Rhea clicked the lock on the door behind her. Then she walked over to her desk and polarized the windows. She pressed the intercom button. "Hold all my calls," she told Jan. Finally she turned and faced Miramuel.
"What's so important that you couldn't wait and tell me in my kitchen? You know what could happen to me if anyone sees an angel here."
"Relax, Rhea," Miramuel said. She walked over to the couch and sat down, beckoning Rhea to join her. "I came in the front door disguised as your sister."
"I don't have a sister."
"You do now." Miramuel gave her a cocky grin. "Besides, no one is going to recognize me as an angel."
Rhea sat. "Like no one recognized you as an angel back in 1428?"
"That doesn't count," Miramuel said. "I wasn't working at it as hard then. And I didn't know Joan was that pure of heart. Besides, it turned out to be part of the plan for England and France to keep competing."
"It counts, Mir," Rhea said. "I was in charge of getting the English to burn her at the stake. I didn't have any choice."
"Well, after all, she made it to Heaven."
"No one should have to get there that way."
Miramuel hung her head. They sat in silence several minutes, looking out the window. "I am working at it today," Miramuel said finally, "and you didn't come home last night, Rhea. We didn't know if you were coming home tonight either."
"Probably not," Rhea admitted. "Not to sleep anyway. So what do you want?"
"We have a message for you."
"From whom?"
"Who do you think?"
Rhea sat up straight. "No," she said, "He doesn't speak to me anymore," she smiled sadly. "I'm in a different chain of command."
"Maybe you can't commune directly," Miramuel said. "Nonetheless, I am a herald."
Rhea stood up and walked to the window. "So what's the message?" she asked. " 'Come home, all is forgiven'? Not likely. What I said the other night still stands."
Miramuel put her hand on Rhea's shoulder and turned her around. "No," she said, looking into Rhea's eyes, "it's just this: You've set forces in motion that are heading out of control. You still have time to stop what you're doing. You can make this project not work, and things will continue the way they are. Or you can continue on this stubborn, self-directed path you've chosen, but if you do, you'll have to take the consequences."
"I've been taking the consequences for my actions for a hell of a long time," Rhea snarled. "And that's what this is really about, isn't it? He didn't send you to get me to come home. He sent you to stop me from helping them."
"We're here to help you, Rhea. We're here to keep you from making a mistake. And it's almost too late. You're almost to the point where you won't be able to turn back."
"I don't want to turn back. It's been a long time since I've done the right thing, but I'm doing the right thing now."
"Then let me tell you something else. You know you're being hunted. We've helped some with keeping you hidden, but we can't do that forever. You can play here at being human for a while, but have you considered the effect that your playing is going to have when you aren't here anymore. What about the people who are working for 'Rheabeth Samuels' right now? Hmmm?"
"What's that supposed to mean, when I'm not here anymore? Is that a threat?"
Miramuel shrugged. "That's the message," she said. "That's all I know."
Rhea studied the angel, who gave off an aura of stubbornness along with her usual faint glow of goodness. Mir was hiding something. Something about what she'd said had been wrong . . . really wrong . . . if only Rhea could figure out what it was.
The out-of-kilter something didn't have anything to do with the Hellish force that was hunting Rhea, however. That remark was as honest as Heaven.
Rhea closed her eyes for a moment, shivering. She'd felt Lucifer's hunters on her trail recently. Felt the vibrations of her name in the aether. She hadn't wanted to believe it, but she wasn't stupid. Someone was coming, and if she couldn't deal with him, she needed to have some contingency plans in place. She went back to her desk, and brought up the Bodeans on her office speakers. Then she spoke into the intercom. "Jan, get me our lawyers."