Page 90 of Grave Revelations (Prophecies of Angels and Demons #3)

Chapter 89

Sophia

Elizabeth stepped forward shyly, gripping Rebecca’s hand.

“I can’t imagine what it has been like for you, trapped here all this time,” Rebecca said, clasping Elizabeth’s fingers gently in her hands.

Elizabeth glanced at Sophia, searching her face.

“It’s alright,” Sophia said. “She knows you weren’t responsible for any of it.”

Elizabeth turned her attention to Rebecca. “I never knew she was hurting everyone.”

“Of course you didn’t. But you can still help us. Would you like to?”

Elizabeth’s large blue eyes went round, and she nodded.

Rebecca smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Will you help Sophia and her sisters return to the mortal plane?”

Sophia cleared her throat. “You could come with us, sister. You would be a great asset to our side.”

Rebecca lifted her gaze to Sophia, and all the pain she hadn’t spoken aloud shone in her sapphire eyes. “I can’t,” she breathed. “I can’t be there when he isn’t.”

Simon stepped forward, and they turned to look at him. “I’ll stay with her. ”

Sophia wanted to roll her eyes, but she twisted a honey-brown curl around her finger, schooling her features. She was no judge of what Rebecca needed now. Perhaps an afterlife with Simon would be a comfort to her.

Rebecca dipped her chin and turned to Elizabeth. “What do you say? Will you send them back?”

Elizabeth held up her hands, a wide grin breaking over her face. “Who wants to go first?”

Sophia opened her eyes and thought she might have gone to Hell instead of Earth, but a sharp pain tore at her throat, where she still hadn’t been fully healed, and knew she was back in her ravaged body.

Sitting up, she glanced around the sterile space. Beside her, Maria sat up and darted a preternaturally quick look at her. Across the room, Helena and Vassi sucked in sharp breaths.

They had all felt it when Sanura was killed in Sheol, but on Earth, with all her binding restrictions gone, they were free in a way they had never been since being turned into night-beings.

Sophia swung her legs over the side of the metal table and moved to the only person who hadn’t woken with them, resting a hand on her cool cheek. She and Cassia had been close when they were young, and her heart ached for the sister who had chosen the easy road in the end, even if she thought she was doing the right thing.

They gathered at the door to the town’s mortuary, and as Sophia opened the door, she looked up and froze.

The sky was alight with brightly glowing beasts whipping lightning and fire at dark forms, and all around her, bodies littered the ground. She pushed the doors wide as her sisters spilled out beside her.

“There!” Maria said, pointing at waves crashing over the shoreline, and Sophia nodded .

They raced toward the cliff edge overlooking the ocean, and Sophia cried out as she crashed into her mother, who swept her up in an embrace.

“Daughter,” Angeliki sobbed, running her hands down Sophia’s hair. Tears streamed down her face as she pushed her back to take her in.

“Mama,” Sophia whimpered, pulling her in for another hug. Angeliki searched the night behind her. “They’re safe. They’re in Heaven now.”

“Yai-Yai?” Angeliki asked, and Sophia answered with a smile. “I only wish you had gone with them.”

“I couldn’t leave you and our sisters,” Sophia said. “And I’ve brought Maria, Vassi, and Helena to help us.”

Angeliki frowned at the girls, shaking her head. “This is no longer your fight, sisters.”

Dark shapes whipped overhead as she spoke, some crashing into the surrounding earth, where they lay unmoving. Enormous angelic creatures shot through the air, hurtling like balls of flame as they cut a path through their demon counterparts. None of the radiant creatures were among the mounds of slain forms, but the sky remained thick with demons.

“We’re helping as best we can,” Angeliki said, following Sophia’s gaze. “But there are too many of them.”

High in the sky, dark swaths of creatures lit, seemingly from within, as the King of Hell cast ball after ball of crimson fire at the angels from somewhere within his horde.

Memories of early premonitions flashed through Sophia’s mind. A bull, racing toward the enemy and her dark beast, blocking out the sun. If they were both already gone, was this war over?

“Mama, did you see where they took Rebecca?”

Angeliki swallowed. “I saw them go into the house, but that was two days ago. She never came out again.”

Sophia nodded. “Will you be alright here for a little while? The others will stay to help you. ”

Helena crowded close, squeezing Angeliki’s hand. She glanced up, and her face paled, but she straightened her shoulders and nodded. Vassi and Maria raced past them, joining Thalia farther down the beach.

“We fight to the end, no matter what,” Angeliki said.

Sophia pulled her mother into another embrace before racing to the Graves Estate.

Sophia stepped through a gaping hole in the side of the house and moved on light feet, listening for any sign of demons. A groan sounded from the back of the house, and she darted forward, rushing down the stairs to the underground lair. She pressed an ear to the door, listening. Something behind it moved.

Sophia’s torn finger ached, but she swallowed the pain, forming a rock-hard ball of ice around her fists, and flung the metal door wide.

“Gabriel?”

He said nothing, staring blankly at the opposite wall.

She moved into the room, coming to stand in front of him. He was naked, which was new, but she wasn’t focused on his impressive male parts. Instead, her mind raced as she took in smooth, tawny skin, free of the dark swirls and markings he’d been covered in before. More shocking were the massive white wings splayed out on either side of him.

“We thought you were dead,” she said.

Gabriel gazed blankly through her, his wings twitching as they seemed to expand before her eyes.

“Rebecca thought. I mean…”

His gaze jerked up. “Rebecca?” He shot to his feet, wobbling, before he gained his footing and moved closer. “She’s here? Where?”

His sapphire eyes were new, no longer glowing as they once had, twins to Rebecca’s.

“No. She’s… in Sheol. ”

His brows dipped low, and he stepped back, pacing away from her. “Impossible. She used the lance,” he said to himself. “Her body is gone. She’s gone.”

“What happened to her body?”

He ignored her, continuing to pace.

“Az… Gabe… What do I call you?”

He gave her a dismissive look as though her question was useless to him; in truth, it was. She’d come looking for Rebecca’s body, hoping she could convince her to return, to fight with them, take up the lance, and end Samael. But without a body, Rebecca couldn’t return.

“Did you move her body?” she tried. It was a wasted effort. Gabriel was still pacing, treating her as though she weren’t there.

Then he stopped and turned to her, grabbing her shoulders. “You’ll return to Sheol. In the morning.”

“Yes. I think it still works the same. Elizabeth brought us back. The real Elizabeth.”

“Tell her I’m alive,” Gabriel said. “Tell her to come back to me.”