Year Two: Rebels - Cara Wylde Page 0,31

to become better, so when they got a chance to reincarnate, they wouldn’t make the same mistakes. As we walked the narrow, dusty streets of the First Sphere, Nefertari Maat told us all this and more. The houses were simple, small, and close together. The plant life was silvery and ghostly, which was all due to the fact that the First Sphere was under the rule of the Moon. Those who lived here never saw the dazzling light of the Sun, nor felt its warmth of their skin.

We didn’t stop, and why would we? We weren’t allowed to take pictures anyway, otherwise all the girls would’ve Instagrammed the shit out of this. Yes, the supernatural world had its own Instagram that was spelled to remain hidden from human eyes. The Second Sphere was under the rule of Mercury, and the home of the archangels and the ambitious souls whose own ego had landed them here. Having a huge ego wasn’t enough of an offence to get one into Hell, apparently. Huriel got a bit animated when we entered the Second Sphere, and as we walked, he pointed toward a big mansion in the distance. I guessed his family lived there. The houses here were more beautiful and imposing. Archangels were well-known for their love of wealth and status. Yes, their egos were just as massive as those of the souls they were guiding toward better life choices.

“Why are the streets so empty?” I asked Ivor.

“I’m a vampire. How would I know?”

“Because of us.”

I jumped at Huriel’s voice coming from behind me.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

“Sorry.” He smiled sheepishly. He couldn’t look me in the eyes. After the failed bet and my revenge on him and his buddies, he’d realized how stupid he’d been, and now he was too ashamed to act normally around me. Still, he had moments when he wanted to try. “Heavenly beings don’t like to receive visitors from the outside, and especially when those visitors are the future Grim Reapers.” He fell in step with me and Ivor.

“What? They don’t like Grim Reapers?”

“They abhor the Reapers. You see, Heaven is proud. For most of us living here, it’s hard to accept that we’re dealing with bad stuff, too. Do you know what cabal reaps the most in Heaven?”

I shook my head. “Merciful Death?”

He grinned. “Violent.”

“What? Why?”

“Because Heaven has the highest rates of depression. And unemployment, but that’s another story. We strive for perfection, and we do achieve it. Easily. We’re angels, after all. And then perfection eats us alive. We get bored out of our minds. Beyond achieving perfection, what other goals might we have?”

“Err… to guide the souls that end up in Heaven but haven’t reached perfection yet?” Ivor tried.

“We don’t get that many souls,” Huriel shrugged. “Too many go to Hell. It’s a fun place, I hear. Can’t wait to visit it next semester.”

An archangel saying he couldn’t wait to go to Hell? Well, I’d known all along that the world was upside down.

The Third Sphere was ruled by Venus and was bathed in the soft, orangey glow of the lovers’ planet. The principalities dwelled here – angels with wings of gold and eyes of emerald, wearing crowns on their heads and scepters in their hands. Or so Professor Maat said, because while we were here, there was no principality in sight. The souls who’d loved without restraint in their previous lives were sent here. The reason they were only in the Third Sphere, and not in a higher one, was because they’d loved other people, and not God. Love was still good and all, but as long as it wasn’t focused on God alone, it wasn’t as worthy as one might have imagined. Indeed, the more I learned about Heaven, the better I understood Huriel’s words. It was a sad place, in fact. So sad that Violent Reapers were summoned to cut the string of life of those who couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to commit suicide. Suicide in Heaven. Crazy, yet real.

In the Fourth Sphere, we stopped at Hotel Fortitude for lunch. The building was like nothing I’d ever seen and like nothing I could’ve ever imagined. And I had a pretty wild imagination… It was built like a stair pyramid, with angel wings protruding from its sides. There were rooms both inside the pyramid and the wings, and Professor Maat told us that those located in the wings were very expensive. At the top of the wings, there were