Dominion of the Star (Descendants of the Fallen Book 1)

by Angelica Clyman

  “You said I was an Angel or some such shit, but none of this makes sense,” he muttered, kicking at one of the paperbacks as the rest of his body remained stiff and still.

  “We’re Nephilim, Michael. Descendants of Angels,” Sebastian said gently.

  “It doesn’t explain anything. It’s just a line in Genesis. Do I look like a giant? There’s the Book of Enoch, but that’s even more confusing. There are ancient aliens and tennyo…and none of this tells me why I’m here and why I’m this way.” Michael opened his piercing eyes. “God failed, didn’t he? Couldn’t quite wipe us all out with the Flood before he fled and left us all here to rot…”

  “This isn’t a curse.”

  He sprang up, kicking around dirt as he paced. “Do you even know why I came away with you? I’ve hurt everyone…everyone! And not just potential step-dad deadbeats and other guys that ask for it, but people I actually like too. You know I tried to start a band?” He laughed bitterly. “I couldn’t even argue with them about stupid shit without this thing getting in the way!” His voice lowered as he grasped his right wrist. “Angels walking around, stabbing drummers — yeah, real Biblical. And I can’t even have a girlfriend. Because I’d…I’d hurt her too. This one girl, she must of really liked me, because she never told anyone that I…cut her. And I wasn’t even mad, I was just, I just…” Blood was running down his arms as he tried to push his Intercessor back inside. He looked up at Sebastian, helplessness softening his green eyes.

  Za’in stepped forward and gathered the boy into his arms. He gingerly untangled Michael’s rigid fingers and eased his weapon back to its resting place. “I know. It’s not what you deserved. But I can show you how to control your passions, to ensure that you only strike when it’s necessary. I’m not giving you this gift so that you can waste it caterwauling in a garage or playing house with a human girl that will inevitably bore you. The purpose of your training will be to develop the tools to rise above the needless brutality and forge a world that you can be proud of.”

  Michael looked up at him through his tears, his eyes already narrowing again. “Prove it. I can read, and nothing in those books back up what you say. The closest thing to your story is the Book of Enoch, and you can’t even get that fairy tale straight. Angels fell here? Wrong. Mount Hermon. And you said they fell more than once, in more than one place. There were two hundred that came down before God imprisoned them and killed their offspring. Nothing about eclipses, time-lapses, or survivors. You could at least study the bullshit you’re selling.”

  Sebastian smiled. “Parables.”

  Michael didn’t realize he was knocked to the ground until the shooting pain in his shoulder left him unable to move. He looked up to see Za’in standing over him, a twisted and barbed channel of bone issuing from his palm and penetrating the boy’s flesh.

  “You’re going to have to look below the surface, Michael. God didn’t fashion the universe in six days and mold you from a tiny ball of clay. Yet, here we are. The superficial details may not line up, but I see you feel my divine influence. These books were created by man, to serve purposes only man could devise. I found you, desperate and lost in a bookstore, and you’re continuing that futile search here? Your answers aren’t in those pages.”

  Michael closed his eyes, leaning into the agony that radiated through his chest and arm. “Teach me,” he managed through clenched teeth.

  Sebastian waited a moment before he retracted his blade and knelt at the boy’s side, his brows drawing together softly. “This path isn’t without pain,” was the almost inaudible murmur that escaped, before his mouth tightened in a spasm of remorse. A warm light began to form in his palm, and he pressed it to Michael’s wound.

  The young Steelryn pushed Za’in’s hand away. “I know. So leave it.”

  Kayla closed her eyes. She didn’t need to dissolve into Sebastian in order to feel this. She was still a part of it.

  Am I the only one that isn’t moved by this?

  She cringed at Jeremy’s thought. He shouldn’t be here, inside her. It wasn’t safe.

  Good, you should be scared of him. The things he’s done to Nephilim, the things he’s done to Archs… I was set up, and so were you. It wasn’t an accident that I found you, out there near Madeline. They left me to die, but I met his expectations and had a sufficient ability to heal. Mods that were killing Tregenne’s experiments wouldn’t finish me off so quickly. So I was the perfect one to find you, even if I didn’t know it then. I knew I was supposed to ensnare you, but I didn’t expect what you’d do to me. Well, I didn’t, but he did. He threw us together because his guesses for an outcome are based on knowledge we haven’t lived enough years to imagine. I don’t care that what I feel for you was a part of his plan…at least I got to feel it. But I see now that’s why I was made an Arch — just so I could become an abomination that would be compelled to hurt you, hunt you, and force you to grow, so you could return to him a more useful creature. I exist only because I have the strength to survive these fetters, just long enough for you to mature into what he needs you to become. At least I got the chance to figure it out and tell you: don’t give in to him. It was all his will. None of this was an accident, or even fate. Not your parents meeting, not your birth, not their deaths—

  Her heart lurched into her throat, and with it came the heat and light that had already filled most of her body. She choked as pale blue petals flew at her face, blinding her. “Jeremy!” Kayla held her breath. He was too reckless and he knew it. He wasn’t even fighting visions with visions anymore. If all he had time for were a few panicked confessions… She had to go to him. Kayla tried to remember what happened before the light started to fill her. There were purple stones at her back. She gulped a mouthful of air and then pressed her shoulders hard into the earth. Sharp points of crystal dug into her flesh and she cried out, her eyes opening weakly to the real world. The sky looked strange. Kayla rolled over and rose onto her hands and knees before her limbs gave out and she collapsed against the ground. The earth was shifting sickeningly below her, and her entire body trembled with cold.

  “So you’ll die for him? You’ll surrender your potential and give up all you’ve developed within yourself? Is that what you want?”

  “I…want him…to live.”

  She felt Sebastian scoop her into his arms. “You must let me complete this process or there will be nothing left of you to fight for him. Tell him to let go. If he didn’t interfere, you would be whole already. He is dangerously prolonging this. Demand that he yields!”

  “Jeremy, I’m sorry…” was all she could manage. She felt sick and needed the flowers to return. A tightness grew in her, like a rubber band slowly stretching, but she was denied the release of it all ending in a sharp snap. Instead, the sensation slowly diffused and left her with an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

  Sebastian was satisfied. “This path isn’t without pain, but Michael never could accept that the pain would end. It will, if you will only let it subside.”

  The blue petals surrounded her, four times four. She stepped around them lightly, but they followed, stroking her arms and cheeks, and she felt the weight leave her body. There was peace here, but she knew she couldn’t remain as she was indefinitely, warm in this illusion of safety.

  “Why does shelter and comfort seem so distant to you?” Sebastian’s quiet voice enveloped her. “Shouldn’t a steady foundation be given, instead of constantly pursued? And you have so many assumptions. If the end was coming, then why would I urge you to develop your abilities? Of course there will be a change when the sky darkens, but it is inevitable — as natural as any other cycle of life, and as just as consequence. But while Nature is indifferent and vicious, casually leaving you to a life of mediocrity where your untapped gifts offer you nothing but confusion and isolation, I want to give you the chance to be whole. I want to equip you not only to survive this global change, but to thrive and allow your light to nourish all that touches you.”

  Kayla f
elt the heat in her throat push out the words. “I don’t know what it means to be a Nephil.”

  “Of course not. You’ve only learned tricks. And they haven’t been without sacrifice.” His finger traced the scars on her back.

  She drew away from him. “I had no control over that. It was my connection with Jeremy—‍”

  “You are not chained to him! There is something there that must be severed, but you are unlike him. This link you perceive is only the consequence of his theft and misuse of one of my Modifications.”

  She clenched her fists. There were times when she wanted to blame it all on those Ruiners, but now she longed for it to be real, without the taint of darkness.

  “A Nephil isn’t tied to one mortal. She’s a part of everything, attuned to all there is. Just open your eyes. You’ll feel it.”

  With an exasperated sigh, Kayla prepared to raise a defiant gaze, but she was blinded by the light in her throat as it was expelled with her breath. When her vision cleared, she could see the moon, glowing brighter than any night in her memory. She sat up quickly and glanced around before springing to her feet. “This is real,” she murmured, turning back to smile, astonished, at Sebastian.

  He was silent, sitting comfortably in the dirt, his elbow crooked around his knee. His eyes didn’t leave her, but he dropped his chin into his arm, not quite concealing the upturned corners of his mouth.

  Kayla noticed thousands of tiny purple flecks glittering brightly across his clothes, his hair, his skin. She looked down on her own body, and was surprised she didn’t notice, until now, the intensity of the quartzite’s sparkle. Her gaze was pulled away from the little stars as a cool wind was dragged along her bare arms. She shivered, sighing, feeling as if she could easily be carried away by the gentle current, even as she imagined raising her arms and clawing the gust of air back to her. She let neither urge move her, passively watching the purple dust lift from her form and float away. Kayla wondered if it was unusual that she could sense each blade of grass or slab of marble where the stone flakes landed.

  She stepped forward, following the flight of her shimmering adornments. Her pace quickened as she realized how lightly she moved over the earth, but soon a nearby musical sound grasped her curiosity, causing her to pause. She turned her head, searching for the source of the lilting notes, but it was the vibrations that accompanied the fire in her throat that caused her to recognize her own laugh. The sound continued, louder, this time accented with the satisfaction of knowing that the music she heard belonged to her.

  Kayla was running again, completely unencumbered by the weight of her body, her senses her only guide and delight. She caught the sharp scent of grapes growing somewhere outside the walls of the monastery, and her flight changed direction. Her excitement grew as she glided up the curved staircase, and when she thrust her head through the pointed arch of the window she was rewarded with a brisk rush of wind and recognition. Wild grape vines crawled up a pair of crooked trees and she could taste a pleasant bitterness on her tongue. Kayla closed her eyes. It wasn’t just the wine she could imagine, but there were the flavors of the soil that nourished the vines’ roots, cut with the dull taste of rainwater. The earth was deep, spicy, dense, and it seemed to continue on forever. Her senses dropped down through the bottomless mountains, echoing through dank caves, empty except for traces of…herself. Kayla’s brow furrowed as she followed the winding threads of bone, braided with bits of quartzite, that tunneled through the ground and arced up into the cold subterranean air. They coiled around something breathing, sinewy, and not only filled with fire, but ravaged by it. She tightened her grip, inhaling salt and desperation.

  I’ve tasted you too.

  Her eyes went wide, but her view from the window was gone.

  Sometimes cinnamon, almonds, lime. I don’t know if it’s you changing or me.

  She dropped her head into her hands.

  That’s the trouble with being at one with the universe. Not all of it is beautiful or obedient. But your spiritual guide there cut me off last time. Ask His Benevolence what happened to your parents. Let’s see that vision.

  Kayla could feel the heat in him subside, then rise again, burning his insides.

  Listen. I might almost know what it feels like to be an Angel, but it’s only because of you. I’m human. You’re made to ascend, but I don’t think even these fetters are going to pull me through this one. I won’t be able to be your reminder, so make him show you. Hold on to it. Don’t let him get away with it.

  Her fire plummeted through the mountain, yearning to cradle the blaze that devoured him with her own healing light. But instead she was seared by a channel of flame that ran up the center of her body, pressuring the space between her brows. Sebastian’s voice softly landed on her forehead, as cool as the two indigo petals that soothed her burning skin.

  “This process has been about banishing your misgivings and putting an end to your ignorance. I will show you why Michael and Kiera laid down their lives, what we waited for, what we saw in the distance. That dream isn’t so distant now, through you…”

  This new sensation that gathered above the bridge of her nose began to not only numb her face, but also her awareness of both the outside world and her inner thoughts. She allowed the glimpses of another world to become her reality.

  Michael didn’t want to open his eyes. He could feel the tired earth beneath him, defeated and bearing weight. The sky above was open, and he could hear the air whistling through vacant channels as he rested in the rift between a profane and perished world. His body was heavy, detached. He wasn’t tired of fighting, no more than he was weary of the rise and fall of his breath, but he knew he didn’t want to build anymore. The stronger he became, the clearer his mind…the more powerless he felt. Everything Sebastian taught him, all they worked toward, it all seemed futile as each day the world grew sicker. With all they were capable of, even they couldn’t make this world Heaven. It didn’t want the change.

  A squeezing that began beneath his down-turned palm splayed his fingers out and pulled his mind back to its resting place in the grass, beside her. “Kiera…” he breathed. She relaxed her hand, and he was forced to let his muscles go slack so that he could feel their palms pressed tightly together again.

  The world inside her was serene. Michael breathed deeply, inhaling bits of stars and scripture. In her, he could see the stacked concrete slums dissolve into a field of wildflowers and mystery. The worn highways, littered with refuse and clogged with the blind and hysterical, were now clean passages where the enlightened glided to their eventual destinations. Instead of the suffocating jumble of matter and existence, there was space…finally, empty space. Kiera’s reality had them lying in a wide, lush meadow beneath a boundless sky. He didn’t want to open his eyes and acknowledge their position on this tiny strip of grass, trapped between towering, hastily constructed buildings and lidded with buzzing power lines.

  “What you think is real is only a fleeting vision,” she murmured.

  “Yours is an escape, a fantasy—”

  “It’s within and it’s eternal.”

  Michael wanted to pull his hand away in anger, but he couldn’t bear to lose her star-filled sky. So much was wrong with the world; how could a vacant Heaven heal it all? He thought of his mother, fragile and flawed. He wasn’t able to save her. Michael let his pain seep into Kiera’s palm. Every violent mistake, every fearful action — didn’t he do as much harm as any human? With all his power, he was still impotent. His work with Sebastian was for the purpose of controlling his impulses, utilizing his gifts, and sharpening his abilities. The Nephilim were the closest thing this world had to gods, and still he was helpless.

  The space between their hands caught fire, and Michael gripped her fingers protectively. Kiera’s visions seared his consciousness, and he couldn’t ignore her past. A beautiful Angel, convinced she was unholy, and striving so hard to be a saint. While he tried to protect his mother from her own weakness, it was all K
iera could do to defend herself from constant attempts to extinguish her light. She was hospitalized, medicated, exorcised. She had cried out to God for deliverance, but it was Sebastian who answered her prayers.

  “ ‘He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm.’ ”

  Michael grit his teeth. That’s exactly what Sebastian did for them. But soon even the Heavens would plummet and the Earth would slide beneath them. She wouldn’t understand. Did she even know?

  Sebastian was right. She had to be protected from darkness, even if it was necessary, even if it was their own. He would use the gentlest words, instead of giving sound to the desolation that haunted him. Michael slowly untightened his jaw, preparing to speak her language. “ ‘When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ ”

  Kiera rolled onto her side, drawing nearer to him. Her face was lit with the thrill of his voice forming those familiar words. She pulled his hand to her cheek and he felt his cold skin awakened by her breath. “ ‘Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.’ ”

  He didn’t know if his hands were without blame, but they felt lighter now that they were caught in her guiltless grasp. For her, he would go forward, endlessly. For what she carried inside her, he’d build something beautiful atop the ashes of everything that ever hurt them.

  Kayla could feel the heat in her brow extending through her body as a shaft of light, only escaping through her palms and the blazing sigils on her back. She was sprouting wings of cool, white fire, dripping indigo tongues of flame. She waited for a familiar darkness to pull her back down into uncertainty, but that influence was so vague and distant, it might have been imagined. Still, there was something she wanted to remember.