Issa's blood pooled onto the bones.
A heart materialised between the shining angel ribcage—red and beating and very, very human.
Some of her blood splashed to the sides and turned into butterflies with glittering golden wings. They fluttered around her in a spiral, and Issa blinked at them.
As another drop fell onto the heart, Issa's surroundings blurred and she snapped back into Lucifer's mindscape.
"I'm sorry, Luce," Eden was saying. In this memory, she was old and wrinkled, her eyes cloudy. "I should've trusted you." She reached out to touch his dimming wings, and they curled towards her. "Your wings," she said sadly. "They're wilting."
His lips curved. "I'd comment on your appearance, Eden, but then we'd end up arguing about how rude I am in your last moments."
Eden laughed—a raspy, hacking laugh.
Issa clung to the voice and the colours to wring as much Life as she could from the memory, but it melted away, replaced by a more vivid one.
"Hello, Edvardiel."
Issa flinched. She'd released this memory the moment she'd found it, afraid of what she would see, but she and Jacob were running out of time and she could feel this memory brimming with Life. This one was far more recent than the others, clearer, and filled with something that fuelled Life—purpose. Reluctantly, Issa melded into it, letting the tide of Lucifer's mind sweep over her own.
"Hello, Edvardiel."
The Nephilim child turned, the sunset catching the faint reds in his hair. His eyes narrowed in such an Eden-like way that Lucifer blinked.
"How do you know my name?"
The wide expanse of the ocean was visible below the edge of the cliffs, waves frothing into white foam as they splashed onto the sharp rocks.
Eden's child had wings.
"I know many things." Lucifer circled him. "I know you're looking for me."
Lucifer anticipated an attack. Glory. The slash of a sword. Something. After all, if the boy was on Earth, then Michael had predictably ordered him to hunt down the Fallen.
But Eden's son only stared at him with those unsettlingly familiar eyes and, in a stunningly foolish move, he turned and left his back wide open.
"Go away," he said, "and I'll pretend I didn't see you."
Lucifer arched his brows.
Had Michael not raised the boy to kill him? Did the boy not understand the consequences of disobeying orders?
"You realise you are a seraph, do you not?" Lucifer said slowly. "Seraphs are Heaven's warriors. Seraphs follow orders. They fight. They kill."
"I'm not a seraph," Eden's son said.
Decades of deciphering Eden's moods allowed Lucifer to detect the waver in Edvardiel's voice.
"Oh? Are those wings just for show?"
Eden's child had something no Nephilim before him did—he had a key to Heaven. A clear sign from their Creator that he belonged there. A sign that even Michael could not ignore, considering the boy was still alive despite his obvious humanness.
"My wings don't work." Eden's son clenched his fists as he looked over the cliffs. "I didn't fly down to Earth, I crashed down to Earth. And you know what I saw? Red. My blood is red." He stared out into the sea. "They didn't send me here to kill you. They sent me here for good."
Lucifer stared.
He'd been expecting a vicious, cold-blooded creature after seeing Michael's single year of influence on Eve's daughter. But this boy… this boy was soft like Eden.
There was no place for softness in Heaven.
Lucifer laughed, a deep, mocking laugh. "You're pathetic," he said. "An embarrassment."
Eden's son stiffened. "You have no right to say that to me, Fallen."
"Fallen? I wasn't the one who crashed down to Earth." Lucifer spread his wings and soared into the air, his lips curling. "Edvardiel. No wonder your name hasn't made it into the books."
A muscle jumped in the boy's jaw. "Leave me alone."
"Make me," Lucifer challenged.
"I said leave me alone."
"I said make me." Lucifer swooped down and, without warning, he slammed the boy violently off the cliff.
Edvardiel gasped and struggled in the air before crashing into the sharp rocks below.
Lucifer circled above as Edvardiel emerged from the water, his glory flickering while he coughed and sputtered.
"Does your glory not work too?" Lucifer taunted, landing on a jutting rock.
"What's wrong with you?" Edvardiel hissed, shakily making his way onto the beach, his angel robe stained with the deep red of human blood. "Why won't you let me be?"
"I'm sure all the angels let you be," Lucifer jeered. "Mope around long enough and everything else will leave you too, even your own feathers. Heaven must be crying in shame."
"Shut up." Edvardiel's glow had stopped flickering despite his wounds, and he was a blinding gold as he glared, clutching his side.
Lucifer reached for the sword at his side.
"I told you," he said. "Make me."
He flew at the boy.
Eden's son parried so quickly that he barely had time to react. Lucifer jerked backwards into the air, taking advantage of his flight to nick the boy in the side. "You're making this too easy for me."
"I don't want to fight you." Edvardiel's gaze followed Lucifer, his stance defensive. The boy was holding back and, despite everything, he parried more than attacked. If he didn't learn to claim his power, he wouldn't survive long.
"Ah, but I do," Lucifer only said, smirking in a way he knew usually infuriated Eden.
He came at the boy again and again, twisting in and out of the way, watching as his frustration grew.
"Enough!" There was a spark of fire and Edvardiel spread his wings. This time he soared easily, his glory burning in his eyes.
Lucifer laughed delightedly—but his laughter was cut short as Edvardiel came at him. The boy was lightning fast and brutally strong, and within seconds, Lucifer's sword flew out of his hands, Nephilim hands closing around his throat. "Leave before I kill you."
Edvardiel's glory burned and Lucifer couldn't breathe. Excellent. Time for the next lesson. Lucifer grabbed his wrist and twisted.
A crack resounded in the air and Edvardiel gasped, clutching his hand.
Lucifer darted around him and reclaimed his fallen sword. He came at Edvardiel, faster this time, and managed to cut him deep in the shoulder. The boy gave a cry of pain and jerked back, blood gushing. Lucifer gave him no quarter. He slashed the tip of one wing, and as Edvardiel fell to the ground, Lucifer hurtled down, aiming for his heart. Edvardiel rolled out of the way, and Lucifer turned, but the boy was on his feet, trembling from head to toe, fire burning in his eyes and in his hands.
"I said that's enough."
A powerful wave of angelfire burst from him, its heat so overwhelming that the trees blackened instantly and the edges of the cliffs began to melt.
"Finally." Lucifer lowered his sword, but instead of rejoicing in his power, Edvardiel turned pale as he watched the angelfire destroy everything in its path.
"No," Edvardiel said, horrorstruck. "No."
He walked towards the angelfire instead of away, and the flames grew larger as it fed off him uncontrolled—free and gleeful like the wild animal it was. It began to swallow more and more things.
"Do not move." Lucifer's order came far too late—the boy had vanished into the scarlet flames. Lucifer swooped down and tried to see past the fire but was repelled by the heat.
The boy was drowning in his own flames.
The flames would die when the boy did and the problem would solve itself but Lucifer didn't imagine Eden being too pleased with that result.
Lucifer exhaled. "Your son's more trouble than he's worth, Eden." He released his own burst of gold angelfire to shield himself, but the boy's glory was overpowering.
As the red flames licked the skin off his arms, he protested to his very dead wife. "You tell me he's mine but look at him. He's so clearly yours. That face. That temper. That foolish sweetness."
He willed himself to move faster. He had to get to the boy before the angelfire destroyed them both. With the last of his strength, he dragged Edvardiel out of the flames, shielding them both with his tattered wings.
"Silly boy," Lucifer muttered. He watched Edvardiel's angelfire—as vividly red as his small sliver of human blood—and realised something. Their son's first burst of glory had been his angelfire, not Eden's lightning. He touched the unconscious boy's cheek, healing the worst of the burns. A swell of something he didn't quite understand expanded in his chest as he watched his fingers crumble into ashes. "I suppose you are mine after all."
The words echoed over and over again.
"Mine after all."
Issa was jolted back into reality.
Flesh had closed around the ribs and the other bones, the angel robe wrapping loyally around its master. Within seconds, the deed was done.
The body was complete.
Issa was still bleeding and her hands shook. She felt as though she'd fought a months-long battle under Lilith without rest. Jacob looked as debilitated as she felt. Still, he reached behind him and poured a gold-tinged liquid into a cup.
"You still have to transfer his soul," Jacob said. "You have to make his wings—use them as a bridge." He held out the steaming cup. "Here. Take this."
Issa downed the cup without question. The liquid burned as it ran down her throat. "What now?"
Jacob's hand trembled as he clutched his smoking stump between his fingers. "You have four feathers. Use two. I gotta… I gotta go. Last joint. Sorry."
"What? Wait—" she began.
But Jacob had staggered to his feet and before Issa could say another word, he was gone, his footfalls clumsy as he disappeared into the dark.
"I still have your pie!" Issa called out. "Jacob!"
She was too winded to go after him. And she still had a task to finish. She looked at the body and swallowed several times, feeling terribly weak and very alone.
Feathers… feathers… How was she supposed to get them out?
All Jacob's nasty tea did was make her head spin. "Lucifer." She closed her eyes. "Stop napping and help me out, will you?"
No answer.
She exhaled. She was very good at pushing herself to her limits but this felt like the very end of those limits.
At least now Edvardiel could rest easy knowing that he never killed his father.
The tea settled heavily in Issa's stomach. The world turned on its axis and she was back in the stone chamber with the spinning feathers. Except this time, she was alone and two of the feathers were spinning sluggishly as though they were running out of Life.
"The first feather will seal your growth, the second your strength, and the third your memories."
Her strength and most of her memories had been freed.
"The fourth will free you when the time is right."
The two flaming feathers floated down, landing on her outstretched palms.
Instinctively, she drew a breath and blew gently. Gold and green twisted together in perfect harmony, weaving themselves into two fiery, seraphic wings. They fanned outwards and stirred up a violent storm. The chamber disappeared and Issa was kneeling in a pool of blood out of which dozens of golden butterflies kept emerging.
The winged body before her radiated warmth—a real-life seraph solidifying in a body woven with Life and glory.
Lucifer opened his eyes.
Another early update since I have another one of those 24h shifts tomorrow. Would love to hear your thoughts and see you at the next chappie :)