Cast Down (The Immortal Balances- Book 2)

Chapter Two: Angelic Counterparts

Helios had left not long after with a promise.

"I'll be back tomorrow Caleb, don't forget."

I didn't even say 'bye' as I slammed the door shut in his angelically smug face.

Rachel, after finding out her mother's death, hadn't left her bedroom. I'd taken her up there when the crying got worse and turned into horrified screams of pain, and eventually managed to calm her down enough to get her fall unwillingly to asleep. For the last couple of hours I'd been checking up on her, but it seemed she was still fast asleep. Patches of the floor were still wet from earlier, but all the fun and all the games were at an end now. Rachel's face was still terribly stained with tears.

"This is a mess," Jules muttered when I came back down the stairs, leaning against the door frame of the front room, the room where we'd all heard what our douche of an uncle had to say for himself. Jules had already told me how lucky I was that Dad and Helios weren't actually blood related- that would have just made mine and Rachel's relationship oh so complicated again.

"Why is it a mess Jules?" I asked her tiredly, to entertain what she was going to say. I already knew what was running through that mind of hers, but I knew for myself I needed to hear it out loud for it all to really sink in. That, and I knew even if I prevented her she'd still tell me.

"You just gave up your immortality. For Rachel," she stated, pausing dramatically to make sure I was hearing all of this. I made my way over to the couch were Marcel was still sitting, head in hands as if thinking deeply about something. Probably the mess- as Jules was currently telling is- that we were all in.

Quietly aside to him, I whispered, "If you want to leave, you're more than welcome."

This had him look up at me with strained eyes, ones I couldn't so much read but half understood. Marcel was here to support Rachel foremost, then me after. We'd had to fully explain everything to him again, to make sure he was fully up to date with mine and my sister's links to Helios, along with Rachel's. He hadn't seemed to care though about that, he just wanted his best friend safe. With that, he put his head back in his hands, and Jules carried on.

"That bastard was right- it is ironic," she told us, waving her arms around as if acting out a part in a play. I watched her with a raised eyebrow. Since when had my sister, the rigid, 'I will cause you pain' demon, become so animated?

Probably whilst I was so occupied with my new mortal girlfriend.

Who had been immortal the whole time.

For fuck sake.

"Not to mention, she's Jonathan's counterpart. Meaning she's the last in line, so passing on her essence to another to become mortal like what you did is out of the question unless we want war on our hands. Furthermore, her mother being dead means it was Jonathan's doing, since he would have been the Reaper and the only one in charge of death. He could have done it as a way to spite you both."

Jules was right. Whilst Dad had promised Jonathan, despite being the Reaper, would have to wait until Rachel and I lived a long and happy life together until we grew old, that same curtsey was not deposited on anyone else. Rachel's mother had been gone for so long... we had just assumed she'd moved or forgotten about Rachel. But not died.

I needed to speak to Dad.

*****

"My brother was always jealous of me," Dad said, his face twisted from everything I'd just told him. Since I was forbidden from ever returning home, I had to rely on using reflective surfaces to let me communicate with my family when they weren't here with me, like Jules was. She and Marcel sat either side of me as we stared at the huge mirror we'd placed before us against the wall, so everyone of my relatives back in Hell could fit into the picture. The only one missing was of course, Jonathan.