by Cate Corvin
Belial kissed me and hugged me close. “Everything will be fine, angel. No swords. It’ll be a perfectly happy little wrath-baby.”
I groaned. “You have such a weird way of reassuring me.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” he said with a grin. “Now snuggle up, we’ve got lost time to make up for.”
10
Tascius
I volunteered for guard duty for two reasons, but one was less of a reason, and more of a temptation I was unable to resist.
The demon healer had confirmed my worst fear. My small friend might think she was an unstoppable force, but once Satan sniffed out the pure, brand new life inside her, he’d be on her trail like a slavering wolf.
It seemed impossible that the danger that she was in could be any worse, but here we were. It was all I could do to not punch Belial for celebrating.
At least he was with her now, and far out of my reach. I would’ve happily strangled him.
I took a deep breath and paced the outer wall of the arena, watching for any sign of Satan, but all of the asshole’s safeguards remained quiet. Belial might be a juggernaut of mayhem, but he knew how to make protective measures count.
The Nephilim wrath rose inside me like a poisonous snake, rearing its ugly head when I imagined all the terrible things that could happen: Melisande, dragged out of the arena by the Dragon. Melisande, her wings torn from her back. Melisande, ripped and gutted as something feasted on innocence in the dark…
It took all my effort to force the uncontrollable anger back down. She wouldn’t appreciate it if I burst into Belial’s room and took his head off his shoulders.
Somehow we had to present a united front even with all the cracks between us.
I passed Azazel at exactly two hundred and fifty paces around the side of the arena. He glided by like a shadow, nodding to me and leaving a trail of smoke behind him.
It would be another two hundred and fifty paces before I saw him again, which gave me an opening.
It was a small opening, but it was all I needed to settle the temptation that rose under my need to protect the most vulnerable among us.
As soon as Azazel was out of sight, I ducked inside a dark door and crossed the empty arena floor to the hall. I knew Belial’s home like the back of my hand after a lifetime here.
His prisons had once been full, but now they were home to only one.
I put my hand flat on the wall, closed my eyes, and felt for the prison cell that held a living, breathing body.
It slid open under my palm. Gabriel’s cell was lit with only the faintest light, just enough to make out the glistening chains that had once held one of the most powerful Nephilim in check, and the tangled fall of silver hair that was caked with dried blood. He hung from the chains around his arms, his head bowed.
I stepped inside, my breath shallow, and the door closed behind us.
I’d dreamed so long of a moment like this.
“I knew you would come eventually.” Gabriel’s voice was nothing but a hoarse rasp. He raised his head, revealing the swollen angles of his bruised face.
I knelt down. Gabriel had slumped to his knees. Being this low at least put me on a face to face level with him, and I wanted to look him dead in the eye when he spoke.
He was completely helpless. I could wrap those chains around his throat and crush his spine before anyone could stop me.
My fingers twitched and I clenched them into fists.
A faint smile crossed his battered face when he saw the tiny gesture. “You can murder me now, but there’s so many things you’ll never know.”
“I’m not going to kill you yet.” I kept my voice even despite the rage shaking my bones. “So talk.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. The movement re-opened one of his wounds, and fresh blood trickled down the side of his face. “Let me guess. You want to know about your mother.”
“What a brilliant deduction.”
She’d suffered for me. She’d made me suffer, too. And I hardly remembered her face.
The captive archangel shifted, making the chains clink. “She was beautiful, and she opened her legs without a second thought. That’s all there was to it.”
A low growl rose in my throat and I swallowed it back before it could emerge.
He let out a hoarse laugh. “What else could you have possibly imagined? That we loved each other? That we were separated by circumstance against our wills? No. I was fresh off the battlefield of Hell, my blood was up, and a Nephilim with a pretty face happened to be there.”
“Did you even know her name?” I asked quietly.
Gabriel stared at me for a long time, his eyes gleaming gold against the dirt and blood on his face. “I never knew it. I didn’t care.” He tugged against the chains, trying to get comfortable, but there was nowhere for him to go. “I came back to Hell one time after that. When I saw you, there was no doubt you were mine.”
“But you left her there anyways. Do you have any idea what she had to face in Acheron?”
He shrugged carelessly. “The same meaningless death as everyone else. She begged me to take you with me. I do remember that.”
Gabriel smiled like it was a fond fucking memory.
“But there was no place for either of you there. She was half-demon. Tainted. You might’ve won out with the stronger bloodline, but…” He sneered as he looked me over. “You have the same blood as her in your veins. You were of no use to me.”
My heartbeat pounded in my ears like a drum. He truly didn’t give a damn that he’d fathered a child and left the woman to struggle without hope.
“So you didn’t give a fuck about our lives.” I took a breath, and released all my anger in the next one. There was no point in caring about him anymore. My father was every bit what I’d expected him to be. “Fine. Let’s move on.”
Gabriel licked his lips. “To your pretty little angel?”
The last thing I wanted to hear, while I was already struggling against my furious nature, was her name in his mouth. “What was the point in raising the souls of the dead during the Apocalypse? You had Choirs of angels at your disposal, yet you stood back and did nothing.”
“Why don’t you ask what you really mean?” He managed to sound sly despite the hoarseness of his voice.
We stared at each other. I watched the blood drips dry on the side of his face.
“Why did you raise her from the dead?”
Gabriel let out another short laugh. “Because she died in fury, and it seemed such a shame to let her soul resign itself to an eternity of nothing. We were there when the Horsemen ripped through the last of humanity. I felt the deaths of her soldiers; their fear, terror, regret… but of all the souls left on the battlefield that day, only one went out with a spark of pure rage.”
He closed his eyes, a smile hovering on his lips. “I wanted that soul for myself. Unlike your sweet, pliable mother- and believe me, she was clay in my hands- Melisande’s soul was seething with violence. I raised her and brought her into Heaven as my own, and she didn’t disappoint. She required more punishment than most; you could see it in her eyes, the need to rebel and buck the natural order of things.”
That was my girl. I felt a burst of pride for her.
“Her pain was delicious. That was when I knew I wanted her for myself.”
I rocked back on my heels, watching him reminisce. He seemed to have completely forgotten I was there, his eyes closed, dangling from the chains.
“Since she was raised from my essence, she was the perfect vessel. I kept her out of the breeding cycles so she wouldn’t be wasted on a lesser angel.” He made a noise of contempt. “Like I would allow that prick Selaphiel to assign an angel with my own essence in them to a minor archangel. Our children would’ve been magnificent.”
The idea of Melisande being chained to Gabriel was enough to make my stomach churn. No wonder she’d preferred the fall to returning.
But now I knew the full truth of why she’d never been put
in one of Heaven’s barbaric breeding cycles. It wasn’t because she’d requested it.
It was because she was being saved for worse.
“She never would’ve let you lay a hand on her,” I said evenly, and Gabriel’s eyes snapped open.
“And I never will,” he snarled. “She’s betrayed what I’ve given her. Just like your mother, nothing but a slut who opens her legs to any demon, who spits on everything I’ve made of her.”
“She’s made herself so much more than anything you could’ve created.”
Gabriel’s jaw twitched. “I regret not cutting her throat before I pushed her. Better dead than what she is now.”
It was my turn to smile, though there was nothing pleasant in it. “I suppose that’s the only thing I can thank you for. When she tears the rest of the rot out of Heaven, we’ll make sure everyone knows it was all thanks to you. Maybe God would like to know how you’ve spent so long as one of his archangels when you’re corrupt to the core.”
To my surprise, Gabriel just laughed.
And laughed, and laughed.
His laughter grew wilder until it sounded like the tiny cell housed a pack of mad wolves.
“Would God like to know?” he asked, gasping for breath. “Oh, fly to Heaven, son. See what waits for you there.”
An icy trepidation had started flowing through my limbs.
How did God not know that this was his right-hand man? Was this really what Heaven was supposed to represent? He was the worst of treachery, lust, and greed rolled into one powerful being.
“What might that be?” I asked, and Gabriel’s eyes squinted with mirth.
“Fly to the peak of my kingdom. You can speak to the empty throne and see how much it cares.” His laughter rang through the cell again. “You have no chance against the archangels. Barachiel would peel the skin from your flesh before you made it through the Gates.”
“What. Empty. Throne?” I growled.
He finally stopped laughing. There was a mania in his golden eyes.
“God’s corpse won’t give a single fuck about any sin I’ve committed. He was weak, and we were strong. He was willing to stand back, and we were willing to go to war.”
“God’s… corpse.” I felt like I was speaking a language that didn’t make any sense.
Gabriel finally straightened up, getting on both feet with a wince of pain. I rose as he did, following my father to his full height and managing to surpass him. Without his wings, he was shrunken.
“Why would I have wasted my time on Satan when there was always much larger prey?” he demanded coldly.
The truth was starting to sink in, and although my mind didn’t want to make sense of it, it made all the sense in the world.
Melisande’s unjust fall from Heaven, the corruption of the archangels, the silence of Heaven as the world suffered… it was all because the other half of the cosmic scales was gone.
“You murdered God.” I could barely force out the words.
Gabriel shook his head. “I gave him a fair chance, and he did nothing but stand there and watch the Sword fall. If he was truly meant to be the King of Heaven, all he had to do was defend himself. He chose to die. His weakness was his downfall.”
My father was completely and totally mad.
“So you crowned yourself King in his place?” It seemed impossible, but I knew he hadn’t spoken a single lie.
“Myself… and my brothers. So you see, blood of mine, you never stood a chance.” He smiled again, but it was thin and cold, the smile of a snake. “Once I removed the blight from the throne, we removed the weakness from the might of Heaven. And if I’d brought you there, you and your mother would’ve been the first ones paraded through the streets as an example.”
Gabriel’s eyes rested on my wings, full of envy.
“So perhaps you should thank me for your suffering. You would’ve experienced far worse at Barachiel’s hands.”
Mad wasn’t a strong enough word. He was crazier than the fucking Red Dragon, the paragon of unchecked ego.
I turned on my heel and strode out, leaving him to dwell in the dark.
11
Melisande
“He did… what?”
Shock bolted through me, leaving me feeling cold inside.
How the fuck was it even possible that God was dead? Wouldn’t someone in Heaven have noticed and raised the alarm?
I didn’t realize I’d spoken aloud until Lucifer answered.
“Not if all seven archangels were in on it,” he said grimly. “The only way to receive an audience with God was through them. They deceived all of Heaven.”
We’d gathered in the arena after Tascius shouted for us. I wrapped a shawl around my shoulders, feeling cold despite the heat of Belial’s warmth still on my skin.
Now everyone was silent, absorbing the information.
It didn’t seem possible.
“Maybe he’s lying,” I said weakly, but I couldn’t summon even a drop of self-assurance. Lucifer knew how the hierarchy of Heaven worked, and if he thought it was feasible for the archangels to hide a crime of that magnitude, then there must be a grain of truth.
Not only that, but I knew how Gabriel worked. He was something beautiful rotting on the inside, festering in arrogance, narcissism, and pure ego.
He wouldn’t lie about something like this. Not unless he’d actually done it, so he could crow to Heaven and Hell that he’d done the unthinkable.
Azazel’s eyes flashed as he looked up at us. He was leaning against the wall of the arena, his arms crossed over his chest. “Who gives a damn? Heaven isn’t our problem. We have our own psychotic monarch to overthrow.”
I rubbed the new swirling mark on my palm for comfort. “It’s not, but… it just doesn’t seem real. How could God, of all people, be dead?”
“Easy.” Lucifer’s face was grim. “He wasn’t what you thought, Melisande.”
“So you think he deserved to die?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Heaven has suffered under the archangels. I suffered. I thought… I thought God didn’t care, not that he wasn’t seeing it at all.”
Lucifer was silent for a long moment, staring into the distance. “He didn’t care even when he was alive,” he said. “He didn’t give a fuck about anything but adulation and glory. I fell for a reason, and it wasn’t because God was all light and love.”
My stomach churned, but maybe he had a point. Lucifer had known God personally, had been one of his favorite archangels… and Lucifer had still chosen to plunge from Heaven rather than remain under his rule.
Still, I couldn’t release the idea that God was more than that.
“He was just as despotic as Satan.” Lucifer’s voice was harsh. “He was the wolf in lamb’s clothing. Good riddance.”
I pressed a hand to my churning stomach. “I guess I was just hoping there was a little light still left in the world. All of humanity, dying in the Apocalypse… we at least had that thought to comfort us, even when we knew we were going to die. That there was something better after all the destruction.”
The lines in Lucifer’s brow softened, and he strode forward and wrapped me in his arms. I leaned my head against his chest. “There is something better,” he said, his voice low. “We’ll be better, when my father is dead. We don’t need God and Satan and their eternal fucking war of egotism. It’s time to break the wheel. Forget Heaven, Melisande. It belongs to the archangels now, and if they want to bastardize it, it’s on them. We have our own home to focus on.”
I nodded, taking a deep breath and steeling myself.
So God was dead. It wasn’t my problem. I’d survived Heaven under Gabriel’s rule, but I had had a new home I cared about, a home that had welcomed me with open arms.
“Fine. Forget Heaven, and let’s get to work breaking the wheel, then. We still need allies in this war.” I looked at Tascius and Belial over Lucifer’s shoulder. “We can bring back the Brides from Satan’s last round of sacrifices. They’re still living i
n my arena. If we deliver them home safely, maybe the Princes of the upper Circles will be more likely to back us.”
Azazel flicked an invisible bit of lint off his shoulder. “We’ll need more than just a return of their sacrifices. The Princes as a whole are notoriously hard to herd together. Like cats.”
Belial beamed and nodded. Of us all, he was the only one who’d taken the news of God’s death in stride.
“We’re going to have to think bigger,” Azazel continued. “This is just a bit of sweetening, but it’s a start.”
Lucifer released me and we slipped out into the light of the Brightside. Belial chained his doors again and posted several imps on guard duty before shifting into his form as a massive lion.
He nudged me with his nose and shook his mane. I took the hint, flying up to land on his broad shoulders. The dip between his shoulder blades was a perfect seat, and I scratched my fingers through his soft fur as he loped down the street.
“Vyra has the dossier on each woman,” Lucifer said, walking at Belial’s side. “There’s a few Princes I wouldn’t necessarily want you in the same room with, but-”
“I can handle the Princes,” I said, scowling at the road ahead. “When I took the Brides in, they became my responsibility. I’m not going to hide behind any of you when I’m doing the Circles a favor. Especially when they were too fucking weak to defend their own.”
Azazel rolled his eyes skywards. “Please don’t phrase it like that when we’re actually negotiating with them for back-up.”
“Why not?” I smiled at him. “Maybe they need to hear it.”
He gave me an exasperated look, but I caught the slightest hint of a smirk before he turned his face away.
“Come on, back me up, Azazel.”
The Grigori glanced up at me again. “You just be your enchanting self, angel. After centuries of trying to get them together, maybe it’s time for a new tack.”
“And that tack is named Melisande.”
When we were joking around, it felt easier to release the tension I’d developed after Gabriel’s confession. So God was dead… it was a disappointment, but I wasn’t human anymore. I didn’t need to fear the Apocalypse again.
