Divinity (32 page)

“Stop!” A young woman’s voice came to her from the air behind her. “Don’t open them all the way. Did they not tell you anything?”

Julia folded her wings onto her back with more ease than she thought possible, and looked around for the source of the warning. Standing a few yards behind her was a striking angel with long, flowing blonde hair that glistened as though with morning dew. Her eyes were the blue of tropical waters, her smile as gracious as any Julia had ever seen. The angel-woman had a small child on her hip—the mirror image of her, with wisps of white-blonde hair framing a cherubic face. The child’s wings shone and fluttered. Bright bursts of light floated around both angels.

Julia was dumbfounded.

“You came here to test your wings?” The woman’s voice was melodic.

“I’m dreaming,” Julia said, unable to suppress the smile spreading across her lips.

“Yes and no,” the angel answered, rocking the child on her hip. “I pulled you in. You’re in the Second Realm.”

“Who are you? Are you one of the Archangels?”

“No, but if you look at me with your spirit, you will know who I am.”

Julia tried to open her senses and faltered. “I can’t, I don’t have my stone here.”

“You don’t need that. Not here,” the angel said. “But if it will help you focus, just picture one in your hand and it will be there.”

Julia opened her mind again, clutched her fist as though she had her stone, and this time successfully managed to open her senses. Her chest rose with exhilaration. Her mouth worked and tears of joy welled up in her eyes. “Charlie?”

She didn’t need to say it to know the truth of it. Julia wanted to throw her arms around the woman before her—the angel—but she seemed to be rooted in place, one hand over her mouth, standing before them wide-eyed and stock still.

“Charlie was my Earth-given name. My spirit is Cassielle.” Cassielle’s eyes radiated love and Julia thought her heart would burst with it.

“Cassielle,” Julia gasped. She reached one hand forward and gently brushed her friend’s cheek. Julia struggled to find words for her feelings. Completion, or at least a feeling that something missing had returned. Abandonment, solitude, loneliness—they all seemed to evaporate in the presence of her friend. “My friend. Are you still my friend?”

“I always have been.” Cassielle’s voice tickled Julia’s ears the way chocolate would have tickled her tongue. “It is why we were so drawn to each other. Spirit friends. Some on Earth would call it ‘soul mates.’”

Julia nodded, the spoken words solidifying ideas and hidden knowledge she’d had all along. Yet even so she felt panic rising up in her. “Will you stay with me? Please? Is it even possible?”

“I am always with you. Always.”

As much love as she had for Cassielle in that moment, Julia still had to bite back a comment about Alex having said the same thing. Instead, she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around her friend, somehow encompassing the baby and her wings in one swoop. And then she wept, though she didn’t know whether she was weeping for the loss of her friend or the return, for the pain or for the joy, or maybe it was just the overwhelming emotion built up after too long trying to control it and tamp it down.

Cassielle just held her, stroking Julia’s hair and cooing softly the way a mother would comfort a child. “I’m not going anywhere, my dearest.”

When Julia was finally able to pull herself away, she stood back and brushed the hair from the baby’s face, who rewarded Julia with a delighted grin and a giggle.

And then Julia asked the question that Michael had dodged. “Why were we separated?”

“It was all pre-arranged. Agreed to by both of us. We re-entered at the same time. You will remember it as you need to.”

“I am so glad you’re safe.” Julia rested her eyes upon the child. “Her, too.”

The child giggled softly, playing with Cassielle’s hair. Cassielle set her down in the grass, where the small angel sat quietly at her feet. “A brand new soul. She would have been mine.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Julia said. “‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t seem to fit, since you are obviously in a much better place.” Julia’s eyes sharpened. “Why did you pull me here?”

Cassielle laid a hand on Julia’s arm. “Walk with me.”

“Why did you stop me from opening my wings all the way?” Julia asked when they were several steps into their walk. She glanced back over her shoulder to check on the infant, who kept her eyes on her mother intently.

“It is an action that calls all angels—an alarm, really.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

“I became lost in my humanity, Julia.” Cassielle moved with liquid grace over the field of grass. “It is one of the risks. I pushed those closest to me away, and clung to the worst possible person, all in hopes of having the one thing I thought I wanted above all else.”

“What one thing?” Julia’s hand found Cassielle’s, and they laced easily together.

“A child.”

“I became lost in my humanity once,” Julia said, a tremor in her words. “I tried to escape.”

Cassielle squeezed Julia’s hand lightly. “No, my friend. You despaired of humanity. You almost joined the twice fallen.”

“Twice fallen?”

“Earthbound angels are sometimes given to taking their own lives. It is such a desperate place compared to where we belong.” Cassielle stopped walking, pulling Julia to a stop with her. “One fall to Earth. Another fall off it. Twice fallen.”

Several moments passed in silence. A rustling in the grass somewhere off to their left caused Julia to whip her head around. The wolf’s eyes glowed yellow through the blades, and it took a step forward, until Julia could see its face.

Was it smiling at her? It gave a short nod—an almost human nod—and then it turned and plodded away, unafraid.

“Cassielle, did you see that?”

Cassielle rested a hand on Julia’s arm. “He is your spirit guardian.”

“Even here, in this realm? In my dreams?”

Cassielle nodded and turned to walk back to where they began. They could see the child’s head poking up over the long grass, her gaze fixed upon them.

“You haven’t told me why you brought me here,” Julia said.

“You need guidance. And you need an ally. I can teach you things. Answer your questions. I can’t be with you on Earth the way Michael is day and night, but I can meet you here.” Cassielle came to a stop in front of the child, stooping to scoop her up.

“What is her name?” Julia asked, then remembered. “What’s my name?”

“Ayasha is hers.” Cassielle began to fade away, her voice becoming distant. “You were once Evelyn. But I think that name will be changed. I will see you again.”

“Wait!” Julia tried to mask the pain she felt at Cassielle’s disappearance. All the loneliness, abandonment, and loss crept back in. “What do you mean, changed?”

Cassielle’s voice came back, barely audible, drifting along the breeze. “Didn’t he say he would name you?”

“Zachariah is in a rage.” Gabriel’s tone was flat, but the twitch of his wings told another tale. “He blames me for her death.”

“Surprising,” Michael answered, his voice almost as thin as his visage. “I would have thought he would be angry with Ariel. His ire will pass, Gabriel. He must choose another spirit, and father another. With only eleven, the balance of spirit is skewed.”

“He already has.” Gabriel shot Michael a sideways look. “It is not like you not to notice.”

“She keeps me busier than she should.” Michael nodded and waved his right hand, exposing the scene below. “Seems they found each other, after all.”

“They are in the middle realm.” Gabriel furrowed his brow. “She wears her wings. Is that wise?”

“She does. She has to learn somehow.”

Gabriel cocked his head, trying to listen in on the conversation below. He heard nothing. “Did you send Cassielle to her?”

“No.” Michael stood, arms crossed, shoulders back, his wings flat.

“Do you know her reasoning?”

“They have always been friends. It does not alarm me.”

“Why show me, then?” Gabriel turned away from the scene below to examine Michael more closely. “Are you well, Brother?”

“I need you to watch out for her there,” Michael said. “It is enough that I tend her body on the Earth plane, and the rest of the world as well, as large as it has gotten.” Michael raised his wings slightly, then settled them again. “I need you to protect her in the place between Heaven and Earth.”

Gabriel studied Michael’s opaque form. “Of course. Do you think this
A’nwel
can find her there?”

“That I am not sure of, but I worry more about the thing that made the
A’nwel…”
Michael’s voice drifted away as his form faded from Gabriel’s sight.

XXXIII

B
OTH
women sat comfortably at the kitchen table. Julia smiled as she stirred her tea and listened to Alex’s mother talk about how strange the weather had been lately. Julia took in Isabel’s appearance as she spoke. There were a few more wrinkles around her eyes, and a sense of sadness in them, but she seemed to be holding together very well. Her clothes were impeccable, as always. There was a slight waver in her hand when she lifted her cup to her lips, almost imperceptible, but Julia’s senses were sharper than most.

“The place looks lovely, Julia. I’m delighted you’ve decided to move in,” Mrs. Williams said, placing her cup back in its saucer with a soft
clink
. “It would have broken my heart to know it stood empty. It meant a lot to him, you know.”

“I know, Isabel. I can’t thank you enough.” Julia had a growing suspicion that Mrs. Williams had more on her mind than lunch, but she decided to play along with the small talk instead of forcing the issue.

“Have you seen the grounds?” Isabel asked. “I’d love to walk them with you. If you wouldn’t mind, of course.”

“I haven’t had the chance to fully explore yet. I would love that.” Julia gestured to Isabel’s fashionably heeled shoes. “Will you be all right walking in those? I probably have something more comfortable.”

“Darling, I have been walking in shoes like this since I was a toddler. I don’t know how to walk in anything else.”

They stepped out the back door into the yard. Tall, slim American beech and white oak trees, branches and leaves gently swaying in the breeze, edged the far side of the yard. Isabel led Julia to a leaf-covered path on the easternmost side of the property.

From the house, Julia had not been able to see the path nestled behind the dip in the lawn. It was narrow and well-kept, all the branches and growth trimmed back to keep the path clear. True to her word, Isabel walked along as though she were on the runway—head high, everything about her exuding refinement and elegance.

Julia snuck glances into the woods, wondering where the wolf might be, and if it would make an appearance. She knew it was the same wolf she’d seen in the Second Realm, but that didn’t stop her heart from skipping a beat when the sound of an animal scurrying through the underbrush reached her ears.

“Alex would play here when he was younger,” Isabel said without breaking her stride. “He would climb the trees, toss stones in the lake, and build forts with the deadfall.”

“Where does it come out?” Julia asked. She let all thoughts of her wolf slip from her mind as they continued their easy gait along the path.

“Just a bit further—you’ll see it. It’s a bit of an oasis. A creek runs onto the property from the northeast side, feeding into the lake.”

Within a few minutes, the forest became less dense and opened up to a small clearing filled with wildflowers. Mrs. Williams stopped at the edge of the forest, closed her eyes, and inhaled. Julia stepped up beside her and did the same.

“It’s so beautiful.” As Julia scanned the small field of blossoms, the sound of trickling water reached her ears. She reveled in the smells of the wildflowers and the grass, the sounds of the leaves rustling in the wind, and the feel of the breeze and the sun upon her face. The beauty of it all filled her. “No wonder he came here.”

Isabel smiled, and Julia saw the sadness creasing her eyes. “He would talk to himself all the time, you know when he was a little boy.”

“Oh?”

“I worried at first. He had whole conversations.”

Julia almost laughed, when she realized Isabel was looking directly at her with a dark, purposeful glint in her eye.

“He looked to the clouds and chattered when he was a toddler. Gibberish—he wasn’t speaking in sentences and knew very few whole words, but there he was, eyes to the sky, yammering away. I asked him who he was talking to. He stopped, looked straight at me and said, clear as day, ‘The angels.’”

Julia caught her breath, causing Isabel to raise her eyebrows and nod her head. A train of goose bumps made a journey across Julia’s limbs and she realized she had given Alex’s mother the confirmation she was looking for.

Isabel stepped into the grassy field. She leaned over and plucked a bright yellow flower, sniffing it as she straightened.

Julia stepped up beside her, scanning the beautiful scenery, imagining a young Alex playing among the flowers.
If she’s asking me what I know
, she thought,
I don’t know what to tell her. I don’t even know what I know
.