Chapter 5

Clarice flinched at the glare awaiting her on the other side of the gateway into the cabin. Their parents, along with Tamra and Uncle Devon, were waiting for them with anxious expressions. Their mother was trying to pin her to the wall with a withering gaze as the portal closed behind them.

“You all just vanish with no explanation or indication of what’s wrong,” their mother spoke levelly, barely keeping the anger out of her voice. “Right after we got Aria back. For the love of all that’s holy, please give us something before just vanishing like that in the future.”

Clarice hung her head in shame, knowing the kind of anxiety they must have felt. “I’m sorry, Mom,” she mumbled apologetically, staring at the ground. “I should have sent one of the other’s back with an explanation.”

Their mother paused, staring at Clarice peculiarly. “What happened? Are you okay?”

She finally noticed Redgart, noting the archangel wings on his back. “Who’s this?”

Aria gave them a recap of the events of the last half hour. When she was finished, their mother walked over to Clarice and studied her intently.

“I can feel the difference in your soul now,” their mother murmured in a thoughtful voice. “You feel more complete now, somehow. How are you feeling?”

Clarice smiled and pulled their mother into an embrace. “Like part of me has lost out big time on having you as a mother and is now excited to finally meet you. I’m sorry for making you worry, Mom.”

“You’re fine,” their mother said gently, holding her close as she felt the part of her daughter that had been missing. “I know you were just worried for Lexi. How did you end up with your soul so fragmented? Aria’s was split in two, but yours appears to be in more fragments than hers.”

“It was a choice,” Clarice replied with a pained sigh. “I seem to have some new memories now. Apparently, we knew there was a chance the other Seraphim would attack us before we were imprisoned here. We bound our souls to the instruments before they were used against us. The other Seraphim weren’t trying to imprison us when they used the divine instruments; they were trying to unmake us. If we hadn’t bound our souls to the instruments, they may have succeeded. Instead, the instruments rebelled when the template for reality was written to exist without us. They sent us here instead, hidden as regular mortals. When they attempted to unmake Grodek after he took two of the instruments, the half of my soul that was in the instrument they were using fractured itself to prevent them from succeeding.”

She felt horror echo through the bond from Aria, Calypso, and Lexi as she spoke of fracturing her soul. While she had no memory of the event during mortality and had grown used to the loss, she could now remember the agony of her soul fracturing, more painful than anything a human body could suffer. The three angels gasped as they felt the echo of that pain through the bond. Aria’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at Clarice in dismay. She stepped over and wrapped her arms around Clarice and their mother with a heartfelt sob.

“Oh, Clarice, I’m so sorry,” Aria wept, and Clarice could feel her sister’s soul cringing at the very idea of such agony.

“It’s okay,” Clarice told the weeping angels gently. “It’s ancient history now. I’m almost whole again.”

Calypso wept with Lexi, their eyes full of regret. Her mother didn’t know the reason they were so upset, but she knew they felt something horrifying through the bond. She held Clarice and Aria tightly, pouring her love and comfort into her daughters.

The other angels were watching anxiously, unaware of the shared pain flooding the bond between them. Mandy was staring at Clarice with concern. She had taken an involuntary step toward Clarice, clearly feeling a desire to help comfort her in some way, even if she didn’t understand what was wrong.

“I’m going to kill them,” Calypso spoke quietly through her tears, her eyes filled with terrible determination. Clarice could feel a burning, blind hatred from Calypso in the bond, hot and sharp.

Everyone stared at Calypso in shock. She had shown revulsion to hurting anyone, even demons who were torturing children. You couldn’t find a gentler soul in the cosmos. To see Calypso driven to a desire for violence enraged Clarice to the point that she growled audibly. Clarice marveled that there could be someone so despicable that it would make even Calypso want to defile her soul with murder.

“They have to go,” Lexi agreed with Calypso, her voice as cold as the Antarctic wind. “They’re responsible for so much pain and horror throughout the cosmos. It’s time for them to come to an end.”

“Let’s go get the rest of your soul, Clarice,” Aria whispered as she lay her head on Clarice’s shoulder. “Then let’s go Seraphim hunting.”

“We need to attack them first, or we’ll never get the next piece,” Clarice responded, her voice filled with a calm certainty. “We need to flush them out of the higher realm.”

Aria released her and stepped back so that she could stare into her sister’s eyes. “Do you have a plan?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do,” Clarice answered with an evil smile. “We have to destroy the moon first though.”

“Why do we have to destroy the moon first?” Aria asked slowly.

“Did you know that over a hundred and fifty thousand people die every day on Earth?” Clarice asked quizzically. “The light realms have had a static population for quite a while now. If anything, it diminishes over time as they cast any undesirables out of the light realms. I wonder what would happen if they had a sudden influx of angels returning. It seems to me that things might just get a little chaotic, making an excellent distraction for us to visit the lower two realms and get an idea of how the energy actually travels within those realms. With any luck, we can unlock some soul memories in the higher density realms, which would help us figure out how to reroute the main trunk of energy that is feeding the highest realm.”

“Trunk?” Calypso asked, her eyes lighting up. “That term is tickling something in my soul memory.”

“Good, let’s keep that recall flowing,” Clarice grinned at her. “Also, I’m not just talking about our moon. We are going to go on a rampage and get rid of as many moon machines for other worlds as we can in a short amount of time. I want the gates of heaven overwhelmed.”

“Go big or don’t go at all, eh?” their father said with a proud smile. “That’s my girl.”

Clarice laughed, causing waves of positivity to ripple away from her. She could feel the power difference since adding a piece of her fractured soul back. She was significantly stronger now. She wasn’t radiating power like Aria and Calypso yet, but she was a lot closer.

“How are we going to destroy the moons?” Aria asked contemplatively. “We can shoot our light beams at it, but I’m not sure that will be enough to take down the whole moon. At least, not unless I blast it for several days.”

“Did you forget what you and Calypso carry inside of your souls?” Clarice asked meaningfully. “Wiping out a few moons is not even close to the power you now wield.”

Aria blinked as she gazed back at Clarice, then a slow smile spread across her face. “Yeah, I did forget. I haven’t really used it for anything, so it didn’t even occur to me that we could use them for anything except getting rid of those bastards.”

“I think we should warn the humans before you wipe the moon out,” Devon stated, his eyes full of concern. “If Calypso broadcast a brief explanation on her channel about the nature of the soul trap and why you are getting rid of it, I think it would alleviate a lot of the panic that would ensue otherwise.”

“Great point, Uncle,” Clarice nodded her agreement. “It’s kind of useful having you around sometimes, Calypso.” Clarice flashed her a teasing smile as she finished.

Calypso stared at her with a wry smile, but the bond pulsed with Calypso’s love.

“Why don’t the three of us take care of wiping out the soul traps,” Aria suggested, nodding at Calypso and Clarice. “Lexi and the rest of you could take care of eradicating all of the nukes on Earth while we are away. Lexi, do you want to catch up with Mary now that I’m back? Uncle Devon and my parents could take care of the nukes easily enough.”

Lexi stared at her hesitantly. Clarice could feel her warring desires in their bond. She clearly wanted to go help her childhood friend, while also not wanting to leave Aria after just barely being reunited with her.

“You know we all have the ability to teleport and can sense each other anywhere in the cosmos, right?” Clarice pointed out reassuringly. Her expression turned mischievous, and she winked at Lexi. “Don’t forget to get Mary upgraded while we are out. We never did get her set up with the antigravity ability.”

Lexi stared at Clarice levelly, but the bond burned with a sudden longing that gave her true feelings away. Clarice started waggling her eyebrows at Lexi suggestively and their youngest angel started losing the battle to keep her cheeks from blushing. Red spots bloomed on her cheeks and quickly spread out to the rest of her face. She finally couldn’t hold a straight face any longer and began laughing helplessly under Clarice’s relentless arsenal of suggestive expressions.

“Fine, I’ll go visit her,” Lexi gave in, giggling at Clarice’s knowing gaze. “Just to see if she needs help with anything, mind you.”

“Oh, naturally,” Clarice agreed innocently, her golden eyes filled with mirth. “Just remember to show her all of the cool things you can do with antigravity.” She finished with her trademark leer.

“Don’t look at me like that Clarice!” Lexi whined plaintively. “Now I feel like I need to go bathe.”

“I’ll scrub your back…” Clarice offered with another leer.

“Control your sister, Aria,” their mother said dryly.

“Yeah, control me, Aria,” Clarice echoed in a seductive voice that made Aria and Calypso flush as the bond was suddenly flooded with desire.

Mandy watched on with a delighted amusement. Clarice winked at her and received a return wink just as full of mischief.

“Who would you like to go with, Mandy?” Aria asked solicitously. “You’re welcome to come with us, if you want.”

“You’re welcome to come we me too,” Lexi invited her, nodding meaningfully.

“Sure, I’d love to go with you, Lexi,” Mandy accepted the invite with a gracious smile.

“Those three need some alone time,” Lexi whispered, just barely audible. Of course, a whisper in the same room with an angel was the same as saying it out loud.

Aria’s face lit up like a sunset again as she immediately looked at Clarice and Calypso before hurriedly looking away. Calypso was little better, blushing to the roots of her hair as she attempted to look into Aria and Clarice’s eyes before suddenly looking down. Clarice nearly laughed out loud as she watched the bashful angels. The bond was making it clear they were ready to leave and get some alone time with each other.

Tamra and their uncle Devon shared a resigned look as the four angels tried to fight against the feedback loop the emotional bond created.

“Redgart, would you be interested in returning to the light realm when they go there later?” their father asked their newest addition. “That was what the other Seraphim had promised you, wasn’t it?”

Redgart had been quietly watching their antics with a mixture of amusement and disbelief. Clarice was pretty sure they weren’t what he expected Seraphim to behave like.

“If you would allow it, then yes,” Redgart nodded eagerly.

“Can you give us some information on how they are sending angels down here to the mortal realm?” Clarice asked him curiously. “Calypso mentioned there is some kind of machine or mechanism that handles the soul transfer from the lower light realm to the mortal realm. How many angels can they send at a time?”

“It’s a rather large building,” Redgart answered, frowning as he reminisced. “Probably the size of a distribution center. It’s primarily made up of technological equipment. I don’t think they can send more than a few hundred at a time because it uses a lot of power. I believe there was a ten thousand angel per earth day capacity. Less if it was an archangel, and much less if it was someone from the first triad. They are also designed for receiving the souls back from mortality.”

“Does that mean people won’t have their angel bodies when they return to the light realm after death until they go through the machine?” Aria asked in concern. “Are they just going to be stuck in limbo until they can be processed or something?”

“No, the power of the light realm is so strong that their bodies will reform naturally after a couple of months,” Redgart assured her quickly. “They only need to go through the mortality translators if they want to have the same body they had as humans but as angels. Most angels who have experienced mortality prefer to have a gender, so they go through the translator when they return. The body that forms naturally from the ambient light energy is genderless.”

“No freaking way!” Clarice exclaimed in amazement. “They really are genderless? We’ve been telling everyone that angels have gender because we do.”

“Yeah, the angel tear uses the human body as a template when it is translating you into an angel,” Redgart explained. “But most angels in the light realms are going to be genderless.”

“How many of these facilities are there?” their father asked intently, his eyes fascinated.

“There used to be hundreds,” Redgart answered, then frowned. “They destroyed most of them after the rewrite that killed the old Seraphim.” He paused as he studied the three Seraphim curiously. “Well, we thought they killed you. From what you said earlier though, it sounds like you were just hidden in the mortal realm when they rewrote reality rather than being unmade. I’m guessing they were a little shocked when they discovered you were still alive.”

“It sounded like there was a general panic when Lucifer was redeemed and they sensed his return,” Aria chuckled grimly. “I’m not sure how long they have known about us. Probably since Calypso played the divine instrument the first time.”

“That would make sense,” Emily agreed as she finally released Clarice and stepped back. “I guess Eric and I should start taking out nukes. When are you three leaving?”

“Might as well get it over with right now,” Clarice shrugged, looking at Calypso and Aria. “Anything you need to do before we go?”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Nope,” Aria shook her head and looked to Calypso.

“I’m ready,” Calypso responded eagerly. “I’m very curious to see what the light realms look like.”

“Let’s go destroy some moons then,” Clarice suggested merrily.

“Hold on,” their Uncle Devon held up a hand. “Let’s go make an announcement on Calypso’s YouTube channel first.”

“Oh yeah,” Clarice deflated a little. “Okay, let’s go start a live stream.”

Calypso nodded and they went into the library. Mandy followed along, clearly not wanting to miss anything.

XXXXX

Derek did a final push to his git repository and glanced at the clock on his PC. Dinner time. He stretched as he stood up, letting out a loud groan. He could hear his twelve-year-old son, Jordan, swearing up a storm in another part of the house. Derek shook his head as he exited the room, and the volume of the profanity increased. Jordan took his gaming very seriously, a fact some of his friends enjoyed exploiting when they met up online.

Derek walked down the hall to the living room and cleared his throat. “You’re going to burst a blood vessel if you don’t chill out,” he told his son.

“Slurp my butt,” Jordan retorted irritably. “This thing is so freaking cheat!”

“You’re not wrong,” Derek assured his son with a serious expression. “I just read an article about one of the game devs programming the mobs to cheat if they detected a volatile person. They specifically target people with webcams and then record the tantrums that ensue after a mob breaks the rules. Apparently, the game devs go to parties where they play those videos in the background as part of the entertainment.”

“Seriously?” Jordan demanded, his face filled with indignant fury. “Which company was it?”

“Let me see…” Derek murmured, looking up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “I think it was company going by the name of ‘Jordan cries like a baby when he loses’ or something like that.”

Jordan glared at his grinning father resentfully for a few seconds and then exploded. “It seriously cheated! I’m getting a refund for this garbage game and giving them a review from hell.”

“They had a promo for a DLC that includes a box of tissues,” Derek informed Jordan with a twinkle in his eyes. “For those gamers that just can’t wrap their heads around the fact that they are playing a game.”

“Don’t you have some work to do or something?” Jordan demanded in exasperation.

“Yep, it’s called shaming my son into controlling his temper,” Derek replied pleasantly. “You’re going to spend most of your life angry if you don’t learn to let the little things roll off your back.”

They paused when they heard the ping on his son’s phone. Jordan glanced at it, then gasped in shock.

“What’s the matter?” Derek asked curiously.

“Calypso’s channel is doing a live stream in five minutes,” Jordan answered in a hushed whisper. “Oh my god, this is so cool!”

Derek frowned as he watched his son quickly change the TV over to the YouTube app. The last time Calypso had performed live, people all over the world were cured of their illnesses, from things like cancer to the common cold. There were rumors that she had also purged some kind of nanobots from people contracted to intelligence agencies throughout the world. It could have been true, but there were so many fantastical claims on the internet about the beautiful musician that it was hard to say what was true. The most fantastical claim, that she was actually an angel, was hard to dispute. There had been so many videos appearing online showing her flying through the air like a super-hero that it was hard to claim they were all an elaborate hoax. He might have still believed it was a hoax, if he hadn’t witnessed that mass healing of the world’s sick four months ago. He still found it hard to believe there could be actual demons though.

The live cast had a picture of Calypso from the old days, still in a theater mask. He checked his phone for the time just as the image vanished, replaced by the woman he recognized as Clarice. Her eyes were a brilliant glowing gold. Her face was exquisite, everything you would expect in an angel, framed by midnight hair. She flashed the camera a smile before backing up a few steps to be joined by Calypso. While golden eyes looked pretty cool, the swirling lavender vortexes that were Calypso’s eyes were by far the winner.

Calypso smiled into the camera, her eyes filled with love. Derek gasped as he suddenly felt warmth suffuse his soul, like he had been submerged into a pool of liquid optimism. He had never felt more accepted and valued than in that moment. He suddenly felt foolish for ever having doubted that this angel was...an angel.

“So... we thought we would give everyone a heads up so that nobody panics when they notice the moon disappearing in a little while,” Clarice spoke with a tightness about her lips, as if she were trying really hard not to grin. “I’m sure most of you are aware that angels are real by now. The good news is that all of you are angels as well. You are merely experiencing mortality for personal growth reasons. The only problem is that you are trapped here now due to some bastards in the light realms using mortality as a prison system. The moon is a giant soul trap, catching your souls at death and queuing you up for rebirth. This was not how it was meant to be, so we are going to put a stop to it. We’ll be getting rid of the moon soul trap, along with the moon soul traps of inhabited planets in this part of the galaxy. That means that when you die, you’ll be going back to the light realms, rather than being reincarnated. For those of you who die in the next few days, I hope to see you soon back in the light realms. To the rest of you, have a great rest of your mortality. The planet will be fine without the moon, so don’t worry! We love you!”

At her last words, Derek once again felt his soul filled to overflowing with love. It took him several seconds to process what she had actually said.

“Is it off?” Calypso asked hesitantly.

“Could be,” Clarice replied evasively. “It’s just so technical that a poor innocent angel like me couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by all of these buttons.”

“Clarice, nobody is ever going to associate you with the word innocent,” a voice from outside the camera said dryly. “Is there a reason you’re leaving the live stream going?”

“I was just hoping Calypso would do something funny when she thought she wasn’t on camera anymore,” Clarice explained with a regretful sigh. “She really let me down, Aria.”

“Why don’t you answer some of the questions in the chat then, if you’re going to leave it going?” Aria suggested with a hint of laughter in her voice. “There’s some really good questions here.”

“Everyone always just asks if heaven is real,” Clarice responded with an eyeroll. She suddenly leaned forward until her face was filling the camera. “The sky is real, everyone. If you get an airline ticket you can even visit the heavens.”

“You are such a freaking troll,” Aria accused her in an affectionate tone that was at odds with her words. “Into the troll pit with you.”

As she finished speaking, Clarice suddenly dropped out of sight with a startled squawk, as if a hole had opened up beneath her. A second later, Aria appeared in front of the camera, her luminous red hair framing the face of an...angel.

“Okay, let’s see what we have here,” Aria murmured as her eyes scanned the screen. “Flamelord-4-life wants to know how to become an angel. It’s actually super simple. You just need to be touched by an angel tear and then say you want to vanquish evil.”

She appeared to be looking through more comments as she paused for a moment. “Mud-bloods-rule-404 wants to know if angels are genderless,” Aria’s face split into a large grin as she stared into the camera with mirthful golden eyes. “I would have said yes we have gender, if you had asked me yesterday. However, I have discovered that angels that haven’t ever experienced mortality are genderless. When an angel tear is activated it sends microscopic probes all throughout the body to make a template for the replacement energy body. So, while I am a female, the asshats that tried to lock us away for eternity do not have gender.”

Aria’s eyes widened just before a cannon ball smacked into the side of her face, knocking her over.

“Sorry about that, folks,” Clarice’s cheerful voice trilled as she appeared back in front of the camera, completely saturated in water. “My evil sister dropped me into the middle of the Pacific Ocean and it took me a minute to figure out where I was. I did find a shipwreck at the bottom though. It had that cannon ball with Aria’s name on it.”

“You are so lucky angels don’t take damage or feel pain,” Aria declared as she stood back up in the camera’s background.

“Actually, you’re so lucky,” Clarice corrected her with an impish grin. “Or that would have hurt a lot.

“Who let the kids take over the YouTube channel?” another voice that sounded similar to Clarice asked in exasperation. “That’s enough of that, you two. Go blow up the moon already.”

“Aw, but Mom, I’ve never had a YouTube channel to play with before,” Clarice whined plaintively.

There was a longsuffering sigh and then the live broadcast ended.

Jordan turned back to stare at him in astonishment. Derek stared back at his son in stupefied shock, feeling like the world had just flipped upside down.

“So, we’re all angels just playing in a simulation?” Jordan asked with a wondering grin on his face. “I thought you said we were all gods?”

“Angels, gods, same thing,” Derek muttered distractedly. He suddenly remembered the primary reason for the live event. He quickly pulled out his phone and opened a sky map app. “Looks like the moon is visible. Let’s go see if it really vanishes.”

“You think they are really going to vaporize the moon?” Jordan asked disbelievingly. “It’s got to be a prank. You saw how they were acting.”

“Let’s go find out then,” Derek suggested, feeling a sense of calm certainty that the moon was indeed going to be gone before the night was out.

Derek snorted in amusement as he saw all of the neighbors out in their front yards and driveways. Everyone still had Calypso’s channel notifications turned on, from the looks of it.

“Hey Jordan, I’ll bet you twenty bucks nothing happens,” Eddie, the next-door neighbor kid said with heavy skepticism in his voice. “Nothing ever happens.”

“I’ll take that bet,” Derek told him with an amused smirk. “Seems like I remember you being sick with pneumonia four months ago, and you got better when everyone else got better. Was that nothing?”

Eddie shrugged the question away. He was fifteen and knew everything. He wasn’t shy about telling anyone who would listen how much more intelligent he was than the rest of them. Derek remembered being a teenager and knowing everything, but Eddie took it to extremes.

Eddie’s mother, Cynthia, wandered over, short and plump in her sweatpants and t-shirt. She had a face that looked like someone had hit her with an ACME hammer. It was smooshed up like one of those Persian cats.

“What do you think, Derek?” she asked in a startlingly pleasant voice. She had both the face and voice for radio.

“I think we’re going to have to adapt to no longer having tides soon,” Derek answered confidently. “Bad news for anyone relying on tidal power.”

“Won’t it mess up the planet’s orbit if the moon is gone?” Cynthia asked with a troubled frown.

“Not for a long time,” Derek shrugged as he watched the moon intently. “I don’t think it will make a difference for tens of thousands of years.”

“I think-” she broke off as three brilliant streaks of light shot up high into the sky, straight up toward the moon.

There was a collective inhaling of breath up and down the street as the arcs of light brightened as they travelled. Derek felt a sudden sense of disorientation just before the moon vanished.

“Jesus Christ, they really did it!” Someone down the street shouted in a mixture of excitement and panic. “The freaking moon is gone!”

“Dad, is it really going to be okay?” Jordan asked in a frightened voice.

“You heard Clarice,” Derek told his son with a reassuring smile. “It’s going to be better than okay. I think things are going to get a lot more interesting in the days ahead.”

XXXXX

WHERE DID THE MOON GO?

Just minutes after a live broadcast from Calypso’s YouTube channel where Clarice claimed they were going to destroy the moon, the moon did indeed vanish. Many people questioned whether the moon is really gone, or if there was some kind of elaborate trick to hide it from our view. The question was quickly answered as the oceans slumped back between low and high tide, and haven’t moved since, aside from the much smaller solar tide. We are left with many questions, first and foremost being, how will this affect the earth? Clarice, the spokesperson in Calypso’s livestream, claimed that the planet would be fine without the moon. We decided to ask the experts if humans could live without the moon, and the answer will shock you. While we have grown used to tides and there is an entire ecosystem that depends on the tides, the Earth will not be at any immediate risk without the moon. In thousands of years the planet could wobble to the point that we no longer have seasons. Over a very long period the days could become shorter as well, without the moon to put the brakes on our spin with tidal forces.

Scientists are skeptical in regards to the claim that the moon was a giant machine made for catching souls, though we do have one scientist who admits the moon rang like a bell when TNT was detonated on the surface to take seismic readings during the Apollo missions.

For now, the consensus is that there will be no immediate repercussions to the survival of the human race without the moon. However, there will be less romance in the air without those magical moonlit nights.

XXXXX

“We should give everyone a bit of a show, don’t you think?” Clarice asked Aria and Calypso with an expectant grin. “Maybe light up to full incandescence and fly up instead of teleporting.”

“You missed your calling in life,” Aria informed her with a smirk. “You should have gone into theater.”

“I’m a lesbian, not a thespian, silly,” Clarice declared haughtily.

“This might surprise you,” Aria told her archly. “But you can actually be both. At the same time, even.”

Clarice raised an eyebrow at Aria as the double meaning sank in.

Aria rolled her eyes. “Get your mind out of the gutter, you goose.”

“Are you trying to insinuate that I’m a horny adult actress?” Clarice asked evenly, her golden eyes narrowing.

“What?” Aria asked in confusion, “What are you talking about?”

“You called me a goose,” Clarice accused with a meaningful look.

“You are a goose,” Aria insisted dryly. “I’m not sure what that has to do with a horny adult actress.”

“What kind of sound does a goose make, Aria?” Clarice asked, her eyes twinkling expectantly.

“I don’t know,” Aria frowned in bewilderment. “Honk honk?”

“What else do you honk?” Clarice asked intently, her lips curving up at the corners.

Aria’s brows drew down in thought, then her eyes widened, and she laughed incredulously. “So now you’ve associated geese with horns because they both go honk?”

“Hey, you said it, not me,” Clarice grinned at her triumphantly.

“Am I understanding this correctly?” Calypso asked, staring at Clarice in amusement. “Geese are honking all of the time because they are horny, so if someone calls you a goose, they must be calling you horny. Please tell me I got that wrong.”

“Honk honk,” was Clarice’s only reply as she grinned at them impudently.

Clarice suddenly felt a wave of love flood the bond, followed a moment later by Aria embracing her tightly as tears fell down her cheeks.

“Oh Clarice, I still can’t believe how good it is to have you back,” Aria sniffed as she clung to her possessively. “I missed you so much.”

Clarice held her tightly, feeling her own heart swell with love as she gently ran her fingers through Aria’s hair. Her sister still felt fragile around the edges. It would take time for her to fully heal after months of believing Clarice was dead. She wrapped her aura of love around Aria for several minutes, letting her presence reassure her beautiful and loving sister.

“Sometimes I still think I’ll just wake up in that nightmare again, and you won’t be there,” Aria whispered tremulously as tears ran down her cheeks. “I get so damn scared that it really is all in my head somehow. Every time I see you is like a gift, knowing you are still here with me.”

Clarice felt tears in her own eyes at Aria’s words. “Aria, I love you. I promise right here and now to never leave you alone again. I swear on my Seraph soul that I will always be with you, even if you get sucked into another reality. I’ll be right there with you.”

As she spoke the words, there was a tremor in reality. She felt a shift in her soul as countless threads intertwined her spirit to Aria’s, binding them together more tightly than the bonds of reality.

Aria gasped as Clarice’s soul was laid bare before her, as it had been for Lexi. There was a brilliant purity with no defenses and no facade delivered into Aria’s hands, revealing the true version of Clarice that hid behind all of the layers of bravado, humor, and other social masks she used to protect her psyche. Aria trembled as she felt the depth of love in that soul for her, the passion and protectiveness. She could see just how much of Clarice was defined by her love for Aria, and it was massive.

“Oh Clarice,” Aria cried as she pulled Clarice in tightly. “You’re so beautiful! How can anything be so beautiful?”

“Now you will never lose me again,” Clarice told her, and it was her Seraph voice of authority which spoke. “My soul is in your hands now, and nobody can separate us ever again.”

Calypso gasped as she finally understood what had happened. She stared at Clarice in wonder, her eyes full of love and admiration. “You bridged your inner soul to Aria. You’ve made yourself part of her. She really can’t be stolen away from you now.”

Aria’s eyes widened at Calypso’s words, and she pulled back to stare into Clarice’s...brown eyes? “Clarice, what happened to your eyes?”

“What do you mean?” Calypso asked, studying Clarice’s golden eyes intently. “What do you see, Aria?”

“Her eyes are brown again,” Aria whispered, her tone uncertain and anxious. “They are the same color they used to be, before we were angels.”

“You’re seeing inner Clarice,” Calypso told her gently. “Her eyes are still golden to me. She bridged her inner soul to you. You will always see her true appearance now, no matter how she evolves as a Seraph.”

Aria stared at Clarice, her eyes studying Clarice’s face and eyes. “She is so beautiful. I thought her angel form was more beautiful than it was possible to get, but now...how can anything be so beautiful?”

Clarice smiled at Aria her eyes full of love. “Thanks, Aria. You don’t know how much that means to me. I’ve always been afraid my soul would be ugly on the inside.”

Aria blinked as she realized it was Clarice’s most fundamental core element that she was staring at. The underlying personality that drove everything else in the layers above that core. She remembered the way demons could stink based on how rotten their souls were. Her sister was the polar opposite, a soul so pure and dedicated that Aria’s eyes were transposing what her physical eyes were seeing and overlaying what she could sense of Clarice’s soul.

Without even stopping to think about what she was doing, she leaned forward, pressing her lips against Clarice’s. There was a sudden roar of passion that slammed into her like a supernova. She whimpered at the strength of the passion, a hurricane that threatened to overwhelm her senses as she felt the desire raging from both of their souls simultaneously.

Clarice finally pulled away, raising her hands and clasping the sides of Aria’s face gently. “If you only knew how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

“Me too,” Aria breathed, closing her eyes as she fought the raging torrent of desire in her soul. “To be continued.”

“Yeah,” Clarice agreed with a radiant smile. “You can count on that. Let’s go party on the moon.”

Calypso had been watching them with wide eyes, unable to look away. Clarice could feel Calypso’s own desire, and at the same time a powerful sense of satisfaction as she stared at the two of them.

At Clarice’s words, Calypso launched into the air, opening the floodgates on her illumination until she shone as bright as the sun. Clarice and Aria did the same as they shot upward toward the moon, trailing intense beams of light.