Wanted Angel - Sadie Moss Page 0,46

humanity. So what if the other angels haven’t been doing that? I’m not beholden to them. I don’t care about what they’re doing. They kicked me out of Heaven—they don’t want me anyway. So I’m going to forge my own path, and I’m going to do what I know to be right.

It’s growing brighter around us. It’s easier for me to see now, and Salinas staggers back, shielding his eyes. Has someone turned on a light or started up a fire? Ryland and the others are somewhat familiar with magic, so maybe they’ve—

Salinas hisses, baring his teeth. “You vile little bitch!”

He leaps for me, chanting something, and I dive out of the way as his claws and a fireball both narrowly miss me. The light moves with me, and that’s when I realize—I’m glowing again. My angelic light is up, and I didn’t even notice until now.

Wow.

I’m glowing much more strongly that I did during the Blackfire Tournament when Ford and I had to get past those snakes. It gives me a boost of confidence to know that it hurts Salinas and the other demons to stare at my light. I grin savagely, in a way I know I’ve never grinned before, then lunge forward again to attack the ringleader.

I’m exhausted but also elated, full of a strange kind of energy that buzzes through my veins, and I go after him again and again with my sword until both of us are bloody and I can’t even tell whose blood is whose anymore.

“You’re nothing,” Salinas spits, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “You’re not even a proper angel anymore. You really think a fallen angel can defeat me? Bow before me now, and I’ll think about sparing you a painful death.”

“I am born of righteous intent!” I snarl right back, conviction coursing through me. Holy shit. Is this what being drugged feels like? I feel high. Is this some kind of battle fever? “I’ll smite you where you stand!”

I launch myself at Salinas again, hurling myself toward him. I want to finish this, end it once and for all.

Salinas seems to have the same thought, because he lunges for me at the same moment. Fire and light seem to bloom around us, the air singing with energy, and I just want to destroy him.

I want to protect humanity.

I want to be what angels are supposed to be.

I want him dead.

A million emotions surge inside of me in a single heartbeat, filling me up until I can’t contain it all.

Then it explodes out of me.

Piercing beams of light, like daggers made out of prisms of color, shoot out of my body in all directions, like I’m a bomb. Salinas and I collide momentarily before we’re forced apart by the blast, both of us flying. The light is so bright that it blinds me, making me feel like I’m flying through nothingness.

Someone, I think maybe Sawyer, yells out. The sound is panicked and pained, and an answering panic rises up inside my chest.

Then my head hits the ground and I black out.

Chapter Fourteen

Trinity

I don’t wake up where I fell asleep. Or where I was knocked out, I mean. Instead, I wake up lying on something comfy.

Mmm. Very comfy. It’s like a cloud.

My head feels heavy, and my eyelids seem to weigh a ton. My eyesight is blurry as I force my eyes open. It takes me a moment to adjust, and once I do, I have to blink several times before I can really see where I am.

Slowly, with my back and head still aching a bit, I sit up. I’m on a bed, a very comfortable one. All around me is nothing but light, and at last I realize that it’s not because of an injury that I’m seeing the white light—it’s because of where I am.

Home.

I’m in Heaven.

For a moment, I’m overcome with happiness.

I’m home. I made it. I’m here.

But then the reality of that begins to sink in, and I wonder what exactly this means. Why am I here? How did I get here? Where is everyone else?

The last thing I remember is… exploding, I guess is the best term for what happened. I sent out daggers of light everywhere, and some of them hit Salinas, but they were coming out of me from everywhere. Oh, shit! Did some of them hit the sins? Are they all right?

Over to the side of the room, a door opens. I didn’t realize there was even a door there until