Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“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.”
I was truly touched.
“Not that angels, or demons, notice such things as the passage of time,” he assured me. “We are, as we always are…unchanging.”
“Well, then, we’ll never have to worry that I’ll ever be prettier than you,” I teased him.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said with a sigh, running his hand through my hair and then touching my beard that had been restored, along with my mustache. “I myself find you terribly alluring.”
“It’s because you kind of like me.” I smirked at him.
“Quite possibly,” he agreed before waving at people walking around below us.
Later, alone, I felt the need to fly, or what passed for it, and after stripping down to a pair of board shorts, took a running leap from the rotunda and felt the rush of the power of the warder arc as I rose high in the air and came down slowly into the sea, plunging deep and then surfacing again in seconds, whipping my hair out of my face to see how far I was from the shore. It was a great day for a swim, and once I was lying in the sand, eyes closed, face to the sun that I could now see and feel—Remiel had brought back that as well to his heaven—I realized how content I was. The nightmares had subsided, I didn’t wake in a cold sweat anymore, and though Raphael worried, I reminded him that I was a warder. I’d seen more horrors in my normal life than I did in hell.
“Jackson!”
Turning my head in the sand, shielding my eyes from the sun, I looked up at Raphael, who was standing there, bent over, hands on his knees, trying to breathe.
“What’s the matter with you?” I asked him. “Surely, you’re not winded. You flew down here, didn’t you?”
“I saw you fall,” he rasped, and I heard the fear and panic in his voice.
“Saw me fall?” I repeated, and in doing so, I understood. “I dropped into the water on purpose. You’ve seen me do that a hundred times when we go to the beach at home.”
“Yeah, I—yeah,” he agreed, falling to his knees in the sand.
Moving over to him, I took his face in my hands. “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head.
“Yes. Tell me.”
But he didn’t want to.
“Please, Raph.”
“I just… I lied to you about who I was, and I’m worried you haven’t forgiven me, and I think that’s why you don’t want to go home. Because a kyrie you can live with, but maybe an angel doesn’t fit into your—”
“No, no. I haven’t brought up going home because I wasn’t sure you could, and if you can’t, then we can live here and—”
“What?”
“I don’t know if we’re allowed to leave. I mean, Vaya talked about us going and then coming back to visit, but I don’t know what Michael will allow and—”
“We can go whenever we want,” he groused at me.
I had been so careful not to bring it up, and apparently, Raphael had been doing the exact same thing, neither of us wanting to hear bad news. We’d both been cowards.
“But is that what you want?” I asked, because I was worried about this part as well. Perhaps Raphael needed to stay. “I mean, you’re very important, and if you need to be here for yourself and the others, I—”
“I was gone for a millennium, disguised as a kyrie before I ever even laid eyes on you,” he growled, standing up so he could pace and yell at me. “I made it very clear that I would never rule a heaven, but Michael didn’t believe me, so I put Anahel in charge and left.”
I nodded.
“It’s my fault that Anahel made this heaven neutral, and so things were allowed to slither in and out because his grace, not being as great as mine, permitted that to happen. I’m to blame for Remiel losing Vaya, but he’s forgiven me, and all else here has been corrected. Mistakes in heaven aren’t normally easy to fix, but somehow, I’ve done it.”