Fallen Angel 1: Ashes of Eden Read online

  Michael was before Lucifer in the blink of an eye, water lapping around their waists as his hands glowed with heavenly light. His palms were ice cold as he clutched Lucifer’s face, his eyes luminously white like they too were an extension of God’s power.

  “You will never see one another again,” God’s voice was a resounding boom in his head that pulsed with agony and trapped Lucifer’s screams in his throat. It made his ears hum too, cutting off Gabriel’s cries for him to stop. “And you will never be given the opportunity to act in the name of love. From this day forward, you are Earthbound. Banished from Heaven. You reap what you sow, Lucifer, my once brightest star and now the Disgraced of Heaven. Serve your penance and spread word of me throughout the repopulation of mankind. Or continue on this path you have chosen and you will never know my forgiveness. You will never be invited back into the light. ”

  Like a living projectile, the damning cold that had frozen Lucifer’s face and screams shot down his throat to this heart. Splitting in two it struck backward like twin blades of ice that could turn whatever they touched into shattering stone. But Lucifer didn’t become stone. Instead, the agonizing freeze shot from his back, spiking outward from the base of his wings and then flowing down like a blanket of vile darkness. A roar finally bellowed from Lucifer’s throat as the base of his wings turned black. The dark trail followed the cold down, submerging beneath the water until it had leeched onto every feather down to their very tips.

  “Lucifer!” Gabriel cried out, diving forward with her arms outstretched toward him.

  But even as he forced his limp arms to reach for her too, it was too late.

  The concaved glass below Lucifer’s feet gave way with a shattering crash. Like a vacuum tunnel had opened up, Lucifer was sucked down with the glittering glass shards in a unstoppable waterfall. Reaching up as he fell, the last things he saw were Gabriel and her silver-streaked cheeks, Michael with his wings beating to hold him up from falling too, and the blinding light that snapped out like a blast and stole everything above from sight.

  Now under a black sky of thick angry clouds, Lucifer fell like a falling star. Wings immobile, he plummeted faster and faster, pinwheeling the air that bashed his body and tore at his feathers. The pain of bones breaking and windburn on his raw skin felt like it would never end. Like it could go on forever. Like the place he was falling to was not Below, but someplace so much further away. Or like his fall could last an eternity.

  Would he forever be doomed to endlessly fall?

  As fear rose up in him, the collision of something hard into his head stole his consciousness and killed his pain—

  Lucifer awoke with a crash of freezing cold, hitting the swelling waters below like a meteor. Letting the undercurrent drag him down, shock finally gave way to conscious thought. Though alive and no longer falling, the darkness that had soiled his magnificent white wings left a stain on his heart. He screamed beneath the roiling waves. God had taken the only thing he had ever truly loved away from him.

  But Lucifer could not give up. Not now. Not ever.

  Kicking with all his might, Lucifer fought to reach the surface.

  Mankind would never live up to God’s unrealistic hopes on their own, and as the race continued to disappoint, God would never see the error of his ways. He would never see that he was wrong, that love was not something to be feared or condemned. The free will he had instilled in all of his unworthy humans was—unless Lucifer devoted himself to making them worthy and honorable.

  Lucifer’s face broke from the swirling current with a horrible gasp. He spluttered and coughed, damaged wings and limbs fighting the tide to keep him from being dragged back under.

  Once God realized that love and only love was the answer to his perfect creations, Lucifer would once more have what he coveted most. He would have Gabriel—and he would never let anyone take her from him again.

  . . ☆¸.•°*。☆。*。☆。*°•.¸☆. .

  Can Lucifer achieve redemption and return to the angel that owns his heart?

  Continue reading for a sneak peek at the next Fallen Angel installment – Dawn of Reckoning.

  Thank you for reading!

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading Ashes of Eden. If you enjoyed this book please turn to the last page an select a star rating, or if you have a moment to spare, you can leave a review. It doesn’t have to be long—one or two sentences would be amazing. The more reviews a book has the more Amazon is willing to put it in front of potential readers. As an indie author, I don’t have a big publishing company promoting my work, so every little bit helps and I’d love for my audience to be a part of it. I read every one of my reviews and completely appreciate the thoughts and opinions of all my readers.

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  Thank you, J.L. Myers

  Continue reading for a sneak peek at the new and Lengthened 2018 edition of Dawn of Reckoning - Releasing November 2018

  FALLEN ANGEL 2 - DAWN OF RECKONING

  . . ☆¸.•°*。☆。*。☆。*°•.¸☆. .

  Moving around the thick trees, Gabriel’s bare feet padded over the leaf-mulched ground. The gentle light that surrounded her intensified as if she were a white flame burning brighter because of their closeness. Lucifer regarded her face, his lips parting as if mesmerized at the sight of her. Yet on glimpsing her saddened expression, his morphed with the same pain that had resonated on his face the day he’d fallen. “Lucifer, please. Let the boy go.”

  Seconds went by, his expression unchanging and body unmoving. When his arm had almost healed, he blew air through his nose and tugged the shocked boy up by his neck, shoving him back in the camp’s direction.

  For a moment, Gabriel’s heart soared. Perhaps she could get through to him. At the same time, the pained expression on his face dampened her hope, as did the clenching of his fists. His eyes that screamed of internal torment did not leave her face for a second. “It has been almost three decades.”

  And yet, he looked exactly the same as he had all those years ago. As did she. Timeless and eternal.

  But still, so much had changed.

  They were no longer who they used to be. From the look in his eyes, she was no more than a stranger he was cursed to remember.

  Gabriel spoke as Lucifer remained still, looking more and more wounded for every moment he stared at her as if trying to reconcile all the familiarities of her face against who she now was to him. “I have missed you, Morningstar.” Her tender name for him. “You tempt your fate too much.” She moved closer with the weightlessness of the wind, coming right up to him.

  When she reached for his handsome face, Lucifer leaned his cheek into her warm palm. The reaction tugged at her heart, flooding her with a sense of déjà vu at the scratch of his stubble and the way his eyes became hooded. She desperately wanted to be closer to him, to envelop him with her arms, to show her undying belief in all she knew he could be. Yet she did not move. She couldn’t. Doing so would only cause more strife.

  “I fear what this petulance will cost you. His forgiveness may not withstand—”

  Lucifer jerked back with a snarl, and Gabriel’s hand fell along with the hope she had held onto for all these years. The gleam in his eyes turned feral. “God’s eternal forgiveness is saved for his precious humans. They alone are his pride. We are merely his servants. Loyal and pure is not what he values. Now I am like them.” He held his arms out wide and glared up at the sky. “Existing solely for my own gain and other’s demise.”

  Gabriel unfurled her wings. The soft downy feathers quivered with the sadness that pooled in her eyes. She was losing him. “Lucifer, no. You allow your anger to blind you. He does not want—”

  Lucifer shoved Gabriel back, and she continued back stepping as he stalked forward. Feet poked and scratched by fallen twigs, she did not stop until her wings hit a tree. With his next words, her fear and frustration peaked. “I am human. One of his precious creations. Still I am not good enough. He ca
st me out. He took my wings. He took everyth—”

  Gabriel’s warring emotions exploded and she punched Lucifer in the face.

  It was all too much to contain. Knowing she wasn’t getting through to him. Knowing she was failing him like the day he had fallen, and long before then when she had failed to control her forbidden love for him and been caught ready to welcome him into her bared body.

  As he stumbled, her wings flung open, huge and powerful as her ability to be soft vanished. Striking out, her long fingers grabbed Lucifer around the neck. “I will not let you continue this.” She squeezed with heavenly might as silver tears streaked down her cheeks. At the sight, Lucifer’s entire body turned rigid, but he did not fight back as she spoke. “This plague you have cursed the earth with…I cannot bear to see it. Not for them, but even more so, not for you. I know you, Lucifer. You burned so brightly once. It can be that way again.” Her grip loosened as she blinked her eyes clear. Her lips lifted with a small, hopeful smile. There was no returning to what they had once been to each other, but there was always hope for redemption and forgiveness. “If you would only let go of this pain and accept your place among us once more. Accept God’s love again, Lucifer. Beg His forgiveness. Do it for you, for what we both know you can be.”

  Tightness melted from Lucifer’s body and his sigh was resigned. Gabriel’s hand around his throat fell. With her hope redoubling, she tried to ignore the indent she’d left around his neck as it faded. “What you demand is impossible. Without you…I am nothing. God knows my heart. And that I cannot change. You may not feel what we once shared, but I can never forget. I can never let go. And that alone is why He keeps me a prisoner below, why my will to redeem myself died…”

  Gabriel wanted to argue despite having seen the moment of his dying plight for redemption, but his severe frown killed the words on her tongue. She reached out to lift his face. “Lucifer, what is—”

  He caught her wrist with firm yet gentle fingers. His head snapped up. “You are not permitted to be here.”

  Remembering her escape, Gabriel shot a glance to and from the faintly glowing manacle that circled her ankle. She pulled her wrist free and tugged her silver tresses over her shoulder, twisting the long length back and forth. “I had to see you.” The words were ones Lucifer had said to her many times in their past, and she would have smiled at using them if the cause for her disobedience was not so dire. “There is a place worse than Earth. Michael warmed—”

  “Michael is a snake,” Lucifer spat through clenched teeth. “You endanger yourself in buying his lies. You should not have come. Leave, before it is too late.”

  He turned to stalk away, and Gabriel darted forward, spinning him around by his bicep. “No. I will not go. I will not fail you again.”

  Though his face was red with anger, he stopped to look at her, really look at her. With a deep breath, kindness returned to his starry eyes. “It is not you who failed me.” When he reached up, she let him brush her cheek with his rough hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. His hand lingered there with his arm outstretched between them, a battle waging on behind his eyes. Then he took a hesitant step closer and pressed his lips to her forehead. His hand moved at the same time to clasp the back of her neck.

  Gabriel softened at his touch, her heavy wings dipping lower as the gentle breeze swept her silver-flaxen hair back from her shoulders. “Lucifer, please…”

  “I am sorry,” he whispered, his breath warm against her forehead and hard to hear over the rustling of tree leaves. Lucifer’s grip tightened on her neck. “I will not let you be condemned too.” He freed his sword of its sheath and drove it into her gut, stopping only when the hilt reached her body. “My place is here where he left me. I am the humans’ God. Their Messiah. I will make every last one of them mine. I will ruin his precious humans by bringing out their true natures. Tell your God to keep watching from his pearly throne as the world turns black. Or until he undoes this mistake he created and eliminates this hell.”

  A sudden well of blood choked up Gabriel’s throat and she coughed. Silver splatter coated Lucifer’s face the same color as her streaming tears. The pain was merciless, but she did not care. This had been her one chance, and now it was gone. Even her love could not sate Lucifer’s hate of their maker. “I will pray for you.”

  “Do not bother.” Lucifer tugged his sword back. The anger across his face broke into disgust then fear at the sight of the bloody hole he’d cut into her. His sword fell from his hand as if it had become too heavy to hold. As he spoke, his voice cracked. “God is not listening.”

  The new and lengthened version of Dawn of Reckoning will be release in November/December 2018, but you can dive into the preview version in the mean time by following this link: http://bit.ly/DORfallenangel (Important: this link is case sensitive if retyped)

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  About the Author

  As a child, Jessica’s vivid imagination and quiet demeanor led her to the imaginary worlds of books. Even at a young age, her love for the supernatural was strong, with her first loved books being R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. Following that she took an interest in other non-fantasy fiction, including Virginia C. Andrews series Flowers in the Attic.

  In her teen years, Jessica spent many school hours writing poetry and dark short stories. She also took up sketching some of the terrifying things that came from the graphic nightmares she’d grown up with.

  As an adult and after meeting the love of her life, Jessica moved to Brisbane, Australia, got married and started a small construction business with her husband. With the birth of her son, Jessica suffered PPD and found escape in her books and their imaginary (real!) characters and landscapes. It was at this time that her need to write flourished. In 2009 the decision was made and the first words to her Coming of Age Paranormal Romance novel What Lies Inside were written.

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