A wave of exhaustion hit Issa when she reached the truck—as though the walking had taken its toll on her. She leaned against the back of the truck, the intense heat of the sun making the earth swim in and out of her vision. She felt sick.
"Issa?"
"I feel like I'm going to hurl." Luckily her stomach was empty.
"Everything all right back there?" Jacob called out.
"Fine," Edvardiel replied. He lifted her into his arms and leapt with enviable lightness into the truck, finding shade underneath the cherry tree. "We're ready," he said.
"You sure about that?" Jacob said. "Your girl doesn't look too good."
"We're ready," Issa rasped out as she hid behind the large trunk of the cherry tree and tried her damnedest to sound normal.
Jacob shrugged. "If you're sure. Onwards, Paul!"
As the truck began to move, her stomach roiled and she grasped Edvardiel's arm, taking deep, slow breaths. She'd broken into a cold sweat. When she blinked, she saw something pale and downy floating around them. Angel feathers.
"I think I'm hallucinating," she said.
"It's probably the void," Edvardiel said.
"How come you're not affected?" Issa gritted out.
"I'm half-angel," Edvardiel said. "I imagine that helps with a lot of things." His voice swum in and out of her senses.
"You sound funny."
"Do you want to have some cherries? They might help." He held out some of the berries but they gleamed the colour of blood and Issa flinched, clumsily pushing his hand away. The berries rolled off his hand and turned into puddles of gruesome red before her eyes.
"I'm a fucking demon," she snapped. "I don't eat."
"You are not a demon." His lips curled unexpectedly. "We went over this. Just because Lilith controlled you, doesn't mean you're a demon. You're the best person I know."
Issa groaned. "Shut up. I should start suing you for copyright infringement."
Edvardiel gently guided her head to his chest. "What you should do is rest." His arms enveloped her and glowed subtly, outshone by the bright sun. His wonderful warmth surrounded her like a bath. An involuntary sigh left her lips and her muscles relaxed. It didn't matter that it was raining feathers and blood. She was safe.
"That's right, Issa. You can rest," he murmured. "I'll be right here."
She had neither the energy nor the desire to protest, not when her body felt like jelly.
Her eyelids shut and opened. One second, she was lying on Edvardiel in the cool shade of the cherry tree, and in the next, she was looking at utter chaos.
The world was on fire.
A hand dragged her along past shattered windows and screaming people. The hand was so large, it swallowed hers entirely. It was also sweaty and shaking.
"Quickly now, while he's distracted." A man's voice.
Despite the horrors on Earth, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. Drops of gold rained onto her skin.
She looked up to see two angels battling in the sky. One held a flaming sword while the other had glory blazing in his hands. The sun and shadows shifted and she saw the face of the angel with the sword—it was Michael, his jaw set, his eyes burning with ferocious glory. Despite the amplifier sword in his hands, he gained no ground on the other angel, whose palms wielded raging fire. It struck Michael in the chest and as he careened backwards, more gold rained down onto them.
Angelblood.
It splattered onto her face and she rubbed at her lids, momentarily blinded.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the silhouette of enormous wings. Arms came around her from behind. "I'll take her, Adam." Fiery heat surrounded her. "You're safe with me, child." She was bundled up, and then she felt the mighty wings beat, taking them high into the air.
"Papa!" she screamed.
"Believe me, you don't want your father," her captor said. "You want to be safe."
She fought and bit, drawing golden angelblood from his arm.
"Fierce little thing, aren't you?" He held her fast. "I expected no less."
When she eventually tired herself out and started to shiver from the icy air, her teeth chattering, he pulled her closer to him. His body vibrated with power, the bite wounds she left on his arms particularly blinding as his angelblood blazed like the sun.
She turned to look at his face but his glory and her tears made it hard to see.
"Sleep, child. You're safe with me," his harsh voice softened ever so slightly. "I promise."
His fiery wings wrapped around them both like a soft blanket as he shot through the air, immersing them in heat like the hearth of a home. Her shivers ceased and, exhausted, her eyelids drooped shut.
Everything faded away.
Edvardiel's arms were still wrapped tightly around her when she woke. His body was tense and she followed his gaze to see giant gates at the foot of two mountains.
"Am I hallucinating those gates?" she wondered, as a couple of loose leaves fluttered down from the cherry tree. It was sunset and the gates glowed a vivid gold. She blinked several times and pinched herself. Ouch.
"No." Edvardiel's every muscle was pulled so taut, she thought he might snap.
"That… that looks like Heaven's gates." She felt silly for stating the obvious but what the actual fuck was Heaven's gates doing on earth? It was a replica of the gates in Edvardiel's memories. Replace the mountains with clouds and she'd have believed they were in Heaven.
"What is this place?" Edvardiel asked tersely. At her back, his hands had balled themselves into fists.
Paul whistled. "Tropojë, huh?"
"Well, I wasn't that sure myself before so I didn't say anything, but now…" Jacob turned around, grinning. "Welcome to the Garden of Eden."
