of most light angels,” he effortlessly responds. “Now answer us. How do you plead?”
“If believing the vampires should be saved means I am guilty, then I plead guilty,” I answer, and like a vise is wrapped around my throat, I suddenly can’t breathe. Light blasts around my eyes, and my feet leave the ground as I scratch at my throat, but there is nothing there. Air slowly leaves me as I hear Riley shouting something, and suddenly the vise around my neck disappears, and I slam onto the cold ground. I look up to see Riley in front of me, his back to me and his hands in the air.
“The light above should see her first.” I catch the end of his sentence as he lowers his hands, and I cough, sucking in much-needed air. “She is important to him, and I don’t believe he wants her dead. He told me as much.”
“Fine,” one of the angels responds, and light burns a circle around me once more. Riley looks down at me and steps closer to the light as I gasp for air, trying to breathe in what I can.
“You saved my life once, and now we are even. I hope you don’t hate me,” he softly tells me, like I’m a wounded child he is trying to soothe. Like he did when I was eight and fell sideways off the slide at the park, cutting all my back. I needed ten stitches, and Riley was at my side the whole time, holding my hand while my mother held my other hand. My dad couldn’t stand blood and had to sit down in the corner of the room because the nurses were scared he would pass out. There are so many memories between us, even when we have come to a point where we are not on each other’s side anymore. “Stay alive, Katy. Please. Just see the light above is right. Your future is with me and the angels, not them.”
I don’t give him an answer as the light hurts my eyes, and I close them, hoping the light above is in a good mood.
Knowing my luck...that is not going to happen.
Chapter 53
When the light finally burns away, I open my eyes only to find myself in a new room with blue walls covered in silver symbols. On the other side of the room is an archway with grey slate stone doors that are held open, and I can see three angel guards outside. This room is dome-shaped, and in the centre is a floating sphere of yellow light that feels so wrong to me. I scramble back, pushing my back against the dome wall as the light moves and speaks, shimmering with each word. It’s alive…it’s a real being inside an actual light. I never thought the light above would be a literal light. That’s not even the weirdest thing though. Around the sphere of light are three ghosts, women in long white gowns, and they all turn to me. They have floor-length blonde hair, long white cloaks hanging from their shoulders made from a blue material. They both look nearly the same, and only one thing is different about them. The woman on the left has a long scar down her cheek. They scare me silly, even when they are enchantingly beautiful. They each place a finger to their lips before they disappear…literally vanish.
What in the name of ghosts?
“You were my saviour, and you betrayed your people for love,” the voice says, and I stare at the light. “Yet one of my most loyal angels loves you. Wishes for you to be born again, your memories taken and reshaped.”
“You’re the Great Light. The light above, the creator of angels,” I whisper in awe and a little fear. “Were you ever real? Or were you always a light?”
I don’t expect it to answer me as I try to crawl across the room, and it moves closer. Dammit. This thing is creepy.
“I once had a body that women loved and the world worshipped until my creator decided I had gone mad and banished me from the earth,” he growls, his voice filled with spite. “I made my own world, my own people, and in time earth will be ours. We are so close, but you have made it harder for us.”
“How did I?” I demand. “Why do you hate the vampires so much? Why am I important to you?”
“The vampires are not a creation I wanted. The angels I