Shattering Halos (31 page)

The bright yellow silk of the robes did nothing to mask the state of their souls. I burst out laughing when I saw their faces. Both looked pretty damn mean already. It was sidesplitting how Lilith’s malice rubbed off on just about anything. The baby fondled a giant knife with enthusiasm.

“What’s that for?” I inquired conversationally. Lilith shrugged. “At this point, she’s more interested in the dagger than the cherubs. She’ll learn how to use it once she’s evil.”

“Hey, she looks practically turned already.”

“Yes! Good times, good times. Sadly, the fun won’t last forever.” Her wistful nod almost touched my heart. Lilith was close enough to be hauled in. I grabbed her by the neck and wrenched her to me for a violent lip-crush.

“Oh, that planet is full of kids. We’ll get you more.”

“Aw, aren’t you a love bug, Cassiel. I might end up adding you to my permanent collection.”

A searing pain shot through my lower arm. I winced, and Lilith giggled.

“Oh, honey, it’s okay, you don’t have to kill Cassiel. He just smooched
Auntie Lilith.”

My confusion lasted until I spotted the minuscule brat on her arm. She glared at me all rosebud-lipped and supposedly charming.

An enormous knife waived clumsily in front of her. The bloody tip pointed at my nose. Lilith cooed and drizzled kisses over her face.

“Lilith,” I said, “she got me with the cherub dagger.”

“Uh-huh,” she murmured. Eyes closed in delight, Lilith nuzzled her evil toddler. Not giving a crap about me. The gash burned, and the pain spread fast in toward my armpit.

“We’ve got the minor inconvenience of me being an angel. So…if you cared to focus for a minute? The freaking dagger might not be good for me either, am I correct?”

“Oh, right—hold on.”

She hurried out of sight, but rushed back with a small box of ambrosia. Once she smeared some on my wound, the physical pain eased. It was still maddening how she snickered at the way I’d been stabbed by a goddamn baby.

By the time I could focus on my surroundings, the giant hall had sprouted chairs and tables. There seemed to be seating for about two hundred demons and Grigori angels. Its center hosted a colossal sacrificial stone shaped as a septagram. The seven points of the star anchored thick chains, and the cherubs’ enclosure hung right above its heart. But for the love of God, would they ever quit wailing?

“The volcanoes are erupting!” Lilith shouted gleefully.

“Yay,” I declared and stifled a groan.

Chapter 31 — Magma

Gaia

Bending over the balustrade, I took in the sprawling ocean. Fascinated, I watched as Mother Earth rebelled with no assistance from Heaven or Hell. In a huff of attitude, she rattled her surface. It boiled into sputtering explosions of steam that obscured the blood red dawn.

A rocket of smoke wheezed at the heart of the commotion. When the magma flowed, it seemed timid at first. Then in a spew of orange, it raged against the sky.

Arms snuck around my middle, startling me. As Gabriel squeezed me close, I shut my eyes and leaned back.

The forces of nature below, Gabriel and his family above…it was a lot to take in. A light shiver went through me. Without a word, he folded his wings around us, deterring the arctic breeze.

“Isn’t this nuts, Gabriel?”

He kissed my ear, a smile tinting his voice. “Yes. Nuts.”

Right. I guess I wouldn’t have been in awe either if I’d been there for Creation.

The angel next to us bent closer, and the soft sound of tinkling bells floated to me when she spoke.

“It’s quite magnificent, isn’t it?”

As soon as I turned to her, my eyes began to water.

“I’m so sorry—I should have introduced you two before,” Gabriel shot in.

Blinking, I dragged the back of my hand across my face in an attempt to rub the tears away. They kept coming. Through the haze, I distinguished some of her features. Yes, Gabriel and the other angels were stunning, but this one was different.

In my entire life, I had never been in the presence of a more beautiful being.

Her hair was shimmering honey, cascading in never-ending curls past her waist. Black lashes crowded around perfect almond shapes, and her eyes glittered in a dark silvery pink. A full, cherry mouth curled up in the subtlest of smiles.

“Sister, you can’t conduct a conversation like that,” Gabriel murmured.

An achingly delicate sigh slipped from her at his statement. Gabriel turned me within the circle of his wings and brushed a wisp of hair from my nose. Shielding me from her shattering beauty, his gaze traveled over me, assessing my composure. Slowly, my breathing calmed, and my cheeks dried in the chilled air.

“Sunshine, you just met Yofiel.”

I gasped and spun in his arms.

No way, I get to meet the Angel of Beauty finally?

Gabriel’s soft laughter revealed how loud my thoughts had been. I sent her a tentative glance and took a new sting to my eyes from the contact. This explained why she’d stayed invisible in Shades Run.

“Yofiel, she can’t take in all of you. Do you mind?”

In defeat, long, satin lashes fluttered with breathtaking grace. They lowered to disguise her irises. The waves of heavy ringlets slid across a porcelain cheekbone, partly concealing her dazzling face.

“Ah, yes. I’m hiding now. He’s very controlling, you know,” she explained unnecessarily. Her heart-shaped face tilted toward me with skin of the smoothest ivory.

“Sorry I’m so human,” I said, swallowing a strange mix between a sob and a giggle. “Thanks so much for being with me when he had to leave, Yofiel.”

“Oh, it was my pleasure,” she tinkled, “I don’t get out much.”

“Why would you want to anyway? If this isn’t even Heaven, I can only imagine…”

Her laughter rang like water dripping on crystal.

“You’re right. To go home is always good.”

Home. As in freaking Heaven. Craziness.

For some reason, I’d never pinched myself to see if I was dreaming with Gabriel. While chatting with Yofiel, I finally did.

“Angels!”

The banister vibrated and hummed along with Michael’s single word, twisting it into a musical piece. I didn’t detect movement, yet hundreds of angels suddenly hovered or stood around him in a semicircle. Smaller groups extended trays filled with golden goblets. They offered them up to their peers.

Michael lifted his, setting off a blur of motion. A second later, every drink was raised. Taller than all of them, Michael held his above our heads, exuding the quiet confidence of a born leader. Gabriel gave me a chalice, and I peeked into it.

His arm slipped back around my stomach as he breathed into my ear. “Nectar.”

“To victory!” Michael bellowed, causing a legion of winged creatures to echo him.

“To victory!”

The drink crackled in the color of the lava below, its taste replicating the scent of wildflowers. My entire goblet-full disappeared instantly, and I peeked up at Gabriel. Of course he had noticed.

“You’re hungry, sunshine.”

“Umm, not anymore,” I mumbled, my cheeks coloring.

Billows of black smoke drifted up from below, threatening to swallow the moon. Excitement thickened the air of the cupola.

Michael began to bark out orders that sent seventy angels off at a time.

“To the Seamounts! Appease the waves.”

Seventy sets of shimmering wings took off into the air in a mist of movement.

“To Galdhopiggen! Melt in and get ready for battle.”

Another seventy pairs disappeared before I could blink.

“To the throne hall of Galdhopiggen! Find the cherubs.”

The cherubs?

Michael pointed, and the third group dove off the railing. Their wings were spread like giant fans as they surfed the winds on their way down.

“To Galdhopiggen! Surround the massif. You are the watchers, the backup. If more are needed inside, you are the ones.” Seventy left, then another seventy.

For the shortest of moments, the clouds came alive with flapping, beating, and soaring wings. The absolute silence as they wafted off had me questioning my senses.

“To the throne hall! Locate the Purest Ones.”

Only seven angels stood. Gabriel pointed out three of them for me: Hadraniel, the Angel of Love; Zadkiel, the Angel of Freedom; Gazardiel, the Angel of New Beginnings.

“Yofiel! Save your twin. It is time to bring him home.”

I whirled around and got an eyeful of the Angel of Beauty as her resplendent gaze lit up in awe. Her hair caressed her face like liquid gold as it slinked away. I watched, enthralled.

Her bliss formed diamonds at the corners of her eyes, and I followed their brilliant paths as they multiplied and played down her cheeks.

“Easy, sunshine,” Gabriel said as I fell to pieces. He forced me into the crook of his neck.

“Thank you,” she sang behind me, “thank you, Michael. I can deliver him to you, and I shall turn my brother again.”

“Yofiel, I appreciate your commitment, but to accomplish this after years of Grigorian manipulation will take more than your efforts. Kakabel will demand our attention for a long time and require strict confinement.”

Surreptitiously, I caught a glimpse of her landing at his feet. She unfurled into a radiant flower of sparkling hair and wings on the floor.

“Thank you.”

“Enough. Go! Go now. We must hurry.”

At his command, the fluttering of her feathers sped up. Soon they transformed into shimmering, white fog behind her. Slowly, she lifted from the floor and hovered like a hummingbird. Yofiel was twinkling with purpose. My heart swelled with her hope. Oh, I hoped with her.

“I will not fail.”

Then she was gone. For a second, the glowing outline of her shape lingered behind.

“Wow…”

“She can make an exit, can’t she?”

“I’d say.”

The sudden stillness, the lack of chatter and rustling feathers, brought me back. I scanned the cupola and found only the three of us left behind. Michael escorted us over to the west side, one arm around each of our shoulders.

“The Heavens appreciate everything you have done. In case you’re still in doubt, be assured that no punishment is to be doled out. You two are to await our return while we resolve this squabble.”

I peered at Gabriel, hardly believing what I heard. Angel minds clearly work faster, because his gaze already flickered with relief. Michael snapped his fingers and winked at me.

“Do you like parlor tricks?”

Gabriel grimaced. A small couch and table materialized in front of the banister.

“Oh, come on—I didn’t even say ‘abracadabra.’”

First, the steaming bowl of spaghetti and meatballs caught my attention, then the Shirley Temple and ginger ale.

A moan slipped from Gabriel at the sight of an enormous banana cream pie. His half-lidded expression of pure, undiluted pleasure sent a jolt of desire to my gut.

Oh, not now…

Two pairs of glimmering blue eyes flitted over me. I studied the ground. When Gabriel tilted my chin up, his irises donned shards of hunter green.

“Awesome,” I mumbled.

The archangel waved it off.

“As soon as the angels melt into the walls of Galdhopiggen, they’ll be our eyes and ears. You’ll be able to follow what happens the way you have with the Seamounts. This, Gaia, is my version of the device you humans have…”

His eyebrows lowered in thought.

“Television.” Gabriel helped.

“Ah, yes. The television.”

Chapter 32 — The Show

Gaia

Gabriel gazed at a moon fat with matter, its usual pale hue saturated with the color of blood. Michael was waiting, still as a marble statue. Between the two of them, they extinguished the air from my lungs.

When the shadow of Earth touched the moon, the archangel spread his arms and his wings. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that everything I knew depended on this. Michael dropped off the banister without as much as goodbye.

Oh God, I am scared.

Seeking relief, I curled against Gabriel and stole from his heat.

“Gaia, they’re in.”

And there it was. A hologram of the Galdhopiggen massif lit up in front of us. The angels melted into the granite from all sides. They penetrated deeper, and the innards of a different sort of mountain came into view.

This fortress was darkness, flames, rock walls, and cavernous ceilings. Its inhabitants were painfully beautiful and revoltingly hideous.
Nausea.

“Sun, it’s like TV, remember? You’re not visible to them.”

“I know, but they’re just so, so—”

The image of a giant hall unfolded before us. A bigger, more wicked presence drew my attention. His ruby eyes were alight with excitement.

Ramiel hulked on a throne while hundreds of his inferiors bounced and slumped around tables. They drank from chalices and gnawed on something akin to soup bones. Their boisterous laughter, growls, and screams didn’t drown out the sound of crying infants.

“Babies? What are they doing with babies?”

“Sunshine, those are the cherubs Michael mentioned. Do you remember the sixth pearl?”

“Yes…”

“I think Ramiel’s plan is to use the cherubs to turn the Purest Ones evil tonight.”

“How?” My heart was in uproar.

He shook his head. “Hopefully, it never happens.”

They were suspended in a crate above a giant rock. Desperate, little wings batted a million beats per minute. Below them, humans had each been chained to their own point of the star-shaped stone. Their bright yellow gowns contrasted eerily with the gloom of the surroundings. The two children of the group flaunted knives that appeared out of place in their hands.

“Look!” I exclaimed, “Cassiel’s there!”

Gabriel shot up from his seat and leaned over the balustrade. “Oh. No. What’s he doing?”

“Did we forget about him? Can he survive this?”

Gabriel shut his eyes.

With legs stretched out and elbows on the steps behind him, Cassiel lounged on the stairs to a gallery in the circular throne hall. I couldn’t tell if he was resigned or bored. Every now and then, his gold eyes flitted over the surroundings.

A veritable goddess with long, green hair prowled over to him. She grabbed his face. Cassiel tipped his chin up and stared her down. Undaunted, she leaned in and devoured him in a suck-off-your-face kind of smooch. He remained slouched against the stairs. He might not lift a finger to touch her, but the greedy response of his mouth transfixed me.