Heaven on Earth: Terminus (Book 1)

Chapter 15: Volcanic (Tom)

Camp Seraphic 

I lie in bed for about an hour, that’s how long it takes a group of angels to do a lap of the country, I expected them to do thirty minutes tops, they have wings for God’s sake. No one comes to call for me, I know they’re here when I hear the front door slam followed by a loud cluster of voices coming from downstairs. I sit up limply and lazily exit my room and down the corridor, however right before I begin to bound down the steps, I hear a call for me. I turn around and I see a morose Betsy standing wedged between the door and the frame, “Can we talk?” She asks and I nod insistently as she steps out completely, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I ask, “I broke the promise.”

“And I overreacted.” She says, “I didn’t take into account why you did it.”

“Yeah, to save Azalea.” I clarify,

“Exactly.” She says, “And above anything, angels are supposed to be reasoning.” She pauses to think.” I wasn’t reasoning and I’m sorry.”

“Really, it’s fine.” I say, “I’m sorry as well.”

“It’s good.” She says while tucking a stray red hair behind her ear, “But if you break that promise again...just remember that I know the Angel of Death.” I don’t know if she’s joking or not but judging by her playful smile, I assume she is. We both walk downstairs to meet the rest of the team and they’re all crowding around the map in pretty cool black gear, well only the ones who went on the mission are. The Archangels are at the head of the table that’s closest to the kitchen and I see mom, Nate, Beth, Josiah and Troy occupying the other chairs. The Arlington twins stand and there are two girls there as well, I think I saw them running out of the camp earlier. One of them is tall, about the same height as the twins and her dark blonde hair is lightly tied into a side ponytail to soften her angular features and smokey eyes. The other girl is a bit smaller, about the same height as Troy, if not shorter. Her brown hair is in a bun that’s wrestling it’s restrictions, stray hairs messily poke out of it but it looks nice, chopsticks intersect into the bun and it’s suiting as she looks as if she has oriental ethnicity.

I go to stand with them and whisper, “Hi, I’m Tom.” Betsy does the same and the blonde one shakes our hands, “I’m Zoey, nice to meet you.” The other girl also shakes her hand to introduce herself, 

“I’m Maisie. Half Siren, half angel.” She lets go of my hand to step back but leans in again, “My Siren mother has Korean descent just in case you were wondering.”

“Cool.” I say, another half-angel, I’m not alone, I really want to talk to her after now.

“As I was saying...” Gabriel announces, “I didn’t find anything in the Roosevelt National Park. You can cross off North Dakota.” Rafa picks up a marker and places a small cross on one of the points on the star. “Mike?” Rafa asks,

“I was more successful.” He states, “There was a maelstrom underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and in the whitewater, there was a letter ‘S’” Rafa picks up the marker again and draws the letter ‘S’ on the point hovering over California.

“Twins?” Gabriel asks, “Anything at St. Helens?”

“Nope.” Brodie replies, “We took a side each, even searched the forests. Nothing.” Rafa crosses the point over Washington.

“Troy, girls?” Gabriel asks, “Anything in Austin?”

“Yes, actually.” Zoey replies, “There was a burning red ‘N,’ on the dome of the Texas Capitol.” Rafa draws the last letter on the point over Texas.