Chapter 9
1816 Words
Eve should’ve known her life would never be the same, not after seeing those wings at school, and definitely not after meeting an angel.
Still, she couldn’t help but be shocked as she tossed her phone onto the bed and walked over to the window to see who Luca was talking about.
Of course it was him.
Caelum. The angel.
He was still wearing that same dark coat, the one that looked like it didn’t quite belong to this world.
His hair was a mess, wind-tossed, and the morning light hit his skin like it was drawn to him. And those eyes—
Unmistakable.
Like galaxies folding in on themselves.
He looked up. Met her gaze.
And smiled.
Eve yanked the curtain shut. “Oh my goodness.”
Everyone on the video call started yelling at once.
“What is going on?!” “Who’s at the window??” “Was that a guy?!” “IS HE HOT?!” —that was definitely Sage.
Eve turned from the window, heart hammering. “It’s him.”
Quinn’s voice cut through the chaos. “Can someone please explain what the hell is going on?!”
But Eve wasn’t listening anymore.
Because the tapping started again. Louder this time. More urgent.
She didn’t want to open the window. But she also really, really wanted to know why he was here.
“Drop the call,” she muttered to Luca, nodding toward the phone on the bed.
He blinked. “Wait, what—Eve, no, don’t open the—”
Too late.
She opened up the curtain and cracked the window just enough to hiss, “What are you doing?!”
Caelum didn’t look even remotely sorry.
“I need to talk to you,” he said, calm as ever. Too calm. Like this wasn’t completely insane.
“It’s 10 in the morning,” she whisper-yelled. “You can’t just show up and throw stones. You look like a dramatic Netflix lead with no sense of boundaries.”
Something flickered across his face...amusement?
“You saw the news,” he said simply.
And just like that, her breath caught.
❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫･━━━━━━ ❜
Now the three of them—Eve, Luca, and Caelum—were seated on the bed as the angel explained why he was here and what he needed to talk to Eve about.
But let’s rewind a bit.
Right after Caelum told her he needed to talk, Eve knew he was serious. So she told him to come up.
By then, Luca had already dropped the call, looking very confused and honestly, who could blame him?
What happened next was, in hindsight, kind of hilarious. And it all happened way too fast.
Apparently, Caelum didn’t quite understand that “come up” meant climb up to the window.
Because one second he was standing outside—and the next, he was gone.
Eve and Luca barely had time to blink before they felt a presence behind them. They turned around.
There he was. Wings out. Just… standing there.
Luca hit the floor like a sack of bricks, completely passed out from the shock.
Eve couldn’t help it so she laughed.
Because yeah… that’s exactly what had happened to her too.
Back to the present.
“Wait—what do you mean I saved her?” Luca asked, incredulous.
“I mean exactly that,” Caelum said calmly. “Your touch saved her.”
Luca blinked. “That doesn’t even make—”
“Hold on,” Eve cut in, trying to make sense of it all. “Let me get this straight. Those men were demons. They’re looking for me. And they attacked that girl because… they thought she was wearing my necklace?”
Caelum nodded once, serious. “That’s exactly what happened.”
“And how exactly do you know all this?” Luca asked, still trying to process everything that had happened in the past thirty minutes.
“Because I’m the angel those demons were talking about,” Caelum said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. “And Eve is the only human girl I’ve interacted with since arriving on Earth.”
He said it so casually that it took a second to register.
“I overheard them talking,” he continued, “and I saw the news on one of the big city screens. That’s how I knew it was connected.”
Then his expression shifted slightly, like he was remembering something. “They also mentioned a girl they took. Someone named Ava.”
He looked at them both.
“Do you know her?”
Luca and Eve froze. Their panic was instant and answer enough.
And that brings us to now.
Why Eve and Luca were crouched behind a stack of old wooden crates, holding their breath while Caelum scouted ahead.
You’re probably wondering what’s going on. Where they are. How they got here.
Turns out, Caelum had overheard something else, talk of a possible hideout where the demons might be keeping Ava.
That led them to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town.
The angel reappeared in front of them, and—even though they were getting used to it— it still made both humans flinch. It’s not every day an angel materializes out of thin air.
“I found a way in,” he whispered. “There’s a handful of demons inside.”
Luca raised an eyebrow. “Okay... what’s the plan?”
“We walk in and try to talk to them. Figure out why they want Eve, and why they took Ava,” Caelum replied calmly, as if that were the most logical and risk free option in the world.
“Talk to demons?” Eve hissed. “Are you even hearing yourself?”
Before she could say more, Caelum gently pressed a finger to her lips to quiet her.
The motion was automatic but the effect was instant.
His hand tingled where it touched her. Her lips were softer than he expected, and for a moment, his thoughts scattered.
Eve’s breath caught. She was suddenly very aware of how close he was. Of his eyes. Of everything.
One second passed. Then—
Luca coughed.
Caelum blinked and pulled his hand back. Eve cleared her throat and turned away, trying to reassemble her dignity.
The angel was clearly puzzled by the humans’ reactions but continued, unfazed.
“If they don’t want to talk or hand Ava over, I’ll deal with them. Your job is to get her out. Bring her back here. Understood?”
Eve and Luca nodded quickly and rose to their feet, trailing behind him as he led them to a side entrance.
The warehouse was dim, wide, and echoing. Echoes of movement drifted from deeper inside...low voices, muffled sounds.
But Caelum walked with the steady confidence of someone who had faced far worse.
And somehow, with him in front of them, the fear didn’t feel quite so heavy.
As they moved deeper into the warehouse, Caelum stepped into a dimly lit room with Eve and Luca right behind him, doing their best to mask the unease tightening in their chests.
But what they found made them all freeze.
The room was filled with demons, at least ten of them but not how they expected.
Every single one was sprawled across the floor, unconscious. Groaning. Some twitching.
One closer to the center was still awake, barely, whimpering in pain as he tried to crawl away.
And in the far corner of the room—
“Ava!” Eve gasped.
She was on the ground, tied up and struggling with her restraints, her eyes wide with relief the second she saw them.
Eve and Luca rushed over, falling to their knees beside her.
“I’ve got the ropes,” Luca said quickly.
Eve pulled the cloth gag from Ava’s mouth as gently as she could. “You’re okay now,” she whispered, even if she wasn’t entirely sure that was true.
Caelum marched straight toward the only demon still conscious and yanked him up by the collar of his shirt.
“Who are you working for?” he demanded, voice low but laced with steel.
The demon let out a painful, mocking laugh. “And why would I tell you that, huh?”
“Because you really don’t want to get on my bad side,” Caelum snapped. “Why are you doing any of this? Why are you hunting an innocent human?”
His voice grew sharper, more intense. “Why are you spilling blood on this earth? Why take Ava?”
The demon simply grinned, clearly trying to provoke him further.
Caelum’s hand tightened around the demon’s throat. “If you don’t give me the answers I want, I’ll break your neck, heal it, and break it again. You hear me?”
Now the demon’s bravado wavered. Fear flickered in his eyes. “We—we don’t know who gave the order,” he stammered.
Caelum’s grip tightened.
“Try again.”
In the corner, Eve, Ava, and Luca watched the exchange in tense silence.
“All—all we know,” the demon gasped, “is that there’s a fated couple who will start a great war... and they need to be stopped. And Ava is not—”
Suddenly, his body went limp.
Everyone froze.
He never finished his sentence.
Caelum cursed under his breath, frustration plain on his face. But he turned quickly, remembering the others.
He rushed to Ava. “Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I think I may have broken my ankle,” Ava whimpered, wincing as she tried to shift.
They all looked and then flinched.
The bone was clearly out of place, piercing through the skin.
“You think?” Luca muttered, eyes wide in horror.
“We need to get her to a hospital!” Eve exclaimed, already moving to help.
But before anyone could do anything else, Caelum knelt beside Ava and placed his hand gently over her ankle.
A soft glow radiated from his palm, and within seconds, the injury was gone.
Perfectly healed.
Everyone stared in stunned silence.
“Get up,” Caelum said, standing quickly. “We need to leave before more demons show up.”
They didn’t argue.
The four of them made their way out of the warehouse, the rising sun casting golden light over the now clear sky.
The snow had stopped, the gloom lifting as if it had never happened.
They were just a few houses away from Eve’s home when Ava suddenly stopped and turned toward the angel.
“Thank you, Caelum. I really appreciate you coming to save me.”
Everyone froze.
Caelum stiffened.
Luca and Eve exchanged startled glances.
No one had told her his name.
So how did she know?
- Writer
