by J. L. Myers
The other angel leaped free of the looking glass, water beading off his skin and wings to drench the bloody ground.
Lucifer’s legs began to fail below the surface as penetrating pain riddled his body. But the sight of color returning to Evangeline’s face gave him hope that drowned out the agony of what felt like tunneling beetles beneath his skin. Evangeline was healing, her breaths leveling out, her eyelids fluttering.
Lucifer’s head whipped up as a loud clamor thundered behind him. He almost wanted to thank Michael for helping, despite his actions that had cemented the harming of his child, but his angel nemesis was gone. Now hellions clambered and stomped up the stairs fast, their twisted limbs and sharp talons letting them crawl up the sides and the underneath of the once-glowing stairway. The remaining angels tried to follow, but there weren’t that many. Bodies littered the floor that was awash with black, red, and silver. Still and lifeless among cut-down hellions, the angels weren’t moving. They weren’t healing.
A vision appeared then, rushing in from a corridor to vault over the unmoving bodies of hellions and two lifeless angels.
“Gabriel,” Lucifer choked out.
The shock of Gabriel’s appearance hit Lucifer so hard, he wondered if he had died. But she was as corporeal as he was in her wet sapphire robe. The relief in her eyes at seeing him faded at the sight of their daughter cradled in his arms.
“Are you…?” Lucifer saw the rent in Gabriel’s robe as she dropped into the water with the way the material clung to her upper body. She was drenched already, her silvery hair hanging in waterlogged strands. Remnants of blood stained the area around the cut in her robe, but the skin below was unharmed but for a pink scar.
“My spine. It was severed,” Gabriel managed through rushed breaths. “I got here as soon as I could drag myself from my pond.” Her arm came around Lucifer, her sweaty forehead pressing against his to graze their noses. Looking down as her breathing recovered, Gabriel removed Lucifer’s hand from their daughter’s neck with a squeeze. The gash was much smaller, no longer a gaping mouth in her neck, but rather a thin slice that was still in need of attention. She took their daughter’s small hand from his chest and placed it above her own heart. Gabriel winced. “I saw it all from my garden. And I will be fine,” she added as Lucifer went to reclaim their daughter’s draining touch. “But you cannot stay here. Heaven needs you.”
“I will not leave you.” Although weakened, Lucifer cupped Gabriel’s jaw with his hand, fierce protection burning in his eyes. “Now that I have you both, Heaven can fall for all I care.”
“Then we shall fall too, Lucifer.” Gabriel’s smile was sad. Her full lips pressed together as the small hand on her chest called forth beautiful blue filigrees that curled from Evangeline’s fingers and up her arm. “Do you not see that? So long as Heaven is in danger, so are we. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot turn your back on what we are. Where we belong. This is your chance. Your chance to show God which side you are on. To prove your loyalty and that you are the being of light I’ve always known you to be. Unite with Michael, and fight with him side by side. It is the only way. Save us all, Lucifer. Fight for light.”
Lucifer pressed his lips against Gabriel’s, tasting her one last time, giving in to her hope for his eternal redemption and her belief that he—the Dark Prince of Hell—was the savior Heaven needed. “Stay with Evangeline no matter what.” Lucifer brushed his lips against hers one last time, knowing he may never see either of them again. “I love you both more than all the realms combined. More than life itself. Promise me, no matter what happens, you will both survive. You will both live.”
Gabriel took Evangeline into her arms, planting her palm over the child’s hand to keep it connected to her heart and the largest source of her heavenly power. “I promise. Now go. And remember how much I love you. Remember that your light shone brighter than even the brightest star. I believe in you, Lucifer. I love you.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Lucifer ran right into a war zone, leaving his heart back with Gabriel and his daughter in the Realm of Light. He hated being away from them, but he knew Gabriel was right. He needed to fight—or they were all dead.
Everywhere Lucifer looked, beings battled for their lives. Fallen angels and their white-winged backup fought against the soldiers and scarce living hybrids and all the mutated hellions that had banded together to form one formidable enemy. Bodies already littered the glowing ground: injured angels, hellions, and soldiers who’d been cut down and were missing limbs or that were still as death. Each fallen, whether on the side of light or darkness, was an obstacle, getting in the way of the angels who fought to drive their enemies back from God’s throne and the hazy rippling veil that contained all the souls in the afterlife.
But they were losing.
Now present and wielding his sword like a stampeding order, Zachias led the assault as hellions broke through the barrier. With the help of Cyrus’s soldiers, the gnarled monsters merged with the hazy light, infiltrating utopia.
Screams and shrieks started and grew louder with every smashing beat of Lucifer’s heart.
Sword already free, Lucifer began cutting a path through the soldiers toward the throne and the veil, all the while searching for Cyrus and Darius. But neither of them were anywhere in sight. His free arm swung, palm alive with sudden flames to light up enemies engaged in angel combat.
But Lucifer had to be careful, dousing most fires after they floored each victim. With thousands of bodies crowding up the infinite space of light, creating living bonfires would endanger his allies too if his enemies got up and ran or leaped at the angels. Their wings were more flammable than even the shreds of clothing or battle attire they wore.
Back by the rippling wall that had once been an invisible glamor of endless light, Michael fought alongside Remiel and Azrael to hold the hellions back. Covered in gashes and claw marks, Lucifer’s eldest enemy glistened with spilled blood. But like the other two archangels, Michael didn’t lose momentum. He cut down enemies with his silver sword while stabbing out with the angel dagger. Blue light flashed up through each mutated being’s body before flaring out through their eyes and mouths and rendering them lifeless.
Still, each fallen enemy was only a fifth of what was getting through.
Lucifer knew it, and so did Michael as they locked eyes and his lips thinned with a resigned shake of his head. “We are losing.”
A sudden stampede formed with a distant shout, barreling into Michael. He held fast to his sword, but the dagger went flying, its heavenly light fading as he disappeared into a thick sea of galloping hellions.
Their last means to quickly end the enemy was gone, but Lucifer fought as Michael was dragged back to reach the dagger’s location.
Lucifer continued to lash out with his sword while using his searing fists and sweeping legs to knock enemies down. A few fireballs were launched to diffuse larger groups of soldiers. But even as they screamed in the violent throws of death, Lucifer knew it would never be enough.
Now that Lucifer was closer to the veil, he could see the damage taking place through the hazy barrier. Inside the infinite expanse of light, the outline of a world came in and out of focus. Gleaming buildings and laneways made out of what looked like gold petered out to rolling hills of luminescence…and in the fray were all the worthy souls that had passed on and been invited into God’s sacred place. The dark shadows of the hellions violated all the pure light and serenity, giving way to blood-curdling screams—and gurgled ones—as souls were pounced upon. Pops of light went off, the heaveners bursting into nothingness as hellions devoured their souls.
The bright light all around began to blink darker, brightening first as if in reaction to each lost life before losing the fight.
More angels fell around Lucifer, beaten and broken, their glowing swords extinguishing as they bled out without the ability to heal. The halo around many of their bodies faded, vanishing as their immortality dwindled away.
An angel slipped through the ground as if the floor had suddenly become intangible. Then another dropped. And another. Angels fell like shooting stars, burning out as they disappeared through the haze.
They were losing.
The light of Heaven—its immortal power—was dying.
And then Lucifer saw something that froze him as if his affinity for fire had suddenly been turned to ice in his veins. God. Right there on his throne.
The light God normally appeared with pulsed and fizzled out. His human form remained with an expression of indescribable loss as he beheld all the bodies and the falling angels. But God’s eyes that pooled with transparent tears were not youthful, they were not that of the child Lucifer had once seen. They were dull and aged, growing wrinkled and ancient right before his very eyes. What was once a young boy was so terribly different. An older man that shrank and aged, shoulders curving inward with a weakening spine, flesh growing mottled by age spots, and arms and legs thinning to that of bone beneath sagging skin.
“You see what free will grants you,” God’s voice was as frail as his body, yet it somehow reached Lucifer through the ruckus that continued on all around him. The deep sadness in his milky eyes hinted at crushing guilt that could never be relieved. “I never wanted this for my first children. For my angels. I only sought to protect you and your purity. To ensure you never met this darkness that I knew would come. Yet I failed, my Morningstar. I—”
Cyrus appeared in a flash of darkness and blood. A feather vanished from his grasp. “Cover me!” The angel sword lit up gloriously blue in his hand, and he raced for the throne. Deadly intent blazed in his crimson eyes, trained on God’s frail form.
“No!” Lucifer screamed, running to stop his worst enemy. Running to save God as he shoved at all that blocked his way. Fire begged to blaze all over him, to be launched from his heated palms. But there was no clearance to take the shot.
Revealing himself from a thick mob of soldiers, Darius reinforced the barrier, ordering his men to engage and drag angels into the fray.
Michael appeared through the haze to see Cyrus arc the angel sword, slicing the air with its blue radiance. He reacted at once, throwing new hellions back as his wings battered more of them away and lifted his feet off the ground.
Lucifer shoved and struck out, clearing a space to fling out his own wings.
He never made it. And neither did Michael.
A tall gnarled hellion caught Michael by his ankle and soldiers stabbed through Lucifer’s wings—as Cyrus drove the blazing angel sword right through God’s heart.
God’s fading light pulsed once. Twice. The world around them rattled and quaked, stealing the focus of every being in Heaven. A pop sounded as light speared straight up from the throne—and God vanished without a trace.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
There was a moment of pure and sickening silence, and then cheers rose up, overcoming the wheezing gasps of fading angels and dying soldiers and hellions.
“We have triumphed!” Cyrus declared. He climbed onto God’s empty throne, standing tall and holding his arm up to thrust the glowing sword above his head. “God is dead!”
Cheers erupted, but Lucifer refused to give in, he refused to give up. He had too much to fight for. Too much to lose.
Lucifer spun with a roar, ripping his wings from the swords that speared them. Feathers sliced away and small bones cracked. He didn’t care. Fire turned his sight red, and flames burst from his hands as he rushed forward—
Darius appeared through the thick battlers without warning, blocking Lucifer’s path. The dagger he thrust forward blazed blue, stabbing between Lucifer’s ribs. Lucifer gasped as the blunt end speared his heart, mouth gaping without the ability to scream. Darius chuckled, coming close enough to fan his foul breath of coppery blood and death over Lucifer’s face. “Killing you will be almost as delicious as the look of defeat on your face. Almost…”
Lucifer collapsed to his knees, the dagger in his heart stealing all his motor functions. Darius gave him a nudge with a knee to the face and Lucifer fell back, a hellion’s limbless body breaking his fall.
Across the way through a sea of bodies, Michael struggled, getting free of the hellion that had floored him before shooting up into the air. He caught sight of Lucifer on his back, but he was barely keeping himself aloft. Bruises and gashes riddled his body, and his wings were so damaged they were more silver than white. Pain hardened his face with every flap to keep him airborne as he surveyed all the damage and strengthening threat, shifting to despair at Cyrus on God’s throne.
No longer concerned with killing, all the hellions outside the veil stopped their non-stop assault, now singing out in a chorus of grunts, howls, barks, hoots, and cheers. Their human fists and twisted claws pumped the air as they rejoiced with their conquering leader while soldiers drove the dwindling number of angels back.
A shadow grew over Lucifer, stronger now that the light below was turning darker by the second. Darius’s sword pointed down at Lucifer’s throat. “There is only one problem, my Dark Prince,” he said with a sly smile. “I do not want to kill you…well, at least not yet. I know they live. Your lover and your daughter and what I have planned for them…” Darius laughed, flashing his fangs. “You won’t want to miss a moment of it. The look on your face as I skin your daughter, well, I could not wish for more to feed my revenge.”
Darius’s smile grew with his hearty chuckle as panic made Lucifer’s heart squeeze harder and faster around the dagger, dicing the organ with every erratic beat. Knowing no one would save him so he could save them, Lucifer summoned the fire back to his hands, willing it to grow so he could get down to Gabriel and his daughter before Darius got to them. But it never came. With the blood flooding out of Lucifer, his body refused to heal. God’s superior power that shielded all of above had died with him. And with the dagger that pierced Lucifer’s heart paralyzing him, his fire was useless, snuffed out. Dead.
As dead as he and his reasons for living were about to be.
A commotion sounded, whipping Darius’s head sideways at the same time as Lucifer’s. To one side, the angels had recovered from their shock. Swords glowed brilliantly white as battle cries and clashing metal resumed and soldiers met the challenge.
Darius’s smiling face returned, beaming down at Lucifer. “Now, let us flee this distraction. The screams of your bitch and bastard child await.”
As dormant fire burned in Lucifer’s veins, numbing him all over, Darius suddenly frowned down at him. “Where is—”
“I will hunt you down in death.” Lucifer’s sudden ability to speak shocked him as he cut off Darius’s words. “And I will kill you, mark my—”
Lucifer never got to finish, as the deadly intent became a blank look across Darius’s face. A crack rang out, and the nearby hellions noticed and snarled. Then Michael was there, peering down at him over Darius’s shoulder as the hybrid-hellion’s legs failed him. Yet somehow Darius remained standing, the broken end of the angel dagger protruding from his chest while missing his heart.
And Lucifer knew why.
Somehow, when everyone’s light was fading, Michael’s seemed to radiate a healthy glow as one arm slung around Darius to hold him up. “I know this will not redeem me from my actions against Evangeline or…Gabriel. But we have not lost this war yet…”
Angels surrounded Michael, fighting back soldiers. All were wounded, and many were so bad they had eyes missing, limbs stripped of flesh with raw muscle exposed, and robes saturated silver with sprays of black. Others had twisted arms or legs that were undoubtedly broken. Yet, they all fought on, creating a barricade around Lucifer and Michael and the entrance to Heaven from the Realm of Light below.
Lucifer kept Gabriel’s survival to himself, feeding off the grief in Michael’s eyes as he rolled to his side and forced his numb legs to push himself upright. More silver spilled from his chest, making his head spin, but he refused to go down. The look of fear on Darius’s face urged him on. “
God is gone, Michael. Your protector. Your savior. There is nothing in Heaven to save.”
“You are wrong.” Keeping his grip firm on Darius who gaped like a fish out of water, Michael spared a glance at the hellions that had turned to take in their smaller group. In the background, Cyrus continued talking, declaring their triumph as he laid out his orders to imprison all the remaining souls beyond the veil. “God spoke to me. We are not defeated yet. Your child is our only hope. We must keep them all from her. We must protect her.”
“That is all I ever wanted to do,” Lucifer grated through clenched teeth.
“Then, as much as I hate to admit it, we are on the same team here.” Keeping Darius upright with one arm, Michael clamped his other hand over Lucifer’s stomach, sending pins of warmth inside.
When Lucifer shoved Michael back, the thick dagger slice was not gone, but the leaking blood had slowed and the wound was less gaping.
Michael held out his arm and spoke with urgency as the fighting barricade of angels drew closer. “I pledge to protect your child until my dying breath.”
Lucifer grasped the angel’s forearm and squeezed. “Either way I win. Pledge accepted. Now, are you ready to take our home back?”
With a rare smile, Michael spun Darius around and let Lucifer take control. “Welcome back, brother.”
Ripping the from Darius’s back, Lucifer plunged the blue blade back in before he could fall, aiming for his heart. “Cyrus! You think you have won? “ The blunt tip found its destination, tearing a gasp from Darius as Cyrus’s head snapped their way. Darius’s body shone spears of light from his eyes and gaping mouth—and then he combusted, burned from the inside out until he fell to ashes at Lucifer’s feet. “We’re not dead yet.”
