Read Online Fear to Tread by Lucy Blue - Free Book Online

fit?” The archangel’s pure white wings rustled, twitching like a hawk’s before the strike. “Who are you to say so?”
    “I am falling,” Caleb said, forcing himself to face his captain’s gaze. “And I have endangered a mortal’s soul.”
    “How so?” Michael didn’t take the sword. “Tell me what’s happened.”
    Caleb told him everything from the first moment he’d seen Laura in the cemetery. He told about reading her letters, impersonating her husband to comfort her, and his conversation with Lucifer the next morning. Finally, he told him about seeing her again that night. “She saw me,” he finished. “I didn’t intend to be seen, but she could see me.”
    “You didn’t want to reveal yourself to her?” Michael said.
    “Consciously, no,” Caleb said. “But subconsciously, I must have.” An angel’s ability to watch over a human unseen was one of his most basic, most vital powers. “And that’s bad, right? It means I want to be known by her, that I have feelings for her.”
    “Feelings aren’t really my area,” Michael said with a wry smile. “But I’ve never thought of them as inherently bad.”
    “Desire?” Caleb said. “Jealousy? Covetousness?”
    “Love?” Michael suggested. “Just because Lucifer confused one with the other doesn’t mean you will.”
    “But I could,” Caleb said. “And my interest has already made Lucifer take notice of her.”
    “You don’t know that,” Michael said. “She was considering suicide when you met her, wasn’t she? Isn’t that why you first made contact with her? To save her?”
    “Yes, but once I actually met her, once I touched her…I don’t just want to protect her, Michael. I want her. I can’t stop thinking about her and how it felt to be with her. I am jealous of her dead husband. I hate that when she thought I was him, she wanted me, but when she met me tonight…I hated that I was a stranger to her.” Michael was studying his face the same way he had studied the chessboard. “Lucifer knows how I feel. He told me I would destroy her.”
    “And so he would do in your place,” Michael said. “But you are not your brother.” He reached out and gripped Caleb’s shoulder. “He is the Father of Lies.”
    “But how can I take that risk?” Caleb asked. “I have the same free will as any mortal. I can fall. And I can resign my commission.”
    Michael grabbed the hilt of the sword, putting his hand over Caleb’s. The blade blazed suddenly with holy fire, and words in the high speech of heaven appeared, etched into the metal. “Defender of All Those Created in the Image of the Light,” the archangel read aloud. Caleb felt a deep, unbearable ache in the center of his heart. “You are chosen to wield this sword,” Michael said. “Chosen to protect this woman and all those like her. Your path has led you to this purpose.” He let go of Caleb’s hand and the sword, and the fire faded. “You are meant to face it, not run and hide. You are a seraph. Will you really give that up?”
    Caleb wanted to say yes. For the first time in millennia of being, he was afraid. But Michael was right. He couldn’t give up his mission. “No.” He sheathed the sword, and a shock raced up his arm, familiar, but no comfort.
    The archangel smiled. “The Light is with you, Caleb. Your purpose with this woman serves the Light. If you were unfit, I would know it.”

Chapter Ten—The Church
     
    The next morning, Laura almost decided to skip her counseling appointment. She had slept badly, and she wanted to get back to varnishing. The last thing she wanted to do was delve deep into her feelings or her spiritual life with a Catholic priest. But Father Tom had been so kind to her and Jake during Jake’s illness, she hated to be rude to him now by not showing up.
    She knocked on the priest’s office door promptly at ten, expecting his usual brisk, “Come.” But no one answered.
    She knocked again. “Father Tom?” She opened the door a