step back and glance down as something falls. A vase. Flowers spilled.
The light man continues to grin at me. “Things… you wouldn’t normally share. Things your heart keeps hidden. It will hurt. The angel. Where is he? The angel Calliel.”
“He has broken law,” the dark man says as they take another step. “He has disrupted order. The design. He is not belief. He has fallen from faith. His job was one single thing, and he broke. He broke from what he was.”
“Make him call out?” the light skin man asks. “I think he will scream and the angel will come. Make him scream? He can… scream.”
I feel like screaming. But I can’t.
They are five feet away. The light man stretches out his arms in front of him, his bone-white fingers waggling at me, like he’s saying mine, give me mine, mine.
“He’ll come,” the dark man says. “Scratches. On the ceiling. This boy is protected.”
“How—”
I bring my foot up and stomp on the vase. It shatters. The noise causes the Strange Men to take a step back. I reach down quickly and grab a large shard, the end wicked sharp. I point it at the Strange Men. “Come on, then, you assholes,” I snap at them. “You want to fuck with me? You want to fuck with my town? Come on, then!” By the end, I’m shouting.
A flutter of wings from overhead.
“He’s here,” the dark man says as he looks skyward.
“Expected,” the light man says. “Make Benjamin scream? Maybe no time after. He should scream for his lies. He lies.”
A snarl turning into a roar. Then, as if he had fallen again from the sky, Calliel appears in front of me, his dark-blue wings spread wide, thirty feet from tip to tip. The ground around us shakes as he lands between the Strange Men and me, crouching down, his head bowed. He’s still wearing the jeans I’d seen him in last, but they are dirty and torn, revealing swatches of white skin that are almost luminous.
For the first time, a flicker of fear crosses the Strange Men’s faces as they take a step back. Whatever hold they had on me is released, and I fall to my knees behind Cal, almost unable to believe he is here.
“Benji,” he growls without rising, his head still bowed. Nothing in the world has ever sounded better than my name on his lips. “Are you okay?”
I want to tell him yes, I am okay. Now that he is here, I’ll always be okay. And as long as he stays, everything will be wonderful and he’ll never have to ask me that question again. But all I say is, “I think so.”
He nods, the red stubble across his head almost glowing in the moonlight. His wings quiver and I smell earth. The smell is a palpable thing and it catches in my throat. “Stay behind me. Whatever happens, you stay behind me.”
“Cal, I….”
“I know,” his voice is still deep and rough. “There is much I have to tell you. But first….” He rises to his feet, towering far above me. He’s magnificent, stretched so high he looks like he could reach up and touch the sky. His skin appears to be twitching, and he glances back at me just once. His eyes are almost completely black, his jaw set, and I realize he’s furious, so much so that he’s shaking with it. But even as those eyes fall on me, I understand it’s not at me, none of his fury is directed toward me. His rage is meant for the Strange Men, and it takes my breath away. They’ve come to this place. They’ve threatened his town and threatened me. He’s so far in his anger that it’s making him quake. I nod at him, letting him know I understand. I move behind the stone angel, peering out around her wings.
He turns back to the Strange Men.
“Leave,” he says coldly. “You are not welcome here. This is my town. I have not called for your assistance.”
“It appears you misunderstand our intentions,” the dark man says, cocking his head to the right.
“We are not here to assist you,” the light man says, cocking his head to the left.
“Angels do not belong on the earthly plane,” the dark man says, taking a step toward us.
“You have broken angelic law,” the light man says. “You have defied God.”
“Do not presume to know the words of my Father,” Calliel says, his wings shuddering. “Michael does not speak for God, no