Recap: Jacob is a descendent of a watcher angel (who are the angels of knowledge)


"I think these remains would work."

Jacob had stopped at a grave close to the entrance. Issa strode over and glanced at the headstone but it was broken in half, the surface of the marble shattered.

"What happened here?" Issa wondered.

Jacob touched the cracked stone. "Lightning." His voice was rough as he began to clear the earth with clumsy fingers, still puffing on his joint. Issa knelt down to help him. This grave seemed as shallowly buried as Eden's. Within minutes, her fingers met a silvery white material crusted over with what looked like a mixture of earth and dried blood.

It was tightly knotted around something. Issa lifted the cloth and began to unwrap it. The material shifted under her fingers, pooling like moonlight and seeming almost alive.

Issa frowned. "This is an angel robe."

Jacob was too busy fishing in his pockets for a second joint.

Slowly, she began to unwrap the robe. As the final knot came loose, she had to shield her eyes. The bones shone like sunlight. Issa blinked several times. Demon bones were blue which meant this angel died before demonising.

Angel bones.

Angel bones in an angel robe.

Angel bones in an angel robe hastily buried beneath a broken gravestone. What on Eden was going on here?

"If you want to bring back an angel, this should be your best bet." Jacob had found his second joint and was looking far more relaxed. "But it'll take a lot of energy. And you'll have to improvise—combine it with human parts." He exhaled a cloud of smoke and sat cross-legged next to her. "You'll probably have to make most of the human parts from scratch."

His words drifted over her like a dream. Issa's attention was fixed on the shining golden bones and the blood on the robe. Although the bones were clearly angelic, the dried blood staining the robe was a reddish-brown, not gold.

Issa's thoughts went into overdrive. Eden's empty grave. The tombstone which had been broken by lightning. Now this red blood. Possibility after possibility flashed through her mind as she reached out, her hand hovering over the bones.

The air vibrated.

Everything about this felt familiar. The golden bones. The vibrations. The stillness. Something was calling out to her. Something was waiting to be unleashed. Sure enough, as she made contact with the bones, she was once again plunged into a disjointed series of memories.

A blackened hand flexed and crumbled to dust as angelfire ate the flesh away.

"Your son's more trouble than he's worth, Eden."

Eden's face swum into view, her eyes filled with dismay.

"Luce. You never went back to Heaven, did you?"

Eden was weeping in the next blurry image, hands covering her face as she knelt before their hut. Her glory had torn the stone walkway apart.

"Luce. Lucifer! Our son... Someone took him."

Issa yanked her hand back. She'd been expecting the onslaught of memories but she hadn't expected to recognise their owner. She gazed at the bones, thinking that it had to be a mistake when her gaze landed on a familiar golden wedding band amidst the broken bone splinters.

"Jacob," she managed to say. "How did you find these?"

He squinted at her through his bloodshot eyes.

"Aren't these the ones you're looking for?"

She stared as he resumed his smoke, blowing another swirling cloud into the air. He stamped out the second joint and fumbled for a third, his hands unsteady.

What the hell were Lucifer's remains doing here?

"Where's the rest of it?" she asked. The heart? The eyes? The other bones?

Jacob lit the third joint. "Not within our reach." He leaned against the tree, closing his unfocused eyes. "Would be nice if you asked less questions," he mumbled. "The knowledge is killing my head." Then his eyes flew open.

Issa heard it too. "Someone's coming!"

She sprang into action, wrapping Lucifer's bones and stuffing them into her angel dress. Then she frantically buried Eden's coffin and kicked the earth back around both graves. Jacob barely managed to stumble to his feet, clutching the cracked headstone to keep himself upright as Jessica came into view.

Issa's heart hammered wildly but Jessica was distracted, frowning and muttering to herself. When Jessica saw them, she lit up. "Hey, what's up?" She tapped her gun to the orb in her hand. "This thing is driving me nuts. Mike says I can probably use it as some kind of demon detector but I think it doesn't work. Like, why is it taking me here?"

The orb pulsed vigorously in Issa's presence, the demonic blue only visible to her acolytic eyes.

Jessica held it out. "Wanna see if you can figure it out?"

Issa stiffened. She didn't want to touch the orb with a ten-foot pole. Not when she'd been forced to push the vile things into her eyes night after night. The experience haunted her memories—the excruciating burn and the knowledge that the empress of hell was using her eyes.

They were interrupted by a flash of lightning. A great winged shadow descended upon them and Edvardiel was there, his wings and arm wrapping protectively around Issa.

Jessica blinked at what remained of the orb as it rolled to the ground, crumbling to dust.

"I figured Lilith might be using that to spy on us," Edvardiel said smoothly. His gaze swept over Issa. "Are you all right?" he lowered his voice so that only she could hear him.

She nodded, her heart still pounding as he held her close.

"Anything new?" Edvardiel asked Jessica.

"Nope," Jessica said. "That thing was useless."

Edvardiel glanced around and Issa fervently hoped that he hadn't been the one to put the flowers at Eden's grave because they were now lying a foot away, slightly squashed. To her relief, he only cast a doubtful look at Jacob's stupefied state before turning back to her. "I got your note." There was a teasing glint in his eyes and she vividly remembered scratching out several attempts at 'I love you's before cringing, giving up, and drawing a giant misshapen heart with a smiley.

Issa, murderous acolyte, Big Bad Glory holder, and apparently also four-year-old child with a crayon.

"I don't know which one takes the prize," Edvardiel said wryly. "My glory roses or your heart."

"Give it back, then."

He smirked. "No. I'm framing it."

He was kidding.

Right?

As she stared at him, unsure, he enfolded her more deeply into his warmth. Lightning flared, shooting like electric roots throughout his wings, and his gaze turned openly adoring.

Her breath caught.

Whenever he looked at her like that, her insides would feel all gooey and warm. Her silly seraph was utterly guileless with his love—he could've been presenting his heart on a platter. It was honest. It was bold. And it was what her cowardly heart so desperately wanted.

"Can I steal you away?" he murmured.

Could she ever say no to him?

She nodded and Edvardiel's wings began to beat powerfully. "Catch you both at dinner," he called out to the other two.

Issa clung to him for dear life.

She would never get used to this. No matter how many times they flew, the sheer height, the vast openness of the skies and the nothingness beneath her feet made her insides tremble. Her fingers dug into him so tightly that it was a wonder she didn't draw blood.

Edvardiel nuzzled her neck. "Do you want to use your glory?"

She tried but they were so high up that her stomach turned.

Gently, he tilted her chin upwards. "It's the sky you should focus on. Not the ground."

The wind howled around his beating wings. The cold no longer affected her as much but she remembered the way her fingers had gone clammy when Michael had taken her up to Heaven. The way she'd shivered with both the cold and the fear that he'd strike her for showing weakness. Flying was the one thing she'd never learned. He never deemed her capable of it—not when she had no wings.

The memories made her heart ache in ways she hated. She tried to focus on Edvardiel's face and the sky but she didn't even manage to glow.

"Issa." Edvardiel's breath tickled her ear.

His nose skimmed her collarbones and his lips found her neck, peppering it with soft kisses. It wasn't long before the knot in her stomach loosened, forgotten, as she searched for his lips and parted her own. Their tongues melded, all hunger and longing and heated touches. She glowed all over and when Edvardiel pulled back, the glory in his eyes was unnaturally bright.

"Look," he said breathlessly. "You're already flying."

He was holding her just by the waist and, finger by finger, he carefully let her go.

She remained afloat, and the joy of it made her skin shine brilliantly.

Edvardiel grinned.

"Come on." He took her hand and moved through the air, slowly at first, and then more swiftly when he saw that she could follow. "I want to show you something."

He circled around several times before gliding down beside a magnificent waterfall, his hand never letting hers go. Sunbeams danced through the running water, painting fractals on the rocks. Flowering trees grew on the bank and gorgeous butterflies weaved in and out of the haze of vibrant colours. It was the most breathtaking place she'd ever seen.

"Where are we?" Issa said, awed.

Edvardiel smiled. "Ezekiel said this was my mother's favourite place." He landed on the river bank and helped her down. The grass tickled her feet, damp from the spray of the waterfall and beneath her, a turquoise butterfly with black-tipped wings flitted through white flowers shaped like an upside-down bell. Beside them, dozens of little pink flowers sprouted out from a single stem.

Issa knelt down, fascinated, and the butterfly landed on her nose. She blinked, and it flew away. Everything smelled so fresh. So alive. Even more so than the rest of Eden. She was about to examine more of the intriguing flowers when she caught Edvardiel gazing at her.

He was wearing the same soft, adoring expression from earlier, except this time it was marred by a shadow of something she couldn't read.

"What's wrong?" She was on her feet, instinctively feeling through their bond.

Nothing.

There was nothing there but a wall of solid calm.

She tried to feel for the little throb of pain that accompanied his every heartbeat. She could only sense a whisper of it and only because she knew what to look for.

Somehow, he'd found a way to block her out. She tilted her head at him. She didn't like it. But she wasn't going to bring it up. Her angel deserved to feel without her spying on his every emotion.

Edvardiel cleared his throat. "Issa."

Was he finally going to tell her why he couldn't fly to Heaven? Did it have something to do with the throbbing in his heart?

He took both her hands in his.

"Edvardiel?" she said uncertainly.

He only shifted his weight, staring at her.

Issa's heart began to race. He'd blocked her... But maybe it wasn't about his heart. Had he seen her digging up the graves? Were angel bones poking out of her dress? Dirt? She glanced down at herself and then back at him, starting to sweat. Was he waiting for her to confess?

"I—" She didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry. I can explain, I swear."

He arched a brow. "Explain?"

One look at his face told her that she was way off.

He didn't know.

And she'd been this close to giving herself away.

Damage control. Damage control.

"I… You're mad that I left the gates, aren't you?" she said, wildly guessing. "While you were sleeping?"

Edvardiel's confusion only seemed to deepen. "No," he said. "Of course not. The gates were never meant to keep you in. They were meant to keep out those who want to hurt you." He brushed back her hair, his gaze flickering over her contemplatively. "You're free to go wherever you want, Issa. Or at least, you should be." He pressed a kiss to her forehead and his arms tightened around her. "Heaven knows you deserve better. You're too good for where you ended up. Too good for me."

This was not going in the direction she was expecting.

The waterfall, the flowers, the butterflies… His wall. His secrets.

You're free to go. You're too good for me.

She looked up at him, feeling as though the ground had dropped out beneath her.

"Are you… Are you…" She couldn't bring herself to say it.

He'd gone completely still, his eyes widening slightly, and it confirmed her horrible suspicions.

He was breaking up with her.

How had she not seen this coming?

He was good and kind and giving, of course someone like him wouldn't want someone like her.

"You… That's why you didn't want to sleep with me this afternoon. But why did you kiss me? You took me here…" She was babbling, her mind barely able to make sense of it. They were still bound together. They still had an Apocalypse to stop. Fuck. Why did he have to do this now?

Her eyes grew moist.

Edvardiel's hands shifted to grip her shoulders, his voice strained. "Issa. What are you saying?"

She couldn't look at him.

"Issa." His voice was soft. "If you're not ready—"

She wished he would stop.

"If you want to break up with me, just do it." She forced herself to meet his gaze.

He looked stupefied.

He opened his mouth and then closed it again. And again. Finally, he shook his head and seemed to find his tongue, disbelief washing over his face. "How in the seven heavens did you come up with that?"

She gazed at him, not understanding.

He cupped her face. "Issa…. Heavens." He gently wiped her cheek with his thumb, looking dismayed when it came away embarrassingly wet. "I am not breaking up with you," he enunciated each word for emphasis.

She stopped dead.

"You're not?"

"No." He ran an agitated hand through his hair. "The opposite. But I'm apparently so bad at this that I've made you think so."

Edvardiel closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Issa. I'm sorry. I'm a tool. I don't know how to do this. I don't know when to do this. I barely know how to be human."

It dawned on her that despite Edvardiel's very human emotions, he had spent most of his life in Heaven.

He looked into her eyes. "All I know is that I love you. You've given me so much. You showed me the joy there is to be had on Earth. You showed me the wonders of being human. If I were an angel, I'd gladly Fall for you, over and over again." Tenderness filled his gaze. "I've already promised you my loyalty and my life. Let me promise you my love too."

Issa's mind was blank.

After this roller coaster, she didn't know what to do with herself.

Edvardiel brushed a strand of hair behind her ear in a familiar, comforting gesture, waiting until she regained enough sense to blink at him and gulp in some air. Then he lowered himself to one knee. "Will you marry me?"

Wisps of glory trickled from his fingertips, curling into an intricate rose-gold ring.

All she could manage was: "Really?"

"Really." His gaze was earnest.

Her eyes started to water again. "So we're really not breaking up."

"No!" He took her hands. "Please… Why are you crying again?"

"I'm not crying." She sniffed. "It's just…" Half of Eden still wanted her dead—what would they do if they knew Eden's precious son was marrying her? What did it even mean to be married in the middle of an Apocalypse? She was hiding Lucifer's bones in her dress, for god's sake. "It's just… are you sure?"

He squeezed her hands. "I've never been surer."

Issa was still in a daze. "You really want me to marry you?"

Edvardiel tilted his head at her, exasperation and humour glittering in his eyes. "It's almost like you want me to make you say yes."

That finally made her laugh. "Edvardiel. Don't you see? I'm already yours in every sense of the word. What's the point of this?"

He let out a long-suffering sigh. "Do you want me to beg? Should I get down on both knees?"

He shifted, about to make good on his threat, and she wasn't going to allow it. She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms so tightly around his neck that his wings rippled as he struggled to breathe. "Yes," she said, giggling at the entire fiasco. "Yes, even though this is ridiculous. Yes, seraph. Yes."

He held her like she was the most precious thing in the world, kissing every inch of her he could reach. His lips tickled and made her laugh some more. By the time they calmed down, they were both flushed with glory, glowing amidst fallen petals and fluttering butterflies.

As she stared up at the blue skies, Edvardiel took her hand and slid the ring she'd forgotten about onto her finger. Wonderful warmth suffused her—wearing Edvardiel's glory made it feel almost like his angelfire was nearby. She loved it.

"You're glowing," he said. His skin felt hot and his wings unfurled beneath them, another carpet of sizzling warmth. She was surrounded by the heat she loved so much.

As she snuggled against him, he sighed. "Thank you for not making me beg."

"I should be thanking you… for not breaking up with me." She was only half joking.

He shot her another exasperated look. "I still don't know how you came up with that."

"You were the one with the 'it's me, not you' speech," she said. "Being too good for you and being free to go—"

"Fine. I won't let you go anywhere." He tightened his hold around her. "I'll change the locks on the gates and everything."

She laughed and rested her head on the crook of his shoulder. "How was I supposed to know that you were going to propose, of all things? I mean, why? It's not like marriage means anything during an Apocalypse."

He touched her nose. "You don't have a romantic bone in your body, do you?" he chastised affectionately. "Because now we can have an engagement ceremony and we can show them what you can do."

Issa turned that around in her mind. He was showing everyone that she was under his protection and, more importantly, that she was powerful, and could potentially stop the Apocalypse. If that wasn't good enough to stop the attempts on her life, she didn't know what was.

"That's brilliant," she breathed. "Why didn't you just tell me that?"

Edvardiel cupped her face. "Because I love you and I want this to be about us too." His thumb brushed across her cheek. "I hope this means everyone will start worrying about the real enemy, not an imagined one."

She looked up at him. "I'm still an Acolyte." That made her a very real enemy.

His expression was grim. "We'll put an end to that soon. We'll make a plan. We'll help you."

Do you know what I do with disobedient children? I take away their favourite toy.

The memory of Lilith's whisper sent a chill down Issa's spine.

She straightened. "I'm strong enough to protect myself. I don't need help." She didn't need his help. Or anyone else's. She could do it alone.

"I know you don't need help sending Lilith back to Hell," Edvardiel said dryly. "But you need help to make sure you don't send the rest of us there too."

That was true. She couldn't raze everything in her path—there was no point sending Lilith back to Hell if the world went down in fire with her. Issa pressed her lips together. The idea of going back out there and facing Lilith was bad enough. The idea of putting Edvardiel in Lilith's path was worse.

"We'll find a way to get you to Lilith." Edvardiel covered her hand with his, his expression determined. "All you have to do is get rid of her."

I take away their favourite toy.

Issa felt queasy.

The empress of Hell didn't make empty threats. Lilith had sent her to Edvardiel. She'd had countless opportunities to attack them outside of Eden. Then there was the orb. A bigger plan was unravelling under their very noses and it drove Issa mad that she wasn't seeing it.

As she mulled these over in her mind, a loud whistle followed by a crack echoed through Eden.

Issa turned to see golden smoke in the skies.

Edvardiel sighed, his wings shifting beneath them as he sat up. "They're calling me. Again."

Issa frowned, realising what Edvardiel meant when he said that everyone was counting on him. The residents of the Garden expected things from him as Eden's son. No wonder Edvardiel had been so exhausted. "What for?"

Edvardiel shook his head. "Who knows. I suspect it's another dungeon riot." His eyes grew sad. "Or maybe not. Maybe they want to discuss the funeral. A lot of people died during the attack. Ezekiel… I wished I'd gotten to know him better."

He got to his feet.

"You should stay." He gazed at the flowers and the butterflies. "Enjoy your mother's gifts to the Garden."

Issa stared at the bell-shaped flowers and the vibrant butterflies. "Eve made these?"

"She made everything on Earth. But this place…" Edvardiel gestured around them. "Ezekiel told me it was her special gift to Eden for my birth. Apparently, our mothers were good friends."

Issa's mood soured.

All of the gorgeous colours suddenly seemed gaudy and fake—another ploy to further Eve's plans.

Good to see that my scheming mother left something of use. Did you know that Eden banned her from the Garden? Eve knew you were missing but didn't lift a finger to help. She tricked your father too. Great friend, huh?

Issa didn't have the heart to tell him.

The place obviously meant a lot to Edvardiel. It was all he had left after losing Ezekiel.

She reigned in her displeasure.

"I see," she said.

Edvardiel paused. "I haven't stopped trying to find your mother," he said, as he spread his shimmering wings. "I'll tell you more later, all right?"

Issa waved. "Go. I'll catch you at dinner."

Edvardiel smiled and made as though to soar up to the skies when his glory flickered.

He dropped like a stone.

Issa gasped, but in a flash, he'd caught himself, his glory brilliant once more.

"Edvardiel!" she called out. "Are you all right?"

He waved. "I'm fine!"

"But—"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Just got distracted." He gave her another smile and before she could reply, he was whizzing through the skies towards the beacon.

The throbbing in his heart. The wall in their bond. The trouble flying.

Something wasn't right with Edvardiel.

Issa climbed up a high tree, watching his retreating figure until she was sure he'd landed, and made a note to confront him at dinner. Then she hid herself in the thicket and unwrapped the angel bones, laying them out amidst the flowers.

They glowed, filled with remnants of power and life.

Issa reached out and set to work.


Sorry for the late update, I fell sick for a bit and then struggled a lot writing this. Thanks a ton to JoVersify for helping me with this monster of a chapter! It would make my day to hear your thoughts :) Take care and hugs x