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Ash
Two women and a man appeared shortly after Rosalie—doubled over and breathless as though they'd been running after her. Rosalie paid them no mind, her gaze fixed on Jacob.
Jacob's smile faltered despite his valiant efforts. "Rose. Hey—"
Rosalie drew her bow. Before anyone could react, the arrow struck beside Jacob's head.
"What are you doing?" the brunette woman said, outraged. "You could've killed him!"
"Trust me, Jessica, if I wanted to kill him, he'd already be dead," Rosalie said.
"We shouldn't be fighting among ourselves like this," the man said. He reached for her bow but Rosalie sidestepped him.
"Who's that?" Paul whispered.
"Crazy ex," Jacob whispered back.
"How sweet." Rosalie aimed another arrow at him. "I'm your ex."
Jacob raised his hands. "All right, all right, I'm sorry!"
The second arrow struck even closer than the first. "Clearly more sorry about being caught since I'm crazy," she fumed.
"No offense, lady, but you're shooting arrows at his head," Paul said.
She turned to Paul. "Your friend ran off with half of my supplies." She glared.
"You're his weed supplier?" Paul's eyes widened.
"I'm sorry, all right?" Jacob cowered against the trunk. "I wasn't in a good place. Not after… Not after—" He struggled and then gave up. "I'm sorry I left like that."
"Nobody was in a good place out there." Rosalie positively quivered with rage and Issa thought she saw sparks of glory flying off her hair. "Do you have any idea what I was going through? What you almost put me through again? I slept with you. I fucking slept with you, do you not know the consequences of that?"
Rosalie looked like she was about to actually shoot him. Issa slowly rose out of the hot spring, about to unwisely get between them to save Jacob when Alice ran up to Rosalie and hugged her around the knees. "Maman. I'm hungry."
Rosalie gazed down at Alice and took a deep breath, finally lowering her bow. "You're not worth it," she said, more to herself than to him. She turned and marched off, Alice at her heels, while Jacob suddenly looked as though he were wishing she had shot him.
"You fucked up big time, didn't you?" Paul said, staring after them.
Jacob scrambled to his feet, newfound determination in his eyes. "Rose," he called out. "Rose."
"I wouldn't follow her now if I were y—" Paul began but Jacob was gone. Paul sighed. "That man doesn't know the value of his own life."
"Well, she's one of the very few seraph descendants around," Jessica sniffed. "They're not known for their sweet disposi—oh." She turned red when she caught sight of Edvardiel. "I mean… Hi."
"Hello." Edvardiel's smile was strained.
"I mean, seraphs are also really strong and we need them to keep out the demons," Jessica said quickly. "Eden was really nice too, from what I've heard, so clearly not all seraphs are as crabby." As though realising she was blabbering, she turned an even brighter shade of red and looked to her companions for help.
"Fancy meeting you here." The other woman was older than Jessica and reminded Issa very much of the early twenty-first-century politicians Lilith had sent her to assassinate–polished and untouched by the Apocalypse. "I'm Tanya. This is Jessica and Mike. We were on our way to have lunch with Sue, do you want to join us?"
Tanya was polite enough to look at both Issa and Paul, but there was no doubt that her invitation was aimed at Edvardiel.
"Sure, I'm starving!" Paul said.
Edvardiel glanced at Issa, clearly searching for an excuse. "Well, we're—"
"We could find you some new clothes and show you around the Garden too," Tanya added. "I heard the beacon might summon your father. I know some good places to watch the skies."
Edvardiel hesitated and then nodded. "That would be nice. Thanks."
"Splendid!" Tanya smiled. "Don't worry, Sue lives on the outskirts of Eden. Not many people go there."
Sue was a kindly woman in her fifties. As she ushered them in, she gave Issa a warm hug.
"You remind me of my daughter," she said.
Issa smiled and patted her back awkwardly. Blending in with humans had been one of her talents when she'd been under the influence of Lilith's poison. She'd been so good at it, she would sometimes forget she wasn't one of them. Trying to do the same without the poison felt strange. The woman's sweetness was so genuine that Issa felt a stab of guilt.
Sue brought them all potato soup—she hadn't been expecting three extra guests and Tanya, Jessica and Mike graciously gave the first bowls to Issa, Edvardiel and Paul while the others returned to the kitchen to get some more.
Issa had barely begun eating when Tanya returned with a bowl, dropping to sit beside her. "You look so young. It must've been tough growing up out there." She gazed at Issa, the perfect picture of concern. "Where did Edvardiel find you? He must've saved you, am I right?"
Issa gestured at her mouth apologetically, chewing as she bought time to think.
"He sure did," Paul said, enthusiastically digging into his soup. "Carried her around for days."
"How sweet." Tanya turned back to Issa. "So you're something like a little sister to him?"
Paul coughed.
"Maybe if you like kissing your little sister," Edvardiel said unexpectedly, humour dancing in his eyes.
Issa nearly spat out her soup.
Tanya's eyes widened. The woman was good. Issa wondered if she'd genuinely not seen them enter the gates together. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realise. She looks so young."
Tanya was out for her blood. And her angel. Issa tried not to let it bother her, but Tanya's words reminded her that she was over a century old and frozen in time. Not to mention, she was an Acolyte stained with the blood of innocents. Tanya wasn't wrong about Edvardiel saving her—she couldn't exist without his glory. Sure, she'd saved him multiple times but now he had Eden and she was just a parasite consuming his limited energy.
She stirred her soup moodily as Sue, Jessica and Mike emerged from the kitchen.
"I never thought I'd have Eden's son over for lunch!" Sue said brightly. "I should've made something better than potato soup."
"It's amazing potato soup, ma'am," Paul said as he scarfed it down. "Haven't eaten anything so good in my life!"
"Me neither," Edvardiel said, and Sue beamed at them as she placed a giant pot in the centre of the table.
"Eat up," she said. "You must be starving, poor dears. Where were you before Eden?"
Paul eagerly refilled his bowl. "Jacob and I met these two near Bosnia. He was carrying her looking all miserable."
"How did you two meet?" Sue asked.
"Long story," Edvardiel said. "We were running from demons."
"Shit, you ran into demons?" Paul said.
"And you got out alive?" Jessica's eyes were round.
"Of course they got out alive," Tanya said. "Edvardiel was there. He's basically a seraph."
"Actually, it was mostly Issa's guns," Edvardiel said.
"You can shoot?" Sue gazed at her interestedly.
"He's exaggerating," Issa said. "It was mostly his glory." She hoped he wouldn't draw any more attention to her. Her being here was risky enough.
"My daughter is very good with guns too," Sue mused. "I think you'd be good friends."
Issa wanted to ask about Sue's daughter but hesitated. What if the girl had died in the Apocalypse? Sue spoke about her daughter in the present tense but Issa didn't want to risk upsetting the sweet woman.
"Do you know when your children will be here?" Jessica asked. "You arrived about a week ago, right?"
Sue shook her head. "I don't know. We got separated near Koprivnica."
Koprivnica. Their void had been there.
Issa saw Edvardiel glance at her from the corner of her eye but she focused on her soup, trying to keep her hand steady. There shouldn't have been any humans left in Koprivnica—it was a city they'd already raided. The few that they'd run into… Issa vaguely remembered the hot midday sun, the young couple and the teenage boy, the flash of her double blades, and then the usual river of blood. Her stomach twisted as she remembered that the young woman had been wielding a rifle.
Still, Sue's children could've been anyone.
Sue poured some tea into Issa's empty cup. "I'm not worried. I'm confident they'll make it," she said. "Like I said, Leah's good with her guns and she's got her fiancé Jake with her. Seth will be safe with them."
Issa's insides froze.
Sue smiled at her warmly. "How old are you, dear? I think my Leah's only a few years older than you."
The soup tasted like ash in her mouth. Bile rose in the back of her throat. "Excuse me," she choked out, before she ran. They might have called after her. She might've dropped her bowl. She might've pushed past someone. But everything felt and sounded like it was coming from underwater as she ran and ran.
The hillside view was beautiful, the grass greener than anything she'd ever seen before, sprinkled with daisies and wildflowers she didn't know the names of. The majestic colours and the bright sun were so at odds with the horrors churning within her. Everything in Eden was at odds with what she was.
Issa fell to her hands and knees and was violently ill.
How could she ever think of stepping foot in here? How had she dared to enjoy what it had to offer after everything she'd done?
"Issa."
Quiet footfalls echoed behind her. Familiar ones.
"Don't." Her voice sounded barely human. "Just don't."
"Come here," he said softly.
Her body obeyed.
He waited until she was close enough, and then he wrapped his arms around her, flooding her with warmth and safety that she didn't deserve. To her horror, her eyes began to sting.
"It wasn't your fault," Edvardiel said.
"It doesn't matter. They're dead."
"It matters," Edvardiel said. "You weren't in control."
"You don't understand." Her damned eyes wouldn't stop leaking. "I didn't think twice. I didn't feel anything. I've never felt anything."
"That's not true."
Issa's stomach roiled and she turned away, retching once more. "I can't go back in there." As she said that, she realised something else, something she'd been pushing to the back of her mind. "I can't stay in Eden." His glory wouldn't last forever. The longer she stayed, the more she would learn of Eden's inner workings and the more dangerous she would be once he lost his glory. She was a ticking time bomb.
"We've barely been here for a day."
"It's a day too much," Issa said. She was still an Acolyte, an instrument of Hell, even if her Keeper wasn't. She'd grown complacent. Meeting Sue was the wake-up call she'd needed.
She met Edvardiel's gaze. "You should've never saved me. You should've saved your glory for Eden's gates." If they couldn't save Earth, they should at least save Eden. "I know something's wrong with your heart. I know I'm using up too much of your glory. You should get rid of me."
"I will do no such thing." Edvardiel's hands tightened around her shoulders. "You're going to help me stop the Apocalypse. That was the plan."
She began to shake her head but Edvardiel was having none of it.
"Issa, look at me. The gates aren't going to hold forever even with my glory," he said. "We made this bond because we wanted to look for a way to stop Lilith. We wanted to look for a way to open Heaven's gates. You promised me, remember?"
She blinked at him. "You have Eden now. You don't need a being from Hell."
"You're not a being from Hell." Edvardiel's voice was gentle, even as his frustration shot through their bond. "I don't have anyone in Eden. I've been nothing but 'Eden's son' here. No one can see past that. It's not any different than Heaven. No one there could see past my blood either."
"Edvardiel," Issa said quietly. "I don't want to do any more bad things."
"You won't," he said.
"You don't know that. When your glory runs out, I'll be Lilith's again. I don't want to take another innocent life."
"I won't let you," he said. "I promise."
Issa stared at him. The question hung heavy in the air and she hated having to ask it of him. "Even if it kills me?"
The silence was painful.
"Edvardiel. I need an answer."
"It won't come to that."
"That's not an answer."
Edvardiel took a deep breath and then exhaled. "I won't let you do any more bad things even if it kills me. I won't let you do any more bad things, full stop. You have my word."
It was the closest she would get to a yes.
Issa felt her eyes burn again. "Just so you know, I'll never forgive you if you break this promise."
Edvardiel looked at her, the glory in his eyes brighter than ever.
"I know."