by J. L. Myers
“Remiel, stop!” The second clank was louder than the first, and Remiel flew from the pool to gather up the ends of the chains before rushing back in with a splash. With great effort, he fought to secure them to Gabriel’s ankles—two to each manacle—as she kept up the thrashing. Michael enveloped her body along with her arms, trying to stem her retaliation. One, two… Three. The last chain took the longest, and Gabriel kicked out mercilessly. Yet it was no use. Michael’s hold released without warning and Gabriel flapped her wings to take off—and got yanked back, the manacles cutting into her skin.
Remiel straightened and waded out of the looking glass, keeping his gaze downcast. His lips pursed, his frown changing from physical strain to internal torment. “I am sorry, Gabriel. I truly am.”
With a single leap, Michael returned to the glass edge. His eyes traveled from Gabriel's hovering and trapped feet up her body and to her face. “You will thank me one day. And God will forgive us for what he never had the heart to do himself.”
The two angels’ bodies glowed brighter, their wings unfurling to take flight. “Michael, stop!” Gabriel’s words fell on deaf ears as Michael and Remiel exploded in light, traversing this plain for the below. Her wings beat with purpose, the manacles slicing deeper and deeper into her ankles as she tried to follow. But there was no use. She was trapped. When her adrenaline petered out and exhaustion finally took hold, she fell to her knees, cold chains clattering below the saturating water that weighed her down even more. “Lucifer!” He couldn’t hear her up here. He’d never see them coming. And yet she still held on to her hope. She wouldn’t give up on him—not like everyone else had done.
Crossing her legs in the tepid pool, Gabriel forced her need to scream down and attempted to quiet the chaos swirling through her body and mind. If she wanted to be heard, she’d need to concentrate. She’d need to put her all into sending out her cry for help. It was a long shot, but it was all she had. Folding her wings around her like a cocoon, she breathed in deep. On her exhale she let the words she needed say propel from her mind. My God, please help me. Lucifer is set to die.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Inside a tent at the enemy’s camp, Lucifer knelt over the body of a young man who began to stir. The same boy he’d released—because of Gabriel. The sick grief that had swamped him as he’d watched her light shrink smaller and smaller still had its claws hooked into him now. The loss he felt when she’d disappeared from sight amongst the stars was still drowning him on the inside. He could barely believe what he’d done to her.
But what choice had he had? He knew God had not ordered her to him. So his options had been few. Let her become condemned like he had been. Or force her to leave in hopes his actions would compel God to finally act.
Still God didn’t come, and the thought that Gabriel hadn’t made it back in time made his hand tighten around the razor-sharp length of his sword. He was disgusted with himself.
He was disgusted with God.
As his blood welled through his tight fingers, his exterior hardened to hide the breakage inside. Holding his bleeding hand in the air, the silver-black drops of his blood spattered the bludgeoned boy’s face and lips—inflicted by his monsters—and collected in his gaping mouth. With each drop, he wondered if somehow this boy might be different—able to resist his infection. But why would he be? Even the good king had been powerless to resist.
Beyond the skins that made up the walls of the tent there was constant noise. His men were on the move, gathering up more and more to infect. After at least twenty, there were still many more to go. But the night was dwindling with each new monster that he brought into the race he'd created. His creatures would need to head for shelter from the sun soon enough.
The young man’s eyes flung open suddenly and Lucifer curled his hand around his throat. “Swallow and live. Spit my blood out—and I will end you.”
The boy closed his mouth, gulping past the tight hold around his neck. Then he stopped moving, his muscles that had been tight with shock and fear releasing as his face became expressionless. Lucifer crawled up off of him and grabbed a torch from its suspended place along the wall. As he eased back on a bed of soft furs, the blazing fire lit up his work and all the blood and mud that covered the young man.
And then the convulsing started up.
Ready for the next victim, Lucifer opened his mouth but paused before the command could pass his lips. Sudden tingles had inundated his body. He was not alone. Spinning around, the sensation throughout his body intensified. His grip on the torch squeezed harder and the wood creaked in his palm. This visitor meant one thing that both relieved and angered him. Gabriel had survived and God continued to refuse to step in. “Michael. I wondered how long it would take.”
Michael smiled and the expression was anything but kind. His intention was clear in the armor he wore and the angel sword he held in his ready grasp. “You knew I’d follow Gabriel to track you down, and yet you did not run.”
“Only those who fear run.” Lucifer held the torch between them, their shadows large on the skins. Michael’s perfect, massive wings stirred his ire. He stepped closer. “I care for nothing, thus I have nothing to fear. Nothing to lose.”
“Lucifer!” King Cyrus’s voice bellowed through the tent flap. “The sun waits for no man. Not even Gods. We are short on time this night.”
Remiel appeared with a flash of light, equally dressed and armed for battle. Regret marred his face with harsh lines—and Lucifer knew it was due to what was planned for him that would hurt Gabriel as a result. Together they clicked their fingers and the orange-lit tent vanished around them. Tall trees appeared that looked like black soldiers against the night sky. But they weren’t beyond the camp amongst the trees where he’d met with Gabriel. With the open space and choking trunks and branches, and the moon rising up instead of falling with the approach of sunrise, he knew where they’d taken him. The place of his fall.
Lucifer tensed, noticing his torch was gone. He withdrew his sword, his lips thinning into a grim line at the sight of Gabriel’s blood that stained the length. “I see you still cannot fight your own battles, Michael.” He nodded to Remiel. “I suppose you know you would never win in a fair fight against me.”
Remiel stood back, silver light striking from his hand down into his own sword. But it was only Michael’s sword that concerned him. It alone could end him in an instant—for good. Michael began to circle Lucifer, slowly slicing the air with the angel sword in a figure-eight motion. “Since when has honor ever been your game? Those creatures you created kill without care, they murder men, women, and children. Their maker deserves no special treatment. This fight, fair or not, only has one end. And that is when I pierce your heart with this blade.”
“Hurry up then, brother.” Lucifer held his arms out in invitation. “Do your worst.”
Michael moved like lightning, blade cutting the air, aiming for the angel’s heart—a kill shot. Lucifer moved too, bringing his sword up in time to deflect his demise. When Michael struck again, Lucifer was ready. All the battles he’d fought on earth before creating his creatures had served him well. With each clattering deflect, Michael swung again and again, the quiet clearing being filled with noise that echoed off the trees. Each attack brought Lucifer closer to a direct hit, until his blood was finally spilled from a slice on his shoulder.
Lucifer struck back at speed, cutting into Michael’s forearm. “Is that all you’ve got?”
Michael sneered back at Lucifer while Remiel watched from the sidelines. “Not even nearly.”
As the battle forged on, Lucifer felt the drain of his bloodletting begin to set in. Michael lunged again and stabbed a hole below Lucifer’s collarbone. He snarled in return, answering with an elbow to the angel’s nose. Michael barely stumbled, and with the elevation his flinging-out wings provided, he booted Lucifer in the head. The fallen angel went flying back into a tree, the impact jolting him enough that he dropped his sword.
Remiel moved l
ike the wind then, taking hold of Lucifer from behind who bucked—until the angel’s glowing blade plunged into his side. Remiel twisted Lucifer’s arm back against the tree, and he bit back a cry as the sword twisted deeper into his side.
Michael came closer, a gust blowing his long dark hair back from his composed features. He pointed the angel sword at Lucifer’s heart. “You brought this on yourself.”
Lucifer quit fighting, though not because he was giving up. “Then do it. Tarnish your perfect conduct with my murder. God shunned me for challenging him. He’ll never forgive you slaughtering the Morning Star.”
Michael’s expression hardened and he leaned in, the tip biting into Lucifer’s skin. “You know nothing about the depths of his forgive—”
Lucifer threw his head forward, cracking Michael in the nose. With all the strength he had left, he tugged his arm free and snatched the angel sword from Michael, twisting it to stab him—
“Stop!” Remiel cried out, his voice a booming command.
The ground quaked beneath their feet, stopping Lucifer’s forward thrust and adding to the force Michael had been hit with to knock the other angel down. Cracks appeared in the ground.
“What is this?” Michael demanded as Remiel stumbled back, the blade sliding free of Lucifer’s side.
“Not what,” Remiel replied, eyes wide and shooting upward. His whole body glowed with sudden light as his hand that pointed at the ground quivered with strain. “Who.”
Lucifer knew where the rippling power that now filled the forest clearing had come from. Invisible to all of them and from above, God was acting through Remiel. Exacting his demands by force through someone else. Keeping his own hands clean in the process.
Infuriated, Lucifer got over his surprise and lunged for Michael—as the ground split open beneath him. Directed by Remiel’s hand, the grassy earth Lucifer stood on shot up like a platform as the dirt around it crumbled away. Lucifer dropped the angel sword and it tipped over the edge, ricocheting down until Michael caught it by the hilt. Heat grew like lava and as he looked down, he saw a lake of fire below the Earth’s crust. Barren black land surrounded the flames—empty of any life. Hell. As the others bowed down on one knee, their heads dropped, he knew what was coming. Something worse than earth. So much worse.
His eternal damnation.
Lucifer knew there could only be one way to escape the hell below, and still he could not do it. He would not. “Until we meet again.”
With the snapping shut of Remiel’s shaking hand into a fist, the core that held up the chunk of earth on which he stood cracked. Lucifer fell with it, seeing the earth above shift back together as he hit the lake of fire.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Back in Babylon, Michael looked down at the town and its grand stone castle from above. His great wings moved rhythmically to keep him aloft. Although it was now close to dawn, not a single human milled in amongst the huts and larger dwellings. They knew better than to be about in the dark hours. But soon, their fears would be taken away. At least that was his plan—although his intentions hadn’t gone his way with regards to Lucifer. Knowing the fallen angel still lived sat like hot coals in his gut. Would they be diverted again? Would they, too, be punished? “Remiel, any word?”
The other angel shook his head, the depression across his face as he hovered revealed his thoughts. He hoped God would step in. Hoped he’d be saved from acting so drastically without order. “Not as yet.”
Michael let his gaze fall, watching as Cyrus lead his swelling army of monsters back to the castle. With no interruption or command since their travels back here, nothing stood between him and what he’d intended to go through with from the start. “Lucifer may not be dead, but his creations soon will be.”
“So long as we are not stopped.” Remiel looked doubtful as he hovered beside his angelic brother. He hadn’t been on board with their imprisonment of Gabriel or in this plan that had not been approved. Yet he’d gone along with it all the same. And would continue to do so until directed otherwise.
Michael began a gentle descent, glancing back up with impatience. “Let us follow inside before the town’s people begin to venture out.” He hiked his chin at Remiel, refusing to let his brother’s concerns get in the way. “What will be will be.”
The angels landed on a roof platform and kept to the fading shadows, tucking their wings in as tight to their bodies as possible. With human soldiers stationed at every castle exit to guard what would soon be vulnerable when daylight broke, they wanted to keep their arrival quiet. Jumping down to an open balcony, they stole inside a vacant bedchamber and out into a passageway. Michael detected the creatures’ footfalls and the scent of blood that covered them after all their kills. “This way.”
Moving on, blazing fire torches lit long walkways and back stairwells. It was no surprise when they were led lower and lower, the smell of death rising in the frigid air. When there were no more stairs to descend, Remiel unhinged a torch from the stairwell and swept it from side to side. The dark stone cavern lit up with moving orange. Highlighted in the glow were piles of drained bodies that were in need of burning—and countless red eyes that blinked open. The monsters hissed and shifted, readying to pounce. It was tempting to burn them all to cinders in this dead-end space. But there were too many to make sure they all perished and that none escaped.
In the back, King Cyrus stood atop a platform. The naked women around him on the crimson-stained bed were bloody and dazed. He bared his fangs, his lips and chin red with blood. “You are what befouled Lucifer. I see it, winged Gods. And now you trespass on my land. Steal inside my castle. You dare to seek Lucifer’s glory for yourselves.”
“We seek to stop this reign of terror.” Remiel met the king’s hard stare. “To stop every one of Lucifer’s creations.”
The king scoffed, crimson palms stretching out to the men that remained low. With their numbers swelling since their last attack, they filled this cavern and the adjoining ones. “You two seek to cage or control us all?”
Instead of answering Cyrus, Michael lifted his brows at Remiel. “It is time.”
The king leaped off his bed, creatures parting to clear a path from him to the angels. “We are thousands now. We will not bow and we do not need Gods. We are Gods.”
Michael let the king stalk right up to him and smiled. “And you will die as such.”
The king’s jaw split wide and his followers were instantly upright, racing for—
Michael and Remiel clicked their fingers at once, their power instantly transporting themselves and every creature around them. The dark stone cavern, along with its decaying scents, vanished as the bordering trees beyond the enemy’s flattened camp shot up around them. Gentle sunlight grew, getting closer to the horizon and stripping the last stars from the sky. Every one of Lucifer’s creatures gave up their attack of the angels centering them all and cowered back. With God’s power still manifesting in him, Remiel waved his hands. The tall trees responded before anyone could pass through, long branches striking out to weave and wind, twining together to prevent the monsters from gaining shelter among their shadows.
“Return us!” King Cyrus spat as his monsters hissed and recoiled. Though his body seemed to tighten at the rise of light, small licks of steam rising from his shoulders, he strode forward. Slicing his sword free, he held the blade to Michael’s throat. “Return us to our home and you shall survive this too.”
“I am an angel of God. I have no fear of you.” The angel sword appeared in Michael’s hand, and he thrust it into the king’s abdomen. “Or your creatures.”
The king’s mouth gaped, his sword falling from the angel’s throat to the ground. As he went to his knees, Michael drew the weapon back, ready to slice his head clean—
“Michael!” Gabriel plummeted through the clouds, landing so fast the earth compacted beneath her. Her robe was still stained silver and her ankles—now free of the manacles he’d imprisoned her with—were reddened and stained by drie
d blood. Right beside him, her touch to his shoulder was sent from God. Power shot straight down his arm, exploding the angel sword into a million pieces that disappeared as they fell. “This is not God’s way.”
Michael stepped back, glaring at Cyrus who scrambled away. The light was growing and they would all have been dead in minutes—but not anymore. “He freed you.”
Gabriel smiled, the expression at odds with itself because it was the saddest thing he’d ever seen. Her look at Remiel who was now armed was filled with sorrow. “And he sentenced Lucifer to hell.” Her glistening eyes returned to Michael, strength resounding in them. “But these souls are not yours to extinguish. These are not your children.”
“They are monsters,” Michael rebutted, sweeping his arm out at the hissing creatures. “They have no souls.”
“Unless God can remedy that?” Remiel’s weapon disappeared from his hand and he held his palms together, sending a prayer up above.
“He can,” Gabriel answered, but her frown made it clear it wasn't going to be that simple. “Though he will not force it. Once the choice is made it will be up to them to follow the right path.”
“This is a mistake.” Michael faced his heavenly sister, teeth clenched and jaw tight. He hated what he’d had to do to her, but he couldn’t stand to see these creatures freed. “They will not live up to this gift he is offering. You know they will not.”
“And that will be their choice. Now and for the rest of time. It is God’s way. His decision.” Gabriel held up her hands, a middle finger pressed to each thumb. Then she clicked. The growing light beyond the trees vanished as the scenery shifted. No longer alongside the enemy camp, they were back at the place Lucifer had fallen. The place he’d now been sent to hell from. The curls of smoke coming off the monsters dissipated instantly. Daylight was not breaking on this land across the seas. “I am here to deliver unto you a choice. A choice you were never given when you were made into the creatures you now are. From God’s mouth, I am his messenger. Align with light and vow to follow the path of honor and righteousness. The path of God. No more lives will you take. If you bow down, your soul and humanity will be restored.”