It wasn't a red carpet. It was a red wall of fire.
The moment Issa stepped out of the gates, her engagement ring warmed and flames sprang to life.
Her angel had created a pathway from the inner gates leading towards the centre of Eden—one protected by scarlet angelfire on both sides.
She stared in awe.
How long was the path? Edvardiel had spared no glory for her safety.
As Issa stared, her dress fluttered, plucking some angelfire and lighting itself up in red. It extended behind her to create a train of scarlet fire that curled upwards like a peacock tail.
"Umm…" Jessica stepped back. "I don't know if that's a good idea. Angelfire can burn angels too, you know."
Issa's skirts flared impatiently, as though telling them Like I'm going to let that happen.
Issa stared down at the flames crackling on her skin. "At least no one will notice my feet now."
Jessica took another step back and pulled out a lace fan from her hidden pocket. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she fanned herself. "Phew. I'm just going to like… stand here." She scooted back three more steps.
Edvardiel's planning was flawless.
His angelfire didn't just protect her—it also drew attention. If anyone in Eden had thought to boycott the ceremony, the grand trail of fire drew their eyes to it anyway.
A crowd began to gather, staring as they walked past.
If Issa hadn't been so used to putting on a show as Lilith's Acolyte, she'd have been sweating buckets. As it was, she kept her chin up and ignored the occasional threats of violence. Some tried to throw things. She heard gunshots that made Jessica jump. But everything disintegrated. Edvardiel's angelfire was a live thing, tongues of it shooting out and shielding them from any attacks.
"You all right?" Issa asked.
"Yeah. Those assholes." Jessica looked shaken.
"You should go ahead," Issa said. "They're trying to shoot me, not you." There was no point in both of them being terrorised like this.
To Issa's surprise, Jessica only squared her shoulders and came closer. "What kind of guardian angel would I be, running away from some dumb gunshots?" she said. "We're safe. They can't get past the fire."
Issa was moved. "I… Thanks." It really was better not having to walk alone.
Jessica fanned herself more frantically. "Come on, let's get moving before I melt!"
They made the torturous walk to the centre, determinedly ignoring any threats beyond the angelfire. Issa offered several times to put the fire out from her dress but Jessica brushed off her concerns, insisting that it was important for Issa to look the part of someone who could defeat Lilith and that besides, the walls of fire surrounding them were not going to make her any less warm.
Issa was relieved when the fiery path widened, indicating that they'd almost reached their destination. Poor Jessica had sweat through her floral dress and most of her make-up. Mascara ran down her cheeks, making her look like a jittery racoon.
A large building came into view and Issa's engagement ring flared with warmth once more. The path behind them died and closed until the only angelfire that remained was the one circling the vast compound.
"Oh thank god," Jessica exclaimed. "I'm going to go ahead and change!"
Issa paused to stare at the building as Jessica hurried inside.
It was a cathedral.
Except, instead of angels, a statue of Eden stood sombrely on a platform above the great double doors. She'd been carved with wings and she looked longingly up into the Heavens. Beside her, an older woman—her human mother?—rested an arm around her shoulders.
The colourful glass depicted beautiful flowers and animals like squirrels and deer. But none of those drew Issa's attention like the carvings on the cathedral walls. Angel after angel had been depicted in various positions of agony as they Fell and turned into demons. One angel curled up into herself as her wings shrivelled. Another was chained to the wall, his mouth open in a mindless snarl as scales sprouted on his neck.
Issa tore her gaze away.
Edvardiel was Nephilim. He had enough human in him that he wouldn't turn into a demon. At least, she hoped so. As she came closer, she realised that the cathedral was only the front part of the building. It was attached to something that looked like a palace.
The design was haphazard—the roof a patchwork quilt of different stones as though it had fallen apart and been rebuilt with whatever they could find.
The sun bounced off the shiny roof and through the colourful glass.
Issa's head throbbed.
She saw in her mind's eye the familiar silhouette of Michael and Lucifer warring with each other under the sun, golden blood splashing down. She heard the tinkling of glass as Yassper died underneath the cathedral.
In both memories, screams echoed in the background.
"Issa?"
One of the double doors swung open to reveal Rosalie.
Everything about the woman's expression was grim and unsmiling.
Rosalie took in her angelfire dress, appreciative. "Very nice." Then her gaze settled on Issa's face. "You're still sick."
"And you still haven't found Alice," Issa said, her heart sinking.
"She'll show up." Rosalie held the door open. "Come in. Edvardiel's busy filtering people from the other side. Only the ones we trust are allowed within the ring of angelfire. The rest will have to watch from without. We figured that would be the safest way."
Issa wondered if it meant they were doing the ceremony outdoors but her question was answered the moment she stepped inside. The ceilings and the entire right wing of the building were made of glass.
"Angelglass," Rosalie said, following her gaze. "They blend glass with Edenium… or something like it. I don't know the specifics."
"Probably glass with angelblood," Issa murmured, remembering her conversation with Lucifer.
Her headache was made worse by all the light filtering through the glass. Everything was too bright. The screams in the back of her mind grew louder, drowning out Rosalie's voice.
She'd been here before.
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She'd been much smaller as she'd stared up at the same roof, her heart hammering.
The glass had been blood-spattered.
There had been a lot of screaming.
The sickening thud of a body hitting the glass made her stomach lurch. The woman's body was broken, her eyes unseeing as she slid down the roof and crumpled to the ground.
"He's here! Michael's here! How the hell did he find us? How did he enter the Garden?"
"She summoned him." Lucifer's tone was bland and unsurprised, a sharp contrast to everyone else around them.
"Why?" Adam gave Issa a shake. "Why would you do such a thing?"
Eden pushed Adam aside and stood protectively in front of Issa, her hand gentle around Issa's small one. She turned to Lucifer. "I thought you wiped her memories?"
"I thought I did," Lucifer agreed.
More screams echoed outside.
"He's killing the Nephilim." Adam was white.
Although greatly outnumbered, the king of angels was a formidable fighter. He slashed through the Fallen and the Nephilim with unprecedented ferocity, ignoring the Edenium bullets raining down on his flesh. Gold and red bled together in a gruesome river.
Michael's long, mesmerising white-gold hair had come loose and it shone like the sun, speckled with blood. His armour was stained the same way. Torn feathers floated around him, a storm behind his fiery wings. He was expressionless and utterly cold as he raised his bloodied sword, the terrifying picture of a death god.
He advanced towards the glass wing, leaving slippery footprints of blood and bodies littered behind him.
"I'll kill him." Eden's lightning crackled, every line of her body stiff with rage.
"Adam, take the child and go," Lucifer said, his wings unfurling. "Now."
"Take her and go where?" Eden demanded.
"Beyond the Garden," Lucifer said.
"She just got here." Eden drew herself up. "She deserves the Garden's protection too."
"This isn't the first time she summoned Michael," Lucifer said. "You owe the other Nephilim safety too." His eyes flickered to the mountain of bodies behind Michael, some of which were very small.
Eden's eyes glistened but she didn't stop Adam when he snatched Issa up into his arms. They hurried through the other door but Michael had already seen them.
Lightning fast, Heaven's king blazed through the air, shooting down towards them with single-minded bloodthirst.
A crack of thunder turned the blue skies grey.
From the ground, Eden aimed a powerful flare of lightning at Michael. He swerved but Lucifer blasted angelfire from his other side. Michael careened backwards. Golden blood splashed down onto Issa's face and she stared up in horror as her father was cornered.
In a flash, she was up in the air, hurtling towards the fire, the lightning and the warring angels.
"Papa!"
It was the first time she'd called him that despite having felt it in her bones and Michael froze.
He wasn't the only one.
Eden jerked back her lightning and Lucifer stopped dead, narrowly redirecting what would have been a killing blow to Issa. Some of his angelfire brushed past her arm, boiling hot, and she started to bleed.
There was no time to hesitate.
Lucifer was back, his fire roaring high, and in a flash, Michael grabbed Issa and shot up to the Heavens.
This time, she wasn't cold. Michael's glory swirled and coalesced over her skin like a blanket, keeping her heated.
Her father's golden blood soaked her as they burst through the clouds. His breathing was uneven as he studied her face with those merciless eyes, his sun-coloured hair whipping in the wind. His grip tightened painfully around her burnt arm.
His hands glowed.
"I will make it quick," he murmured. "So quick you will feel nothing." He pressed a glowing palm to her heart but made the mistake of looking into her eyes.
His glory died.
She was still bleeding, the traitorous, dirty red running in little rivulets down her father's fingers and her eyes filled with unshed tears. For the first time, he didn't strike her for crying.
"What is it that you want from me?" he demanded, fury breaking through his cold mask. "You will not survive in Heaven." His radiant eyes shifted to his glory wrapped around her, his lip curling. "You cannot bear the cold. You bleed like a human. Above all, you do not have wings."
She lifted her chin. "I can still fly."
Michael stared, and in that moment, his swirling eyes seemed more human than angel.
His hand glowed again.
Issa didn't look away—but the pain she expected never came.
"Very well."
Light flared in Michael's eyes and he raised a commanding arm to the dark universe. There was a deep rumble and the skies themselves began to move. The temperature rose several degrees. Heaven grew warm as its king dragged his realm closer to the sun. "It does not matter that you cannot bear the cold. It does not matter that your blood is human." His voice echoed with thunderous power. "But if you wish to reside here, you must have wings. And you must never bleed—be so powerful that no one will draw blood from you. This must never happen." He lifted the hand still dripping with her red, red blood. "Do you understand?"
She nodded.
Michael's eyes shifted and for a second, they seemed almost soft. He lowered his glowing hand to her wound. Heat seeped through her body. The raw, throbbing pain in her arm vanished. Issa's child heart leaped. She reached for her father but he held her at arm's length, withdrawing his blanket of glory so that she could feel Heaven's now warm air.
"Once you are ready, seek me out and I shall grant you a place in Heaven."
His magnificent wings flashed, so blinding she could no longer look at him.
When her eyes adjusted, he was gone.
Despite the warmth of the skies, Issa felt cold. She sat in front of Heaven's gates, waiting and wishing hard for her wings and her father. By the time Lucifer found her, she'd fallen asleep leaning against the gates.
"I did not expect to find you alive, child."
His swirling eyes shifted to her burnt sleeve, lingering on her healed skin. When he reached for her, she clung to the gates. "Take me in."
"You need wings to enter," Lucifer said, spreading his own so that she could see how they were dull and wilting. "Heavenly wings."
She sagged, too tired and miserable to fight him as he picked her up. "How?" She fought back tears. "How do I get wings?"
Lucifer's voice was contemplative as they soared down to Earth. "One day, you will show us how."
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Issa's ears rang.
She realised she was on the ground, Rosalie hovering over her but unable to come close because of the angelfire.
"Issa? Issa, can you hear me? Edvardiel, she's—"
With a single gesture, Edvardiel extinguished her dress. He was still wearing the torn, muddy clothes from last night. He bent down and his arms curled around her back and under her knees, lifting her up.
"She's sick," Rosalie said. "We should postpone the ceremony."
"I'm not sick." Issa tried to stand.
"Shh. Just relax," Edvardiel said, and her body automatically slumped against him as it obeyed.
A crease formed between Rosalie's brows as her eyes flickered from Issa to Edvardiel and back again.
"I'll bring her somewhere to rest," Edvardiel said. "We'll postpone it to the afternoon for now."
Rosalie gave a single nod but she didn't stop staring.
Edvardiel turned away without another word, striding towards the left wing—the palace-like section of the building with the ruined roof. They passed by more paintings of Fallen angels.
Issa's eyes were drawn to one of Samael. Eden's father stood out not just because of his lightning but his unusual humanness. In this painting, his swirling golden eyes were tender as he grinned at a very small, laughing Eden whom he was lifting up by the waist.
Seraphs don't love.
Samael did.
Samael was an exception—his glory required it.
The artist had given Samael beautiful white wings. The only sign he'd Fallen was the way feathers floated around him and his daughter like winter snow.
"Annalise painted this one." Edvardiel slowed, pausing at the painting as he noticed Issa staring. "My grandmother. Eden's mother." His voice was soft. "Ezekiel told me."
No wonder this painting had drawn her eye. Each brushstroke and colour had been lovingly set to the paper, a mother and wife bringing her loved ones to life.
"She's very talented," Issa said.
Edvardiel hummed in agreement and opened a door to the right. Issa glimpsed a four-poster bed before he set her down on the soft mattress and gently brushed her cheeks with his thumb. Wet. She blinked and realised her lashes were wet too.
"What happened?"
Issa leaned towards her angel and he instinctively came closer, shifting so that he was in the bed with her, his arms around her shoulders as she rested her face in the crook of his neck.
"I remembered. I've been here before," she said softly. "I was supposed to stay here but I ruined everything by summoning Michael."
Edvardiel held her, his soft wings cosier than a blanket.
"I heard that story from Ezekiel," he said. "He said it happened many years after I disappeared. No one could figure out how Michael entered."
"Now you know."
Issa's heart hurt. She wondered if Edvardiel was the reason her father had spared her. Because he'd seen that Nephilim could grow wings. No doubt he'd compared them and found her lacking. Edvardiel had wings. He'd flown to Heaven on his own. He hadn't almost died from the cold up there.
Then she felt angry with herself. What did she care what Michael thought? Why would she want his approval? He never acted like a father and she was no longer a child.
I shall grant you a place in Heaven.
Issa clamped down on the ridiculous, irrational hope leaping in her heart.
"Issa." Edvardiel pressed a brief kiss to her cheek. "You were a kid. We were kids. I don't… We deserved better."
We.
Issa often thought her angel deserved better. He was kind and gentle and good. Like Eden. Hell, even Lucifer wasn't half bad.
They weren't the same.
She touched his face. "Thank you for the angelfire," she said softly. "It must be taking a lot of glory. How are you feeling?"
"Nothing I can't handle," he said.
She looked down at his scruffy clothes. "You haven't even changed."
"I was busy with the barrier." An uncharacteristically hard expression crossed his face. "Issa, be careful around Jacob. Do you realise he hasn't been through the inner gates even once?"
Issa tilted her head. "That's because— Edvardiel. He was the one who helped me revive your father."
"I don't trust him."
"He's had plenty of chances to hurt me," Issa said. "He was the one who drove us to the Garden! And he carried me back from the dungeons."
Edvardiel didn't budge. "Issa, I can't explain it but something's off with him. He's not coming into the main hall. I won't allow it."
Issa sighed.
"I'd feel better if he were in the dungeons."
Issa looked at her angel incredulously. "Seriously?"
"That's how much I don't trust him." Edvardiel took her hands. "Issa… I need you to promise me something."
Issa gave him a wary look.
"If something happens today," he said. "Or if you feel like something is going to happen…" He hesitated. "I need you to promise me you'll drink from the vial."
"Lucifer's vial?" Issa recoiled. "But that's yours."
"And now it's yours," Edvardiel said. "Will you promise me?"
"I can't." She shook her head, adamant. "It's yours. It's Lucifer's. I… I can't. It'll make me immortal, won't it? It'll make me an angel."
Edvardiel cupped her face in his warm hands, his eyes calm, and she realised how much thought he'd put into this. She wondered if he'd thought about this last night while he was carving his glory cage. Maybe he'd thought about it when he'd carried her back. Maybe when he'd been laying down the angelfire barrier.
"I wish you'd drink it right now," he said.
She stared but he didn't waver.
"Why?" she asked. He'd always yearned to be an angel. Despite everything, she knew that his childhood wish couldn't have vanished into thin air. Hell, she'd only just remembered her father's offer and she felt a shadow of that wish.
"Because we need you to stop the Apocalypse," he said. "Because you deserve it. Because I wasn't joking when I said I would do anything for you."
"I don't want it," she said.
"Promise me anyway," he said, knowing she couldn't refuse.
"I promise," she said reluctantly.
Three loud knocks made them both start.
"Edvardiel." Paul's voice was muffled through the thick wood. "I saw what you were wearing, dude. Everyone saw it. No way you're going to the ceremony in that. Come on out so you can try out some of the clothes we found."
Despite herself, Issa giggled.
"Dude, I know you're in there! I know the ceremony's been postponed! Get your ass out here," Paul hollered. "Issa, control your fiancé!"
"He's right. You should go." Issa gave her angel a nudge. Speaking of which, she had to straighten her hair and redo her make-up.
"I'll go if you promise to rest."
Good grief. He and his promises today.
"I promise, I promise! Now, go!"
Edvardiel grinned and gave her a kiss, nipping on her bottom lip and making her gasp.
"See you soon, my love."
Sorry for the late update. I have a giant deadline coming up for my research project (on top of the endless 24h shifts) so the updates will probably suffer for the next couple of months. I'll do my best! Thanks if you're still reading this as a WIP, it means a lot to me :)