Mortals and Angels (The End of Eternity Series) by Bethany Summers

MORTALS AND ANGELS

Book One of the End of Eternity Series

END TIMES? THE END OF THE WORLD? THE END OF US?

BUT THAT’S ALL JUST A MYTH, RIGHT?… RIGHT?…

ANGELS?… SERIOUSLY?… IS THIS A JOKE?

Like Buffy and Bella, (but without the vampires), seventeen-year-old Mary Donahoe, has a secret. She’s more clued in than most of earth’s inhabitants about the true nature of reality. She can answer with confidence eternal questions such as, does life go on after physical death? Yep! What about angels and demons? Yep! What about the eternal battle between good and evil? Yep! Ongoing.

From Mary’s point of view all the above are just the usual straddling of time and eternity she’s dealt with her entire life. Recently though, Mary’s noticed there was significantly more action on the eternal side of things. According to the rumors she was hearing lately, humankind was about to be in some serious shit. Something about how the sand in earth’s hourglass was down to its last granule. Apparently, the arbiters of the universe (or Archangels, as they are known in this little world), have run out of patience with humankind’s gleeful descent into evil, evidenced by earth’s wars, violence against the vulnerable, oppressive governments, destruction of the planet, weapons of mass destruction, etc. etc. You get the idea. Evidently, all the spirits racing towards earth lately are gathering to see the show, in anticipation of the spectacular nature of divine vengeance about to be wreaked upon us unsuspecting humans. Even in the angelic realms, both the fallen and unfallen variety, bets are being placed on the outcome.

Mary doesn’t have the bandwidth right now for intergalactic mysteries. She’s already time-challenged and stressed over the whole college admissions deal. Between parental admonitions about keeping her grades up, acing the SATs, adding to her extracurriculars, not to mention the day-to-day challenges of being a teenager in these trying times, there’s nothing left over to unravel the fate of humankind.

You see, Mary hasn’t figured out yet that her dirty little family secret has a price attached to it. Since the beginning of time, generation after generation, the gift has passed unbroken from mother to daughter. And the price of that gift is about to come due.

Oh, and all those disembodied visitors speeding towards earth from across the galaxies? They’re coming to see Mary.

Because she’s the one.