Michael laughed. “Of course they are. Humans love the concept of soul mates, but in reality, soul mate relationships are the hardest of your life. They challenge you, and force you to grow much more than any other relationship.”
I was having a freaking conversation with an honest-to-God archangel. Tell me all the things. I wasn’t a religious person, but I was curious about something. And now seemed as good a time as any to ask.
“So… do Christians have it right? I mean….” I wasn’t sure how to delicately word my question so as not to offend him.
Michael laughed. “No one religion has it all right. The Creator doesn’t care which path you take to find Him, and all paths lead to Him.”
Hmm, that kind of made my brain turn into a pretzel. I still wasn’t sure where I stood on religion, but it sounded a little more tolerable after that.
I was about to ask him if dogs went to heaven when he reached out to me. “May I have her?” he asked kindly.
With a little apprehension, I handed her over.
The second she touched his palm, his face took on a look of surprise. “Magnificent. I can actually sense your energy within her.”
“Umm, cool.”
Michael studied the blade a moment longer, then set it on the ground. “Now, as a slow start, we’ll have you call her to you from the ground, close by.” I raised one eyebrow and he grinned. “Just close your eyes, open your energy, and call to her.”
‘Do you know what he’s talking about?’ I asked Sera. I usually let her handle things like this.
‘Not really, but I can sense you, and I can sense you’re not touching me, so I guess I could manipulate the energies around me to gravitate toward yours… if I tried.’
That was all way over my head.
‘Okay, try that,’ I replied.
I kept my palm open and took a deep breath in and out, praying she wouldn’t cut my hand.
Then the cold steel slapped into my palm and my eyes snapped open.
“Holy shit!” I said, then realized I was in a room with an archangel. “Sorry.” I winced.
“They’re just words.” He smiled.
Truth.
“That was easier than I thought!” I exclaimed, bouncing Sera in my palm.
He smirked. “Because she did all the work.” He scooped her up from my hand, before walking all the way across the room.
‘He smells good,’ Sera told me.
My face scrunched up. ‘What? You don’t have a nose. That’s ridiculous.’
‘And yet I smell him, and he smells so good.’
Okay, I’m not even going to go there.
When Michael reached the very farthest corner of the room, he set her down, and stepped back.
“Now, call her to you.” He was wearing a wicked grin.
What kind of angel takes pleasure in someone’s failure? Ugh, he’s been spending too much time with Lincoln.
I widened my stance, held out both hands palms up and took a deep breath. ‘All right, Sera. Show him what we’ve got. Come to me,’ I beckoned. I kind of felt like I was calling a dog, but it was best not to tell her that.
She was silent a minute, and I began to grow worried. ‘I got nothing, sorry.” She confessed. ‘I sense your general direction, but I can’t move myself to you from this far away.’
That ruined the really cool vision I had of her flying to me from across the room. I’d take her in my hand, raise her to the ceiling, and she’d send out a burst of light to top the whole thing off.
“She can’t do it,” I told Michael.
He nodded. “But you can.”
Oh Lord. This is going to be a long night.
Michael looked at me compassionately. “I was told that you’re not the greatest at studies of light, is that correct?”
I chuckled. “That’s putting it nicely.”
He walked toward me. “Everything is energy, light. If you can feel that, you can do anything. When you learn to feel Sera’s energy, and use your inner light to call to her, very little can keep her from you.”
I chewed my bottom lip, pretty sure Michael knew about my… problem, the fact that I had Lucifer magic in my blood, and most likely his wings. “Umm… what if I don’t have any light?”
Now it was the archangel’s turn to chuckle. “Nonsense! I can see your light, and it’s the brightest I’ve ever seen in a human.”
His words shocked me. I wasn’t technically a human, but I knew what he meant. “How… how can that be? I have black wings, and dark magic shoots from my mouth and strangles people!”
He didn’t seem surprised at the truth bomb. He just shrugged. “You’re like a bug zapper.”
I frowned. “Huh?”
Michael placed a hand on each of my shoulders. “Those of us with greater inner light attract the most darkness. Don’t ever forget that.”
I wouldn’t. It was the first time since I’d learned that I was essentially Lucifer’s spawn that I’d been given hope.
Maybe I wasn’t evil, destined to be evil, or whatever I was afraid of.
Maybe I was the brightest light Archangel Michael had ever seen in a human.
Yeah, I’ll go with that.
Chapter Twenty-One
It took me three days to learn to call Sera from across the room. Michael had taught me as much as he could that night, and then only by sheer exhausting practice had I been able to do it three days later. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it in a life-or-death situation, or in a room crowded with demons, but I’d keep practicing nevertheless, as it was a good skill to have.
Now, it was the day of the gauntlet, and I’d already thrown up twice. I’d always carried my nerves in my stomach, but once I’d puked, I was pretty unshakable.
I left the bathroom for the third time and joined Luke, Chloe and Shea in our dorm room.
Shea made a face. “You okay?” She knew what was going on.
“I’m good now. Got it all out,” I told her.
We’d all been delivered letters at six that morning. ‘Choose your team of four to go through the gauntlet. Choose wisely. If one of you fails, you all fail.’
It was three o’clock, and classes were suspended for the day. Chloe had her long thick black gloves on, and her hood covered up her bright red hair. We’d pulled closed the light-blocking curtains in our room so she could enter, and now she was pacing the floor.
“We’ve got this. We knew it was going to be a team thing, and we’ve all been practicing accordingly,” she assured us.
Luke looked terrified. “If one of us fails, we all fail,” he quoted ominously. “I can’t go back to living with my parents. I can’t.”
I held my hands out in a placating gesture. “No one’s failing. Trust me, Shea and I are homeless if we don’t pass. We’re banned from Demon City, and we have no money, so a lot’s riding on this for all of us.”
Chloe stopped pacing. “If we fail, I’m sure my dad will give us jobs at the club. We can all share an apartment or something.”
A little bit of relief ebbed into me, and I saw the others’ expressions settle a little.
“Yeah. Good plan,” Shea offered.
“We’re not failing,” I told my team. “Luke, you’re strong and powerful. Chloe you’re strong and fast. Shea is a badass, who can open and close portals to Hell, and I can freaking fly. We are not failing!” I shouted.
Everyone stopped and looked at me.
Chloe grinned. “And that’s why you’re team leader.”
We’d never officially talked about having a leader, or who it should be in the event that we were teamed up. I chewed on my lip nervously at the idea of being in charge of our fates at the academy.
“Definitely,” Shea echoed, and Luke nodded.
A knock came at the door and we all froze. The gauntlet wasn’t for four more hours. We were to meet in the parking lot and get loaded onto buses and go to God knows where.
Luke started for the door, but I jumped up to intercept him, my intuition was screaming, though I couldn’t pinpoint why.
“Hang on,” I urged, then stepped in front of him, and leaned against the door. “Who is it?”
“Delivery. Cloud Nine Donuts,” a young female voice answered.
I grinned, chastising myself for being paranoid, and pulled open the door to a young woman, wearing a Cloud Nine Donuts hat with a box and card. Luke snatched the box out of her hands, and I took the card.
“It’s all paid for,” she told me, then turned and left.
I ripped open the card.
Good luck today, babe. You got this.
Love,
Lincoln