I wasn’t alone.

“Be of cheer, little one,” said a soft voice inside my mind.

I opened my eyes and turned too quickly, knocking the hand soap off the counter. A spirit’s wizened face hovered near mine, as sheer as a mirage. No trace of malevolence could be found.

Was this my mother? My heart leaped . . . but she didn’t resemble the angels I’d seen. She didn’t have wings. All I could do was stare.

“You okay in there?” Patti called.

The spirit nodded and I opened the door. Patti looked at me strangely before closing her eyes with a hand on her chest. As a human, Patti could not see spirits, but she was a sensitive woman and knew they existed.

“What’s going on, Anna?” she asked. “I feel so . . .”

“I have a visitor,” I whispered, reaching out and taking Patti’s hand.

Patti looked toward the open space, marveling. Her guardian angel was smiling—something I’d never seen him do. Like most guardians, he was always so serious, but at that moment he seemed to know something we didn’t. Something that gave him great joy.

I turned my attention back to the surreal spirit as she began to speak into my mind.

“It has been difficult to navigate the earth in this form, especially when the pull heavenward is so strong, but I’ve finally found you. Finding you was my task, in death, if not in life.”

My eyes widened and I sucked in a deep breath.

“Are you . . . Sister Ruth?”

Patti gasped and smacked her palm over her mouth, wide-eyed.

“I am.”

Unbelievable. A giant grin spread over my face and I nodded to Patti. Tears pooled in her eyes. The spirit nudged closer to me.

The nun I’d traveled to California to see one year ago had died before I’d had a chance to meet her and find out what she knew about me. And now she was here. She must have perceived my elation because her laughter was like the tinkle of silver wind chimes drifting into my conscience. I wished I could hug her.

“Don’t make her stand in the bathroom,” Patti whispered at me, waving us out. She drifted behind us into the living area, but when we got there neither of us could sit. The room felt unfamiliar, as if we stood on a mountaintop with clear, fresh air, more relaxed than ever. We clung together.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t get there in time,” I began, but she shushed me gently.

“I must speak quickly because I can no longer ignore my calling to the afterlife. I must tell you a story, dearest Anna. It has been my family’s purpose to keep this story, passing it down through countless generations so that it could be told. To you. My family line stopped with me, so I gave my life to the Lord, forfeiting an earthly family of my own. What I’m going to tell you could not be written. If it had fallen into the wrong hands, it could have been disastrous. And you will do well to guard it yourself.”

Prickles of anticipatory sweat beaded on my skin.

“Know this, Anna: if a demon or Satan himself were to hear what you are about to learn . . .”

“I understand.” I took deep breaths to calm my heart so the rush of blood wouldn’t muffle her soft voice in my mind.

“So it goes: In the year of our Lord 62, while the apostle Paul was under house arrest in Rome, a messenger angel was sent from heaven to speak a prophecy unto Paul as he slept. The apostle awoke in the dark and carved the words of the prophecy into the dirt floor with his fingers, bleeding into the earth. He covered the words with straw, hoping they would be found by someone trustworthy. The very next day he was beheaded. Only two souls besides Paul and the messenger angel knew the prophecy: his own guardian angel, Leilaf, and a demon spirit of the night. The demon had seen the messenger angel descend upon Paul’s prison quarters. When Paul was taken, the demon spirit entered the empty cell and saw the words. He briefly possessed the body of a guard in order to destroy the prophecy. We do not know what became of that demon afterward.

“Once the angel Leilaf had seen Paul’s soul safely to the afterlife, he was given special permission to return to earth. Having found the written prophecy destroyed, Leilaf took it upon himself to enter the body of a shepherd whose life was just ending from an untimely illness. He then took a human wife and had a child: an angelic Nephilim child. He told the prophecy to this child. And so it has passed through each generation. I had no siblings, and I felt strongly led toward the sisterhood vows, so I would have no child with whom to pass along the prophecy. I am the final Nephilim child in the line of Leilaf, guardian angel of the apostle Paul.”

A purely angelic Nephilim of light. Amazing. How did the Dukes not know about her? I realized when she paused that I was holding my breath, trying to ingest every word of her story without interruption. She waited for my breathing to steady before continuing.

“And now, here is the angel’s lost prophecy, to the best of my knowledge:

“‘In the days when demons roam the earth and humanity despairs,

Will come a great test. A Nephilim pure of heart

Shall rise above and cast all demons from earth, sending home

To heaven those righteous lost angels with whom forgiveness is shown,

And sending those lost forever to the depths of hell where they shall

Remain with their dark master until the end of days.’”

She watched me as I untangled the verses and attempted to decipher them. Cast all demons from earth. Could it be? Sending home righteous lost angels. My dad! Could there really be redemption for fallen angels? My heart and mind were racing.