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

by Angelica Clyman

  “It’s not love. It was a part of your training. It was the biology of the Ruiners—”

  “We destroyed those fetters.”

  “Then it is a blessing that today everything will change, so that you will be spared the slow decline of human love. If life just went on in some routine fashion, what would become of this love between you? Will there ever be a more intense situation, a peak experience beyond this? No, romance can’t maintain that fury for long, and so it would become as mundane as the rest of reality. You will grow weary of that face you now long to see once it becomes a constant companion, and what’s worse, his boredom will wound you, even as you try to evade the truth that he no longer holds any mystery for you either.”

  Kayla raised her face beneath his shadow. “It doesn’t frighten me. I am not going to destroy something beautiful because one day it might wither. He is mine; this is my choice. I’m going to do what you want simply because I want him to live.”

  “At this point, it doesn’t matter if you’re willing.” Sebastian pulled Kayla to her feet, his hands clamping around hers. “You’ve forsaken your training at the most crucial hour and squandered the energy we’ve been cultivating in you. You have nothing left to freely give.”

  She felt something invade her palms, and both Intercessors reflexively engaged, pressing back against the incoming force. Her breath came heavy between her teeth as he tugged on her Angelic bones, sending sharp pangs up through her skeleton. Kayla looked down and saw white spurs, dark at the tips, spilling out from his palms and tethering their hands together. Purple stones were woven between transparent layers of bone, and she experienced their shimmer as blinding sparks and little cramping bursts beneath her skin.

  Kayla’s body felt weightless, and she wasn’t sure if she was even standing anymore. Her eyes were rolling back, her limbs were faltering, but she fought to bring her gaze to Sebastian’s face. He was luminous, serene, terrifying. He was a god, and she was his sacrifice. Kayla closed her eyes. If it meant Jeremy would survive, she wouldn’t resist.

  “Is that what you think? I have never asked for sacrifices. Energy will be redistributed, but it won’t be yours that will wake in so many new vessels…”

  She gasped, turning her head. The doors of the chapel were wide open, and she could see a large grouping of ragged humans, chained in purple and black. Their bodies were restless from within, blood churning and crashing up against their insides in waves. She felt the insistent force of Jeremy’s presence, but she couldn’t locate him. She looked to her left, and there was a pile of pink, glittering quartzite, stacked high in the center of the fountain. Bone fragments carved dark paths through the stone, gathering in the center of the cairn. There in that nest, there was a mass of swirling light, flaring up and falling back down into the dark tangle. Sometimes the glow would solidify into a wing, a hoof, a claw. Kayla looked deeper and glimpsed a pair of brown eyes.

  “Kittie!” she cried, pulling back against Za’in’s merciless hold. “She’s a, she’s a…”

  “You didn’t think I’d simply empower undeserving humans and raise them out of their condition so that they could again bring this world so low? Those imperfect souls must be extinguished, and their improved bodies will be animated with a new fire.”

  Kayla tried to free herself, but the bones and crystals that bound her to him climbed higher up her arms. Her ears stung with a sudden silence, and she looked to the sky. The sun was reduced to a thick crescent. That daunting sight just underscored the knowledge that this plan condemned Jeremy’s spirit to oblivion.

  She allowed an angry sob to escape. “Why are you making me do this? You don’t need me, unless cruelty is your motivation.”

  “All births require a mother.”

  Kayla closed her eyes, slammed by a wave of nausea. “I don’t understand how this could have been your plan all along. So much time…so many things that could have gone wrong…”

  “The trees yielded their expected fruit. And if they hadn’t, I have other orchards. I thought you recognized how many years I have walked this Earth. I was among the first offspring of the Fallen, both of God and Man. That weight comes with patience, foresight, changeability…but this is the ideal arrangement of these events. And when we walk in the majesty of our new world, ourselves too changed and filled with glory, I am confident that you will no longer see me as wicked, but as destiny’s last agent.”

  Everything, from the grass, to the marble, to the quartzite hills beyond, were all darker, duller to Kayla’s eyes as she stared desolately beyond the creature that was tethered to her. The sky was violet, deepening somberly in the west. Sebastian was no longer considering her, but instead was turned inward, his energy compressing and expanding, boiling up and over, washing himself clean of any stain left by this world. She could feel the deep reserves of her power being drained, but in return, he lent her the strength to remain conscious and standing. Her head lolled to the side, watching Kittie’s flickering form with regret. This isn’t how the last Angel should be extinguished.

  Nothing should end this way and nothing should have its beginnings here.

  “Kittie?” she sighed weakly.

  Hush. He won’t hear me. He never could. His Fall was not a matter of his birth, but a choice he made in God’s absence. How foolish, to obey God as if he was a tyrant, a jailer, and then when the divine whispers fade, to react like an overindulged child. How can he expect to now hear a messenger of God?

  There are no new revelations for me to announce. There haven’t been for so many years. I wandered as a ghost, a bird, a hermit. And I forgot. But when Za’in shook the entire world with his blasphemy, I had to awaken. Some time passed before Jeremy’s soul screamed out to me. I didn’t know what it was then, but I followed his call. What is left of God is in all of you, and I learned I had to pay close attention if I wanted to hear His voice. So I took the form of a child and stayed by Jeremy’s side. But I had never lived as a human before, not this way, not for so long, and things became complicated. It was hard to tell the difference between His will and my new desires for Jeremy’s happiness. Eventually, I lost aspects of my sight and was unable to change.

  Then you came around. All those vague memories began to resurface, but you knew nothing of your heritage and I couldn’t teach you what you needed. If I revealed myself, Za’in would feel it. I have limitations. My fire isn’t the active urgency of humanity, but the watchful influence of Heaven. It was a risk to allow your enemy to be your teacher, but I am a being of faith.

  Still, Za’in knew about me…somehow he knew! He prepared this place for me, and in my grief, I inadvertently gave myself away. Those Ruiners that separated Jeremy from you, they worked with me as well. I thought he was dead, but I know now that you saved him. You’re not the same; none of us are. But we’re all here. We can do this together. This is the way it has to be.

  The sky was dark now, except for the band of orange near the horizon. Kayla held her breath as the burning sickle of the sun was continuing to be engulfed. An ominous black disk was emerging, even as a defiant beam of light bubbled along its edge. Her body trembled violently as that gaping abyss settled over the warm, flaming star. Still, the white light refused to be completely swallowed, now crowning the darkness with its halo.

  She could feel the rays touch her back, and her wings spread out behind her, the sigils shining brazenly in the gloom. Her eyes were still seared by the Eclipse’s afterimage, but she could see Sebastian’s Angelic script intersecting that ghostly circle, glowing in curving arcs through the air around him. Kayla’s sight left her as a blinding flash of Heavenly glory passed through her body, leaving the following darkness blacker than the moments before. She took a breath before the sensation returned, again and again. Kayla noticed that Sebastian’s form shuddered seconds before each wave, and she turned her head first towards Kittie’s rapidly dulling light, and then back to the chapel. It was happening.

  A pale figure was emerging from the open doors, craw
ling at first, and then slowly finding his way to his knees. In the shadow of the moon, his skin was ashen, his clothing iridescent. As he stumbled closer to their light, Kayla could see there was no flesh, no fabric, but a body made of translucent crystal, interwoven with slivers of bone. Shimmering sigils appeared beneath the thin outer layer of stone, but the symbols changed and disappeared before she could decipher them. Behind his eyes, she could see fire, wonder, and the restlessness that arises moments before understanding settles. The creature looked to Sebastian with patience, struggling to hold himself upright. Soon more beings were finding their way out of the chapel, forming a glowing circle around the Nephilim. As more power flowed into the quartzite man at her side, Kayla watched the stone skin soften, flickering with light, then solidify again. Out of the corner of her eye, he shifted form, taking on the appearance of her vaguest memories. What were these beings and what would they become?

  “The Anakim,” Sebastian breathed. “Our children.”

  Kayla watched helplessly as they approached, her body wracked with continuous blasts of divine fire, her limbs fused to Za’in’s. She tried to redirect the energy, to collect it deep within her and release it as hers, but it was too strong and too brief to hold. Her body softened in despair, but that surrender was only momentary. She wasn’t able to borrow this power, but she wouldn’t lose her own.

  She tightened her muscles, locking her joints. Fire still leaked through these clenched gates, but the flow was lessened and the light that pooled beneath her stomach began to expand. Her arms were restrained, so the only place to send the force was up. Kayla’s loaded scream pierced the unnatural silence, disrupting the energy that moved through the others. Before they could regain their equilibrium, there was a sharp crash, the shattering of something delicate.

  For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, and she watched the flare of Kittie’s spirit rise up and then fall to the ground, her childish appearance returning. The quartzite and bone cairn was collapsing into fragments, and Asher slid down over it as he withdrew his gleaming weapon from that crumbling prison. Their eyes met for a moment, but he quickly turned from her and attacked Sebastian’s progeny. Kayla noticed bright silver streaks racing through his body and disappearing when she stared harder, searching for earthly sense in the holy fury that somehow moved through him now.

  The Anakim seemed weaker than they were moments ago, disoriented, and Asher hacked through their crystallized skin, yanking the Angelic bones from their bodies before they fell. She was infected by his urgency and fought harder to crack her bonds, but soon she lost sight of him. Something brushed heavily against her and she leaned toward Sebastian, an orange flash glimmering at the edge of her vision. When she looked up, there was a gap in the ring of creatures that circled her and it was Michael that joined Asher’s assault on the Anakim. There was no place in her that could question how her father could be there now; she was too filled with awe. Here was Steelryn and Serafin, not imagined or glimpsed in visions, but here. Their faces were so alike in this moment, both held still by cold purpose, but their movements gave away their distinct hearts. Asher cleaved through rows of Anakim, one after another, with little variation in his fluid strikes. As he systematically worked his way through his enemies, his partner snaked through the ranks of towering figures. Michael’s attacks were creative, but he moved too quickly to consciously consider the best expression of his Intercessor. He simply followed the necessity of the moment. If an Anak found itself too close to Michael’s trajectory, it was drawn in and felled.

  Kayla watched breathlessly as Michael approached, wrath in his muscles and his eyes. She could see him move to strike Sebastian, but just as he did, a loud shot stung the air and Michael dropped to his knees. Another bullet followed before he was face down in the dirt. Kayla screamed, her eyes growing wider as Michael’s form faded, revealing dark hair and a broad, tanned back. His forearms were bloody with purple and black fragments shoved through his skin.

  “Vic…” Her voice was choked and almost inaudible.

  “Enough. Barely two minutes left of totality. Let’s finish this.” Tregenne’s words came from behind her, and she turned her head to see him drop his gun and wrap a dark and glittering mass of barbs around Kittie’s throat.

  The surges of energy and light resumed and Kayla struggled to stay conscious. Her eyes were fluttering closed, but she still fought for her sight, searching for Asher, but he was nowhere to be seen. Many of the Anakim were rising up again and more were issuing forth from the open doors. It was as if Vic’s heroic actions meant nothing. She dropped her head in despair, her eyes closing in an attempt to stop her tears.

  “Yes, Tregenne, let’s finish this.”

  Asher’s voice sent a surge of adrenaline through her limbs as her head snapped up, her eyes wide. He swung both kukris at Gabriel, and although the Arch was able to block one attack, his grip on Kittie’s leash slowed his defense. The hand that held the Angel fell to the ground, cleanly hewn from Tregenne’s arm. He growled, spitting, his teeth bared, his forehead smashing into the bridge of Asher’s nose. They both went down, but as Asher was blinded by his own blood, Tregenne grabbed a shard of quartzite and shoved it through his old enemy’s chest. Asher fell and Gabriel crawled a short distance away, struggling to maintain consciousness.

  Kayla screamed Asher’s name again and again, but he didn’t stir. Her muscles strained against her bonds, but her rage was impotent. She was taken by a wave of exhaustion and her body sagged helplessly. Her awareness was weakening, but she could feel something calling her from within the chapel. There was one last point of hope somewhere in that darkness and it called her to raise her heavy eyelids. She could see a pale figure lingering in the doorway, but it wasn’t in the form of the luminous Anakim. Jeremy looked towards her, holding the sliver of her Intercessor that she had given him. He was dirty, bloody, stooped with pain, but if he just shoved that fragment beneath his skin, she could move through him, even though that Angelic power might burn off the last of his weakened human body’s animating force. Still, there was no other way. If Za’in succeeded and he lived as one of the Anakim, the Jeremy she knew would be gone. She coughed out a weak nod and dropped her head, bracing herself for the sensation of a part of her body entering his. The impact sent a stabbing throb up through her arm, connecting to something dark within herself, something restless, but striving for redemption. The extension of herself rushed through the gloom, and she felt his force connect to her back, reaching around her to place pressure on her bound wrists and shatter the fetters that joined her to Sebastian. As the quartzite and bone exploded up and out, she was able to separate the sensation of fire from the visual reality of Jeremy standing behind her, his palms to her forearms. The moment she was free, he tightened his arms around her and dropped to the ground, rolling to the side before releasing her and crouching protectively in front of her limp body.

  “It’s too late,” Sebastian proclaimed. “There are many strong Anakim and I still have enough time left.”

  He snatched from the ground the end of the leash around Kittie’s neck, and Kayla watched as more Anakim arose, all growing brighter than before. The child’s body was disappearing again, and even the light that still formed her winged silhouette was fading away.

  “No!” Kayla screamed, flinging herself towards the Angel and her captor. She didn’t have time to consider if she had the strength, but she experienced a cool rush of comfort when she glimpsed the tattoo along Sebastian’s bicep. Amgedpha. I begin anew. She clawed his skin, her palm pressed to his sigils, while her other hand reduced Kittie’s chains to purple dust. Kayla fell forward, holding Kittie to her chest, willing her fire to join with the wounded Angel’s failing embers.

  The heat in her arms dissolved as four wings spread up into the sky, surrounding a brilliant form that could only be described in terms of beast or Man, though it was neither. Kittie shined so brightly, it was almost as though the Eclipse had ended and the sun was lighting the world again.<
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  The Angel reached out a glowing arm, her four heads shrieking a painfully beautiful tone. Beneath that sound, Kayla could feel the words: this is not yours. The sigils began to lift from Za’in and Tregenne, rising off their skin and into the air, the blood and ash that composed the tattoos completely disintegrating before they reached the flames. Gabriel seemed to have lost consciousness, but Sebastian stumbled to the fountain and leaned against it, refusing to let himself fall, even as the fortifications he built for his mortal body were dismantled.

  Kittie’s heads roared, this time with a more sonorous quality. Both arms were flung wide, like rays of the sun, and she called back everything that was stolen from her. The eyes of the Anakim lost their light first, as empty as the Eclipsed sun, and slowly their entire bodies faded, falling to the earth like broken statues. She pulled their scavenged bones in next, the blackened masses cracking and burning away as they neared her fire.

  Kayla held her forearm to her brow as she tilted her head up to the sky, squinting in the Angel’s glory. She could see a glowing jewel in the heavens, swelling and separating out into a series of diamonds that soon merged to form a thin crescent. The Eclipse was coming to an end. She brought her attention back to Kittie, gasping as her dwindling light fell slowly back to earth. The eagle, the lion, the ox, and the cherub were all silent now, their eyes grave and tired. Kayla and Jeremy crawled towards her, even as Fec and Bruno emerged from the chapel, their bandaged arms supporting Kerif’s wounded frame, his limbs covered in gashes as numerous as the shards that were forced into Vic’s arms. Tears were washing the pirates’ red faces clean, but they trudged quietly forward, obeying the overwhelming need to be together again now, all of them reunited beneath the expanding sun.

  Kittie was shrinking as if she was the shadow of the moon. This was it, her voice resounded in their minds, this was why I was still here, even with everything I forgot. We won. God’s will was fulfilled.