Evangeline's Heaven by Jen Braaksma

Author:Jen Braaksma
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SparkPress

CHAPTER 11

“A key … ” Evangeline says, grasping the thick black iron object.

It’s heavy in her hand—and it burns. The key feels hot on her skin, like it had been seared in flames, but she doesn’t drop it. Instead, she’s transfixed by the sensation, as if she has no choice but to accept the pain. She looks up at Michael, her eyes wide in surprise. He stares at the key, his expression as uncomprehending as hers.

Her mind whirls in confusion. A key instead of a book? The Key to the Kingdom? She looks at the bookshelf in front of her.

Six, six, six.

Uncle Raziel wanted her to find this key. He put it there, of that she is certain. But if this is the Key to the Kingdom, how did he get it? Did he stumble upon it and plan to give it to Lucifer? Or had Lucifer given the Key to Raziel—to pass on to her because he was afraid, maybe, that Gabriel was onto him?

Michael turns back to the bookshelf and starts tearing volumes off the shelves. He’s frantic as he rips each book away.

“What are you doing?” Evangeline demands.

“Searching for the book.” Michael hastens down the aisle, ransacking the shelf. Evangeline holds her hand out to him, the key, still hot to the touch, clearly visible.

“This is what Uncle Raziel wanted me to find,” she says.

“But it’s not the book,” Michael replies, not looking up. “The book is the key.”

Evangeline shakes her head. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes, we do,” Michael asserts. “Raziel stole it and was bringing it to Lucifer. For some reason, he hid the book before Lucifer could get it, and then told you where it was before he died.”

“He told me where this key was,” Evangeline says. She wants to believe that’s the end of it. She wants to believe she holds in her now-hot hand, the Key to the Kingdom, which grants her people the power to reclaim their rights in the Heavens. She wants to believe she now possesses the ability to end this demoralizing and destructive war. It makes sense. She’s holding a key obviously hidden by Raziel for an important, secretive reason. Her father left to retrieve a key. All logic, therefore, would assume this is the key—and Michael’s theory about the key being a book is plain wrong. What evidence does he have? That her uncle snuck out of the Divine Archives with a book? He does that all the time. That’s how Evangeline learned so much. That the book had an image of a key on its cover? That’s hardly proof it’s the Assembly’s lost manuscript. And if it were the Assembly’s lost manuscript, who’s to say the book contains the type of power her father seeks as a way to end this war? No, it’s much more logical to assume the simplest explanation is here right now. Her father was searching for a key—a symbol of access to power in the higher Heavens—and she now possesses a key.

In fact, she likes the idea enough that she changes her reverie.

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