Page 1 of Fear the Fall

Prologue

The Night We Met

A pairof sea-green eyes meet mine and time stops.

It doesn’t matter that a lady is bleeding out at my knees, a casualty in a fight with a legion of demons. I’m transfixed by the man holding the woman in his arms. His five o’clock shadow and ruffled light brown hair make him look rugged and masculine. Not things I should be noticing, considering the woman is dying and I should be long gone by now.

“Can you help her?” he yells, over the wail of demons being dragged to hell.

If not for the fact that he’s looking right at me, I’d think he was just calling out for help, because humans aren’t supposed to see angels unless God wills it so.

“Help her.” His eyes plead with me.

I jerk backward. “You can see me?”

“Yes, I can see you. Are you going to help?”

I shake the stupor away, baffled by the fact that this human can in fact see me. That’s not possible, unless something has changed. It happens very rarely, but there have been a couple of occasions where God has given his divine mercy at the last second. I don’t question God’s choices.

He’s speaking to me, and that can’t be good for him.

Witnessing a holy war will sign this man’s death warrant. It’s law. Humans can’t be privy to knowledge of our kind. They’re to have faith in our existence, but signs are forbidden—except through miracles that I, as a virtue angel, can provide. Typically, sightings are cause for cleanup of the extermination variety. Humans aren’t to be touched unless they threaten the balance, and his being able to see me disrupts the balance in an epic way.

“How can you see me?” I demand, looking for some sign that this is, in fact, God’s will.

“I don’t have those answers, angel. Can you help her?” he repeats a little more forcefully.

I shake my head. “I can’t,” I whisper, feeling as though I’m betraying a man I don’t even know, from the way he frowns in my direction. The look of disappointment sears through me.

It’s not my place to interfere in a human’s fate. I’m not to have interaction with humans, let alone save one. By law, I should end his life and the woman’s right now, or at the very least, call for an angel of death to do the dirty work. Or I could provide a miracle and hope God approves of an unsanctioned one.

“Please,” the man begs. “She’s a mother. If you won’t do it for me, do it for her three kids.”

I run my hands down my face, feeling a rush of cold that I shouldn’t feel. Angels don’t experience such things. The elements don’t affect us, and I certainly can’t care about this woman’s family.

But for some reason, I do.

“Is she your wife?” The words slip past my mouth before I can stop them.

The less I know, the better. Being on Earth is horrifically hard for angels, as we don’t typically experience the range of emotions that humans do. Here, I’m getting caught up in matters that don’t concern me.

“No. She’s just an innocent bystander who got stuck in the cross fire.”

I bite my lip, thinking over the options.

The man’s hand lies atop mine, and shivers course through me.

“Help her.”

“Why do you want to help her?” I don’t know why I ask. It doesn’t matter and it won’t change anything.

“She doesn’t deserve to die for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Surely you agree?”

His eyes pierce mine; the weight of his words weighs heavily on me. Without another thought, I place my hands on her chest and allow the energy I’ve stored to flow through me into her, shocking life back into her body. She inhales sharply, indicating I’ve just fucked up royally.

If any of my brothers witnessed this, I’d be summoned to the Divine Council. Since it’s my first offense, I’ll beg for clemency and swear fealty to my legion. A lifetime’s worth of battle cleanup might save me. Or I’ll be stripped of my wings and barred from Heaven—a fate worse than death. Either option is horrific to consider. And for what? A bit of human lust? That’s what this was, right?

How a virtue angel was able to be affected by such things is a question I’ll need to mull over in greater detail once I’m far away from here and this devastatingly handsome mortal. I’m one of the strongest beings. Even if Earth affects angels, it shouldn’t affect a virtue this much. I cringe at the thought. The weakness seeps into my being, making me feel dirty and traitorous.

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