She looked like an angel.
With the reflected fire swirling in her eyes and her skin alight with the white flames, she looked too much like a seraph. Too much like the thing they were accusing her of being.
It was perfect—if she wanted to start a riot at her own engagement.
Jessica helped her change the dress so that the neckline plunged down her spine. They would pin up her hair so everyone would have a clear view of her back.
They would see her lack of wings.
Issa wondered if it would help. After all, Edvardiel had wings and no one was accusing him of being a seraph. She stared at the deceptively smooth skin of her back. If she hadn't been an Acolyte, if she hadn't been Nephilim, she'd have been covered with scars. The bite of hellfire, Hell's whip and her wounds from the endless sieges and Lilith's dungeons were dark memories, kept at bay only because they were overshadowed by the horror of everything else she'd done.
"I don't like how revealing it is." Jessica rubbed her chin. "But I guess it can't be helped."
"We could go without the fire," Issa suggested.
"No," Jessica said. "It shows your power. Besides, you look amazing."
Issa shifted her weight. She used to think her allure was Lilith's doing–-to make her a more efficient killer. She used to hate it. Now she didn't know what to feel. "Thanks," she told Jessica. "I would've been dress-less without your help."
Jessica's answering smile was brilliant. "No problem. Anything to stop the Apocalypse."
Issa looked at Jessica. "What happened to your angel dress?"
Jessica turned sombre. "My mother took it. She wanted to help the people outside of Eden. She never came back."
Issa waited for Edvardiel to return but the only person to come by the cottage was Rosalie. "Edvardiel said you should go ahead and sleep." Rosalie's choppy hair was more dishevelled than usual and she had dark circles under her eyes. "Save your energy for tomorrow."
Issa sat up. "Where did he go?"
"He said he was looking for something to wear." Rosalie pushed a sweaty lock of hair behind her ear. "We spent the day securing the perimeters. I told him we should do your ceremony within the inner gates. You have a giant target on your back and I don't know if we can stop an attack."
Issa paused. "But the whole point of the ceremony is to convince the people who aren't convinced. To unite Eden so we can stop the Apocalypse together. If we do it in the inner gates, we won't reach the people we need to reach."
Rosalie sighed and reached for the door. "Edvardiel said the same thing. I hope nothing happens."
"Did you find Alice?" Issa asked.
Rosalie shook her head. "Sometimes she disappears for days," she said slowly. "Like the day she ran into you. It was you, wasn't it—the one who fought off the demons in Koprivnica?"
Issa jerked in surprise. "You were the one who—"
"I was the one who took her and ran." Rosalie ran another hand through her sweat-slicked hair. "Guardian angels… They feel the pull of someone's need. They can't help but answer the call. The way she answered yours. And mine." Her voice grew quiet as she glanced at the windows. "I think she's answering another call."
Issa thought about what happened this afternoon. "Jessica said she saw Tanya near the graveyard."
"Tanya's dead," Rosalie said, her voice a little too sharp.
"Did you see them bury the body?"
Rosalie stared at her for a long time. "What are you trying to say?"
Issa studied Rosalie, noting the way her knuckles were turning white around her weapons belt. Alice had answered her call. Alice called her maman. Rosalie had been spitting mad after Jacob had slept with her and run. It was obvious that Rosalie had lost a child during the Apocalypse. But maybe her wounds ran deeper than that. Maybe her child had been taken by Lilith.
Issa's mouth went dry.
"Have you ever heard of Acolytes?"
Rosalie's face drained of all colour. "Where did you learn that word?"
Issa gazed at her, not trusting herself to push. "I think there's an Acolyte loose in Eden. The orb, Jessica's sighting… I don't think it's a coincidence."
Rosalie froze.
"We should cancel the ceremony," Rosalie said finally. She clenched her jaw. "Alice. Where the hell is she?"
Issa stood. "I'll help you look for her."
"Absolutely not," Rosalie said. "You're our only chance against Lilith. I'm not risking ending the Apocalypse for anything. If there's an Acolyte in Eden—"
"There are thousands of them beyond the gates," Issa said. "There's no point waiting. Better one than two or three… or ten. We need to go through with the ceremony."
Rosalie pinched the bridge of her nose. For several minutes, she said nothing, and then she exhaled noisily. "Fine. You're right." Her nostrils flared as she adjusted her weapons belt, letting her gaze trail down Issa's face. "Do us all a favour—stay put and rest tonight. You still look like shit. You need your wits about you tomorrow."
Issa swallowed down her worry for Alice.
"I will."
Rosalie shot her one last troubled look, and then she was out the door, disappearing silently as a shadow down the walkway.
Issa tossed and turned in bed. Several times, she looked at her hand and tried to make it glow but every time she tried to picture something happy, she felt sick to her stomach. Was Alice all right? What was Edvardiel doing? Was there really an Acolyte loose in Eden? Was it Tanya?
Issa had barely fallen into a feverish, restless sleep when she was awoken by a blistering pain in her heart. She sat up with a start, clutching her chest. Her eyes darted around, searching for the intruder, but she felt no sticky warmth of blood. No one had stabbed her.
The pain came from her Keeper bond.
Panic zinged through her being. She shoved the windows open and leapt out, her body melting through the tall moonlit gates.
Do you know what I do to disobedient children?
She was running and running for her angel.
I take away their favourite toy.
She pushed herself harder.
No.
No, no, no, no.
The grass felt soft beneath her feet, the moon mockingly bright and beautiful as air ripped in and out of Issa's lungs.
Edvardiel.
She was filled with such terror that she couldn't find her voice.
She burst through the clearing, blood thundering in her ears, when she saw her angel in the distance.
Edvardiel was at their hot spring. His clothes lay in a fallen pile as he knelt in the steaming water. His body was glowing and heated, his wings gleaming in the moon.
Relief washed over her, so great that she nearly dropped to her knees.
His shoulders were trembling.
She thought he was crying at first but then she heard his breathing—slow breaths punctured by shaky gasps. It was a sound she knew intimately from Hell. The sound of someone trying to quell their pain.
Her Keeper bond was silent. He was blocking her out again but Issa felt echoes of the terrible pain. She stalked towards him, wanting to find out why, when he whipped around.
His wings flared and angelfire blazed, lighting up the clearing and every inch of his skin.
That was when she saw it.
The thing that was causing his pain.
The thing he'd been hiding.
A glory cage at his heart. Golden tattoos had been burned into his skin—the patterns twisted and ominous. The tattoos glowed, glory distorted into demonic characters. He'd used the power of Heaven to etch Hell's tongue into his skin.
It was an attempt at protection. It was sacrilege. It was the only thing containing the deep, diseased blue that rotted the flesh over his heart.
"Edvardiel…" Her voice trembled.
He hadn't been blocking her to hide his emotions. He'd been blocking her out to hide this. No wonder he couldn't fly to Heaven. No wonder his glory had been giving out.
By the size of it, she was amazed he was still standing.
Edvardiel's fingers glowed where they hovered over his heart—he'd seemed in the midst of carving another circle of glory cage to contain the demonising flesh—but at the sight of her, his glory died.
Shock rippled across his gaze and his fingers twitched, as though he were about to cover himself, before he let them drop limply to his side.
They stared at each other, wordlessly coming to terms with this new development.
Their bond was poisoning him.
Issa's world dropped out from beneath her. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to rail at him. Why didn't he say anything? Why didn't he tell her?
But the answer was obvious.
What was there to do? He couldn't throw her back to Hell—not now that they knew she was Michael's daughter, not if Lilith could use her new-found glory to destroy the world all the more quickly.
Another beat of silence.
Issa did what she used to do best. She gathered her human emotions and locked them away until there was nothing left but an empty, cold calm. Then she stepped towards him and waded into the water. He watched her, every muscle taut, his wings curling low as though he were trying not to cover himself.
Issa stood before him, staring at the splotches of blue rot over his heart. She reached out and traced a finger over it. His demonised skin felt ice-cold, unlike the fiery heat radiating from the rest of him.
There were so many things she wanted to say.
All of which her angel didn't need to hear.
She slid her arms around his waist and pressed a kiss to his chest. "You didn't have to suffer alone, Edvardiel."
Some of the tension left his body.
Water trickled down his long hair as he surveyed her through his wet lashes. "Your glory is tied to your joy," he said softly. "I didn't want to get in the way of that."
He was right. Joy was the last thing on Issa's mind.
"You're still my Keeper," she only said, holding him more tightly. "You'll help me."
Strong arms came around her. "I wanted you to summon it on your own." His lips brushed against her forehead. "I wanted you to fly on your own. I know you have it in you."
"I don't care about any of that. I don't care if I never fly again." Her voice shook. "I just want you to be all right."
"I'll be fine." He sounded so sure. "My wings and my glory have made this far easier to manage."
She stiffened. "How long have you…" Her mind struggled to work it out. The throbbing in his heart had been a constant since he'd become her Keeper. He'd thrown up blood in the museum. He'd passed out several times. Until she'd grown his wings, he'd been rapidly weakening.
"You've had this from the very beginning," she breathed. "You knew. All this time, you knew."
She remembered wondering how an angel could be her Keeper. She remembered asking him why he'd abandoned the Acolyte boy. Why he hadn't helped him like he'd helped her.
I'm not invincible. Blocking Lilith isn't easy.
She wanted to weep.
"Issa," he said gently. "It's nothing I can't handle. We'll stop Lilith before anything happens."
I take away their favourite toy.
Issa looked at the blue that ate away at her angel's body, beginning at his heart and spreading, scarcely blocked by the rudimentary glory cage.
"I'll stop her," she said. "I'll stop her, I promise."
She couldn't let herself believe anything else.
Not if she wanted to stay sane.
Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter, we are building up to something big! I'm still recovering from my most horrible 24h shift two days ago and I have another one tomorrow. Been feeling kinda sick all day, heading to bed early tonight and hoping it's gonna go away. Thanks loads to those of you who were kind enough to leave comments on the last chapter - a quick shoutout to Hanna since I can't reply you personally! (haha, I also imagined Issa's dress to be something like Katniss's dress except it's a live flame on her skin!) Take care and till next time!