Page 22 of The Redeemable 4

The boys stroked my feathers a bit more, and then Adnan looked at Luc and Gus. “Are they angels too?”

I nodded. “They were once.”

“The big one is scary.” The kid had good instincts.

“Yeah he is, but he shouldn’t be scary to you. You’re a good kid, you have nothing to fear.”

Adnan took me at my word and raced his way over to Luc and Gus.

“Can I see your wings?”

“No,” Luc said, and I sent him my best ‘do it if you ever want to get laid again’ look. “Fine.”

He stood and spread his onyx wings as wide as the room allowed. His wingspan was bigger than mine, given his status. Not even Adnan dared to touch them, which confirmed he had good survival instincts. Luc tucked them away again and sat back down.

Gusion was more than happy to spread his wings, because he was a show off and they were truly beautiful. White with threads of silver, they shimmered in the sunshine. The colored wings were something we got when we fell. Normal angels have pure white wings. Archangels have white wings with golden flight feathers. Even after all this time we hadn’t been able to ascertain why we all got the colors we did.

Gusion plucked out a silver feather. “You will both grow to be good men, now. Do not be afraid to feel. Your loved ones would want you to be happy again.” He directed this at Nazir, whose eyes welled up before he blinked rapidly. He didn’t acknowledge Gusion’s words, and I could only hope they both took them to heart.

They need a mother. Arcadia was right, but I was in no position to be a mother figure.

“Where’s Clary?” I asked.

“She went home for a funeral. Great Uncle Seamus died last week. She thought it would be okay while the babies were still in hospital to see her family and tell them about Arcadia as well. Apparently they are quite fond of her. She should be back tomorrow, now the babies have been released and Seamus is in the ground,” Oz said.

Aw not Uncle Seamus. He was such a nice old man.

Luc scoffed again. “Guess it depends on your definition of nice. He was an enforcer for the Mulligans for decades. The true miracle is that he lived to 85.”

He was nice to me, anyway. He used to tell me stories about growing up in Ireland and all their folk stories.

“There is good and bad in everyone, Arcadia Jones. Even in you.”

Balance, as Azriel so aptly put it, was the center of all things and must be maintained.

“Can we get back on topic?” Sam asked.

Seriously, he makes scruffy look good. Like some kind of Nordic Lumberjack. I’d give anything to kiss him again.

“Me too. I mean, for you to kiss him again. Even scruffy, he’s still too pretty for me.”

Sam looked confused and Arcadia laughed. He shook his head. “What do we do about getting Arcadia home?”

I shrugged. “I’ve exhausted all my options.”

I looked at Lucifer, my one true love in this world, the other half of my soul, and gave him the stink eye. Gusion stared at him too, until he sighed.

“There is one more option, but just know I hate you all.” He stood, his demeanor getting icier by the second. “I’ll go and see Michael myself.”

I handed the baby to Gusion. He wasn’t going anywhere without me. With a clap of thunder that scared the kids and woke the babies, we left.

He always had to make a dramatic exit.

One of the perks of being an archangel is that they always knew where the others were. They knew where all of angelkind were. Where they gathered, if they were injured, all of these things flooded the archangel’s psyche every day. They were quite as omniscient as the Father, but close. It was no wonder they were all a little kooky in my opinion. Luc was no exception, but luckily he let his freak flag fly. It was the ones that were buttoned down that were the problem.

Michael was in his Cathedral. Luc and I stood on the steps, unable to go past the heavy wooden doors, or even look through the beautifully rendered stain glass windows. We could not step foot on the hallowed ground.

“Michael knows we are here,” Luc muttered under his breath.

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