“Unfor…tunate?” My voice cracked on the question. “Unfortunate!”
Kobal moved my palm off his chest and drew me closer to him. His hand ran soothingly over my arm, but I wasn’t in the mood to be calmed. Flames danced across the tips of my fingers before I snuffed them out. My mother would run straight through the wall if she saw me wielding fire.
“You have no idea what she did to me! The things she’s said to me, and the hatred she harbors forme. You have no idea what it’s like to grow up not understanding why the woman who is supposed to love you unconditionally treats you worse than most people treat their dogs!
“And now, I know it’s because she was right. Iamdescended from Lucifer. I am part demon and angel. The angels destroyed the fragile mind of a scaredfifteen-year-old girl and all you can say is it wasunfortunate? Why didn’t you at least allow her to give me to someone else?”
“Ariel said your path was to stay with her,” Raphael replied. “And you have walked it.”
“And she will continue to walkmanymore paths,” Kobal growled.
“Yes, she will, but we have little knowledge of where they will take her from here. Ariel knew to keep her alive and when to turn her into the soldiers. If River hadn’t been born, there would have been no one to close the gateway when the humans opened it, but her father still would have been able to topple the seals. She needed to exist to counteract the man who created her. Ariel never foresaw anything else about her, not even that she would become the Chosen of the varcolac. Though, I suppose that makes sense.”
“And why is that?” Kobal demanded.
“Power attracts power and….”
Raphael’s voice trailed off when Vargas, Erin, and Magnus crept into the doorway. I hadn’t heard them enter, but then I’d been a little distracted. When they looked from me to my mother and back again, I realized they’d been in the house for a while.
“What angel line is my mother descended from?” I demanded of Raphael. “Who else amIdescended from?”
His lips compressed into a flat line as he gazed at me. Fury burst so hotly through me that I understood the term “blood boiling.” If it was possible, I would have choked the life out of him right then. Saved my life or not, I was sick of being toyed with by angels.
“Tell me who she is descended from. Which fallen angel is it?” I asked.
“I’d like to know that myself,” Caim muttered.
Raphael remained stubbornly mute.
“Tell her or I’ll kill you,” Kobal said flatly. “I don’t care if you can help defeat Lucifer. I won’t tolerate you keeping secrets from her. I will end you here and now.”
Corson, Hawk, and Magnus crept closer to Raphael in preparation of capturing him should he try to take flight. Caim leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms over his chest to make it clear he wouldn’t interfere.
“Tell her!” Kobal commanded. He hadn’t raised his voice, but my mother jumped and the tension in the room ratcheted up.
“You cannot beat this varcolac, Raphael,” Caim said quietly. “He was born specifically to fight the angels. It is why he has survived so long with Lucifer in Hell. The girl has the right to know why her life has been played with in such a way.”
“You only seek answers for yourself,” Raphael replied.
“I seek answers for all of us!” Caim retorted.
Raphael returned his attention to the ceiling. When he closed his eyes, I realized he was communicating with the angels. I peered at the ceiling, but all I saw there were water stains.
Raphael’s eyes were a deeper purple hue than normal when they met mine again. “There is an angel line that only one angel knew of, until recently,” Raphael said.
“Who?” I demanded.
“When Michael and Ariel walked the Earth, they mingled with the humans, healing them, bringing them peace and the love of the being,” Raphael replied. “They granted miracles to the favored humans, and the being did have favored humans back then. More than that, Michael and Ariel brought hope to a struggling people. The being granted them permission for this, and planned to allow the rest of the angels to also walk the Earth, once the humans were more accustomed to seeing them. That is the reason why we can all leave Heaven, but only Michael can allow us to return. Like the varcolac, Michael having such control was a way to keep the angels regulated and the worlds separated as they should be.”
“So what changed all that?” I asked.
“The angels were created to obey, but we do slip. While on Earth, Michael fell in love with a human and succumbed to temptation.”
A pin dropping in China could have been heard over the hush that followed those words.
“They fathered a child together,” Raphael continued. “His name was Adam, and yes it was the Adam who was placed in Eden. Adam is also your ancestor,” Raphael said to me. “You are the only human to ever exist where a fallen angel line and theonlyuntainted angel line came together. Not only that, but you are the product of the two most powerful angels in existence.”
CHAPTER 50
