After the Fall (Broken Angel #2) Read Free

her. “It’s true. If it were me, she’d do it in a heartbeat.”
    “Gabrielle can be a bit...stiff at times, but she means well.” Rachel’s big brown eyes glistened with tears as she looked into the distance, appearing to remember something. “She risked her life, coming after me, and she didn’t have to tell me how to get to the Lake of Fire.”
    “Uh, hmm,” Lash looked at her skeptically for a moment, then turned his attention to Uri. “So, what did you do?”
    “You don’t know?” Naomi asked, surprised. She figured since Rachel and Lash were such good friends, they would’ve talked about it by now.
    “Lash knows I was killed and then was brought back. I just haven’t told anyone why,” Uri said, appearing flustered. He looked at Rachel nervously before he continued. “You see, I was a very different person back then. In 1400 BC, I went to the City of Ai with Raphael and Luci—”
    “Oh, they don’t want to know about the boring stuff.” Rachel jumped off his lap. She rifled through the stack of bingo cards in the center of the table and looked closely at each one, avoiding eye contact as she spoke. “Uri was held captive by Lucifer and Saleos. And due to, uh, special circumstances, the archangels decided to, uh, let him”—she sank to her seat and swallowed—“die.”
    “That’s cruel.” Naomi couldn’t imagine what he’d done that was so bad to have him and Rachel deserve to suffer like that.  She eyed Rachel carefully, and she squirmed under her scrutiny. There was something she wasn’t telling her. Other than Lash, Rachel had grown to be one of her closest friends, like a sister, sharing everything with her—until now.
    “The City of Ai,” Lash said. “That sounds familiar. Where have I heard of that before?”
    Naomi was caught by surprise at Rachel’s forced, high-pitched giggle. “Look at this card, Naomi. La Muerte,” she read and then handed her the card with a picture of a skeleton holding a scythe. “It doesn’t look at all like Jeremy. It’s missing his new crocodile boots. Isn’t that right, Uri?”
    Uri furrowed his brow, confused, then as if picking up on Rachel’s cue said, “Yes, his boots. Very nice.”
    Naomi saw Lash stiffen and pause mid-shuffle at the mention of Jeremy’s name. Jeremy had disappeared the day after she was reunited with Lash. She had heard about the fight Lash had with him and felt awful about it. She had asked Raphael about Jeremy, hoping she could do something to help reunite the two best friends. Raphael had merely shaken his head sadly and said Gabrielle had sent him on an extended assignment and that he didn’t know when he would return.
    “So, Jeremy’s back.” Lash resumed shuffling the cards, his voice strained.
    Rachel gazed at Lash and then Naomi, her eyes filled with pity. She then turned to Lash with what looked like a forced smile. “I saw him this morning. Maybe you, Jeremy, and Uri could start up your poker games again.”
    Lash’s jaw tensed. He stared down at the cards as his thumbs flipped through them. He tapped the deck against the table and shuffled again without a word.
    The room grew uncomfortable as he avoided answering the question.
    “That’s a great idea,” Naomi said, forcing her voice to sound cheerful. She glanced at Rachel and Uri, noticed the knowing looks they were giving each other, and sighed. More secrets. What was it with this place and all the secrets? She wasn’t used to having people keeping things from her, especially after Lash finally revealed that he was a seraph and Raphael had told her she was the seventh archangel.
    Lash had even told her about his conversation with Raphael and how Rebecca, her grandmother’s guardian angel, was his mother and Raphael his father. And when he told her Jeremy was his older brother, she had thought they were done with secrets...apparently not. How frustrating! No wonder Lash was moody when she first met him. She didn’t blame him one