I didn’t care what Skye thought, I was having this conversation with Cael, and if she wouldn’t use her soul magic on the portal, I’d go through it anyway and search all of Avalon until I found him. I told her as much, and a resigned look spread over her face.
“For the record, I think this is a bad idea,” she said, but then did her thing. The portal flared blue and Skye nodded, letting me know I could go through.
Taking in a deep breath, I walked forward into the magical blue light and there was a tug on my middle. The next instant my feet touched the ground on the same glass bridge I’d visited during my first trip to Avalon. Immediately, I looked up into Cael’s kind eyes. He stood not five feet from me, wings open as the wind blew past him. The castle towered in the distance.
“Hello, Tatum.”
His voice was so calm it pissed me off. Was this where Gage’s bloody dead body had appeared the day I chucked him in here? Was this where Cael tore Gage’s wings from his back?
“How could you!” I screamed.
Screw calm. Screw collected. I waspissed.
“He wanted to change! He is a good person who left the Shades and betrayed his father to help me. You’re a freaking archangel, you should know that!” I yelled so loud that my voice grew hoarse and my hands shook. “Was it you that ripped his wings off? How dare you!” Tears lined my eyes. “You’ve broken him. You ruined him.”
A sob formed in my throat, and I fell to my knees.
I started to hyperventilate as I vacillated between wanting to cry and wanting to murder somebody. A panic attack had me in its grips; blackness danced at the edges of my vision as I struggled to take in a full breath.
A shadow passed over me. A hand landed on my back and suddenly all of my anger and desperation fled and a soothing calm filled my body. I gasped, taking in a full, deep breath of air, and then sighed in contentment.
Looking up, I locked eyes with Cael, who was now crouched in front of me.
“He hasn’t told you about his time here, has he?” His voice was low and soothing, but his question made the hairs on my arms stand up.
“Not exactly.”What did that mean? What is he saying?
Cael took a deep breath. “I am a healer with great abilities, but even my power has limits.”
My heart hammered in my throat as I waited for him to continue.
“Remember when I told you that I could not go down to Earth to help the humans because the energy was so dense from the darkness and demons that inhabit it?”
I nodded, feeling like he was about to drop a bomb on me.
“It was the same with healing Gage. When you threw his body here, it broke the portal, and I wasn’t able to heal him so long as his dark Shade magic still clung to his physical form. I had to strip him of his Apollyon-given Shade powers first before I could have a hope to heal him. I had to rip every bit of darkness from him before my light magic could mend his broken body. It wasn’t an easy or fast process.”
My mouth popped open in surprise, I hadn’t really thought about that before, but it made sense. I’d never given half a second thought as to how Cael had healed him. That must have been why it took so long for Gage to return.
“But why not give him Lumen powers? You must have seen everything he did on Earth to help us. He warned us about the demon attack on Lumen Academy, he—”
“I tried,” he said, cutting me off. “I stripped him of his Shade powers, healed him over a two-week period, and then tried to gift him with powers. I wanted to, very much. He earned them.”
Tried. He saidtried.
Cael stood, and I got to my feet as well, preparing myself for whatever it was that he was about to say. I hadn’t expected Cael to admit to doing everything right.
“What happened?” My voice was barely a whisper.
Cael exhaled, looking out at the skyline as if deep in thought. “I think that’s a story that Gage must tell you, but I will say that guilt is a heavy emotion I cannot break through. Only forgiveness can wash it away.”
Guilt?That was cryptic. What was he saying? That he was unable to gift Gage with powers because Gage had too much guilt?
I stood there dumbfounded, now feeling guilty myself for yelling at Cael when it sounded like he’d tried everything he could.
“He’s a hellhound now,” I told Cael. “Even if I can help him work on the guilt thing, you probably can’t give Lumen powers to a hellhound, huh?”
I couldn’t even look at Cael. I didn’t want to see him agree with me. I was desperate to help Gage.
