The small cemetery of St. Angeles held a handful of mourning dresses, heavy perfumes, and dark suits. Close friends and family come to pay their respects to an empty grave. Quinn squeezed a crumpled tissue in her fist. A pair of large black-rimmed sunglasses hid the deep bruises under her eyes from a restless night and dulled the bright rays that glistened off the blanket of morning dew. Birds hopped along the wrought iron finials that adorned the churchyard fence, chirping to one another, oblivious to the grief and mourning around them.
Jenna and her twin brother Cade had insisted the memorial be held here, in a place Aaron loved. They’d even convinced her dad to let them add the small, modern marker among the crumbling, moss-covered graves around it. The first in over fifty years, it looked strangely out of place, new marble shining in the morning sun.
Aaron James Collier
Beloved son, brother, and friend.
Heaven has a new Angel.
If Aaron was dead, he wasn’t an angel. According to Azrael, humans don’t become Angels. Their essence merely moves to another plane of existence.
“Into your hands, O merciful God, we commend your servant.”
Marcus clenched and unclenched his fists, biting back a soft sob as Jenna’s dad, Pastor McClure, prayed. Reese, tall and slender in a black dress and heels, her long dark hair twisted into a knot, stood between him and Jenna. Three peas in a pod, clustered together for support, a pod Quinn had once been a part of. None of them even glanced her way as they comforted one another. Apart, separate, alone but for her invisible protector standing by her side. Her friendships were decaying like the bodies beneath her feet, and she only had herself to blame. Quinn lifted her chin and stuffed her emotions back inside.
Every other eye was closed and every head bowed, but Quinn’s faith lay at the bottom of a river, buried with the knowledge of her guilt. Instead, she kept her eyes on the gathering shadows. Tendrils of fog hung from the bare branches of the trees beyond the rusted gate, like cobwebs over bone. The Qeres dagger strapped to her calf and hidden inside her knee-high boot pulsed against her skin. Muscles tense, she longed to grab her blade and ram it down their shady throats. Her barrier thrummed and dimmed.
Sensing her unease, Azrael moved closer until his fiery shoulder touched hers, cloaking the chill that was trying to take up residence under her skin.
Do not let your emotions defile this sacrament, Quinn. His hands gripped the pommels of the two curved swords at his hips, alert and ready to protect and defend.
My presence here is enough to keep them from feeding on the grief pouring from the souls gathered here today, but I fear if you do not hide yours from them, it will tip the scale, and I will not be able to kill them all before they get their claws into your friends. Stay focused. Raise your shield, and by all that is holy, try to control your feelings.
Azrael was right; this was not the time or the place to incite a fight. His echo within her mind smoothed out the wrinkles in her thoughts. It was his job to stand vigil, and he would watch them, keep them safe, while she focused on mourning. Steadying her breathing, she closed her eyes and reinforced the all-encompassing shield against the darkness. Calm steadied her essence.
“Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”
“Amen,” Quinn added her voice to the others.
When she opened her eyes, the shadows flickered and faded into the background as she closed off her connection to the spirits of the Underworld completely. Azrael nodded his approval. Light streamed through the trees where the shadows had been, painting the world in beautiful amber hues, buoying Quinn’s own spirit.
Aaron’s father and brother approached the small marble headstone. Both were tall and slender, one dark haired, the other gray and haggard. They looked as if they hadn’t slept in weeks. Josh twisted a guitar pick between his fingers, reminding her of Aaron’s nervous habit. His father clasped him on the shoulder and bent, stiff kneed, to place a bouquet of roses beneath Aaron’s name.
Josh knelt at the headstone with his father. He pressed the tip of the plastic plectrum to his lips and placed it next to the flowers. Quinn wanted to run and throw her arms around him then and there, to apologize and beg his forgiveness. She dug a heel into the mud, twisting and grinding it deeper and deeper into the soft ground.
Her movement caught Josh’s attention, and he turned his green eyes, the exact shade of emerald as Aaron’s, swollen and rimmed in red, on Quinn. Her breath caught in her throat, and she gasped. His fierce glare, filled with pain and accusations, pierced her heart. Guilt etched itself on her face, and she quickly looked away. She couldn’t blame him, any of them, for their sidelong looks and hushed whispers. This was her fault, after all. Soon there would be nothing left but empty grief for an empty grave.
“Receive Aaron James Collier into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints of light. Amen.”
Reese had an arm tight around Marcus, her soft sobs muffled against his heaving chest.
“Amen,” they all said in unison. Once those final words were spoken, people filed past the marker, placed a flower or a trinket on the soft earth, and then scattered to the wind. Off to grab a coffee, back to work, to move on with life. Even Josh and his dad didn’t stick around for hugs and condolences. Weeks of waiting and wondering must have left them drained. To them, this was the end of it, say goodbye and move on, something they’d had more experience with than most. Quinn wished they could teach her how. Together, they turned their backs and walked, stiff and halting, back to the waiting red pick-up.
“You coming?” Cade hugged his sister and she shook her head.
“I need a minute. You go on.”
Cade nodded and followed their dad out of the cemetery and into the parking lot.
As the cemetery emptied, Quinn, Reese, Marcus, and Jenna gathered around the grave. Four pillars crumbling under a sky full of heartache, the last ones to see him alive.