Chapter 3

There was a silvery cut into the inky void and then a beautiful angel with brilliant blonde hair and eyes that looked like swirling galaxies stepped over and pulled them both into a warm embrace.

“Oh Calypso!” Aria cried in an exultant voice, her aura blanketing everything around them in radiance. “I almost failed! They almost had me!” She shook like a leaf in Calypso’s arms as she wept in relief and joy.

“They never would have had you,” Calypso told her confidently, her eyes filled with golden tears as she stroked Aria’s hair lovingly. “You would have eventually broken free, even if it took longer.”

“Where’s Clarice?” Aria asked eagerly, quivering with the desire to see her sister.

“She’s back in the cabin,” Calypso informed her with another squeeze. “She’s been sick with worry, no matter how much I assured her you would come back.”

“How long have I been gone?” Aria asked in sudden dread.

“Four months,” Calypso replied gently. “It’s been a difficult four months for your family. Come on. Let’s get you home.”

Calypso suddenly paused as she seemed to finally notice Mandy. “I see you brought someone from the fake world back with you.”

Aria looked down at Mandy and smiled down at her radiantly. “Mandy is the reason I’m back here. It would have taken far far longer if she hadn’t been there for me.”

“Well, I’m glad you were able to bring her out before it collapsed then,” Calypso murmured quietly as she studied Mandy curiously. “Lucifer didn’t tell me who he sent to help you. The template was based off of a human he felt would have the greatest chance of helping you escape. I think it would be worthwhile to find the original version of Mandy in our reality and invite her to join us.”

Aria nodded fervently. “She is so worth it. Let’s go, I can’t wait any longer to see Clarice.”

Calypso laughed through her tears and led her into the silvery slice in the void. As they exited, Mandy stared in shock. They were on a veranda of some kind of large cabin in the mountains. As soon as they exited, a beautiful angel with midnight hair rushed over and wrapped her arms around Aria, her eyes streaming with golden tears.

“Clarice!” Aria wailed, her voice filled with ecstasy. Mandy let go of Aria and stepped back to watch, her heart filled with warmth as she watched the intensely emotional reunion. Aria had gone limp in her sisters arms, overcome by relief as she sobbed her heart out. “Oh Clarice, I thought you were…I thought…I…” she gave up on speech and just sobbed into her sister’s neck.

Clarice held her tightly, her cheeks covered in gold. She stroked Aria’s head comfortingly as she whispered comforting words of love.

“What happened to her?” another angel that looked like Clarice’s sister demanded, her golden eyes on fire with rage. “What did they do to her?”

“She woke up in her old apartment,” Mandy told them softly, wiping tears from her eyes. “In that reality, Clarice had died a week earlier. They had convinced her she was suffering from delusions brought on by grief. I’ve never seen someone so dead inside while still alive. She couldn’t let go of Clarice’s memory. She was wrecked, in a state of unbearable grief that didn’t fade with time.”

The woman’s hand flew to her mouth in horror as Mandy finished speaking. She blurred over and wrapped the other two angels in her arms. Mandy gasped in shock at the speed she moved. It was practically teleportation.

“Oh, my baby, I’m so sorry you had to suffer this nightmare,” the angel wept as she held them tightly. Mandy wondered if it could be her mother. She looked so young, but they were angels after all.

“The Seraphim responsible for doing this to my little girl are going to suffer,” a tall male angel ground out, fury in his icy blue eyes.

Clarice’s eyes grew stricken as she heard what her sister had been through. She wept for the pain she knew her sister must have suffered, holding her tightly.

“We could feel her grief,” another angel said sadly, her eyes full of tears. She was tall, with beautiful blonde hair and a face to inspire poets. She looked slightly younger than the other angels. “I’ve never felt anything so awful. We didn’t know why she was so sad. It feels even worse knowing what caused that horrible grief.”

“It wasn’t done randomly,” Calypso said darkly, her swirling eyes full of anger. “They did it to her on purpose because they knew she wouldn’t be able to think clearly with that kind of grief clouding her thoughts.”

“They are going to suffer,” Clarice hissed venomously. “They are going to regret ever being spawned into existence when I’m done with them.”

“Is that Aria?” an angel had just stepped through a portal in the air, her tawny hair shining with an ethereal glow. Her violet eyes were filled with hope as she stared at the fiery haired angel where she was partially buried beneath Clarice and her mother.

“Aria’s back?” a deep voice exclaimed excitedly as another angel came through the portal. He had short jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. He was nearly seven feet tall and had the same nested wings as Aria.

Aria’s father had been waiting in line to get to his daughter. He nodded at the two new arrivals, a pained smile on his face. “She’s back. She’s had a rough time. Clarice had died in the false reality she was trapped in, and it was extremely traumatic for her, as you can imagine.”

“Who’s this” the tawny haired angel asked curiously as she studied Mandy with violet eyes.

Aria smiled radiantly through her tears as she looked at Mandy. “This is Mandy. She’s the one who saved me.”

All eyes turned to stare at Mandy. She was suddenly engulfed in a warm embrace as Aria’s father blurred over and wrapped his arms around her.

“Thank you for bringing my girl back to me, Mandy,” he said thickly, his voice full of emotion.

Mandy sighed contentedly as she felt the now familiar rush of love and positive energy that being embraced by an angel imparted. “She’s exaggerating how much I did.”

“I’m not exaggerating even a little bit,” Aria disagreed, her eyes filled with affection as she gazed at Mandy gratefully. “You are the only reason I am back. It was your kindness and caring heart that drove you to try and help me. If I hadn’t met you, I would have probably been stuck there for years.”

Aria’s mother released her daughter and traded her for hugging Mandy, squeezing her tightly. “Thank you, Mandy. We will forever be in your debt.”

Mandy smiled warmly as felt a steady flow of love charging her soul. “I knew she was special as soon as I saw her. There was just something extraordinary hiding behind all of the pain in her eyes.”

“So is Mandy from the other reality?” the tawny haired angel asked curiously. “Is that other reality still there, or did it vanish when Aria broke free?”

Aria’s beaming face lost some of its joy as she stared at Mandy in sudden concern. “It imploded. Mandy, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think about what this might have done to your life.”

“It sounds like I was living in a fake world,” Mandy said with a shrug. “I think I mentioned to you that I wasn’t close with my family. I lived for my music and didn’t have any close friends. I should be thanking you for bringing me with you, because when you eventually broke free of that place I would have disappeared with it.”

“How many lives did I snuff out when I broke free?” Aria asked with growing horror on her face. “They were real people, even if they weren’t in the same reality as us.”

“Don’t try and take the blame for this,” Aria’s mother told her gently. “This was orchestrated by those renegade Seraphim with full knowledge that you would eventually break free.”

“While they were real people, they were copies of people from this reality,” Calypso informed her reassuringly. “They all still exist in this reality, just with different memories and experiences.”

“I’m kind of numb at the idea that these beings can create an entire copy of our reality,” the angel with the deep voice said with a troubled frown. “It boggles the mind that they could copy this world and make alterations to it the way they did. Lucifer said there were no angels in that world, but that the rules restricting angels from existing wouldn’t be powerful enough to fully contain Aria, since she was a Seraph and had a divine instrument.”

“Is that why most of my angel abilities went away?” Aria asked in sudden understanding. “I no longer had most of my super senses. I didn’t even realize that I hadn’t eaten anything the entire time that I was there. If I had been thinking clearly, it would have been obvious that I still had a lot of angel attributes.”

“That was the reason they did it,” Calypso told her darkly. “They knew you wouldn’t be thinking straight if you were grieving.”

“I think some introductions are in order for our new friend,” the angel with the deep voice suggested as he watched Mandy with kind eyes. “I’m Devon, Aria’s uncle. This is Tamra, the light of my life.”

Tamra smiled warmly at Devon, resting a hand on his arm affectionately.

“You’ve probably guessed who Clarice and Aria’s parents are by now,” Devon continued, wrapping his arm around Tamra. “Emily is my sister, and one of the most amazing chefs in the world. Eric is Aria’s father, and Lexi is a somewhat new member to the family.”

“Aria and Clarice rescued me from some pedophiles in Beverly Hills,” Lexi told her with a loving smile at Aria and Clarice. “Their family took me in like one of their own.”

“It’s wonderful to put faces to the people Aria told me about,” Mandy told them, smiling as she looked around the room at each of them. “Aria gave me a condensed summary of what led up to her getting trapped in the other world. I’m still flummoxed at how amazing all of this is. It feels like I’ve entered a fantasy world.”

Mandy gave a small squeak of surprise when a tall angel with golden hair and piercing sapphire eyes suddenly appeared in front of her. He exuded authority like it was a physical force. She stared at him in awe as he surveyed the faces around him with satisfaction.

“Welcome back, Aria,” the angel spoke in a strong voice that wasn’t loud but shook her soul like a leaf. He turned and faced Mandy, smiling down at her with a pleased air. “You did an excellent job, Mandy. I’m truly happy that Aria was able to bring you with her. There is someone I want to introduce you to in the near future.”

Mandy tried to speak, but her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth as she stared at him in reverence.

“This is Lucifer,” Devon introduced the new angel with a twinkle in his eyes. “He’s the reason you existed in that other world.”

Mandy blinked, then felt her mouth drop open in amazement. She remembered Aria saying something about Lucifer being one of the Seraphim, but it hadn’t really penetrated her brain with all of the other information she had been digesting. She was standing in front of Satan!

He smirked at her as the thought flashed through her mind. “I suppose I should have brought my pitchfork and tail.”

Clarice burst out laughing, her golden eyes shining with mirth. Mandy wondered how long it had been since Aria’s sister had been able to laugh at something.

“It looks like you have already experienced the transfer of angel essence,” Lucifer noted as he studied her. “Not surprising under the circumstances, I suppose. Should you wish to become an angel, just say the phrase: I will vanquish evil. You will be transformed back into your original angelic form.”

“I will vanquish evil?” Mandy repeated questioningly.

“Whelp, there it is,” Lucifer smiled wryly. “Welcome back to immortality, Mandy.”

Mandy froze as she felt her neck begin to tingle. It spread out into the rest of her body like a wave of light washing through her system. She gasped as her skin began glowing like an incandescent bulb. She could feel arteries of ethereal energy expanding beneath her skin, creating a complex lattice with nodes appearing at intersecting points. The energy matrix snapped into place within her flesh as if it had been using her body as a template. She felt a painless searing heat begin burning all of her organs away in a holy light. The holy fire finally moved up into her brain and briefly blinded her as her last mortal organ was seared away.

She gaped as she felt the intense flood of positive energy flood her system with a euphoric love. Everything became intensely vivid as all of her senses went into overdrive. She stared back at Aria with eyes full of wonder. Aria grinned back at her with delight dancing in her eyes.

“Welcome to angelhood, Mandy!” Aria exclaimed with a beaming smile as she rushed over and tackled her in a tight embrace.

Mandy gasped as she felt the energy flowing through her meridians begin dancing between their two bodies in an exchange that felt strangely intimate. Clarice joined her sister, putting her arms around both of them and leaning her head against Mandy’s head. Mandy inhaled sharply as she felt a rush of energy flood through her system. She shuddered with ecstasy as the power expanded and warped her meridians.

The two angels released her, smiling broadly as they inspected her.

“She’s a Cherub,” Aria observed with delight. “She’ll be able to go to the higher realms with us.”

“I feel so freaking awesome!” Mandy exclaimed as she stared back at Aria with a brilliant smile. “Is this how you always feel?”

“Most of the time,” Aria nodded with an indulgent grin. “As long as I’ve got my sister, anyway.”

Clarice’s smile faltered momentarily, and she pulled Aria into a protective embrace. Mandy had a feeling that the two of them wouldn’t be far apart from each other for the foreseeable future.

“So now what?” Emily asked Lucifer with a raised eyebrow. “We finally have Aria back. Can we go kill some Seraphim now?”

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“We still need the remaining pieces of the other two divine instruments,” Lucifer reminded her soberly. “I have angels searching for it, but I think Clarice will have more luck finding it, since it is linked to her soul. I found two more pieces of mine by following my intuition. I would suggest Clarice and Aria begin the search for the remaining pieces.”

“I’m ready to get out of here,” Clarice announced with an eager grin as she released Aria. “I love this place, but I need some space after four months of isolation here.”

“Any idea of where to look?” Aria asked Clarice, her eyes shining with affection. She was positively glowing with happiness as she soaked up the presence of her sister like a starving plant.

“Somewhere cold, I think,” Clarice murmured, her golden eyes growing introspective. She looked back at Aria with a playful grin. “Let’s take our hot little butts over to Antarctica.”

Aria burst out with laughter that turned into more tears as she pulled her sister back into another embrace. Clarice held her tightly, her eyes full of tenderness. Mandy was beginning to understand how Aria had sunk into such despair at the death of her sister. She had never seen a bond so strong as she observed between the two sisters.

“It’s good to see you back,” Lucifer nodded at Aria in farewell. “I need to get back to work.” He vanished as suddenly as he had appeared.

Mandy fell into a kind of trance as she reveled in the power and love flooding her system. Aria spent the next half hour embracing one family member after another, with Clarice getting embraced again after each person. She finally began to slow down as she adapted to being back in her own world again.

Mandy approached Lexi with a curious smile. The tall, beautiful angel had been watching Aria with tears in her eyes for most of the gathering. Aria had held her for several minutes before moving on to Clarice again.

“So do all angels have wings eventually?” she asked Lexi curiously. “I remember Aria telling me that acts of love were how angels evolved their abilities.”

Lexi grinned, her golden eyes twinkling mischievously. “Yes, that is mostly correct. Acts of love and intimacy.”

Mandy blinked, then raised a curious eyebrow. “More intimate than hugging, I take it?”

“The more intimate, the more powerful the evolution,” Lexi confirmed with a rueful laugh. “Those two punks actually did a coin toss to see who would have to kiss me.”

“Ouch,” Mandy winced with a commiserating grin. “Was it the loser that had to do it?”

“The winner,” Lexi answered with a snort of amusement. “That took the sting off a little bit.”

“So, who won?” Mandy asked with a grin.

“Clarice,” Lexi replied, then laughed. “She told me she was probably a better kisser than Aria because she had more practice, and that I dodged a bullet.”

“You said what?” Aria demanded of Clarice, a dangerous look in her eyes.

“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Clarice declared innocently, raising her hands defensively. “She’s probably making things up to try and get a kissing competition going.”

Aria narrowed her eyes as she looked between the two of them. They both wore expressions of pure innocence. Clarice had clearly been rubbing off on Lexi. “I can’t even tell which of you to believe. Clarice, you’ve corrupted Lexi.”

“Corruption only goes where corruption is welcome,” Clarice said sagely, her eyes twinkling with mirth. “If she got corrupted, it’s because she wanted to get corrupted.”

“That’s true,” Lexi agreed with a slow, sensuous wink.

“Oh my god, there are two of them now,” Aria shuddered dramatically. Aria suddenly paused and looked at Lexi. “Hey, what happened with Mary? I totally forgot about her.”

“She went back to her family to make some more angels,” Lexi answered, her face remaining neutral. “She wanted me to go with her, but I wanted to wait until you returned.”

Aria stared at Lexi as her eyes filled with tears again. She closed her eyes as several golden tears ran down her cheeks. “Thank you for staying with her, Lexi.”

Mandy stared at Lexi as the tall angel’s face flickered with surprise, and then softened, her eyes tender. Lexi must have been staying for Clarice’s sake.

“I wasn’t going to leave her alone,” Lexi teased playfully. “She gets into all sorts of trouble if she doesn’t have a handler.”

“I do no such thing,” Clarice objected in an injured tone. “I’m the epitome of a responsible adult.”

“Have you seen the world lately?” Lexi asked dryly. “The bar is pretty low for responsible adult.”

“I want to know more about Mandy,” Clarice declared as she looked at Mandy curiously. “What’s your story, and how did you end up meeting Aria?”

Mandy frowned as she thought back through the chapters of her life for anything interesting. “There’s not much to my life. It’s pretty boring, especially compared to yours.”

“That’s okay,” Clarice assured her with a shrug. “We’re immortal, so we have all the time in the world. Let’s hear your boring life story.”

“Are we really immortal?” Mandy felt a sudden thrill as she realized how different her outlook on life would be without the need to rush through life to achieve her dreams. “It hadn’t occurred to me that being an angel meant I would live forever.”

“You’re stuck with us forever,” Clarice grinned at her. There was an undercurrent to the emotion Mandy felt from Clarice. There was a sense of gratitude directed at her that was sharp and poignant.

“Aria, can I talk to you for a minute?” Emily asked quietly.

“Of course, Mom,” Aria smiled and followed her mother into the house.

“Okay, give,” Clarice commanded crisply. “Who’s Mandy, and how did you meet Aria? Start at the beginning, because we have eternity.”

Mandy took a deep breath before starting. “Well, I had two older brothers that were more than ten years older than me, so we didn’t really become close. My parents were both workaholics and left us to our own devices. I spent most of my time reading novels, practicing piano, and singing. I made friends in school, but they were always more like acquaintances than good friends. I really hated the cliques and backstabbing that defined school life, so I just focused on reading and making music. After high school I played in bands for about five years for small gigs and community or school concerts. I met Aria on the first day that we were going to record an album professionally. She was working the office at a recording studio when I arrived. Our drummer was out of commission after a bad car accident, so we just planned to use a drum track. The sound engineer told us that Aria was an amazing musician and that I should ask her to play drums for us. I could tell something was really wrong when I was checking in. Her eyes were full of so much pain that I wanted to cry. She accepted my request to have her play drums for us. We couldn’t believe how good she was. She was so much better than our drummer that we wanted to steal her. She played for us every time we came in for the next month, but she always turned me down when I tried to get her to come out and do something with us afterward. Robbie had told me she spent most nights making music in the studio, so I came back after our last day and showed up to bug her. I figured if she wouldn’t come out then I would just go there. She was playing the harp to some tracks she had recorded when I arrived, and it was the most soul crushing song I had ever heard. It broke my heart to see her crying her eyes out as she played. She was curled up in a ball by the end of the song, sobbing like she had lost part of her soul.”

Clarice closed her eyes as large golden tears leaked down her cheeks. Lexi was no better, her eyes streaming with golden tears.

“I asked her to tell me about you,” Mandy continued with a sad smile. “She described the most wonderful, caring, smart, and funny person in the world. She said she was supposed to have eternity with you and that she couldn’t go on without you. I’ve never seen a bond of love so strong before. You really are the world to her.”

Clarice pulled Mandy into a tight embrace, golden tears falling onto Mandy’s shoulder. “Thank you so much for bringing her back to me. I’ll never be able to repay you for saving her. She is a part of my soul that I wouldn’t be able to survive without.”

Lexi put her arms around the two of them, her eyes streaming pure gold. There was a sudden flash of light and then a transparent golden sphere surrounded the three of them. Mandy gasped as she felt an influx of power overload her meridians, forcing them to expand as more energy rushed in. She felt her shirt stretch and tear open on her back as a new weight appeared between her shoulder blades.

“And just like that, you have wings,” Lexi smiled through her tears. “Tamra will have a shirt fitted for wings for you. She’s made a lot of them over the last four months.”

Mandy looked over her shoulder as she flexed what felt like a second pair of arms. Large white wings of thick satin unfurled behind her. A smile lit up her face as she saw the wings on her back. I’m going to be able to fly! Too bad I’m scared of heights.

Clarice reached into a hole that appeared in the air and pulled a shirt out. She helped Mandy out of her torn shirt and showed her how to snap the new one into place around the wings.

“How did you get her to overcome her despair?” Clarice asked, her voice thick with emotion as she finished buttoning the straps.

“I begged her to come out with me to get some food at a Chinese takeout restaurant,” Mandy continued Aria’s tale. “She eventually accepted. I gave her a hug and suddenly felt a flood of love pour into my soul. I knew there must be something very special about her. When we got to the drive-thru there was a Chinese lady that spoke to us in Chinese. I didn’t understand a word, but Aria did. She said the lady had called us American swine. When the lady gave me my card back, Aria spoke back to her in fluent Chinese. I asked her where she had learned Chinese, and she had no idea what I was talking about. When she realized she was speaking Chinese, it was like a ray of hope suddenly poked through her despair. She said that in this world she was able to speak every language. She had a spark of hope but was still worried that she was having delusions and imagining the whole thing. We parked by the river to eat, and I couldn’t get her to eat anything. She said she didn’t have a stomach. I was really worried that her delusions were going to be deadly if she didn’t eat. She was so light when I pulled her up from the floor that I was sure she must be starving. I asked her to tell me about the memories she had been told were delusions. She told me about the early childhood battle with cancer you two went through, and all of the events that had led up to the moment before she woke up in the apartment with the news that her sister was dead. She was trying to talk herself into believing that she was delusional. She said she couldn’t take the hope that you were still alive and then find out that you weren’t. I asked her if she would rather embrace the delusions and be with you again or go back to how things were when I found her. She embraced the delusions, and the world imploded around us.”

Mandy stood locked in Clarice’s arms for several minutes as Clarice’s shoulders shook and she wept for the pain her sister had endured. Aria returned and took her sister in her arms with a look of such transcendent love that Mandy felt like she had glimpsed something truly divine. Mandy once again marveled at the strength of their love for each other. It made her wistful to have missed out on something so precious. She saw Lexi watching her with a similar expression. Lexi motioned for her to follow her into the house. She followed with a last glance at Aria. The fiery haired angel looked like she had gone through the forges of hell and come out with a new understanding of life. There was a wisdom in her eyes that hinted at the deeper mysteries of life, mysteries that could only be learned in the fires of emotional torment and refined by acceptance that pain was where life’s most important lessons were learned.

Mandy shivered as she followed Lexi into the hallway. Love on that level seemed to be cosmically balanced by the depth of sorrow endured when it was lost. She hoped they really did have eternity in front of them.

“I know we’ve already told you this repeatedly,” Lexi spoke quietly as they moved toward some stairs. “But thank you for bringing Aria back to us. I think you have some idea of the magnitude of our gratitude but know that we are forever in your debt.”

“I can’t help but be a little envious,” Mandy responded wistfully. “What an amazing bond to have with someone. I’ve never felt like I was missing anything in life until seeing how much those two care for each other.”

“I completely understand,” Lexi laughed ruefully. “I was only with them for a week when Aria disappeared, but it was enough to show me just how much I really missed out on. Until now, that is. I don’t know if it is because they have the souls of Seraphim, but their capacity for love seems so much greater than anything I’ve ever seen before. They adopted me into their family without a second thought.”

“Seraphim were the original angels that created everything, weren’t they?” Mandy asked curiously as she rewound her memories to the creation story Aria had told her in the splinter reality.

“Yes, that’s what we have learned so far,” Lexi confirmed with a nod.

“So, Aria, Clarice, and Calypso are three of the original nine creators of the universe?” Mandy said slowly, suddenly realizing just how august the company was that she was keeping. She had saved one of the creators of the universe. I’m going to have trouble wrapping my mind around this.

“That seems to be the case,” Lexi answered wryly. “Apparently, their memories won’t return until they have fully ascended, just like us. We’re not sure how long that is supposed to take.”

Mandy frowned in thought as she absently followed Lexi up a ladder on the third floor. “I wonder how that works if I’m a copy of someone from this reality,” she murmured musingly. “If I’m understanding correctly, the reality I was in was a shallow copy of this reality, and it has been destroyed. Is my being here going to cause some kind of paradox like what happens with time travel?”

Lexi laughed as she walked over to one of the railings on the widows walk. “I don’t think there will be any trouble,” she assured Mandy, her face becoming serious. “I think you are essentially just another creation, as if they had added a new Cherub to this world. I would love to watch when you meet your doppelganger though. I wonder if she is just like you.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to meet her,” Mandy said, feeling a sense of excitement at the prospect. “Maybe we would end up as best friends like Aria and Clarice.”

“Given what I’ve seen of your personality, I think you would definitely get along with a carbon copy of yourself,” Lexi noted with a confident smile. “If she’s anything like you, she’s got a heart of gold.”

“Aw, you’re going to make me blush,” Mandy complained with a playful smile.

“You should have been here before,” Lexi told her with a chuckle. “Aria and Calypso blush more than anyone else I’ve ever seen. One of Clarice’s favorite pastimes is triggering the two of them. Well, not just the two of them, pretty much everyone.”

“What are we doing up here?” Mandy asked curiously as she looked around at the slowly brightening sky. She marveled at how her angel eyes could see in the dark just as well as the light. No wonder Aria had thought it was daytime in the other world. She must not have looked up and seen the stars.

“It thought I would go with you to give those wings a test flight,” Lexi announced with a grin.

“I’m kind of scared of heights,” Mandy admitted with a nervous laugh.

“Did Aria tell you that angels are completely invulnerable to damage of any kind?” Lexi asked her with a raised eyebrow. “You could fall out of orbit, and it wouldn’t hurt you a bit.”

“We don’t feel pain either?” Mandy asked hopefully.

“No pain, no damage, and insane strength,” Lexi assured her with an appraising eye. “You are a Cherub, so you are the strongest order of angel aside from the Seraphim. Regular angels aren’t a whole lot stronger than humans, even though they are still invulnerable to damage and pain. The strength we have is on a whole other level. We can bench press locomotives.”

“Is it strange that I can hear everything that everyone in the house is saying from all of the way up here?” Mandy asked as she heard the angels below them speaking as if they were right next to her.

“All angels have better senses than humans,” Lexi told her as she began hovering into the air. “But we have totally insane super senses. Go ahead and flap your wings. You’re going to be amazed at how natural flight comes to you.”

Mandy was sure that without the constant flow of positive love charging her system she would have chickened out. She took a deep breath and spread her wings out and then flexed them down. She let out a yelp as she shot high up into the air.

“See, it’s a piece of cake,” Lexi told her encouragingly. “Just keep flapping to gain altitude. You’ll get a sense for how to steer, glide, bank, and land after you’ve been airborne for a few minutes.”

Mandy stared down at the shrinking cabin beneath them warily as each beat of her wings took her a few hundred feet higher. She stared in wonder as she entered a cloud several thousand feet up in the air. She wasn’t sure how she was going to land when each flap of her wings launched her so far.

“Now try gliding,” Lexi suggested as she hovered next to her.

“How are you flying without using your wings?” Mandy asked in wonder. The wind didn’t seem to affect Lexi at all either.

“It’s one of the evolutions you get from being smooched, as Clarice puts it,” Lexi answered with a giggle. “It’s basically anti-gravity with a some kind of field the makes you pass through the wind without being affected by it. To glide, just lock your wings out all of the way. You’ll get a feel for how it works intuitively as your soul memory kicks in.”

Mandy locked her wings and leaned forward so that she was cutting into the wind. She grinned as she sliced through the air effortlessly, the wind blowing through her dark brown hair. She let out a joyful scream as she leaned forward and plummeted toward the ground. All of her fear of heights had vanished as exhilaration took its place. She swooped down and then banked to the left with another scream of joy.

Lexi followed right next to her, grinning back at her as they dived, swooped, and spiraled through the air.

“See what I mean?” Lexi asked with a delighted laugh. “It just naturally comes back to you. I’m pretty sure it is soul memory kicking in.”

“This is so amazing!” Mandy exclaimed as she coasted a few hundred feet above the ground.

They flew around the skies until well after sunrise. Mandy marveled at how inexhaustible her angel body was. She had been flying for hours and felt no fatigue at all.

“Are you ready to try landing?” Lexi asked her as she did another spiral.

“I think so,” Mandy nodded, imagining how a bird landed. She swooped down close to the ground and then lifted her wings up high to stop her forward momentum. She almost instantly came to a halt a dozen feet above the ground and then dropped. She landed lightly, laughing delightedly at how a twelve foot drop had no impact on her knees or back.

“In the name of Jesus, I abjure thee,” a quavering voice shouted from a dozen feet away.

Mandy stared at a man in brown robes with a completely hairless head. He could have been anywhere between thirty to sixty. He looked like a Tibetan monk. He was barely more than five feet tall and was barefoot.

“Hello,” Mandy waved at him with a friendly smile. “I’m Mandy.”

“Demon spawn,” the man declared darkly.

“I didn’t think demons could breed,” Mandy replied dryly.

Lexi dropped down next to her, watching the strange man with a cool eye. “Is there something we can help you with, Redgart?”

“You know this guy?” Mandy whispered in surprise.

“No, people’s names are written on their aura,” Lexi explained quietly.

“Maybe there’s something I can help you with,” Redgart replied bombastically , his voice changing from a heretic burning priest to that of a gameshow host. “I’ll bet you would like the other piece of one of the divine instruments. Eh? Eh?”