He grinned. “Aye, they did, but you’re different, Hunter, and you, Princess Evangeline. I rather thought you could see me for who I was during my life here on the planes. You could understand better if I told you I was a warrior once in an Unseelie kingdom. When I died, I was given the choice all souls are. I could try again, move to a different form, join my soul with the divine, or I could have the job I’d always wanted. I could protect the people I loved. Turns out on this side it’s easy to love a lot of souls. It’s easy to look past all the imperfections of life to see the soul underneath.”
I could feel a familiar sensation pulse off the gnome…angel.
I’d done my best. I hadn’t meant to leave the kids, and they knew it. They loved me, and it was all going to be okay because I was strong enough to save them. I didn’t have to worry about the child in my womb because I would love him and do everything I could to support him. The same way I did for all I loved. For all of my flaws, I was perfect because I didn’t give up.
“You’re the new Faith,” I said quietly. Angels, I’d discovered, came in threes and they were the embodiments of ideals. In this case—Love, Justice, Faith.
I’d killed the last Faith in the arena.
“Aye, and I’m sorry for what my brother put you through all those years ago,” he replied with such sincerity. “It might be hard for you to believe in me after what he did. That’s why I wanted you to see me as I was in my prior life. Jude had never walked the planes. He was a child in many ways. I am not, Hunter. I know what it means to love and to lose. I know what it means to be abandoned and what it means to be found again. Perhaps that’s why I was chosen. Or maybe I was chosen because only a gnome who was foolish enough to think he could be a warrior would be willing to do what I am now.”
“What are you doing? And how are you doing it?” Panic was back in my head. “Please tell me I’m not standing here in some 3D history class while they’re tearing my son apart.”
Evan gasped.
The angel held up a hand. “Of course not. We’re in a place the Sword of Light can create. She’s letting me use her to show you a few things. The Heaven plane understands what could happen if Myrddin follows through on his plan. We’re of two minds as to how to deal with it. Three, really. A small group would prefer to use this as an excuse to wipe all the lower planes clean and start over again.”
“Okay, that seems extreme.” I should have known there would be angels who would rather wipe us all out.
“The rest of us are stuck between helping and staying back and watching,” the angel explained. “I am on the side of helping. My brother and sister are with me, though they could not be here today because of circumstances you’ll understand soon.”
“Aren’t you not supposed to directly impact your charges’ lives?” Evan asked.
“We’re not allowed to sit down and have a chat, to tell you what you should do, but what I’m doing is diving right into a gray area,” he explained. “And we’re protected from the other angels’ sight by the sword. As for the goddess, well, she will do as she will. She can stop this from happening if she likes.”
“She?” I asked. “The other guy talked about his father. Are you an angel for the Fae goddess?”
“Why would you think they would be different?” he asked. “If an angel would come to you in the form most likely to give you comfort, why would you think the goddess would be different? That’s what I never understood. In the end we see what we want to see. Our eyes can’t be trusted. It’s our souls we should let do this work, the work of faith. It’s comforting to believe we know exactly who created us and that he or she or they work in a way we can understand. But that’s not faith. Faith is the knowledge that we cannot know what fabric the universe is made of, but we trust that it can warm us anyway.”
So God had a lot of names. Got it. I didn’t have time to contemplate the metaphysical.
“Is Sarah dead?” I prayed this wasn’t where the sneak peek ended because I wasn’t sure I could go on not knowing. “Are they all dead?”
“Perhaps you should watch. We can’t stay for too long, but my siblings would very much like for you to understand what happened and that there is a way forward. What is lost does not have to remain lost.” He stepped back and suddenly the world started to move once more.
Sarah was held feet off the floor, her throat in Myrddin’s invisible hand. The bag had dropped, and Felix had placed Mia on the floor, trying to bring his wife back down. The scene in front of me was pure horror, and I couldn’t imagine the trauma being done to this lovely family and all for one man’s ambition.
“I can’t watch it.” Evan had tears running down her cheeks.
“Just a moment more, Princess,” the angel advised.
Something rolled by my feet, a small crystal ball of some kind. It rolled to where Myrddin stood and then flashed, sending light everywhere. Myrddin gasped and then he was gone, disappearing in an instant.
Sarah fell to the ground, her husband dropping to his knees.
He put a hand on her and his head tipped back. “Oliver! Felicity! Please. Please.”
“He calls to his brother and sister.” The gnome got misty eyed. “Most of us aren’t truly siblings in the way others are, but Felicity and Felix were made from the same clay.”
“We have to get inside,” Sarah was saying, her voice tortured.
“I’ll help you, Momma.” Mia held the bag of holding. “I’ll take it inside and we can hide it for the queen.”
Sarah nodded, allowing Felix to help her up. She limped toward her door, her husband at her side. “He’ll be back. He’s likely making his way back right now.”
“What was that?” Felix leaned over and picked his wife up.
“A sphaera motus,” she replied. “It’s a transportation spell. It took him somewhere. Who sent it?”