Free Alice's Insurrection (Alice Clark Series) by Andrea DiGiglio

against Alice in defeat. Those years ago, when they had set the plan into action to create a super Nephilim to save them all, he had had no idea what the consequences were. He felt that God should be proud of how many of them had connected with his precious human creatures. He wiped the salt from his skin and stared into Alice’s warm eyes.
    “Enough about me, let’s go celebrate.” His smile was warm but the guilt he was feeling stung them both.
     

    ALICE
     
    Alice entered the house to find the table set with more food than they could possibly eat. Her eyes locked onto Cole’s for a short moment causing that familiar electric surge to course through her. Jake pulled her into a hug, smiling hugely like a proud brother might do. This day they feasted, they enjoyed each other’s company and they felt the love as if they all had waited their entire lives to feel it. Even Briathos joined them as he, too, had finally felt a fraction of what feeling human was like, and, as much as he was fighting it, it felt good. Alice was proud of her family, proud to call them her own after a lifetime of yearning to be a part of something. Even with darkness lurking in the corners of their world, they had this moment to just exist as they were meant to.
     

     
    Alice laid awake thinking about James and how he must have known who she was when he befriended her. She wanted to be angry but she had forgiven Cole for the same thing, and most of her Fallen family, as well. She also dwelled on how Briathos connected with her teacher, falling face first into human emotion as she twirled her hair coyly at him in response to nothing more than his presence. She knew he was tormenting himself over the ordeal and as much as she would have liked to comfort him, she knew that this was his path to take and that nothing she did or said would change that. Max had called to check in on her, as well, as she had requested some time off to heal. She had told him for it was for “school.” So many lives tangled together, held by invisible strings. Things were going entirely too well, and that made her extremely nervous. Cole entered the room and sat down on the bed next to her.
    “Everything alright?”
    “Today? Yes,” she smiled, sitting up to reach his lips with her own. She had never felt so whole in her entire life and she owed much of that to Cole. She lived to touch his skin, feel his hands all around her. Love was a powerful force, a lesson that they had learned over and over again. She sighed as they laid down and she snuggled into his arms, “I love you.”
    “And I love you.” He kissed the top of her head and in the comfort of his arms, she slowly drifted off to sleep.
    Alice awoke in the familiar field of golden grass and eerie woods. A fog seeped from the woods crawling across the grass toward her. She backed slowly away , almost knowing that what waited for her wasn’t a good thing. You cannot save them all. You were never meant to exist. A deep soothing voice echoed with hatred.
    “But I do!” Alice yelled back. She looked around to find herself sitting in her bedroom , shaking, with Cole frantically holding her.
    “What happened , Alice?”
    “I think… ,” she shook with terror at the memory of the voice. “I think it was God. Is that even possible?”
    Cole soothed her the best he could as her shivers slowly declined , but the idea that she may have spoken to God terrified him as well. She focused in on the beating of his heart against his chest as it echoed in her ear. She knew she had every right to be nervous because as it stood, if that was God, He had no intention of letting her save any of them and if He chose to speak with her, He did so in a way to get that message to her. A worse thought emerged, what if this was a manipulation at the hand of Rogziel? She looked up into Cole’s worried eyes and when he smiled at her sweetly, she knew that scare tactics weren’t going to stop her from trying. How much is one soul