Another early update since I'll be busy tomorrow. Found a place and finally moving in with my lovely partner of almost six years :) Hope you guys are enjoying the upcoming holiday season! Made this chapter warmer to match. Enjoy :)

Lots of love and hugs,

Wonwordful

PS. Will probably miss an update next week since I'll be somewhere without proper internet connection.


Issa stared at the broken orb in Paul's hand.

Acolytes were once human. They bled blue with the mask of Lilith's poison. Unmasked, their blood ran red. Maybe the gates recognised them as human.

Maybe Lilith had been able to enter Eden all along. Maybe she'd been toying with them.

Issa's blood ran cold and her arms tightened around Alice.

"Angel?" Alice said timidly.

Who was the Acolyte? What was Lilith planning?

I take away their favourite toy.

"Where's Edvardiel?" Issa asked, blood drumming in her ears.

"He's–"

Issa was running downstairs before they could answer. If something happened to him because of her, she would never forgive herself. She followed the pull of their bond, barely aware of the shouts behind her. Still not daring to put Alice down, she shoved the front door open and stopped dead.

The sight that greeted her was bewildering.

A piece of the winged monument that was supposed to be in the centre of Eden lay cracked on the fields before their home as though from an explosion. More shockingly, a second set of glory gates towered before her, forming a barrier around their cottage and several others in the vicinity.

Issa clutched Alice to her as she backed away, her heart racing. What was going on? Had Lilith infiltrated Eden after all? What happened to the first set of gates? And where was Edvardiel?

She felt as though she couldn't breathe.

A hand rested on her shoulder. "You need to calm down," Rosalie said. "Someone probably dropped it during the fight."

Issa drew a breath, but the suffocating feeling threatened to drown her. "Why are the gates here?" she asked. "What happened?"

"Your boyfriend happened," Rosalie said. "He made a second set of gates so that those who want to hurt you can't come in. You're safe. We all are."

Rosalie's words didn't quite register. He made an entirely new set of gates for her?

"The first set," Issa struggled. "The one for Eden—"

"Is intact," Rosalie said slowly. "Issa, everything's fine."

Rosalie never used her name. The jarringness snapped Issa back to reality and made her realise that she was gasping for breath, holding Alice so tightly that it probably hurt her.

"We're safe, angel." Alice hugged her around the neck, and a powerful feeling of safety washed over her.

You wanted to be human, Edvardiel had said.

Issa hadn't known what she'd been wishing for. Embracing her human side made her so, so weak.

She loosened her grip and touched her forehead to Alice's. "Sorry, dove." Her traitorous eyes watered and she didn't know if it was from guilt, frustration, or another equally useless emotion. "I'm a mess. Not fit to be your angel." Then she closed her eyes. What nonsense was she telling a little girl she wanted to protect?

"You're my only angel." Alice snuggled closer.

Issa wanted nothing more than to keep the little girl safe but she no longer knew what to be. As an Acolyte she'd been merciless and as a human, she was useless.

"Nothing's wrong with you," Paul said unexpectedly, as he emerged from the doorway with the orb. "I jump every time I hear a noise at night."

"That's why I sleep with my guns," Rosalie muttered. "The shitshow we experienced outside hits hard in Eden. Everything's different here. The noise. The colours."

"The water," Paul said. "So much water. But I still can't stop checking my bottle every morning to see how much water's left."

Issa was floored by their confessions. All this time she'd thought she was going crazy. That she'd been weak.

"Speaking of which, you should drink something." Rosalie unhooked her flask from her belt and held it out.

Issa was reminded of the time Rosalie had helped them in the hut. "Still not poisoned?" she managed to joke, and Rosalie offered her a rare smile.

"Just drink it, smartass."

Alice slid down from her arms as Issa took the flask and gulped some water down. Feeling marginally better, she gazed between the gates and the broken monument before settling on the former. "So the gates. He made a second set?"

"Yep. These gates are here to protect you since there's no way he can throw half of Eden into the dungeons."

She paused. "What dungeons?"

The word brought her back to Lilith's lair—to the blood and the pain and the screaming and she pushed it to the back of her mind. For a place that was supposed to be a safe haven, Eden seemed more and more hell-like the longer she stayed.

Rosalie raised her brows. "You were just there a few days ago. Or did you forget about that?"

Issa frowned. That hadn't been a dungeon. That had been a bunch of holding cells. Or maybe it had only seemed that way because it had been empty.

"Right." She took another sip of water and gazed at the majestic gates. The unusual rose-gold colour shone in the sun, more beautiful than Heaven's own gates. And Edvardiel had made these for her. Her heart squeezed.

"Anyway, anyone who doesn't want to hurt you will have no problem entering," Rosalie said.

Right on cue, Jessica skipped through the gates as though they were made of shadow, humming to herself as a picnic basket dangled from her arm. She waved as she saw Issa. "Hey! You're awake! I got us some food." Her floral dress contrasted with the Edenium revolver tucked in her sash.

Alice ran towards the food basket and eagerly rummaged through it.

"Food!" Paul said happily.

Jessica squinted at the orb in his hand. "What's that demon thing?"

"He found those near the gates," Rosalie said. "Someone probably dropped them during the fight."

Jessica took the orb and turned it around in her hand. "Ugh. It feels like a dusty eyeball."

Issa winced. If only Jessica knew how close that was to the truth.

Just then, Mike sauntered down the cobblestone path, whistling to himself as he, too, passed through the gates easily. "Someone's finally awake." He smiled and held up a bag of drinks. "Perfect timing." Then he looked around. "Where's Jacob?"

Paul took a sandwich from the basket. "Back to his old ways."

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"What else? He's off trying to grow more weed." Rosalie rolled her eyes.

Issa rubbed her neck. "Where's Edvardiel?" His note told her he would be back soon and their bond told her he was fine, but she couldn't stop worrying.

"Fetching dessert," Paul said. "And maybe fixing the monument he broke." He nodded at the broken piece of wing on the grass.

"We should get rid of that thing," Rosalie said. "It's an eyesore."

"How did that happen?" Issa asked.

"Glory," Jessica said. "You should've seen Eden's son." Awe filled her voice. "The moment he figured out what they'd done to you, his lightning came down like bang. Then he single-handedly threw the whole lot of them into the dungeons."

"Excuse me, I tossed most of them in," Rosalie interrupted. "The unwelcoming committee? That was me."

"Oh yeah, Rosalie helped, obviously," Jessica said. "But technically, you didn't throw them in the dungeons. You just left them lying in the corridors—"

"I was in a hurry since she was bleeding out," Rosalie said testily.

"Okay, Miss Badass." Jessica raised her hands. "You did most of the work and then Eden's son threw them in the dungeons. Happy now?" She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'seraphs' under her breath.

Rosalie looked as though she were about to say something but Mike diplomatically pressed drinks into both their hands. "Guess what, I got us champagne!"

Paul whistled as Mike started passing the glasses around. "I haven't seen proper alcohol in a while."

Issa was stuck at the part where her angel threw people in the dungeons. "Edvardiel threw people in the dungeons?" she repeated. "Why?"

Jessica frowned at her as she took a glass. "Girl, did you hit your head somewhere? They tried to kill you!"

"Not just kill you," Rosalie said. "You should've seen what they were carrying to your cell."

Paul shuddered. "I saw. Gruesome."

"But…" Issa struggled to reconcile what she was hearing with the sweet, gentle angel she knew. "Edvardiel wouldn't do that."

"He did and he should," Mike said, pressing a glass into her hand as well. "We can't go on a wild angel hunt and start torturing people like it's the Middle Ages. It's obvious we don't know enough about Nephilim to tell the difference. I mean, Eden's son has wings. Bleeding gold doesn't seem impossible for a halfling."

Issa tried to imagine it again and failed.

Rosalie snorted. "Believe me, I was surprised too. Didn't think lover boy had it in him."

Mike poured some orange juice for Alice and then held up his glass. "To a successful rescue!"

"To the best rescue squad ever!" Jessica said brightly.

"To not dying." Paul grinned.

Issa blinked. She'd been so out of sorts that her head was all the way up her ass.

These people had saved her life

She raised her glass too. "To my friends," she said, overwhelmed by the fact she had friends. "Thank you." She wanted to say so much more than that. "Thank you for… for everything." She cleared her throat. "Sorry, I suck at saying nice things."

Laughter followed her words.

Issa's heart warmed. As they clinked glasses and downed the champagne, she found Paul staring at her, hypnotised, and realised she was glowing all over.

"Man, I envy you and Edvardiel," Paul said. "Your angelfire and his lightning. It must feel awesome."

Lightning.

And then she looked at the monument again. "Lightning?" she mused. Edvardiel had told her his glory was angelfire.

"A seraph's glory takes many unique forms," Jessica explained, unaware that Issa already knew. "There's smiting, there's angelfire, and a bunch of other things. Samael's was lightning. He passed it on to his daughter, Eden, who now passed it on to her son."

It was her dream angel who answered her true question. Feathers danced in her vision, the way it always did when he appeared.

He is Eden's son more than he is mine, her dream angel said. It's only natural that he'd prefer her form of glory.

As though to prove his point, electricity crackled in the air together with the sound of beating wings.

Issa leapt to her feet.

Edvardiel glowed in the sun, his beauty unearthly. He soared down towards them and landed a few feet away, his graceful wings snapping shut as he made a beeline for her.

"Edvardiel," she said, overjoyed.

She leapt into his arms and he caught her, swinging her around. More crackling ensued and before she knew it, her hair was standing on end, exactly the way it had in the cathedral.

He smoothed down her electrified hair. "Hello, little lion," he teased, his eyes shining. "I've missed you."