Wrath of the Fallen by Eve Archer
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Ella
Dominick took long strides to close the gap between us, sweeping me into his arms and holding me so tightly the breath whooshed from my lungs. “You’re safe.”
“So are you,” I managed to squeak out.
Rami hurried to Sara, stopping when he reached her and clearing his throat. “We were worried about you.” He cut a sharp glance to Caspiel, but one look at the battered demon made him swallow whatever comment had been on his lips.
“I’m sorry,” Sara said, barely meeting his eyes. “I just needed to get away and think.”
Even as Dominick held me, I could feel the tension between Sara and Rami. If I could have drawn a breath, I would have told them both to stop being idiots.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” Rami finally said, and then he nodded to Caspiel. “Thank you for protecting both of them.”
Caspiel let out a weary breath but returned the nod.
Dominick loosened his grip on me and held me by the arms as he looked me up and down. “You were supposed to stay at Mastema’s.”
“I had to tell you about the prophecy,” I frowned at him, “and you didn’t answer your phone.”
He ignored my jab about his phone, but his brow furrowed. “The prophecy about the Fallen?”
I nodded, smiling up at him.
Dominick’s confusion was clear as he glanced over his shoulder at Mastema and Uriel. “How does the prince of demons have anything to do with an angelic prophecy?”
“The prophecy was told by Uriel to Mastema.”
My father pinned the angel next to him with a severe look. “You entrusted the demon prince with something as crucial as this?”
Uriel dropped his sword, the flames dying down as he fastened it to his waist. “It was a prophecy in which the archangels were too invested to faithfully guard.”
Gabe bristled at this. “You trusted a demon over us.”
“You cared too much. Mastema didn’t,” Uriel nodded at the demon, “and he’s kept the secret of its contents since it was first uttered to him, so my trust was not misplaced.”
Gabe didn’t like this, his scowl deepening.
Uriel returned his attention to me. “How did you discover it?”
All eyes were on me, and my cheeks flushed. “I got bored waiting at the chateau, so I started flipping through books in his library. My fingers seemed to know which book to pick out and which page to read, and there it was.”
Mastema angled his head at me, his penetrating gaze locked on me. “I know the book you mean. It’s written in the ancient language of the angels. How did you read it?”
I cleared my throat, shifting under his scrutiny, my throat tightening.
“Yeah,” Sara said. “How’d you pull that off? You struggled with Spanish in college.”
“She’s my daughter,” Gabe said, his sharp voice breaking the spell and making the demon prince look away from me, “and she’s taken a mate who was once an angel. Her powers and abilities must be increasing.”
It must have pained Gabe to admit that Dominick was my mate, but he’d done it to stick up for me. The archangel might never be my dad, but at that moment he sounded a little bit like a father.
Mastema shrugged one shoulder and mumbled, “If I’d known she could read the ancient angelic language, I never would have left her unattended in my library.”
“Don’t worry.” I gave him a half smile. “Your secrets are safe with me.”
Mastema inclined his head in a small bow, the corners of his mouth twitching in a reluctant grin.
“But we know about the prophecy,” Rami said.
I shook my head. “Not according to what I read.”
Uriel crossed his arms and braced his feet wide. “The demi-angel is correct. The prophecy is not exactly what the Fallen have thought.”
Rami squared his shoulders. “How different is it?”
Neither Uriel nor Mastema spoke, so I did. “The prophecy doesn’t have to do with the restoration of all the Fallen. Only one.”
Rami glanced at Dominick. “Only our leader?”
“Not necessarily. It doesn’t specify which member of the Fallen, or that there can be only one, but it definitely doesn’t promise that all the fallen angels can be restored.”
Dominick grunted. This didn’t make him happy. Even though he claimed not to care about the prophecy, he felt responsible for the banishment of his fellow Fallen. A prophecy that could have retired the status of all of them would have been worth something to him. A prophecy that only saved one?
“So, the fallen angel who finds a mate who carries an angel’s trace will be restored to status, but only him?” Dominick clarified. “There is no way to restore all the Fallen?”
“Not in one fell swoop,” Uriel said.
“One fallen angel redeemed without true redemption is too many,” Gabriel said, his fatherly tone replaced with one of anger and scorn. “The Fallen haven’t changed from the day they let lust drive them from heaven.”
“You don’t know them.” I turned on Gabe, no longer the little girl who wanted to impress the imposing man who’d been an erratic presence in my life. “The fallen angels I’ve seen are brave and loyal and kind. I’d take any of them over a vindictive angel.”
Mastema choked back a laugh, ignoring Gabriel’s glare.
“This makes no sense,” Gabriel said. “How could our father cast them out then allow for a loophole?”
“Maybe he believes in redemption and forgiveness more than you do,” I said.
Uriel shifted slightly, his own lips quirking. “The prophecy does stipulate that it is only a possibility if the fallen angel gains the true love of an angelically marked human and if he truly loves her back. Perhaps our father thought that if these two things occurred, then the fallen angel would have turned from his lustful, deceitful ways.”
The archangel’s words made me think about what Dominick had done to me the night before, and how much I’d loved it. I wasn’t sure if either of us had abandoned lust entirely, but I kept my mouth shut.
“The chances of a Fallen finding a human with an angelic mark and falling in love is relatively slim,” Rami said. “Trust me, we looked for angelically marked humans for millennia. The prophecy must have felt like something that might never happen.”
“For a long time, it did,” Uriel said.
“But that’s not all,” I said. “The rest of the prophecy is different, too.”
Mastema eyed Dominick. “This should be interesting.”
“It doesn’t guarantee restoration to your former status,” I told him. “You get to choose.”
He peered down at me. “Choose?”
I gulped, almost afraid to reveal the last part of the prophecy. I was almost one hundred percent sure what he would choose, but the tiniest part of me was nervous. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, and my heart raced.
“Are you okay?” Sara asked, stepping closer to me. “You just lost about three shades, and you’re pretty pale to start with.”
I drew in a deep breath for courage. “The fallen angel can either choose to be restored to status at the final judgment, or he can choose to make his human mate immortal.”
Dominick’s dark eyes went wide as Sara gasped.
