In the Shadow of Heaven

No one remembers the day they were born, but after abandonment as an infant, Cirrus grew up in foster care believing he remembered his father’s voice. At age eighteen in a dingy Boston apartment, he collapses and wakes with another clue to his origins: wings.

Meliel, the chief enforcer of the government of Heaven, carries the responsibility of executing Cirrus, the only son of Raziel, an exiled former ruler of Heaven and once-powerful archangel. But Hell, which signed a peace treaty with Heaven under the archangels’ rule, threatens war if Cirrus dies. To maintain the peace, Meliel commits high treason by hiding Cirrus in Purgatory, a place where angel and demon outcasts thrive together.

War is not easily side-stepped. When Cirrus’s supposed execution comes and goes and Hell does not break the peace treaty as promised, those who wish to dispose of the Governess of Heaven assassinate high-profile angels and demons one by one, undermining the peace within Purgatory and bringing Heaven and Hell closer to violence. Meanwhile, Cirrus struggles to connect with his family through weak, tentative powers that won’t develop fully for a hundred years.

Meliel blames himself for the crumbling peace—he took the power away from the archangels and gave it to Lakme, the Governess. He seeks only to correct his error, until he starts to see Cirrus as a son, a son he has no right to keep.

Cirrus discovers family in Purgatory, the strangest of places, but to keep it, he must shoulder his heritage and lead a city struggling to survive in the shadow of Heaven.

{{Cover photo credits: andreiuc88 / 123RF Stock Photo and irochka / 123RF Stock Photo }}

{Content Note: While I don't think the content warrants a maturity warning, there is mild violence.}