Page 60 of Saints & Sinners

“You’re not going out looking for a Riftkeeper hideout when they just said they are trying to protect you from them.”

“You said I could help you.”

“It’s risky,” he admitted and shook his head. “I shouldn’t have agreed to this. I’m putting you in danger—”

“Since when has that ever mattered to you?”

He didn’t like that. His sharp eyes snapped at me, challenging me to say another word. He confused me more than anyone ever has.

Did he hate me?

Did he want me gone?

Did he want to protect me?

Or did he not want to carry another person’s blood on his hands?

“Let’s just go before someone sees us,” he said at last in defeat.

I frowned internally, knowing that was the last thing I wanted to do. Leave.

Chapter Thirty

In Rael’s class—a Celestial lecture on angelic history—he droned on, barely scratching the surface of what I’d actually learned from Joe growing up. Instead, my mind drifted, fixated on what I’d overheard last night in the armory.

Marnie leaned over. “Are you sure about what you heard?”

I nodded, doodling a sunflower on the wooden desk. “Everyone here is keeping something from me—especially Joe. It’s like some big secret and I’m the last to know about it.”

As I spoke, I glanced over my shoulder and saw Hunter sitting beside Brandon. His gaze was already on me, and my pulse skittered as I quickly looked away. I leaned into Marnie and whispered, “At least on the bright side, Hunter’s helping me to train.”

“What?” Marnie yelped, having missed out on the crucial information of how Hunter and I had ended up in the armory last night.

I grimaced as Rael’s gaze landed sharply on us from the front of the class. “Marnie Lewis, care to enlighten the class on what’s so shocking?”

Marnie straightened up, her cheeks turning pink. “Well, actually, I was just explaining that according to ancient records,the Seraphim have always held a position of jurisdiction since the beginning of time.”

Rael frowned, having hoped Marnie would crack under his scrutiny. A few stifled chuckles rippled through the room before Rael resumed his lecture.

Marnie leaned in again. “I thought you weren’t going to ask him to train you?”

“It’s... complicated.”

Marnie scoffed. “Nothing’s complicated. We just like to pretend it is.”

“Miss Martin,” Rael interrupted. “Given your apparent fondness for conversation, perhaps you could answer this. What was the reasoning behind the Grand War?”

My mind flashed to the endless information Joe had drilled into me from a young age. None, though, dealt with the Grand War. “I—” I stammered for an answer, wishing I could retrieve that book from the library that the cherub gave me about the war. I’d completely gone blank.

Rael raised an eyebrow, waiting for a response, but I had none.

“It was Lucifer.” That was Hunter speaking. I sheepishly looked over my shoulder, and our eyes met. “When Lucifer started to rebel, he was the first Celestial to create the Nephilim using mortals. From there, the four horsemen of the apocalypse were born, and when the first order destroyed his first-born children, he declared war.”

I nibbled on my bottom lip, unable to look away from him. I didn’t know whether he had just saved my ass or was showing off just how much he knew. If Rael asked me where Lucifer was now, I could happily tell him that he was locked away. Where and why? Joe wouldn’t tell me, but at least I knew he wasn’t reigning over hell at the moment.

“Thank you,Mr Cain,” Rael said, enunciating his words as he knocked a fist down onto my table to get my attention. Hereturned to the front, explaining the orders and how the forces of light and dark are what shaped our world.

When class wrapped up, we all shuffled out, and I half-ran, half-walked before Marnie or, worse, Hunter, could catch up to me. The corridors were busy with a few children in their training gear, and I assumed they were young Warriors. I smiled before nearly running straight into Eden.

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