World After (38 page)

The scorpions dive and double back toward us without a single angel in sight.

We are in the swarm.

Bodies fly above, ahead, and below us. Behind us, the mass of stingers and wings is so dense that it’s a wall of giant insects.

We look around nervously until enough time goes by that we stop worrying about whether they’re going to attack us.

Beside me, my little sister rides on what’s left of Beliel. Her legs wrap around his waist and she presses Raffe’s severed wings onto him with her body. The tips of the snowy wings hang off him, fluttering in the wind.

Beliel is a gruesome picture with his head hanging down. Chunks of him are missing and he’s still bleeding. His skin and muscles are shriveled and sucked dry, making him look frail and long dead.

They’re carried by six scorpion monsters fluttering their iridescent wings, and they are a freakishly bizarre sight. Paige turns to me and gives me a shy smile that stops when the crisscross stitches on her cheeks move too much.

My dad once told me life would get complicated when I grew up. I’m guessing this isn’t what he meant. My mom, on the other hand, agreed with him, and I’m guessing this kind of thing is exactly what she meant.

I curl up in Raffe’s arms. Our flight is in sync with the swarm, as if his instincts are perfectly honed to synchronize with his flight mates. It’s clear that he was meant to be an integral part of something larger than himself.

Raffe is warm and strong and he feels like home. Our faces inch closer as the swarm shifts. For a moment, I can feel his breath feathering my cheek.

We’ll fly wherever the swarm takes us, and we’ll land wherever they do. And when we arrive, I have no doubt that I’ll have to be fully alert and ready for anything. Until then, I can bask in the knowledge that my family is safe for the moment and I’m with Raffe again.

The sun is rising, giving the dark ocean below a glow that shimmers with blue, gold, and green.

It’s a new day in the World After.

M
UCH
THANKS
to my fabulous beta readers who helped take the book to the next level: Nyla Adams, Aaron Emigh, Jessica Lynch Alfaro, John Turner, Adrian Khactu, Eric Shible, and David L. M. Preston. Additional thanks goes out to Aaron Emigh for being my fight advisor, and Steaphen Fick for the sword fighting lesson and knife fighting tips. And of course, a huge thanks goes out to the readers of
Angelfall
for their wild enthusiasm and support.

S
USAN
E
E
has eaten mezze in the old city of Jerusalem, surfed the warm waters of Costa Rica, and played her short film at a major festival. She has a life-long love of science fiction, fantasy and horror, especially if there’s a touch of romance. She used to be a lawyer but loves being a writer because it allows her souped-up imagination to bust out and go feral.