The Celestial Rose BoxSet

by Annalee Adams

  Delicate footsteps sounded over the hallway above. Shallow breathing halted as I heard her gulp. A frame of transcendent beauty stepped out into the light of the window at the top of the stairs. Her figure trembled, her heart skipped a beat. I could hear every breath, every flutter. I rose to my feet, my eyes wide, jaw dropped. I could feel my heart rate pulsate at the very presence of her being. She stepped down the stairs, one by one as her hair whispered in the wind. The flow of her graceful movements swayed over me as I ran to greet her.

  “Taylor!” I yelled, reaching my beloved’s hand as I pulled her in close, swinging her up and around on the stairs.

  “Lucian!” she exclaimed, breathless with tears filling her eyes.

  “Taylor,” I whispered as I placed her gently on the floor before me.

  “Lucian,” she said, smiling, as she leant forward and kissed me. And as our lips touched, our children smiled, running towards us for one huge family cuddle. We were finally reunited. Sat on the stairs, hand in hand, arm in arm, we looked out of the gaping hole in the wall to see the sun setting on the devastation of the world around us... and we knew, this wasn’t the end of the destruction yet.

  CHAPTER 121: TAYLOR

  “Cain!” Lucian exclaimed as Cain’s dark figure flowed into the light. His little girl Aria ran down the stairs and held Malek’s hand. Hope hugged her and thanked her for taking care of her brother.

  “Lucian,” Cain said as he stepped down the stairs one at a time. “So, it is true,” he said.

  “What?” Lucian asked.

  “You look just like him.”

  “Who?”

  I grimaced. I knew who he meant. Cain was stood in front of Lucian. observing him. “You’ve changed since I last met you, Lucian,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  I shook my head to Cain. Now wasn’t the time for a family reunion. I didn’t know how Lucian would take the news of being a mutated devil. And for now, well, I wanted the happiness.

  “Ah, nothing that can’t wait,” Cain frowned.

  Lucian shrugged, turned away from him, and hugged me. I glanced back and smiled at Cain, mouthing a ‘thank you’.

  My life had taken a trip down to Hell and back. It had been one heck of a ghastly ride. But being back in the arms of my lover once again, everything seemed simpler. Cain and Aria had left us to our reunion, awaiting Gabriel’s arrival downstairs, while the four of us sat perched on my bed, looking out of my window at the old oak tree. Those were the days... my memory was full of angst and turmoil. But before all the tragedy and pain, we’d shared so much good. The light within us both had shone brightly, and through it, through everything, we had fallen in love.

  Hand in hand we sat. Two little children were the result of our love for one another, miracle babies, and I was in awe that they had both survived so much in so little time. My daughter was the most resilient little girl I’d ever met. Lucian told me of her awakening as a phoenix from the ashes. She was powerful, kind, loving, and a visionary. She’d eased my suffering, my loss of her, with her touch as she gave me the memories she shared of Lucian and her life on this World and the time she had spent in Elysium with Uncle Adam. It was good to see the heavenly gates of paradise still alive and full of life. Apparently, even the rose had begun to flourish once again.

  Now we sat and waited. My daughter snuggled into my arm as we watched the final minutes of the sun set. As the sun waned and the moonlight took its place, we saw a swarm of celestial beings’ storm through the front garden, entering my home below. Gabriel... he’d found us. All was right with the world once again.

  But as he entered our home, a hoard of darkness followed them. Something was wrong. Something was coming.

  I gasped. “Lucian, she’s here!” Picking up my daughter and taking my son’s hand, we ran to the top of the stairs. Cain was already at the front door, holding it open as the angels entered. Aria was cowered behind him as Lucian sped in-front of us to greet Gabriel half way down the stairs.

  “They’re coming, Lucian, we need to take them to safety now.”

  Gabriel ran forward to take my daughter and son.

  “No!” they shouted in unison.

  “Children, we must go!” Gabriel said.

  They shook their heads and stamped their feet down. If it wasn’t a time of life and death, I’d have applauded their tenacity.

  “Malek, Hope, we need to go now!” I said as I pushed them towards Gabriel’s open arms.

  They turned, smiled together and ran down the stairs, past Gabriel and out of the door towards the darkness.

  “LUCIAN!” I yelled, but he was already out the door following them.

  I ran down the stairs, Gabriel grabbed me and flew us forward at an almighty speed. As soon as we left my home, a sadness crept into my heart. Would that be the last time we shared together? A tingling feeling crept over my skin. Something was amiss, and it wasn’t just the darkened fate that galloped towards us. It was something more. Everything would change. Nothing would ever be the same again. That perfect moment we had just shared would never take place again. But why? What was it that pulled at my heartstrings so much?

  My children were stood stationary, hand in hand, looking up at the sky. Gabriel rested me down beside Lucian, whose mouth was wide as he stared up above. “What’s happening?” I asked. He didn’t answer. The sky thundered, and lightning struck the tree line. I shook him, shouting. “What’s happening, Lucian!” But nothing happened. He was frozen in time. He wouldn’t take his eyes off whatever was above us in the sky. I was eager to look up, but when I saw Gabriel and the rest of the angels frozen in wonder, I didn’t dare chance it. Whatever was up there was jaw-dropping enough to silence my loved ones.

  I ran forward and gripped my unmoving children. “Malek, Hope! Please, we have to go!” I yelled. The wind rushed past us. A force of nature brought up the leaves and dead branches as they amassed into a typhoon of mysticism encircling us. There was no way out; nature had trapped us in a circle of calm. Out there; the world was chaotic as mother nature had taken to correcting itself. The Earth quaked as the wind hurtled around, smashing all that stood in its wake. Rain poured from the sky, forming balls of ice as they crashed into life around us. A new ice age was forming, and one that we appeared to be in the centre of. Snow drifted past, settling on the frozen faces of the silenced outside. Every living creature was unmoving and, no matter how much I desired to, I never looked up.

  Fate was reforming the world around us, and my beloved Lucian was trapped within it. Gabriel and the angels were half buried in snow, frozen to ice as the raindrops chilled their statue-like faces. Eliza had trapped herself and Joey in a prism of ice, protecting them from the outside layers. She was in with the living, moving and trying to work out what was happening around her. Joey, however, was unmoving but protected by her magical shield. I looked around but couldn’t see Cain and Aria. The last I knew they had been in the doorway to my old home. Had they succumbed to the pain of the engaging medusa above?

  I knelt before my children, taking Malek’s face into my hands. Where was my child now? His body was as cold as stone. His eyes, unmoving, appeared as dead as the corpses that littered the ground around us. Although his eyes lacked lustre, I could see the reflection in the darkness of his iris as four gigantic figures floated above; two males and two females. On one side, a bright intensive light screamed out at the living. On the other, a morbid darkness fell amongst the dead. Were these the guardians my brother had spoken of?

  I had no choice. My children wouldn’t budge, pinned to the floor that caged them. I kept my back to the guardians and yelled, “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?”

  Laughter rippled across the sky above.

  “BALANCE,” they boomed in unison.

  “BUT HOW?” I yelled, battering against the noise of the wind.

  “THE CHILDREN,” they said.

  “YOU ARE NOT TAKING MY CHILDREN!” I screamed, grabbing at Malek and Hope’s hands.

&
nbsp; “NO, NOT TO TAKE. TO WAKE,” they boomed.

  “I DON’T UNDERSTAND,” I yelled.

  “YOU WILL,” they said as my children awoke. Hope leant forward and hugged me. Malek hugged us both. The circle of nature swirling around us began to ease and slowly fall to the floor.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, they nodded.

  Each of them placed a hand on my shoulder. “It’ll be okay now, mama,” they said as they smiled and dropped my hands, walking out of the circle.

  I hesitated. What had just happened? The world around me began to defrost. The noise of life itself took over and the chaos of the waging war battled forward.

  Lucian ran to my side. “Where are the children?” he asked.

  My mouth still wide I replied, “I... I, I don’t know.”

  He shook me as I snapped out of the mind mess I’d found myself in. “Over there,” I said, pointing at the darkness.

  “Taylor, Lilith’s in there!” he yelled, dragging me forward to enter the darkness with them. But as we did. we found the children stood in a graveyard of souls. The grey touch of a Reaper’s Curse had blasted the lands. Every living being was dead.

  Joey joined us. “Shit, mate, what’d you do?” he said, asking Lucian.

  Lucian shook his head then looked at the children.

  Hope smiled, “It’s okay daddy, the guardians reset the balance.”

  “Err, princess, then why’d they forget to reset those lot over there?” Joey asked, pointing at the army of thousands of dark forces heading over the devastated Earth. “There’s like ten of us and shit loads of them.”

  Malek grinned. “Mr. Joey, it is going to be okay,” he said.

  Joey backed off. “Your kid creeps me out, Luci,” he said.

  Lucian laughed, nervously. What had happened to them?

  “I don’t know what to do, Lucian,” I said. I was out of ideas.

  “We have to run,” Lucian said.

  “No,” both children said as they each took one of my hands and stepped forward.

  “It’ll be okay, Daddy,” they said, “have faith.”

  Eliza stepped forward and placed her hand on Lucian’s shoulder. “Have faith,” she said as she took Hope’s other hand. Lucian stepped forward, smiled, and took Malek’s hand. We were ready. All ten of us stood hand in hand, side by side, ready to have faith and believe that ten could be any kind of match against the thousands Lilith was bringing with her.

  CHAPTER 122: LILITH

  A melody of magnificent monstrosities stood by my side. Poised and ready for battle, we would bring Hell’s fire down on the blasted Earth.

  “Forward march,” I yelled from the back of my beast, pointing straight ahead. My head ached as I grew weary of all the fighting. What ever happened to good old pain and torture? If Daddy dearest had let me play, we wouldn’t have been in this catastrophic cataclysm right now. Silly daddy. He may have been the big old Lord of Darkness, but his desires for family reunification would be the end of him. Not me, though, I had bigger plans. First, destroy the world. Second, destroy the universe. Third, destroy everything else. It was perfect, nothing could go wrong. As long as my damned daddy didn’t get in the way. Oh my, oh my, I loved him so. He said he was proud of me, said he wanted me to take over the family business. Then he set his eyes on her, little miss Evie, his number one girl. He’d called her that in front of me, too. I mean, come on, that was his first mistake. Did he think I’d bend over backwards and take it up the rear? Silly Daddy, I was the Queen of this shithole of a land, not him! He was old news. The almighty had fallen, he just didn’t know it yet.

  “LILITH!” God boomed.

  “Yes, daddy.”

  “No killing your sister... okay?”

  “Fine daddy, whatever you say.”

  That silly little sister of mine, I was so sick of her whiny little voice. Daddy said I couldn’t kill her, but pulling out her voice box wouldn’t hurt. Oh my, oh my, what fun we would have! We had turned the corner, my army following me. The first scouts should have been back. “Come on, EJ, we have a...” Shit. We stopped still. The land was a mass of rotting corpses, mine, by the looks of it. What the heck had happened to this lot, then? All they were meant to do was jump right in, spread a cloud of darkened fog to confuse the enemy, and be back in time for supper. But no, they had to dance about and go get themselves killed. By what?

  “Err, ma’am, queen person...” a simple demon said, tugging at my ankle.

  I looked down from the side of the beast. “What?” I yelled, kicking him away. He’d better not have dirtied my dress!

  “The children, ma’am,”

  “What children?” I asked, looking over the land, squinting to see what he was rambling on about. Oh weeeeee, if it wasn’t my little boy Malek. Look how big he’s grown! Wasn’t he a trouper? Wasn’t he a star? But wait... oh no! My lips pouted, brow crinkled. That had better not be the sister! Oh look, they’re holding hands. My stomach tightened as I held back the howl building up in my gut. Look how sweet and little they were; mini people ready to take on my army. It was adorable. It was stupidly, completely, and utterly magnificent.

  Insane laughter rippled the land as I gagged on my own delicious delight. Shrieking through the absurdity of it, a rash of irrational giggles choked through me. I rolled back on the beast, let go of the harness, and fell down the side, still giggling. Landing on the dirty demon, I just couldn’t stop. It was all simply too spectacular. The little people really thought they could take on an army as huge as mine. All I had to do was click my fingers and poof, they’d explode. What a joyous thought! Poof, and they’d be gone. It was all too easy. They hadn’t even got that evil sister of mine to help them... Poof and they’re gone! I cackled, writhing in the pain of free laughter as it resonated through me.

  “LILITH GET UP!” Daddy demanded, standing over me with his mean old hands on his hips.

  “Poof!” I said, giggling, trying to click my fingers. I shook too much, nothing worked, the cackles wouldn’t stop coming.

  “Poof!” I yelped as Daddy shook his head, walked past me, and the army marched on.

  “Poof.”

  CHAPTER 123: TAYLOR

  My mother, the greatest fighter of all. She had battled through so much in her lifetime. She’d been by my side through every life I’d ever lived in one form or another... Adam had made sure of it. I was the one, out of all my siblings, that was lucky enough to be with her. I was blessed because of that. And through it all, she had given her life for me, she had blessed me with her light, so I could be free to survive and fight, to live another day. But today, today was the day I said goodbye. Today was the day I kissed her farewell. It would be the day she fled from my body, rushed head first into the darkness, and crashed into my father. She fought his soul within his own celestial-darkened body. Taking God out of the picture evened the odds slightly. Well, it would have if Lilith didn’t have thousands of mutated beings fighting the fight for her. What were we going to do?

  “It’s time,” the children chorused. They stepped forward, looked up, and smiled as an army of celestial beings headed by Adam and Charmeine landed before them.

  “Brother!” I yelled. He ran over to greet me, picking me up in his arms.

  “I’ve missed you, little sister,” he said as he let go and kissed my forehead. Bending down, he kissed Hope and kneeled before Malek. “Hello, nephew,” he said, ruffling Malek’s hair. Malek offered his hand out. Adam shook it, grinning. I smiled.

  “Are you ready for the big fight, kids?” Adam asked. They nodded. He turned to me, “I take it you couldn’t whisk them away to safety?”

  “No,” I groaned.

  “They’re as stubborn as my sister, then.” He smiled, winking.

  Taking the children’s hands again, I was ready. We had more of a chance now. We still didn’t have half as much as what Lilith had, but at least it was a chance. Adam had been able to bring the dead souls of humanity to help him fight the war. Every person was trying
to fight for a better future, for their eternal resting place in the land of love and peace.

  Elisha and Harland were poised, ready to battle hand in hand. Nic and Jayden, too. Even Pearce and Jessie had taken a stand, fighting for love, and for their life together in Elysium. If we fell, Elysium would fall, and then there would be no stopping the guardians tearing down the whole universe to start again. They believed in balance, and whatever had stopped them resetting fate had given us the chance. Somehow, we had to make it work.

  “FORWARD!” Adam yelled, charging on Allentous at full speed ahead. The angels followed suit, crashing into the hoard of demons before us.

  Harland looked at Elisha. Both smiled at each other as they ran forward. Harland shifted into a Lycan mid-air, taking on the beasts that surrounded them. Elisha lured a group of demonic creatures to fight by her side, taking out their brethren as they died for their new queen. Jessie and Pearce had already gone in, attacking Lilith’s troops from either side. Nic shifted into his favourite of all beasts, the king of the jungle, the lion. He ravaged the skeletal corpses as he made his way through the crowds. Jayden stood behind, plummeting arrow after arrow into the chests of the mutated army Lilith once led. But where was Lilith? Where was the commander of the army? She was nowhere to be seen, and that unnerved me.

  Lucian, Eliza, Cain, and Aria stood together in a line. Eliza was using her magic to encircle our forces, shielding them from harm. Joey was at the front, taking every creature out that broke through the celestial barrier and threatened our survival. Cain protected Aria, who was standing behind him. It wasn’t enough, there was no way we could take them all down like this. Lucian wouldn’t leave my side and Cain wouldn’t leave Aria’s. They were our two main fighters, except for Adam and Gabriel.

  “Cain bring Aria here. You and Lucian need to help my brother.”