Hi guys, I managed to make some time to write! I ironed out some plot kinks on the side as well. I am so excited to start our last arc!

PS. I sprinkled some 'memory refreshers' in this chapter since it's been a while. Hope they help, let me know if you need a short summary in the next chappie.

PPS. Our couple is finally getting officially engaged. It's not quite the wedding yet, I liked the idea of an engagement ceremony first. Ok, enough rambling from me. Enjoy!


Warning: Violence!


Issa kept her promise.

She'd slept. Not that it made her feel less sluggish. No glory came to her fingertips. As she parted the satin drapes of the four-poster bed, she realised the ceilings had been painted too. More angels, these ones with pure white wings instead of fiery ones, their eyes glowing with something softer than glory.

Guardian angels.

One drifted through the clouds, an infant in her arms. Issa wondered if the child was human or Nephilim. Another hid behind a tree, her white wings outstretched as she gazed penetratingly at a naked woman reaching for an apple.

Issa's stomach jolted. Was that Eve?

The woman looked nothing like her mother. For one, she had red hair. For another, she was slack-jawed and confused, as though she'd forgotten what she was doing. Eve was nothing if not cool and controlled. Then Issa realised the mural was juxtaposing the two sides of a guardian angel.

The most compassionate. The closest to humans.

The most devious angels of all.

While the angel with the child was smiling and sun-kissed, the angel staring at the woman was veiled with shadows.

Guardian angels have sharp instincts and powerful powers of suggestion. They can amplify intentions and turn them into actions.

A shudder ran through Issa as she remembered Tanya's broken body.

Who had done it? Who had manipulated Tanya into pushing her?

A seraph's glory couldn't be used against humans—only Nephilim—but the same restrictions didn't seem to apply to guardian angels. Ironically, to humans, guardian angels were far more dangerous.

Issa tilted her head at the mural, feeling as though she were very close to putting the pieces together—

A soft knock jerked Issa from her reverie.

She rose and opened the door.

"Hello dear."

Issa's stomach lurched at the familiar face.

Sue rested a motherly hand on her arm. The elderly woman wore a long skirt paired with feminine leather boots, and a shotgun was strapped to her back.

"Sue." Issa's breath felt stuck in her throat. She hadn't seen the woman since she'd run from her lunch. The others had visited Sue but Issa had felt ill at the mere idea . She wondered if she should've forced herself to go anyway. Sue had been vital in helping her escape the dungeons. She'd given the jailers poisoned cupcakes, making it easier for Rosalie to break Issa out.

Sue had saved her. Sue had saved her.

"I… I heard what you did with the cupcakes." Issa fought to keep her voice normal. "Thank you."

"I did what I could." Sue's eyes were swollen as though she'd been crying. She held up a pair of lacy white shoes. "Jessica told me you need shoes." Her eyes glistened. "I made these for my Leah, but I don't think she'll be needing them."

Leah. The young woman with the rifle. Sue's daughter. Issa was back in the antique shop, holding Edvardiel prisoner when they'd seen Leah with her kid brother and her fiancé.

"You should keep them." Issa twisted her trembling, monstrous hands into the folds of her angel dress.

Sue's mouth moved but Issa could barely hear her over the onslaught of memories.

Leave no human alive.

Issa had raised Yassper's blade—

Bile rose in her throat.

"...the least I can do if you're going to stop the Apocalypse." Sue held out the hand-made shoes once more but Issa took a reflexive step back.

"I-I don't need them. Really." Issa could still feel the warm, sticky blood of Sue's children staining her hands. "S-sorry, I've g-g-got to—" She tried to close the door but Sue pushed her boot in the gap.

Something hard flickered across the woman's motherly eyes. "I have a message for you." Sue reached into the handsewn shoes and pressed a roll of paper into Issa's hands, which were shaking so badly that Sue had to notice.

"From Jacob," Sue said. "Since Edvardiel won't let him in. Here." Before Issa could say a word, Sue had turned and left.

Issa shut the door and heaved.

The flashbacks wouldn't stop.

She saw the midday sun, sweltering hot, and the silhouette of the three humans in the ruined city.

"It's one of them! Get back!" Leah's hands shook as she aimed the rifle. "Jake, take Seth and get the hell out of—"

Lilith's orders burned through Issa's blood.

Leave no human alive.

Bring him to me whole.

Do you know what I do with disobedient children?

Blood spattered to the ground. Issa vomited, her knees scraping the ground as the world spun.

I take away their favourite toy.

Yassper's mangled body. Alice's torn frock. Edvardiel's glory cage.

"Fuck," she sobbed. "F-f-fuck."

Blood ran down her skin and Michael's merciless eyes pierced through the other memories. You bleed like a human.

It was several minutes before she got herself under control.

Issa wiped her face with the back of her hand.

Red.

She hadn't hallucinated the blood. Rosalie and Edvardiel had been right—she was sick. Bringing back Lucifer had pushed her body to its limits.

Issa unrolled Jacob's message.

You must drink the Essence.

Edvardiel didn't trust Jacob, and yet, they were both telling her to do the same thing.

She pulled out the vial.

It would be easy to tip the liquid into her mouth. She imagined the power coursing through her. Immortality. Wings.

Once you are ready, seek me out and I shall grant you a place in Heaven.

Issa closed her eyes and clutched her arm. She remembered the heat seeping through it as her father had healed her. As violent as he'd been, he'd felt something for her. Her mother had fed her and clothed her, but her indifference had starved Issa. Made her cling to the crumbs from a being incapable of feeling.

She didn't want Heaven, or wings, or power. What she wanted was far more pathetic.

The glinting gold of the vial beckoned her.

Lucifer was not her father. He'd been tricked into the role by Eve. It didn't matter that he'd saved her life. It didn't matter that he'd been as gentle with her as a seraph could be. It didn't matter that he'd called her 'my child'.

Once.

He'd said it once. But she remembered.

She was greedy.

She had her angel's love. She had free will. She had glory.

Lucifer was Edvardiel's father and the gift was not hers.

Issa stuffed the vial back into her dress.

For a few minutes, she gave herself permission to wallow. Then she wiped away the tears, the blood, and the sweat. She stood, put her hair up and redid her makeup.

By the time Issa left the room, she was painted and wrapped in angelfire. Every messy feeling had faded into the background. As she approached the glass ballroom, she noticed parallels between her calm and the one she felt from her Keeper bond.

The steady ocean of calm was not human.

It wasn't the first time she'd drawn upon it—she'd done this a million times as Lilith's Acolyte. But it was the first time she realised it was seraphic. The coolness, the indifference, the utter detachment…

It was not calm but the absence of emotion.

It was how Heaven's warriors maimed and killed without flinching. It was how she'd maimed and killed without flinching. It was how she'd survived.

Unlike Edvardiel, who'd struggled to channel his glory, she'd welcomed hers with open arms. She'd embraced Michael's teachings despite living with Eve. She'd responded to her father's power. As an Acolyte, she'd been one of Lilith's most efficient killers.

Issa slowed as she approached the ballroom.

I told you that you'd do better in Heaven.

Perhaps it was her mother's violent reason for bringing her into the world, perhaps it was her father's blood running in her veins, or perhaps it was her century as Hell's pawn, but one thing was clear: She was more seraph than she wanted to admit.

Issa's humanity was a bruised and beaten thing. The creature had been coaxed forth by her angel's endless patience. Under his care, it had begun to heal but it plagued her with fruitless tears, flashbacks and sickness. She couldn't save it if she wanted to stop the Apocalypse.

She needed her glory.

She needed to save her angel.

Issa paused shy of the side entrance to drink in the sight of him.

Edvardiel stood in the centre of the dias, his back to her, his wings tucked.

He cut an imposing figure in the dark, flowing robes. One shoulder was pleated, the hems embroidered with intricate gold, and an inner white robe peeked out from within, the collar dropping open on one side to show the sculpted planes of his chest.

In repose, his features were severe in the way of a warrior angel. He scanned the crowd beyond the glass and the angelfire with razor-sharp vigilance, every line of his body coiled as though prepared for a fight.

It was only when he saw her that everything about him softened.

His lips curved into a smile that made her breath catch. He turned towards her fully and held out a hand in formal askance.

Stillness fell over their handful of friends in the ballroom and the crowd outside. The angelfire barrier lowered and Issa saw dozens of tables beyond the angelglass, each lit with a candle of angelfire which flashed high as the barrier lowered—a warning.

When she stepped out and put her hand in his, bolts of lightning crackled around his storm-coloured wings.

"You look good," he said.

She melted.

Everything about him made her feel soft and vulnerable.

In his presence, she couldn't maintain her ocean of nothingness. She imagined Michael would shun her for it. She imagined Lilith crowing in delight at this discovery. Her old self would've been appalled. She allowed the weakness, her heart squeezing with the strength of her affection.

"You stole my line," she told him.

Edvardiel led her to the dais, warmth radiating from his body like a hearth. Her glory ring glowed. Between him, the ring and her fiery dress, Issa was enveloped in an incredible heat that mimicked the sensation of being in the hot spring. Of being wrapped in heated wings. She was safe.

By the time he presented her before the people of Eden, Issa's muscles felt like jelly. Her heartbeat slowed and her nerves melted away. A genuine smile graced her face and in response, Edvardiel's eyes shone.

The ring. The path of fire. The angelglass. The angelfire candles on every table outside—both an ornament and a threat.

All of it was deliberate.

"You are unbelievable," she whispered.

Edvardiel reached into the folds of his robes and withdrew a golden flower. The one she'd inadvertently made while trying to revive Lucifer. The one she'd gifted to him at dinner. Her power of Life.

He tucked it behind her ear. "Let's do this."

He gave her an unexpected tug that made her stumble forward, her body resting against his.

A sweet, trilling melody filled the air and from over Edvardiel's shoulder, Issa saw Jessica. She'd changed into a white gown that made her look angelic, beaming as her fingers plucked a harp.

Edvardiel began to move.

"I didn't know you can dance," Issa said, raising her brows. Her angel was nimble in the skies, but on the ground, she distinctly remembered he had trouble not tripping over his own feet.

He grinned. "I can't."

Issa had learned dozens of dances for Lilith's missions and Edvardiel's steps were unlike anything she'd ever moved to. He was pure chaos, his attempt at a suave expression belied by the mirth in his eyes.

He was lucky to have the grace of an angel because his feet were all over the place—several times, they were saved from tripping by reflexes alone.

Issa laughed as he gave her a particularly hectic turn and lifted her by the waist, spinning around with her high in the air. She could've sworn she saw a couple of his feathers come loose in the frenzy. The surroundings blurred and Issa closed her eyes.

Glory.

She imagined a ballroom filled with people and happy chatter. She imagined Lucifer in the far corner of the room, sniffing the alcohol suspiciously before shrugging and downing a couple of shots. She imagined Eden with Ezekiel in the front, dabbing at each other's eyes. Adam grinning as he made inappropriate jokes and guzzled down the food while Eve rolled her eyes at him. Yassper bent and old, fussing over his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, adjusting the ribbons in Alice's hair.

As Edvardiel dipped Issa low, his long hair tickling the bare skin of her shoulders, Issa's heart felt ready to burst. Her lips parted and he leaned in, giving her a deep and thorough kiss.

Angelfire danced around them as his tongue found hers, his wings flaring, glossy and bursting a thousand colours in the bright afternoon sun. She melted into him, her knees giving out. Her angel. Her lover. Her Keeper.

He didn't need to command her after all.

She felt the power course through her, a shockwave that exploded into brilliant golden flames. They melted the ceiling as though it were made of sugar instead of angelglass. In the skies, her glory bloomed. This time, its size was larger than Michael's, seeming to reach beyond the very horizon.

The music halted as Jessica's fingers stilled. All eyes were fixed on Issa's powerful smite, and the silence that followed was filled with a mixture of wonder, resentment, and more than a little fear.

Only Edvardiel remained steady at her side, satisfaction rolling off his very pores.

"You did it," he said.

"You did it," she whirled towards him. He'd orchestrated this. "The heat. The angelfire. Those candles outside…" Even the awful dancing.

She touched her lips, her heart still racing.

His face split into an unexpectedly smug grin. "I am a quarter human." One wing slid sneakily around her shoulders. "It's not much, but it's enough to learn the things you like."

Issa threw her arms around him.

"You're the most human I've ever…" Overcome, she hid her face in his chest. "Edvardiel. I don't know what I did to deserve you."

He softened, his fingers running through her hair, before his eyes lit up impishly. "Oh, I don't know. You just saved my life, grew my wings and brought my father back to life." He pretended to think. "You might have also rescued Eden from a demon invasion, pulled me out of the void, and braved a snowstorm to get me clothes. Let's not forget the time I threw up on you. I'm sure I can think of more reasons—"

She put a finger to his lips.

He made her actions sound far more noble than they were.

"We did it," she said. "Now what?"

She was ready to fight.

She would free her angel and force Lilith back to Hell.

No more hesitation. She'd do it even if it meant snuffing out what remained of her humanity.

Edvardiel kissed her again. "Now, you leave the rallying to me and we cut our engagement cake."

Their three-tiered cake was gorgeous. It was a gleaming gold from its icing to its cream, a tribute to their glory. But all Issa could think about was the time they were wasting.

"Issa?" Edvardiel said softly.

Unbidden, sorrow flickered across his eyes. And it dawned on her. They were about to charge into Hell. They were about to fight for their lives. This could be their last peaceful moment together.

"I'm right here." Issa placed a hand on his and rested her head against his shoulder. "My angel." Together, they sliced the cake amidst cheering from their friends.

"All right!" Paul said, leaping up and rubbing his hands together. "I finally get to taste Sue's baking!"

Issa called upon her ocean and didn't allow herself to feel as she took in the cake properly. A groom and bride made of sugar held hands amidst the golden flower and leaves icing. The groom even had little wings.

"You should try some, dear," Sue said, helping them slice the cake into generous slices.

"Thanks, Sue," Issa said, accepting the plate. Her hands didn't shake and she even managed to give the woman a warm smile. She could do this. She'd played many roles as an unfeeling Acolyte for a hundred years—she could keep up the sickening charade until they ended the Apocalypse.

"Mm, delicious!" Jessica said brightly, her lips smeared with golden icing.

"You can say that again!" Paul said.

Issa took the fork and took a bite. The cake was light and wonderfully textured, but even her ocean couldn't stop her from tasting ash. Beside her, Edvardiel's wings rippled. As always, her angel was sensitive to her moods. He turned towards her but Rosalie strode through the ballroom, her combat boots clicking against the hardwood floor.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Her gaze was levelled at Edvardiel.

"What's going on?" Jessica asked, reaching for a second slice.

"I need to talk to Edvardiel alone." Rosalie's lips were pursed.

Issa's heart stuttered. Had something happened to Alice?

"What's the matter? At least let him have some cake first," Sue chided.

"You can talk to me here," Edvardiel said, frowning.

"No," Rosalie said matter-of-factly. "I can't."

Edvardiel glanced at Issa.

"Alone," Rosalie insisted.

Issa had no idea what was going on, but she gave Edvardiel a nudge. "Go ahead. I'll be right here."

Edvardiel gave Issa's arm a squeeze and followed Rosalie down to the other wing.

Issa stared after them.

"She looks pissed," Mike commented.

"Doesn't she always?" Jessica muttered as she dug into her second slice of cake.

"They'll be back. Eat up, everyone." Sue took it upon herself to hand out more cake.

"Not sure if anyone comes back all right from her," Paul muttered. "I mean, look at Jacob. He's been acting all weird since he went after her."

Issa paused.

Jacob had gone after Rosalie but Rosalie had said she'd never seen him. Paul had been looking everywhere for him. Had he—

A stab of pain shot through her abdomen.

"Issa!" Jessica leapt up to her feet as Issa's fork clattered to the ground. "Are you all right?"

Issa covered her mouth. She'd thrown up blood in the bedchambers. She'd been drained since reviving Lucifer. Now the glory she'd released was claiming its price with a vengeance.

"I'm fine," she said.

She couldn't afford to show weakness—not with the eyes of Eden on her.

"Where's the bathroom?" she asked, keeping her voice steady.

Jessica pointed. "Should I come with you?"

"No. It's fine."

Issa managed to keep her composure until she was inside the bathroom. Then she extinguished her dress and bent over the sink.

She was going to be sick again.

Amidst the searing pain, Issa wondered if Edvardiel was right about Jacob. Maybe he'd ventured out of Eden looking for Rosalie. Maybe Lilith had captured him then. But he'd helped her with Lucifer. He'd given her the answers she'd needed.

Issa clutched her head, feeling dizzy.

If Jacob were truly an Acolyte… She'd trusted him. She'd relied on his instructions. Drunk his tea.

You have been poisoned, child.

Lucifer had warned her. Was Jacob's tea the reason she was sick?

Jacob wasn't just a watcher angel, he was also part guardian angel. Was he the one who'd compelled Tanya? But why?

Issa had the distinct impression that she was missing something important.

She replayed the gates opening in her mind. She remembered being pushed out. Edvardiel trying to save her. Edvardiel being slashed open by the demon…

And then she froze.

Edvardiel had bled. The Gates could be opened with his blood. A chill ran down her spine. Lilith could access Eden. Lilith could—

She had to warn them.

She turned to leave when something hard connected with her head. Stars exploded in her vision and she crumpled to the ground.

Shit. The demons were here.

"They're here," she tried to shout, but she could barely draw breath into her lungs. "The demons are here—"

A pair of feminine leather boots swam before her eyes. One boot nudged her around and stepped on her roiling stomach.

Through her dizziness, she saw a shotgun.

"Sue?"

Issa blinked in confusion.

"I know what you did," the older woman whispered, her voice low and filled with rage. "I know you killed my children."

Issa stared up at Sue's once-kindly eyes, now filled with hatred.

And it hit her all at once.

The cake.

The cake had been poisoned.

Sue pressed her shotgun to Issa's heart and pulled the trigger.

Issa felt the impact but not the pain.

Shock. Her body was too shocked.

Sue shot her again and again, the heel of her boot digging into Issa's stomach.

"I poisoned those people for you." Sue clicked the trigger continuously despite having run out of bullets. "I helped you. You, the killer of my children!"

Strands of grey hair had come loose from Sue's bun—she looked unhinged with grief. Issa struggled to rise. She had to fight back. Her angel was counting on her.

"You monster!"

Sue stomped her boot into Issa's chest. Then she raised the barrel of her gun, and smashed it into Issa's face. Blood spurted from her broken nose.

The physical pain was nothing. Issa had faced far worse in Hell. What would truly hurt was if she failed Edvardiel.

Sue bashed the barrel into her face once more and Issa struggled to breathe through the streaming blood.

"Please," she choked.

She wouldn't have begged for her own life but she begged for her angel.

There were so many things she still had to do. Stop the Apocalypse, Lilith, save her angel.

"Sorry." Her lips formed soundless words. "I'm sorry."

When Sue swung the gun again, Issa grabbed it and shoved the woman away from her.

Even poisoned and bleeding, she was still a daughter of Heaven. She was still a soldier of Hell.

Sue was right, she was a monster. Her body endured like a cockroach.

Issa forced herself up to her elbows, leaking blood all over the floor. Sue was on the ground too and she gave a cry and tackled Issa, her hands fastening around her throat.

Issa shoved her off a second time and crawled towards the door but she was fighting a losing battle against the poison.

The golden flower fell from her hair, soaked with blood.

Sorry.

The flimsy word was for Sue, for Edvardiel, for all her friends as her limbs weighed her down like stones.

The last thing she remembered was the blood gushing between her fingers and Lucifer's haughty advice.

Seraphs can heal themselves.

Before the darkness took her, Issa did her damnedest to close her wounds.