above, not a single cloud marred the vast blue sky, which meant we were safe. Was Bran safe? Just because I didn’t feel his pain didn’t mean they hadn’t captured him. Even thinking about it made my chest hurt. I had so much to tell
