I smiled weakly, reaching up to take Lincoln’s hand. ‘As long as we’re together,’ I said.
Michael nodded. ‘I would not dream of anything other,’ he said, and suddenly the pain was gone from my body and Lincoln and I were in the place that I could only call … other, standing in a field facing Michael. But not just any field.
A field of white lilies beneath a violet sky and a glowing golden sun.
It was warm, like home. Like love.
‘My painting,’ I whispered.
‘Your heart,’ Michael corrected.
And I agreed.
Lincoln held my hands in both of his, looking at the field with a sense of contentment and understanding.
‘Your souls are bound in every way?’ Michael asked Lincoln.
Lincoln turned to him and nodded. ‘Every way.’
Uri and Nox appeared behind Michael. They were wearing their usual contrast in clothing and yet they seemed more relaxed than usual, closer together rather than so far apart.
‘You have finally surrendered?’ Uri asked.
I nodded. ‘My self.’
Uri bowed his head.
Michael took a step towards us. ‘We would offer you a final binding, if you choose to accept.’
‘I think we are already quite final, Michael,’ Lincoln said.
‘That is true, but symbolism has its place, too. It comes after but still carries weight. Join your left hands.’
Lincoln and I did as Michael asked, not sure what was going on but trusting that it was right.
A light pressure began to build and then something akin to an electrical current ran through our hands causing us both to flinch. When I looked down I saw a new marking. Intricate, like the designs on my wrist markings, again with tiny wisps like feathers, but so much finer. A ring on my wedding finger, and another on Lincoln’s. Matching in design, but whereas mine was purple with a shimmer like stars in the night, Lincoln’s was silver, just like my wrists.
We looked to Michael, who seemed pleased with the result.
‘In Hebrew,’ he said, ‘amethyst means dream stone.’
Michael, commander of all armies, the greatest of the Sole angels, bowed. ‘May your dreams be many.’
Lincoln bowed his head in return. ‘Thank you.’
‘Will I ever see you again?’ I asked.
‘If you need me, yes.’ He tilted his head in that way of his. ‘So, it is unlikely. You know who you are and what you can do.’
I smiled. ‘I am you. Like you are me.’
Michael nodded once. ‘We do not run. We do not quit.’
My smile widened. ‘And what of fairytales?’
He raised his hands, palms up. ‘Life, child. Is life not the greatest fairytale of all?’
I nodded in understanding. ‘What about if you need me?’
His eyebrow twitched. ‘There is always that possibility.’
I rolled my eyes at his inability to admit he might just want to see me. I guess only time would tell, though I did realise one thing. ‘I can’t come back here, can I?’ I was a danger to them, and we could no longer deny it.
‘It is your space to command and it will not be taken from you, but no, it would not be wise.’
Somehow this space had become a part of me, and already I mourned its loss, but I knew that this was right, and what I wanted to do. It was the idea that had first come to me after facing Sammael and now it was time to make it happen.
‘It’s your space now,’ I said before I looked off into the distance and closed my eyes, smiling.
First, I returned it to its true form of nothingness, with its searching souls glimmering in the distance and countless smatterings of rainbows connecting what might be. Then I thought of my senses – the gifts that the angels had given me. Why had I been given all five? Why had that been necessary?
Perhaps … for this.
I breathed deeply and brought forward the conflicting sensations I’d always felt in my blood and bones. Rivers of cool; lands of warmth. I thought of the sounds of birds flying and trees blowing in the wind. I drew on the smell of flowers, in particular white lilies and all they invoked, and then the flashes of morning and evening. And finally, the taste of apple.
Slowly I opened my eyes. Before me was a vast meadow of rolling hills with a carpet of white flowers and trees in the distance, birds circling and swooping. The rainbows shone brightly, casting light, and in the centre … a tree bursting with ripe red apples.
Beyond my field there was still the great expanse of nothingness. I had not created a new world or even a new city, but it was a start.
I smirked, gesturing to the apples. ‘Feel free to help yourselves.’
‘You take great assumption by thinking this is something we would desire,’ Michael said flatly. ‘If we would desire anything.’
I nodded. ‘Rest your pride, Michael. Rest your pride and maybe we can all evolve.’ Maybe this could be a place where angels could indulge and experience time in a physical sense. Angels might be the higher beings but that didn’t mean they could not learn.
CHaPteR tHIRty-eIgHt