Fallen

+ Chapter Six

"What would you like to know first?" Phil asks.

"Tell me what took you so long," I say, still mad that he let me die.

"What do you mean?"

"Before I died—I called for you. You said you would come to my rescue if I was in danger, but you never did."

"Dan, you aren't dead. You're in Stella."

"Yeah, which is in Heaven. That's a place people go when they die," I counter.

"Not you, though. You're not a human; you're an angel. If you were dead right now, you would be in God's Garden, not here in Stella. Stella is your home. You were born here," Phil explains while he watches me eat.

I swallow my bite of food, still not understanding, "God's Garden?"

"When pure-blood angels like you and I die," he makes quotation marks with his fingers at the last word, "they go to God's Garden. We call it the Transition. That's where both of our parents are now."

I shake my head to clear it of this new information, trying to stay on topic, "That still doesn't explain why you didn't come."

"Daniel, how long do you think the whole ordeal with King Ruben lasted?" he leans forward and looks at me intently.

"I don't know, fifteen minutes?" I shudder at the thought of it.

"Forty seconds."

"What?" I choke. "How is that even possible?"

"King Ruben has the ability to 'warp time', I guess you could say. It only felt like it was a long time because he made it seem that way. My men and I got there seconds after you called. If you had called just seconds earlier, I'm sure we would have been able to stop him."

How can someone cause so much pain in so little time?

I sit back in my chair, full of shock, as my appetite disappears. I barely even noticing that both of our wings go through the seats as if they aren't there.

"And that light... What was that?" I ask as I place my hand over where I remember that huge cut was and the light originated from.

"That was your grace; it's what make you you," he explains. "I have to admit, I've never seen a grace quite like yours. Yours was so bright and golden... It was remarkable. My men were certainly surprised as well. We've only ever seen regular white grace before. You were very strong as well. Any angel that would have been cut in the chest like that would have transitioned immediately, but you didn't."

"Wait, back up, back up. How did I even get here? How did I heal so quickly? And why do I look so...different?" I still have so many unanswered questions.

"Well, after King Ruben disappeared, the Wise we brought with us was able to undo that appearance charm that afflicted you. That made your body turn back into its angel form. However, since we were still on Earth, you couldn't heal properly so, we quickly flew you back to Stella. Once here, we let your body heal on its own. We also let an Astrum watch over you so that you would only wake when you were fully rested," Phil explains.

"The galaxy thing? Is that what it's called? An azdrum?"

"A-stro-m," he sounds it out. "And yes. The stars that fall from it produce melatonin in the body. That's why they cause sleep."

"You said something about a Wise. Is that like another spell or something?"

"A Wise is an angel sent from God's Garden to keep everything in check. Each kingdom has two. When we went to rescue you, one of the Wise knew how to break your charm so she came with us. That reminds me," he stands and looks at a watch on his wrist, "the king and queen have requested that I bring you to them once you awakened. They must be waiting for us now."