Sam.
He was alive? And he was here?
I stumbled out of the room and stood in the dark stone hallway, my chest heaving. Tears were streaming down my face, even though I hadn’t seen Sam with my own two eyes just yet. I knew he was alive. I could feel him. I could feel his presence. And what was more, I could smell the fire of him. I cocked my head and sniffed the air. Lilith was there, too. I could smell the blood of the demon. And, just underneath it, the scent of angels drifted toward me. And a human.
They were all here. They were all alive. My father hadn’t killed them. My heart felt as though it had been wrenched out of me. Had I been wrong to blame him all this time? I shook my head. No. He had still sent me back to Celestia to save his own skin, and he’d ripped me away from those I loved.
But they were alive.
To the left. That was where they were. I whirled in that direction, and my feet pounded against the stone floor. The ceremonial shoes dug tight into my feet, but I didn’t care. I would walk on coal if that meant I got to see every single one of them again. My friends, my lovers, the only people in the world who had ever truly cared about me, no matter what I was, no matter what mistakes I made. They all belonged to me, and I belonged to them.
A large wooden door rose up before me, and I slammed to a stop just before it. I shoved it open, stumbling inside. The room was dark, but a few torches lined the stone walls. They illuminated two large metal cages that sat in the very center of the floor. But the floor between here and there had been knocked away, and there was a gaping chasm between me and those inside.
And those inside? My heart shook in my chest. There was Sam, with his blazing red hair. And there, there was Ramiel. His silver blue eyes pierced me from the dark. Uriel had his arms crossed over his chest, the light breeze of the dungeon causing the strands to flutter around his shoulders. Az stormed from one end of the cage to the other, his hair still tied back in that signature tight bun, no matter what. And there was Lizzie, crying into Isaac’s shoulder, who rubbed her back and held her close. Lilith looked more pissed off than I’d ever seen her, her skin now vibrating with the intense need to get her revenge against whoever had done this to them. I was guessing my father. Behind her, Rourke stood tall and alert, sporting an identical expression.
“Please tell me everyone’s okay, “I called out, my voice echoing against the stone walls.
Everyone turned to face me, and shouts exploded through the quiet space. So many words, so many voices, that I couldn’t make out a single word, but it didn’t matter. I was far too happy to see them. The tears were still streaming down my face, and my heart still shook hard in my chest. I wanted to reach them, to throw my arms around each and every one of them. We had left things so terribly. That argument. The prophecy. None of it mattered anymore. I just wanted to be with them. I wanted to be in their arms.
“Oh my God,” Lizzie said, pressing up to the metal bars and shoving her nose through. “Erela, I can’t believe you’re here. How did you get out of Celestia? Michael said that he took you back there, and that we would never see you again.”
“He underestimated me,” I said with a laugh. “You know me. When I’m determined to do something, I do it, and I was going to find you all again no matter what…Though I have to admit, I thought he’d killed you. I thought he’d murder you to keep his secret hidden from the rest of the Archangels.”
“Yeah, we thought he was going to do that as well,” Uriel said, pushing off the metal wall to stride over to where he could peer out at me. “In fact, I think even he thought he was going to kill us until it came time to do the deed. And then he just threw us into these cages.”
“Guess he doesn’t have the stomach like the other Archangels do,” Az said in a dry voice. But then his eyes softened, and his lips tilted up into a smile. “Little Seraphim girl, you have no idea how happy I am to see you.”
My heart lifted even more. “Didn’t you get the memo? I’m not your little Seraphim girl anymore. I’m Nephilim.”
“You think you and your Nephilim self can get us out of this hellhole?” Rourke asked, hopefully. “Because I gotta tell you, Erela, I’m hungry and thirsty. We haven’t eaten for days.”
My heart sunk as I took in the gap in the floor between me and the rest of them. It was clear that this had been done on purpose. No one could cross this. No one except for someone with a pair of wings, like my father.
“Erela,” a deep male voice rang out behind me. I jumped, and for a moment, I assumed my father had returned to take me straight back home. But no, that wasn’t his voice. Heart hammering, I spun on my feet, holding back the gasp when my eyes fell on a very different yet familiar face. Those thick rimmed glasses. That smug face. Why the hell was Asmodeus here?
I curled my hands into fists. “Back off. Don’t come any closer.”
He held up his hands and slowed his steps. “Surprised to see me?”
“Not really. I’m never surprised to see you. When something’s going to shit, there’s no doubt that you’re involved.” Obviously, I was shocked to my core. Asmodeus was the last demon I would have expected to see here. My father had put my friends behind bars to keep them from telling anyone about me. So, why would he have shared that with an Archdemon? Why hadn’t he locked him up here as well?
“Lies,” Asmodeus said with a laugh. “It’s clear that your father didn’t tell you, so I’ll let you in on a little secret. You’re not the only Michael who has a tendency to make deals with the demons.”
I froze, ice slipping down my spine. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No, you’re the one who doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” He tipped back his head and his laughter rang off the walls. “Your father discovered that I knew your little secret. I missed it the first time that I met you. Your time in Celestia put a damper on your scent., but there was no mistaking it when we met here in the Tower. Fire demon blood. You reek of it even more now. It’s like it’s creeping up your arms. Like you’re emanating it.”
If he had said these words to me a few days ago, it would have shaken me to my very core. I’d wanted to push that side of me away. I’d wanted to close my eyes against the truth of my powers. But his words had no effect on me anymore. It wasn’t an insult. I was who I was, and my demonic origin made me stronger than I would have been otherwise.
“Careful,” I said. “If you go around spouting that kind of shit, I can guarantee you that my father will take issue with it. You might find yourself on the receiving end of a very sharp blade.”
He laughed again, a sound that sent shivers down my spine. “That’s where you’re wrong. Your father and I made a deal. He knew that if he killed me, he would only bring out the full rage of Lucifer, and the Archangels don’t want that. Instead, he offered up some sacrifices for me to feast upon. I think they’ll do, don’t you?”
He gestured at my caged friends, and my heart thumped so hard that I swore it shook the very soles of my golden boots. “You’re lying.”
I’d only just gotten them back. They’d only just returned to me. Seeing them had made me realize just how crazy I’d been for thinking my father could brutally murder so many innocent angels, demons, and humans. Yeah, so he’d caged them instead, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to actually kill them. And now I understood why. Because he intended for someone else to do the evil deed for him. So he could keep his stupid glowing hands from getting dirty.
I stumbled back, horror shaking through my gut. My father was just as bad as the Archangels who had killed Az’s family. He was just as bad as the demons who were tearing apart the world.
“So, as you can see, you need to step aside, so that I can claim my prize,” he said with a smile that was as brutal as his words were.
I curled my hands into fists. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And you think you and your little ceremonial golden boots are going to stop me? Don’t forget that I can send you righ
t back to the Halfway Zone anytime I want. If you get in my way, I’ll do just that.”
“I don’t think so, “I said. “You’ll have to get close enough to me to be able to do that, and that’s not going to happen.”
He shook his head and laughed. “Have you looked around this room? There’s nowhere for you to go. There’s nowhere for you to hide. If I take five steps closer to you, you’re toast.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” I said, taking one step back toward the edge of the floor’s cliff. “You seem like a smart demon. I thought you would have been able to put two and two together, but clearly not. You know what I am. That’s why my father is even doing this. You can smell the difference between who I once was and who I am now. And yet you cannot understand the full truth of it.” I took another step back, and my feet brushed against the rocky edge. Lizzie let out a strangled cry of alarm, clearly terrified that I was going to plunge into the darkness.
She had a right to be scared, because that was exactly what I was going to do.
But Asmodeus merely rolled his eyes at my speech. He underestimated me. He always had. The grudge he held against me clouded his judgment. It made him single-minded in a way that blinded him to everything else. He’d wanted to get back at me from the moment I’d taken his rat, and this was the perfect way for him to do that. But, in the end, his deal with my father would be his undoing.
I took another step back. My right foot found nothing but air. His eyes flicked down to where my feet were halfway off the ledge, and a strange curiosity flickered across his face. The others started shouting at me now, but I had to block them out. I had to focus on who I was inside, on the fire, on the demon, on the darkness that called out to me from deep inside. For the first time, I was truly going to embrace it and let myself be who I had always meant to be.
I took another step back and plunged into the dark.
* * *
That was when my wings—my beautiful, perfect wings—exploded from my back to slow my fall. I loosed a breath of relief. I hadn’t really known if they would come to my rescue, but I’d hoped it. It was something I’d begun to puzzle out. Part if it had been what my father had said about Celestia muting my powers. And part of it had been what the water demon had said that day at the boat. But the biggest part of it all had been that crazy head-eating horseman dude. He had clearly embraced the demonic side of himself, and he had his wings. I figured if I did the same, then I could find my wings, too.
Of course, I hadn’t used my wings in months, and my back felt raw from where the skin ripped open to release them from my body. I bit back a scream as wave upon wave of pain lanced through me, but I forced myself to flap my wings against the air anyway. Slowly, I lifted my body through the wide gap between one side of the room and the other, my eyes landing on the shocked—and terrified—face of Asmodeus. I had to admit that his expression was hella satisfying. After everything he’d done to me, I was now giving him the shock of his life.
“Holy shit, I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my life,” Az said in a low growl from the depths of the cage.
“You’re damn straight,” Lilith said, and then she raised her voice to a shout. “Go on, Erela! You show that asshole who’s boss.”
I turned around and gave them all a thumbs-up before shifting my attention back to the demon. Of course, I hadn’t really planned anything out beyond this. I figured I’d get my wings into action, and then take it from there. Now, I had to somehow prevent him from getting to my friends.
Asmodeus let out a weary smile, and then held his fingers to his lips before emitting a high-pitched whistle that echoed against the stone walls. A moment later, a winged creature soared into the room. It was one of the creatures from hell, a dragon-like animal with green scaly skin and nostrils that were ringed in blood. Dread crept up my spine as Asmodeus climbed onto the back of the creature and then pulled a short sword out of the sheath slung around his back.
Well, this wasn’t going to be quite as easy as I’d hoped. Asmodeus could reach me all right, and he could reach my friends. He also had a weapon when I had none. Laura had taken my twin blades from me while I’d been conked out, even though I’d been two seconds away from being inducted into the Order of the Seraphim. All I had to show for it was my ceremonial boots and jacket, neither of which would be useful when fighting against an actual demon. All I had left were the powers inside me, powers I’d never truly been able to control.
If there ever was a time when I needed them to submit to me, this was it. It was now or never. Literally.
I flapped my wings behind me to hold my body in place, refusing to shift backward and show Asmodeus exactly how nervous I felt about what would happen next. My friends had fallen silent behind me, their breaths collectively held in their throats. I could smell their fear punctuating the air, but I could still smell something else beneath it. Asmodeus might look confident, chilled, and in control, but he was nervous. He was scared. He was unsure if he should attack. My whole wing demonstration had caught him off guard. He hadn’t expected that from me. And while he might have a flying creature underneath his command, there was little he could do if I had a host of weapons hidden somewhere beneath my ceremonial attire.
He was probably thinking daggers or some other kind of blade. Little did he know my powers were much more damaging than that.
Asmodeus inched a little closer, and I sensed his wariness and hesitation. He wanted to fly just close enough to send me to the Halfway Zone before I could do any damage to him or his creature. I wasn’t entirely sure how close he had to be, so I darted to the side, narrowing my eyes as I began to call upon the fire inside of me.
My power was hotter now, and the heat blazed around my very soul. In the distance, Sam responded to it, his own soul whispering against mine, encouraging me to take the flames as far as I could. The fire built inside me like an inferno, blazing through every cell of my body like something that could never be doused. It was so all-encompassing, so overwhelming, that I could barely breathe around the force of it. It needed to get out of me. Now. Or else I might explode.
Asmodeus’s eyes went wide, and he pulled his creature to a sudden stop. My entire body was consumed in flames from head to toe. Every single part of me was on fire. I welcomed it. I revelled in it. I encouraged it to grow, grow, grow.
And then I lifted my hands before me. The flames erupted around my fists like twin bonfires, building and building until the entire room was lit up by a vicious shade of red. With a deep breath, I threw the flames at Asmodeus. They soared through the air, the flickering fireballs half as large as him. I held my breath, waiting, hoping my magic would hit the mark.
All the strength suddenly went out of my body, and darkness consumed my vision. My wings gave out; the earth opened up beneath me.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Erela
This time, when I opened my eyes, I knew I was home. My real home. I glanced around at the quaint little English room and out the window at the clouds that had turned the entire world into soft shades of gray, smiling when the little bundle that was Mr. Whiskerson cuddled up against my cheek. Somehow, I was back in Lilith’s house. The last thing I remembered was throwing the biggest fireballs I’d ever seen in my life, and then passing out like an idiot. I had no idea if my fireballs even hit their mark, though I was guessing they must have, if I were here. That said…
“Aha, there she is,” Lizzie’s bright voice said from my side.
I twisted my head to see that practically everyone was standing by my bed. Lizzie and Isaac, Lilith and Rourke, and my four breathtaking fallen angels, of course. They were all here. We had all survived. Somehow.
“What the hell happened?” My voice barely got out the words.
Uriel took my hand in his and beamed down at me. “You saved us, that’s what happened.”
My heart warmed at the contact, but I felt myself instinctively glance toward Ramiel, expecting him to put a stop to the display of affecti
on. But he didn’t. Instead, he shot me a soft smile. My heart flickered. I wanted to reach out toward him and pull him close, to breathe in his scent. We’d had that horrible argument. I’d been so mad at him. And then I’d thought he was dead. I’d thought all of them were dead. If only I could spend the next few hours wrapped up in their arms…But I didn’t know how to ask them for that. I didn’t know how to start that conversation. Hell, Ramiel might still believe we should keep some distance between us. If he did, after everything we’d been through…it might truly break my heart.
“Your training finally came through,” Sam said, pride beaming from his voice. “Your fireballs hit their mark. They engulfed Asmodeus within seconds. At that point…”
“That asshole burned to a crisp,” Rourke said, crossing his arms over his thick chest. “Good riddance. You did damn good, Erela.”
My heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t believe I’d done it. I couldn’t believe I’d actually mastered my powers. Of course, the effort had obviously been too much for me at this point in time, and I’d passed out, but that didn’t matter. Somehow, it had all worked out in the end.
“You’re probably wondering how we all got out of the cages,” Lizzie asked, perching on the bed before giggling. I arched an eyebrow. “Apparently, the creature Asmodeus had with him was so grateful that you killed his master and freed him that he’s now your loyal friend for the rest of your days.”
I blinked at her, and then gazed around at the rest of my friends (and lovers). “What’s Lizzie talking about? Maybe I hit my head too hard because I could have sworn she said something about a flying demon creature coming to my aide?”
Harry popped his balding head around the door and let out a grunt of irritation. “You didn’t hit your head too hard, though I wished you had. Your new friend is outside in the garden, making a wreck of my flowers.”
“Leave it to you to adopt another creature when you’re trying to battle a demon,” Az said, though his tone held more affection than irritation.
Nebulous: Order of the Fallen - Book Two Page 15
