Edvardiel.
The last time Issa summoned her angel, it had been an accident. She hadn't summoned him since.
Issa hesitated. "He's going to worry."
"Maybe he should," Rosalie said. "I didn't know glory made you bleed." Her eyes lingered on the ground and Issa realised there was a pool of blood where Lucifer's angelfire barrier had been.
The blood wasn't hers.
Issa searched for droplets of gold amidst the red but there was none. Some of it looked blackened, as though it had been burned by angelfire.
"Now isn't a good time for you to wander around in this state." Rosalie glanced around and touched the whip at her hip. "A lot of people aren't happy about your engagement. There's been another dungeon riot and a couple of them tried to burn down the main hall."
The situation was as bad as Issa had expected. It also meant Edvardiel's hands were probably full.
"Maybe I can fly back on my own." Issa leaned against Eden's headstone and closed her eyes. She pictured Edvardiel's face when he'd regained his wings. She pictured his fingers interlacing with hers as he told her he loved her. Joy rushed into her heart but no glory came to her.
She didn't glow, let alone fly.
A crease formed between Rosalie's brows. "Is something wrong?"
Issa exhaled and shook her head. "I'm just tired. I'll have to call him." She looked down at herself and willed her cuts and bruises to heal.
Again, nothing.
She was reaching into an empty well—last night had drained her glory completely.
Shit. The whole point of tomorrow was to display her power. Trying her best to stay calm, Issa straightened her dress and scrubbed the dried flecks from her skin as best as she could.
It was time to summon her angel.
She looked skyward.
"Edvardiel."
His name left her lips like a prayer. A sacred whisper. She'd barely finished the call when he appeared in a burst of light.
"Issa?" He was at her side, a strong arm winding around her waist. "Are you alright? What happened?" He looked her up and down, and then at Rosalie. "What happened?" he asked again.
Issa squirmed. "It's not as bad as it looks."
"Your darling fiancée took her glory practice a little too far," Rosalie said.
Edvardiel took one look at the blood and Issa could tell he didn't buy it. "Jacob said you were looking for engagement clothes."
"I thought that was odd too," Rosalie said.
Edvardiel's grip tightened around Issa. "He's been acting very strange. He hasn't visited. He hasn't been to any of our meetings. I hate to say this, but I think—"
"He did visit me," Issa cut in. "Those apples and the tea in my room—he was the one who brought them. Right, Rosalie?"
"That's right." Rosalie looked at Edvardiel. "He visited while you were still unconscious."
"While I was still unconscious." Edvardiel didn't look mollified. If anything, he looked more suspicious.
Issa sighed. "Look, Jacob hasn't been to the meetings because I needed him to—" She hesitated. "He's been covering for me, all right?"
There was a beat of silence.
Edvardiel gazed at Issa, the glory in his eyes bright as the stars, and Rosalie shifted her weight.
"I'm going to keep looking for Alice," she said, adjusting the whip and the Edenium blades in her belt. "Take care, you two."
"Alice is missing?" Edvardiel looked up.
Rosalie shook her head. "She does this all the time. Don't worry." Still, her expression was pinched as she made off between the trees.
Edvardiel held Issa close, not caring about her puddles of puke and blood. His warm wings curled around them both. "Did you go looking for clothes at all?"
"No," Issa said.
Edvardiel sighed and spread his wings. "I guess neither of us has anything to wear for tomorrow." In the next second, they'd taken off, Edvardiel holding her fast as they shot through the air. She clung to him, repressing the urge to squeeze her eyes shut.
"I heard they tried to burn down the main hall," she said.
"They tried to blow it up." Edvardiel's voice was grim. "Luckily, our seraph senses are very sensitive to gunpowder—or anything to do with fire." He brushed angel soot away from her nose with his thumb, his eyes glowing as they glided through the air.
He was flying slowly. For her sake.
Issa pressed closer to him. "Why aren't you asking me what I did?"
Edvardiel glanced at her. "I figured you're going to tell me eventually."
They drifted down towards yesterday's waterfall. With great care, Edvardiel sat her down at the river bank and began to clean the blood off her face.
"You don't have to—" she began.
"I want to." Gently, he rinsed her face and her arms, and then he bent down, cleansing the dirt and blood off her feet. His hands glowed as he healed her cuts and bruises, his glory warming her skin.
Issa's heart squeezed.
No one cared for her like he did. No one in her life had ever chosen to stay the way he did. Not her mother, not her father, no one.
Edvardiel looked up just then. His hands stilled. "Does it hurt?"
She shook her head, blinking rapidly. "No. It's… It's just… You're the only one who's ever… Thank you."
"Oh, Issa." Edvardiel drew her into his warmth. "All the riots in Eden and look at you—you're a little softie."
Issa looked up and found him biting back a smile.
"Oh fuck off."
He grinned. "I love you too."
He opened his gleaming, heated wings, shading her from the sun. Silver lightning seared through his feathers and he leaned back on the river bank with her curled against his chest, his face tilted towards the Heavens.
"You know," he said tentatively. "Maybe I'm not the only one." He was still gazing up at the skies. "Maybe one day when this is all over, we can fly up there together."
Issa went rigid.
Edvardiel ran soothing fingers through her hair. "A few days ago, I remembered my first time flying as a boy." He was still using that same soft, cautious voice. "I woke up one morning and I had these wings. It felt like a dream." He held her more tightly. "My mother was still asleep. I crept out through the window and flew up and up until I saw a pair of beautiful golden gates. I flew right through them into a gathering of seraphim…"
Issa pulled back to look at him.
All this time, they'd thought someone had stolen him away. Issa had been convinced that Michael had taken him.
Edvardiel's lips twisted. "You should've seen their faces. They were about to kill me. The one who stopped them was Michael."
They'd had this conversation before.
Issa kneaded her temples. "Edvardiel—"
"Issa, he did what he could. He kept me safe."
"He could've returned you to your mother," Issa said, her hands curling into fists on his chest. "But he hurt you. He made you take a life. Then he cut your wings and left you for dead."
"He couldn't have returned me to my mother," Edvardiel said.
"Why the hell not?"
Edvardiel's eyes flickered to her and then away again. "Unlike angels, Nephilim can hurt earthly beings."
Lucifer had said that too.
Angels cannot harm anything earthly.
Issa sat up. "I don't believe it," she said. "They hurt Nephilim."
"That's because…" Edvardiel's voice had gone very quiet, "because we belong in Heaven as much as we belong on Earth." His eyes glistened as he watched a pale pink flower come loose from a tree, falling and falling.
He reached out, catching it before it hit the ground. Its fragrance perfumed the air, dewy and sweet.
Edvardiel tucked it behind her ear. "Do you realise how dangerous we are? The seraphim were made to destroy anything in the universe. We're stronger than them and nothing is stopping us from wreaking havoc on Earth."
The flowers kept falling like angels.
"So you agree with Michael?" Issa said. "You think we shouldn't exist?"
"I don't agree with him. But I understand why he did what he did," Edvardiel said. He looked at her, a ray of devastating hope in his eyes. "Maybe… Maybe he'd change his mind if he met you."
Issa clenched her jaw.
She wanted nothing more than to shield her angel from the Hell they'd both been thrown into. But he deserved to know the truth.
"We've already met." She stared at the waterfall. "Father dearest tried to kill me."
Issa gazed down at her hands. "I must've been six years old. At first, he tried to teach me. He took me up to show me his glory. But when he saw that I wasn't growing wings and worse—that my blood was so very human—he decided I had to die. The one who saved me was your father."
She reached into her angel dress and found the vial.
"Last night, I wasn't practising my glory. I was reviving an angel." Issa chewed the inside of her cheek. "Your father. I revived Lucifer." She held out his gift. "This is from him. He said you'd know what to do with it."
Edvardiel stared at the cloudy gold misting within the glass.
For several seconds, he was motionless.
Then he sat up abruptly. "Where did you get that?"
"Your father," she repeated.
"My—Where is he?" Edvardied whipped around as though he could find Lucifer near the waterfall.
"He's gone."
Edvardiel froze. "Gone?"
"He's alive," Issa said quickly. "But he left last night after I passed out."
Edvardiel's face turned several shades of gold before draining of all colour. "How? I saw the remains. I took back his— And he's— you're saying that he's—"
"Your father. Yes." Issa took a deep breath and began to tell him everything—from her strange dreams to the voice she'd thought was a hallucination, and then to the memories that had returned to her and the feathers. She told him about Eve's bizarre relationship with Michael and her determination to create a weapon. Issa told him how Michael had found her as a child and turned her against humans and how Eve then used Lucifer to deal with her uncontrollable bursts of glory. How Lucifer couldn't fly to Heaven because he'd lost his Heavenly wings and Eve could only make him earthly ones.
Edvardiel stared into the distance.
The lightning in his wings warred with the angelfire, silver and red flashing back and forth.
The vial was still clutched in her hand—Edvardiel hadn't reached for it.
"I don't understand. He gave that to you?"
"It's for you," Issa said.
"Why? Why would he give that to me?"
Issa chewed her lip. "Edvardiel. You didn't kill him. I saw his memories—you never wanted to fight him. He provoked you and you nearly died yourself. He chose to pull you out of that fire. He knew what it meant."
"Why didn't he say anything? Why did he…" Edvardiel trailed off, his wings were so drenched with scarlet angelfire that they looked bloody. His skin glowed gold once more and a vein throbbed in his temple. Then he rounded on her. "You brought him back to life?"
Issa cringed. "He wasn't really dead," she said truthfully. "I just gave him a body."
"Just?"
"I didn't mean to keep it from you," she said quickly. "I didn't know if I'd succeed and I didn't have any proof. I didn't know how to convince you—"
Edvardiel put a hand to his face. "Issa."
"All I had were the voices in my head and the hallucinations. I didn't know if any of it was real at first. I mean, he told me that Michael was my fucking father. The same angel who cut your wings and wanted us all dead. I thought I'd gone insane. I thought Hell had broken my mind—"
"Issa—"
"I didn't know where to start telling you. And things kept happening. Then I found out that he was the angel Michael sent you to assassinate and it was just… all of it was just—"
"Issa, shh." To her shock, he hugged her. "I don't… I'm not angry with you."
She sank into his warmth, feeling as though a great weight had been lifted off her chest. "I'm sorry."
Edvardiel looked down at her. "It's your turn to stop apologising. You brought my father back to life. I should be thanking you."
Issa stared at her angel. His cheeks were still tinged with gold and he looked devastated.
"Edvardiel—"
"Did he hurt you? Is that why you're covered in blood?"
"No! He's not like Michael."
"I know seraphs, Issa."
"He didn't," she said. "I had to use my blood to bring him back. And most of this isn't mine—it's his."
If Edvardiel was surprised by the lack of golden blood, he didn't show it. He just looked miserable.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I was naive enough to believe he'd care to stay. He promised me he'd tell you the truth. I thought he could help us end the Apocalypse. Now he's gone to god knows where."
Edvardiel looked resigned. "He kept his promise."
Issa pulled back. "What do you mean?"
"Didn't he tell you what that is?" He nodded at the vial in her hand.
Issa glanced at the golden mist within. "Edenium?"
Edvardiel's laugh was humourless. "He gave that to you without telling you what it is. And I'm here wondering why he never said anything to me."
"If it isn't Edenium, then what is it?"
"That's the Essence of Immortality," Edvardiel said. "Part of a seraph's soul. The part that keeps them immortal. The part that makes them heavenly."
Issa didn't understand. "What does it do?"
Edvardiel was quiet for a long time.
"I've never seen it distilled in this form before. No angel has ever gifted this. Frankly, it's unimaginable," he said finally. "I think it's collateral. If he ever wants to be an angel again, he's going to have to return and get the immortal part of his soul back."
She stared. "He didn't say anything about returning. He said… He said it was your wedding gift."
She held it out but Edvardiel made no move to touch the vial. On the contrary, he seemed eager to get away from it.
"If it's a wedding gift, then it's for both of us. You should keep it safe."
Hi guys, I just came out of another of my 24h shifts and this one was absolutely bonkers. Sometimes I think about writing a medical/drama fic lol. Take care and till Friday!
To Hanna since I can't reply anonymous reviews: You are a darling, thank you! I can't tell you how much your comments made my day! Hope you enjoyed this chapter too :)
(Gonna get to the other replies later, going to eat and nap!)