Page 66 of When the Angel Falls First

“Oh, this is too good! Okay, so, we need to draw them together on the ways they’re alike instead of different. Show them that they were wrong about each other. We can definitely work with that. Hmm… tell me what else you’ve tried.”

“There was a Lovers of Mother Earth conference two years ago, and I made them seatmates. That went over like a lead balloon. Then last year, I sent him to surf at her favorite beach. I thought with all the early morning sunlight and him in a wet suit instead of abusinesssuit, maybe she’d see another side of him. Nope. Then?—”

“Here you go, guys. Let me know if you need anything else.” Victory dropped off our sandwiches, stopping me mid-rant.

“You get the idea,” I said after she left, taking the first bite of my favorite double-bacon club, though I hardly tasted it. The love-conquers-all thing had left me rattled. It was starting to feel like I was missing something. Things had gotten so complicated, when my life used to be simple. Follow the fivecore beliefs, match my assigned couples, always bet on love, and don’t get distracted by a human stealing my heart.

Being a cupid was not a confusing job.

So why couldn’t I be with Josie? If love always wins in the end,why couldn’t I have the woman I loved?

“I do,” Josie continued while I tried to silence the tortuous back-and-forth in my mind. “You get points for creativity, but now that it’s this bad, it’s going to take a real grand gesture to get them over their past differences. But it’s okay. When in doubt, we go to the books! Right after lunch, I’m going to show you around the part of the Bookish Cat that applies.”

Go to the books.I was jolted out of my train of thought with the reminder from Gabriel, about the book of angelic seals. I’d gotten so caught up in her issues with her landlord that I’d never followed up and asked Josie if she could help me find it.

“Speaking of books, I have a favor to ask.”

“For you? Anything.” The way she smiled at me froze the breath in my lungs. I couldn’t deny that I loved her, that I wanted her, that I wanted heras my Chosen. She was everything good and bright and beautiful about this world, in one perfect, curvy package.

But a quick glance around the packed patio was enough to put me off telling her that right now. For someone who was divinely driven to bring people together, I had terrible timing. Meanwhile, she was eagerly waiting to hear the favor I was about to ask.

“Okay, part of the reason I got into my predicament seven years ago was more than just making some mistakes matching my couples. I lost something, an angelic artifact, and it occurred to me that you might be able to help me find it.”

“O-kay…” She dragged the word out, looking confused.

“It’s a book. Leather cover, embossed with a feather,though I don’t know if a human would be able to make out the insignia. There’s nothing terribly unusual about it to the naked eye, though it holds a lot of power. The inside would look blank, actually, because only someone with angelic blood can read the angelic seals. And it has to be in the state because it can’t have gone far from where it was lost.”

Her eyes grew wide. “You lost anangelic bookon Earth?”

“Yes, unfortunately. Makes your tax mishap not look so bad, huh?”

“What if it’s just gone? Stolen? Destroyed.”

“Ahh, good question.” She tilted her head, weighing the idea. “But the fact is, it has a kind of magnetism to me. It’s not lost forever, but it isn’t found either. I suspect a rare-books collector would be exactly the type of person it might find itself with. And that is now right in your wheelhouse. Do you think you could ask around, see if anyone has it in their collection, or maybe in a museum?”

She grew still, wiping her hands on her napkin thoughtfully. Her aura was an interesting shade. Confusion and... guilt? Strange.

“If it looks like a blank journal, how would someoneknowthey’d found it? Journals are a dime a dozen, even old leather-bound ones. It’s a needle in a haystack.”

I drummed my fingers on the table, thinking. How would she know if she’d found it? “Well, I could obviously tell, if you were able to bring it to me. If not, you’d have to open it under the moonlight. Even though you wouldn’t be able to see what’s written on the pages of the book, there’s an inscription on the inside of the back cover, marking it for what it is. May I?”

I gestured to her notepad, and she passed it over. I quickly sketched out the sealing sigil on a blank page and slid it back across the table to her.

“I’ve never seen a journal with this in it, but I’ve also never made a point to look at one under themoonlight. I’ll keep an eye out and see if I can help you find it.” She took a big bite of the sandwich and scrunched up her face.

“You don’t like it?”

She set the sandwich down and looked out across the busy street. “I think I’ve lost my appetite.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Josie

The restof the day felt like years.

All I wanted to do was get that book home and hold it open under the moonlight, but there was no hurrying the moon.

I watched the minutes tick by, first at the shop where I got to help a sweet group of third graders pick out girl-power stories and an older gentleman find a book on overcoming grief. His hands shook, and my heart went out to him as he thanked me with glassy eyes.

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