Of course he was blaming this on me. He couldn’t take any blame for himself. He probably even blamed my fire powers on me when I hadn’t even asked for them, when I hadn’t even asked for him to sleep with a fire demon. He’d done all of that perfectly happilyhimself.
Ramiel put his hand on the hilt of his sword, but my father shook his head and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “There are too many of them for us to fight. Hurry. If we go now, we’ll reach the safe house before they can findus.”
He turned without waiting for our reaction. He took the lead once again, taking us down a winding path through the jagged alleys. Finally, after what felt like hours, we reached a small black door in the side of a steel-encased building. He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket, which I certainly found strange. Why did Michael, the esteemed Archangel, have a set of keys that opened a doorway in hell? But, as curious as I was, now was not the time to ask. The footsteps were growing louder. They would round the corner at any moment, and the demon army would find all of us standing there like idiots in the middle of thealley.
My father pushed us inside and slammed the door behind us. He held a finger to his lips as the footsteps stormed by the door and then back again. Finally, the footsteps grew distant, and I could tell his form visibly relaxed. It was interesting. His presence here and everything about it. He obviously came to this realm often enough that he had spies, and he had his own safe house with a set of keys. But he also hid from demons, which suggested that he wasn’t one hundred percent comfortablehere.
I wanted to ask him about it. Hell, I wanted to pry, but he immediately disappeared through another door in the back of the room before I could say a singleword.
The rest of us gazed around, uncertain of exactly what we should do. Should we follow him? Should we plop down on one of the sofas that were scattered around the room? The place was furnished. The couches looked similar to those found on earth. It occurred to me that they could even come from there, if that was even possible. There were also a few lamps, though there didn’t seem to be anywhere to plug them in. Did demons have electricity? Other than that, there were a couple of old rugs spread across the stone floor and a single table had been shoved into the corner. Mounds of papers were piled on top. I found myself drifting toward it until the door slammed open onceagain.
“Right, Erela, come with me. “My father glanced at me without a single ounce of affection in hiseyes.
I raised an eyebrow. “Where am Igoing?”
“There isn’t enough time for questions. We must go now if you want to get out ofhere.”
I hesitated, gazing back at Ramiel, at Sam. “What about the others? We can’t just leave them here. I thought we were going back to the Lower Realmtogether.”
He waved his hand dismissively. “You must go one at a time. A large group of us will only catch the attention of the demonarmy.”
I slowly put one foot in front of the other, hating the idea of being separated from my Order. But my father’s words made sense. It would be a lot easier for two of us to slip through the buildings than the entirety of our group all atonce.
My father was getting visibly impatient, so much so that he even tapped his foot. “Come on. The sooner I get you through, the sooner I can come back, get them, and take themthrough.”
That finally got me moving. I followed him out the door, which led to another alley that must have been on the opposite side of the building. He grabbed my arm in his hand and jerked me along, taking no care to avoid hurting me. But whatever. I was done caring. All I wanted was to get on the other side of the portal, so that my Order and I could figure out a way to defeat the demons on the other side. We still hadn’t figured out exactly what we were going to do or how we were going to do it, but getting out of hell was step one in whatever plan we came upwith.
We rounded a corner, and the prickle of humanity morphed into a roar. The portal shimmered before us, blue and green flickering in strange waves between two buildings. Luckily, there were no demons standing between us and the Lower Realm. They must have still been running through the streets, looking forus.
When we reached the portal, I paused and turned toward my father, still conflicted about how I felt. Sure, I was incredibly pissed off at him for what he’d done. But that didn’t stop the fact that he was still my father. His grip on my arms tightened and he turned me so that my back was facing the portal, and then he leaned down to look into my eyes. This was it, I thought. The moment he would apologize. The moment he would explain with good reason why he’d treated me the way hehad.
“I know you want to know why I took you to Celestia when you were born.” He ground his teeth together, the muscles in his jaw rippling as he spoke. “The truth is, Erela, it was the only way to keep your demon powers hidden. As long as you were in Celestia, they would be muted. You would have never known, nor would anyone else. Going to the Lower Realm meant that your powers might come out, but only just. Never fully. Of course, you had to take it a step too far. Now that you have been to hell, the full strength of your powers is open to you. Unless you return to Celestia, you will never be able to hide what you are. And if you cannot hide what you are, the Archangels will kill usboth.”
And then, for the second time that day, I was pushed through aportal.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Erela
Icracked open my eyes.At some point, I had passed out. Groaning, I pushed up onto my elbows and glanced around. I was in my bed. And by my bed, I mean, my bed inCelestia. My old bed in my old home in Michael’s house. Well, one of Michael’s houses. This wasn’t his only one, and he certainly didn’t live here. Only me and mybabysitters.
Laura had always been my closest nanny. When I hadn’t been studying at the Academy, she had taken care of me every step of the way. She had raised me, far more than my father ever had. And now she was standing by the bed, staring down at me with a strange mixture of sadness and happiness screwing up her face. Laura had never joined any of the Orders, but she looked as though she would’ve belonged. She was muscular and strong, and she wore her blonde hair up in a tight ponytail, so that it never got into her face when she worked. She always wore a trim set of black shirt and black pants. Nononsense.
“Welcome home, Erela.” Her voice was soft, much softer than I’d ever heard it before. “I thought I’d never see youagain.”
I shook my head, confusing rippling through me as memories began to rush through my mind. What exactly was going on? I was back in Celestia, so my father hadn’t merely sent me through the portal. He’d sent me home.No, this wasn’t my home. My home was down in Lower Realm with the fallen angels who had taken me under their wings, who had opened their hearts to me, who had shown me who I reallywas.
I didn’t belong hereanymore.
And now my father’s words echoed in my ears. He’d only taken me to Celestia to keep me a secret. To hide my powers, which was why he’d sent me back here instead of back to earth. He was trying to hide me again, to keep his secret safe. Not to keepmesafe. He was just trying to save his own damn neck. Tears burned my eyes as I gazed up at Laura. I didn’t want to take this out on her, but how much did she really know? Did she know that Michael’s daughter was part fire demon? And was she going to try to cover it up for himagain?
“Where’s my father?” I asked, my voice scratchy andraw.
She shook her head. “He was only here long enough to explain that you had returned. I don’t know where he went after that, but it seemed he was in ahurry.”
I tried to stand, but I felt weak and wobbly, and my head began to spin. Laura put a soft hand on my shoulder and pushed me back down on the bed. “You’re going to be weak. You spent a long time in Lower Realm, and your body will have become accustomed to the weight of it. You’re going to need to rest until you adapt to beinghome.”
“This isn’t home,” I said, my voice insistent. “My home is down in Lower Realm.” She winced, tears springing into her eyes. “I’m sorry, Laura. I missed you. I did. And I appreciate everything that you’ve done for me. But I joined the Order of the Fallen there, and I found my true calling with those angels. I need to get back. As much as I appreciate that you want to care for me, the best thing you could do for me is to help me get backhome.”
