by Eva Brandt
“You do realize I’m an epileptic, right?”
“Yes, yes. Details. It’s not that relevant.”
Not that relevant. I wasn’t sure if I found his attitude refreshing or infuriating. On one hand, I agreed that having a disability shouldn’t matter for the respect I received. On the other, not acknowledging that I had it wasn’t an option either. That was just stupid and reckless, and I liked to think I had enough self-preservation to avoid such mistakes.
In any case, the whole thing gave me a very bad feeling. “Why am I here, Sir? Why did you send the snake after me? I know you said you care about Mikael, but I doubt your intention was to give me a shovel talk or something.”
“Oh, of course that isn’t it. You’re welcome to be with Mikael if you so desire. This isn’t about that. We just had to extract you from The Academy of the Devil, before it did too much damage to you.”
“To extract me?” I was beginning to sound like a parrot, but I didn’t care. “I don’t understand. You’re the ones who hurt me most.”
That wasn’t completely true, since the snake bite couldn’t compare to the pain I’d experienced when I’d lost Shiro. But I had a feeling Michael wasn’t referring to emotional and mental damage.
“The wards around the island are… complicated to work around and it wasn’t possible to reach you in a different way,” Michael said. “Thus the snake.”
“Okay, but why did you even bother to do that?” I remembered that once, Callum had mentioned something about celestial beings abandoning the bloodlines bound into demonic contracts, leading the innocent people involved—like me—to not receive any aid from Guardian Angels. “If you’re supposed to be my Guardian Angel, you’re about a decade too late.”
“I’m not a Guardian Angel, I’m an archangel. And maybe you’re right, and it is too late. That’s not going to make us give up.”
That was an admirable sentiment, but I still wasn’t sure it had led to the results the archangel had expected. “I appreciate you not giving up hope and trying to help me,” I said, “but siccing a snake on me and having him almost kill me seems a little extreme if that’s what you were going for.”
“I won’t deny that,” Michael replied with a nod. “I won’t even try to apologize for it. All I will say is that we had our reasons for acting the way we did. If there had been another way, we wouldn’t have turned to something so violent. Since there wasn’t, we were forced to go with this option.
“Fortunately, the worst is over now. You can join me in The Heavens and all will be well.”
I stared at him in disbelief. My awe with him had long ago vanished, but it was now beginning to turn into outright distaste, maybe even hatred. “Are you really asking me to celebrate my own death? Because I’m sorry to say I can’t do that.
“I have people out there who love me, who need me. I can’t just abandon them like this.”
“We’re aware,” Michael answered. “There’s just one small issue. They’ve taken from you far more than you realize. They don’t deserve you.”
“I’ll be the judge of that, thanks. And I think we make a great couple. Foursome. Whatever.”
Was Michael’s issue the fact that I was involved in a polyandrous relationship? That didn’t seem like it, but what did I know? Perhaps he disliked me sleeping with Callum and Stefan while I was involved with Mikael. But if that was the case, why not say so outright?
My head hurt.
“Look. I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, if you want to help me, if you hate me for not being a better girlfriend to your son, or if you don’t like me because my ancestor made a deal with the devil. But—”
“Sébastien’s contract was never the issue, little one,” Michael cut me off. “It’s true that his bloodline was cursed because of his decision to join forces with Lucifer’s little band. But that’s not what landed you in the academy, and in the situation you’re currently in.”
His voice softened and he brushed his fingers over my temples. “You were robbed of your memories, of your truth, and of what really happened.”
He looked so much like Mikael and his hands were so warm that I didn’t pull away. Perhaps I should have. “You need to see the truth, Alyssa,” he added. “And we’ll start by revealing what you should’ve never forgotten.”
All of a sudden, the space around us shifted, and I found myself standing next to the wreckage of a burning car. Another version of me was on her knees on the ground, holding a badly injured Shiro. Inside the car, I could hear my parents screaming.
Lucifer was standing in front of my other self, in his terrifying, four-faced form. “It’s time for a mortal to become Satan,” he told the second Alyssa.
“Wait… I thought you were Satan,” she protested, echoing my current thoughts.
“I used to be,” he said. “I gave it up. It’s very boring to watch over the souls of the damned. ”
He launched himself in an explanation of what he needed me to do—be a mortal Satan—and naturally, my other self wasn’t happy with the idea. Lucifer didn’t give me any clear reasons for his actions beyond saying I was special. In the end, he didn’t have to because he had the perfect argument to convince me and make me throw all caution to the wind. “This will give you back your family.”
“All right,” my other self said. “I’ll do it.”
There was a flash, and a seal settled on my heart. Seconds later, it disappeared underneath my skin. The next thing I knew, the wreckage was gone. Lucifer had retrieved my parents from inside the burning car. They were still alive, but their injuries were obviously lethal. Lucifer just waved a hand over their bodies, and just like that, all the burns and lesions vanished.
The car was next. A simple look from Lucifer extinguished the fire and when he snapped his fingers, it was back on the road, in one piece. “I’ll come for you, dearest,” he said, winking. “In the meantime, have fun.”
The image faded into the memories I actually had, that of my parents and I going to the picnic together. I stood there and tried to process the true meaning of these revelations.
It wasn’t the fact that I’d forgotten about my deal with the devil that bugged me. But my parents… I’d forgotten about my parents.
Granted, there had been moments when memories of them had drifted into my mind. But they’d faded quickly, and never had I given them much thought. I hadn’t spoken to my parents at all since I’d come to the school. No matter how much I’d have liked to deny it, that just wasn’t normal.
“Did they… Did they all know about this?” I forced myself to ask the archangel. “About the contract?”
“Mikael and the others? I doubt it. But they would’ve felt Lucifer’s touch on you. Even if they might not be aware of the specifics, they’d have still sensed something was wrong.”
“But they didn’t say anything!” I protested. “I asked Dean Mephistopheles about it outright, and he claimed I shouldn’t be worried about Lucifer’s interest in me.”
“They’re demons, Alyssa. They won’t always be truthful, and Mephistopheles is in a difficult position because of his connection with Lucifer.” The archangel sighed. “That being said, you still don’t understand the biggest issue. I don’t expect you to accept this easily, but the truth of the matter is this. Your mind and your brain are both very vulnerable, for two different reasons. You’re human, and you’re an epileptic. This makes you an easy target for people like Callum and Mikael. The powers they wield affect the nervous system.”
His words made something inside me turn to ice. “What are you trying to say? They’d never hurt me!”
“Sexual arousal doesn’t exist in a vacuum. You know that, Alyssa. You feel the way you do because of the hormones your body produces, a process which is regulated by the brain. This is something an incubus can tap into and control. An incubus’s aura isn’t a magic spell of instant lust, no matter how humans might see it. It’s a way of twisting a human’s own brain against him or her.”
In my heart, I’d always found incubus magic unsettling, but it had never occurred to me to look at it a little more closely. Some of the changes in my life began to make sense. “Is that the real reason why I stopped having seizures after I accepted having a relationship with them?”
Michael nodded glumly. “That’s why. They’re doing it. They could’ve done it all along. They’ve been keeping your seizures in check, but they never bothered before.”
I didn’t want to believe it, but I’d noticed them step in so many times. I remembered the way they’d sometimes touch my forehead while we were having sex and I started to shake. They’d promised me they’d keep me safe, and I’d embraced that. They’d said I belonged to them, and I’d loved it. But now, I realized their words had never been as harmless as I’d deemed them.
“You came very close to remembering what happened during the familiar ritual. But you were still unwell, and Callum’s allure was much too powerful.”
I took a deep breath and struggled to control my rampant emotions. My seizures weren’t the biggest issue here. “Sir, did Callum and Mikael deliberately manipulate my memories of my parents?”
The archangel hesitated. “I don’t have a real answer for you, Alyssa. The truth is I don’t know. But looking at the facts… You did discard your family as irrelevant. You wouldn’t have done so normally, and Lucifer couldn’t have caused the issue, since your contract with him relied on their well-being.”
I felt numb. I couldn’t believe my lovers would do such a dreadful thing to me, that they’d steal something so precious to me, my own past, my own life. God, how could I have forgotten them? What had my poor parents gone through in my absence? “Sir? What about my mom and dad? Are they okay?”
“They are part of the reason why we were able to interfere the way we did at the academy, with the snake, and why there was no real risk to you while doing this. Since you are contracted to Lucifer, we couldn’t have reached you, especially not on the island. But they’ve been looking into ancient texts of the Michaelis line, and that helped us go through with this plan.
“Listen closely, Alyssa. The neurotoxin from the snake bite killed you, but only for a few moments. Your contract with Lucifer stands on the brink of collapse. I can take you away from there. Just say the word, and you’ll be back home, with your parents, where you belong.”
It should’ve been an easy choice. A simple ‘yes’ would free me from the burdens I’d been carrying at the academy.
But on the other hand, could I really be sure Michael was telling the truth? There had to be a catch. I doubted Michael had come to get me at the academy just because my parents had asked him to.
And even if he had… Could I leave the school just like that? Without getting any answers? Without hearing my lovers’ side of the story?
I remembered the way I’d held Mikael when the other students had tossed that potion on him. I remembered the way they’d helped me when Shiro had been killed.
Yes, maybe they’d lied to me and had manipulated me, but I couldn’t just abandon them.
Besides, my inability to remember my parents properly might be unrelated to my lovers. There were plenty of people at the school who could’ve used their magic on me to affect me like that. Just because Mikael and Callum could’ve done it didn’t mean they had.
“I have to go back. I need to speak to them, to understand why they did this, if they truly are responsible. And Shiro is still on the island. I can’t leave him.”
Michael opened his mouth, as if intending to say something. At the last moment, he seemed to change his mind. He scrutinized me with deep, sad eyes.
“You are truly kind,” he told me. “Kindness isn’t always a good thing in our world, but perhaps, this time, it won’t be bad either. I wish you the best of luck, then, Ms. Michaelis. Find your answers. Speak to my son. But be advised that if you want to break the contract with Lucifer after that, it’ll be tougher. He’ll try to reinforce it.”
“That’s a risk I’m going to have to take.”
“So be it.” Michael replied. For some strange reason, I felt he approved of my choice. “In the end, it might be better this way. Some contracts are meant to be fulfilled and nothing in your original agreement with Lucifer actually forces you to be Satan. All you have to do is spend at least three years at the academy and learn to control your powers.”
Well, that was a load off my mind, since I had no desire to be the leader of hell. Learning how to control my powers would be tough, but at least I had a timeline for my future and a target.
With that out of the way, there was one more thing I needed to do before I could return to the academy. “My parents, Sir? Would it be possible to see them? Or to at least talk to them?”
“I might be able to arrange something. You’re not actually here in body. Your physical form still lingers on the island, and if you want to go back, I can’t extract you. But even so, right now, I might be able to send your mind to them.”
“I’d like that,” I replied. “I have to talk to them, to explain, to tell them that I do remember them and I love them.”
“And you will.”
Michael never got the chance to keep his promise. All of a sudden, two more winged silhouettes appeared in the room. “No!” one of the new arrivals shouted. “You don’t have the authority to do this!”
“Shit.” Michael said. The light around him grew brighter once again as he shielded me with his wings.
“Michael!” the second angel cried. “Stop! You don’t understand the consequences of your actions.”
The archangel ignored his fellow celestial being and pressed his forehead to my temple. “Take care of my son,” he whispered.
A cascade of divine magic enveloped my body, crystalline and pure. Somewhere to my right, the other angels tried to push past Michael’s power. They failed, and as the white tower faded away into darkness, I thought that maybe Mikael’s father wasn’t so bad.
* * *
When I opened my eyes for a second time, the first thing I became aware of was the sound of raised voices. “But we can’t just abandon her, Lady Morrigan! There has to be something we can do.”
It was Callum, and he sounded very upset. He wasn’t in the room with me, but the door was cracked open, and I could hear him and the others arguing outside.
“And I told you, Callum, this has nothing to do with healing,” Morrigan was saying. “Her body has received very little physical damage. It is her mind that was taken, and I can’t reach that, not in The Celestial Realm. Even I have my limits.”
“Couldn’t Professor Grim or Ammit help?” Stefan asked, his voice tinged with savage desperation.
“Rescue missions aren’t their area of expertise,” Mephistopheles replied. “And The Heavens have wards that repel most of us. Our only hope is that she’ll make her way back to us herself.”
“You can’t be serious!” Mikael snarled. “We can’t just leave her there, with those bastards.”
“You of all people should know that it’s not so easy to escape the angels,” Mephistopheles shot back. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but we have no other…”
He trailed off mid-sentence, as if confused. Mikael didn’t have the same problem. “Lyssa,” he said simply.
Within seconds, he and the others burst into the room, almost tripping over their own feet in their haste to return to my side. A part of me considered it cute and flattering, but I also had to wonder if the possessiveness I’d seen as natural was just a sign suggesting a dangerous obsession.
No, I couldn’t think that way. I had to give them the benefit of the doubt. I’d sworn that I would, and that I would accept them in every way. I would hear them out before I made a decision.
“Princess,” Callum whispered. “T
hank Satan.”
Stefan dropped to his knees next to my bed and took my hand. The excruciatingly gentle touch made my heart clench. “Are you all right? How do you feel?”
“Fine, Stefan,” I said, extracting my palm from his hold. “I’m fine.”
Mikael reached for my cheek with shaking fingers, as if unable to believe I was really there. When I pulled away from him, he paled. “Lyssa? What’s wrong?”
Before I could address the brainwashed elephant in the room, Mephistopheles and Morrigan joined us. The dean seemed agitated as well, his wings twitching in a strange, erratic rhythm. When he saw I was awake, he shot me a wide smile. “Ms. Michaelis, welcome back. We were all very worried about you. Do you remember what happened?”
“I was bitten by a snake while at Battle Magic class,” I automatically replied. I still didn’t understand his role in all this, but it was clear to me that he must’ve known at least some of it. He’d told me once before that his hands were tied because of ‘vows’ he’d made, and Michael’s words confirmed that. Even so, he owed me an explanation just as much as my lovers did.
Oblivious to my restless thoughts, Lady Morrigan started to explain, “Yes. We managed to stabilize your physical condition, but we’ve determined that the snake was a special summon sent by The Celestial Realm. We could do nothing to reach you.”
“I know. They wanted me to leave the academy. I said I couldn’t, not yet, so I came back.” I bit my lower lip, not wanting to be rude, but at the same time, knowing I couldn’t delay the confrontation with my lovers. “Lady Morrigan, I have a small request. I need to speak with the rest of them. It’s a private matter. Would it be possible…?”
Morrigan understood what I needed without me having to finish the sentence. “Of course. Let me just look you over and see if you’re well enough for this and then I’ll leave you to it.”
I hated the delay, but understood her logic. When she produced another of her feathers and swept it over my body, I waited patiently for her decision. “It would appear that you are indeed, back to normal,” she said. “There are some lingering traces of divine energy, but not in alarming quantities. You’ll be just fine.”