Page 75 of When the Angel Falls First

There has to be a way.

“A decision.” I swallowed though my throat was drier than the Sahara. “I’m listening.”

“You have to decide if you want to claim Josie as your Chosen.”

I rocked back on my heels in shock.

“I really thought that kiss to prove her parents wrong would have done it,” he continued with a sigh, “but I guessevenI’mwrong some of the time. All that fantastic meddling, and you’re still stuck. It’s rude, really.” He sniffed dramatically.

“Wait,youwere the one pushing her parents to disbelieve our relationship?”

“Guilty as charged.”

My feet were suddenly entangled, and I looked down to find three divine felines weaving between my legs.

“Them too.” Gabriel crossed his arms. “Their progress reports, however, just continued to illuminate how clueless you were. I used every trick in the book to push you two together. Hell, I even sent herNanato tell her she was meant to be with you. But damn, you two were convinced that the fact you’d tried and failed once before was the end of it. I thought by now you’d know that a case of bad timing doesn’t mean something isn’t written in the stars.”

He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck as he studied me for a reaction. But I was so shocked, it felt like my brain had short-circuited.

Was he telling me I wasfreeto claim Josie as my Chosen, or that I had to choose her or the Host?

“What did any of this have to do with you, anyway? Why meddle?” It was barely the tip of the iceberg, but the longer I stayed in the antechamber, the more disembodied I started to feel. I had to choose, and quickly, so I could get out of here.

“The power between you two surpassed even angelic projections.” He scratched the back of his head and looked away. “Your time to be together was always now, but seven years ago…” He shrugged. “You jumped the gun.”

“You knew even then?” My head swirled with questions but all my beating heart could say wasJosie-Josie-Josie.

“You weren’t the only one to make mistakes.” He leanedforward. “The Host wasnotpleased with me, but the draw between you was too strong to keep you apart. You had your matches to make, and I had mine. But at last, your time has come. The moment of decision isnow. If you wait any longer, the window will have closed on your and Josie’s chance. I let her find the book, you ignored the signs. I led you to the bookstore, you figured it was to help you match couples. You are no easy mark, Caleb. Just like Marigold and Axel, yesterday was the final day for you two to decide before setting off repercussions that span generations. Frankly, I didn’t think you’d cut it so close to the line, but you’re stubborn. That’s unusual for a cupid. And yet another trait you and Josie have in common.” He winked at me. “So,cupid, do you believe that love truly conquers all?”

I gaped at him, jaw slack, completely flabbergasted.

I get to choose. An angel has never before had a human Chosen, yet they are letting me choose.

All the rest faded to background noise. I was here, in the antechamber, to decide if I was going to claim Josie as my Chosen or reclaim my birthright and my wings. Of course, I wanted her. I wanted her with every fiber of my being, every molecule yearned to complete the bond—and yes, I could feel it now that we were on the incorporeal plane—the golden tendrils that transcended time and space, fragile as silk thread and yet connecting us. Binding our souls.

Such small beginnings, but it meant that the seal had begun to weave us together. My power hadn’t been on the fritz at all. It knew what I’d been too stubborn to see all along—Josie was my Chosen.

Relief flooded me, just like the water rushing back on Alki beach.She’s mine.

Everything else felt less catastrophic, less overwhelming, now that I knew I wasn’t losing it.

But what would happen with the Host if I claimed her as my Chosen? Would I be cast down, sealing my fate as fallen from grace and hers as bound to a being who would only grow darker as my angelic light faded for good?

I couldn’t condemn her to that fate. It would be worse than death, for a beautiful spirit such as hers to be bound to ever-deepening darkness. One day the change would be complete, and she’d find herself bound for eternity to a demon.

But… if I didn’t choose her, didn’t complete the seal, she’d be alone forever. She’d have her bookshop, her friends, and her cats. Even her family would be by her side; I truly believed that now. But companionship? A spouse, children? She wouldn’t have any of that.

And I wouldn’t be able to go back to her. I saw that now, saw it laid out in Gabriel’s somber words that our window was about to close, permanently.

What would she want me to choose? It felt wrong to take that decision from her, but I’d missed my chances to ask her.Fuck.

I’d never really explained. My head had been so far up my ass that I’d never sat her down and told her what she was to me. How precious. Granted, I didn’t know it waspossible, not even to the bitter end.

I never even told her the truth, that I loved her too. Could I leave her alone forever without telling her that? What a depressing fate, to never know how deeply you were loved.

“It’s time, Caleb. The Host grows impatient.”

I looked up, letting my fingers trace over the cover of the book that she’d kept safe for me for seven long, lonely years. The faintest whiff of her essence still clung to it.

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