“Me,” Katia whispered
“Yes, you…and your brother.”
Katia’s eyes flew up to meet her father’s. “My brother?”
Uriel looked down at her, that sad smile returning. “Twins. Imagine our joy at being blessed with not one child, but two. A boy and a girl, the perfect family. But it didn’t last long. Shortly after your birth, your mother was attacked and killed by the dark; your brother was taken. You were with me. When we returned to our home, all that remained was the carnage they’d left behind. I realized then that they hadn’t known there were two of you, so I hid you in the human world, allowed you to be adopted and raised as a human. I intended to find you one day, to tell you of your heritage, but it seems as though circumstance has intervened and hastened our reunion. I always knew you were alive and well. I could feel you out in the world, but couldn’t bear the sadness of meeting you, of intervening in your life but being unable to be a part of it, so I kept my distance.” As a lone tear escaped her green eye that was so like her father’s and tracked down her cheek, she leaned in instinctively and embraced him. They held onto each other tightly, neither one wanting to let go. With her face buried in her father’s neck, Katia mumbled. “Is my brother alive?”
“I’m not sure.” Uriel croaked, his throat raw with emotion. “After that day, I could no longer feel his presence. He’s either passed on or he is being held in Halja. As an angel, I cannot enter that realm. I had to make the most difficult decision of my existence – remain silent and keep your existence a secret, or alert the light and the dark to the possible presence of my son. I chose to safeguard your life.”
Katia sobbed as her father held her. She cried for the loss of the mother she never knew, the father she’d never gotten to know, and the brother she may never know. She cried until she ran out of tears and all that was left were the dry sobs that wracked her body. The others in the room averted their eyes to give Katia and her father time to reconcile the painful reality of their story. Only Luc’s eyes remained locked upon them. Moving slowly he advanced to the couch and crouched down in front of them.
“Uriel, I know this is the worst possible time, but Satan tasked me to bring Katia to him. If your son is alive, then why would he need Katia? Why wouldn’t he have already attempted a binding?”
Glancing down at Luc, Uriel replied. “He may have tried the binding already with Keir but it wouldn’t have worked. He would require both of them. Together, they are complete, two sides of the same coin, the dark and the light.”
Confused, Luc shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
“One cannot be bound without the other as they are connected at the deepest level. They share one soul.”
Chapter Fourteen
Resting in the comfort and safety of her father’s embrace, Katia sifted through the missing pieces of herself that had finally come together. Everything that set her apart from the rest of the world, her adoptive family, her friends — those smashed pieces of her heart were knitting together. She was someone with a real history, a past that was more than conjecture.
She was an immortal creature, an endangered species; she shared a soul with her brother. Whether he was alive or not, a part of him lived as long as she was breathing. The thought comforted her at a base level. Katia was dimly aware of conversations happening around her. The others were making plans and leaving to execute them.
Turning her head, she glanced at Luc. He looked so afraid for her as he had a hurried conversation with Amir, who nodded in agreement to something Luc said. He turned, pulled wide the curtain in the fabric between worlds, and disappeared from view. Luc stood rooted to the spot looking shell-shocked and staring blankly at the space where Amir had stood. She wanted to reach out to him to comfort him but her body felt so numb, the shock of all that she’d learned had paralyzed her.
As she stared at him, Luc turned slowly to face her. She watched as his expression shuttered and became impassive. A coping mechanism, she mused. The same one she used when she tried to distance herself. For some reason, he cared what happened to her but didn’t want to. Strange, she thought, because she was in the same place.
Luc gazed at Katia from across the room as she rested in Uriel’s arms. Sergei sat at her side - a pillar of strength in the storm. The past forty-eight hours flashed through his mind like a runaway bullet train. This was definitely not what he'd had in mind when he woke up two short days ago. He had somehow been cast as the accidental protector to a beautiful creature he was drawn to who could end up being the catalyst for Sheol on Earth. Aside from his inexplicable feelings of tenderness toward Katia, he had a sudden burning desire to save her, not just to prevent a war — because it was her. Squaring his shoulders, Luc headed toward the small group huddled on the couch. Taking a seat on the coffee table in front of them, he looked Uriel dead in the eye.
“I need to know everything you can tell me so I can keep Katia safe.”
Uriel searched Luc’s eyes seeking answers of his own. Clearly finding what he’d been looking for, he nodded for Luc to continue.
“We know why my employer is interested in
