Chapter 31
“Lucy, get out of here, now!” Sam yells, his eyes pleading. “He’s going to use us against each other!”
I lunge at Jonathan with the blade, but he shifts just a fraction of an inch out of my reach in an instant.
Before I can process his unexpected movement and make my own shift, Jonathan starts toward Sam, a sword suddenly in his hands. He was hiding it under his tunic. I could punch myself for not noticing.
It doesn’t have the glow of magical enchantment, so the sword won’t kill Sam. But it will hurt him.
Not on my watch.
“Bastard!” I shout, and wave my free hand to the right, sending Jonathan flying. He lands about 30 feet away, thudding hard on the hallway floor.
Jasper glares at me, eyes full of hate.
“You bitch! How dare you lay hands on our master!”
His hands are curled into claw shapes, as if he intends to scratch my eyes out. Ha! Does he really think he’s got what it takes to fight me, in my mansion?
“Your master, not mine. And I didn’t actually lay hands on him,” I say casually, then flip him away like I’m swatting a gnat. He lands near Jonathan, both of them glaring at me with murder in their eyes. I’m not concerned in the slightest. My powers, which were already strong, are even stronger here. It’s not a guess. I just know it somehow. I’m guessing it’s because this is where all possible versions of me come together, including all of my possible and potential powers.
I start toward Sam, intent on taking those chains off him immediately. It’s physically nauseating to see him being treated this way.
“Lucy,” he begs me as I approach, “you’ve got to go. Our people need you to protect them. You must leave me.”
“Ella is there, and we have two archangels on our side. I’m not going to let Jonathan touch you again. Don’t argue with me about it. I’m saving you.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jonathan and Jasper approaching us, so I wave my hand at them again and they fly even farther down the hall.
The chains aren’t locked, but the diamonds have weakened Sam so much, he can’t remove them on his own. I easily unwrap them from his ankles and wrists and toss them aside as far as I can, then hold out a hand to help him up. He takes it, and I haul him to his feet, just like I did when we first met. Once he’s standing, his strength fully returns in a rush that’s almost visible. His glow is brighter and his cheeks are rosier.
“We’ve got to end this now,” I say, hugging him quickly, relief for his safety flooding me and giving me goosebumps. “It’s just them and us here. They’re no match. We’ve got them.”
“I think you’re right,” Sam agrees with me, and takes my chin in his hand, tilting my head up. He kisses me hard then, grinding his mouth against mine. I feel my lips swelling a bit, and I swear, if Jonathan and Jasper weren’t there, I would throw him down on the floor and make love to him for days.
“I still think you should go and let me handle this,” Sam insists. “As your soul mate, I’m stronger here, too. One of us should be with our people. You know Jonathan sent Daniel down there.”
His tone says he’s accepted I’m staying, but he really wishes I would go. Just as I have a strong protective instinct toward him, he has an equally strong one for me. I know he would prefer me to be outside the immediate vicinity of our enemy and his henchman.
“Ella went back with orders to tell the elders to cloak the town again, using a stronger spell this time. Daniel won’t get inside.”
Sam looks like he’s going to argue with me again, but then stops before he says a word. He knows me, because he is the other half of me. Instead, he just nods, understanding.
We stand side by side in battle stance, and wait for our enemies to approach us.
Jasper is up on his feet and storming toward us already. Jonathan hangs back for now, obviously waiting to see how far his henchman will get in subduing us. Coward.
So he doesn’t want to fight for himself unless he has to. Did he ever actually fight an angel on his own before Sam? It occurs to me in a flash of realization that even during our battle back on Earth, I never saw him actually fight anyone but Sam, who he focused on during the whole thing.
Well, wasn’t that just like the typical “charismatic leader”? Let everyone do your dirty work for you, and don’t put yourself in actual danger if it’s avoidable. What a jerk. If his followers knew, they’d abandon him in a minute and either go home, or choose a new, more trustworthy and brave leader. It seems only Jasper and Daniel know the truth, and are shielding this knowledge from the rest of the army to keep Jonathan in power. I wonder why.
“The two of you will pay for your disrespect,” Jasper growls, his brow furrowed and his eyes dark. His hands are balled into fists now. He comes straight at us, gaze directed firmly on our faces. I guess he’s planning on hand-to-hand combat.
Is he insane? The dude just saw me toss his leader aside like it was nothing, and personally experienced me doing it to him twice. Now he’s coming at me to start a physical fight again? Good grief! He knows I’ll just toss him. Again. It makes no sense.
No matter. We’ll take him. And Jonathan, if he dares approach us both.
I intend to simply toss Jasper down the hall for the third time since my arrival in the mansion. But my arm, the one that’s been holding Josiah’s supernova heart-forged starstone blade this whole time, has other plans. I keep watching as Jasper gets close, and remain motionless as he reaches into the folds of his tunic for something…a weapon, I presume. Sam is watching me, letting me take the lead in this, trusting I know what I’m doing.
Only, I don’t know what I’m doing. My seer instincts take over and move my limbs of their own accord, my plan to toss him a distant memory. This angel needs to be dealt with swiftly and harshly, my inner seer tells me, and I do as I’m told, totally on autopilot now.
As soon as Jasper is within range, but before he removes whatever it is he has in his tunic, my arm moves outward on its own, and I stab him right in the gut.
The blade goes in easily, like cutting through a banana, and Jasper crumples to his knees. I pull the blade back and watch in fascination as his blood drips off the end of the shiny black tip and floats back into the wound. Unlike most angel injuries, though, this one does not heal.
Jasper looks up at us both in anguish for a moment, and a bit of confusion. It’s clear he doesn’t understand how this happened. He wasn’t expecting it, and I certainly wasn’t, either. I killed some angels in our battle back on Earth, but I’ve never killed anyone outside of a military scenario. This is up close and personal. I’m not sure how I feel about it. My inner seer, however, is most pleased.
Jasper only has time to glance at us for a fraction of a second before he falls over to the side, dead.
“I didn’t mean to do that,” I whisper to Sam, horror and nausea beginning to fill me as the seer senses recede back to where they reside, deep in my mind. “It’s only Jonathan who needs to go. The other angels can be redeemed.”
I feel sick. What have I done?
“You had no choice,” Sam reassures me, putting an arm around my shoulder and pulling me close to him, comfortingly. “It’s always hard the first time. But Jasper would have killed me and tortured you if given the opportunity. If we let him go, he’d continue on his murderous rampage on Earth in retaliation for my escape at your hand. And he wouldn’t have stopped coming after you. Once they saw what you can do, I became useless to them. They want you now. You did what you had to do to protect us both. Killing Jasper protects our people, too. Who knows how long it will take Jonathan to find someone just as ruthless to replace him?”
“I still feel bad about it.”
“Don’t. Jasper was one of the first angels Jonathan recruited, and he was a bad guy from the beginning. The chances of redeeming him were slim, Lucy. If we’d killed Jonathan first, there’s every chance Jasper would have tried to pick up where Jonathan left of
f.”
I feel a little better, but not much. I do, however, want Jasper out of my house. I’m not sure where he lives when he’s not Jonathan’s henchman; he’s not one of Sam’s Earth Angels, but he is a Planet Angel of some kind, probably masking his appearance to fit in with the people he’s been fighting. Without knowing what else to do, I think, “Send Jasper home,” then wave my hand at his body. It disappears, and I know with certainty it’s gone back to where it belongs.
“You can come out, Jonathan!” Sam calls, his voice full of all the command and authority befitting a king. “It’s just us now. Your friend is gone. May as well face us.”
Jonathan slowly approaches us out of the shadows of the long hallway, but he doesn’t get too close. When he enters the light, which seems to follow me around wherever I go in here, his face is a mask of pure rage.
“You just lost all usefulness,” he snarls at Sam. “You die. As for you,” he growls, turning to me, “I will call a thousand angels in here to take you into custody and make you and all of your loved ones suffer until you agree to work for me. You think you’re so powerful now. Just wait, little girl. You’ll see what real power is.”
“How’s this for power?” I ask, and throw the starstone blade at him. It flies end over end through the space between us, and lands solidly in the middle of his chest. Instead of falling, though, he slowly pulls it out and examines it as if it’s some cheap curiosity from a novelty shop.
Even Sam’s eyes widen at this. That blade should have killed Jonathan the moment its tip penetrated the muscle and got down into his angel essence.
Jonathan grins evilly at us. “As you can see, I am no ordinary angel anymore. Just as you are no ordinary seer, Lucy.”
No kidding. Quickly, I wave my hand and snatch the blade back to me using my now quite powerful telekinesis. The last thing we need is a seemingly indestructible angel carrying around a starstone blade. Of course, knowing him, he’s probably already replaced the one I stole from him.
Defeating Jonathan just got way more complicated.
“How come I don’t see any guardian angels on your side?” I ask, a thought suddenly occurring to me once the blade is safely back in my possession. “I’ve seen Earth Angels, Nature Angels, Elemental Angels, Planetary Angels, Galaxy Angels, and even archangels in your army, but no guardians. It seems like if you could get some, you might get the ones they watch over to join your side, too. Make your army even bigger? I know you can’t see them, but surely you’ve used your archangels to intimidate them by now. Why aren’t any with you?”
“You can see them?” Jonathan’s eyes practically bug out of his face, and he can’t hide the surprise in his voice. It’s the first time I’ve seen him genuinely flustered.
I smile, reveling in the tactical blow I’ve just dealt him. Of course he can’t see guardians. Sam explained that when we first met. But Jonathan obviously thought no one could see the guardians. Sweet! I relish the moment.
“Of course I can see them,” I tease, tauntingly, careful to not let on that this isn’t a special power and any seer can view the tiny guardians. I want him to think that ability belongs to me alone. “Oh, and you need them, don’t you? You talk a big game to your followers. But as long as you can’t see the guardians, you can’t control them or their charges. You’ll never rule a single planet, much less the multiverse, without them. They’ll always be there, encouraging their charges to defy you, fight against you, and defeat you. Even the archangels can’t see them, though they can communicate with them. But I guess communication isn’t intimidating enough to get the guardians to turn away from their God-given duty. And as long as you can’t control the guardians, your war is lost before it’s begun. You’re just building your army and biding your time, hoping you discover a way to get at least some of the guardians on your side before the rest of your army discovers your cause is hopeless. Am I right, Jonathan?”
“One more reason I must have you working for me,” Jonathan sneers, quickly recovering his cool demeanor. “With you on my side, I can conquer the guardians at last, those miniature subversives.”
“Yeah, well, you’ll have to catch me first. You see, it occurs to me that this is my house, and I do not believe I invited you in. You’re trespassing. I want you out, now. Not only that, you are permanently banished. You are never to return to this house without my express permission, which, of course, you will never get.”
He looks at me, enraged.
“Now,” I shout, putting all of my power behind my voice to be sure he, and the mansion, gets the message, “Get. Out. Of. My. House!”
I point at him, more for effect than anything, and he disappears, his face red with fury as he fades out and vanishes. I feel a ripple go across the mansion, and I know it is locking Jonathan out permanently, at my command. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before; it makes so much sense. And, much like stabbing Jasper, it my seer senses had everything to do with the inspiration.
“Well, at least we know we’re always safe from Jonathan here,” I say, turning to Sam.
“Yes, but our friends and family down on Earth aren’t,” Sam points out gently, taking my hand. “You did the right thing, Lucy, but we’ve got to go help them. We know the truth of the war now, but none of Jonathan’s other soldiers do. Daniel is already at our town border, I’m sure, and Jonathan will almost certainly join him immediately. They will use our loved ones to draw us out. It’s good you locked him out of your mansion. But you can be sure he’ll find another way of bringing us to him…and he’ll have more angels on his side when he does.”
I fill Sam in on what went down with this father in the AngelSphere. “The new barrier has to be up by now. I think everyone be protected for a while.”
“Until Jonathan finds a way in again.”
“We’ll recruit more seers and angels to join us. Maybe even some nearby alien races. We’re not letting him win, Sam. I don’t care how powerful he is. We will defeat him. Maybe all it will take is getting the truth about the guardians out to his army.”
“Maybe. We can’t be sure, though. And as long as he knows he can use us against each other, he will keep trying. We both know we would let him win if it meant saving each other. Wouldn’t we?”
“Yes,” I have to admit. “So what are we going to do? Stay on opposite ends of the universe from one another, or hide in here forever and let others do our work for us?”
Honestly, the second idea doesn’t sound too bad to me. Maybe if we could get my family and Ella up in here, too…
Sam gazes at me with such deep love, I almost weep. Then, gathering himself together, he reaches under the top of his tunic and pulls off the blue crystal pendant he always wears, similar to the ones worn by so many other angels. Its silver chain gleams in the light.
“My mother gave this to me when we had my investiture ceremony, the one where I was officially declared my father’s heir. It’s made from the heart of a blue dwarf star. Most angels get one when they have the ceremony that marks their passage from childhood to adulthood, but as a royal, mine is stronger than average. It has many powers. It can lead you to your true love. It can also remove and store an angel’s powers and memories, and so much more. This particular kind of gem is very precious and rare, because only royal families have them. I want you to keep it.”
He holds it out to me.
“But I’m not royal,” I say, wary of where Sam is going with this.
“Ella recognizes you as her queen because of our relationship. You told me so, and I agree with her. For all intents and purposes, you are the Earth Angel queen. If Ella declares it, and I’ve no doubt she already has, others will recognize you as queen, too. You’ll need this. It’s a symbol of authority, and can be used as a weapon if necessary.”
“Sam,” I say, softly, shaking a little. “Why will I need this? What are you going to do?”
“What I have to do,” he says, looking at me sadly. “The archangels wer
e right about Harry distracting you. Now I’ve become the same kind of distraction. They won’t remove me because they think we are both required to win the war. But I disagree. You have to protect our people. If I’m there, you’ll always be more focused on protecting me from Jonathan than anything else. Plus, you would be the same type of distraction for me. And like it or not, I believe you’re the more powerful of the two of us right now. You need to lead them, Lucy, and I’ll only be in your way.”
“Sam, please…” I begin, looking at the crystal suspiciously. It removes an angel’s powers and memories….
“Lucy, I love you. I love you more than I thought it was possible to love anyone or anything. Thank you for giving me that experience. It’s something I thought I would never know. If I could, I’d stay with you in this form forever. But I can’t. You have a job to do, and I can’t stand in your way. The future of everything is at stake. I can’t be selfish and keep you from doing what you were born to do.”
“I was born to love you,” I say, tears rolling soundlessly down my cheeks. He’s made his intent obvious, and in that moment I don’t care about the Earth at all. I only want to be with him, forever, in some other place where we can forget about Jonathan and everyone else but each other.
“Sam, please don’t do this,” I beg, grasping his arm. “There’s another way, I know it. We’ve been in this together since the beginning. We still can be. We can get this job done without distracting each other. I know we can. We’re a team. The archangels decreed it. I can’t win without you. I’m not sure I want to.”
Sam says nothing, just pulls me to him, his arm around my waist, and hugs me tightly, as if I’m the most precious thing in the universe. Then, he kisses me roughly, passionately and full of need. He slowly moves his tongue around in my mouth, touching every tooth, every inch of my own tongue, every part of my gums, and the insides of my cheeks, as if committing it all to memory.
“Yes, you can. And yes, you do” he whispers in my ear, his mouth achingly close to mine. “The archangels didn’t say how long we needed to work together to gain a winning advantage. We’ve got it now. I believe I’ve done my part. The rest is up to you.”
Then, he pulls abruptly away and stabs himself in the palm with the blue crystal just as I’m reaching for his hand to stop him. He’s a fraction of a second too quick for me. As soon as the crystal breaks the surface of his skin, he is gone, leaving the pendant on the ground where he was standing just a moment ago, the only reminder he was ever there.
“No!”
I fall to my knees and scream, pouring out all the grief I’ve kept inside for months in one long, piercing shriek that rattles the walls of the mansion. Much of it is for Harry, the grief I never fully expressed as I should have done, but it’s magnified a thousand-fold, because now it’s for Sam. I can’t lose two loves in the span of a year, I just can’t! How is that fair, after all I’ve done, and all I’ve been through?
Sam, how could you do it? How could you? We promised each other we’d be an unbreakable team. Why would you break us and actually think it was a good thing?
I don’t know how long I kneel on the floor in front of the pendant, my scream now transformed into wracking sobs. However, after a while, I reach out and pick it up, a new determination filling me.
I’m not going to let him do this. He may think he’s doing me a favor, but he’s not. I’m not going back to Earth, our Earth, without him. We save the multiverse from Jonathan together, or not at all. That’s just how it works, Sam. That’s how it works.
I slip the pendant around my neck, then spread my hands wide in front of me, opening up a window to the town. I can see our friends and family clearly, already mounting a new defense against Jonathan. Ella and John appear to be filling in as leaders for Sam and me.
They are standing at the edges of town, the protection barrier up again as I knew it would be, regiments forming behind them, the elderly and young out of sight. Daniel and a large army of Jonathan’s angels are facing them, unable to come through the new magical barrier, but waiting for the next opportunity. They know it will come.
Jonathan is nowhere to be seen. I can only presume he’s gone to get some more archangels on his side, or maybe even more powerful allies, allies who can help him get to the guardians. Who knows what types of races are out there? No one ever said angels were the most powerful beings in the universe.
Jonathan can’t come in my mansion again, but he will use other people’s mansions to try to find me. Let him. There are an almost infinite number of universes in the multiverse. And my loved ones are safe for now, being protected by people I trust to do the job as well as Sam and I would do it. That’s all I need to make this decision easy.
I close the window, sending them my love as I do, hoping at least a few of them are sensitive enough to feel it and pass it along to the others. That love comes with a message of what I’m doing, so they won’t come looking for me.
I know Sam wants me to go back and continue leading the resistance into battle. It’s why he did what he did. Right now, though, I am more of a danger to my people than anything, for wherever I go, Jonathan or one of his spies is sure to follow. Just as Sam was concerned about them using him against me, they will use my friends and other loved ones against me, too. And I won’t be much use to them if I’m grieving for Sam, knowing he’s out there alone, with no memories, away from me.
I’m no use to anyone right now. For the time being, I have to be a refugee, on the run from everyone, just to keep my allies safe, stay one step ahead of my enemies, and find my soul mate again.
Having made the decision, I feel strangely good about it. I know in my heart it’s the right thing to do. That crystal sent Sam somewhere, leaving me with his powers and memories stored in that crystal. He’s entrusted them to me, and they will lead me to him.
As an added bonus, my disappearance will make Jonathan think I’m not coming back. That will force him to change his plans and develop a new tactic for subjecting all of those angels he can’t see, and the beings they protect. It will take him a while, if he can think of anything at all. That’s nothing but good news for me. My army has its new leaders, and they know what to do. The good guys will take up the reins for us, and they will be amazing.
They might even win without either of us there. Like Sam said, the archangels never specified how long we were needed on the ground to win this for our side. If our people don’t win without us, there will be a lull in the battles long enough to give me a chance to find Sam and bring him back. Then, we can take Jonathan down together, once and for all.
Sam could be anywhere. The multiverse is a vast, almost limitless place. But he’s somewhere, and as long as he is, I can find him. I will find him.
I reach under the rug where Sam put Jonathan’s starstone blade all those months ago. It’s still there. I slip it into the waistband of my jeans beside Josiah’s blade. Who knows what I might find out there? Other wars with other Jonathans could be going on in any location, or with other angels like him. Or, there could be peace. I won’t know until I get there. It pays to be prepared.
I hold the blue crystal in front of me, letting it rest flat on my palm, the silver chain light on my neck. The crystal pulses bright and deep, filled with Sam’s memories and powers. Everything that was Sam, except his physical body, is in this little teardrop-shaped crystal. As long as I have it, part of him is with me. And it will lead me to him.
“Come on,” I whisper to the crystal. “Show me where he is.”
It glows a little more brightly, and feels warm in my palm.
I turn toward the right, and the glow fades slightly. I turn around to face the doors behind me and the glow fades to almost nothing. Turning back around, I face the doors to my left. The crystal glows so brightly it becomes hard to look at directly, and its heat increases until it starts to burn my palm.
I walk toward those doors, extending in a seemingly infinite line down the
endless hall.
“Show me,” I whisper again, more authority behind my command.
I walk slowly down the hall, into the distance. I walk and walk for what seems like an eternity. Every door looks alike, and the walls rarely change, except for the occasional picture or painting in a frame. I know instinctively these are images of me in previous lives and alternate universes.
Finally, I come to a door just like any other, only this time, the crystal grows so bright and hot I almost drop it.
I release it and let it fall on the end of its chain under my white, flower embroidered peasant top, feeling its warmth against my skin at the top of my breastbone, nestled in the hollow where my two collarbones touch.
“Come on, Sam,” I say softly to myself. “Be there. Please be there.”
I open the door. To my surprise, I don’t see Sam’s face, but Harry’s.
I pause for a moment, confused. Harry’s face is almost like a stranger to me. Why is he there, shimmering before me, beckoning me to who knows where?
Will I find Harry alive there? Is it one of the infinite number of alternate universes where he wasn’t killed before our wedding? Will I even know what to say to him if I see him?
I shake my head, bringing myself back to reality. It doesn’t matter. I’m not going there for Harry. I’m going there for Sam. The crystal’s meaning is clear: he’s there, in whatever universe is on the other side of that door.
Throwing the door open wide, I jump through it, and do not look back.
To Be Continued….
The adventures of Lucy and Sam will continue in Angel on My Shoulder, Volume II of the Angels and Seers series, to be released in the spring of 2016. Don’t miss it!
Thank you so much for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to leave a review at your favorite e-book retailer. I would appreciate it so much. Your support means the world to me.
Thanks again, and Lucy and Sam thank you, too!
Sincerely,
Stephanie Woods
About the Author
Stephanie Woods has been writing stories and winning awards for them since she was in elementary school. After getting her Master's degree in Creative Writing and spending eight years as a reading tutor, elementary school teacher, high school teacher, and college professor, she finally decided to make her childhood dream of being a novelist come true.
Her debut novel, "Earth Angel," is the result. With more stories planned in this series, and dozens of other story ideas mulling around in her imagination, Stephanie Woods is an author to follow.
In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys reading about history, watching fantasy and sci-fi TV shows, cooking, traveling, studying languages, investigating the paranormal, and spending time with her husband, friends, and three mischievous cats.
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