Horizon, Soul Guardians Book 3
a
voice behind her.
    Kara whipped around and stared up into
the face of a giant man. He was dressed in a white robe, open in
the front with a high gold-rimmed collar and gold rimmed cuffs. His
handsome face was twisted in grief. A golden glow emanated from his
pale skin.
    “ There is nothing we can
do,” said the archangel Ramiel solemnly.
    “ He—he just exploded into
dust in my arms!” Kara lifted her arms dramatically in the air.
“What is happening to them?”
    The archangel’s lips were a hard line.
“The cherubs … are all dying.” He gestured before them.
    Kara followed his gaze and cringed.
About half a dozen cherubs, their faces skeletal and sickly,
strained to walk. They teetered to and fro, unable to keep their
balance. The agony on their faces pained Kara. She pitied
them.
    A cherub shuffled towards them.
Hunched over, as though his back was broken, he could barely walk.
His shrunken face was lifeless and his eyes were a milky white like
a blind man’s. And with a final effort, the cherub fell forward and
landed head first on the ground. Within seconds his body exploded
in a cloud of brilliant particles. All that remained was a small
pyramid of diamonds. She stared in horror at the hundreds of piles
of cherub dust. The ground was covered in these mounds.
    Kara studied Ramiel for a
moment. “But, why are they dying? How can they die? I thought the cherubs
were immortal?”
    Ramiel bent down to examine the
remains of a cherub. “Cherubs exist as long as souls exist. Without
souls, the cherubs will die. They need the life force of the souls
to live.”
    Unconsciously, Kara hugged the soul
inside her jacket and stared up into the black sky. Only a few
thousand of souls hovered above and around them. It was like
staring up into the sky at night, trying to see the stars though
the clouds. She set her jaw and squinted at the ground. Millions of
dead souls covered the floor. She feared the worse. The cherub’s
last words echoed in her ears.
    Save us.
    A cry escaped her lips. She was
responsible. She knew that she had enabled thousands of demons to
enter the mortal world. Thousands of souls lay dead because of her.
“The demons are killing the souls,” said Kara.
    “ Yes,” answered Ramiel. “It
is a savage attack. Brutality on a colossal magnitude against the
mortal world. We have never been faced with such an atrocity
before. The death toll of souls has reached unfathomed
proportions.”
    “ What will happen to the
rest of the cherubs?” Kara’s chest ached. She watched the little
figures dragging themselves around the chamber. She reached into
her jacket pocket. “There are still souls that live. They’re not
all dead—here. This is my mom’s. Keep her safe.” Kara handed her
mother’s glowing white sphere to the archangel.
    Ramiel took the soul carefully and
studied it. He looked up at Kara suddenly, with a perplexed
expression. “How did you get it back? I thought Zadkiel had
destroyed it—”
    Kara sighed. “Long story … but I got
her back.”
    The archangel looked at Kara
thoughtfully. “Well, she will be safe here—”
    “ Kara!”
    Kara turned to see David jogging
towards them. His face was drawn and tight. He gave Ramiel a nod,
and Kara found it strange that he didn’t insult the archangel as he
usually did.
    “ David, what’s wrong?”
asked Kara, and she started to feel nervous again.
    “ All the guardians are
being called to an emergency meeting,” said David as he jammed his
hands in his front pockets, “  on Lieutenant Michael’s orders. We’re meeting at
Operations.”
    “ What’s the meeting about?”
Kara suspected that the dying souls and cherubs were part of
it.
    “ No idea. But I know it’s
big … something’s going down for sure. I’ve never seen a meeting of
this magnitude.”
    Kara didn’t like the sound
of that. She felt responsible. She had been a pawn in Asmodeus’s
plan. Without her, the Mirror of Souls wouldn’t have worked, and
the demons

Similar Books

What a Goddess Wants

Stephanie Julian

Heaven Beside You

Christa Maurice

Occasion of Revenge

Marcia Talley

Two Captains

Veniamin Kaverin