Page 40 of Trick Of Light

“I sound like your weakness.”

“No. You’re what makes me strong,” he said, but he whined a bit at the end.

“What is wrong with you?” I teased him, laughing.

“I miss being home,” he almost whimpered. “Everyone is there but us.”

But I wasn’t ready to broach that question with him mostly because I didn’t want to know the absolute, irrevocable answer. Because if it was bad…I could wait. “Speaking of, how did you manage that?” I asked him, changing the subject from that of our home as we walked through what was now Remiel’s. I’d been there such a short time before, but I could say, with total confidence, that it felt very different now. Everything seemed alive and vital. The walls that had been perfect were now overgrown with ivy and wisteria. In fact, everything was verdant and in bloom, the hydrangeas that were everywhere having flowered in unimaginable colors. “How did you send Leith and Ryan home?”

“I didn’t trust Gabriel, not after what he did to you,” he said, his voice going cold. “I couldn’t have them hurt. I sent them back the same way he sent Simon and Julian.”

“Because you both have the same power.”

“It’s similar, but not exactly the same. He moves things in the blink of an eye,” he said with a grin I liked seeing. “Mine is a bit more…bumpy.”

“I love that,” I told him, and kissed his cheek.

Looking around me, I noted the beautiful overgrown bougainvillea, the hibiscus, and the gorgeous climbing roses.

“I love all the flowers. And the rain.”

I wasn’t the only one enraptured with the rain. I watched others lift their faces in happiness and hold their hands out to catch the drops.

Anahel, Raphael explained to me, not being an archangel, hadn’t allowed anything to be different than in other heavens he’d been to. He wanted perfection. Remiel, confident of his place in the heavenly host, an archangel himself, allowed nature to run its normal course, and suddenly there were storms and weeds and mud.

“I love it here now,” I told Raphael.

“So will the people.”

I asked him endless questions as we strolled and talked day after day, and he was patient and answered them all.

Eventually, Gabriel came and apologized to me.

“You didn’t know,” I told him. “What does an angel know about love unless he’s loved in return?”

“Yes,” he agreed, and that was all that was needed.

A week later, I was sitting with Vaya on the grand portico overlooking the mezzanine below, and he asked how long I would be staying.

I looked at him, still amazed at how perfect he was. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, don’t you have a home on the human plane to return to?”

Chuckling, I grinned at him. “Sick of my company, are you?”

“No,” he said, and I heard the catch of his breath. “I actually fear if you remain here much longer, having you leave will pain me overmuch.”

“That’s a nice thing to say.”

“I would have you promise to visit. And as Remiel wants Raphael to return often as well, he’s agreed to move this heaven at the same speed as your realm, neither faster, nor slower, but in sync.”

“On earth as it is in heaven,” I murmured, realizing it was true.

“On—what? I don’t understand.”

He was a demon, so my reference was lost on him. “It’s not important.”

“Well, what is important is that we both want to see you and Raphael as often as possible. Please don’t stay away too long.”