Page 388 of Castings & Curses

"Please, you must unlock her powers!" I begged the angels around me, even though there might not have been time. "If you don't, she and a lot of other people are going to die."

"That could be exactly what she wants, Aurelia," the young angel said.

"I don't care if it is," I replied. "We need to do this. Please!"

Raphael was listening, and surprisingly, he added his support. "Please do it, Carriel."

The young angel left the medical room at speed. I watched the situation unfold, hoping she would be fast enough to make a difference.

There were no words for my relief at seeing Melinda survive and the threat of the meteor shower overcome. I left Melinda's pin with the young angel and asked her to inform me when the magical analysis was complete.

* * *

It tookten hours of energy healing and extensive treatment before Raphael was released from the hospital. I met him near the entrance, and we walked together along a tree-lined path beneath the towering spires of heaven.

He looked tired, like all of the strength had been sapped from his body. Yet here he was, alive and safe, thank God.

"They tried to take my soul," he said, "but they couldn't do it. I don't have a soul within a mortal shell. I am my soul, and this is my truest form. The more they tried, the more they injured me. It makes me wonder if they were using it as a method of violence, or if they lacked an understanding of angels. Misha's situation was different, because he'd been given a mortal shell."

Raphael truly was lucky to be alive. My heart broke for him, and I could sense that he felt it.

"Did they use a weapon on you?" I flinched as I asked that question. I almost couldn't bring myself to ask it. How dare they!

"They hit me with some kind of magic dart or arrow. There were strands of energy connected… somehow, and they used it to drag me through the air. It was a weapon unlike any I'd seen before."

"I'm so sorry to hear that. I haven't heard of a weapon like that before either," I replied. "It has to have been magical, rather than a physical weapon."

"Perhaps it was both," he said. "Once they had me, I felt them trying to tear away my soul. There was this sense of darkness, and they were trying to pull my spiritual body into it, but… that's all of me. It was my energy body that I felt it grip. I didn't let it pull me in, but spiritually… it flayed me."

I was horrified at what they'd done to him. I couldn't think about it and stay focused. It made me angry and sad.

"You're very kind, Aurelia. I can feel your emotions, you know?"

I nodded, lost for words for a moment. Focusing my mind, I forged on with the conversation.

"Do you think taking Misha's soul could have given them greater power? It could account for why they were more capable than an ordinary angel, while not being an archangel."

"I think you could be right," he said. "Crimes of this type don't happen often. All of the—I'm sorry, I need to sit down."

I created a seat for Raphael out of thin air, and he sat down on it, resting. He almost certainly wouldn't be able to return to Earth and continue the investigation in this state. Even the flight would probably be too much for him.

"Thank you, Aurelia. What I meant to say is we don't know all of the consequences of the sort of act that befell Misha Drake. Thousands of years can go by between crimes like this happening. We can't be sure of much, but it makes sense someone might've done so for reasons of power. We might've had their motivations all wrong.

"They could've gone after Misha because he was an angelic soul. Maybe they didn't care what he was doing, so much as what they could take from him. We shouldn't have left him so vulnerable there. We mistakenly assumed he would be as safe as any other soul on Earth."

"You couldn't have known," I replied, as much to offer comfort as stating the facts. I wondered if other angels and supernatural beings could similarly be at risk.

"The other angels on Earth should be warned, in case they're targeted in the same way Misha Drake was. Maybe have the investigating done by those who aren't angel-born."

Raphael's lips quirked up into a smile. "You have my approval to work on the case with Melinda, though there are those who would prefer she wasn't there. I would feel better knowing you have the assistance of an archangel if you need it. I'll have a word with Gabriel, and see if he could have some backup at the ready.

"You be careful out there, Aurelia. I don't like the way this investigation is going. It feels like the perpetrator has been ahead of us every step of the way."

"Thank you, Raphael. I'll be careful out there, I promise," I replied softly. "They were likely listening in to our conversations more than once.

"I could feel Riga's emotions and sense how upset she was after being teleported above the city. This wasn't something she expected, and she genuinely feared for her life, so I suspect she's been honest with us."

Raphael nodded at that. "I was periodically sensing her, in case she might be the weak link, but I'm confident that she had nothing to do with this."

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