by Eva Brandt
Together, the four of us—Azazel, Sariel, Yeqon and I—joined the other archangels in the Grand Chamber of The Halls of Truth. It was the largest room in the building and one I had never been in before. Unlike almost everything at Watcher Academy, the columns and decorations were a silvery blue. The winged emblem was on every wall, glittering brightly. For some reason, when I looked at it, I felt sad.
When Ariel appeared, flanked by guards, her wings and hands were bound with glowing chains. As soon as she saw me, she went white. “What? Impossible!”
“Nothing is impossible,” I told her. “I don’t know what made you think I deserved to be damned, but it seems The Supreme Being didn’t agree with you.”
For a few seconds, Ariel just stared at me. Then, her eyes filled with tears and she nodded. She shot me a tremulous smile and whispered, “Good.”
It was the last thing I’d expected her to say. She’d tried to murder me and enslave me to my worst enemy. How could she now claim that she was happy that she’d failed?
All the questions on my mind remained unanswered. Sandalphon ushered her off and I could do nothing but watch as she was led out of the building. Outside, they all transformed into currents of energy and disappeared into the distance.
“What’s going to happen to her?” I asked.
“She will be taken to The Supreme Being to answer for her crimes,” Sariel answered. “He is the only one who has the right to decide the fate of a celestial being.”
“I’m so sorry,” I replied. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t come here…”
“The choices of others aren’t your responsibility, Delilah,” Azazel reminded me. “It’s true. If you hadn’t come here, she would have kept her position. But that doesn’t make the situation your fault.”
“If you want to blame someone who isn’t Ariel, blame the Grim Reaper or Lucifer,” Yeqon added. “They’re the root cause of all of this.”
I knew that. I was just a regular human being who’d drawn the short straw. But that didn’t mean I could so easily forget what Ariel had told me in the tower.
“She kissed me before she attacked me,” I told them. “Why? Did I do anything to give her the wrong impression? Is that why she was angry?”
To my surprise, it was Uriel who answered. He walked up to us, followed by Metatron and Azrael. All of them looked even glummer than usual. “That’s not it at all. When it comes to Ariel, it was never your behavior that was the issue. Not in the way that you think, at least.”
“Archangels like Ariel aren’t supposed to feel intense emotions,” Metatron explained. “She was unprepared for what you made her feel and that doomed her.”
That sucked. Archangels really needed more therapy than Watchers did. But my lovers were right. It was stupid of me to blame myself for something Ariel had done. Whatever reason she might have had, she’d brutally chopped off my wings and would have enslaved me to the devil if the contract with the Grim Reaper hadn’t protected me. I could never forgive her for that.
“In any case, because of these developments, we’ll be putting classes on hold for a little while,” Metatron continued. “Go ahead and spend some time with your Watchers. Clarify the numerous misconceptions that trouble you. Maybe then, you’ll be able to find the true answers to what you seek.”
His voice held a degree of apprehension as he looked at my new wings. I knew he was thinking about all the powers I’d displayed, but could obviously not control.
He didn’t say anything about it, and I was grateful, because I couldn’t have handled it right now. When my lovers ushered me out of the chamber, I went along with it so eagerly I almost tripped on my own wings.
By some kind of miracle, I managed to save myself and my lovers the embarrassment, but my shoulders still ached from the pressure of the new appendages. It didn’t help that my room was a good distance away from the Grand Chamber, in an entirely different wing. It seemed to take us forever to get to my quarters, and by then, I was even more exhausted than I’d been before.
We entered the room together. My lovers didn’t even make the offer to leave like they had in the past. They’d always respected my privacy and my wishes, but this time, they knew privacy was the last thing I needed.
We collapsed together on my bed, none of us having the energy to do anything except lie there. Ariel’s attack and the fight with Cain had drained us of strength, in more than one way. They weren’t an issue anymore, at least not for now, but the incident had left scars. I knew I couldn’t ignore the proverbial elephant in the room forever.
“Where do you want to take this thing between us?” I finally asked.
“We’re the ones who should be asking that question, Delilah,” Sariel answered. “We never doubted wanting you, but it’s true that our nature makes things complicated.”
“We’re willing to take the chance,” Yeqon said. “We always have been. Some things are just more important than others. But it all depends on you and on what you decide.”
I let out an exasperated groan. “You do realize I’ve never had an actual relationship before, right? How am I supposed to figure out something like this on my own?”
“You’re not on your own. We’re with you every step of the way. But in the end, you’re the only one who can choose who you share your soul with. And you don’t want to make a hasty decision. For celestial beings, that sort of thing doesn’t end well.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” I sighed, wondering if that was what had happened to Shamsiel and Uriel, if they’d simply been a bad match.
I left the bed and walked up to the window, taking in the sight of The Celestial Realm. I’d told Ariel that I had my wings back because The Supreme Being had decided I deserved them, but in truth, I had no such certainty.
The two avatars of death insisted our deal remained valid, but they’d also acted strangely during our meeting. I didn’t know what to believe anymore.
“We have to consider every possibility,” I murmured. “I might have my wings now, but for all we know, they could be temporary.”
“That’s not possible, Delilah,” Azazel replied gently. “The wings are an extension of your soul. They won’t just disappear.”
“The Grim Reaper and Morrigan have already said you’re safe,” Sariel pointed out.
“They also said my soul could change natures and that if that happens, I’d be useless to them.”
Their phrasing hadn’t been so blunt, but that had been the message. Yeqon didn’t debate semantics with me. “Even if you’re right and something like that happens, even if Ariel’s attack has other side-effects, we won’t let that stop us,” he piped up. “We’ll fall with you if we have to.”
I pivoted on my heel and turned to look at them. “But that’s exactly what I don’t want you to do. Don’t you see? This place is crazy and I’m not sure it’s good for you. But I don’t want you to be Lucifer’s slaves either.”
“To be honest, Delilah, I don’t think Lucifer would be willing to enslave us anyway.” I shot Azazel a look of disbelief at his words, but he lifted his hands and continued to speak, “Hear me out. I know you hate him and rightly so. But the fact remains that he has something to protect now. He was betrayed by the princes of hell, which means he’ll be very selective with the people he allows to come close to his queen. At the same time, we’re still connected to him and we’ve been his lieutenants for centuries, so he can’t just disregard that. So for the most part, I doubt he’d ever be an issue.”
I could see his point, even if a part of me wanted to deny it. It would have been much easier to just keep hating Lucifer without acknowledging the connection he had with my lovers. But that was my whole issue, wasn’t it? There was a disconnect in my mind between the three Watchers as Lucifer’s lieutenants and the Watchers as my lovers.
“I hate him,” I said between gritted teeth. “How can I hate him so much and still…?”
I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, unable to say the words that weighe
d so heavily on my heart. It was pathetic to focus so much on this when we had other problems to worry about—like for example, Cain and Abel—but I still felt this was very important.
Sariel let out a slow breath and made his way to my side. “Listen, Delilah. We’re splitting hairs right now. Not everything is about labels and not every bond has to be about something like love. So you don’t love us. That’s not a tragedy. You’ve already forgiven us, in your heart, otherwise the magic of forgiveness wouldn’t have worked in the dome.”
“But Uriel…” I started to protest.
“Uriel doesn’t know everything,” Azazel cut me off. “He has a certain view on relationships. We have another.”
I must have still looked skeptical, because at that point, Yeqon lost his patience. He stalked up to me, grabbed my arm, and crushed our mouths together.
His sudden assault surprised me so much that at first, I didn’t know how to react. My mind went blank and I tensed in his hold. But my body knew what I wanted anyway and a few seconds later, I melted against his chest, eager for his touch.
He broke away too quickly for my liking and I couldn’t help but let out a small, needy whine. Yeqon cupped my cheek and smiled, his eyes glinting with an emotion so fierce and sharp it sliced straight into my soul.
“Sweetheart, it’s like this. We want you. The physical response is real, for all of us. And I don’t know about you, but right now, we’d much rather explore the potential of our relationship than doubt it.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but I didn’t get the chance. Sariel intervened before I could do so. “I never thought I’d say this about you, Yeqon, but you talk too much.”
He sneaked in between me and Yeqon, taking me in his arms and carrying me back to bed. He set me down on the mattress and tugged on one of my silver curls in an almost absent-minded, gentle gesture. “No more arguing today, all right, love? Even if we can’t agree on everything, let’s just agree to try.”
That was straightforward enough. I could go around in circles, over and over, and stress over what I felt and didn’t feel about my lovers—or I could do my very best for our relationship. Right now, the latter option definitely seemed better.
“Yes. We’ll try.”
It was a simple reply, but not everything had to be complicated, at least not now. Maybe for a little while, it was okay to just let go and have faith.
Of course, there was nothing divine about what my lovers had in mind for me. Once they had my agreement, all bets were off and they pounced on me like starving animals. But that was more than all right with me, because I needed them just as much.
Something savage and wild rose up inside me when they touched me. More than defiant, it was dark, almost angry. Refusing to analyze the source, I willed my lovers to take their clothes off.
The technique worked for me as well as it did for them, but I didn’t stop there. When Azazel kissed me, I kissed him back just as fiercely. Our tongues dueled in a battle I was happy to lose, and he groaned as I buried my fingernails in his shoulders. The hunger in that deep, guttural sound echoed against my very core, and I bit his lower lip, needing him—needing them all—more than ever before.
“Fuck me,” I croaked out when we broke the kiss. “Come on. I need it.” The desire that bubbled inside me was so intense it made me want to claw my skin off. “Mark me. Tear me to pieces. I have to feel you.”
If they were alarmed by my frantic words, they didn’t show it. They understood what I was asking for, and their divine nature drifted into something different, closer to what they truly were.
Watchers were a paradox, both demonic and divine. I’d heard that constantly ever since I’d come to the academy. Today, I wanted to accept them, to take them inside me in every way I could.
I’d come close the first time we’d been together, but after that, I’d lashed out because I hadn’t understood. Not again.
When their bodies crackled with demonic magic, I didn’t turn away. When darkness invaded their veins, I kept looking at them. When their wings flickered between white, red, and black, I found it comforting.
And then, Azazel kissed me again and I lost all desire to analyze things too closely. All I could do was feel. The details didn’t matter anymore. He pulled me upright, making sure the others had access to my naked body as well. And after that point, chaotic passion exploded between us.
Sariel hugged me from behind and bit my neck, the sharp sting making me hiss in distressed arousal. He clutched one of my wings, toying with the feathers, finding erogenous zones I hadn’t even known existed.
Meanwhile, Yeqon’s claws raked over my thigh. It hurt, but in a good way. The veiled reality of The Celestial Realm felt far more genuine, unburdened by the expectations of the divine beings who found me so inadequate.
My clothes vanished and I pressed my breasts against Azazel’s naked chest. Sandwiched between him and the others, I crawled into his lap. His erection rubbed against my folds, and I groaned into our kiss, wanting to just impale myself on his cock, to take him inside me already.
Azazel wasn’t inclined to deny me, but still, when he fulfilled my wish, I was a little taken aback. In one single motion, he lifted me up and thrust inside me so hard my teeth rattled.
He didn’t give me the chance to grow accustomed to the penetration either. Instead, he started thrusting into me, moving at an almost punishing pace. I couldn’t have escaped him if I’d tried, since I was trapped between him, Sariel and Azazel.
Already overwhelmed, I was unprepared for the moment when Sariel pushed me and Azazel down. Azazel stopped moving, but only for a few seconds. I barely got the chance to register his pause, because Sariel pushed his cock into my cunt, right next to Azazel’s.
My first automatic reaction was to tense up. Even if we’d had sex before, there was no way I could take both of them in the same hole.
But that tension vanished when Sariel and Azazel both started moving. My inner walls clenched around the two dicks inside me, as if trying to draw them in deeper. Sariel growled, his hold on my wings tightening.
“I’ve never seen an angel as slutty as you are. You really need this, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I hissed. “Harder, please harder.”
My magic flared and my world blurred. My tongue twisted in a litany of words I couldn’t understand anymore. I felt so full, every cell in my body vibrating with sexual awareness.
I was so close to climax I could practically taste it. Just a few more seconds, and I’d be able to reach that amazing peak. But my lovers weren’t done with me, and they had different plans.
At the last moment, just as I was about to come, Sariel and Azazel stopped. Yeqon snatched me off them, moving so quickly I didn’t even have time to process what was going on.
He dumped me back on the pillows, pinning me down with ease. “No, Delilah. You don’t get to come yet. You asked to be torn apart, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
That was the last thing I’d expected. My eyes widened at the dark promise in his sharp grin. “Wait, what?”
“You heard me, sweetheart. We’ll rip you apart and build you anew, so you’ll always be ours and you’ll never question us again.”
My heart started hammering in my chest. I’d thought I’d known what I was asking for, but when I looked at him, I realized I probably hadn’t. But at the same time, I wasn’t afraid. I wanted what they offered.
“Maybe I’ll do the same,” I shot back. “Will you let me?”
Yeqon laughed. “What kind of question is that? You know that you’re already doing it, and we’re enjoying every moment of it.”
In a way, the words reminded me of Uriel’s warning. But like Azazel had said earlier, Uriel didn’t know everything. He didn’t understand the destructive love of humans. Maybe this way, if the four of us were all torn apart and put back together, we could leave the past behind.
Yeqon thrust inside me just as harshly as Azazel had, but this time, I was ready for it. I
wasn’t ready for everything else. When Sariel pressed his hand to my skin and his magic invaded me, I knew what he was planning. It still ripped into me, fiercer than it had ever been.
Sariel’s cold power had kept my pleasure at bay the first time we’d been together too, but back then, I hadn’t realized how much he’d tamed it. He was making no such efforts now. His suffocating magic leashed mine, tightening around my core.
Yeqon stopped trying to hold me down physically, because he didn’t need to. Sariel easily paralyzed me, just by touching me. “This is energy manipulation,” Sariel explained calmly, as if we were in class. “Any angel can do it, you know. But normally, the energy of another will protest being held down like this. You aren’t fighting me off, are you, love? You want us to hold you down.”
I did. It should have scared me to not be able to move, after I’d been taken captive and attacked on three separate occasions. But Sariel, Yeqon, and Azazel were different. If they ever hurt me, they’d only do it in a way I would welcome.
I couldn’t answer through words since my vocal cords had stopped obeying me. But I forced myself to poke his hold on me. Sariel’s astral leash tightened in response and he chuckled. “What a naughty angel you are. It’s all right. We know exactly what you need.”
And they did. All I had to do was lie there—and they took over everything, turning me into something more than an angel, into an avatar of their desire.
Sariel bent over me and started swirling his tongue around my left nipple, his magic still working his way through my veins, vicious and insidious. Yeqon moved in and out of me, fucking me with deep, hard thrusts. Azazel moved up my body, grabbed my hair, and fed his cock into my mouth.
We’d done this before and I’d found I quite enjoyed sucking their dicks. But something had changed compared to all the other times I’d done it. Because of Sariel’s magic, my throat closed up and it was getting increasingly hard to breathe. I was lying on my back, and the position put pressure on my wings. Azazel wasn’t sitting on me per se, but he wasn’t careful either. His wings spread out behind him like a red and white fan, now occasionally tinged with black. They seemed to absorb what little air I could draw in, like a black hole.