“Tell me,” I said through clenched teeth.
“I wonder if this is how Samson felt… after his hair was cut.” Bannik tapped his chin. “After all, you’ve done the same thing without realizing it… when you mate, it is possible, that one or the other person may give all of his angelic powers to the other, say, if he is worried about her safety, or about her leaving him—”
“—human.” I gasped, throwing my arms out to the sides as shreds of ice slammed against the walls.
Bannik ducked. “Before you leave….”
I stared him down then closed my eyes, forcing my will on him, trying to remember what Cassius had explained in training, only to have my eyes open and see that nothing had happened.
“This…” He smiled wickedly. “Is my favorite part.”
The wall behind him moved to the side.
I counted ten.
Ten men.
Huge.
All with red and black hair.
Chained to the walls.
With blood being drained from them.
“It seems…” Bannik shrugged. “That I’ve been very bad.”
The men’s mouths were covered—but their eyes conveyed fear, anger, hostility and shame. I didn’t need to stare long to know who they were.
Sariel’s brothers.
The ones who had been punished.
And sent to different corners of the earth.
“Sariel won’t let you get away with this.”
“Hah!” Bannik clapped his hands. “And what will dear brother do? Not only am I creating an army—but I’m harnessing their power for my own. I’m untouchable. And now.” He dismissed me with his hand. “I’m bored.”
The door behind me opened.
Timber grabbed my arms and jerked me out.
“He’s insane,” I said through clenched teeth. “Do you truly think you can trust someone? Like that!” I pointed at the door.
“And my other choice?” Timber asked in a calm voice. “Rot until an immortal finally kills me then take my place in hell.” He shoved me down the hall. “I’ll take my chances.”
“Sariel—”
“Yes, let’s talk about the good angel.” He laughed, an evil sound that slid over me like warm butter. “Tell him, a war is coming. One he cannot win. Oh, and do say hello to the immortal king for me as he takes his last breath. We had a good run, a really good run.”
With that I was tossed into the street.
“Home,” I breathed, hoping it would work, that I would be able to imagine myself in a place and end up there.
After two seconds of nothing, desperation finally kicked in. I pushed all of my emotions into willing myself home with Cassius.
And opened my eyes just in time to see Ethan yell. “He’s coding!”
Cassius
THE WOUND HURT—but what hurt more, was the physical pain of my heart as it demanded I run after her. So with all the strength I possessed, I closed my eyes and willed it. I willed my strength to her, every ounce I had—and hoped it would be enough to keep her alive, even if it meant my death.
What have you done?
Sariel’s whisper was as always… so helpful.
I fell to my knees with a grunt, confused as to why my wound wasn’t healing; it typically took mere seconds for my skin to knit back together, leaving me without any sort of scar.
But now? It was as if.
I’d truly been injured.
I was about to yell for Ethan when he appeared by my side, his hands shoving mine away as he examined my chest. Eyes grave, he pulled back. “You aren’t healing.”
“No shit.” I huffed. It was getting more difficult to breathe by the second, as if a heaviness had taken hold of my chest and squeezed, the pressure building up into my lungs.
“Alex! Mason!”
They ran in, Genesis was close on their heels.
“Run into something sharp?” Alex teased.
“He’s not self-healing.” Ethan hissed. “And I can’t stop the bleeding.”
Immediately Alex sobered, shoving Ethan away so he could take a look, but what good was a Siren?
“I’m slowing your heart.” Ethan pressed a hand to my neck. “Try to calm down.”
“Sure.” I nodded. “I’ll do that, I’ll just tell myself to calm down while I—”
A Dark One could always calm down, always compartmentalize. “Genesis, what color are my eyes?”
Face pale, she answered in a tiny voice. “Blue. They’re blue.”
Mason let out a little howl as he knelt by my side and took my hand in his, apparently my emotions were causing him to change as claws replaced hands.
“It’s fine,” I lied, unable to taste it in the air. “There is no better way to die, then in the presence of friends.”
Brave words for someone who didn’t feel so brave, because regardless of my human state—I would die as a Dark One.
I would be nothing.
Feel nothing.
Know nothing.
To die as a Dark One is to have never existed.
And for the first time in my existence, I wanted the pain that memory brought, because it meant that I had lived, that I’d suffered, that I had loved and come out on the other side better for it.
Genesis squeezed my hand just as Ethan shouted. “He’s coding!”
Suddenly Stephanie was at my side, shoving everyone out of the way. Was she glowing?
Why the hell was I seeing a light?
She slid her wrists along Ethan’s teeth so quickly Ethan didn’t have time to protest, and then knelt next to my head pressing her wrist against my mouth.
“It won’t be enough.” Ethan said sadly.
“It has to be.” Stephanie said through soft sobs. “It has to be. I love him. It has to work!”
I smiled. “Love—” Exhaustion took over. “You.” I reached up to caress her face one last time and failed as my hand slumped to the floor, right along with my body.
I stood near the edge of the building where darkness met light. It was the perfect spot for me to be standing, all things considered.
That was my life.
The perfect rapture of darkness—light flirted on the outskirts, trying to seep through, but I knew better than anyone its chances of succeeding were slim. I held out my hand, and my fingertips kissed the sunlight peeking through the clouds. I twirled my hand around and let out a defeated sigh.
“Cassius.” Sariel, my father and one of the head Archangels—the same angels that hadn’t appeared to the immortals for over three hundred years—spoke my name with such authority and finality that it was impossible not to feel the effects of the words as he released them into the universe. They slammed against my chest, stealing every ounce of oxygen I’d just greedily sucked in. “You have failed.”
“Yes.” I swallowed the lie, felt it burn all the way down my throat into my lungs. My cold, rotten heart picked up speed, maybe I really was dead inside like she said, maybe it was hopeless, all of it.
“I taste the lie on your lips, half breed.”
“So taste,” I fired back, as my eyes strained to focus on the light. The yearning to be light, to fully allow it to consume me, was like a fire burning in my soul. “I have nothing more to say to you.”
“You realize what this means?” The once purple feathers surrounding his bulky body illuminated red. My heartbeat slowed to a gentle rhythm as droplets of blood cascaded from his feathers in perfect cadence with my breathing.
“I do.”
“Yet you do not fight?”
Finally, I lifted my gaze to his. His strong jaw ticked as his black hair blew in the wind. I knew I was the only one who could see him, compliments of my ancestors… my angelic blood.
“When one has lost everything worth fighting for…” I swallowed. “Tell me, what is the point?”
“You’ve never given up before,” he said quietly, his voice filled with disbelief.
“I’ve never been in love before!” I yelled, sla
mming my hand against the brick wall. If anyone passed by they’d simply think I’d gone insane, and maybe, maybe I had.
Because of her.
Everything was because of her.
“It’s best that I die. Best that I leave her.”
Sariel’s face broke out into a bright smile. The blood from his feathers pooled at his feet forming the shape of a heart. “Very well.”
I prepared myself for the pain, for the sheer agony of ceasing to exist. I knew from stories that when a Dark One died, it was horrific, terrifying, for we never knew if we would rejoin the light or the darkness.
I assumed I would go dark.
I assumed I would be consumed with evil.
I assumed wrong.
Because the minute Sariel touched my skin.
I felt nothing but empty.
“A gift,” Sariel whispered into the air. “For my only remaining son.”
His fingertips pressed against my skin, they burned, they seared everywhere they pressed.
“What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer.
When he stepped away, light flashed in front of my eyes, and I was back in Russia, back where it had all begun.
Tears filled my line of vision as I imagined the pain and suffering of the mountain.
So it was over then.
Sariel’s lips twitched into what looked like a smile though I couldn’t tell, maybe I was hallucinating? Maybe this was death.
A lonely existence of living in the past, while still being able to remember the touch of the present.
“Watch,” Sariel instructed, crossing his arms in front of the golden armor placed around his body. His helmet had been restored along with his shield and spear.
A large tree with heavy branches twisted around the shield and then suddenly started to grow from the shield as roots grew into the snowy ground. I took a step back as the tree spread its branches from East to West, its trunk doubling in size, only to stop growing once it reached at least thirty feet into the air.
“The tree of life.” Sariel spoke reverently. “We watched. But we didn’t just watch… we watched over something very specific. My gift was life. I was to watch over life.” He hung his head. “So when I helped create it, it was not just an abomination that was created, but something that was never supposed to be.” He motioned to the tree. “Humans were supposed to born with limited knowledge of the unexplainable. When you were created you were born with both. Humanly, your brain cannot morally comprehend your angelic side, and as an angel, the human side not only fascinates you, but disgusts you, goes directly against everything you’ve ever fought for. So how, do the two co-exist? It will always be a battle. To kill you…” He sighed. “To kill a life that the Angel of life has created—would not only kill an entire race of Demon—or fallen.” He shared a look with me. “But humans as well.”
The heaviness of his words stunned me.
“But to tell you of your own importance… of how you, Cassius, keep the balance of good and evil within the world right along with your mate—what risk would I be taking? To give you knowledge that part of your soul will never understand? Part of your body may reject? It was not my place, nor did I see this far into the future to know that had I possibly told you sooner—war could have been avoided.”
The tree dissipated in front of me as twelve thrones grew up from the ground. They were made of pure gold. And like Sariel’s shield, each throne had a different tree.
“Bannik watched over death and destruction,” Sariel whispered. “And because of me—it consumed him.” He turned his head in my direction. “Even angels are given a choice. Do we give in to the darkness? The comfort of knowing that we can selfishly do whatever we want using the powers we’ve been gifted with? Or do we follow? I’m sad to say, because of me, Bannik was bitter, bitter enough to allow the darkness to turn him into a completely fallen angel, a powerful Demon who has abilities that far surpass anything you’ve ever seen.” He licked his lips. “So, son, today, today will not be the day that I take your life from this world. Today I gift you with more than you could possibly imagine—in hopes that you will do what I could not.”
“I don’t understand.”
Sariel’s eyes filled with tears. “A sacrifice, must always be made, my son. Blood, must always spill. It is the way of the earth. The way of the heavens.”
“Father!” I reached for him. “What are you saying?”
Sariel closed his eyes as a silver tear ran down his strong face. “All I wanted…” His white filled eyes blinked up at me. “Was to be worthy of that word, just once.” He smiled. “And today… I hope, that you remember the way you effortlessly released the most beautiful of words into the air, giving me a peace I’ve been waiting for, for millennia.” He smiled. “The test of your humanity was twofold. Yes, you needed her love, but you needed to also see that without all of this…” He spread his arms wide. “You still had something to offer.”
The thrones disappeared into the ground as the earth started to tremble around my feet.
“Save my brothers, my son. Finish the work.” He nodded his head at me and walked toward the middle of the valley just as five thousand angelic beings descended out of a silvery mist onto the ground.
They were in full gold armor.
Hands placed on their swords.
Facing every direction of the earth. North, South, East, and West.
They parted down the middle.
And a little boy, made his way slowly toward Sariel.
Sariel nodded at him and then swiftly passed him and took his place in the middle of the cavalry.
But the little boy approached me.
The same one from Sariel’s visions.
He stopped a few feet away.
“Rules have never been easy for you to follow, Dark One.”
I hung my head. “Yes. I’m aware.”
He smiled brightly. “It seems to be hereditary.”
“Apparently.”
“Where there is Dark, there will always be Light…” he whispered. “And where there is light… power exists, for things that have been hidden will be visible. And there is so much power within your sight.” He stepped away. “I will take good care of him.”
“I won’t see him again.” The thought stunned me, made me want to chase after the father I’d always despised but the only family I’d ever known other than my mother. “Will I?”
“We all have our time. This is yours. His was ending. And a life must always take place of a life. He is simply sacrificing his—so that you will have yours.”
“But—”
“I love you,” Sariel whispered in my head, as his normally light-infused body turned strangely human.
The little boy lifted his hand and pressed it to my chest. “Use his power well. Love fiercely. End this war.” His eyes turned an eerie silver. “I see many futures for the immortals.”
Power surged through me as I fell to my knees.
The little boy tipped my chin toward him. “Be the light in the darkness, Cassius.”
Stephanie
I HUNCHED OVER HIS lifeless body. The house started to shake as lights flickered around us.
Ethan held up his hand for us to be quiet as the shaking continued. Lamps fell off of the tables, pictures dropped to the floor.
And then… everything suddenly froze.
As if time was stopped.
The atmosphere was a mixture of complete silence and an eerie ringing in my ears.
A huge gasp emitted from Cassius as he opened his eyes and locked onto me. They were a silvery white, different yet the same.
“It worked!” I kissed his mouth then wrapped my arms around his neck, unable to help myself. I’d almost lost him. Tears streamed down my face.
“Um, Stephanie.” Ethan coughed.
I kept choking the life out of Cassius as I hugged him.
“Stephanie.” Ethan said my name again, this time more urgent, as his strong hand landed on my
shoulder in an effort to jerk me away.
“What?”
His eyes widened as he nodded toward Cassius. I pulled back just enough to see a purple feather greet me, followed by a few hundred more. Stumbling back onto my butt, I let out a gasp of surprise as purple wings spread twelve feet across Cassius’s back, poking into the couch and kissing the fireplace.
Cassius’s chest heaved with an over exaggerated inhalation as he fluidly rose to his feet.
The atmosphere remained timeless, serene, as he glanced around the room then into each and every one of our faces and whispered, “Sariel has passed on.”
“No shit, did you eat him?” Alex grumbled earning an elbow from Mason.
Cassius hung his head as his body trembled. Purple feathers shuddered in unison with him as if mourning the loss of the soul they’d once been united with, and then all at once the feathers released a purple mist.
“Even the feathers weep of his absence,” Ethan said in a grave voice sliding his hand behind Genesis back and quietly escorting her out of the room. Alex and Mason followed, maybe they too sensed the stillness in the air, the absolute paralysis of the cells around us as if they too were confused on what course of action to take. After all, what was the protocol when a Dark One suddenly sprouted wings out of his back? And not black, ripped up wings, but true wings, the ones of his father, an archangel.
I stayed glued to the floor as Cassius hovered near me. Was it possible for him to be more beautiful than before? It must be, because he was, his strong jaw was smooth, cut perfectly across a flawless face. Sensual lips curved downward into a scowl as his wings slowly retracted back toward his body then disappeared altogether.
“What happened?” I asked, slowly rising to my feet and making my way toward his shivering body. He might look gorgeous but he also carried an air that he’d just undergone the most traumatic experience of his life.
“Everything,” Cassius whispered. “And yet, nothing I shouldn’t have seen.” His eyes flashed. “I should have seen it. I should have seen all of it, but he was always so vague.” Cassius’s shoulders rose and fell with each laborious breath he took. “It was a future that was too closely tied to mine.”