Angel on My Shoulder (Angels and Seers: Book Two)

By Stephanie Woods

Sam is gone to who knows where. Jonathan is still on the loose. The Earth Angel kingdom is in tatters, and the seers and refugee angels on Earth are preparing for a battle without their leaders to guide them. What's a girl with a prophesy to fulfill to do?

For super seer Lucy McDonald, there's no question. Jumping recklessly into a new universe to search for her amnesiac soul mate, Lucy is confronted with a face from her past she never thought she'd see again. At the same time, she has to learn to share a body with a different version of herself, and search for Sam while keeping the other "Lucy's" life from falling apart. Add a government conspiracy on top of it all, and Lucy finds herself in the midst of another adventure she never saw coming.

At home, Lucy and Sam's family and friends try to keep their army going, while fending off the enemy camped just outside their town's borders. If that wasn't enough to keep everyone busy, Earth Angel Princess Ella's discovery of a long hidden secret in Lucy's family tree promises to shake things up even more.

Join Lucy and Sam on their newest adventure, as they struggle to find each other in an alien environment, and somehow make their way home, where the evil angel Jonathan still poses a threat to the very multiverse itself, and a showdown for the ages awaits them all.

If you enjoyed "Earth Angel," and were shocked by its stunning cliffhanger, this sequel is a must-read for you.

This is the second book in the Angels and Seers series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephanie Woods
• Release date: Jan 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370343768

Stephanie Woods

Stephanie Woods has been writing stories and winning awards for them since she was in elementary school. After getting her Master's degree in Creative Writing and spending eight years as a reading tutor, elementary school teacher, high school teacher, and college professor, she finally decided to make her childhood dream of being a novelist come true. Her debut novel, "Earth Angel," is the result. With more stories planned in this series, and dozens of story ideas mulling around in her imagination, Stephanie Woods is an author to follow. In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys reading about history, watching fantasy and sci-fi TV shows, cooking, traveling, studying languages, investigating the paranormal, and spending time with her husband, friends, and three mischievous cats.

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Angels and Seers (Book Two)

Angel on My Shoulder:

Angels and Seers (Book 2)

Stephanie Woods

Copyright 2016 Stephanie Woods

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Prologue

Ella

Sam and Lucy are alive. It’s the only thing we know with certainty. Living beings of all kinds emit energy signatures that are unique to them; if you know how to read the signatures, you can identify someone light years away from you. If you use magic, you can track them anywhere in the universe. Even when someone is dead, their bodies will keep emitting that same energy signature in gradually fading intensity for centuries. None of the angels or human magic practitioners among us have been able to pick up any energy signature for either Lucy or Sam for weeks.

I haven’t seen Sam for more than a month. I last laid eyes on Lucy three weeks ago, as she sent me away from the capital city of the Earth Angel kingdom while my father, the former king, tried to take us prisoner. We discovered he was working with our enemy against us, and allowed my brother Sam, the heir to our kingdom, to be captured and kept hostage. Lucy promised me she would be okay and come back with Sam, and I believe her. We all do. Lucy is powerful and growing more so every day. Sam is the strongest and most committed angel I’ve ever known. They will come back to us. The question is when.

No one knows what happened to either of them. Though Sam was taken prisoner in battle in front of the entire town, I am the last among us to have seen Lucy, when she was facing down my father. Her intent was clear…neutralize Father and go after Sam. Thanks to Father and his arrogance in believing he would easily defeat Lucy, we know Jonathan, the rogue angel who is threatening us all, took Sam into Lucy’s personal life mansion, the one that has doors to all her past, future, and alternate lives throughout time. Everyone has one, just a simple dimension shift away. Normally, no one would be able to access Lucy’s mansion but her; Jonathan only got in because Sam had previously been there with her, and so became a key himself. None of the rest of us have been to her mansion, so we can’t go check on them. We have to trust them to make their way back to us. It’s all we can do. They are the most powerful among us, our leaders, and we need them to win this war for the fate of the planet and the universe.

Our magic practitioners check every day for a sign of them. Meanwhile, the enemy army continues to build up its presence outside our newly restored and strengthened town barrier. Jonathan’s right-hand angel, Daniel, is leading them, bringing more angels to the group every day. We’re even starting to notice some human seers among them. That’s not good; it means they’re corrupting the humans now, who have always been our allies. Another archangel has shown up in their army, as well. In fact, the camp outside our invisible walls now includes just about every caste of angel except the guardians, who have so far used their invisibility to everyone but the seers to stay out of the conflict. We all know it’s only a matter of time until they’re dragged into it, too, unless we put a stop to this soon. Invisible or not, Jonathan will find a way to get to them.

Of course, we’ve not been idle in our own recruiting. Some of the higher caste angels, the ones with powers we don’t have, created a secret entrance in the back of the town for new recruits to bypass the enemy outside. We’ve got brave recruiters roaming the planet, galaxy, and universe to bring us new people, foregoing the safety of our magical barrier to increase our numbers and our allies. We’ve got our own new archangel among us, as well as new seers, and all the other angel castes the enemy has attracted. Right now, it’s a standoff, as our armies are equal in strength. It’s best this way, since we don’t want to engage in another battle until our leaders return.

That’s another area where we are equally matched; our enemy is leaderless, too. Jonathan hasn’t reappeared since Lucy presumably went to extract Sam from his clutches. His other top henchman, Jasper, hasn’t been seen, either. I think both sides are waiting for their leaders to come back before making any new moves.

Right now, I’m the de facto leader, since Lucy placed me in charge when she sent me back here without her. It’s a strange position for me to be in. The youngest of eight children and the only girl, I was born a princess. But with so many older brothers, I’ve never had any real royal authority of my own. John London, the most knowledgeable and experienced of our human seers, is my co-leader, by my own appointment. Together, we’re keeping everyone on their regular training schedule, acting as central control for our recruiters, and doing all the other functions of running a town that’s been converted into a military training camp. I think we’re managing quite competently. We both know, though, that we’re no substitute for Lucy and Sam. The archangels…the ones who have remained loyal to their angelic heritage…decreed them the only ones who can stop this war and defeat Jonathan. We need them.

I’ve started doing something we Earth Angels rarely do….pray. It’s not unheard of for God to directly answer a prayer, or even step in and handle something personally, but it is extraordinarily rare. He prefers to watch his creations as they exercise their free will, and only intervenes in drastic circumstances, or, sometimes, because He develops a unique liking for a being and wants to give them personal assistance.

I know I’m nothing extraordinary as far as angels go. Even if God isn’t personally interested in me, I’m hoping He feels favor toward Lucy and Sam. Each night before the town goes to bed, I kneel by my bed and pray He keeps them safe, makes them strong, and brings them back to us before the next battle in this war inevitably comes.

No one knows I do it.

We can only sense Jonathan’s energy signature with magic; this means he’s far away, across the universe. Jasper’s energy is closer, detectable by our senses, but weak; we think he’s dead. As far as Lucy and Sam go, we only know one thing about them…their energy cannot be detected by any method at our disposal. There is only one thing this can mean.

Neither of them are in this universe anymore.

Chapter One

Sam

He was cold. That was the first thing he noticed as he slowly came around. A slight shiver made its way up and down his curled up body, telling him the thin fabric of the long beige tunic and loose, dark green pants he wore was too thin for this weather.

The ground below him was rough and gravelly. As his vision turned from cloudy to clear, he could see he rested on the pavement in a narrow alley between two brick buildings. A strong breeze blew through, using the slim space as a wind tunnel, lifting up the edges of his too-light clothing and going under them, freezing his skin. Instinct kicked in, an unfamiliar voice in his head telling him he must get out of there and somewhere warm before he froze to death.

But, where was he, and where would he go? As he shakily rose to his feet, an even more troubling question made its way to the hazy surface of his mind.

Who was he?

Shouldn’t a person know their own name? He wasn’t sure. It seemed like they should. The absence of his own name in his memory disturbed him; it should be there. But, it wasn’t. It didn’t even feel like it was hidden somewhere within him. The harder and deeper he dug into the recesses of his mind, the more positive he became his name was simply not there.

No name, no remembrance of a family or friends, or anything to do with his past. Like he was newly formed and seeing the world for the first time.

Except that couldn’t be true, right? He may not know anything about himself, but he knew words, and could identify certain objects. He knew he was in an alley. How would he know the word if he had no experience of the world? So, he assumed he came from somewhere and had a past. Why couldn’t he remember it, though? It was most disconcerting.

Wrapping his arms around himself as a guard against the cold, he carefully stepped forward and peered around the corner of the alley and into the street. It was mostly empty, with just a few heavily clothed people wandering here and there. The sun shone high in the sky, indicating it was the middle of the day, but maybe the cold was keeping all but the hardiest souls indoors.

He looked behind him, back down the other side of the alley. There was a dumpster there, which accounted for the slightly sour odor being pushed his way by the wind. Otherwise, there wasn’t much, just gravel from a hasty pavement job, and the edges of more brick buildings visible at the opening on the other end.

Maybe he was injured. Wasn’t that the way people normally lost their memories? He reached up and felt his head carefully. No bumps or sore spots. Examining his clothing, he saw no signs of blood anywhere. In fact, other than being cold and having no memories, he felt pretty good.

Was it a traumatic experience, then? Or hypnosis? There weren’t a whole lot of things he could think of that would cause such total memory loss; if he’d ever known any others, they were part of his lost memories.

Maybe he had some identifying objects on him that would help? A quick check told him instantly his clothes had no pockets, so he couldn’t be carrying anything with him. And even though it was freezing outside, he was wearing sandals with nothing to cover his feet, so there would be nothing hidden in his footwear. All of this was most strange.

Someone surely had to know him. People knew other people, didn’t they? It therefore stood to reason that there may be someone, or even several someones, out there looking for him. Where should he go to make it easy for his presumed friends or family to find him?

A warmly bundled woman walked briskly past him, and he instinctively flattened himself against the brick wall of the building facing the alley. The feathers on his wings brushed up roughly against the hard stone, lifting some of the individual strands uncomfortably the wrong way. He moved away from the wall again, shaking out his wings, feeling the relief as little bits of gravel he didn’t know were there fell out of them.

Wings. They were an identifying feature. The few people he saw on the street didn’t have wings. But he did, and it seemed perfectly normal to him. Was he something different than other people? Having wings when no one else around you did was kind of a big deal. Maybe there were others around here who had them, too. But what if they didn’t? It wasn’t a good idea to stand out in such a drastic way. Somehow, that was clear to him, like an instinct for self-preservation. Best to hide them for now, then, until he discovered if having wings was normal or not.

It was interesting how he didn’t even have to think about how to use his wings. He folded them up, retracted them through the tiny built-in flaps in the back of his tunic, and slid them under his shoulder blades just as easily as he’d gotten up off the gravel and walked a few minutes ago. He must have been born with these, to know how to use them so naturally.

It was a shame to put them away, really. Not because he thought they were glorious or anything, but because they’d been keeping a lot of extra wind off of him, a thing he only realized once they were hidden. Now, he was so cold, even his teeth were chattering.

He had to get somewhere warm, and fast. Goose flesh was rising on nearly every part of his skin, and he could feel the iciness deep within his muscles.

He’d just have to start walking, and keep walking until he saw something that looked either familiar, or warm, or both.

Still a bit unsteady on his feet (he had no idea how long he’d been sleeping in that alley), he took a tentative step out onto the sidewalk. So far, so good. There was a large area of green right across the street, probably a park of some kind. Beyond that were more buildings, and a larger number of wingless people walking around. He would go in that direction. There had to be something or someone over there who could give him the assistance he required.

His eyes firmly on his destination, he set out to cross the street, and was promptly slammed in the side by something large and unbelievably hard, like a dragon. Interesting he knew what a dragon was, he thought, as he crumbled to the ground.

Great. The first thing he tries to do, and he gets injured, perhaps for the second time today (if the memory loss was a side effect of a previous violent encounter).

Pain radiated from his side to his back, front, and other side, and his eyes began to flutter closed again of their own accord, the agony too much for his body to bear and still stay awake. He heard the slamming of a door and several screams and shouts all around him, but couldn’t see anyone. All he saw in the brief moment before blessed unconsciousness overtook him yet again was the bright green grass of the park, and an orange neon word, transparent and ghostly in the remnants of his vision.

The word didn’t exist in the outside world; it was inside his head alone. He knew this, even as he drifted further into the world of dreams. His mind, finally giving him a clue, the most important thing he needed to know. This word, he knew in his very soul, must be remembered at all costs.

Lucy.

Chapter Two

Lucy

Whoomp!

With a whoosh and a thud, I emerge from the darkness through which I’d hurtled for a brief, surreal moment, and land softly on my feet. Feet, I immediately notice, that are wearing the low-heeled, strappy, open-toed sandals I usually sport when I teach my Kindergarten classes. In fact, instead of the hard wood floors and intricately patterned area rugs of the hallways adorning my between-lives mansion, where I stood just a moment ago, my feet are quite clearly standing on the unmistakable large, gray-green tile of a Kindergarten classroom.

My clothes are different, too. Somehow, the practical, body-hugging battle clothing I wore when I took the jump through that beckoning door in the mansion is gone, replaced now with the semi-professional attire of my civilian job. In this case, it’s fitted jeans and a billowy yellow peasant blouse with a square neckline and loose sleeves. Apparently, my attire from my own life metaphysically slipped under the clothing of this new one, and became camouflaged by it. Based on what I know of jumping into other universes, it’s the most likely explanation.

I’m still wearing the clothes I came here wearing, but no one, not even me, can see them. I’ll wear them until I leave this place, even if I shower in the body of the alternate me I now share. It’s a bizarre concept.

Something warm at the base of my throat alerts me that at least one thing made the trip with me still intact and visible to the inhabitants of this new world. Instinctively, I reach up and touch it, then pull it in front of me, eager to lay eyes on it and make sure it is real. To my relief, it is, and safe around my neck where it should be.

Sam’s pendant. The teardrop-shaped blue crystal he always wore, now glowing with the light of all his memories and angelic powers that are stored inside it. The pendant he used to extract those memories and powers and disappear, hoping his absence would keep me protected. The pendant that will lead me back to him.

The trip from the mansion to this alternate universe where the pendant guided me was just like Sam described it. I fell seamlessly into the body of the me in this universe, barely noticing the transition. I jumped through the door the pendant indicated I should choose to join Sam in his new location, there was a split second of darkness, and then I opened my eyes in this body with only the slightest of sensation of landing to let me know I’d done anything unusual at all.

Sam was also right about the memories. Already, my memories of my current life are integrating with the memories of this alternate me. When I eventually leave her, she will adjust her own memories to incorporate what I do while I inhabit her, none the wiser that anything out of the ordinary ever happened.

Right now, I need to get my bearings, and see if there are any immediate clues to Sam’s exact location. Right now, all I know is that he’s in this universe somewhere, and presumably on this planet. I also know I’m in my regular classroom at my usual school, and my students are gone for the day. In fact, I’m walking to the door to leave, myself, my alternate self already heading for the door when I landed in her. I wonder if she noticed.

Somehow, I know I have to get home to Harry. He isn’t teaching today, and his nurse will be leaving for the day soon. He needs me to fix dinner for him, clean him up, and get him into bed. Tomorrow, I’ll have to help him get ready for classes, both the ones he takes as he continues his work toward his Ph.D., and the ones he teaches as a graduate assistant. In my universe, Harry already had his Ph.D. in History and was a full professor when he was killed.

We’ve been married for nearly a year now.

The realization hits me like a bolt of lightning, and I stumble a bit as I grab the handle to my classroom door, glad none of my colleagues saw it. They’d think I’m drunk.

Harry! Harry? But how….?

I look down at my left hand, feeling an unfamiliar weight on it. My God, there it is…a silver wedding band on top of my engagement ring.

At the sight of it, the full rush of Alternate Lucy’s memories floods into my mind.

My God! In this universe, Harry wasn’t killed by that car. The accident still happened, but instead of dying, he was paralyzed from the waist down by it. We got married as planned, with him in his wheelchair as I stood before him at the altar, all our family and friends watching what they considered a wonderful love story play out before their eyes as we said our vows.

It was beautiful, at first. But being a newlywed to someone so recently and dramatically injured in a life-altering way isn’t easy. We were madly in love and determined to make it work when we said those vows, but real life was much different.

Harry knew he wouldn’t walk again, but he continued to exercise every day, keeping his upper body strength as good as it could be. He barely took a break from his Ph.D. studies and graduate teaching duties after the accident, and insisted everything go along as normal. He wouldn’t hear of postponing a single thing in his life, especially the wedding. He wanted so much to act like nothing had changed, but the fact was, the accident changed a lot, and more than just his ability to use his legs.

Though he tried to hide it, Harry was depressed and bitter, and, after our wedding, he often took it out on me….rather, Alternate Me….without meaning it. It wasn’t anything personal; I was simply the closest one to him when he had his moments of frustration and self-pity. It took me months to realize this, and adjust to the new personality of my normally charming and considerate man. It didn’t help that he still required the company of a nurse when I wasn’t home, though we fully expected that to change once he finished his occupational therapy and learned to do most things from his wheelchair on his own.

However, with his situation as it currently was, I couldn’t be away from him much, so didn’t get an opportunity to see my friends or family as often as I wanted to, and Harry wouldn’t hear of them coming to our house and seeing him like this. The wedding, when he was dressed up and at his best, was one thing. Looking at him up close and personal in real life was quite another. He even insisted his own family stay away and limited contact to phone calls.

No, it is not an easy marriage. Yet, I feel the strong love this version of me still harbors for her husband. It is the same love I felt for my Harry when we were engaged, before he died. Right now, she is still determined to stick by him no matter what. But, how long will she keep that determination if he continues to emotionally abuse her and keep her isolated? I know I wouldn’t put up with it. Self-pity is no excuse for that kind of behavior toward the person you’re supposed to love most in the world.

I’m a pretty social person in any universe, or at least I’d like to think so; it’s a pretty fundamental part of my personality. Being bullied and guilt tripped into staying away from my friends and family was heartbreaking to this version of me, and to actual me. I can feel the sadness underlying her love. Things have to improve for Harry and this version of me soon, or the marriage won’t last. I instinctively know it, as does Alternate Lucy, though she won’t admit it to herself yet.

Man, all of this is just too damn weird.

A world where Harry is still alive and I’m married to him? Two sets of memories? The prospect of seeing Harry in the flesh again, when I’m in love with Sam? How am I ever going to navigate this, and find Sam at the same time?

Already, the desires of the other me are competing with my own. I have to get back to Harry…..that’s what she wants to do. But I also have to find Sam. That’s why I came to this alternate universe, where there is still a Harry to go home to. The conflicting desires in me, between the actual me and the alternate me, are insane.

Sam is here. The warmth and glow on the pendant make it clear I am in the right place. But where is he? I assumed the pendant would lead me to a place at least somewhat close to him, but maybe it only put me in his general vicinity. There is no way for me to know how accurate the pendant is in this regard. I have to believe he is on this planet, at the very least, and hopefully on the surface of it, not somewhere high above it.

But where? A little more precision would be helpful.

Maybe moving around will make the pendant glow more brightly or dimly, depending on my proximity to Sam, just as it did when it drew me to the door I chose to jump through back in the mansion. I’m just going to have to get out there in this strange, yet eerily familiar new world, and go where the pendant directs me to go.

I’ll just get in my car and start driving. It’s the easiest answer. If the pendant leads me away from Harry, I’ll call my grandmother and ask her to go stay with him; she is the only one in either of our families who Harry will tolerate visiting us. If, on the other hand, the pendant brings me to Harry, that’s where I’ll go until given new directions.

Won’t it be weird if Sam is at my house? I imagine him curled up in a corner somewhere inside, not knowing who or where he is, but not wanting to venture out into the unknown, either. I hope that’s the case, actually. I can fix him quickly then, and we will leave this Lucy and her Harry to navigate their relationship on their own. We can get back to helping our friends and family defend the Earth in our universe. It will save so much time if Sam is at my house.

House. That’s another strange thing. Harry and I lived together in a second-floor apartment in my universe, but, saddled with this Lucy’s memories, I know we moved into a house after Harry’s accident, so he wouldn’t have to deal with stairs. In my universe, Harry and I always talked about getting our own house one day, though it was one of those far off dreams young engaged couples discuss, and it certainly wasn’t meant to be in these circumstances.

Poor Harry. This one and mine.

So, locking up my classroom, as is my automatic habit, I venture out to the parking lot, and whatever new adventure awaits me.

It is in the parking lot, seeing all the other teachers walking to their cars, waving and smiling to the ones I know well (or the ones Alternate Lucy knows), I suddenly notice something so striking, it makes me stop cold in my tracks.

No one has a guardian angel.

Back home, everyone has a guardian angel who always hovers just over their left shoulder, a silent sentinel guiding them where they are supposed to go, and keeping them from harm when necessary. As a seer, they’ve always been visible to me, so they’re kind of like part of the background scenery of the world. I take it for granted that they’re there. That’s why it took me a moment to notice their absence. And, now that I’ve noticed it, it’s really conspicuous.

Where are the guardians?

For that matter, where are any angels at all? Not only are the guardians absent, I don’t see any other angels around this place. There are usually at least a few in the vicinity wherever I go at home, going about their angel jobs. Nature Angels, Animal Angels, Earth Angels, Messenger Angels, the occasional higher caste angel like a Galaxy Angel, or even an Archangel. Here, there are none of those. None at all.

Then, the hard reality of the situation hits me like a plane slamming into a mountain. This isn’t an alternate universe at all, one made from a different decision someone made in another universe, as I originally thought. This is a parallel universe.

Wow. That is a whole other ballgame.

Parallel universes can be completely different from anything we’ve ever seen and totally alien, with nothing resembling humans, angels, or anything familiar. Or, they can be nearly identical to our own, but with a few important differences. The second scenario seems to be in play here.

No angels. That’s an enormously important difference.

That means there is a good chance the energetic vibration levels here don’t support angels in their normal state, the one that makes them invisible to and untouchable by most humans, with the exception of seers like me. If this is true, then Sam will be plainly visible to anyone here, wings and all. And that means it won’t just be other angels and human seers who can potentially hurt him. Anyone can.

A tall, winged man who looks like he could be an ancient Greek sculpture come to life, with no memory, wandering around among the general human population.

Good Lord. I may not need the pendant to find Sam at all. If even one person sees him with those wings, all it may take to find him is turning on the news.

Chapter Three

Jonathan

I go where the power is. My angelic senses bring me to the most powerful races across the universe. In the beginning, I asked them to teach me to do the things they do. Some obliged, some didn’t. Those who did not comply will one day bow down to me and kiss my sandals, begging to serve me in even the most menial ways. Maybe I will spare them. Maybe I won’t.

Some races have innate powers that cannot be learned. Once, I planned to harness these inborn powers once my own powers and followers were great enough to start a large-scale takeover of this universe. They are powers I’ll need once the Earth is conquered and my greatest rivals, Prince Sam of the Earth Angels and Lucy McDonald of the human seers, have been eliminated once and for all.

But, these days, I don’t have to ask or harness anyone to get their powers. Thanks to a recent encounter with an unusual race deep in the recesses of this universe, one no other angel has ever reached, I can now take powers I want from any race and make them my own. I can also bestow those powers on others. It is how I will make my army invincible.

I’ve been on this quest for a while. After Lucy murdered my chief lieutenant, Jasper, freed Sam from my clutches, banished me from her mansion, and disappeared to a place I cannot yet find, I moved out into the universe once more, determined to find something to bring them and their army