Wings of Redemption

By Sarah Gilman

Wings of Redemption by Sarah Gilman

Humans and archangels don't mix on the best occasions. When Saffron Morin goes to the gates of the demon colony, Eden, in search of her sister, she meets an archangel who is curious one minute and hostile the next, and she ends up the colony's "guest" against her will. Kestrel's archangel psychic talent tells him the human woman's life is in danger. Despite her family's association with poachers who hunt archangels for their valuable feathers, he vows to save her life. Enemies by birth, lovers by choice, they give in to growing attraction as days pass. Even if he succeeds in saving her life, he must hurt her to protect others of his kind, and he may not be able to live with himself after a betrayal he has no choice but to commit. In order to find redemption, the Collector's daughter and an archangel must first find each other.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Oct 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781622669943

Book preview

Chapter One

Saffron got out of her car and approached the gates of the demon colony, Eden, wishing she’d written a will. No way she’d walk away from this alive.

Hey! she spat out. I want to talk to someone, right now!

Security cameras hung on either side of the bulky, wrought-iron gate. Despite the windy evening, she stripped off her coat and stood there in her tight-fitting jeans and tank top, the breeze lifting her elbow-length hair off her shoulders. She held her arms out and turned in a circle. I have no weapons!

The maple trees that lined the gravel road swayed in the wind. Lush leaves rustled and birds took flight. Nothing else moved. "Crisse de tabarnak! she swore in Quebec French. Someone had better get out here and tell me what you did to Thyme!"

She paced in front of the gate. If her sister was still alive, Saffron had to try to get the demons to release her. If Thyme was dead, she deserved a proper burial.

"Crisse!" She covered her mouth and sobbed. Her sister was probably rotting in the woods.

The demons’ equivalent to police and bodyguards, the Guardians, didn’t take prisoners or show mercy. They couldn’t afford to, what with all the aggression and ire directed at the colony. The majority of humans, even those who weren’t religious, feared and hated the demons and fallen archangels.

Just as she’d been taught as a youth to avoid talking to strangers and to look left and right and left again before crossing the street, she’d been cautioned over and over to avoid Eden and the forest that surrounded it. Children grew up fearing demons, creatures with venomous fangs and night vision. That fear drove her rapid heart rate and trembling hands, but nothing would make her back down.

Though Eden had experienced a golden age of sorts since Quebec’s Quiet Revolution—in which the increasingly secular society of the province took a substantial amount of power away from the Roman Catholic Church—most people remained suspicious of their nonhuman neighbors. Add the poachers who hunted the archangels for their valuable plumage, and the result? Nasty, uncompromising Guardians. Cowards! Either shoot me or give me answers! I’m not leaving!

Twilight gave way to darkness. Shivering, Saffron pulled her coat on and sat. Thank goodness for the tissues she’d stashed in her pockets. She dabbed the tears from her face.

Who’s Thyme?

Saffron started and lifted her gaze from her hands. The half-moon illuminated her surroundings in shades of black and white. A man crouched on top of the stone wall to the left of the gate, his elbows on his knees. Wings draped on either side of him, casting long shadows across the ground. His feathers swayed in the wind. She couldn’t make out his features in the low light, but the size of his falcon-shaped wings alone made her whole body shake.

"Maudit," she whispered. Damn.

And while we’re at it, who’re you? The archangel leaned forward.

Her voice froze in her throat, but she reached for her left hip out of habit, the instinctive reaction of a career photographer. She’d left her camera in the car. Intent on helping her sister, work had been the last thing on her mind. She got to her feet.

A real, live archangel. How many years had she and Thyme tried to get this close to one? But now, her sister wasn’t here, and this was far from a photo shoot.

A fierce gust hit the archangel broadside. He beat his wings, balancing himself with ease, never taking his gaze off her. You can’t expect me to believe you’re mute, miss.

I’m here for my sister, Saffron managed to say. Thyme.

I don’t recognize the name.

Of course you wouldn’t. Your Guardians shoot first and don’t ask any questions at all. She glanced around. The darkness and dense vegetation gave away nothing, but given the presence of the archangel, demons must be lurking all around her. Because of poachers and the high price some people paid for the incredible feathers, Guardians protected the fallen archangels with lethal dedication.

I’m asking questions, he said. You haven’t answered all of them.

She squared her shoulders. I’m Saffron. My sister hasn’t come back after going into the woods with a group of poachers last week. She’s not answering her cell phone.

She came out here with poachers, he repeated, speaking slowly. And you expected her to come back alive?

She’s a photographer! Saffron fought back a fresh wave of tears. A thin-as-a-rail, overly made up diva who probably shrieked at the first speck of forest dirt that touched her shoes. No one who gave a shit could have mistaken her for a threat.

And no one did. Eden’s Guardians haven’t come across any poachers in months.

She folded her arms. Thyme had gone with a group of competent outdoorsmen. No way they just disappeared. Tell me the truth.

I am. If your sister has come to harm, you should look to the company she was keeping for answers.

They wouldn’t have hurt her. Poachers got away with hunting archangels, despite vague laws that protected the creatures, largely because they avoided getting caught breaking any other laws. These particular poachers worked for Saffron’s father, for Christ’s sake.

Then I suggest you hurry home and contact your authorities. He glanced toward the sky. The weather is supposed to be abysmal this coming week. No time to be lost in the woods.

She held her ground. If she walked away empty-handed, what would she do next? Leave it to the police to search the hundreds of thousands of acres of forest around the demon colony? What were the odds of finding a missing person in rural, central Quebec? And what if the colony was, in fact, involved? The demons remained her best hope. At a loss, she stalled. Why is an archangel out here talking to me, anyway?

I wanted to. He shrugged. "I don’t make a habit of hiding behind my Guardians, to their dismay. I’ve often been told my curiosity will get me

Reviews for Wings of Redemption

[emudmeh · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Story is good,buy ending is incomplete in my opinion.as what would b their future?? Saffron parents wont allow her to b in relationship with archangel n would she go against them to b with him? N what about their future..they are from different species,in the long-term can they really be together?and destroying their feather collection is not solution to archangel prb...