It was pitch-black. It was impossible to see my own hand let alone him. The air rushing over me changed from bitter cold to warm. I smelled salt water. Bright white light flashed—and the world stopped moving. My breaths evened. The tension and knots in my muscles loosened. I blinked a few times before I realized I no longer felt Mammon’s arms beneath my hands.

Bright golden light suddenly surrounded me. I sat up straight and looked around. I was on a beach. The sky was a perfect cloudless blue. The sand that stretched in every direction was my favorite shade of pale white-yellow that felt like powder between my fingers. The ocean was a glorious aquamarine with gentle waves rolling onto the shore. I looked down and found a pile of bones between my feet.

And one ripped-off black angel wing. The blood on the wing changed from red to a shimmery pretty gold. Little golden flames flickered off the feathers one-by-one until the entire wing burned to sparkling dust that swirled in the air.

“We have been waiting for you,” a deep male voice rumbled in front of me.

I looked up and found a familiar face standing right in front of me, yet one I hadn’t seen in a long, long time. His eyes were white and surrounded by gold irises, just like Tegan’s when she went White Witch. He had some kind of metallic material wrapped around his hips. His entire body from his bald head down to his bare feet was covered in a vine-line glyph with a golden heart-shaped crystal over his chest. His wings were as white as snow and looked soft to the touch. I looked up and met his stare.

His lips curved into a crooked smile. He crossed his arms over his chest and rocked back on his heels. “The Angel of Tides has finally returned to the Garden of Eden . . . and she brought me a present.”

And just like that, my memory was back. I remembered everything.

I was Celina.

I was the Angel of Tides.

And I had a score to settle on Earth, now more than ever.

I grinned up to my old friend and felt the relief finally fill the crevices of my soul that had been aching these last eighteen years. “Gabriel, I know better than to return home without gifts.”