CHAPTER TWO 

Shaking the fatigue from her hands, Camryn threw back her head and groaned. She’d been working for hours to conjure this stupid wind storm, but nothing had worked. All morning she’d tested herself, trying to rouse her power, but for all her efforts, she’d only managed to turn a few glasses of water to ice.

“I’m never going to figure this out,” Camryn said as Ethan propped himself against the wall beside her, twisting his plastic good luck charm between his fingers. The sharp angles of his face were made less severe in the dim light of the darkened alcove. His russet skin appearing even darker and the silver ring of metal in his lip all but disappearing in the shadows. He stared at the token for a second before flicking his stormy gray eyes in Camryn’s direction. A familiar heat rush to her cheeks and she forced her eyes away from him. That only lasted a moment, though, as his darkened eyes drew hers back to him.

Camryn’s stomach did a flip. For a moment, she wasn’t a human-born angel training to take on the Fallen leader of the underworld. She was just a teenage girl staring into a pair of dazzling eyes and wondering what twist of fate would ever allow such a beautiful boy to look at her the way Ethan was looking at her now.

“Come on,” he said, “that’s not the Camryn I know.”

Pull yourself together! she practically screamed inside her head. “Oh really?” Camryn said as if she weren’t bothered in the least. “Then you clearly don’t know me very well.”

Ethan laughed as he raised the hem of his now-dingy white t-shirt, tucked the medallion back in his pocket and unhitched himself from the wall “Akira’s right, you know? We have to get out of here.”

Camryn watched him drop the token into his pocket, remembering the story he’d told her on the Navy ship—the ship where they’d received their angelic memories before traveling with Michael and the others here to Jerusalem. She’d lain in the medical bay and listened to his tale about how his mother had given him the Lakota token and what it told him about his family. They’d not had a chance to talk about it, but Camryn imagined it was important to him for more reasons than one—that small plastic medallion bearing the weight of all the stories his grandmother had ever told him about her tribe—the only information he really knew about his family.

Camryn blinked, tearing her eyes away to glance around at the Archangels guarding each exit. “I don’t know how we’re going to get by those guys, but if you think we have a shot, I’m right behind you.”

“We can hear you,” Samael called from across the room.

“Stop eavesdropping,” Ethan called back, turning his back to the room and addressing Camryn with a whisper. “I can’t stay in this room one more day.” His eyes shouted his desperation. “We have to figure something out.”

Camryn chewed her bottom lip and looked down at her hands. “I feel you. I really do, but…what are we going to do out there? I mean, you can at least start a fire. Unless someone needs some ice chips, I’m useless.”

“You need to stop saying stuff like that. I’d trust you with my life over any other person or angel in this room.”

Camryn couldn’t help the grin that snuck onto her face. “I just wish I had one memory—just one—of some kind of victory. Some kind of success. Because all I remember about our life before is failure after failure and that isn’t great for the confidence.”

Ethan came to stand in front of Camryn, placing one hand on each of her shoulders. “Listen to me, okay? You can do this. You just have to believe in yourself.”

Camryn blinked twice. “Are you kidding me with that?” She tried to suppress the smile twitching at her lips. “That was the worst pep talk I’ve ever heard.”

Ethan drew his arms protectively to his middle as she poked him in the stomach. “Okay,” he laughed. “That was pretty lame.”

“That’s one word for it.” Camryn turned away from Ethan before he could see the smile fall from her face. She knew Ethan believed his own words, even if he wasn’t the best at delivering them. She felt his confidence in every glance, every brief touch of his hand. She just couldn’t find that same assurance within herself.

Once upon a time, she had. She’d been a fearless warrior who led armies into battle. She’d looked Lucifer in the eye without blinking. She’d fought against the most powerful Archangel in Heaven and actually thought she could win.

Yeah, because I was stupid.

Stupid or not, Camryn wanted nothing more than to feel that way again.

Apollyon had to be stopped. And soon.

“I just don’t understand. Why does it have to be us? Look at these guys.” Camryn gestured around the room at the four imposing warrior angels in their midst. “If they couldn’t stop him, why do we think we can?”

Ethan opened his mouth as if to answer but no words made their way out. His explanation turned to a shrug as Raphael called to them from the front of the room.

 “Come look at this,” Raphael beckoned as he placed his small, black tablet on the table in front of him—the same type of device that Jay had used back in Kentucky when they’d only known him as the nice medic who was trying to help Camryn find her parents. She’d thought it an odd device at the time, but now recognized it as celestial technology that the angels jokingly referred to as a Halo. Not all angels had them, as not all angels needed them, but most Archangels and Dominions were assigned one at the beginning of a mission.

Most of the time, the devices were used for communication or tracking, but now, Camryn found herself looking at an actual news broadcast, the Halo picking up a satellite signal intended for local television stations and projecting it into the air above the device.

She and Ethan walked up just in time to see a middle-aged, raven-haired woman with sharp eyes and even sharper cheekbones stride into view. She wore a black pantsuit and a stern gaze, the picture of power and authority.

“That’s the president of Turkey,” Ronan said.

Ethan looked confused. “I thought she was that SEF lady.”

“She is,” Akira answered without taking her eyes off the projection.

“Huh?”

“Same person,” Camryn whispered to him under her breath. The woman on the screen was Harriet Kaya. The same woman who’d been on the news almost every night for the past few years, warning the world about the dangers of carbon emissions and overpopulation. Her Save the Environment Foundation had gained a lot of attention in the previous year as her warnings about global warming had begun to come to fruition. When the string of hurricanes, wildfires and droughts began to spread over the globe, she’d amassed quite a following. And she did all this humanitarian work while being the leader of a thriving country.

Camryn had always wavered between being in awe of the lady and thinking her a sensationalist. Her father opted for the latter.

“This lady is a loon,” her father said, as if on cue.

Camryn grinned in appreciation. God, I love that man.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” Harriet began from behind the podium on the front lawn of the Turkish capital building.

“I want to thank you all for coming to this press conference on such short notice. I called you here today, as I have become aware of a grave threat to our region.”

Her deep brown eyes stared straight into the camera, not even acknowledging the press who had gathered on the lawn.

“I will give you what information I can and address the hostiles directly, but for security purposes, I will not be taking questions at this time.” An audible groan swept through the crowd.

“At five pm last night, I became aware of two hostile agents taking refuge in Jerusalem, and reliable intel suggests them to be a direct threat to the entire region.”

“What is—” Camryn started, but the words froze in her throat like the fragile ice she’d managed to create. Two pictures had popped up on the screen. One, of a girl in a lilac t-shirt and hair pulled into a loose ponytail, the other of a black-haired boy with a lip ring.

“As your president, it is my duty not only to protect you from such threats, but to do everything in my power to stop the threat from becoming more perilous. With that being said, I want to speak to the hostile cell in Jerusalem.” She paused, tightening her grip on the podium.

“To the two American terrorists: we know where you are. Your location is under close surveillance, and we are working closely with Prime Minister Gaba of Israel to extract you at the earliest opportunity. He has agreed to lend as many forces as it takes to get you out of his country and into our custody.” She took a deliberate pause that Camryn felt was meant specifically for her.

“We don’t want anyone else hurt, so I’m asking you now to turn yourselves in. I will be at the Turkish embassy in Tel-Aviv in a few hours. If you surrender peacefully, you will not be harmed.

If we have to take you by force, there is no guarantee of your safety or the safety of those with you. You have until daybreak. After that, we will be forced to take other actions. I’m speaking to your humanity now. Do the right thing. Please don’t let anyone else die because of you.”

With that, she turned and walked off the stage. The swarm of reporters erupted into a barrage of questions, but all went unanswered.

A festering fire traveled over Camryn’s body, burning away her flesh until she had none. Her skin disintegrated, her bones vanished, and she hovered outside herself, viewing the scene from above as a numb, impartial spectator. She watched as the body she used to inhabit gripped Ethan’s arm to keep from falling to the floor.

Ethan…

Watched him grab her, cradle her head to his chest. She watched her parents rush over to her.

Mom…

Dad…

Her mother took her arm, trying to lead Camryn to her cot, handling her in that maternal way she had.

But even from above, something tugged at Camryn’s gut, a string of fierce protectiveness that pulled her back toward her body. Her family was in danger, and she would be even more useless to them if she were unconscious.

It wasn’t even a decision. She pulled herself along that invisible string, struggling, as if swimming against a strong current, until finally…finally, she saw the world through her own eyes again.

Camryn pulled back from her mother’s grip on her arm.

Lindsay paused, blinking. 

“I’m…okay,” Camryn said, her gaze traveling over the room from Akira, who stood with arms crossed and brows furrowed, straight to Ethan, whose entire body was rigid with concern.

Camryn closed her eyes, trying to orient herself. She smiled despite the fog that overtook her brain like the aftereffects of a bad migraine. She’d done it. She’d fought against the current that had tried to take her under and she’d won.

It wasn’t a huge victory, but it was something. 

* * * * * * 

Ethan recognized the glazed look that flashed in Camryn’s eyes. He’d first seen it after they’d met Jay back in Kentucky, after she’d almost drowned and then found out her parents were most likely dead. That look hadn’t faded until hours later, when they were safe on the Navy ship, in the medical bay, after he’d told her the story of the Lakota token in his pocket.

No. That wasn’t the first time.

He’d seen the same haunted expression on his mother’s face when he, at eight years old, had dialed 911 the first time she’d overdosed. And again, he’d seen those same blank eyes staring straight through him from the bathroom floor of the bar downtown. And from the alley behind the River View motel.

Ethan walked over to stand beside his mother who sat rocking on her cot, staring at the floor, apparently rattled by Camryn’s episode.

Ethan couldn’t say he wasn’t rattled as well. Seeing Camryn like that—even for a moment—so detached and unresponsive, left him with a familiar hollowness in his gut. Ethan focused on the feeling, tried to give it a name.

It was hopeless.

Helpless.

It was weakness.

Ethan watched Lindsay whisper to Camryn and rub a reassuring hand over her daughter’s back. Camryn sniffed and nodded but seemed oblivious to her mother’s words. She’d fixed Ethan with a pleading stare and he was overcome by the urge to knock Lindsay out of the way to get to her.

I should be the one helping her.

But who was he kidding? He’d never been able to help his mother. Why should he think Camryn would be any different?

Ethan lowered himself down beside his mother and wrapped an arm around her shoulder to stop her rocking.

I can’t protect her here. I can’t protect either of them.

“I’m really okay,” Camryn said, pulling away from her mother, looking sheepish. “We need to focus on who that woman is…who she really is. And how she knows who we are.”

“She has to be working for Apollyon,” Ethan offered. “It’s the only explanation.”

Michael seemed to concur. Now that the crisis with Camryn had been averted, he glowered at Akira with silent rage blazing behind his eyes. “If that’s true, why is this the first I’m hearing of her?”

Akira recoiled. “How was I supposed to know about this?”

“It’s your job to know these things,” Michael said through his teeth. “How does she know our location?”

“You know what, Michael? You can kiss my ass.” Akira whirled away from him but seemed to think better of it as she turned back to face him, her face red with anger. “I don’t know how something like this slipped past me,” she said, gesturing toward the Halo. “But you know as well as I do that I’ve had us covered since we got here. There’s no way she knows where we are. She has to be bluffing.”

“Hold up.” James interrupted. “Covered? What does that mean?”

“Akira is a Tracker,” Samael replied.

“That means she’s very good at finding people,” Jay added.

“It also means she’s very good at keeping people from finding her,” Raphael finished for him, “or the people she’s with. That’s why it’s been so important to have her join us on this mission.”

James looked as if he were puzzling over an impossible riddle. “The church isn’t protection enough? Camryn said the…demons,” he hesitated on the word, “…can’t come in here. They’re forbidden, right?”

Akira’s eyes widened as she gestured to herself. “Hello. Fallen angel here.”

James looked to Jay, still not understanding. “But…”

“We’re not technically in the church,” Samael, the quietest and least intimidating of the Archangels explained. “We’re under it and far enough removed from any holy ground that Akira or any others of her kind could tolerate any discomfort this glorified storage closet might impart.

“Why aren’t we in the church then?” James’s face reddened.

“Because even though they couldn’t get into the church, they could still detect our presence without Akira’s shield. And since Akira can’t enter the church…” Michael trailed off as if the effort to grant any further explanation was suddenly too burdensome.

“So, this power you have?” James challenged. “You’re sure about it? I mean, it sounds like this Harriet lady is important and that got by you. Any chance that something else might have slipped, too?”

Akira’s eyes hardened. “You know, I’m going to give you a pass because you don’t know me, but—”

“Okay, hear me out,” Ronan cut in. “What if—” he glanced around the room with a glint in his eye, “we wait till everyone is boarded on the plane, then we blow it up. BLAM. Problem solved.”

“Enough!” Michael shouted. “These are innocent human lives we’re talking about. There will be no blowing anyone up just yet. We don’t even know who this woman is.” He turned to Raphael. “Get over there. See what you can find out. I want to know everything we can about her before we start talking about killing her.”

“On it,” Raphael looked to Jay and Sam. “You two are coming with me.”

“Why do I have to go?” Jay asked. “Two can stay here, and two can go.”

Samael checked his weapons to find nothing even an inch out of place. “You heard Akira. There’s no way Harriet really knows where we are,” he said. “They are perfectly safe here.”

James scoffed, eliciting a look of disdain from Akira.

As the angels prepared to leave, Ethan caught Akira’s eye, holding his breath while holding her gaze. He’d seen that look on her face before and it left an unpleasant burn in his throat. Her expression was pleading. She could give two shits about what anyone else thought of her, including Michael, but she needed Ethan to believe her.

He gave her the slightest nod, enough to appease her before turning away. He couldn’t have Akira doing something stupid just because she’d gotten her feelings hurt. Keeping Camryn and his mother safe remained his only concern, and if he had to lie in order to do that, then so be it.

But it wasn’t a lie. Not really. He did trust Akira—she’d never done anything to warrant anything less—but if Camryn had taught him anything—he needed to be prepared for anything.

Just in case.

 chapter 3>>>