Page 17 of Semi-Fallen

She just hadn’t been at all prepared for what he was going to say.

“As far as I know, only one or two archangels have ever spoken directly to God,” Lucien admitted. “He’s never communicated with lesser angels. We don’t know where He is. Our orders have always come from the archangels.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Benny said after the longest pause in history. “So, you’re telling me angels have been assuming, like, forever, that Nephilim are bad and should be destroyed?”

Lucien frowned. “Not assuming. The archangels spoke to God, then they spoke to the lesser angels.”

Benny cocked his head to one side and eyed him like he was the dumbest creature on the planet. “Or so you—and all the other lesser angels—assumed.”

“Archangels don’t lie,” Lucien said through clenched teeth.

Gabriel snorted. “Everyone lies. Especially if you’re telling me that Lane, who rescues puppies in her spare time and volunteers at the soup kitchen, is a heavenly abomination that needs to be destroyed. So, even if they didn’t purposefully lie to you, they’re at the very least wrong as fuck about this particular Nephilim. Which calls all their orders about Nephilim into question.”

Thunderclouds were going to start forming over Lucien’s head at any minute. That’s how dark and dangerous he looked.

Harper shrugged. “I hate to crush your faith even more than its already crushed, man, but, shit…isn’t it at least possible that someone at the top had an ulterior motive for sending angels after Nephilim?”

Lucien pulled his hand out from under Lane’s and rubbed the back of his neck. “I never would’ve thought so, but…I suppose…yes, it’s possible.”

Mischa cracked her knuckles. “Great. Now that we’ve settled that, how do we find out who put a price on my kid’s head and when do we kick their ass?”

And wasn’t that just the question of the century?

CHAPTER 10

Lucien wished everyone would stop looking at him. He didn’t have all the answers.

He wasn’t sure he had any answers anymore.

The suggestion that he’d been lied to over the centuries, that his entire purpose could have been a lie, was mind blowing. He had no idea how to proceed. He’d been disillusioned for a long time. But he’d never felt so…lost before.

Lane laid her hand over his once again and he fought the urge to lace his fingers through hers. She needed his support, not the other way around. He could fall apart after he’d figured out how to save her, not before. Her sympathy wasn’t something he could afford to indulge in at the moment.

But, oh, how he wished he could.

“Could you, I don’t know, ask an archangel about why God allegedly gave the order to kill Nephilim and if there’s ever any exceptions to the rule?” Haven asked.

Lucien wished it was that simple. “Questioning my orders would get me killed before it got me any answers, I’m afraid.”

Haven’s nose wrinkled. “Why are y’all so quick to smite? Doesn’t anyone talk to anyone up there?”

“That barely happens down here, baby,” Tina muttered. “Why assume it would happen anywhere else?”

“Talking isn’t really in a soldier of Heaven’s job description,” Lucien admitted ruefully.

Harper leaned forward and rested her chin in her palm. “Well, what about other angels like you? Anyone else who decided not to follow orders?”

Benny snapped his fingers and pointed at Harper like he’d had a breakthrough idea. Which only made it all the more disappointing when he said, “Like that Nicholas Cage movie! The one where he quit being an angel because he wanted to bang Meg Ryan, but then she got hit by a truck and died the day after they did it.”

Haven frowned. “That was a terrible movie. Would it kill Hollywood writers to not end everything on a grim, dark note?”

“For everything after 2010, I blame The Walking Dead,” Benny said. “Storytelling just got darker after that.”

“We’ll circle back to that discussion later,” Harper said, trying to regain control of the quickly deteriorating conversation. “But Benny’s right. In the movie, an angel decided to quit being an angel and became human. Are there any angels like that who might have info they’d be willing to share about Nephilim and how they became enemies of the state, so to speak? I know it’s a long shot, but…” She trailed off with a shrug.

“Soldiers are often told tales of the fallen,” Lucien murmured. “Cautionary tales, basically.”

Fallen? Lane prompted.

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