by Lanie Olson
“Your bride?” he asked curiously.
“Yes, and Hadrian just ran through the Seven Rooms with her. Did you not see them?”
Alaric smiled at me, his eyes turning amethyst again, and put a hand on my shoulder for a moment. Then he turned and instructed his demons to take precedence over the room again and to clean up the mess.
“That wasn’t an angel he ran away with,” Alaric said conversationally. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”
“What?” I looked over at Isaiah who looked as surprised as I was.
“It was a drac. Has being in the company of angels blinded you so much? As Hadrian ran, the drac was tearing him apart. That devil loves you as much as we know how to love, Deveraux. He’s dying right now to protect you,” Alaric replied.
I felt my body turn to ice. I had doubted Hadrian for a moment, and in my blindness I didn’t know that he was dying to make sure that I lived. I looked down in shame and thought of letting the Swamp consume me.
“I’ve set demons after the drac. Once they entered the room of the Prideful, the drac had taken over control and was dragging Hadrian like a dog. The demons will help him by my command,” Alaric reassured me.
“What of this bride?” he continued. “She’s an angel, you say? How is this union possible?”
Another scream ripped through the fog.
“There’s no time to explain this now, Deveraux,” Dorian said urgently. “We have to get to Lucy. If he kills her, more than any of you know, will be lost.”
“What are you talking about?” Isaiah asked him curiously.
“I cannot say. Only understand when I say that if I must continue without anyone then I will. Lucy must survive,” he stated, as he turned his back to the lot of us and disappeared into the Wasteland of the Exorcised Demons.
Alaric walked past us and followed Dorian curiously. I looked at Isaiah and nodded to let him know that Alaric, although given dominion over the Seven Rooms and demons, was to be trusted.
“Deveraux!” Alaric suddenly shouted from deep within the Wasteland.
I broke into a run and once again, the waters of the Swamp tried to drag me down. Partly because they remembered my rage and mostly because there were new demons to command them.
“I will see to it that your Elder knows of your treachery!” I shouted at them in a fury.
The waters immediately subsided and the demons squawked angrily at the knowledge of what would soon become of them had they not let us pass without further games.
“Dev!” Alaric yelled again. His voice sounded further away than his first call to me.
Isaiah picked me up out of the swamp and the rest of the angels followed suit, picking up the rest of the devils and flying us out of the Swamp into the Wasteland.
“Tread carefully in here,” I yelled back to everyone. “These souls will devour anyone that pays them enough attention. Angel and Devil alike.”
The angels flew us through the Wasteland, dodging any souls that watched us, and tried to engage us in conversation. That was how a possession started; with a simple conversation. Then once your trust was gained, the demon would infiltrate and take over the host in horrifying ways.
“Dear God, help us,” Isaiah whispered, dropping me down onto the molten pavement.
The angels dropped the rest of the devils down and stayed hovering in the air. The molten pavement couldn’t harm us, but they would be instantly incinerated.
Dorian was trapped in a vortex of exorcised demons that were holding him like he was being stretched on a rack. He looked like he was desperately trying to reach for something with his left hand but he just couldn’t reach it.
“Welcome.”
I looked up and saw, sitting on a pile of discarded souls, Stratus. He smiled when our eyes met and waved his hand summoning another vortex.
The scream that had led us into this room rang out again. In the middle of the swarm of Exorcised Demons was Lucy.
The real Lucy and they were hovering near her legs. At first I couldn’t figure out why until I heard her scream again and saw that she was giving birth to Keilyn.
Twenty-Nine
Lucy screamed again in agony as one of the exorcised parted her legs and reached for Keilyn.
The angels sprang into action. Isaiah led them into the first vortex to rescue Dorian and they began to attack the formerly possessed with their swords and condemning them to the worst torment in the Below.
In the lowest layer, there was a lake of Ice and Fire. In the middle of the lake was a horrible Beast frozen in place, while the flames devoured the flesh all around it.
The worst part was that the skin would regenerate, freeze, crack, and catch fire again. Any soul condemned to that part of the Below would be devoured by the beast and recycled to the edge of the lake before being pushed forward to be devoured again.
Once Dorian was freed, I ran at the vortex in which Lucy was giving birth to find myself and my family being attacked by a swarm of the exorcised. Alaric charged the demons to capture as many of them as he could and drag them to the Lake of Ice and Fire.
The last of the formerly possessed, ripped Keilyn from Lucy’s body and tossed her to Stratus before Alaric’s demon was able to get a hold of it.
I watched hopelessly as Lucy’s body fell to the molten pavement and began to catch fire.
“No!”
I ran at her as quickly as I could and scooped her up, holding what was left of her beautiful body against me, while Stratus laughed at his small victory.
I’ll deal with you once I have healed Lucy. You’ll pray for the Lake of Ice and Fire by the time I’m done with you, I promised him mentally.
His smiled widened as he cradled Keilyn before he turned and disappeared with her.
“She’ll die if she stays down here much longer,” Alaric said as he approached me.
“I know, but I don’t know to get her out of here without going through the entire labyrinth again,” I replied frantically.
“Follow me.”
Our families joined together and followed Alaric as he quickly lead us into the Forest of the Uncommitted. Those damned to this Forest had done no serious atrocity in life; they had just done nothing with their lives.
“Follow this path. When you reach the fork, go left. You’ll see a large cave a mile down the road. Knock three times when you get there and the door will open into the Between. That’s best I can do old friend,” Alaric said. “But I will do my best to find Stratus and the child. Find me when you return and we’ll dispose of that parasite together.”
I nodded in thanks. I would repay Alaric somehow, someway and I would be willing to give him whatever he wanted.
“Can these things harm us?” Dorian asked, still trying to breathe normally.
I looked at him and saw his body had burn marks all over it and he was missing large parts of his wings.
“No, my friend,” I replied softly.
He held out his arms. I looked down at Lucy whose eyes were closed; her face contorted in pain.
“I can get her out of here the fastest, Deveraux. I promise I won’t drop her and I won’t lose her,” he said.
“I … I trust you,” I said to him as I handed my bride to him.
Dorian held Lucy securely in his arms and looked back at the group of us.
“Meet me in the Nineteenth Quarter. The closer I can get her to the Above, the better it will be for the both of us,” he said, before he ran off with Lucy.
“I’m going to follow them as closely as I can. Dorian is one of the fastest angels and it’ll be hard, but if there is any trouble, I will be there to protect them,” Borias, one of the younger male angels, said as he flew off behind them, with his sword still drawn.
I fell to my knees on the dead grass and sighed. The selfish part of me was telling me that had I killed her when she first appeared in the Western Province, this never would have happened. I would not have lost most of my family and I would not have exposed them to the pain
of the Above and the horrors of the Below. They wouldn’t know about anything outside the Western Province and we would still be together and happy.
As happy as a devil could be.
What do I do?
“Master?” I felt Lorian’s hand on my shoulder. “What do you want us to do?”
I looked up at him and saw the rest of my family standing around me looking down at me.
I’ve lost so many of them.
For an angel.
Because of my lust.
“I want you all to go home,” I said softly as I got to my feet. “Return to the Western Province and rebuild. I will end this alone. I … I’m so sorry that you were all dragged into this. I should’ve killed her when she was brought into our home.”
Lorian looked shocked as did the mixed group of good and evil.
I looked at Isaiah.
“When this is over, when you have your sister back, draw your sword across my throat. There is nothing I can do to redeem myself for the devils lost because of my childish lust. If you cannot agree to this, then draw your sword against my throat now, or I’ll cast all of your angels into the Lake of Ice and Fire,” I said, feeling the evil come to rest on the surface.
Isaiah gripped his sword in his hand firmly and stared at me for a moment. I nodded and waited for him to cut my throat, but instead he sheathed his sword.
“I can’t; it’s not my place to take your life. When the time comes—and it shall—it will be Lucy’s hand that will end your life. It is how it was written,” he said quietly.
“How what was written?” Lorian asked, stepping protectively next to me.
“I asked you to leave,” I said to him softly.
“Master Deveraux, there are many things you have asked of us. We have always done as you wished with no questions asked or second guessing your judgment. However, we will not leave you. We will go with you until the very end, and if your life ends it’s because we have failed to keep you safe and have died trying. This is not up for discussion or debate, with all due respect,” Lorian replied, impatiently.
I looked at him and felt myself swelling with Pride. My family; my devils, were so diligent in protecting their master that even after watching their brothers and sisters dying all around them, they refused to leave my side.
“Dev … ” Lorian said, giving me an odd look.
I closed my eyes and thought of my love for Lucy. I thought of how I wanted to save her and be with her for eternity in the Between and I felt the Pride begin to leave me.
Thinking of Lucy kept me from swelling completely from the inside out.
“Now, tell us how what was written, Isaiah,” he continued, once my body returned to normal.
Isaiah looked at me for a moment. Almost as if debating whether he should tell me some secret of the “grand design” that I wasn’t supposed to know.
“There has been some speculation as to who released the Thunderbirds,” he began with a heavy sigh. “It wasn’t the devil Stratus. It wasn’t the humans as I’ve told you earlier.”
“Then who was it?” I asked.
Isaiah looked down for a moment and Josiah came over to stand by his side, followed by the other angels. In response, my remaining family took the same formation around me.
It almost seemed as if the answer was going to cause us to attack each other.
“Isaiah?” I prompted.
He looked up into my eyes, “It was written that an angel of the Ninth Realm would one day be the downfall of the Above. She would rise to the status of Sovereign of the Realm and would then fall. She would fall with the false purpose of saving her brothers and sisters who would be murdered in droves by the Thunderbirds who would be called forth by her unborn child. A child conceived with an Elder Devil. To recycle the world, the child would be born and devour the Above and the Below. And the angel would have to open the throat of her Elder Devil as a sacrifice to solidify the End of the Now Times.”
I felt faint.
I felt as if though my blood turned to ice. Lucy … was a fallen angel? She was evil?
But of all the thoughts that ran through my head, the hardest one to grasp was that the Devourer of the World; the one who had released the Thunderbirds so that she could be under the radar, was … Keilyn.
Thirty
We moved quickly.
I decided that the only way to save both sides now was to end Lucy and Keilyn. I would demonize myself at the right moment so that I would feel no loss, no pain. The next rooms and rivers passed in a blur and I disregarded all of the transgressors and damned that tried to drown us in their sins.
We reached a cavern and I felt hesitant. I knew that his downward spiral stairs made of human bones led to the Lake of Ice and Fire. I didn’t know if the angels would survive so I made a decision.
“Isaiah, speak with me for a moment,” I requested, moving away from the cavern.
“Yes?”
“I have no way to protect you from the Beast in the Lake. I need you and the angels to leave the Below now. Go to the Between and find Lucy and Dorian. Chain her as if she were a prisoner; I will deal with her once I’ve dealt with Keilyn and Stratus. I ask you to do this not as a command, but as a request from a friend,” I said to him quietly.
Isaiah’s eyes flared at the entrance of the cavern. I knew why; the ultimate enemy of the Above was in that cavern and it was in his nature and want to go in and battle it but I would not risk the remaining angels. If I couldn’t stop this, then I would need them to somehow rebuild the Above and the Below; to restore the balance.
“Agreed,” he replied, holding out an arm. I took his forearm firmly and looked into his eyes.
With a parting nod, he looked at the angels and explained to them that they would not be following us down into the cavern. Lorian reminded them of the path in the Forest of the Uncommitted.
I stood there and watched until they disappeared from view before I turned my attention back to the cavern.
“I don’t want you to follow me,” I told him quietly.
“Deveraux, when will you understand that we are sworn to protect you and will not leave your side?” Lorian inquired with a sigh.
“My dear friend,” I said turning to face him, “I cannot risk any more of you. Alaric is down there; I caught his scent in the cavern and it’s strong. I will be okay. What I ask is for you to somehow make your way to the Between. Help the angels, restrain Lucy, and prepare for my arrival. I will be there soon.”
My eyes iced over to let him know that I would accept nothing less than what I asked of them. Lorian held my gaze for a moment, before he nodded and my devils left me.
I began my descent down the Steps of Despair without incident. Once I passed the first spiral though, a drac appeared before me.
It was the spitting image of my beloved, innocent Lucy when I had first laid eyes on her in my home. The scared, yet determined angel that Keilyn would convince me to set free and help in any way that I could.
Dracs didn’t speak unless questioned but its eyes, once locked on mine, flooded me with memories of Lucy. Holding her in my arms for the first time when I took her innocence, swearing to her that I would save her family in return.
Because of the drac, I could feel her breath on me again as I held her down, moving inside of her gently and with purpose. I felt the sting of her purity burn away after my first push inside of her but I saw the fear in her eyes disappear as she gripped me tightly. I felt Lucy’s uncertain fingers tracing down my bare spine as I kissed her naked breasts, while giving her a chance to collect herself from the burn of her purity lost.
I closed my eyes at that moment and held my hand out directly in front of me. This drac was going to be the end of me and I knew it, but I was so lost in reliving my moments with Lucy that I didn’t want them to end.
The drac placed its hand in mine, intertwining our fingers together and my body jolted. My beautiful new bride, my angel, was on top of me moving slowly with uncertainty. I sat up and
wrapped my arms around her, pushing up into her as her wings spread out behind her, when we reached our highest sinful point; together.
My breathing was becoming labored and I could feel myself starting to sweat.
The drac took a step closer and I could feel it breathing raggedly. The façade it was hiding behind was slowly starting to melt away as the memories of Lucy continued to grip me.
I remembered how terrified she was when she realized she was stuck in the home of an Elder Devil. I remember how adamant she was in the fact that she would have to destroy the Thunderbirds alone to save her brothers and sisters. I remember watching Keilyn going to her and giving her food and water, when she thought no one knew. I remember Keilyn speaking for the first time to fight off Arissa so that she would be able to save Lucy from the incoming Thunderbirds.
The drac stepped closer still. I opened my eyes. I knew that the last thing I would do before it destroyed me was ask it the one thing I wanted to know for quite some time. Once I asked the question it would drag me away after answering.
“Where did Keilyn really come from?” I asked it.
The Lucy drac smiled, showing off rows of sharp teeth. It knew it had me, but it also knew that it had to answer me truthfully.
“The child appeared a full moon before the angel fell. You believe the Elder Angel and his prophecy because you were too blind to see the truth. The child is the angel and the angel is the child. A Devil and an Angel cannot conceive a child together. It is unimaginable and would rip a hole of void through the Grand Design. This was never a quest to save the Above from the Thunderbirds, Elder Devil. This was a distraction designed by the Angel Child to destroy the Above and the Below; to reign over the newly recycled Earth. Now… come with me,” the drac hissed as it opened its mouth to consume my soul.
I closed my eyes.
This would be better than knowing what I just knew. To cease to exist would feel less painful than knowing that Lucy and Keilyn were one; an illusion of each other.
The drac suddenly screamed out in pain and I opened my eyes. I gasped in surprise at the sight of Hadrian holding the drac’s head in his hands. He looked so torn; horrendous scars and pieces of flesh missing, but he had somehow survived the drac’s attack.
