An hour slipped by. Lauren took Lily home and wished me luck, leaving me on the park bench to watch the leaves from maple trees gently waft to the ground, illuminated by the lampposts on either side of the bench. I had one hour to go before Michael’s return, exactly twenty-four hours after he had, in a fashion, asked me to marry him. To spend the rest of my life and the life after it with him. Christ.
Footsteps approached from my right, crunching through the dirt and gravel, coming to a stop next to me. The polished Armani dress shoes were a dead giveaway.
“Hiya, Gabe.”
The archangel sat next to me. “Good evening, Jordan.”
He paused, watching me curiously. “You seem…well. Not quite what I expected.”
I glanced at him, lifting an eyebrow in question. “What were you expecting?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Nervousness. Fidgeting. Any of the normal human reactions when faced with an important decision.”
“Well, I’m not completely human, after all.”
He smiled wider. “You’re human enough.”
I rolled my eyes. “Is this you offering advice? Because you kind of suck at it.”
Gabriel chuckled, leaning his arms over on his long legs. The evening air was cool so he was wearing a dark brown sweater and black slacks. I never could get him to stay in casual clothing. He had told me it just didn’t feel right to him.
“What would you like to ask me?”
I brushed a lock of hair behind my ear, fixing my gaze on the ground. “Has any other angel ever entered the Marriage of the Souls?”
He took a deep breath and sighed. “Yes.”
“Tell me.”
He interlocked his fingers, his voice losing all the charm and humor it had once held. “Centuries ago, there was an angel who fell in love with a Seer. It was in the early ages of man, back when certain events of the Bible were still happening. At this time, there had only been young angels mating with humans and creating nephilim. There hadn’t been any cases where angels fell in love with Seers as there were so few, but this particular angel did. He came before the Father and asked him if there was anything that could be done to allow them to be together. Father considered his proposal with great wisdom and consideration. The angels are God’s servants. He knew that man would need woman to be his companion, but He never considered that we would ever require the same kind of nurturing. He realized that it would make things easier for those angels working on Earth to have someone to love, and so He granted the angel’s wish.”
Once more, Gabriel paused and I didn’t know why. I frowned, looking at him.
“What happened after that?”
He licked his lips, seeming to choose his words. “The Seer that he fell in love with…betrayed him.”
“What?”
“It turns out that she had actually been corrupted by the archdemon Belial. He instructed her to seduce an angel, so that he would have a sort of ‘double agent’ on the inside. He would be able to know of our plans before we deployed them, giving the demons an edge. However, the Seer didn’t know that having her soul married to the angel would allow him to track her no matter where she was and one night he found her meeting with the demon in secret.”
I shook my head. “I can’t imagine how he must have felt.”
“Me neither,” Gabriel admitted.
“What did they do?”
“It was very complicated. You see, her soul had been promised to enter the gates of Heaven after her death, but her sin was one so great that it made her too impure to enter. In her state, if she died, she could not go to Hell because she shared a bond with an angel, but she could not enter Heaven because of her pact with the demon. They ended up having to banish her to Purgatory.”
“What happened to the angel?”
“He played no part in her wrongdoing, but he was too heartbroken to continue his work on Earth among mankind. God granted him the responsibility of guiding souls from Earth to Heaven.”
My jaw dropped. “You mean that angel was—”
“Uriel.” Gabriel nodded. “Afterwards, God forbade the union of angels and Seers. He did not want any other angels to suffer the same fate as Uriel. He will never be whole because his beloved resides in Purgatory until Judgment Day.”
He looked at me then. “Until now.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to grasp what he’d told me. “But why? What about me is so important that He would reinstate the Marriage of the Souls?”
“Jordan, you have to understand that there is a hierarchy among the angels. We are all equal in spirit, but the truth is that Michael is one of the most important archangels in existence. Like all of us, he is brave, diligent, and obedient, but he is also the most vulnerable of the angels because of the little time he spent on Earth. Michael needs love and guidance, more than what my brother and I or even our Father can supply. He needs someone like you to help him reach his potential.”
I swallowed hard, feeling the weight of his words. “Well…if it’s not too personal to ask…why haven’t you or Raphael ever considered the Marriage of Souls?”
He paused, seeming as if he hadn’t expected the question. “I suppose it’s because of how he and I view humans. To me, you are more like children—not that you are immature or incapable, but I tend to feel more fatherly love than romantic love for mankind. Raphael sees you like brothers and sisters, and so he too does not love you in the romantic sense. I think that because Michael believed he was human for such a long amount of time that he was able to care for you as a lover. There are literally millions of angels serving alongside the human race, but none of them have his heart and, if you don’t mind me saying so, none of them have ever met you.”
He smiled a bit when I blushed. I cleared my throat, trying to dispel the sudden bout of shyness. “So…do you think I can handle this kind of responsibility?”
“That, I am afraid, I cannot answer. Only you can.”
I took a deep, slow breath. After a moment, he reached over and held my hand, making me meet his kind eyes one more time.
“Jordan, I have known you for years. You are kind and strong and impressively resilient. You don’t need to doubt yourself. Whatever you feel you should do in this situation, do it. No matter what happens, I have faith in you.”
He leaned over and kissed me on the forehead, in the same spot as always, and squeezed my hand before standing and saying goodbye. I watched him go as the wind caressed my face, my hair, my shoulders, and I felt just a little bit taller.