Page 11 of Trick Of Light

“This is very helpful,” Deidre assured him.

“Thank you,” he said with an exhale. “So the Thrones hear issues and resolve them in their halls, and there are many in each heaven. So, for example, Duena, a Throne I know well, she rules the sixth hall of the seventh heaven. The entire seventh heaven is governed by Adriel, a mighty Seraphim, and because that heaven is near one of the entrances to hell, Michael put her there because she’s a great warrior.”

“Angels and demons aren’t still fighting, are they?” Jael asked him.

“Of course they are. That won’t ever end. It began when Lucifer led the rebellion, and it hasn’t stopped since.”

“But demons can’t get out of hell and into heaven?” I asked him.

“They can if the Seraphim aren’t vigilant. But as I said, every part of heaven has its own angel and those beneath them, and so the concern has never been that the demons rise up and punch through into heaven, but instead that they push through into the human realm and get a foothold here, hence you warders. You stand between the demonic hoard and humans. It’s why every major city in the world has its own clutch of warders.”

“No pressure,” I teased him.

“None at all,” he said, chuckling.

“So your friend Anahel,” I began, “he’s a Seraphim, not a Throne, and he rules the third heaven in heaven.”

“That’s correct.”

“And he owes you?”

Raphael nodded, turning to look at Deidre. “You’re an angel scholar. Have you heard of Anahel?”

“How did you know I was a—”

“Have you?” he prodded.

“Yes,” she said, taking a breath. “Yes, I have. He’s the one who gave refuge to the angel Sariel and his love, and in so doing received the sigil of the path of the moon.”

“The angel and his love?” Leith asked.

“Sariel was a watcher angel, and he fell in love with a human. A man. Other watchers, as you know, comported with women and thus birthed the Nephilim.”

“This is getting way out there,” Malic chimed in.

“Not really,” Deidre countered. “Every warder has angel blood, and that is thanks to the watcher angels that came here to keep an eye on humans.”

“If I remember my Bible right,” Julian said, “all the Nephilim were destroyed in the flood.”

“Not all the offspring of women and angels were Nephilim,” Deidre corrected him. “And contrary to the Bible, not the entire earth was flooded. From a scientific standpoint, how would that even work?”

“Oh, I’m not arguing. I was just asking if—”

“So what you’re saying,” Dylan interrupted Julian, smiling wide, “is that Malic has angel blood in him?” He sounded so excited, and everyone smiled at him.

“Yes,” Deidre told the youngest member of our group. “All warders, every single one, and every sentinel, has angel blood. It awakens to the call of their sentinel, fights evil, and is the source of our power.”

“Did you know that?” Malic asked Jael.

“Of course I knew that,” he grumbled.

“How come you never said?” I sounded almost accusing, which I didn’t mean.

“It never felt important,” Jael answered me. “And would you have believed me?”

I probably would have thought he was nuts.

“But back to your friend Anahel,” Deidre began, her focus on Raphael, “from all the books we have in the Labarum, it’s noted that Anahel’s heaven is considered neutral. He parleys with demons, does he not?”