Sensing my questions or maybe just knowing me too well, he leaned in and whispered, “We’ll talk later, Thena.”
“Adonis, never again. Don’t ever do that again without my permission.” I felt my hands shaking as I grasped at his shirt, needing him to understand how off-axis I felt at the moment. It had felt so real, and I felt robbed that it wasn’t. I was embarrassed my treacherous body was still shaking from the encounter.
He nodded and turned me around to face the giant light beaming in the room. “Like I said, Thena, we’ll talk later. For now, prepare yourself. It seems the world can stand still without someone carrying it on his shoulders.”
“Wha—” I began to ask, but I was dumbstruck by the visitor in front of me.
“Atlas,” I said breathlessly.
Smiling, he reached out to me, touched only my head, and the room went black.
****
I closed my eyes against the sting of wind as it snapped against my face, throwing my hair all over the place. My hands immediately went to my knives, making sure they survived whatever waking nightmare I was experiencing.
“Athena,” he said, his voice so similar to that of Michael’s and the other archangels: strong, smooth, and confident with a following touch of echo, as if they desired to stay in the air longer than what was necessary.
“Baraqijal.” I called him by his real name, not the name assigned by mankind, but the true identity given by Him.
The wind shuddered around me. Or was it Atlas? I couldn’t tell. Everything was black. I felt like I was in nothingness. Hanging above the earth, unable to move, and completely numb except for the constant feel of wind against my face.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Up.”
“Perfect. You know, I was wondering when everything would start getting cryptic again. First I went down, and now I’m up.” I fought to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Atlas laughed as thunder sounded in the distance.
“So, I take it we’re in the sky then?”
Afraid to move my hands, I stayed immobile, and then I felt a presence in front of me. And like a switch had been flipped, the lights came on.
I desperately wished they would have stayed off. It wasn’t that I hated heights I just hated that I had to be focused on not falling rather than any enemies sneaking up on me. It seemed wasteful.
Hanging out in the stars was not exactly my idea of a fun time. I glanced around. Stars sang and glimmered in the dark like diamonds on a black blanket of velvet. I could only hope I was experiencing another hallucination, and I wasn’t really suspended miles above the earth. I was optimistic and turned toward my tour guide, wondering if part of my curse was to be surrounded by beautiful and evil men.
I wouldn’t mind carrying that burden, if every single one of them wasn’t so unavailable or terrible.
“So.” The word escaped my lips in a whoosh as I fought for composure. Atlas, all ten feet of him, was covered in head-to-toe black armor. A midnight sword hung from his belt. His eyes, a curious shade of crystal blue, stared back at me. His hair looked identical to Michael’s, long and silver but tied at the neck. A tiny piece of red made itself known at the front.
My curiosity was peaked “What’s this?” I asked, reaching out. Intuition told me if he was going to hurt me, it wouldn’t be at this moment.
“I thought Seth told you about us,” he said with a sad smile.
“Obviously not.” I tilted my head toward his, trying to get him to understand I was his friend, not his enemy.
“Marked, all of us. Seth has cut wings, like so many of the fallen ones, but he’s different than us.”
“Different how?”
He snapped his fingers and motioned for me to sit. I turned around, and a rock was suspended underneath me. Odd, but I didn’t ask questions, a huge feat to be sure. Instead I sat on the cool brown rock and waited as he took a seat next to me.
“A hierarchy like none other exists in the Heavenlies.” His head hung. “There are the archangels, which I’m sure you know well, Thena. I hope Seth at least told you the part about the Fall. Many of our kind have chosen to forget such a painful time. I imagine it’s equally as painful for you to remember.”
I nodded.
“So,” he continued. “Twelve of us fell. We were different than the archangels, set apart from Eden. Some angels sat around the Throne. Others were messengers and others warriors. We, we were the Watchers. Set apart to make sure the humans stayed safe, that no harm would come to them. Sadly, the very ones sent to protect were the ones who caused the most harm. Have you any idea the difficulty of such a choice, Thena? To become slaves to our desires and to creatures of our own making? I take full responsibility because I helped teach the humans.”