War of Wings (13 page)

Arrayah’s face flushed crimson. “I can’t believe you just said that. Did you not just throw your own best friend through a bunch of orange trees? Did you not just tell me you wanted to come see Lucifer so you could join us? Now, all of a sudden, you change your mind even after you have seen how quickly he is gaining power? That makes no sense, Gabriel!”

“My mind was never completely made up. I know now I am here because of you, and I believe I am supposed to save you from this. I have a very bad feeling about what is happening here. Michael foretold this, and he told me that he saw you in his vision facing the consequences. You were turning black and screaming, Arrayah. I didn’t want to tell you, but that is what made me so angry with him today. I know Michael, and I know now that it must be true.”

“What? Turning black?”

“I don’t know exactly what it means, but you have to trust me. I can’t lose you.” He could see Arrayah was scared, and so was he. She was at a loss for words. “I have to believe Michael was shown that dream and we met so that I could save you. Nothing else makes sense.”

Saraquel made a gap in the crowd not far from them, pushing angels aside with his long, bony arms. Gabriel realized he was headed for them when he heard his scratchy voice.

“Arrayah, Gabriel, is everything all right?” coughed Saraquel with a cloud of smoke emanating from his breath.

“We are fine, Saraquel. Just give us a minute, please,” said Gabriel quickly.

“Is everything all right, Arrayah?”

Arrayah gave a small nod. Gabriel wasn’t happy with the black-haired archangel, considering he had just answered the question. “I said give us a minute, Saraquel.”

“I believe she can answer for herself.”

Arrayah pulled herself together and straightened her posture. “I am fine.”

“Are you sure? Is he bothering you?” Saraquel jerked his head toward Gabriel, and his stringy hair whipped across his face.

Gabriel clenched his forearm muscles in restraint. “That is enough. You heard her answer, so please leave us.”

“I would watch your insolent tone around here, for you are not on friendly ground if you raise your fist at me, Gabriel.” He coughed hard after he finished. His hiss was lower than Gabriel was accustomed to. He had a new air of confidence, and considering they both knew Gabriel was stronger if the situation became physical, Gabriel didn’t know where it was coming from.

“You are insignificant to me, Saraquel, and should it come to it, you will see how insignificant.”

“I take it you have made your decision not to follow us,” said Saraquel.

“You are correct, and Arrayah is coming with me. You can tell Lucifer that we are coming for Delia as well.” Arrayah sucked in a breath and pivoted to look at Gabriel.

Saraquel began to laugh. “Do you really think Lucifer is just going to let you take Arrayah from here? From him? You have no idea who you are dealing with. You know nothing about Lucifer.” Again Saraquel wheezed through a coughing fit until he caught his breath. “You don’t even know anything about Arrayah. She is as much of a deceiver as the Lord you follow.” Saraquel finished with a challenging grin.

“I would watch what you say.”

“Look at her. Do you think she cares about you? She only cares about herself. She’s using you!”

Arrayah shut her eyes. She didn’t contradict him. Gabriel noticed, but he didn’t even turn toward her. Instead, he lunged and grabbed Saraquel by the throat. Gabriel leaped skyward, lifting Saraquel with him about thirty feet in the air before spiking him into the rocky hillside. Saraquel’s body hit the ground so hard that the vibrations caused a shower of rocks to come sliding off of the mountain. Almost everyone turned around to see what happened. Gabriel wasn’t sure if Lucifer noticed.

Saraquel crawled out of the crevice his body had created. Although wounded, he jumped into the air and flew straight at Gabriel. Gabriel dodged to the right at the last second and grabbed him in a headlock. “Apologize to her!”

Barely able to breathe, Saraquel choked out, “It is the truth, Gabriel. She has deceived you.”

Gabriel tightened his grip on Saraquel’s neck, his wings beating hard to keep them both aloft, and Saraquel began to tap on Gabriel’s forearm.

“Now!”

“I am sorry, Arrayah!” gasped Saraquel.

“Say it again and mean it!”

“I am sorry.”

Gabriel released Saraquel and pushed him away. Saraquel tore off holding his throat and shoulder. He flew straight toward the summit where the leaders stood. Below, Arrayah looked up in shock. As he glided down beside her, Gabriel didn’t know how she was going to react.

“Gabriel, that was not smart! Thank you for standing up for me, but you must go now. Saraquel is going to get Lucifer and the others. You must get out of here.” She pointed toward the heavens and then peered over to the mountaintop where Lucifer, Delia, and Abbeus continued to address the crowd.

“I won’t leave you here with them,” said Gabriel.

Arrayah shoved him hard. “Please! You must leave now. You don’t understand how powerful Lucifer is!”

“I am powerful too. I won’t leave you, Arrayah.”

“You don’t understand. I’ve seen Lucifer do things.”

“What?” A crowd was watching them, and in the distance Saraquel was nearing the summit.

Arrayah’s eyes were dark and wide. She whispered so the onlookers couldn’t hear. “He showed me something you wouldn’t believe.”

“What do you mean? What did he do?”

“I don’t know. It couldn’t move though. It wouldn’t wake up.”

“I can barely hear you. What wouldn’t wake up? I don’t understand.”

She shook her head, looking suddenly terrified, and pushed at him again. He stood still as she continued to shove ineffectually. She finally just fell against him, crying softly on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she said under her breath.

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

After a few minutes, she raised her head up, and he knew she was looking at the mountaintop behind him. “You must get out of here now,” she whispered.

“I won’t leave you here with him. I would rather Lucifer do something to me than to keep deceiving you.”

“Why do you care so much about me? Worry about yourself.” She wiped the tears from her face, panicked eyes flitting from the mountain and back to him.

He knew she wasn’t waiting for an answer, but he had one. “Because I love you.”

Arrayah’s eyes fixed on his, and for a moment he felt that a veil had dropped—that a wall, one he had not even realized was there, had crumbled down for but an instant. He saw her. Then she looked away at the mountain.

“Well, I don’t love you. I lied to you from the beginning. Saraquel was telling the truth. The only reason I spoke to you was because Lucifer told me to get close to you to control Michael.”

Gabriel could feel his eyes beginning to well up. “You don’t mean that.”

“Trust me, I mean it.”

“I know you don’t.”

She looked at him again, and her expression was cold and distant. “I do, Gabriel. I would never love an archangel.”

His heart felt ready to break. He held his composure together and flashed a paper-thin smile. “I don’t believe you. This is real between us. I know you can feel what we have.”

“We have nothing.” Once more, her eyes darted to the mountain, and she started pushing at him with renewed strength. Her voice rose to a scream. “Go, Gabriel! Leave me alone!”

“Please don’t say that.”

“I mean it! You are nothing to me, and if you don’t leave now, I will never speak another word to you again!”

Gabriel could find no more words. His chest plate suddenly felt three sizes too small. It was crushing him, and he couldn’t breathe. He turned away from her to hide the tears about to spill over, and without another word he launched himself toward the black, star-strewn heavens. Darkness had fallen.

L
ucifer looked out over his new followers and felt a tingling sensation across his body. His outstretched wings shivered as he thought of how far he’d come. There was a name for this delicious feeling: power. The seed had been planted, and he stared out at the fruits of his labor—thousands upon thousands of angels on his own wondrous world called Terra.

He felt a tiny vibration in the ground beneath him. “Did you feel that?”

“What?” said Abbeus from ten feet behind him. Delia shot over from the other side of the summit.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing, Delia. Back up.”

Lucifer noticed the crowd was concentrating on something off to his right in the distance, but he couldn’t tell what it was. He began again. “It has become dark on Terra just as it has in Heaven. I now urge you to continue what we have started and bring all of your closest angels back here for our next meeting. Thank you, everyone! Remember, we know now why He is hiding!” The crowd roared. After the long cheer dwindled out, massive clusters of angels broke away toward the heavens like flocks of birds taking to the skies. All in all, another successful meeting. The revolution was spreading. His power was growing. He could feel it to the very tips of his wings.

“Mighty Lucifer!” Saraquel came tearing up to the summit, panicked. He had dirt on his armor and face and nearly ran into Abbeus. “Gabriel is over there with Arrayah!”

“Oh, excellent. He has come to tell me he is joining us. What happened to your armor?”

“It was Gabriel! He told me he is going to oppose us head on.”

Lucifer tensed up at the thought of resistance, but it was especially insulting coming from lowly archangels. He wouldn’t let this spoil his high from the wonderful meeting. “He said this?”

“Yes. He threw me into the ground, Lucifer!”

“You will be fine.” Saraquel was visibly hurt by his reaction, but Lucifer had no time for weakness.

“He also said he would be taking Arrayah.”

“Where are they?”

“There.” Saraquel pointed into the distance exactly where Lucifer had noticed the disturbance. His wings snapped to full extension, and he plunged off the summit. He heard Delia shout for him to wait, but he had no time for her either. He raced over the remaining crowds.

Lucifer came upon Arrayah watching something up in the heavens. He thought he saw a tear drip from her face as he neared but couldn’t be sure. He was distracted by the distinct flapping of wings behind him and turned to see Saraquel and Abbeus following. When he faced Arrayah again, she regarded him with a bright expression on her upturned face and a cheerful smile. Too cheerful.

“Where did Gabriel go?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

He landed abruptly next to her and didn’t tuck his wings. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“He just flew away.”

“What happened? I thought you had him under control.”

“Well, I guess not,” she said. Lucifer saw the six-winged shadows of Abbeus and Saraquel behind him and turned to them as they approached. “Excuse us for a minute.”

“Of course, sir,” they said almost in unison.

He waited until they had walked some distance away, and then he leaned in close to her. “What did you just say to me?” He kept his voice low. His wings curled around to cast her in shadow and hide her from view. She looked terrified. She knew too much to betray him now.

In a near whisper, she said, “All I meant was that I think he had something to do. He doesn’t like me that much anymore. I told him he was ignorant for questioning your—I mean our—findings on God.”

“Of course, he likes you. Don’t be a fool. You should have succeeded.”

“Maybe he just doesn’t show it. I tried, but I guess he’s not interested now.”

“Saraquel said he is planning to oppose us.”

“They argued and fought. I couldn’t hear exactly what was said.”

Lucifer watched her coldly. He felt a powerful pull from her life force. It was the only one comparable to Thyaterra’s, and he had seen thousands of angels lately. If she was spouting lies, he wanted to catch her in one. If she was betraying him, he wanted her to crack. He waited some more. He could feel her nervous energy as he stared her down. She was an amazing creature and special to his cause but not too special to destroy if he had to. Fortunately for her, she didn’t so much as blink.

“Did you find out anything about Michael?” he finally asked.

“I do know that they got in a fight today.”

“Over what?”

“I don’t know.”

His wings trembled in anger, and his feathers stood up unintentionally all around her. She let out a gasp. Something must have changed on his face. He twisted his neck to pop it, and this action gave a quick relief.

“I’m disappointed in you.” He kept his voice calm. He paused to think what to do next. “No matter then. He is no longer needed.” He tucked his massive wings in tightly and spun to walk away.

“Good,” she murmured behind him. There was unmistakable relief in her voice. He stopped in his tracks, turned back around, and stood directly before her.

“Why is that good?”

“I meant nothing by it.”

“Do you care for him?”

She tilted her head as if amused and gave a careless laugh. “Of course not.” It came too late though, and the look in her eyes told him something else. Without thought, his wings shot out violently to their full extent.

Arrayah took a step back. “He is an ignorant brute. He is harmless, that’s all. I care for you.” She regained her lost step and then walked up to him. She embraced him, the side of her face resting against his gleaming armor. Her eyes closed, perhaps to shut out his penetrating stare. Either way, it calmed him down, and he knew now what he was dealing with. He could handle her. He could handle all of them. Thyaterra always made him second-guess his own judgment, but no other angel would do that to him again.

“As do I, Arrayah.”

She raised up to place her head on his shoulder. She rested her hand over his chest, but he could feel her looking up at the same place in the sky that she was staring at when he found her.