Page 51

Cain in security footage is scary as all worlds. Cain in real life is terrifying.

I find myself raising my gun, my palms sweaty as I hold it tightly. My heartbeat increases and sweat beads on my forehead.

“Hello, gorgeous – where do you think you’re going? You haven’t heard the best part of the story yet.”

Cain’s voice drips with poison, and I find myself backing up until I stand at Nathaniel’s side.

The only word I manage is a quiet, “You…”

“Cain.”

Nathaniel stands tall, his sword moving towards the fallen angel, Jeremy – Jeremiah – a forgotten inconvenience in the background.

“Hello, buzzkill,”

Cain snickers, and takes a step into the light, but the shadows that encase him don’t fall. They arch over him and curl around his hands like weapons. His silver hair is so long that it blends into the daggers that form his wings.

Nathaniel steps in front of me now, prompting a cynical chuckle from Cain.

“So have you told her yet? Who she really is?”

“We were just in the process of that,”

Jeremiah chimes in from behind us. He’s leaning against a shipping container as if this is a casual conversation.

I look around, trying to find an exit strategy. I need to get away from all of them. I need to get to the AIA, to Xavier. I need to clear my head. If things escalate and they fight, I might be able to slip out the door we came through.

The archangel glares at Cain, his eyes widening when he notes the blood that drips from his bladed wings. “What have you done, Cain?”

Every word is laced with a mix of horror and disappointment.

“What you’re too weak to do.”

There’s no more humour in the fallen angel’s tone.

“You were once such a noble warrior – now look at you. She’s turned you into a monster,”

Nathaniel spits.

That pisses him off. Cain moves so quickly that I hardly register it until his face is only inches away from the archangel, the blades of his left wing pressed closely to Nathaniel’s side. “I am more of a warrior now than you ever will be. I have earned this. I wasn’t born into it like you. You would never have become an archangel if it wasn’t for your mother.”

His mother?

I step backward, hoping I’ll be forgotten as the angels go head to head. I bump into something hard, turning around to find Jeremiah behind me, a grin tugging at his lips. Those lips I’m so familiar with, those lips I’d been so willing to kiss.

Jeremiah tilts his head to the side. “Where are you going, my love?”

I stare at the stranger before me. “Who are you?”

He reaches out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, but I flinch and pull away. His hand hovers in front of my face. “I am the same man who has kept you safe for two years.”

“Safe? You think that’s what you were doing by stripping me of my free will?”

I move to step around him, but he grabs my arm and holds me in place. I look up at him, tears welling in my eyes, my mouth parted, betrayal overcoming me.

For a moment I see the look on Jeremiah’s face soften. For a moment I think he feels guilt. “I can’t let you leave,”

he says, ending that moment. “You serve a much greater purpose.”

Nathaniel growls in the background as he turns towards us. “Let go of her, Jeremiah,”

he orders through clenched teeth.

Cain’s laugh ripples through me and sends a harsh shiver up my spine. “Look at you, Nathaniel. I always thought you were against fate, but here you are, embracing your Aeterna.”

Realisation dawns over me like a harsh breeze. “Wait – you think that’s me?”

A humourless laugh escapes me.

“Enough, Cain.”

Nathaniel’s hand clenches his sword so tightly his knuckles turn white.

“What’s wrong?”

Cain snarls. “Afraid your precious little Aeterna won’t want you once she finds out that you’ve been lying to her?”

Nathaniel growls and stretches his wings out behind him in a display of power. In contrast to the fallen angel’s bladelike feathers, they’re astonishingly beautiful.

A smirk plays at Cain’s lips. “Very well.”

His eyes stay sharp on the archangel as the ground begins to shake. Shadows surround us, the light draining from the room in an instant.

Jeremiah’s hand still clasps the arm that holds my gun, his grip tight enough to hold me in place but not so tight that it hurts. That’s his mistake.

I stomp on his foot with all of my strength. He hisses, but doesn’t flinch. My knee meets his stomach. He topples over, letting go of my arm. I place my hands on the back of his head before driving my knee into his skull.

Jeremiah takes several steps backward. His hand comes to his broken nose. Golden blood turns black as it gushes from his nostrils.

Nathaniel spins away from Cain’s wings, his sword swinging elegantly. I raise my gun to Jeremiah’s head, my hand shaking as I stare at the man who held me captive for years.

He drops his hands from his bleeding face, his glare turning deadly. “That wasn’t very nice, Amara.”

He launches for me, but lifts himself in the air as I reciprocate, sending me stumbling forward.

He lands behind me and grabs me, one arm wrapping around my neck and the other holding my head. I hit at his arms, gasping for air.

He tightens his hold. “I’m going to have to teach you some manners.”

I drop my gun and reach for the blade in my belt, propelling it backward into whatever part of his flesh I can hit. Jeremy screams, dropping his arms and falling to one knee. I collapse in a heap, gasping for air and reaching for my throat.

Jeremiah’s hands clutch the wound at his hip. Golden blood pours from it.

What have I done?

I stare at the man I thought I loved, lying on the floor with blood gushing from his hip. I struggle with the part of me that wants to help him, hold pressure on the wound and stitch him up.

“An angel can only be killed by a weapon made in Aetheria or the Darklands.”

I remind myself that he won’t die, he’s just mildly injured. It’ll heal quickly.

Do I really care whether it does or not?

I scramble for the gun on the floor, tucking it into my belt. I try to catch my breath as I stand and begin to back away. Nathaniel and Cain are too distracted fighting each other to notice me.

Then I hear it. The low growl that makes my skin crawl. The sound of the creature I’ve become so accustomed to killing.

A blur of bark-like flesh rushes in from every direction. Daemons circle around me, saliva dripping from their mouths. Drooling at me as if I’m their next meal.

I don’t hesitate for a moment, drawing my frost blade and plunging it into creature after creature. Despite the bodies that crumple to the floor, the sea of grey flesh doesn’t disperse. When one falls, another takes its place.

Nathaniel shoots upwards alongside Cain with a force that tears through the warehouse ceiling. The hole they left in the roof allows light to burn through the shadows, giving me a small circle of safety. It doesn’t make up for the fact that I now face this army of monsters alone, the archangel nowhere to be seen.

Jeremiah is lost amongst the chaos as well. I suppose his wound has healed and he went to fight with Cain, but I wouldn’t know. The only thing I can see in every direction is a daemon assault of massive proportions.

As if on command, bodies burst through the door in a blur of wings. I don’t know whether to feel relieved or run for my life. Though it’s clear they’ve been told to pay no mind to me; the angels tear through daemons without even giving me a second glance.

Bright red wings in the distance grab my attention. Afriel.

I duck under the arm of a lurching beast and drive my blade deep into its stomach when I come back up. A pair of claws reaches for me quickly, scraping my shoulder. Pain sears through me and I hiss, but the daemon becomes ash quickly when my blade meets its head.

I continue to fight my way through the horde of endless daemons until I reach the archangel’s second. Afriel’s red wings flare behind him as he lifts himself off the ground before landing quickly and tearing the head off a daemon.

“Hello, Amara.”

He doesn’t look at me; instead he swings his sword to his next victim.

“Red.”

I spin on my heel, driving my foot into the leg of a daemon who’s been sneaking up behind me. The creature stumbles and turns to ash as my blade pierces its heart.

An icy wave washes over me as nails scrape my side. I fight the scream brewing and turn to the daemon, removing its head. Another grabs me from behind, its claws digging into my skin. A screech escapes me and I fall to my knees.

Ice fills my veins, my bones ache, and my heart slows.

I reach for the hands behind me, trying to tear them off me. My frost blade slices its left hand until the skin sizzles and the creature lets go.

My energy levels are plummeting quickly. I move slower with each second. I sweep the legs of an incoming daemon out beneath it, knocking it and the one behind it over. I use the extra time to get back on my feet and gain my balance, but my head spins. My hair has fallen from its braid, and the wind that howls through the warehouse sends strands of it into my line of vision. I brush them out of my face, looking around at the chaos of the warehouse.

Angels swing their swords in every direction, taking out daemons like they’re nothing more than a slight inconvenience. I watch as a daemon falls, then hellfire appears where it stood and another clambers its way to the surface.

There is no end. They’ll just keep crawling from the depths of the Darklands.

I’m pushed to the ground by claws, and agony washes over me. They’re ripped away as quickly as they came in a blur of red. I watch as Afriel is deemed a threat by the others and they double the horde that surrounds him.

Another daemon digs its talons into my hip. I try to twist my blade in the air, hoping to make contact with grey flesh, but I move too slowly. My vision begins to blur, and my body begs me to stay still. I try to move, to fight, but I’m paralysed under their touch, my skin frozen.

Nathaniel, my mind reaches out to him, my voice not following the command. The small sliver of hope within me dwindles. The hope that he might save me one last time.

I sink to the ground, daemons grabbing at my flesh. My screams sound hollow, empty. They’re weak and muffled, a contradiction to the pain that grips me tightly.

A canopy of grey engulfs me, and I drift in and out of consciousness.

All I see is him. The man I thought I loved. The man who wasn’t really a man at all.

Images of our time together flash before me. Once-fond memories are now distorted into horrid, shadowed depictions of the truth. Jeremy’s face appears darker, and large blue wings grow from his back. Moments of love and tenderness are now poisoned with cruel intentions, with deceit.

An image of Nathaniel takes shape. His large white wings tower over me. He stares down at me with harsh features, his face twisted by hatred.

I scream internally, the wave of emotions threatening to pull me under. Anger and heartbreak consume me with a passion I’ve never felt before. But what ignites the fire inside of me, the one that forces me to fight for consciousness, is the betrayal that strikes me to my very core.

The man I loved, Jeremy, and the man I trusted, Nathaniel – both a lie. I should’ve listened to Xavier. I should’ve stayed home. Perhaps I’d have died a delusional but happy woman one day.

The images begin to fade, and I fight through them to open my eyes. For a second, I believe that I did, that I see a face hovering above me. The face of the archangel.

That’s the last thing I see before my mind goes blank.

My head is empty, my body numb. I can’t hear or see anything but silence and darkness.

Slowly, the ice in my veins starts to slip away. The numbness is replaced by a feeling of tingling spreading across my skin.

I blink, bringing myself back from the abyss. When my eyes open, the canopy of grey flesh is ripped away from me and a blur of white and silver takes its place.

Nails are torn from my skin and an abundance of light replaces them as large arms cradle me. I’m lifted off the ground, and wind surrounds me as we rise into the air.

I’m healing quickly, light spurting from my pores. Nathaniel’s touch feeds strength back into me.

I tighten my hold on him. We fly higher and faster through the sky.

My hair whips around me and tears sting my eyes. For the last time, I allow Nathaniel to carry me away from danger. For the last time, I let his warmth seep into my veins as he holds my body close to his.

Once we land, he’ll be a stranger to me.