kid was always smiling. “And it worked well until Lucifer was exiled, before he threatened to come back to the heavens, take over, and take angels with him. He hated being cast aside, embarrassed, stripped of his wings, and made to crawl on his stomach. He hated that his children remained loyal to their posts and did not go with him. He doesn’t want his place back. He wants to take over.”
I jabbed forward, then forward again. “I never knew Lucifer had kids.” Arcturus’s story seemed half-told.
He began slashing at me like a crazed robot. I responded with a high block above my head, then a side block, then a low block. The sound of the blades meeting rang out in the hollow space.
“Grace, the Order was arranged and instituted by our enemy. He sought to destroy us from within and use the Order to do it, to place himself and his followers as rulers over us. Do you think it is a coincidence that the seraphim are of the highest Order? And now, it cannot be undone. The Divine One cannot go back on his word.” Arcturus became quiet. He looked down at his hands, then back at me. His expression was empty and devoid of hope.
I pushed him away from me with my sword, and he stepped backward and swung his sword high above his head in a semicircle before crashing it down on me.
I quickly raised my arm to block him with my sword, but it was too late; he was too fast. The feel of the blade splitting my bone was unbelievably painful. I fell to the ground and took Arcturus with me. One part of my arm dangled at a ninety-degree angle from the other part. The sound I heard was me, screaming. I dropped to the ground with the pain of a thousand hammers, knives, and fires tearing at my arm. Blood splattered onto my face, clothes, on Arcturus, on the ground, and covered the blade.
Arcturus sat beside me and cradled me in his arms.
“Arcturus,” I cried into his ear. The pain was exactly how one would imagine it would be. Like someone slicing into your arm’s skin, bone, muscle. I wished I could pass out, like people on TV do from the pain.
Arcturus really looked like a kid at that moment. One who’d gotten caught stealing. “I’m sorry, Grace. I’m so sorry,” he offered. He threw his sword down and grabbed at my arm, bloodying his hands and nails. Arcturus pushed the pieces of my arm together and held it. Gross.
The searing heat from Arcturus’s hand over my arm was like hot coals being placed on a third-degree burn. I heard only my own screaming in my ears. Soon, I began to heal, bones, tendons, muscles, skin, and veins all reconnecting as if they’d never been forced apart.
When finally I quieted, Arcturus continued, whispering softly in my ear. “There are nine Orders of angels, including Angels, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Virtues, Powers, Authorities, and you. Humans mistakenly think one angel to be of significant class over another, but in our world, ‘purpose’ rules over class or hierarchy. Those without purpose, or who are Fallen, or are enslaved, are ruled by class. Your mother was a seraph, you know.”
Arcturus explained it all, but I was still somewhat foggy on who was higher than whom. And my arm hurt like heck. It was a lot to take in, hearing that my mom was a seraph like Lucifer. I mean, Vivienne had told me, but I’d never thought of it like that, that Lucifer and I, we were the same—almost.
“Did you catch that, Grace? You seem pretty out of it.” Arcturus looked at me with concern, but there was something else too. Fear.
“I think so. Seraphs light up everything, Cherubs kick people’s asses, Virtues are like, keepers of all things important to human survival, Powers are the historians, Authorities are the ghostwriters, Thrones are the judges, Dominions are the lawmakers, Angels are the regular Joes of our world, and who else is there?” I tried to sound happy, make jokes. “Oh wait. And Principalities.”
“Then there’s you. A totally unspecified angel, not part of the Order, and not bound by its rules. You, Grace Ann Miller, are the key to changing everything. Setting things back in order. Ending this nonsense.” A satisfied smile slid across his face. I’d managed to convince him that I was okay and not at all bothered by thoughts of being like