He was an angel.

A fucking angel.

There were angels left on earth? Her mind spun. Did he know the way to Eden? Did he know how to stop the Apocalypse? Could he kill Lilith?

The poison in her didn't care. Bring him back to me. Her body moved to capture him, wooden and beyond her control like the puppet it was. No! She tried to fight the poison, tried so hard that for a split second, she managed to lock her muscles in place. A shrill ringing tore through her mind and the poison in her blood glowed a piercing blue, obliterating her will with ease.

Bring him to me.

"This doesn't have to be difficult, Edvardiel," she said, as he pushed himself up with his elbows, panting as he held her gaze. It was absurd. Most prisoners went mad in the void, and those that didn't, went mad when they were freed. He wasn't just sane, he was thinking, and he was already fighting. The void should've drained his strength. She should've had a few good hours before he started fighting. This should've been an easy assignment.

But there shouldn't have been an angel.

The poison snapped her mind back to its task. "You know she's going to find you," she said. "Even if you escape me, she'll just send another. They'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth." She knelt down next to him and touched his cheek, awed by his incredible warmth. "If you show some willingness and come with me now, you'll be granted privileges. Power." Her eyes flickered to the stumps of his broken wings. "Lilith will be so pleased, perhaps she'll—"

She'll corrupt the only angel left on earth.

Issa railed against the poison. No. No, I won't let her. I can't—

Her lips continued to move as though she'd never tried, "Perhaps she'll even set you free after all this is over."

He wasn't listening. He was staring at her hand—the one pressed to his cheek—and Issa saw that the blue in her veins glowed so brightly that they lit up the dark. It was the poison burning her will. She was still trying and her entire body was aflame, the poison consuming the rebellion like fire would paper.

"What are you?" he asked.

Something you should fucking run away from!

"I could be yours."

She lost. She always lost.

"I could be yours forever," she told him as her will died and the poison faded to a faint glow. His eyes flickered back to her face, ancient but oddly guileless, and she saw them darken, his pupils invading the gold of his eyes. Angel or no angel, he was not free from earthly desires. And she was the perfect lure.

Someone stop this, Issa thought silently. Someone. Anyone—

"Are you sure it's safe?"

The boy's voice was soft but Issa heard it clear as day. Her chest tightened. She'd wished for someone to come but not like this. Don't come here. Don't come this way. Her assignment was to bring back the angel, not to raid a city. But Lilith's commandment to leave no human alive couldn't be ignored. If they came this way—

"Positive." It was an older man this time. "This city's been raided twice. You know how the demons work. They destroy everything and then they come for the survivors. They won't come a third time. What's the point? There's no one's left."

"They could come back for people like us." The boy sounded doubtful.

"Get a grip, Seth," the man said impatiently. "There's no one here. Even if they did come back, it's not nightfall yet."

"Jake's right. So far they've always come at night." The third voice was a woman.

"I suppose they can't kill us if we starve to death first."

"Ha-ha."

Their voices were coming closer and the poison burned as she gripped Edvardiel's robes more tightly, raising her head. They couldn't be more than twenty feet away.

"I'll come with you," Edvardiel said suddenly.

Her head whipped toward him. Even the poison couldn't hide the surprise in her eyes.

He covered her hands, his warmth enveloping her skin like a bath. "I promise, I'll come with you as long as you—"

"Leah, there are people in the shop." The boy squinted at them from across the road. The midday sun was shining into his eyes and he couldn't see clearly into the dusty shop and its broken windows.

Issa, on the other hand, saw them clearly. A man, a woman and a boy who couldn't be older than fifteen. He made as though to walk towards the shop but the woman caught him by the shoulder and dragged him back, her eyes narrowed.

"They're probably dead," the man said, but he unslung his rifle. He had three visible rifles, revolvers at his belt and no doubt knives in his boots. "Leah, what are you doing?"

The woman was covered in weapons too, and unlike the other two, she was already taking aim.

"We can't take any risks, Jake."

Issa's leapt, but the angel was holding onto her hands so tightly, the precious half-second it took to break free was a half-second too late.

Bring him to me whole.

As the woman fired, her bullets shattering what remained of the shop windows, Issa did the only thing she could. She threw herself in front of the angel, taking the brunt of the bullets and feeling them pierce her lungs, her heart, her gut.

Blue blood spilt out of her as she staggered to her feet. The blood turned red as it dripped to the ground, the poison dissociating into the air with a hiss.

Her monster body was resilient.

The human named Leah knew that too because she'd thrown down the first rifle and was grabbing a second.

As Issa stepped out of the window, blood pouring down her dress, the man's eyes widened. "Leah, stop! Stop! It's a girl—"

"No," Leah's hands were shaking as she tried to aim. She was the only one who seemed to realise the danger. "It's one of them! Get back!"

"It's just a girl! You can't go around killing everyone—"

Leah was screaming. "Jake, take Seth and get the hell out of—"

More blood pooled at Issa's feet from the bullet holes, painting the air blue and the ground crimson. She was dying. Her body was dying. But Lilith's orders burned through her nonetheless. Leave no human alive. Bring him to me whole.

She was holding her daggers at an angle where they weren't immediately obvious—the moment their glint caught the sun, the humans would scatter. Precision. Speed. She was good at that.

Leave no human alive.

The angel cried out behind her but she couldn't hear him over the shrill ringing of the poison. The woman never finished her sentence. The red of their blood mixed with Issa's own, soaking her dress. She didn't bother to look down at the fallen bodies. There was no point in feeling. There was no point in anything.

She stabbed her dagger into the earth to steady herself, drawing quick, shallow breaths as she swayed where she stood.

Bring him to me.

For all of the poison's horrors, it focused her energy, made her turn around and limp back to the angel.

"Come." Her lips shaped the word but her damaged lungs didn't give her enough air to breathe sound into it.

His outline blurred before her eyes. She gripped her dagger and held out her hand. If he was going to fight her—

But he only took her hand.

Warm like fire.

She saw it coming as her surroundings grew hazier and hazier. She fought it with everything she had—her own will, the poison—but there was nothing she could do. She was done for. She was going to die a meaningless death like the rest of the Acolytes. With hell on earth, she supposed whatever waited for her on the other side couldn't be any worse.

And you don't get the angel, Lilith.

Savagely satisfied with that single victory, Issa succumbed to the dark.


When Issa came to, she knew for certain she wasn't dead. For one, even hell couldn't hurt this much. And two, the poison was still worming inside her. Bring him to me.

Fuck you, she thought gloomily. By now, the angel would be long gone, and she'd have to hunt him until her body finally croaked. She opened her eyes and gasped.

The angel was still here. And he wasn't just here, he was tending to her. A pile of bloody bullets lay on the ground next to her and she was covered in strips of white silk. His robe. He'd torn his robe to staunch her wounds.

He could've finished her off. He could've escaped.

What kind of fool are you? She wanted to scream at him. But as always, the poison strung her along like a puppet. Bring him to me.

"Edvardiel," she whispered, drawing out his name sensually.

He looked at her and he was no longer disoriented or vulnerable. He was every bit the angel she'd imagined—so beautiful he was hard to look at, strength radiating from his very being. Those golden eyes took her in with chilling dispassion. "Oh, good. You're awake."

Without warning, he tipped a bowl towards her mouth. The liquid burned but he made her drink every drop, holding her down as she thrashed. What was this? Holy water? And how the hell was he overpowering her? Acolytes weren't just made beautiful, they were made strong. They were made stronger than the hell-dwellers, stronger than even the angels.

She was spluttering when she broke free and she realised his body was ablaze, as golden as his eyes.

Glory. He'd used glory to hold her down.

"Seraph," she rasped. He was no ordinary angel. He was one of the seraphim—warrior angels with glory. No wonder Lilith wanted him so badly.

"You're not a hell-dweller," he said. "Are you?"

"What—" she was still trying to catch her breath, still trying to shake the remnants of sleep. "What are you talking about?"

"If you were, my blood would've set you on fire." He nodded to the bowl.

She choked and tried to make herself throw up. Angel blood? It was sacrilege. She was an Acolyte—a hell-dweller's servant. What would his blood do to her body? She was still spitting, trying to scrub the poisonous blood from her tongue and doing her damnedest to expel it from her body when his lips twitched.

There was a twinkle in his otherwise solemn eyes and she realised the fucking angel was pulling her leg.

"You bastard," she said, but there was no real malice in her voice.

"I think it worked."

"What worked?"

"The water infused with my glory." He sounded too pleased with himself—weren't angels supposed to be humble? Noble?

"What the hell are you talking about?" she said.

"You're spouting obscenities instead of trying to seduce me, aren't you?"

She blinked several times. He was right but… "You knew?"

"Who wouldn't?" he scoffed.

She stared.

"You knew," she said slowly. "And you stayed?"

"I promised I would come with you," he said, as though that were enough to explain his actions. "I didn't manage to finish stating my stipulations, but I promised."

Issa found herself speechless.

"Listen, seraph—"

"The seraph has a name," he said. "And the seraph prefers that you use his name."

"Whatever," she snapped. "Listen. This isn't heaven, where you get to play guardian angel. This is the Apocalypse. Acolytes are the first horsemen and you—"

He stood up abruptly. "Where did you say you wanted to take me?"

"I'm not taking you anywhere!" Not now that she was free from Lilith's poison. She should've been rejoicing but she was too angry. The Apocalypse was upon them, the world was literally ending, and the only angel left on earth was a bumbling idiot.

He turned around. "You know that my glory isn't going to last forever, don't you?"

"Does it matter if the world is ending?"

"I mean, can't you tell me something useful before the glory wears off?" he asked. "I can't ask the dead humans what happened, can I?"

His voice was sharp, and she raised her chin. She knew it was wrong. She knew she should feel something after taking three lives but she'd done it too many times. And she'd had no choice. Angel or not, he had no right. While she'd been forced to follow the orders of the gruesome she-demon, he'd been… well, he'd been trapped in a void. Boo-fucking-hoo. She'd have loved to be trapped in a void too, judging everyone from her angelic high horse.

The longer she fumed, the madder she got. She didn't know how long his glory would last and the damn angel did need his information. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"What are you? And where will you be taking me?"

"I told you, I'm hell-bound," she said. "They call us Acolytes. We serve Lilith and hell-dwellers. You already know about the poison. I literally can't disobey an order."

"You're not hell-bound," he muttered, more to himself than her. "No one is. What was the order?"

"To leave no human alive," she said. "And to bring you back."

"You could've brought me back dead," he said. "What were her exact words?"

"Do everything in your power to bring him back to me whole." The moment Issa said the words, she realised the angel was right. His glory was temporary because Lilith's words still vibrated powerfully within her, affecting her.

He smiled deviously, the expression at odds with his ethereal face. "But I'm not whole."

She bristled. "You are. I kept you whole." With her own body.

"Are you sure?" he asked softly. His words were an echo of hers when they were pressed together, skin-to-skin, and the air between them grew heated. Issa refused to look away. She let her gaze trail lewdly down his torn robes, drinking in the sight of his sculpted chest, the dip of his narrow waist, and then down where the flimsy robe fluttered between his legs.

"You're not missing a cock, that's for sure," she said crassly.

The angel's expression didn't change. "Earthly beings," he said softly, "are so easily distracted."

He didn't fool her. She knew he possessed earthly desires and she knew that he wanted her. "I doubt you're as heavenly as you think," she sneered.

He dipped his head in a surprising gesture of acknowledgement. "I did fall."

Then it hit her. "Your wings," she breathed. "You're missing your wings."