Sorry for the delay, I was re-reading my draft of this final arc and realised it was taking a turn that was a tad too dark so I had to make some major revisions. Hope you enjoy the chapter and the adorable little wings I found as a text divider :D
Issa fought the darkness.
She reached out and found her hand surrounded by a warm, calloused one.
"That's enough for today, little bird."
The familiar voice rumbled out the low, throaty syllables of Arabic. Issa understood him perfectly. It was the same strange way everyone understood every other tongue after Lilith had torn down the Tower of Babel.
Yassper.
A dream. A memory. Or maybe she was already dead.
He pulled her to her feet, his grip steadying.
"I can do more," she insisted.
"You'll reopen your wounds." His eyes flickered down to her splinted leg before he sheathed his curved blades. He held out a healing salve. "Here, use this. My Keeper said we're to join the raid tonight. A city thirty miles away."
Issa stared at the healing salve.
"Why are you helping me?"
"Remember, don't fight your orders," Yassper said as though she hadn't spoken. "It won't do any good." His gaze shifted to the weapon she was still holding. "Did you sharpen your sword?"
Issa shifted her weight.
"Why do you care?"
Yassper sighed, tiredness settling into every line of his rugged face. "Little bird, the worst demons aren't the ones out there. They're the ones in here." He thumped his chest. His rough hand grabbed hers, pressing the salve into it. "Take it and watch yourself."
He wrapped his keffiyeh around his face and walked away, his towering figure blurring in the setting sun as he made his way through the ash, the blackened buildings and the cracked neon signs.
The day he'd named her, the buildings had looked like this too. Her ears had been ringing from an explosion and she'd read his lips.
Issa? she'd repeated.
She found out much later what he'd actually said.
Aisha.
It means alive. He wanted you to live.
Strange tears dripped down Issa's cheeks.
The sound of tinkling glass echoed in her ears.
The cathedral.
She wanted to call after him—she wanted to warn him—but the darkness took her again. When she opened her eyes, her bare feet sank in warm sand and the sound of waves rolled over her.
The star-spangled skies were dark with a new moon.
When she looked down at her hands, the soft blue glow of Lilith's poison was missing.
This memory was from before her time as an Acolyte. Before the Apocalypse, by the looks of the pristine beach.
Her skin was fever-hot, gleaming with sweat, and her heart hammered so quickly that she felt as though it were about to explode. Despite the darkness, the white sand of the beach glowed and the ocean sparkled in her vision as though they were beneath the glare of show lights.
Her shoulder blades burned—twin flames that felt as though they were trying to claw their way out of her.
"What's happening to me?" she gasped.
Her feet took her one step after the other, propelling her towards the ocean. Something was calling out to her. Calling out to the feathers Lucifer had planted within her.
She looked up and saw the shadowy silhouette of an angel.
Edvardiel.
She'd recognise his grey wings anywhere.
꒰১ ໒꒱
"Remember the feathers that were meant to hide your daughter, Eve?" Lucifer's voice echoed in Issa's ears. "They will only release her power when she meets Eden's son." He blinked. "So you'd better hurry up and tell Michael to free him."
"Eden put you up to this, didn't she?" Eve lifted her brows.
Lucifer laughed. "Is that what you truly believe?" His eyes flared with his remaining glory. "Eden is nothing like you and me."
Eve gazed at him. "The lengths you go for a child you won't call yours, Lucifer… It amuses me." Vines and wildflowers knotted around her hair like snakes as she circled him. "A child you've never met, no less. Or is this for the wife who banished you?"
꒰১ ໒꒱
Issa stumbled on her memory beach, tasting sand in her mouth. Her back still felt like it was on fire. A familiar hand rested itself on her shoulder and soft feathers fluttered around her.
"I'm not supposed to talk to humans," her angel murmured. "But I can't just leave you here. The tide's going to drown you."
She felt herself being lifted. When she woke the next day, she thought she'd dreamed him.
Issa's mind whirled at the memory.
No wonder Edvardiel's beach had seemed so familiar. No wonder his warmth had seemed so familiar. She'd been right all along. They'd met before, drawn together like moths to a flame because of the cursed feathers within her.
Edvardiel.
Their engagement.
The poisoned cake.
So much blood.
Issa's chest was on fire. She cried out but a hand muffled her mouth.
"Shh." Paul's voice was a frightened whisper. "They can't know you're awake."
Was this another memory? Another dream?
"You have to wake up. Please. Please…"
The stone was cold against her cheek and Issa forced her eyes open to see a pile of bloody bullets.
"P-paul?"
Paul started to sob quietly as he hugged her. "Oh thank god. Thank god… I thought I screwed up taking out the bullets."
"You're lucky those bullets weren't Edenium."
Issa lifted her head to see Rosalie at a far corner, her arms tied behind her back to the pipes. Her eye was swelling as though someone had punched her in the face and her mouth was bloody. She spat, revealing some missing teeth. "We found out today that Nephilim can be harmed by Edenium if it enters their blood. The damn wedding cake was full of it."
"W-what happened?" Issa's breath misted.
"Sue lost her mind," Paul said. "She kept screaming that you killed her kids—"
"There's an underground tunnel to the main hall," Rosalie cut in. "We had no idea it existed. They set the prisoners free while we were distracted by the ceremony. They were waiting in the tunnel with a bunch of Edenium weapons…" She looked angry with herself. "I can't believe we didn't think of it."
Issa tried to sit up but was stopped short. Her neck and hands were chained to the ground—she could barely lift herself high enough to kneel. Beside Rosalie, Jessica was motionless on the ground, her blood pooling around her. Mike was out cold against the wall.
Only Paul was unscathed, although his ankle had also been chained to the pipes.
"Edv-v-vardiel… Wh-where…" Issa's teeth chattered. She'd lost too much blood.
Seraphs can heal themselves.
Seraphs can heal themselves.
She willed her wounds to close but her body refused to obey her. Thankfully, it looked as though Paul had already stitched her up.
"I don't know." Rosalie's voice was tight. "But I hope lover boy's smart enough to stay away."
Issa suddenly realised the reason she was still alive. The reason they were all still alive.
They were fucking bait.
Paul shook his head. "He has glory. He'll—"
"What does that matter?" Rosalie said. "Eden has killed plenty of angels. Why do you think their graveyard is so full?"
No way in Hell Edvardiel would stay away. Knowing him, he'd willingly fly into the trap and trade his life for hers.
Issa tried to jerk free but the chains held her tight. She tried to summon her glory, but nothing came to her. Happiness. She needed to feel happy. She grappled with her flimsy memories—
"Stop that," Rosalie hissed. "You won't be able to summon any glory after eating Edenium." She glared. "Why the hell did you eat anything that woman gave you? You knew what she was capable of. You knew you— You… You knew the truth." She spat more blood to the ground. "Why play with fire?"
Paul looked at Issa, perplexed. "You knew Sue was going to kill you?"
Issa swallowed.
Rosalie knew she was an Acolyte.
Issa's suspicions were right. Rosalie's child had been captured by Hell. It was why Alice called her maman. It was why she'd been so angry about Jacob leaving after they'd slept together. It was how she'd put the pieces together.
It was why she'd confronted Edvardiel.
"Edvardiel told you," Issa said.
"He didn't need to tell me anything," Rosalie said.
Paul glanced between them, his pale face growing paler by the moment.
Issa numbed herself with her ocean.
This was irrelevant. It didn't matter what Rosalie knew. It didn't matter if Paul found out too. It didn't matter what anyone thought of her.
What mattered was getting out of here.
Issa studied her chains.
"When we find Lilith…" Issa said. "I can help you free your child."
Rosalie only stared stonily at the ground.
Paul glanced at the pile of bloody bullets as though he were regretting digging them out of Issa.
Issa yanked at her chains again. She shivered as more blood trickled to the ground.
"Are you trying to die before Edvardiel even gets here?" Rosalie snapped.
Issa didn't speak, saving her energy for what she was going to do next.
Her father's blood wasn't the only one running through her veins. Her mother's blood was powerful in its own right. They were on Earth, in her mother's realm, which meant her mother's power was more potent here.
Her fingertips pulled, the power of Life seeming to go inwards instead of outwards. Colour began to bleed out of the Edenium shackles until they lost their golden sheen, rusting and cracking.
Issa's shackles disintegrated into dust.
Paul scooted back, his eyes wide. "What the hell did you do? You're a demon, aren't you?"
"Does it matter if I'm helping you?" Issa sat up, feeling considerably less weak. "Come on, we need to hurry."
She needed to get them out before her angel came barging in.