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They had a few hours before the demons invaded.
Issa leaned forward on the motorbike, carefully rolling open the throttle so that they shot forward without using too much of their limited fuel. Behind her, Jacob was unusually quiet.
There had been a heated argument and everyone had something to say.
The demons are coming and you want to go where, exactly? What do you mean Edvardiel might turn into a demon? Nephilim can't turn into demons.
An Aco—what?
What if he drinks the Edenium and we need his Knowledge?
Can everyone please stop arguing?
If we can't close Eden's gates, we should go to Koprivnica now. Deal with Lilith.
That last part had come from Edvardiel.
Issa had shut them all down: Did they want to hand their most dangerous fighter over to Lilith? Did they think they'd still be here without him? That they'd win without him? She was going to go anyway, just try and stop her.
The cold night air whipped against her face as she rode through the wreckage, bike humming. Around them, the butterflies swirled restlessly, echoing the chaos she felt inside.
Her selfless angel wanted to save the world but Issa wanted to save him first.
Jacob sat like a statue behind her, too still, too silent. Issa focused on her steering. She had to finish this and then she needed to help the others physically barricade Eden's gates. Then they would deal with Hell's gates. Hopefully they would stop Lilith before anything happened to Edvardiel.
Issa's grip tightened around the bike handles.
They were almost there.
Fresh flames still raged in this part of the Garden, devouring the wooden cottages like hellfire. Issa could no longer recognise the landmarks.
"Where is it?"
Heatwaves rolled off the burning homes and behind her, Jacob's sweat soaked them both. Then Issa saw Edvardiel's gates, its rose-gold distinctive amidst the roaring yellow flames. His glory gates were wide open.
She stopped the bike.
Eden's home had been blown to smithereens, pieces of colourful roof everywhere. Issa dismounted and ran to save whatever remained of the Edenium tea. The broken shards of glass and bricks cut her feet open.
"Where is it?" she asked again, desperately digging through the rubble.
Edvardiel's childhood bedroom had been reduced to a pile of burning wood. As Issa looked at the object in her hand—one of the books Eden had collected for her son, cinders slowly eating away at the faded illustration of a fairy godmother—the realisation hit.
Slowly, she stood.
She stood a fool amidst the smoke, blood trickling from her feet, the crumbling book in her hands.
There was no poison here. There was no one and nothing here but the two of them.
She turned to Jacob. "Why did you ask me to take you here?"
He only stared at the ground.
The bitter smell of burnt paper filled her nose as she flung the book aside and seized his collar. It was torn and still damp with his blood, and she gave him a violent shake. Several butterflies took off at her rage.
"How dare you waste our time on this?" she said. "How fucking dare you?"
Jacob didn't resist—he didn't even flinch. He just stood there, saying nothing, his hollow gaze fixed somewhere past her. It was a look she knew from Hell. It was a look Yassper had worn as he'd walked towards the collapsing cathedral. The same dead calm, the same resignation. It was like looking into the past.
It was like looking into a mirror.
She released him, taking a step back. Blood pounded in her ears and she felt sick to the stomach.
They had no time for this.
"Edvardiel has no time for this," Jacob finished her thought. "You're right."
She didn't want to think about the implications.
"Get back on the bike." Her voice trembled. "We're going to the gates."
"I did this," he said. "I destroyed Eden. I turned the others against you. I poisoned you. Now I'm taking Edvardiel's life too. He's only going to get worse."
"I said get back on the bike."
"I'm dead weight," he said.
"Get back on the fucking bike!" She was shaking, her dagger brandished before she knew what she was doing. Its sharp edge brushed Jacob's throat and he finally met her gaze.
There was relief in the odd gold swimming in his ruined eye sockets.
He'd been waiting for this.
It would be so easy to drag the blade across his flesh. She'd buy her angel precious time. Jacob had taken them all the way out here for this. He'd brought the demons into Eden. He'd almost got them killed. It wasn't anything less than he deserved. Or so she tried to tell herself.
Her blade trembled.
He'd fought so damn hard—she remembered the joints littering the ground around him and his bloodshot eyes.
He wasn't fighting now.
She could've been looking at Yassper. At Rosalie's child. Maybe... maybe even sweet little Alice.
Issa's hand fell to her side, the blade falling to the ground with a clang.
Something dripped down onto her skin.
One drop, and then another, and another.
It was raining.
"Just get back on the bike, Jacob," she said quietly. Rain rolled down her face. "You didn't want to do it. You did what you could. Hell, you did so well Lilith almost killed you." She exhaled. "It's not your fault."
It had never been their fault.
She understood it, truly understood it, for the first time.
In another situation, she might've wept at the revelation.
But it didn't matter anymore. The demons were coming and they were running out of time.
"We need all the help we can get," she said. "We need your help."
It began to pour, soaking them both to the skin. The raindrops were strangely warm. Lightning flashed in the sky, followed by a crack of thunder. The butterflies stilled and Issa could feel the air shift as though the Garden itself were preparing for battle.
"Come on," she said, pushing her drenched hair out of her face. "Let's go help the others."
Another brilliant blaze of lightning streaked through the skies.
She stopped dead.
The butterflies were absolutely still now, drifting in the air motionless as though time had frozen.
The lightning struck again, its unnatural silver shade unmistakable. Issa's breath caught—it was the spitting image of Edvardiel's and Eden's glory, and it was coming from the peak of the tall waterfall, the site of Samael's final rest.
It was a summon.
"We're close," Jacob said, and the swirling gold of his eyes lifted to the skies. "The Maker of the Garden has been waiting for you."
꒰১ ໒꒱
"I thought Samael was dead."
"Angels never truly die." Jacob climbed ahead of her, and he helped pull her up a particularly steep, narrow trail. "His wings have been preserved."
Lucifer had said something similar. An angel cannot die as long as some part of their wing lives on.
"That sounds rotten."
"Angels don't feel the way we do."
Issa was grateful for the butterflies that had followed them and lit up their path. She couldn't see well in the dark anymore and the ground swam in and out of her vision.
"I think they feel enough," she said, pushing on. "They—"
Jacob caught her arm at the exact moment she lost her footing. Issa steadied herself using his arm, glancing at the jutting rocks below, and cursed. She hadn't been this slow or this weak down in the dungeons.
"The Edenium is killing you."
Issa paused to catch her breath. It was hard to see in the harsh rain and the shadows but she didn't need to see Jacob's face to know what he felt.
"It's about time. I've been trapped under Lilith for over a hundred years," she said. "At least now I'm free."
The wind howled through the mountain peak, the icy chill making her human body shiver.
"Maybe we should turn back," she said. "The demons are coming and the others are waiting for us."
"I think Samael knows something that can help us." Jacob took off his coat and draped it over her shivering form. It was soaked with rain and blood but it gave her more protection than the angel dress. "I could try to see what he wants but…" He hesitated. "There are different levels of knowledge and reaching into this layer could put Edvardiel in danger."
"Don't," she said at once. "We'll just go there."
In the end, Jacob half dragged, half carried her up to Samael's tree.
The glacier was as she remembered it—frozen in time and glittering in the light of the stars and the butterflies. The tree itself, however, was in an abysmal state. Its enormous trunk was blackened and its great branches were twisted and bare.
"What happened?" she asked.
"It's their source of Edenium," Jacob said. "They've milked it dry."
Issa dropped Jacob's heavy, dripping coat from her shoulders and staggered towards the tree. She could barely feel her hands and feet. At her approach, the tree boughs rustled as though beckoning her. She knelt and pressed her palms to its roots. The butterflies flocked to her touch, glowing. The tree untwisted, fresh green buds forming on its branches. The rain ceased.
"I hope you didn't summon me just for this," Issa said. "Samael."
The fresh buds above her bloomed and coloured, its eternal autumn returning. Vines curled around her arms and back in a strange embrace.
A warm glow called her forth.
She accepted the invitation, making her way towards the light.
Unlike with Lucifer and Eve, where she'd been an unwelcome invader plunged headfirst into utter chaos, Samael's mindscape felt welcoming and calm, like stepping into a living room and being offered tea.
She expected him to appear and to speak to her the way Lucifer had, but instead, he showed her a memory.
She was looking at a small girl with fearless eyes who seemed far too solemn for her age.
She was looking at herself.
