DESTINED BY KATE BONHAM
Fallen From Grace #3
Release date: 16 January 2016
The war must end…...one way or another.
Chael has been tasked with finding order amongst the chaos in Hell after Satunas’ downfall. All the while, he struggles with his decision to leave Lee in order to save her from the agony of what he must now face….
Lee is filled with hatred at being left yet again by Chael, and embarks on an adventure of her own to get back to her previous life she left behind. She finds herself in a dangerous situation in the middle of a now escalated war, without help and now Lilith has her eyes set squarely on her.
Will Lilith succeed and rule Earth with Lee’s powers or will Lee fight with everything she has to defeat Lilith once and for all?
Gabriel could see the pain in the eyes of his former friend and felt a little helpless in the situation. He wasn’t here to tell him that they’d found Ace, in fact, they had, but Raphael refused to let them assist.
Instead of giving Lucifer fire for starting another war with Heaven, he chose to lie. A trait he wasn’t known for.
“There are bigger things to worry about.”
“You lost your daughter. How did you feel then?”
He knew the ruse was to fire him up enough to take action but Ace chose his fate, Faye did not. He sat down on the chair opposite Lucifer and relaxed. The longer he was on Purgatory, the longer he could be away from Raphael’s hideous rules.
“I apologise. I’m frustrated.”
Lucifer pushed up from his desk and paced the floor of his office. His son’s office, now his again.
“How is Nelchael handling Hell?”
“I do not know.”
“You haven’t asked for a report?”
“I don’t have time right now.”
Gabriel could see the shrug in Lucifer’s shoulder. He had never cared for the boy, sending him to Hell had been for more than just to control Hell. It was to free Lee up to be wed to someone else.
“You sent him away so you could marry her off, didn’t you?”
“It is of no concern of yours.”
“Yes, it is. She is my grandchild as well as yours. Her mother would not want her future chosen for her and nor would she.”
Lucifer chuckled. “Yes, she is much like your beloved Faye. I just wish she would recognise her powers. I have a feeling she could find her way off this plane of existence if she just tried.”
“You want that for her?”
“Perhaps she needs to know what she’s capable of before it’s too late.”
He couldn’t agree with that. Lilith only wants power, and if she was focused on Lee, then that couldn’t be a good outcome. Lee was safer hidden here on Purgatory.
“What is he doing up there?”
“Ruling as he sees fit.”
Gabriel personally couldn’t stand being anywhere near Raphael. Once, they were on the same hierarchy and now he was his boss. It just didn’t sit well with him.
“I must go, he will be wondering what is taking me so long.”
Gabriel stood to portal back to Heaven when Lucifer stopped him. “Find him. Find my son.”
Nodding, Gabriel stepped through the portal, trying to shake off the pain in Lucifer’s voice.
He jumped through, arriving in the courtyard of Heaven far too soon. This place, his home, had become a burden to return to lately. Ever since Raphael had assumed power over the entire plane.
“Did you submit your request to leave Heaven?”
Gabriel spun around to be face to face with Michael. Why was he here? He should have been keeping watch over his Soldiers on Earth.
“Leave me be.”
“Consorting with Lucifer will not earn you brownie points.”
“Raphael can get fucked.”
Michael chuckled. “Where’s this Gabriel coming from?”
He wanted to tell him that he’d always been inside but rarely had he ever had to come out. But things have changed, and he had gone through the worst feeling in the world when Faye died.
He could have saved her if he hadn’t of been so stubborn. Now he could see where he had gone wrong. Impregnating Natalie had not been his mistake, letting Faye die much too young because he had been a loyal Soldier had been and he could never redeem himself for that. He could never get his beloved daughter back.
“Gabe...I am kidding...where’s your sense of humour?”
Rolling his eyes, he moved off toward his quarters. Michael ran after him and held up a hand to halt him.
“Look...there’s a secret meeting tonight. Come and join us.”
“What for? You know Raphael knows all that happens here.”
“We have our ways...please...come tonight...”
“I’ll think about it...”
Gabriel walked off, leaving Michael standing in the courtyard alone. How could he be so foolish to think Raphael didn’t know of his secret meetings? He was buying himself a one way ticket to Hell.
He arrived at his quarters and slumped down on the bed. Lying to Lucifer had really hurt him but he couldn’t let him half ass a rescue mission for Ace when there was a chance Lilith and Astaroth couldescape to exact their revenge.
Ace could handle the pain, because he was protecting his daughter. There was no greater love.
But the idea of a secret meeting had piqued Gabriel’s curiousity.
What harm could a little peek do?
“You’re what?”
Lee felt the air rush out of her lungs and the lack of oxygen burned through her chest.
Ketara laughed and handed Lee a drink over the bar. “We weren’t together in the sense of being committed, but we had a few months of carefree sex. When he met you, he ended it with me.”
Relief came flooding in and she gratefully sipped the drink. “Arael told me carefree sex wasn’t allowed.”
“Yes, in a way. The old traditions dictate that you must only be with the one you are bonded to, but after Abbadon fell in love with Faye, he opened those laws up.”
Everyone spoke about Faye as if she were some kind of saviour and that Lee should be proud to be her daughter but she’d never even met the woman. It made her feel awkward.
“Did you love him?”
Ketara shrugged. “Sure. I mean I was pretty devastated when he left me but I moved on.”
“Why would he leave you?”
She smiled. A smile that told Lee she wasn’t really over Chael leaving. “He wanted to fully focus on his career, and well with his background, it makes sense he wanted that but we still slept together off and on...until...”
“Until what?”
“Until he met you.”
“Yeah well, he chose to leave me so I couldn’t have been that special.”
Ketara shrugged. “Maybe he had his reasons...maybe it’s not forever.”
That’s exactly what they all were saying but I didn’t want to put hope into something that wasn’t going to happen. Why live in hope when I knew I’d been dumped for a job.
“Do you know how I can get off Purgatory?”
Ketara had been wiping down the bar with a cloth, but she stopped dead when Lee asked the question.
Her eyes flitted around the room to make sure no one heard her.
“Why would you want to leave? You’re protected here.”
“I can protect myself. I have my Uncle Sam on Earth, my friends, and lots of places to hide. I don’t understand why I can’t make my own decisions.”
“Look, I’m only telling you this because I hate being told what to do too. There is someone here who can help you but you must never tell him who told you.”
“I promise.”
Lee leant in and Ketara told her the name of her next visit. She’d never heard of them before but he lived on the outskirts of the town. A place she was forbidden to go.
But as all bad things go, it excited her. How was this mysterious man who could help her off Purgatory and toward her future away from Chael?
Lee said goodbye to Ketara and headed down the road toward the location. She kept her wits about her to make sure she wasn’t followed by anyone from the compound. It wouldn’t surprise her if they did follow her, given everything that had transpired, but it was incredibly annoying. Why had Sam left her here?
As she made her way out of the town centre and past the houses, she noticed she was heading toward a vast expanse of nothing. The road was bordered by dead trees and the road turned into gravel with large rocks to the side. What was she doing? She was just going to trust this woman telling her there was a way off Purgatory? She probably wanted to do away with the woman Chael had left her for, was she kidding herself here?
She turned to start walking back but something stopped her. She couldn’t think of a reason to go back.
Lucifer may have been her grandfather but she felt nothing toward him, and since he had taken the top job in the compound, she’d barely seen him. Did she really have that much of a connection to anyone here on this damn plane? Why did they even call it that anyway? A plane was damn transportation, not somewhere to live. She may be one of these people, the Fallen, but she didn’t feel like it. She felt no kinship toward any of them because they all adored her. She was the daughter of their Lord and the woman who saved him from being an arrogant prick. She wasn’t Faye and she never would be. Why did everyone look at her like she was some fucking messiah?
Before she knew it, she was in the middle of a dirt road with no lights around her and it was pitch black. How was she meant to find this damn house? Looking back, she noticed she was so far from the town, she could only faintly see the lights from it.
Too late now to chicken out.
Somehow, she felt herself propel forward quickly.
She looked down and saw a light shining from her hands on the ground...which her feet were not on! Shit!!! She looked to her side, holding her hand up and there she saw it, her wings had loosed themselves again. At least it didn’t hurt anymore, that was one thing she hadn’t expected. The pain had been immense the first time but now...now they slid out and she didn’t even notice. She closed her eyes and willed them back to where they belonged. She fell to the ground, with a grunt. Her knees stung and she knew she’d opened them up with the sharp little rocks she’d fallen on.
Just fucking perfect.
She dusted her knees off the best she could and stood up. A light flashed in front of her and she saw a house just off the road a bit. It looked run down, almost as if she were walking into a really cheap horror movie.
Suck it up, princess.
Lee stepped up on the front verandah and knocked on the door. It creaked open seconds later. Gasping, she stepped back, almost tripping down the stairs again.
“Uncle Sam?”
Kate was born and raised in Sydney, Australia with her two parents and two brothers. She was always a dreamer even as a teen when she would dream of the moment, while in Maths class, her knight in shining armour would come and rescue her from the tedious learnings of algebra and Pythagoras’ theorem. It was at that moment, she realised that if she wanted her knight to come through the door, she’d need to dream him up.
She’s been doing it ever since.
