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She was stunned and amazed--and happier than she’d ever been before It couldn’t possibly be real, she thought--unless she spoke the truth aloud, with Daniel and the rest of the fallen angels there to witness

"I’el"

SEVENTEEN

THE INVENTION OF LOVE

Flying was like swiood at both

Her feet lifted off the ground It took no thought or preparation Her wings beat with sudden intuition Wind huauzy pink sky Aloft, she felt the weight of her body, especially in her feet, but overpowering that was a new, uni the slightest disruption, like a breeze passing through a chi tip to the other, exaes It was as if the rest of her body deferred to her wings now

They responded at the first inkling of desire, elegant strokes that generated trelide solely on momentum, then pulled back into a heart shape behind her shoulders as she swizzled straight into the air

Her first flight

Exceptit wasn’t What Luce kne, as keenly as her wings kne to fly, was that there had been a monumental before Before Lucinda Price, before her soul had ever seen the curving Earth For all the lives on Earth she’d witnessed in the Announcers, all the bodies she had inhabited, Luce had barely scratched the surface of who she ho she had been There was a history older than history during which she’d beat these wings

She could see the others watching her froround Daniel’s face shone with tears He had known this all along He had waited for her She wanted to reach him, wanted him to soar up and fly with her--but then, suddenly, she couldn’t see hiave way to total darkness

Of another h

She closed her eyes and surrendered to it, letting it carry her back Somehow she knew that this was the earliest memory, the moment at the furthest reaches of her soul Lucinda had been there fro

The Bible had left this part out:

Before there was light, there were angels Onecoaxed out of inexistence by a gentle, nificent hand

God created the Heavenly host of angels--all three hundred and eighteen le, brilliant moment Lucinda was there, and Daniel, and Roland and Annabelle and Caned to adore their Creator

Their bodies were made of the same substance that composed the firmament of heaven They were not flesh and blood, but e, indestructible, beautiful to behold Their shoulders, ar the shapes mortals would take upon their own creation

The angels all discovered their wings si the soul of its pos-sessor

As early as the angels’ genesis, Lucinda’s wings were bright reflective silver, the color of starlight They had shone in their singular glory since the dawn of the dawn of time

Creation occurred at the speed of God’s will, but it unfolded in Luce’s memory like a story, another of God’s earliest creations, a by-product of ti; then Heaven was replete with angels

In those days, Heaven was liround covered by cloudsoil, a soft white substance liketips when they walked along the ground

There were endless tiers in Heaven, each level tee out in all directions under a honey-colored sky The air was perfu up in delightful groves Their round bloo so like ancestors of white peonies

Orchards of silver trees bore the els feasted and gave thanks for their first and only hoether in praise of their Creator, for a blended sound that in humans’ throats would later be known as har the orchard in two And when everything else in Heaven was co Throne at the head of the ht

"Co into the deep seat with deserved satisfaction "Henceforth you will know athered on the plain of Heaven and approached the Throne in gladness They flowed naturally into a single line, ranking themselves instantly and forevere of the meadow, Lucinda remembered that she could not clearly see the Throne It shone too brightly for angels’ eyes to with-stand She also reel in line--the third angel closest to God

One, two, three

Her wings stretched and thickened with the honor

In the air over the Throne, eight ledgesin an arch, like a canopy sheltering the Throne God called the first eight angels in the line to fill these seats and becoels Lucinda took her place on the third seat fro been created just for her This here she belonged Adoration poured fro onto God

It was perfect

It did not last

God had more plans for the universe Anotherher to shiver

God left the angels

All was joyful in the Meadow, and then the Throne became empty God walked past the thresholds of Heaven, went away to create the stars and the Earth and the moon

Man and woman hovered near the brink of existence