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back to the car, but Grace swooped down.
    “Move!” Sammy yelled.
    “You mustn’t interfere.” Grace hung in mid-air with her lips pressed to a thin line.
    Blood boiled beneath her skin. “Why? You can’t let her die. I can help. That isn’t fair.”
    “You can’t. The events have been set in motion by Alexander and Forras ’ decisions. Now they must face the consequence.”
    For the first time, she wanted to ball up her fist and smash a rock to pebbles and scream to the heavens they were unfair and unjust. She tried to dive down and help but her wings seized and wouldn’t move.
    “Let me go.” Sammy whimpered but the invisible force didn’t release her. Instead, Grace moved to the side and allowed Sammy to watch the horror unfold.
    Everything around her magnified, she saw through the darkness to the far side of the road and the smell of pine burned the inside of her nose.
    “Your angel abilities are returning.” Grace reassured her.
    “Then I can help.” She struggled but there was no use, she wouldn’t budge.
    “It isn’t your time to help, only your time to observe and learn.”
    The car catapulted into the air.
    Screams, lights, burning rubber.
    The green hunk of metal flipped. The impact tore open the passenger side door. With flailing arms and legs, the girl was ejected from the car.
    The old vehicle rolled down the side of the highway without her.
    Sammy’s stomach lurched. Tears slid down her face as the girl’s body was flung like a rag doll onto the ground. The metallic smell of blood, sound of bones cracking, tendons popping, and an iron taste invaded her senses.
    “Why am I being tortured?”
    “Sometimes we are forced to stay back and allow others to make mistakes. You fell because you interfered with Heavens will.”
    At the sounds of metal crunching and terrifying screams, acid burned her throat. She prayed for the nightmare to end.
    “ Elianna .” The cry was a foreboding echo through the tall pine trees. The man cradled a woman’s body in his arms, and Sammy knew instinctively it was his wife.
    Her heart shattered. The young girl rolled on her side and crawled, dragging one leg, towards the pair.
    Sammy’s hands trembled as she struggled against the restraint. “Grace. Please.” She cried, but Grace didn’t respond. “This is my punishment?”
    “No. It is a lesson, and not just for you.”
    Sammy followed her gaze to a nearby ridge where Alexander fought to stay in the air, but he thudded around like a bird with a broken wing. The pine branches snapped against his body as he crashed to the ground.
    Her wings released and she floated down to a rock and collapsed next to Grace.
    The ground beneath her feet rumbled, a subtle vibration only an angel could detect it. The hair on her body stood at attention when a brilliant light descended. It lingered for a moment then ripped a reluctant soul from Earth.
    It was the woman’s soul. The cries of the loved one’s left behind sent a shiver through her wings and into her body, squeezing her heart.
    She clutched her chest and cried out. Hope yanked from between her ribs, leaving an empty space. Memories of a past life invaded her mind. All her senses bombarded with the pain and suffering of her fall.
    Wings shredded, fire, ash—she gagged at the odor of burnt feathers.
    “What’s happening?”
    “You’re remembering.”
    “Samantha you have been accused of disobeying angelic law and Alexander for an act unbecoming an angel.” Words as deep as the darkest depths of the ocean boomed in her head. “You were once a great angel. Loved by many.”
    Visions of Boon by her side centuries ago shot through her mind and she wanted to grab one but they were gone. “You will be sentenced to banishment.”
    White shimmers covered her with a tender caress. She took a deep breath and the snow-colored specks merged into a grey pool of sorrow.
    It clamped around her and constricted like a straight jacket of terror.
    “Fall!” She managed