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Cover Design by Najla Qamber Designs

Editing by Elizabeth Phelps

The following is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, to factual events or to businesses is coincidental and unintentional.

To you reading this,

Thank you for loving Clark and Michaela.

This is for you.

Welcome to the Days of New.

SPEAKING OF THE DEVIL

A DAYS OF NEW SERIAL

VOLUME I

MEG COLLETT

Clark’s Notes on the End of the World

T
he Angel Civil War:
A short but brutal war that broke out when the Aethere choir framed the Archangel Michaela and took control of Heaven. Plagues and death marked the history pages of this short confrontation. The war also almost ended the world. Like, for real.

The Apocrypha:
A book that is said to contain all the ancient secrets of the Watchers, one of the most powerful choirs of angels to exist. Their secrets are ones of magic and lure, dangerous and lethal. Everyone in Heaven and Hell assumed the book to be a myth until Lucifer found it decades ago. Clark stumbled across the book and opened it. Much to his cursing dismay, the words left the book and inked themselves onto his arms. Talk about a tattoo you regret the next morning.

Choirs of Angels:
A categorization method to distinguish between the different breeds of angels.

The Aethere:
Every human, upon their untimely end, must have their soul judged. Those who judge the soul righteous or…ah…not so much...are a choir of angels called the Aethere. They were led by Abel, an angel with an over-evolved sense of purity and idealism. He made a deal with Lucifer to frame Michaela so that the Aethere could take control of Heaven. Basically, top notch assholes.

Archangels:
The most powerful choir of angels and the previous leaders of Heaven before the Aethere took control. They are warriors and overall badasses. List of Archangels, including their status: Michaela (Angel of Death/holy-ish), Gabriel (General of Hell/holy-ish but mostly fallen-ish), Zarachiel (holy), Uriel (holy), Simiel (holy), Ophaniel (holy), Raphael (holy), Asmodeus (fallen/dead), Cassius (fallen/dead), Molloch (fallen/dead), Emim (fallen), and Irin (fallen).

Throne Angels:
While the Archangels were created to be warriors and leaders, the Throne angels were created to be soldiers. They were the front lines of every battle. Their lives were full of endless war and endless fighting, which could account for their general surly, bitchy attitudes. Of course, Clark had only met one Throne angel—Camille—but he figured it was safe to make a general assumption of the whole.

Clark St. James:
Self-professed man candy and saver of the world. He was also a very bad Descendant of Enoch before he found out he’s not exactly human, which explained some things about his odd life. His mother, Iris St. James, is a Nephil, which meant Clark is
whatever
percent angel. After helping Michaela prove her innocence and restoring Heaven back to its rightful leaders, Clark has retired to peaceful, serene existence—just kidding. That’s someone else’s life. Clark is now the leader of Nephilim and works alongside the Keeper of the Descendants of Enoch to restore order to Earth.

Clark’s Sojourn to Hell:
Not highly recommended as a vacation destination. Allergies could be irritated by the ash and suffering floating in the air. Clark himself only went to learn how to control the magic he’d inherited from the Apocrypha. Lucifer was a good teacher, if not a little impatient. An uneasy friendship was formed between Clark and Lucifer until, of course, Clark accidentally killed Lucifer.

Descendants of Enoch:
An order of humans descended from Enoch, a man who once walked amongst the angels. His tales are recorded in the Book of Enoch. The Descendants act as the earthly protector of angels, which is like saying they are mice guarding lions. There is a seated council of Descendants, who represent the society as a whole. They are led by one man, called a Keeper, at all times. In the post-war world, they are the only form of government left. Survivors come to their compound to seek shelter and aid. In the absence of angels, the Descendants will restore the world. Or try to.

Gabriel:
Once an Archangel, Gabriel was condemned as a traitor and sentenced to Hell by the Aethere. Never before had a holy angel been sent to Hell. For a while, he was Lucifer’s pet and was forced to fight in gladiator-style tournaments for the entertainment of the lost souls. When he killed Lucifer’s second-in-command, Lucifer named Gabriel his new Lieutenant. After Lucifer’s death, Gabriel was next in line to be the General of Hell. He used his new fallen angel army to help Michaela reclaim Heaven from the Aethere.

Holy Fire:
Magic that Clark learned from the Watchers’ secrets. When called forth by a few words, the holy fire is fatal to humans and powerful enough to permanently maim an angel. This was the best method to kill Lucifer’s hybrids.

Hybrids:
A Frankenstein-like combination of human souls inserted into fallen angel bodies. It was an experiment that went very, very wrong. The hybrids were powerful beings driven by the desire for blood. Hybrids were Lucifer’s failed attempt at making immortal angels for his army.

Iris St. James:
Mother to Clark St. James. She was a full-blooded Nephil with the most powerful ability of an entire generation of Nephilim. She can see bits of the future, a power that she passed down to Clark in the form of dreams. Her powerful talent meant she was the leader of the Nephilim community until she named Clark her successor.

Isaac St. James:
Father to Clark St. James. He was once the Keeper of the Descendants of Enoch until he died from a fatal hybrid bite in Charleston. He named Liam as his successor. He’s buried in the Descendants’ cemetery in a position of honor along with the other Keepers of old.

Lucifer:
One-time leader of the fallen angels and General of Hell. Most folks assumed him dead. You know what they say about assumptions and speaking of the devil…he will appear. Much to Clark’s dismay.

Michaela:
Once the leader of the Archangels and the General of Heaven. She was framed by the Aethere and banished to Earth, where she was hunted and condemned as a traitor and sellout. After a very interesting twist of events, she became the new Angel of Death. Now she spends her days ferrying souls from their bodies to their judgment.

Michaela’s Bones:
Michaela’s wings contain the only known power to kill an angel. When Lucifer cut off her wings, he took the bones and made an assortment of weapons from their powder. Those weapons are now scattered across Heaven, Hell, and Earth. It isn’t exactly known why her bones can do this, but it is believed that since she was the first angel ever created, and the purest, that her bones are almost toxic to lesser angels.

Nephil (singular)/Nephilim (plural):
A race of half-angels born from the union between the Watchers and human women. Until very recently, the Nephilim were hunted down and believed to be mostly extinct. But they have a knack for survival, even if their methods of doing so is a little…creepy. Most have some magic ability passed down from their forefathers, the Watchers. But the magic has dulled from one generation to the next. It’s rare to find a powerful Nephil, although Iris St. James is one of the most powerful in existence.

Pennsylvania Clan of Nephilim:
An Amish community of Nephilim, who hid from notice for hundreds of years. Lead by Iris St. James, the Pennsylvania clan is the most prominent Nephilim community in the United States.

Watchers:
A group of angels who spent a little too much time watching the human woman. Soon, just watching wasn’t enough, and the Watchers went to Earth to lay with the women and share their secrets of weapons and astrology to the humans. The Nephilim were the children of the Watchers and the women. Learning of this transgression, Michaela sentenced the Watchers to life deep underground, chained in water, where they couldn’t perform magic and were cursed to waste away eternity. The women who slept with the Watchers were turned into Sirens, cursed to forever long for a man’s touch but never to be satisfied.

Chapter One

I
t had been six months since the Archangels reclaimed Heaven, but Clark still jolted awake, as if he was falling from one nightmare into another.

When the temporary flash of fear cleared, Clark cursed and swatted away the feathers tickling his nose. The alarm clock blared next to him and echoed through the drafty apartment. He slammed his hand onto the snooze button, sending the clock crashing to the stone floor covered in musty old rugs.

Camille, an angel from the Throne choir, didn’t even stir as Clark shoved her pure white wing off him and rose from the bed. The sheet was bunched around her sprawled legs, exposing her bare ass and the smooth, porcelain skin of her slender back.

Running his hand over the scruff along his jaw, Clark walked over to a large window framing an entire wall of the bedroom. Outside, the sun was starting to illuminate the gray earth. His breath condensed against the window, the winter air crisp beyond the heated confines of his apartment. From his vantage point, he saw the entire south side of the estate, where refugee tents littered the front lawn.

Clark caught his reflection in the glass. His pink Mohawk was flat and faded, his blue eyes much the same, making him look more tired than his twenty-four years warranted. Farther down his reflection, he glimpsed the tattoos on his arms and had to look away, even though the unwanted marks called to him like little whispers.

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