She shook her head and backed away. “Michael warned me that you might be in a strange state of mind, that you might talk gibberish about wanting to go back there. He said those angels had gotten into your head. They used their silver tongues to convince you that you wanted to bethere.”
My heart sunk. This was impossible. She wasn’t going to help me. She had spent far too many years being convinced by the words of the Archangels. She’d never even been anywhere other than here, so why should she believe anything that came from me? She had no reason to doubt Michael. She had no reason to trustme.
“No matter,” she said as she stepped up to the door and began to close it. “It isn’t as though you could go back there, even if you tried. You may be an Archangel’s daughter, but you aren’t one yourself. You cannot transport yourself between realms, so you’ll be staying right where youare.”
And then she shut the door, slamming it on all my hopes of getting out of here, of getting back to theOrder.
I sunk back into the pillows, anger and pain rolling over me in waves. She was right. I didn’t know how I was going to get out of here. There was no way in hell I could escape. I could get as far as the Halfway Zone, and then I could try to convince an Archdemon to get me out of there, but I could barely walk rightnow.
My mind spun, putting the pieces of many puzzlestogether.
Now I knew exactly why my father had been concerned that Asmodeus had seen me again, after I had been on earth for a while. Because while my powers had been muted while I was in Celestia, they had began to show during my time spent in Lower Realm. And, as it had become very clear to me, demons could sniff out other demons. That meant Asmodeus knew what I was, and my father was not happy about it. He had sent me back here to prevent anyone else from findingout…
A new horror began to wash over me. My father had killed that demon, the one in the alley. And he’d only killed him after the demon had gotten a look at me. Had he killed him to keep him from telling others about my powers? Lilith knew what I was. The Order of the Fallen all knew what I was. So did Lizzie andIsaac.
My heart thumped hard. My father hadn’t sent Lizzie and Isaac back here. What had he done withthem?
Had he actually killed every single person in the world that Iloved?
Sorrow washed over me, so deep that I couldn’t see anything butblackness.
* * *
It was hard notto give up. Everything had been ripped away from me, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was stuck in Celestia, stuck waiting for my father to finally return so he could tell me exactly what he had done to those I loved. Deep down inside, I knew what he’d done. He couldn’t afford to let them live. If they told one wrong person about Erela, the daughter of Michael and a fire demon, then his life was forfeit. Hell, mine was, too. Not that he cared aboutthat.
Laura bustled into the room, singing a song underneath her breath. Her cheery mood grated on my nerves, and I wanted to smack the smile right off of her face. I knew she was only trying to help me, but she also wouldn’t leave my side for more than half an hour. And when she wasn’t bustling around me and bringing me food, she was standing outside the door to make sure I didn’t sneak away and try to get to the LowerRealm.
“Now, your situation is pretty unique,” she said in a chirpy tone. “But I have heard that Michael has convinced the Archangels to gather together for a meeting where they will discuss your induction into the Order of the Seraphim and giving you back your wings. They all know that you fell, but they’re willing to consider different options, knowing that you were under the influence of some kind of fallen angelspell.”
I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t under a spell. They don’t have the ability to do that, no matter what you think or what you’ve been told. They’re just normal angels, like you and me, only they don’t abide to ridiculous rules about what you can and can’t say or who you can love or any of that totalshit.”
Her face blanched, and she took a step back. Her voice was a harsh whisper when she spoke. “I know you’re still recovering, and I know it’s going to take some time for you to get back to your old self, but you cannot speak that way. Not here. You better get yourself together, or the Archangels will send you straight back downthere.”
Sighing, I closed my eyes and leaned back into the pillows. “No, I’m not that lucky. They won’t send me back there, no matter what Ido.”
“I can’t believe you,” she said in a snap. “You have been given a second chance at life here, Erela, but you sound as though you’ve given up. It sounds as if you don’t even want totry.”
“I have given up, Laura,” I said, my words as heavy as my heart. “You may not understand it and you may not believe me, but my entire world has been ripped away from me. I have nothing left to fight for. I have nothing left to give. They’re probably dead, youknow.”
“Who?”
Tears slipped down my cheek. “Everyone.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Erela
Apparently,the Archangels had requested for me to go to a meeting where they would decide my fate. But my fate had already been decided. I knew without a doubt that I would not get sent back to earth, and that I would somehow find myself joining the Order of the Seraphim like my father had always planned. This was so outside of the rules, not that it mattered. My father would’ve pulled strings. He would have convinced them to let mestay.
“Now,” Laura said, bringing me a fresh pair of clothes. It was a matching pair of golden armor, intended to highlight the glow of my Michael skin. “Your father wanted me to remind you to speak very little of your experiences in the Lower Realm. He thinks that it’s best for you not to go into detail. And he said something about a bonfire you might have encountered there. He says that might make the Archangels angry, so best not to mention that aswell.”
So, my father hadn’t let good old Laura in on the fire demon secret, not that I was surprised. He didn’t want anyone to know. He’d even killed people to keep them from telling anyone else. Bitterly, I wondered why he hadn’t just killed me, too. That would have solved the problem easilyenough.
“Understand, Erela?” she asked, her tone going a little bit sharp at the end. I knew she was still pissed off about my little outburst the other day, and I hadn’t apologized to her about it, no matter how many times she’d hinted that I should. I wasn’t sorry for expressing my emotions. I wasn’t sorry for letting out a forbidden curse word. I wasn’t sorry for falling in love with fallen angels. I wasn’t sorry for any of it, and I wouldn’t apologize and say something I didn’tmean.
“Yep, I understand,” I said in a fake chirpy tone ofvoice.
I’d been to hell. I’d fought a demon who wanted to rip my head off and eat it. And yet, this right here, this moment right now in Celestia, this was hell. My life had been taken from me in every way imaginable, but that wasn’t even the worst of it. I was still alive, but everyone else was dead. The Order of the Fallen was no more. I mourned them, with every beat of my heart. And, I mourned humanity. Without an Order of warrior angels down on the ground who cared for them, who wanted to see them survive, humans would slowly die out. The earth would be ravaged by the demons that had poured into it. That portal was still open. And there were no more angels on earth to protecthumanity.
