It didn’t just become one angel.

Well, first it became one angel, and then the sky split, revealing more and more.

The heavenly host was here. I looked at Kanesha again. She owed me an explanation, but boy was I glad to see them.

Rivals, yes, but I was still glad to see them.

Tyz’vel leapt into the air to face them. But they parted in front of him.

Then I saw him. Somebody who’s aura easily matched that of any god.

Michael. He descended on wings of golden fire. “This stops now.”

Kanesha murmured. “They needed a mortal.”

I murmured back. “They’re supposed to ask before borrowing you.” I couldn’t stay mad, though.

Tyz’vel was fleeing…rather than face the angel who had first defeated Lucifer.

He left black feathers behind him. Hans caught one, and offered it to me with an unpleasant look on his face.

I tucked it into a pocket. Maybe it would be useful. Gold fire flared in the air as Michael pursued his prey.

“He won’t catch him,” Hans murmured. “Not on his own turf, but he’ll keep him busy.”

The angel, the one I knew, the one that needed no name ,descended and offered me and Kanesha his hands. “Let me take you out of here.”

“I’d appreciate that, but…”

“Don’t worry about him.”

Hans grinned. “Yeah. I can get home fine.”

I decided to trust him and took the angel’s hand, and in a swirl of feathers…

…we were really home. Really and truly this time.

“I would have said something, but…but they said it was really important nobody knew.”

“…in case our minds got read.”
She nodded. “I didn’t even remember I had it myself.”

I closed my eyes, but she was the way she had always been, and she was still mine. They could not take her from me.

But they could borrow her…with her consent. “It’s fine.”

I turned to the angel. “I think it’s fine anyway.”

“We would never harm her. Her destiny is too important. But we also won’t let harm come to her.”

“That’s my job.”

He smiled, and then vanished in a flurry of feathers. He did not, of course, explain more of what he meant, but he left me with the cold feeling that maybe, just maybe, they thought I was the threat to her.

Maybe.