Divinity Falling

by Nour Zikra

  “Shut up, Castilla! I ordered you to tie him to the ceiling and leave. I never said to rescue him or beat him up. Now he is awake. Do you see what you have done?”

  “I . . . I am sorry, my lord. I will fix it.” She reached up to unwrap the cloth around my forearm.

  “No,” Lucifer said. “Just go. You have done enough.”

  Castilla dashed around Lucifer, muttered, “Yes, my lord,” and ran out the exit.

  She had once been a good angel, as all angels were. I liked her better this way. If I weren’t tied and bleeding, I would’ve laughed at her.

  Lucifer pinned me with his eyes. “Old friend, you keep fighting.”

  My mouth twitched, but I couldn’t get myself to smile. Every inch of my body felt bruised. “Because I want to live,” I said.

  “Of course, friend. Although, just think of all the wonderful things you will do if you die. For one, Adelaide will be heartbroken, and maybe then she will see that God cannot help her, just as he cannot help the world. That should wake her and make her see that I am the answer.”

  He moved closer. The dagger that had slit my forearm was back in his hand. Seeming to read my mind, he smirked and tucked the dagger into a sheath. Then he reached above my head and untied the cloth. Though rather than throwing the bloody rag away, he held it for me to see.

  With the cloth an inch from his nose, he said, “Smells like revenge.”

  “No doubt.”

  “Tell me, Adriel. How does it feel to finally view the world from my perspective?”

  I stared at his black, empty eyes, which could not reflect my own black ones. “It’s not so special.”

  “So, you do not like this new you?”

  I managed to lift my head just a sliver. “I never said that.”

  “Then, how do you feel?” He threw the blood-soaked cloth over his shoulder and crossed his arms. “I remember you refusing to join my army, even though you were the first I asked. Do you remember, old friend?”

  “I remember, but that was long ago.”

  “Have you changed your mind, then?”

  “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  He smiled and reached for his dagger again. “Not of your own free will.”

  My head spun, and I fought hard to stay awake. Words were my only weapon out of these tight shackles. “That doesn’t change the fact that I’m here, and I want to join your war.”

  “Is that so?”

  I forced my eyes open for as long as I could and kept them steady on Lucifer. “If you’ll let me live, you won’t regret it. Killing me might serve one purpose, but I know keeping me alive will help you convince Addy to join our war.”

  While he watched me, he ran his thumb over the sharp edge of his dagger gently enough that he didn’t slice it open. “How is that?”

  “I think she has fallen in love with me.” Despite the pain in my jaw, my lips curved upward. “And as you know, humans attach themselves to others. For them, a broken heart is always best avoided. And so, I have no doubt she’ll join our side just to be with me.”

  “Is it that easy?”

  “She’s human. She wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “It is their flaw, is it not?” He tucked the dagger back into the sheath and smiled. “Fine! You have convinced me. However, before I let you down, I have an important question to ask.” He held his hand to his chin. “Do you care for Adelaide?”

  I scoffed and felt pain in my chest. “Do I look like I do?”

  His blank eyes looked at me, empty of expression. “Very well.”

  Rather than releasing the shackles himself, he gestured with his head. A second later, a fallen angel stepped from behind me and unlocked the shackles. I fell to the ground and stayed there, not caring to move. I wondered how long the fallen angel had been in the room and if others had been watching the show this whole time.

  Lucifer hovered above my head. “How are you feeling, old friend?”

  “Like a newborn with a mind of his own,” I said, shutting my eyes. “Leave me be for a while. I want to sleep.”

  His footsteps moved farther and farther away. “Already giving orders, that one,” he said from a distance.

  I heard the door close. Afterward, the room was silent. I didn’t know if I was alone, and I didn’t give a damn.

  H

  I dreamed of Simiael’s ringlets. They’d always been the color of blood. However, the night she’d died, they’d radiated crimson.

  In the dream, I walked up to Simiael’s corpse and lingered beside it. Addy was somewhere in the room, too, and she would not quiet down. Her cries deafened me. I yelled at her to shut up because I wanted to rest. But she was not a bright girl and continued crying.

  I grabbed Simiael’s curls in my fist and yanked her head up. “Look,” I screamed at Addy, “she’s a pathetic, dead thing.”

  Addy’s eyes welled up, like a stupid child looking for attention. “She protected me.”

  “Who cares?”

  With Simiael’s hair still in my grasp, I took out my knife, the one from Addy’s kitchen, and cut the hair nearly to its roots.

  “What are you doing?” Addy leaped for the knife in my hand.

  Quick on my feet, I raised my hand high, holding the knife out of her reach.

  “You cut her hair!”

  She jumped for my arm, but being taller than her, I won this mediocre fight. I pushed her. She stumbled against the couch and sat there, looking up at me with a horrified expression on her senseless face.

  “Will you seal your loud mouth, or should I seal it for you?”

  That shut her up.

  I slipped Simiael’s hair inside my pocket and contemplated whether or not Castilla knew how to knit. I had a vivid image of Castilla making a fine red sweater using this angel hair.

  “Wake up,” Addy said after a moment. “War is waiting for you.”

  “Didn’t I tell you to keep quiet?”

  She didn’t move.

  I felt tugging on my arms. Without warning, I was no longer in Addy’s apartment.

  “Wake up,” someone growled at me.

  I woke on the floor with my head resting on my bloody forearm, though now the blood had dried. The fallen angel who freed me from the shackles earlier crouched next to me. His name was Kaisek, I recalled. He was gawking at me like it was his job. Which it probably was.

  “Will you chill?” I said. “It’s not the end of the world. I was just taking a little nap, you dimwit.”

  He scoffed. “You have been asleep for almost two hours in Earth time. It is almost noon.”

  “What’s it to me?”

  “Lucifer wants you ready for war.”

  I shut my eyes again. “I am ready. Now go away.”

  To my annoyance, he grabbed my arm with his gnarled fingers and tied something around my wrist.

  I pulled away and nearly slapped his fat nose with the back of my hand. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  His solid-black eyes challenged me. “I was wrapping your filthy wound. But . . . if you prefer to keep bleeding, I could leave it.”

  Kaisek had clearly mastered reverse psychology.

  “Oh.” I gave him back my arm. “In that case, get back to it.”

  After doing his thing, Kaisek hurried away, grumbling something under his breath.

  “I heard that!” I yelled after him, even though I hadn’t heard anything coherent.

  I got up, still feeling groggy and beat down. The back of my head, in particular, sent a twinge down my spine when I moved.

  Lucifer’s war didn’t seem as important as my sleep, but I shrugged off the laziness anyway and began moving, one leg in front of the other. The room was empty. I took the exit door and headed toward the big building on fire down the street. All the demons were heading that way, including Kaisek, who walked a couple yards ahead of me.

  Screams and cries rang everywhere. People ran past me
, some doing a double take when they saw my face—my eyes. I flashed them my teeth until they ran in the opposite direction, tripping over their own feet.

  Although I scared the living hell out of these wretched humans, dizziness slowed me down every couple of feet. Halfway to the building, an old man stumbled into me, a gun in his hand. I realized I had no weapon.

  “Damn you, Lucifer,” I cursed, remembering that Lucifer took my knife when he kidnapped me.

  A gun fired, but my instincts told me to duck. When I stood, the old man was inserting more bullets into his gun. I stepped forward and shoved the weapon out of his hand. His eyes reminded me of helpless deer the moment they realize they are about to be trampled by a car.

  My hand wrapped around his throat, squeezing the life out of him.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  ADELAIDE

  Using a pen and paper I found lying around my old room, I drew a quick sketch of my double. Red, juicy veins. Fire for eyes. Hairless. Nothing about the skeletal figure resembled me. But I knew what I knew, what I saw in that vision. It was a part of me just as I was a part of it.

  Reed looked over my shoulder at the drawing. When I finished the sketch, I tapped the sheet of paper and handed it to him. “That’s what I saw.”

  While he examined the double, I stepped outside the room to call Lizzy. She answered Nate’s cell phone right away, which I hoped was a good sign. In the background, I heard yelling and banging.

  “Liz, where are you? What is that noise?”

  She said they were driving around with no clue where to go. People were trying to get inside their car by hitting the windows with their hands. “We’re going to die, Addy.” Her voice trembled.

  Her fear hit me through the phone. My hand went to my forehead, pulling down at my hair. I didn’t see how any of us could make things right. I didn’t even know if we’d survive the day.

  Adriel . . . I’d already lost him. A few tears escaped my eyes, though I held my voice steady and pushed back the pain.

  I still felt his body against all the places he’d touched me. My lips were still swollen from his kisses. His fingers still wound in my hair, down my neck, and caressed the low spot of my back. I felt him holding me, pulling me against him in my sleep.

  I hoped he was dead. Better dead than a demon.

  With the back of my hand, I wiped the tears away. I couldn’t let Lizzy lose hope just because I had. “Lizzy, I need you to take a deep breath and tell me what you see.”

  “There’s fire all over the place. People’s cars and houses . . . they’re gone, Addy. It’s all gone.”

  I wondered if our apartment was gone too, if the demons had started there.

  “Liz, tell Nate to drive to Latrobe. I’m at my mother’s house with Reed and his guardian. I need you to meet me here. Can you do that?”

  She sounded far for a few seconds as I heard her give Nate directions. Then she said, “Yes, yes, we’ll be there! We’ll try to get on the highway.”

  I hung up, my heart miles away with her and my lost angel.

  In the living room, Madadel was—or pretended to be—sleeping. I watched him for a second, not understanding how he could be so calm at a time like this.

  “You’re so lazy,” I said loudly, wanting him to hear me and wake up.

  His eyes shot open and landed on me. “Did you say something?”

  “I said you’re lazy.”

  “Why do you say that, sweet Adelaide?”

  “Because.” I gestured in his direction, indicating his current state. “Look at you. The world is burning, and you’re taking a nap.”

  He sat up, his wings launching in separate directions. His right wing struck my mother’s table lamp in the corner of the room. The lamp plummeted to the floor and shattered.

  He didn’t even blink or look at the mess he’d just made. “For your information, I was communicating with Michael,” he said.

  I placed my hands on my hips. “Tell the damn angel to show himself. I’m tired of all of you playing games with me. ‘Adelaide, does nothing stand out to you?’ ‘Adelaide, Michael wants you to do this.’ ‘Adelaide—’”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down.” He jumped to his feet. “No need for hostility.” He came to stand before me, his long locks sashaying with each movement. “Angels have their own matters to discuss, you know. Not everything revolves around you.”

  “No?” My eyebrows scrunched together so tightly my forehead hurt. “Then, answer me this: Why is my father going after the people I love? Why is my father trying to kill all the angels? And why is my father your worst nightmare? If this isn’t about me, then how come my blood is the problem?”

  For a pinch of a second, Madadel’s jaw dropped. “You know nothing, chi—” Looking down, he detected my fisted hands and his expression hardened. “We have work to do.”

  Rather than discussing the matter further, he disappeared into the hallway behind me.

  Subject closed. For now . . .

  I stayed behind and stared at the now-empty chaise lounge. “I know you can hear me, archangel,” I said. “Where the fuck are you?”

  Of course, no response came. I expected as much.

  “You were supposed to protect us! At least that’s what Adriel was led to believe. Is that not what you do?”

  I paced around the room, my eyes darting at the walls like a ghost would emerge from within them. When I reached the broken table lamp, I picked up a few of the shattered pieces and flung them, one by one, around the room. I wanted to hit the smug angel for hiding, for letting them take Adriel.

  “Did you know my grandmother used to pray to you?”

  One of the broken pieces I threw stuck like a dart in the wall on the opposite side of the room.

  “I still remember a few lines from what she taught me. ‘Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.’”

  I bent down to grab more broken pieces, choosing the sharpest ones.

  “You know, I haven’t thought of that prayer in forever. Is that why you let them take him? Is that why you didn’t protect him? Was that a punishment?”

  I threw a piece into the air without a specific aim. Before it landed, my arm lifted, ready to throw another. Madness consumed me.

  “Where the hell are you?”

  Giant golden wings flapped into the room and a beaming yellow light shimmered all around an immense figure. A face surrounded by short blond coils and wearing a pure smile came into view. I’d never seen him in my life, but I knew who it was.

  Archangel Michael.

  The broken shard I’d thrown a second ago flew in his direction, directly toward his eye. Not wanting to see the gruesome sight of blood gushing out of his eyeball, I squeezed my eyes shut.

  “I hear you desperately want to see me.” His voice washed over me like a hummed classical melody.

  Upon opening my eyes, I realized two things. One, this angel was like no other I’d seen; his wings didn’t have a speck of white in them, and he wore gold-plated armor around his powerfully built torso. Two, he had a strange calming effect on me. Because of him, a genuine smile stretched across my face.

  His right hand was two inches away from his face. In it, he held the shard I’d thrown. “Here I am.”

  “Finally!” I let out a harsh breath. With my hands at my sides, I released the broken lamp pieces to the floor.

  “Hello, Adelaide.”

  Here stood one of the highest-ranking angels. I could have talked to him about anything; I could have even blamed him for everything that had happened. Instead, my mouth hung open as I took him in.

  “You are hurt,” he said, dropping the shard to the floor. He advanced toward me and held his strong hands out for me to take. “Let me see your wounds.”

  I looked down at my hands. Stress and exhaustion had made me forget about them. But now, seeing t
he torn skin, the stinging started again. I placed my hands in his soft palms like a frail animal wanting to lessen her pain. His thumbs brushed over the deep cuts, making me whimper. When he let go, the pain was gone and the wounds had healed.

  Unable to help it, I gaped at him, dumbfounded by his ability. Did Adriel have the power to heal when he was a guardian angel?

  Michael bent his knees to be at my eye level, his blue-green eyes piercing me. “And let me see those cuts on your face and shoulder,” he said, putting a hand on my cheek and another on my shoulder. A second later, he pulled away, leaving me painless. Except in my heart; but that kind of pain was different. It could not be healed. It sucked me down like gravity, tugging at my chest and deepening wounds none could see.

  “Thank you.” I stared at him with total awe before remembering why I’d called him here. “I have to ask, why didn’t you protect Adriel?”

  A gentle smile played at his lips. “I did as much as I could, but certain things play out the way they were meant to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Humanity has free will, and the angels cannot always interfere. We can guide and urge humans in the right direction. We can warn them of certain dangers. However, we cannot protect them from their own decisions. Once they have made a decision and acted upon it, everything falls in their own hands. We can only sit back and watch.”

  “Did you warn Adriel? Did he know Lucifer would turn him?” I felt strangely peaceful as I asked my questions, despite the anxiety and hurt roiling inside me. Even my exhausted body no longer felt weak.

  Michael waved his hands around the house while planting his eyes on me. “I showed him this place and warned him of the dangers ahead. He did not understand. And yes, I did warn him, in my own way, to watch out for Lucifer.”

  “How?”

  “This morning, I told him to get out of your car and run far from the station. He chose to go after you. It was the wrong choice; nevertheless, it was his. I could not interfere once he made it.”

  From the hallway, Madadel stuck his head into the room. When he saw his fellow angel, he beamed. “Brother, I see you have come to explain the rules to Adelaide.”