Around Issa, the butterflies pulsed with an otherworldly glow, fluttering in patterns that seemed to point toward the gates. It was as though the Garden had been waiting for her.

Issa placed a palm on Samael's tree.

Its bark felt smooth and alive. The moment she touched it, her vision split in two. She was in Eden, but she was also in the darkness of her mindscape, the three bloody butterflies fluttering in broken circles around her.

She swallowed the first.

It tasted sharp and metallic, and it scraped her throat.

꒰১ ໒꒱

The memory of her mother's voice rang in her ears. Soft yet commanding, a voice that could make the earth itself tremble. Issa winced, feeling the weight of those words again.

"The most powerful realm is Hell," Eve said, her green eyes glowing coldly. "Neither Heaven nor Earth can contain Lilith's power on their own. I hold one half of Hell's gates. Michael holds the other. But you..." Her lips curved with something that might have been pride if it weren't so calculating. "You can hold both."

Her tone gentled unexpectedly. "Listen to me, daughter. Nothing on Earth can live forever. One day, I too will die. When that day comes, no one else can take my place but you. You must be ready." She demonstrated. "This is how you summon the portal. And this—" The air rippled with power. "—is how you close it."

The memory flickered.

"One more time," Eve ordered. "Open the portal to Hell. Close it. Again. That was sloppy. Stand up! You should be able to do this even half-dead. On your feet. Again. You're better than this. Again. Get up."

"No."

The word was barely audible, but it was the first time Issa dared to defy her mother.

Eve loomed over her, her expression sharp as broken glass. "What did you say?"

Issa's voice was small but steady. "I'm not staying on Earth, Mama." Her hands clenched into trembling fists. "I'm going to be an angel."

꒰১ ໒꒱

Issa's fingers curled where they were pressed to Samael's tree. A low hum vibrated through the wood, and the ground trembled beneath her feet. Vines coiled around her hand in a solemn handshake and her butterflies merged into a pool of light that surged through her in a sudden, violent rush.

꒰১ ໒꒱

"You've gone too far!" Michael was aflame, his rage a frightening, violent thing. "You think you can defy Heaven and escape the price? You overstep, Eve!"

Eve, in contrast, was cold as carved marble. "You stand in my domain and accuse me of overstepping?"

"They do not belong to your domain!" Michael's roar shook the air, his blazing eyes shifting to little Issa. She stood frozen, her painfully thundering heart betraying the terror she didn't dare to show.

"They were born here," Eve said, each syllable sharp as a knife. "Formed in human wombs, emerged from between human legs. They are mine."

Michael's lip curled. "You vulgar creature."

Eve's eyes hardened to stone. "Strange how you didn't say that when you laid between mine."

Michael's flames surged, his wings flaring wide. "She is a mistake," he spat. "One I intend to correct."

Thorny vines rose from the earth, curling protectively around them as Eve took a single step forward. "Then why haven't you? I know you found her years ago. Why didn't you end her when you had the chance?"

Michael's fire dimmed ever so slightly. For a fleeting moment, his fury gave way to something fragile, something almost human.

Eve smiled coldly. "It's your glory, isn't it?" she said, mocking. "You can't feel joy anymore. You can't summon it."

At that, Michael threw his head back and laughed—a disconcertingly joyous, gleeful sound. He raised an arm and sent a massive plume of fire blooming through the skies. "Is that what Lucifer told you?" he sneered. "Look at her, Eve. Look at her closely. Does she look like she belongs on Earth?" His gaze shifted back to Issa, lingering half a breath too long. "Do you think she'll remain loyal to you? Do you truly believe she'll choose you?"

For the first time, Eve faltered. Her shoulders stiffened and the slightest flicker of doubt passed through her eyes.

Michael's glow intensified, every line of his aristocratic face steeped with satisfaction. "Mark my words, Eve. Our daughter will ruin you, not me."

꒰১ ໒꒱

Issa's veins burned with searing power. Her hand glowed and Samael's tree responded instantly, its bark shuddering as a beam of light exploded from it, shooting upwards. The night sky rippled, revealing the invisible barrier that shielded Eden from the Apocalypse. Serene stars flickered, giving way to the toxic, suffocating smog of the world without. Back and forth they shifted, stars in one moment and smog in the next.

Meanwhile, Michael's voice echoed in Issa's mind.

Out of everything he'd said, out of everything important she'd learned, the one that played in her mind over and over again was the way he'd called her. He'd called her his. Our daughter.

She touched her arm that her father had once healed, a lifetime ago.

It does not matter that you cannot bear the cold. It does not matter that your blood is human. But if you wish to reside here, you must never bleed—be so powerful that no one will draw blood from you.

Michael had dragged Heaven closer to the sun for her. Heaven was warm because of her.

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

Twice he'd tried to end her, and twice he'd failed.

She remembered the way her father's glory had died so suddenly the moment he'd turned it on her. The moment he'd looked into her eyes.

Maybe Lucifer was wrong. Maybe Michael could still feel joy. Maybe he could still summon his glory. He just couldn't use it to end her.

Issa's hand trembled against Samael's tree.

He'd still abandoned her in Hell. He'd ignored her summons. He'd cut Edvardiel's wings. She was angry at herself for thinking about him at all.

In her mindscape, she waved the two remaining bloody butterflies away.

The leaves of Samael's tree rustled in the wind. "Child, you must see this to the end."

Issa ignored them.

One butterfly was enough. Now that she knew what to do, she didn't need the other two ruining her concentration.

She grasped the threads of power and weaved them through the existing barrier. Edvardiel's rose-gold gates slammed shut. Barbed, regenerating vines curled around the gates while fiery glory roared through them. Issa simultaneously soldered and tied the Garden's gates together.

"Child, you must open your eyes," Samael's tree whispered.

"I need to close Hell's gates first," she retorted.

The past could stay in the past.

Her heart had taken enough battering. What if she'd been the one who'd ended Eve? If she'd unleashed Hell on Earth?

Issa removed her palm.

The vines held pleadingly to her hand but she shook them away. The light from Samael's tree faded and dispersed into butterflies once more. Issa paused. There were so few butterflies left.

In the distance, the gates glowed and Issa realised she'd used almost all of the butterflies' glory to seal Eden.

She exhaled.

It didn't matter. She'd figure this out, the way she always did. She turned to see Jacob waiting for her.

"I'll carry you down," Jacob offered, determination in his half-healed eyes. "Help you save your strength." He held out his coat for her even though he was shivering himself.

Issa shook her head. "No need."

Jacob pressed his lips together. "Issa, the Edenium is killing you—"

She knocked him out before he finished speaking.

She dried his coat with one butterfly before putting it on him. Then she dragged him to Samael's tree, using her power of Life to tie him there.

"Can't have you trying to off yourself," she muttered, covering him with more vines to keep him both warm and out of trouble. Also, if… if she failed and Edvardiel turned into a demon, they couldn't afford a second loose cannon.

Issa pushed her damp hair out of her face and blew onto her cold, stiff fingers. The butterflies that once lit the Garden hovered faintly around Samael's tree, their light fading like dying embers.

She turned toward the darkness.

Every part of her ached—from the Edenium weighing down her body to Michael's lingering words—but her fingers moved to form the patterns easily. Thanks to her mother's strict training, opening the portal was second nature.

As the portal formed, her eyes lingered on Jacob, bound to the tree and shielded by the last threads of her power. His soft breathing filled the air, and for a moment, she wondered what would happen if she let him help her. If she let her angel and her friends help her. But she knew it was too dangerous.

This was her burden to bear.

The Garden's gates stood sealed in the distance, ensuring everyone's safety for now. As she stepped forward, the last butterfly landed softly on her shoulder, a faint flicker of warmth against her cold skin. It was so dim she could barely feel it. Her fingers brushed its fragile wing. "I'll come back," she murmured, though she wasn't sure if she believed it herself.

The path to Hell stretched before her, yawning wide like a wound in the earth. She exhaled slowly, the dread hardening into purpose.

It was time to finish what her family had begun.