My father was sitting at his desk when I returned, staring at me with disbelief.
"Her soul, into the fire you say?"
I nodded, ready to beg him not to do it.
"Well, I can honestly say I've never heard that one before. Interesting though."
He tilted back on his chair, his fingers tented in front of his chest as he thought about it.
"Removing a soul is what we do to the damned, you know that don't you Brannon?"
"Yes."
"And what are the damned like?"
"Zombies?"
He nodded with a wry smile.
"Do you want a wife that is like a zombie Brannon?"
"No." I said almost scoffing.
"Actually, now that I think about it, there is clearly more to this than you are seeing. Remove the soul from a being Brannon, what are they?"
"They are damned."
Sharply he inhaled, smiling rather supremely.
"And where do the damned belong?"
"In the pit."
"Are they allowed anywhere else?"
I shook my head, feeling a heaviness within me. "No. Someone wants you to make her one of the damned, don't they?"
My father nodded as he stood and walked around his desk. His fingers ran along the dark wood, sliding against the varnish with a soft touch.
"They do. Tell me, what would you say to me if I did remove her soul and she was sucked into the pit as a result?"
"I'd ask that you stop it before she suffers any pain but you can't stop the drag of damnation, can you?"
He shook his head sadly.
"The damned are the damned and the winds of hell know this Brannon. If I remove a soul from a living being then there is no turning back. If you don't want her to be sucked into the pit then she has to be dead before I remove the soul, which isn't the path that you or I want. You must forget this as an avenue for the future Brannon, this is not a positive path. Hell will not try to purge a fallen angel, it has looked into her and seen that she has turned her back on heaven and has openly accepted hell and the devil as her ruler. She is bound to this world and to me, she is safe within this world. What you need to be concerned about is that someone was in her mind, filling it with this suggestion, the lie that she has believed to be the truth."
"The gates are locked."
My father looked at me, tilting his head as he raised his eyebrows.
"Okay, so I get that there are some that can get through the gates."
"Yes Brannon, there are a few that can do this. I know from firsthand account that there are at least two that I know of that can do this. One I know would be the obvious choice as a suspect but I fear that it is far too easy. This person wants us to believe that Michael is interfering again. It is possible and I would not be so hasty to remove him from the equation but I wouldn't suspect him first."
With a heavy sigh he leaned on the desk, glancing at the floor for a moment.
"If we didn't realise this in time and I did as you asked, the repercussions true to this world and Emily became one of the damned, what would you say to me, how would you feel towards me?"
The first thought that entered my mind was hatred. It shocked me, I didn't think that I could ever hate my father regardless of what he did.
"Don't be scared Brannon."
He lifted himself from the desk, moving to sit beside me on the lounge.
"The first thought is the right one, what was it?"
"Hatred." I whispered. "But it's not right."
"Yes it is Brannon." He implored. "And whoever is doing this, that is what they want. They want you to hate me. After you were born and Michael brought the army of heaven here to bring us down, he tried to remove you and your mother from hell. You complete the trinity, it is power and it has tipped in our favour. There is someone who wants to break this world and tip the scales back in favour of heaven. If you hated me, if you walked away from us with such heavy emotions, it would do serious damage."
He closed his eyes for a brief moment, allowing a few seconds for me to finally catch up. This was madness.
"I think we need to visit Emily."
My father disappeared before me, I quickly sunk through the layers and joined him at the hut. The first thing that I saw was the rough sketch of a house plan that was stuck to the fridge. It made me smile, she'd planned something that was functional and perfect.
"Were you planning on fixing this Brannon?"
I turned to my father, unsure of what he was asking. In his hand was a broken dining chair, bits of the legs hanging or completely broken off.
"That wasn't like that when I left."
My heart sank as I turned to the bedroom.
"Emily." I called out.
No answer.
I pushed through the door and found the bedroom empty. Searching through Delaney, Cara and my parents' bedroom, I found nothing. When I returned to the living area my father stopped me.
"Brannon, she's not here."
"She's probably gone for a walk."
His face offered nothing at first, then he relented.
"I cannot feel her presence any more. It was feint when we arrived on this layer, now it is gone."
The door slapped open, Luca and Kelsey walked in.
"Hey, who was the winged dude?"
Moving past my father, I stalked over to him.
"What winged dude?"
"There was some guy with big white wings, landed on the jetty and walked in. Saw him floating up a few minutes later."
"Had a big bag with him, was it laundry day?" Kelsey asked.
I turned to my father, desperation flowing fast. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily.
"It would appear that Emily was worth saving after all. Either that or they want you to suffer her loss, no doubt expecting you to hold me responsible."
Luca stepped into sight, worry filling him now that he realised he'd seen more than just some winged dude landing on the jetty. He'd witnessed an abduction.
"Do you remember when I entered the cage and I said that I felt a presence like yours?"
I nodded, wondering where he was going with this.
"Emily's not an archangel, we know this. I felt your kind Bran, I felt the presence of an archangel. Someone was in there, watching her. What if they've always been watching her? Did she know? Because if a vampire can feel the presence of an archangel then surely an angel can detect her own kind. I don't want to sound negative but we know that she was sent to spy on you, what if everything that has happened has been intentional. What if she did it all to break you?"
Luca's question hit me hard, I didn't know how to respond. But before I could think about her intentions, I had to figure out what I wanted to do and that wasn't the easiest considering that I was feeling rather betrayed.