Fallen Angel 5: Falling Stars Page 16

  And that choice was to fight.

  Gabriel felt a jagged stone dig into her fingers as she clawed into the dirt. A weapon? It was all that was available, all she could manage as her head started to spin and the ground tilted up to take her down with it. Before darkness reigned, she popped the rock free and hurled it.

  Michael saw the projectile, but his bark of warning came too late. The hilt protruding from Lucifer’s ribs took the assault, renting sideways with a ping that knocked the dagger from his chest. The ember in his palm blazed to life as he threw it at Lord Ruthaven.

  Gabriel gasped in a sudden rush of air as the vampire fell. Another fireball sped through the air, hitting Michael who narrowly missed swooping up the dagger. Gabriel leaped up fast, that maternal need to protect refusing to let her stop now. Flinging her wings wide, a flash of ice crackled through the air from Ruthaven, spearing straight for her. Fire hit the length, cutting the projectile down with a crash before it could connect with her skin. Gabriel dove through the splintering ice, and cold shards rained down on her as she swooped up the dagger.

  Michael caught Gabriel’s wrist, jerking her back from the cliff’s edge—right as adolescent boys and girls raced in through the trees. Lucifer’s body was suddenly coated in crackling flames, and he caught the neck of a dark-haired boy as he dropped his sword.

  “Micah!” Michael shouted.

  Gabriel cross-chopped Michael across the neck, using his distraction to her advantage. His hold of her wrist came free as he doubled over, and then she ran. Her wings beat the air and drove her up with force as she launched over the cliff’s edge, delivering her higher at speed.

  Down below, the vampires moved as if rehearsed, surrounding Lucifer as one last fireball left his blazing hand. Ice killed the fiery orb mid-air, dousing the flames on impact. And then Lucifer gasped, unable to breathe as his fire retreated back to his palms. The boy he clung to was badly burned but still alive as Michael tore him free. Ruthaven shot out two more icy spears, coating Lucifer’s hand all the way up to his arms in thick sleeves of ice. His fire went out with a hiss.

  “Prepare for war and stop the travelers before they traverse above. Do not let Lucifer escape. Whatever means necessary, his body does not leave this mountain.” Michael swooped up the angel blade and flung his wings out. More words were said, but they were lost to the rushing air that worked against Gabriel’s flapping wings. The vampires moved as ordered, wielding fire, wind, and ice.

  Lucifer was trapped, but there was no turning back now. No returning to save him from whatever came next.

  Michael was now in flight, racing upward from the cliff edge and heading straight for Gabriel. But something he said rang in her ears. Traverse. With the realms open, the ability only the Angel of Death naturally possessed was unlocked to all of them. Gabriel’s forefinger and thumb came together. “I am coming, Evangeline.” With a click, she disappeared from the starry sky as she burst into golden light.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Gabriel materialized in the Realm of Light, her toes taking form right on the edge of the looking glass. She rocked back, her long hair sliding over her shoulders and her wings fluttering to keep her from tipping face first into the purified water. There was a humming in the air, a crackle of power that was unmistakable and yet muted. The hidden celestial beings she’d felt on her earlier arrival. But that was not all. That same tug Gabriel had felt after Lucifer saved her pulled at her insides like small hands clasped around her heart. Upon her return to find Heaven’s entry was gone, Gabriel almost hadn’t left. The sensation had been so strong, so powerful, making her heart beat faster as her breaths quickened.

  Gabriel had thought it was the pull from above, the existence of all the angels that had fled to Heaven.

  Now she knew she was wrong.

  What was holding Gabriel in place was so much more than the angel warriors that awaited the war above.

  It was her flesh and blood.

  Earlier, the sensation had threatened to trap Gabriel here forever. The view through the looking glass of Lucifer watching as Cyrus and his monsters caught and restrained injured fallen had forced her to leave. Now the view was even more dire with Cyrus delivering a feathery key to each of his soldiers. A sack of feathers was entrusted to Darius as monsters and hellions gathered like a gruesome plague behind him. And Lucifer…arms and legs trapped by ice that killed the dying flames beneath, and a thick band of it choking his throat like coiling rope. He was on his back, the nephilim that had arrived as Gabriel had soared above dragging him from the cliff edge and back through the trees.

  But she could not go to him. Not this time.

  Their daughter—she was alive—and she needed Gabriel’s help.

  Michael wouldn’t be far behind.

  Stepping back from the edge of the looking glass, Gabriel whirled and ran through the columns bordering the entry to the bedchambers. Glittering drapes chimed, fluttering at her speed that propelled even faster with her wings batting at her back. Gabriel cut left at the end, then right at an intersection, leading herself away from the scribe vault. Her mind told her to dematerialize and reform at the cells Michael had once locked Lucifer away in, but that pull around her racing heart wouldn’t allow it. Instead, it pulled her on like a tight string that was growing shorter, yanking her forward without reprieve.

  A dead end appeared before Gabriel and she pulled to a halt.

  Not any dead end. Gabriel’s dead end, the one that led to her secret place. The garden God had burned to ruin.

  Squinting against the intense light that brought prickling tears to her eyes, Gabriel pressed her hands through the barrier. Tingling warmth enveloped her hands and then her arms, radiating over her body until she stepped through the invisible doorway to come out through the thick tree on the other side.

  “Oh my God.” Gabriel gasped at the sight, at the blades of soft green grass and the longer wheat strands that sprouted perfect white, yellow, and purple flowers. The trees that dotted the meadow were no longer charred and naked with only twisted branches that resembled claws. Now the charred bark was almost invisible, covered by a renewed layer of marrying browns that spread up to arms of thick foliage. Gushing water drew Gabriel’s eye to the pond on her right. No longer stained with dark murkiness, the outer ripples reflected the golden glow from above. How is this possible? She followed the gushing of water that plunged down into the pond—until she reached the ridge.

  A small figure peeked out from the sheeting water that crashed down, too small to be what Gabriel was searching for. It was a girl; she looked about the age of six or seven. Too young to be…

  “Evangeline?” Gabriel whispered her name, that undeniable internal tug yanking over and over as if it were a child’s hand demanding attention. Her child. Gabriel stepped closer, watching as the child peeked out further rather than cowering back behind the thick gushing water. Gabriel knew the answer, even as she asked the question. Remembering her abnormally long pregnancy confirmed her suspicions. “Is that you?”

  The girl, with silvery golden hair and tanned skin akin to only one other angel in existence, blinked at her. Her head tilted sideways, studying the intruding angel’s face and then Gabriel’s quivering gray wings. The girl’s small hand went to her chest—as if she too felt the internal tug. Her lids slid shut over her eyes that were a unique color of silver mixed with violet, her long golden lashes kissing her rounded cheeks. “I feel you in my…”

  She didn’t know what it was called?

  Gabriel came closer—when what she really wanted to do was take flight and rush to the girl so she could gather her up in her arms. The girl’s eyes opened at the sound of Gabriel growing nearer. “It’s your heart.”

  Instead of looking afraid, the girl smiled, as if the knowledge of what pattered in her chest made it even more profound. “My…heart.”

  Unable to take the separation for a second longer, Gabriel took a chance and extended her wings. When the girl didn’t cower, she too
k flight, rising up the rocky structure to the opposite side of the damp ledge. Wings tucked in close to her back, the closer sight of the girl and all that surrounded her made Gabriel gape. It was less illuminated behind the sheeting veil of water, but every detail stood out as if spotlighted. Tablets and scrolls littered the mouth to the concealed cave, many overgrown by wildflowers and blades of grass that grew out from a flattened bed of foliage in the center of it all. Each stem somehow curved toward the young girl as if reaching for her, as if wanting to be near her. When the girl stepped forward, fresh shoots were left in her wake.

  “You…regrew my garden.”

  A small smile lifted the corners of Evangeline’s mouth that straightened out all too soon. “I…I did not mean to.”

  She was ashamed?

  Gabriel noticed curling filigrees flicker and fade that looked like vines along the girl’s forearms. Mirroring blue filigrees curled across her feet, ending on one side where live twining purple and green vines wrapped the girl’s ankle. The intertwined length that seemed alive as if they were docile snakes continued out from her ankle, winding along the cave floor and back to the wall—to an anchor? The vines were not merely vines. Beneath their tight weave, glowing loops peeked out.

  Chains.

  Gabriel’s sight whipped back down to the flattened foliage that centered the space and was surrounded by overgrown tablets and scrolls. “How…” The question burned in her throat, but she had to know. “How long have you been chained here?”

  The girl’s reply was matched with a shrugging shoulder and a curl of her bottom lip. “Since always.”

  Despite being healed of Cyrus’s infectious bite and blood, anger so pure and so devouring burned inside Gabriel.

  Evangeline’s unaffected expression grew more serious and her unique eyes became contemplative. “Who are you?”

  Gabriel’s heart skipped a beat, tripping over itself before racing back to breakneck speed. “I…thought of you every day. Every. Single. Day. What you might have looked like. Who you could have grown to become. I imagined it so many times, but I never dreamed it could be real, that you could be…” Gabriel sucked in a rattled breath, silver blurring her sight.” I—I am…”

  A flash of light preceded Michael’s strong voice that cut through the pulsing in Gabriel’s ears. “Evangeline, this is your mother.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Evangeline peered down at Michael, her eyes wide with the shock his words had delivered. The gushing water stopped at the raising of her small hand, leaving only a trickle and a clear view of her in her dirty rags. Light flooded down onto the platform with the barrier gone, highlighting Gabriel standing in flowing sapphire across the landing. Evie’s hand went to her heart, palm flattening over her dirty robe. “Is it really true, Father?”

  That single word felt like a stab to Michael’s heart that had him taking a staggering step back. Her trust in him, her love for him, it was almost too much to bear. This beautiful child, who had no choice in what she was or what fate had in store for her, did not deserve what Michael knew he had to do. She did not deserve to die. But he had no choice. The survival of Heaven and God now rested solely on his shoulders, a weight that was crushing him with every heavy breath.

  “You let her think she was yours?” Flashes of hatred and deadly intent shone in Gabriel’s eyes. She stepped closer to Evangeline, but the girl’s retreat to the wall outside the cave entrance stalled her at once. Instead of talking to the child, instead of telling her what her father planned to do, Gabriel returned her laser focus to Michael. “She has the power of new life. Of healing and growth. You cannot believe ending her is the right thing to do.”

  Michael didn’t believe it—or at least he didn’t want to. But he knew the risk. Even with Evie’s power, the blood that ran in her veins was not as pure as her soul. It was touched by darkness. It was destined to be their ultimate downfall. And if Heaven fell too, there would be no hope for Earth, humans, or even God and his angels. They would all fall. Only Hell and Earth would remain—overrun by evil.

  “The future has been seen, Gabriel. Only one thing can change it.” Michael’s gaze fell to the dagger that Gabriel had tucked into the sash around her waist. “The other side is barking at our heels. It is only a matter of time before they are here. And once they get hold of her—there will be no stopping the end. They need her alive…and…and I cannot…” Traitorous tears bloomed along Michael’s lower lids, threatening to spill over like a flooded dam. He let them fall, carving hot, wet trails down his face as he looked to the child he’d let into his heart. “I cannot let that happen.”

  Staring up at her, Evangeline didn’t appear shocked or betrayed. Her eyes glazed for a moment as if she were considering what she had heard and her part in it all. Then the clarity returned, the violet of her eyes shining brighter. Evie fell to her knees, crushing flower heads as she nodded. “I never want to hurt anyone, Fath—Michael?” She shook the confusion away. “I will do what you want me to.”

  “No!” Gabriel stormed forward, blocking Michael’s hazy view of the most selfless being he had ever encountered. “Do you hear me, Michael? No. I will never let you do this. I won’t let you kill her. Can’t you see she is good? She is better than any of us combined. She is all that we need to protect—she is not what we need to destroy.”

  Thoughts were spinning through Michael’s head. He didn’t want this, he didn’t want the future to be true. He didn’t want to be the one to have to do this. He wanted to save this girl. He wanted to protect her. God, he wanted to protect her. But though Michael wanted all those things, they were not free for him to have.

  “I see it, Michael. I see your hesitation. I see the love you have in your heart for my child. The child you kept hidden and protected in this place. The child you raised as your own. You regretted your actions to end her once before. You begged my forgiveness. But if you do this, you will never forgive yourself. You don’t want to do this, this unspeakable act that can never be undone. Michael, please!”

  Michael’s face hardened, chasing away his hesitation. The choice was not his, it never had been. And he could not risk countless lives for the child that had burrowed her way deep into his heart. “Danger comes as we speak. I have no choice. This must end before it is too late. Forgive me.”

  Michael’s hands clenched into fists and he was airborne in a flash.

  Gabriel blocked him from Evangeline, whipping the glowing dagger from her belt. But Michael’s fist connected first. Snapping Gabriel’s head sideways, he clutched her striking hand and squeezed until there was a crack. The dagger fell and Michael caught it before it could topple over the edge. Gabriel’s smaller fists pummeled into his stomach as she screamed in fury, winding him.

  He didn’t go down.

  Wings propelling him forward, Michael threw Gabriel into the external wall of the cave. The impact had Gabriel’s eyes rolling, but then they snapped forward. Gabriel’s body twisted, her arms reaching to catch her daughter—when the blazing blue length of the dagger plunged into Gabriel’s back.

  Gabriel’s mouth gaped, a gasp raking from her throat as her knees buckled.

  Michael’s hand released the hilt as if it were suddenly on fire. Gabriel couldn’t believe he’d stabbed her any more than he could himself.

  Gushing water fell then, redirecting their eyes. The sheeting waterfall replaced the gentle trickle with unstoppable water that plunged down into the pond below.

  Suddenly gasping a breath, Gabriel’s eyes slid back to where she had been reaching for. Her eyelids somehow widened even more, showing far too much bloodshot white around the glossy silver of her irises. “Where is Evangeline? Where is my daughter!”

  Michael saw the empty cave and the discarded chain. Twined in burrowing vine that had cracked through a link, the length lay unattached between blooming flowers and tufts of grass.

  Evangeline was gone, escaped from her bindings without a trace.

  Gabriel elbowed Michael back,
her strength somehow returning. The dagger was gone, no longer embedded in her back. Not in her hands either. The unexpected force as he grabbed for her spun them around to the edge of the ridge where a horrible crack rang out. Not from him, from Gabriel. Legs failing her, she tipped backward. The water took hold, ripping her out of his grasp and throwing her down.

  Michael ran, leaping through the blanket of water. But he didn’t dive down to save the woman he loved. Instead, he dipped low as he torpedoed toward the tree to get him out of there. Cyrus was on his way—and Evangeline was alive, somewhere. He had to get to her first.

  “Michael, no!” Gabriel’s gargled scream was the last thing Michael heard, cutting off as she hit the water and was dragged under.

  Michael swooped through the enveloping exit, horrified at what he had done to Gabriel and at abandoning her without knowing the extent of the injury he’d inflicted. What if he killed her? That crack, her spine and her inability to stand, Michael had debilitated her as intended. The one angel he’d gone above and beyond to protect. The woman he had defied God for out of love. At the same time, fear flooded his heart at the thought of finding Evangeline and completing his task.

  Soon both their blood would be on his hands. But Michael had no other choice. The only thing that refused to let him turn back was the fear that it was already too late.

  Chapter Thirty

  Cyrus roared as he completed a circle around the labyrinth corridors of light—and ended back at the same circular space surrounding a still pool of water. There was nothing up here, no one up here. No one in the corridors. Not a soul in the chambers that were decorated with furs and fine materials and soft padded pillows. But how could that be? All that had needed to occur had. Lucifer had penetrated the Earth and invaded Hell without all the souls he needed to return. He’d broken back through the barrier and delivered his dark soul along with Gabriel’s tainted one above. To this place?