Dark Halo (An Angel Eyes Novel) (33 page)
Forgiveness&15te invisible might be out of his reach, but it was a kindness that Michael sent him into the fire. I heard the Prince’s wailings, his mind wide open as he faced the one thing he thought he’d escaped: remorse.
He felt his rebellion for the first time. Regretted it. Yes, it was mercy that cut him down.
I know he won’t remain in the pit for long. I know that his final judgment hasn’t come, but Canaan assures me it will be some time before he claws his way out.
The golden halo survived the Prince’s demise, but I returned it to Liv. I don’t think it’s done with her yet.
Far above, the battle still rages, but Michael’s army has pushed the Palatine back and the veil remains open. Stratus has gone quiet.
Jake sits next to me on the orchard floor. We’re inside the tear, and everything we see is colored with the Celestial. I know
now just how precious a gift it is. Because soon the fighting will end, the Palatine will stitch up the veil here, and there’s no guarantee I’ll ever have angel eyes again.
Virtue crouches before us, his wings still.
“You took my mom,” I say. I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to talk to him, and I need to know.
“I did.”
“Where?”
The question seems to confuse him. “She’s gone. I thought I showed you that.”
I choke. Not because I didn’t know she was dead, but because I had hoped she wasn’t.
“But where is her body?”
“Is that important?”
T
wo weeks have passed and still the veil hangs open. I’ll be honest, it was easier when I was the only one who could see the battle raging. But if I’&my ow entirelyve learned anything this past year, it’s that
easy
has never been heaven’s goal. I just didn’t realize how crazy the world would become when the invisible is seen.
Stratus has become a magnet for all sorts of scientists and news reporters. They stand in the field between Jake’s house and mine, and they watch. They try to film what they see, but for some reason the Celestial doesn’t translate that way. So they do what they can to explain the phenomenon to their audiences, but they’re learning tue says.
Four years and two months later
H
is fingers are blistered, but Jake could play here for hours. The smell of cinnamon and sugar on the air, the ocean crashing against the cliffs outside. From a barstool in the corner, he sings and watches the crowd. Tourists and locals alike have made themselves at home here, talking and laughing while teens from Beacon City’s group home program serve them coffee and pastries. Looking at the place now, it’s hard to imagine he spent hours strapped to a chair in the basement below.
Liv’s turned the Bellwether into a tower of refuge for these kids.
His set finished, Jake lifts the guitar over his head and props it against the wall. A sugared doughnut sits on the corner of his music stand. He lifts it and takes a bite. Shrieks split the hum of conversation, and his gaze falls on the table by the window.
“We’re going! They said yes!” Brielle runs toward him,
cutting through a jumble of flowered chairs and tables. When she reaches him, she’s out of breath and her face is beautifully flushed. “The board said
yes
. We leave tomorrow.”
“I know,” Jake says, popping the rest of the doughnut into his mouth.
“How could you know? Liv just got the call. I was sitting next to her when her phone rang.”
He licks the sugar from his lips. “I had a letter from Canaan this morning.”
“A letter? Like&3Now entirely in the mail?”
The Throne Room’s moved Canaan around several times in the last few years. He checks in every couple of weeks, calls mostly.
“It was more of a note than a letter,” Jake says.
“Well, give it.”
He pulls the note card from his pocket and hands it to her.
“‘This arrived yesterday,’” she reads. “‘See you in Thailand.’” She flips the card over. “What arrived yesterday? Canaan’s in Thailand?”
Jake starts to answer, but then Liv’s there and Kaylee.
“Marco’s going too,” Kay tells them.
“Of course he’s going,” Liv adds. “We couldn’t do this without our videographer.”
“So the board said yes,” Jake says, clapping Marco on the back. “And we’re cleared to film?”
“We are, but this is new territory for Ingenui, and the board is keeping us on a tight leash.”
He can see it pains Olivia to say that. One of the stipulations the board had for reinstating her at the foundation was board approval on all her business transactions moving forward. She
wasn’t prosecuted for withholding information from the authorities, but Ingenui spent a year in the headlines after she turned over Henry’s files. She’s done her best to toe the line, something Jake doesn’t imagine she’s quite used to.
Earlier this year she got approval to put together a team to actively join the fight against human trafficking. With Liv at the helm and Kaylee handling the details, Henry’s money is being used to fight the evil he once helped spread.
The goal is to push the issue out of the shadows. To start, the team will fly to Thailand to meet with a family providing aftercare to those who have been exploited. The plan is to shoot several short films, not only to highlight the tragedies of trafficking, but to show that there is hope. There are individuals and organizations rising up to take a stand, and their stories need to be told.
Liv has put together a top-notch team, and she’s asked Brielle to be the face of the campaign. She’ll conduct the interviews, sit face-to-face with the victims. At first, Jake wasn’t sure she’d agree—that’s a lot of fear to be seeing up close—but Brielle signed on without hesitation.
A couple months ago, after Jake graduated from Portland State, he was hired as the team’s lead photographer, and he all but insisted they hire Marco to handle direction and filming. Liv didn’t argue.
“We’ll be all right,” Marco says, sliding his arm around Kaylee’s shoulders. “I know who to contact when we get down there.”
The team’s not authorized to get involved, not by Ingenui, at least. They’re being sent to film, to inform, but with Jake and Brielle on the team, with Marco dreaming of stories they’ve yet
to shoot, they’re prepared to do whatever they can to help. There are things they can do that other people can’t. Things the board doesn’t need to know about.
“Kay,” Liv says, sliding the halo off her wrist. “I want you to take this.”
“What? Why?”
Liv pushes the halo onto Kaylee’s arm. “I’m going to need you guys to do me proud out there.”
“You’re not going? You said you were going. Holy moly, this thing is hot.”
“I thought we’d get theve a thing for
Brielle pulls Liv in for a hug. “You made this all possible. You know that, right?” They’re both crying now. “Send us pictures of the baby, okay?”
Liv wipes her eyes. “I will.” She and Kaylee head back to their table, the clipboard moving back and forth between them. Brielle’s still holding the note card.
Marco eyes it and nods. “You show her?”
“Show me what?”
“Not yet,” Jake says.
Marco flashes him a grin. “I’ll go get the video equipment together. Give you two a minute.”
“Show me what?” Brielle asks again, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Come on,” Jake says, taking her hand. He leads her out
the door of the keeper’s house and onto the white wraparound porch. It’s fall now, officially. Red and yellow leaves jut here and there among the evergreens. The ocean is calm today, gulls screaming.
Brielle leans against the railing, her arms crossed. “You have something to show me apparently.”
“I do,” Jake says, pulling a slip of yellow paper from his shirt pocket. “Canaan sent me this with his note.”
She takes it from him, unfolding the small square sheet.
“It’s a carbon copy,” she says, tilting her head, trying to read the writing. “A claim check from . . . Siam Jewelers.” She looks up at him, her blue eyes wide. “I can’t read the rest. It’s in Thai.” &M8owpD;
He steps closer, takes the claim check from her hand and slides it back into the pocket just over his heart. He’s waited a long time for this.
“Jake, is that . . . is it . . .”
“According to Google Translate, it’s a claim check for a custom-engraved diamond engagement ring.”
Her mouth opens and closes. “Custom-engraved?”
“I called the jeweler this morning,” he says.
“You called?”
1. When this story opens, Brielle is feeling Jake’s absence intensely. Have you lost someone you care about? How did you cope?
2. Brielle’s dad is learning to believe in the invisible. The Bible says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Does faith come easy for you?
3. Canaan gives Brielle a task; he asks her to wait by the chest for instructions. Brielle would rather do something to help. She’d rather fight. Do you have a hard time waiting on God when hard things happen?
4. Marco sees revenge as the only way to make amends for his part in Ali’s death. What are your thoughts on vengeance?
5. Olivia’s life is a tragic one and she’s involved in some horrible crimes, but in the end we see her redeemed. What does redemption mean and what does it look like to you?
6. In Danakil, the Prince lays out a compelling case for Brielle. He wraps his lies in truth. Have you ever had trouble deciphering good from evil?
7. The dark halo is appealing to Brielle because she thinks it will make life easier on her. Do you think life is supposed to be easy? When things get hard, what do you do?
8. With the engagement ring gone, Brielle feels like she and Jake have lost “heaven’s blesse shrugs, but
M
y name is on the front of this book, but the truth is I couldn’t have written it without the help of so p id="p0357-03
An Excerpt from
Anomaly
by Krista McGee
F
ifteen minutes and twenty-three seconds.
That’s how long I have to live.
The wall screen that displayed the numbers in blood-red letters now projects the image of a garden. The t& with oret out of hererees are full of pink and white blossoms, the green grass swaying a little in the wind. I hear the birds as they call to each other. I smell the moist soil.
But the countdown still plays in my mind.
Fourteen minutes and fifty-two seconds.
It isn’t really soil I smell. It isn’t really the garden breeze I feel on my face. That is simply the Scientists’ “humane”
means of filling my bloodstream with poison, of annihilating a member of the State who has proven to be “detrimental to harmonious living.”
The wall screen is beginning to fade. The colors aren’t as bright. The blossoms are beginning to merge together. They look more like clouds now. I don’t know if the image is changing or if it is the effect of the poison. I could try to hold my breath, to deny the entrance of this toxic gas into my body. But I would only pass out, and my lungs would suck in the poisonlaced oxygen as I lie here unconscious.
No. I will die the way I finally learned to live. Fully aware. At peace. With a heart so full of love that even as it slows, it is still full.
Because I know something the Scientists refuse to acknowledge.
Death is only the beginning.
I
suppose I’ve always known something was wrong with me. I’ve never quite been normal. Never really felt like I fit. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve tried. In fact, I spent most of my life trying.
Like everyone in Pod C, I was given a particular set of skills, a job I would eventually take over from the generation before us.
