Possessed by Desire by Elisabeth Naughton

what it’s like to be numb on the inside. Emotions… They’re like a drug. I summoned you because I want to cross into the djinn realm and destroy the other opals so that not just I but my fellow angels can experience more.”
    He didn’t immediately answer, and when the silence got to be too much, Claire finally looked over. Except, when her eyes met his, she sensed there was something else he wanted to ask her. Something…personal.
    Her pulse quickened all over again.
    “Why were you banished?”
    Surprise registered. And was followed quickly by disappointment because it wasn’t the question she wanted either. “I already told you. I wasn’t supposed to ask—”
    “Don’t give me the line about asking too many questions. I may not be celestial, but even I don’t believe you’d be banished for that.”
    Why the hell was he so smart? He was djinn. She’d always been told djinn acted on their base desires. But in the time she’d been with him, he hadn’t once done anything she’d expected. She sighed. “Angels aren’t supposed to question authority.”
    “Then why give you a brain?”
    He had a point. She frowned. Tried not to laugh. Hated that she wasn’t just being honest, she was exposing everything now.
    The dream came back to her as she debated what to tell him, but this time it seemed so real, she was sure she could hear the crackling flames. “All angels have jobs. Mine was to test the souls of newly departed. Every soul develops on a path to enlightenment. The good and evil souls are easy to ascertain; it’s the ones who skirt the middle line whom I was sent to test.”
    “How?”
    “I was supposed to tempt them. The road to the afterlife, or the chance to go back and try again.”
    “Reincarnation.”
    “Not necessarily.” It was hard to explain, and she knew she wasn’t doing a good job of it. She shifted against the pillows. “You’ve heard of a person dying, then coming back to life? Sometimes it was as simple as that. For the truly good, it was a chance to make amends. For the ones we were unsure about, it was a test to see what they’d do with extra time. Would they use it for good or evil?”
    “So you passed judgment.”
    “No.” On this she was clear. “Judgment is reserved for the High Seven. But if I sensed a hesitation, I had the ability to send the soul back.”
    “That still doesn’t explain why you were banished.”
    Claire pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “There was a man. In his thirties. He’d been walking along the side of a road at dusk and was hit by a car. I was sent to determine if he should be sent for final judgment. I sensed goodness in him, but I also felt his desire to go back. When I questioned him, he told me he needed to go back for his son. The son was four, suffering from cancer, and would likely die soon, and the man claimed there was no other family to take care of him. His mother had passed in childbirth. I knew the man would have easily passed to the Seven Heavens, but I made the decision to send him back.”
    “I’m guessing your superiors didn’t like that decision.”
    That was an understatement. Claire sighed. “As angels, we’re supposed to do Allah’s will, nothing more. When I made the decision to send that soul back, I superimposed my will on him. And that decision impacted not only him and me, it messed with the celestial balance. By sending him back, I opened his soul to the possibility of doing evil and jeopardizing his chance to eventually make his way to the Seven Heavens.”
    She looked out the window toward the moon high above. She’d paid a price for her decision, but as much pain as she knew that man had felt when his son eventually did pass, she took comfort in the fact the boy hadn’t died alone. There weren’t many things Claire could picture worse than being alone. And a soul as strong and bright as that man’s… She had faith he’d find his way back to the Seven