Descent (Kissed by Death) - Tara Fuller Page 0,15

got the bastard. Calm down,” I hissed at the voices screaming at me.

“Actually, I’ve got this one,” a girl’s raspy voice said from the other side of the room. I forced my eyes open and looked up to find a soot-covered girl, scythe in hand. Her black shift dress was covered in ash and her eye twitched with the telltale sign of a skull full of screams.

“A little far from home, aren’t you, Beatrice?” I gritted out.

“I wouldn’t be worried about territory lines right now if I were you.” A grin touched the corner of her lips. “You must have pissed him off good this time.”

“What are you—?”

She nodded to something behind me, just as a brutally cold blast of air knocked me forward a step. A phantom icy hand gripped my spine, and my back bowed with the force of it. I lifted a hand to shield my eyes from the blinding tunnel of light that split the air in front of me.

Balthazar.

Chapter 6

Gwen

I lay on my stomach and pressed my nose against the glass-bottom floor of Father’s office, watching stars swirl beneath me. When I felt lost, this was the place I felt the safest. Watching the constellations dance beneath the floor of a man who prearranged the deaths of thousands every day. Maybe there really was something wrong with me. The fact that I could be so at ease here couldn’t be normal.

Dragging my fingers along the glass, I watched the stars, which looked like fireflies, small and bright and curious. They chased my fingertips like comets streaking across the blackest sky. Between the flickering bits of fire, I couldn’t help but see Easton’s face there in the dark. Tormented and sad and angry. I could help him. I wanted to help him. Sky always said we choose the people we help. But it didn’t feel like a choice when I thought about Easton. Tasting his pain, his hurt, his sorrow…knowing I could take that away. It felt more like destiny.

The door to Father’s office swung open, and his heavy footsteps carried him across the room until he was standing over me. I didn’t look up. If I did, he’d do that freaky mind reading thing. Not that he could actually hear my thoughts, but he’d still know. One look from Father and he could decode all of my secrets.

“Gwendolyn?” He sounded amused. “Are you going to greet your father? Or are you just here for the floor?”

“Honestly?” As if anything less than honesty were even an option for someone like me.

“Always.”

“Mostly the floor,” I admitted.

“You could use a chair,” he said, still standing over me, waiting. “I wouldn’t mind.”

“I like it better down here with the stars. It’s peaceful.” A blue-and-silver star butted up against the glass beneath my nose. I smiled and it twinkled before blazing away to light the night.

“What’s bothering you, Gwendolyn?” he asked. “Why are you not at peace out there in the world?”

Out there. He said it like it was an entire universe of possibility. But for me it was nothing more than a box. A box that sheltered me from reality, only showing me half of what really mattered. The fact that I’d been so blindsided by Tyler’s death was proof of that. My job was curing sorrow and pain, and yet I knew nothing of what caused them. Father made sure of that. It’s why he’d chosen Sky to be my partner. My friend. While I gravitated to the most broken creatures, she always found a way to pull me back. Steer me somewhere safe. It’s why she was so upset when I’d chosen Tyler. Found peace in helping him. He’d actually needed the joy I had to give. Depended on it. Tyler wasn’t safe.

Pushing up on my elbows, I shrugged, unable to put my feelings into words. Or rather, not wanting to put them into words. I could feel him watching me, his arctic gaze demanding. He wanted an answer, and he wouldn’t like the one I had to give.

“I don’t know,” I finally said. It was the truth. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, why I felt hollow when all of the other angels felt whole, why I wanted things I shouldn’t. Why the loss of two humans made me want to fold into myself when Sky had already forgotten their names. These were things Father would never understand. They were things the Almighty would cast angels out for.

I folded my arms and rested my