River

The breath exploded from me, but my shock was nothing compared to the expression on Caim’s face. Dumbstruck was an understatement. Then it faded away to be replaced with a look so thunderous I expected him to start tearing the house down.

“Are you kidding me?” The glass in the window frames rattled from the force of his bellow. “That’s impossible! Impossible!”

“Easy,” Magnus said from behind him.

Caim’s head whipped toward him. Magnus held his hands up as he stepped away from the infuriated angel. Then, Caim leveled Raphael with a look of pure murder.

“Michael is the one who was so insistent that we not question anything, so adamant that we follow the laws, yet he never said why. Did he know the reason we couldn’t leave Heaven was because of him and keep it from us?”

“Yes, but he had his reasons,” Raphael replied.

“Ooooh, I’m sure he did,” Caim snarled. “And just what were those reasons?”

“Yes, do tell,” I said.

Raphael folded his hands before him as he spoke. “Unlike the demons, who need a Chosen to propagate and therefore have a form of immortal birth control, the angels experience no desire in Heaven which keeps them from having an overabundance of immortal offspring. However, the mortal realm is different. Those desires come to life in angels and, like the humans that the being formed angels in the image of, we can propagate with anyone. Michael, the most steadfast and loyal amongst us faltered while on Earth. When he did, the being realized that it could happen to any of the angels and ordered Michael and Ariel back to Heaven. The being then commanded Michael to never speak about what happened.

“Concerned the angels would start to prefer life on Earth and not return to Heaven as often as they should, the being set forth the law that angels could never again walk the Earth. Since life cannot evolve in Heaven, the being created more of the lesser angels to ensure there would be enough angels to keep Heaven, and all life, running smoothly.”

“I remember the increase in the making of the lesser angels,” Caim said through his teeth. “But I don’t remember anyone slapping Michael on the back and telling him congrats on becoming the proud papa of a mortal. I must have missed that memo.”

Raphael blinked at him. I didn’t know if he didn’t get Caim’s sarcasm or if he had no idea how to deal with it.

“Before he was born, the being cloaked what Adam was to keep him hidden from all angels and placed him in the garden with Eve and some other humans. The being had granted certain humans entrance into paradise before, so none of us suspected anything unusual about Adam, and only Michael knew the truth of it for all these years.”

“Lucifer started questioning things shortly after Adam’s birth,” Caim murmured.

“Yes, the war started soon after,” Raphael replied.

“Were Adam and Eve really thrown out of the garden?” Vargas asked.

“No,” Raphael said. “They left.”

“Why?”

“No one had ever left paradise before, so the being didn’t expect Adam to do so when he placed him there, but humans never do what is expected of them. They left around the same time that Lucifer and the angels were removed from Heaven. Adam’s true nature remained cloaked from everyone, but his lineage spread.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed, unable to do much more than that. Kobal clasped my neck and kissed my temple as his fingers rubbed my tensed muscles.

“If the line was cloaked, then how did the angels know they could communicate with her?” Corson asked with a wave of his hand at my mother.

“Michael knew. At the time, he did not reveal how or why he knew she could speak with us. We didn’t question it either. We all assumed she was part of a fallen angel line and Michael somehow sensed this. We did lose track of some of their children over the years.”

“I see,” I murmured.

“That’s why Adam lived so long,” Caim said. “Not because he was favored, but because he was also descended from an angel. He was drawing power from the Earth and we didn’t realize it, not in Heaven or Hell, and certainly not while we were dying on this plane.”

“Yes,” Raphael confirmed. “And I did not question it either.”

“And the Lord said, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. Genesis 1:26,” Vargas murmured, and his gaze came to me. “Adam was believed to have a special affinity for the earth, to be connected to it, and they were right.”

I had zero response for that. “Michael never said a word. He just let the war go on when he could have stopped it, or at least revealed the reason why the angels couldn’t return to Earth,” I whispered. Somehow, out of all the angels, I’d ended up with the two biggest assholes as ancestors.

“Michael disobeyed the being once, he would not do so again by revealing that which he had been forbidden to reveal,” Raphael replied.

“Until now,” Caim said.

“Michael knows that when the being returns he will be punished, that he will most likely be destroyed, but he realized the rest of the archangels had to know what she truly is.”

“Because you would not have come to Earth for just Lucifer’s offspring,” I murmured.

Raphael gazed at me, torment evident in his eyes. “Yes, I would have,” he finally admitted. “It was unfair to expect you to pay with your life for the numerous mistakes we’ve all made over the years. However, knowing what I did about you made my decision easier.”

“You really are the first true World Walker,” Magnus murmured. “It all makes so much more sense now.”

“You would think the angels would still want me dead,” I said. “My children will carry on Lucifer’s line.”

Kobal released a sound that set my hair on end and caused most within the room to step back. My mother slapped her hands over her ears and started shaking. He cast her a loathing glance before focusing on Raphael again.

“We do not want you dead. You would be the end of Lucifer’s line, but Michael’s line continues, and so do the lines of some of the other fallen angels,” Raphael said. “The children of the angels have become entangled with the fabric of this world. I will not take out a woman who is stronger than all the other angel lines and who is willing to sacrifice herself to stop Lucifer. I am here to help save humanity, not kill anyone. Without humans, we all perish.”

“I…” Words failed me. I had no idea what to say. Lucifer and Michael. Adam and his children. I didn’t ask about Cain and Abel; I preferred not knowing. It was all too much. Turning back to my mother, I blinked at her as I tried to comprehend everything put into motion millennia before I was born.

“Michael is the one who threw Lucifer out of Heaven,” Caim said.

“I know,” Raphael replied.

“Do you not understand what it meant to those of us who were driven out of Heaven?” Caim demanded, drawing my attention to him. “How hypocritical it is for Saint Michael to be the one to do such a thing?”

“I do, but he was determined to obey the laws set down after his transgression.”

“And when Lucifer started questioning things, Michael saw his opportunity to become the favored son by evicting Lucifer.”

“No,” Raphael said. “Michael knows he can never be the favored one. He will forever be a constant reminder of the first failure of the being. The being always had a soft spot for Lucifer, and no matter what he has become, he will probably remain the Morning Star to the being. When Lucifer started questioning things, Michael had no good intentions or bad ones; he only saw what needed to be done and did it.”

“How do you know that?” Caim demanded.

“Because I have discussed this with him. He is not proud of what was done with the fallen angels, and he is not ashamed. He carried out his duty.”

“Wonderful,” I said, cutting into their discussion. “They all did their duties, but Lucifer is still on Earth.” I focused on Raphael. “You said Michael’s line continues without me, you meant my brothers?”

“Yes.”

“Does this mean my brothers will one day become immortal too?”

“It does,” Raphael confirmed.

“Oh.” I had a feeling I would be Kobal’s age and still not have absorbed all the things heaped onto me these past five months. “My brothers have no abilities,” I stated before glancing at my mother. “But then I never knew she did either.”

“You have not seen any manifested abilities from them,” Raphael replied. “Perhaps they are drawing from the Earth too. Not as strongly as you, but enough that they would have stayed alive until a hundred and something before the gateway opened. Perhaps, they can do something else, or perhaps their abilities are latent. Because Michael’s line was cloaked, many of his descendants haven’t shown their abilities.”

“We have to find them and the rest of this town,” I stated.

“Dead,” my mother said, and my blood ran cold.

“Who’s dead?” I managed to choke out.

“The town.” Her fingers digging into the ends of the chair caused bits of stuffing to fall around the filthy ground. “The town is dead. Killed.”