Angels of Light

God-Given Powers

   Jem looked at Elizabeth sitting in the chair across the small coffee table. She was watching him carefully--they all were.
   The outburst had risen in Jem like a fire he could not quell. He was tired--tired of being lied to, tired of being taken advantage of. In this new world his kindness was often his greatest weakness. Tessa had warned him that this century was much different than the one he had belonged to. She had been right. Sometimes he felt it easier being a Silent Brother--at least then he could read thoughts and know if what someone was saying as different than what they were thinking.

   Deep down, he had known Elizabeth was an angel. But he had also known that she wasn't Death--there was something about her. Something that he couldn't put his finger on.
   He had so many questions that he wanted honest answers to. If he hadn't died, then how come he had met her before? Jace had died, and so his meeting her made sense. But she had told Jem that she came to him before he died.Was that true? Or was the darkness he had seen before the golden light, death? The infinite blackness, the restlessness in his bones--was that death? Had she brought him back? Maybe she thought that if she had told him that he was dead and she'd brought him back, that he'd think it was unnatural, and try to restore order by getting himself killed again.
   And then there was another matter. Will. Had she seen Will? Where had he gone? Heaven? Of course, Will would've gotten into Heaven--if gotten in was the right phrase.

The paradigm which Jem's world had rested upon for so long was shifting. And he wasn't sure he would be able to keep up.
   Angels were not supposed to be able to come to Earth. They were not supposed to be able to be looked upon with unworthy mortal eyes--yet here Elizabeth was. Jem had seen the angel Ithuriel who had been imprisoned in Tessa's clockwork necklace, but he had been forty feet tall. Elizabeth looked like a normal mundane--beautiful, yes, but definitely human.

   "Tell me, James, what do you know of angels?" Elizabeth said when she finally spoke.

   Jem raised his eyebrows. He knew just about what every other Nephilim knew about Angels. Which, admittedly, wasn't very much.
   "I know that Jonathan Shadowhunter raised the angel Raziel, who mixed his angel blood with mortal blood, thus creating Shadowhunters. I don't know too much about them beyond that, really," Jem said. The story of the angel Raziel and Jonathan Shadowhunter had been seared into the brains of all Nephilim--it was their history; the reason for their being. Demons were invading the Earth at a rate that could not be defeated, so Jonathan Shadowhunter raised the angel and asked for help.
Jem was half conscious of Jace and Magnus' presence beside him, carefully watching, and attentively listening.

Elizabeth gave Jem a small smile, before looking down at her hands.
"The first thing you must know about Angels is that they do not feel--not really. They are hard, cold, creatures. They do not give anything without a price," she started, never looking at Jem as she spoke. She was anxiously pulling on a loose thread from the jacket she was wearing. Jem had given her a spare jacket, shirt and pair of pants of Tessa's for her to wear. But her legs were too long for the jeans, and the jacket hung loosely on her frame. He supposed it was better than having her walk about New York City in a torn golden gown. That would probably have raised some eyebrows, even in New York.
"But you know that already. I didn't give you your life without a price," She continued. "I saved your life with expectations that when I called on you, you would answer. You never even asked me why before you agreed. You didn't ask me why I had you sent back--how--nothing. There was a silent oath between us; when I needed you, you would come.
As I didn't give you your life for free, neither did Raziel. He gave you his blood with the expectation that Nephilim would do what Angels had gotten bored of doing--protecting mundanes."
Jem listened intently, watching as Elizabeth never looked up from her lap. He noticed Magnus and Jace were hung on her every word too. It felt as if her words were giving them a glimpse into a world they had only ever learned about.
Angels were legends, stories whispered at bedtime at the Shadowhunter Academy. Jem remembered when the Clave was trying to recruit mundanes to ascend; they would tell them, there is a world hidden within your own. And Jem was starting to realize that that was true for shadowhunters, too. There was a whole world that they knew about, but didn't really know.
But here they were, two Shadowhunters and a warlock, having an angel explain herself to them as if they had any right to ask her to explain anything.