Fallen Souls (7 page)

And as such, she’d become one of his
first recruits. Someone who didn’t believe in the hierarchy
anymore. Someone who didn’t understand why the Creator had chosen
mankind over angels. She was the living, breathing example of what
Adrian said he was fighting for.

Seraphine had thought at the first
meeting that it was just going to be a place to air their feelings.
Perhaps they would even be able to have a civilized discussion with
the higher-ups. It hadn’t taken her long to realize that the
meetings were something different entirely, however. Instead, there
were discussions about what Adrian called ‘progress,’ and by the
way he spoke – his voice full of loathing and disgust for the
humans and the Creator – and the promises he made for ‘when he was
in charge,’ it was obvious that he didn’t want to just talk. He
meant to act.

She hadn’t wanted any part of what he
was planning, and had come to Michael with her report as soon as
she felt she had enough information.

He’s planning to overthrow
our Creator, Michael,
she’d said
desperately.
We must stop him!

How exactly Adrian planned to
accomplish his goal was a mystery, though, as was his projected
timeline. And that was exactly what Kali needed to find
out.

The Archangel Michael had come to her,
knowing that she was closer to Adrian than any of the other angels,
and given her one mission: Find out what Adrian was doing. It had
made her sick to think about turning against her friend. She didn’t
have any experience in being deceitful, and wasn’t even sure she
could pull such a thing off, but if Michael was right and Seraphine
was telling the truth … if Adrian was trying to start an uproar in
Heaven and overthrow the Creator … it would mean the end of their
existence as they knew it.

Heaven had always been a place where
betrayal was non-existent. Or at least she thought it had been. But
if Adrian was capable of turning against his own kind – and others
followed him on that mission – then their world would be changed
forever. She had seen how betrayal poisoned humans on Earth, and
how it made them wary. Untrustworthy. Dangerous. She’d watched them
fight one another over that distrust. Now she envisioned the angels
turning against their own, fighting and even killing, just like
those humans. All for what?

Adrian dethroning their lord – and
allowing strife between the angels – could create a rift in Heaven
that would be impossible to fix. How much did he believe in this
revolution of his? How far would he go to give his followers what
he promised? And what would happen to those that opposed
him?

Could he actually
overthrow the Creator?
Would
he? And why? She let the thoughts trail off,
unwilling to follow them to their conclusion. What could he
possibly accomplish that would be worth tearing apart their
home?

The thought of Heaven in chaos was
almost more than she could fathom. It would mean the end. Of
everything. If Seraphine was right, they didn’t have much time to
stop it. And Kali would be damned if she was going to stand by and
watch it happen.

We fear he plans to
dethrone the Creator by any means necessary
, Michael said.
You must find out
how he plans to do it, and when. But be careful that he doesn’t
suspect you. From what Seraphine has told us … I do not believe
he’ll be generous, if he finds that you’re spying on him. You and
Seraphine report back to me as soon as possible. I’m afraid the
situation is worse than any of us could have imagined.

Now, Kali stepped onto the crust of
the earth, her heart pounding in her chest as her white angel glow
faded, along with that of her companion. The moment their
luminosity disappeared, they were plunged into the darkness of the
night, with only the light of the full moon to guide their path.
And even that was being slowly swallowed by the clouds, which grew
thick across the sky.

Kali’s angel eyes adjusted to the
darkness when the last of the moonlight disappeared, and she took a
deep, gasping breath, inhaling the sharp, crisp scent of the
brewing storm. There was lightning in the distance, illuminating
the night sky, and loud claps of thunder made the hair on her arms
stand up, the electric chill in the air sending goose bumps
rippling across her flesh. She rubbed her arms, trying to warm up
and stop the tingling sensation. The storm wasn’t far away, and
somehow it made the hollow place in her stomach grow, a bad omen of
what was about to happen. Or rather, what was already
happening.

All around her, as if mimicking the
lightning, the glow of hundreds of angels lit up the night. She
hadn’t seen so many arriving, but the clouds had obscured her
vision on the journey. Now she realized that there were more angels
than they had anticipated. Many more. The realization made the
darkness in her stomach grow even larger. This was worse than she’d
expected.

“
There weren’t this many
the last time I was here,” Seraphine whispered, and Kali turned
away from the scene in front of her for a moment. Seraphine’s voice
was shaky, her brows drawn together. “This is bad.”

“
Why, Adrian?” Kali
breathed to herself. She felt sick with dread just standing there,
watching, as more angels showed up by the second.
It
appeared that
everything Seraphine had told them was true. Even worse, she and
Seraphine were outnumbered by hundreds, and if it came down to a
fight, the odds were not in their favor.

That meant they were in real danger if
they were caught, and Michael’s words about Adrian showing no mercy
echoed in her mind. Adrian was her friend, she reminded herself
warily. He wouldn’t really do anything to harm her, would he? The
Adrian she knew wouldn’t, but as her eyes scanned the field in
front of her, she began to wonder if the Adrian she used to know
even existed anymore. What had happened to change her old friend so
drastically?

In the first place, it had never been
his style to hide, and they were certainly in a hidden – or at
least remote – location. Before her lay a large field, covered in
lush green grass that dropped off in the distance. She could hear
the sound of waves crashing against the nearby cliff, and smell the
salty ocean breeze blowing through the field. Twenty yards from
them, the large group of angels was gathered near the cliffs, and
from the look of it, they were waiting for someone, all standing in
a circle and speaking in hushed tones. Thankfully, they hadn’t
seemed to notice her or Seraphine yet, and she wanted to keep it
that way.

Even if part of her did want to run
down there and ask them what the hell they thought they were going
to accomplish.

She needed to get out of there as
quickly as possible, before she did anything stupid. She couldn’t
believe what she was seeing, or wrap her mind around what Adrian
was doing. How could he? She wasn’t good at hiding her emotions, so
pretending to be fine with all of this – let alone wanting to join
– was going to be nearly impossible. Resisting the urge to punch
him in the face for his behavior would be even more
difficult.

She watched the new angels arriving
and gripped her bow more tightly, glad that she’d filled her quiver
with arrows before she left. Then she forced herself to let her
weapons disappear. She didn’t need them right now, and if anyone
saw her with the bow and arrow, they’d realize she was a spy rather
than a friend. She didn’t need Adrian – or anyone else – thinking
she was here to fight. And with any luck, she wouldn’t have
to.

Besides, she could easily call them
back if conflict broke out.

She so was busy assessing the
situation in front of her that she failed to notice when someone
snuck up on them. Then she heard Seraphine gasp next to
her.

Kali turned, and froze in
place.

The angel in question was standing
right in front of her, smirking. She curled her hands into fists at
her sides and fought the impulse to call her weapons back. Adrian,
the Creator’s right hand, and the most beautiful angel ever
created, stepped forward to block her path, looking her up and
down. His eyes were pure gold and sparkled like the sun – a stark
contrast to his jet black hair – and his perfectly sculptured
features were set in a pale complexion, shifting only when he
smiled at her. She forced herself to smile back, though her stomach
turned sour at the expression. This was the angel betraying the
Creator. Betraying them all.

Betraying
her
.

It was hard to even look at him. If
the rumors were true – and from what little she saw, they appeared
to be – then the fate of Heaven truly did rest in Adrian’s hands.
He was gathering angels – thousands of them – and trying to start a
revolution. Against the Creator. A revolution that no one knew
about.

No one except Michael. And her. Which
meant that it was her job to save the Heavens. It was a danger to
be here, and it could mean her life, but it was also the only way
to protect her world.

Before Adrian could say
anything, she heard Michael’s voice echoing through her
head.
Don’t fall for his tricks,
Kali
.
Adrian is
cunning and charming. He will do anything to convince you that he’s
doing something for the good of the angels, but you must not be
fooled. You are our only hope.
She
straightened her shoulders and narrowed her eyes, preparing
herself. Michael was right – Adrian was a smooth talker. And she
wasn’t going to fall for it.

“
This isn’t at all what I
expected,” Adrian said in his musical voice, breaking her from her
thoughts. She repeated Michael’s words to herself, and tried to
smile in a somewhat normal manner. Normal, that would be the trick.
Adrian knew her well, and she was going to have to keep it together
so that she didn’t tip him off.

Seraphine dropped to her knees and
bowed, though, and Kali couldn’t hide the shocked look on her face.
Her mouth popped open, her eyes going wide, and she almost grabbed
the girl, but managed to hold back. Seraphine was just playing the
part of an angel who saw Adrian as her new savior and leader, she
realized abruptly. In fact, if Kali were smart, she’d probably do
the same. Despite that, however, she couldn’t force herself to bow
to him. Instead, she closed her mouth and turned back to him with a
smile, hoping that he wouldn’t expect that kind of behavior from
her. She needed to convince him that she was here to join his
followers in destroying Heaven. But surely there were ways that
didn’t require her to grovel in the dirt.

“
Seraphine told me about
your last meeting,” she explained, looking down at the girl and
knowing that she was going to have to do something big to sell
this. She crossed her arms and glared at him. “I was surprised when
she informed me of your plans, and shocked that you hadn’t told me
yourself.”

“
I didn’t think you held
the same views as myself and the others,” he told her, his eyes
widening in shock. He reached down to put a hand on Seraphine’s
shoulder without breaking eye contact. Seraphine flinched, but if
Adrian noticed, he didn’t react to it as he helped her up. “Angels
like us believe the Creator to be an unfit leader. These are the
angels who believe in their hearts that I should be above Him, and
that I deserve to rule. I wasn’t aware that you might be part of
that group.”

“
He made the humans and
told us to love them as much as He did,” Seraphine cut in
convincingly, playing the loyal follower. “He created a flawed race
and gifted them with free will. That free will makes them evil to
one another, and then He charged angels with protecting them from
themselves. Angels have died protecting them from their own sinful
race. Which means the Creator put them above us.”

It was true, and Kali herself was one
of the angels Seraphine spoke of. She’d been sent to Earth,
entrusted with protecting humanity from the demons. When the
Creator first made the human race, He’d also made Hell, where He
sent the souls of those humans unworthy of Heaven. Those souls
whose actions during their lives on Earth were too dangerous, or
sinful. And these souls rotted away in Hell, slowly losing their
humanity – and their minds – and eventually becoming what the
angels had started calling “demons.” Deranged beasts with no human
emotions, only hatred in their hearts.

And an appetite for
violence.

It hadn’t taken those beings long to
discover a way out of Hell. Once on Earth, they’d found humanity
and taken to killing them and dragging their souls back down to the
depths of the underworld, never to be seen again. Kali’s job was
simple: Protect humans by hunting down and killing those demons.
Sending them back to where they came from, before they could do any
further damage. The humans called her an avenging angel – not
someone to be messed with or pushed, and someone the other angels
wouldn’t be happy to see here, lurking around. Friends with Adrian
or not.

Of course, Adrian and his followers
would never believe that an avenging angel who’d never swayed from
her job would want to join them.

She was an angel who watched over
humans, in a circle full of angels whose friends had died
protecting those very same beings … She would be instantly
distrusted, and her presence might put many on edge. Luckily,
Seraphine’s speech had given her the perfect story for explaining
why she wanted to join Adrian. She just hoped it worked.