Celestial (Angels of Elysium, #2)

by Olivia Wildenstein

What in Abaddon had possessed me to lift them from their bodies? This act of folly would not only have me questioned but also demoted and tossed out of Elysium, stripped of the appendages that made me who I was. All I was.

They chartered a new course, shattering my moral compass, destroying the honorable angel and awakening the flawed man within.

I pretended to bristle, even though I gave zero feathers about my flat chest and narrow hips.

Weekends were sacred family time, and since Mimi was my only family now, I devoted them all to the woman who’d unfailingly cared for me after I lost Leigh.

my combat boots and black leather leggings

Like mine, her wings weren’t gilt-tipped. Her hybrid status tempered my vitriolic tone because, however blinded by the celestial world, the blindfold would eventually fall, and she’d realize her feathers’ lack of luster would condemn her to Elysium’s lowest echelons. The best hybrids could hope for were positions in the guilds as ophanim—teachers—or in Elysium and Abaddon as erelim—celestial sentinels. Only verities got the fun gigs: malakim—soul harvesters—ishim—soul rankers—or seraphim—the

“You only have three-hundred and twenty-five . . . well, four now,” while the verity said, “And three months left.”

I loved this city all the more for its imperfections because it reflected the life I’d chosen, instead of the one chosen for me.

“Leigh was my only family.” “And Jarod was mine.” So I’d stayed, and we’d become each other’s family. And our bond forged by grief transformed into a connection wrought from love. I’d found in Muriel the mother I thought I no longer needed. After all, I’d already been fifteen and had spent five years navigating the human world with little help from the ophanim who deemed us self-sufficient the day our wing bones formed.

“That soon, I will have to leave you.” “Is there really nothing . . . no treatment . . . no . . .?” Tears flowed out of me and pooled around the callused fingers clasping me as though I was made of glass. She shook her head. “But you’re grown up now and—” “I still need you! I’ll always need you!”

Jarod wasn’t in Heaven. He wasn’t even in Hell. He and Leigh had been denied both. And soon she’d find out, because this woman, this incredible and selfless force of nature, was undoubtedly Elysium-bound. For the first time since I lost Leigh, I wished my soul wasn’t destined for oblivion. But it was too late. There was no way I could earn over six hundred feathers in three months.

“She’s telling a story about monsters. I don’t like monsters.” “The world’s full of them, so better get used to them.” “Have you ever met a monster?” I thought about Tristan. And then I thought about Asher. Different kinds of monsters but both monstrous. And then, as per usual, my wings got gypped of a feather. “Yes.” She blinked her wide eyes at me. “Are they really scary-looking?” “No. Most look like you and me.” “You don’t look like a monster.”

“You become nephilim.” “Bingo. The worst sort of monster.” “Nephilim aren’t monsters.”

“I’m not. If he’d been kind, I wouldn’t have met Pierre. If I hadn’t met Pierre, I wouldn’t have learned how to shoot. And if I hadn’t learned how to handle a gun, Isaac Adler would never have hired me, and I wouldn’t have gotten to raise Jarod and then you.” She ran a knuckle across my cheek. “I believe everything happens for a reason. Even the terrible things.”

“What doesn’t destroy you will reshape you. Remember this, Celeste. Remember that the same fire that transforms sand into glass can turn logs into ash.”

When my gaze met a set of eyes I hadn’t seen in years, one I’d hoped never to look upon again, I sat up. If the seraphim had come, then that meant only one thing: Mimi was gone.

“In pain? I’m not in pain. I. Am. Enraged, Seraph.”

“Why is it that you made the trip anyway?” “To uphold a promise I made Leigh. One I failed to keep.” “What promise was that, Seraph?” “To help you.” “Help me?” I almost laughed. No. I did laugh. And then I stopped laughing. “I hope it wasn’t to help me ascend because I have zero interest in channeling upward.”

Stow it away in the jewelry box she’d given me for my sixteenth birthday. The one she’d filled with sixteen rings, one for each year she’d missed. She’d laughed when I’d laid down my spoon full of crème brulée to slide each and every ring on. They were apparently meant to be worn separately. I never did. I kept them together. If only I could’ve kept her soul and mine together, too.

Asher, who’d promised Leigh he’d take care of me.

I dreamed of Rambo and Monica. I dreamed they were inseparable and had rescued each other more than once over the years. I woke up with a smile that quickly faded at the sight of the dark, quiet apartment.

“Celeste!” The seraphim’s voice was sharp enough to give me pause. “What?” “You have less than three months to finish your wings, and six-hundred-and seventy-five feathers to go. We need—” “We?” I cocked an eyebrow. “We are not a team, Seraph. I am me and you are”—a nuisance—“you.”

Leigh was there, peach hair blowing around her oval face, green eyes lambent with happiness, platinum wings shimmering as though encrusted with diamonds. How can you smile after what our people did to you? What they did? What did they do, Celeste? They let you die. They burned your wings. My wings are right here, honey. And they were, but that wasn’t right. Leigh had lost her wings. Seraph Asher had reduced them to ash. Hadn’t he? Suddenly, her wings burst into flames, melting like wax around her bare feet. She didn’t scream. Didn’t cry. Didn’t move. Just stayed still and stoically accepted her fate.

“What I want is for you not to change the subject. What I want is to hear you’re going to use your position to educate the young.” Instead of a venomous riposte, I got a sigh. “I’m only one man.” “A powerful one.” “Perhaps, but there are seven of us. To amend a law, four of us need to vote in favor of it.” “Well, have you even brought it up?” “I have. Twice.” “And?” He shut the door of the fridge slightly harder than necessary. “And if it hasn’t changed, you can imagine my request wasn’t popular among the Council members.”

My style is enduring, even after everyone gives up on me.”

So don’t tell me I’m picking this wingless life out of spite. I’m picking it because I like who I became outside my quartz cage. I like who Leigh and Mimi made me.”

Once dressed in a long-sleeved black shirt and my usual leather leggings,

already a woman with the pink-orange hair and soft curves she’d so hated, but which in my eyes, in Jarod’s eyes, in Asher’s eyes since he’d winged her, had made her gorgeous.

resembled the girl in the picture—freckled, dimpled, with hair and eyes the exact same shade of ruddy-brown.

“Yes, Fletching Naya?” “What happened after she died?” “What do you mean?” “What happened to her soul? Did Ryan—” “Ah-ry-on,” Mira corrected her. “Did Ah-ry-on bring it back up to Elysium?” “Nephilim don’t have souls, Naya,” the redhead know-it-all said.

“Since nephilim have souls, perhaps we should try healing them instead of abandoning them.” I laid a hand over her head and stroked down one pigtail, then the other. “Humans are worthy of second chances. Why not angels?”

“You shouldn’t give up, Celeste.” “I only have two and a half months left, sweetie, and a whole bunch of feathers to earn. Trying isn’t even an option anymore.”

A nerve twitched beside Asher’s left eye as he sank onto one knee. Like a windblown ribbon, Naya’s hand glided out of mine, and she dashed toward those open arms.

Asher was a father? He said he hadn’t found a consort, yet he had a child? Had he fathered Naya while he was searching for a wife or after giving up on finding one?

“Naya’s mother was human.” Surprise was a weak word for my reaction to his answer. “Was?” He set his pained gaze on a zooming taxi. “She’s dead.”

“I was there. The afternoon you stopped by to inform Jarod that your little plan worked. That Leigh’s wings were complete. I was there when you escorted a red-eyed Leigh through the channel to Elysium. I was there when you threw her back on Earth in the hotel room you so kindly paid for. I was there when Mimi found her body. Their bodies. So don’t you feathering dare tell me I have no idea what I’m talking about!”

“The whole system is my enemy, and since you’re

“If I’d placed them inside wombs, they would’ve been someone’s child. I wanted them to be raised inside guilds so their wing bones could develop. So they would get a second chance.” He squinted past my ribboning hair. “How much do you know about reincarnation?”

“You’re aware that some new souls don’t always . . . make it?” “You mean, stillborns? You . . . you resuscitated a stillborn?” “Two.” “By giving them souls?” “Yes.” “You can do that?” “Archangels can perform some miracles.” “Why didn’t you resuscitate Leigh and Jarod, then?” His lids slid closed. “Their hearts had stopped beating for far too long by the time I reached them.” I didn’t think death distressed archangels, but I also didn’t deem seraphim capable of playing hide-and-seek. Goosebumps suddenly pimpled my skin. Goosebumps that had nothing to do with the ambient temperature. Leigh had died four and a half years ago, and Naya was . . . “Naya . . .” I half-gasped, half-whispered. His lids rose, and his eyes, which didn’t resemble Naya’s, searched mine. “She’s—” Heat streaked across my face, through my chest. “That’s why—” My throat tightened, and the pinpricks of stars bled together until Asher was haloed in light. “That’s why she knew my name.” A slow beat passed. “I was afraid of that.” “Afraid that she’d know my name?” “That her soul would recognize yours.” My heart stumbled midbeat. “Didn’t you cleanse it before placing it inside her new body?” “I did, but your souls had a deep connection, and that isn’t something that can be removed. At least not without causing irreparable damage.”

“You two were soulmates.” “What? I thought—Jarod . . .” “He wasn’t her soulmate.” “But—” “Mate means friend, Celeste. Jarod . . . I believe he was more. I believe he was her neshahadza—her soulhalf.” I was still wrapping my mind around the fact that soulmates existed. And now, soulhalves? “Neshahadza possess the deepest and rarest connection.” His features contorted in disgust or was it in pain? Probably disgust, considering how poorly the archangel regarded love. “Once souls lock together, it becomes impossible for them to live without the other.” As we bobbed in the black ocean, I almost forgot I was suspended over absolutely nothing. I almost forgot I was propped against a man I’d loathed for so long. A man I no longer loathed. How could I, when he’d defied celestial law and saved a worthy soul?

“Neshahadza,” I rolled the Angelic word around my tongue. “Does everyone have one?” “Yes, but most people never meet theirs, and the...

“Not actively yet. Once the children prove their worth, once they both ascend, I’ll begin my crusade. As for introductions, although I hope they don’t meet for a long time still, you found your way to her. I imagine he’ll find his way to her, or she to him, once they roam the world freely.” His chest rose with a ragged sigh. “And I imagine their souls will recognize each other in some way.”

“Adam and Naya. I like the sound of that.”

“You can burn souls?” “Archangel fire can burn a lot of things.”

“It is my fault. Entirely my fault. All of it is my fault.” The pressure of his thumb, the one with which he’d whisked away a lock of my hair earlier, increased. Not painfully. More of a reminder that he was cradling my head. And body for that matter. “Allow me to help you, Celeste. Let me try to amend the damage I caused.”

“Coercion is our specialty, along with fire and impressive wingspans.”

“When I was a child, I believed stars were souls that had drifted away from Elysium, tired of both the human and celestial worlds.”

“I promise that once you ascend, I’ll fight to give hybrids the same rights as verities.”

“Because we aren’t the sum of our mistakes but the sum of how we deal with them.”

“I never stopped helping people, you know?” I rambled on. “I didn’t sign up for missions, but I never stopped helping.” “I know. We keep an eye on our own.” Then why had no one come before? Why had no one showed an ounce of interest in my wings before Asher?