When the very last soul left, the false angel evaporated into ash, nothing more than a black stain and burnt red feathers. Around us, all of the demons and angels had gathered to watch in wonderment, their battles forgotten as the light slowly faded from view, leaving us in the quiet embrace of night.
Belial rushed to the spot where the false angel had once stood, whispering “No” over and over again. He fell to his knees, his face anguished. I couldn’t bear to see the look on Terrell’s face. I took an unconscious step towards him, but Michael laid a hand on my shoulder.
“Jordan…I have to…” he struggled with the words.
I shook my head. “Please…there has to be another way.”
“His soul left this world a long time ago,” he whispered. “I have to put the body to rest.”
I knew he was right. I knew it. But it still hurt.
Belial’s voice was low and mournful as he spoke, and I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I recognized the words he recited. Ash Wednesday by T.S. Eliot. God help me.
Michael lifted his hand and pressed it over my eyes, closing them. Seconds later, I heard the sound of the sword slicing through the demon’s chest and the quiet thump of his body falling over. When I opened them again, Terrell lay fallen by the ashes of the false angel, his face strangely peaceful. I knelt and kissed his forehead, my voice hoarse.
“Forgive me.”
“So…what happens now?”
I sat on my own bed in my apartment with Raphael at my side, finishing up the final touches on my new set of bandages. He had healed my arm completely, mending the bones to their former strength, though he advised me not to do anything strenuous anytime soon.
After Belial’s death, the demons had retreated back to hell and all the corpses disintegrated into ash as soon as they left. The angels went back to their various posts on Earth. Gabriel and Raphael escorted Terrell’s body back to his home and arranged it to look as if he’d died of more natural causes. Michael took the sliver of the True Cross to Heaven and then came back to take me home.
“Fortunately, the tornado chased away all the innocent bystanders, and thus there were no witnesses to the event. However, we have people on standby monitoring major video sites for any possible footage. We also have people in the New Jersey police department to help cover up the sudden ‘weather anomaly’ that will be reported by said witnesses.” Raphael stood and put his First Aid kit back in his trademark leather bag.
Michael leaned against the doorframe with one hand pressed to his mouth, looking more solemn than I had ever seen before. Gabriel hovered by the bathroom door, his arms crossed over his chest as he listened.
“Good. I’d hate to have made up some sort of explanation for all this. A movie shoot. A LARP gone wrong.”
Raphael sent a questioning look in my direction. “LARP?”
I smiled. “Never mind. What about the demons?”
Gabriel spoke up this time since it was a little more in his department. “It is too soon to tell, but I suspect their master won’t be very happy with their failure. We won’t hear from them in quite some time, until they come up with another scheme.”
“And Terrell…” I let the sentence hang because it was too painful to finish.
Gabriel cast a sympathetic look on me, walking over and sitting to my right. “His family has already been notified. I assume they will contact you with information about the funeral.”
I shook my head, my smile becoming bitter. “You don’t know his family.”
“Perhaps not, but…if it’s any consolation, his soul is indeed in Heaven.”
I looked up, shocked. “You…?”
“I checked for you.”
A wave of gratitude rolled over me. “Thanks, Gabe.”
“Of course.” He kissed my forehead, standing up.
“Raphael and I need to get going. We will be in contact with you soon.” He glanced at his brother and a look went between them that worried me. Neither of them bade the silent Michael goodbye. Something was going on. Something bad.
I waited until they disappeared out the front door before speaking. “What’s going on?”
Michael looked at me then, seeming to be drawn out of deep thought. “What?”
“Don’t pull that,” I said, my voice confident and bold though I felt confused and scared on the inside. “I can tell when you’re hiding something.”
He sighed. “Jordan—”
“Michael, I nearly died today. I saw Andrew and my mother today. I saw someone I care about die because I was too late to save him. Don’t keep anything else from me. Please,” I added softly, walking over to him. He stared down at me for an instant and averted his gaze to the floor.
I touched the side of his face, like he had done so many times to mine, and made him look at me. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve been reassigned.”
My hand fell away like a dead weight and all the air in the room evaporated. “What?”
He pushed away from the doorframe and walked into the kitchen, pressing his hands flat against the counter until he was hunched over it, closing his eyes. “My Father has ordered me to do cases on my own, away from you, because it’s too…dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?”