Angelus

by Sabrina Benulis

  Troy looked at her sharply. Astonishingly, she didn’t argue the point. “I never had the chance to take Sariel’s body. Too many angels swept into the upper tower of the institution, forcing us to retreat. We took a dark and roundabout route back here, cursing our luck all the while that we might have lost both you and the Book in one blow. But Sophia returned after a while, and infuriatingly she offered us few answers besides the fact that you were safe for the moment, and we should keep a strict lookout for your return near the institution. The demon may or may not be dead. Sophia said that she ‘had words’ with him but left it at that. My fear is that now Lilith will come to Luz looking for her snake of a son.”

  Angela let all the information Troy had offered her sink in as much as it could. There was so much she wanted to say, and so much she had to hold in, because only Sophia would possibly understand.

  Why isn’t Sophia here? Is she trying to hide so that if I’m found again, she’ll be far enough away that they can’t open her with my blood?

  Yet deep inside, Angela sensed another reason.

  “Troy,” Angela said. She took a deep breath, still trying to stay calm. “You have to find a way to get me to Lucifel. I need to free all the souls that she’s captured. They must be in Malakhim somewhere.”

  “Impossible,” Troy said. “You would need wings and the speed to fly into Malakhim without perishing. You’re the Archon, but you’re still a weak mortal creature.”

  Angela went silent.

  There has to be a way.

  “Besides,” Troy continued. “It isn’t necessary. Lucifel is already on her way.”

  “She’s coming to Luz?” Angela said. “Why didn’t Nina tell me that?”

  “Because she knows you’ll recklessly run out to meet the former Prince of Hell.”

  That cinches it. That’s why Sophia separated herself from me. The farther apart we are right now, the better. But if only I knew she was safe.

  “Then why did you tell me?” Angela said incredulously.

  Troy smiled wickedly, and her eyes flashed in the darkness. “Because, Angela Mathers, I’m going to help you. You should be grateful. It seems Death is on your side.”

  Twenty-seven

  Sophia rubbed the winged Kirin’s neck and patted its enormous muzzle. The beast cantered against the flat shingles, its hot breath sending plumes through the icy air. Slowly, it lowered its body to the rooftop and Sophia slid off, still petting its flanks.

  The Kirin’s wings folded crisply against its sides, and it lowered its head for more caresses.

  “Thank you,” Sophia whispered. “Now I’m going to ask one more favor of you. Stay by my side just in case there’s any danger. But don’t act until I say the word. All right?”

  The Kirin’s intelligent eyes flashed in reply as it stepped into the ether and disappeared. The only sign of its presence was the unusual size and blackness of Sophia’s own shadow, where the Kirin hid watching her and waiting. Sophia clutched her arms and wrapped her shawl tightly around her body, looking from the rooftop at the terrifying nearness of Malakhim. She was lucky she and the Kirin hadn’t been spotted.

  Troy was right. Every other night, the angels patrolling the city diminished considerably. Certainly, existing in Earth’s Realm taxed their strength over time just as it did to Troy. They were wise to leave only stronger individuals behind while they returned to Malakhim to recoup their health.

  Sophia stared at the glorious city, her eyes watering. There, to the north, was the white tower Israfel had called home. In the city’s center, the bridge to Ialdaboth glistened like a string of diamonds leading step by step to a black hole.

  Once again, she pictured the intricately carved balustrades and ledges.

  Once again, she existed in a time when Israfel sat on a crystal throne, wearing a great crown of spindled rays on his head, his hair powdered a blue that matched his eyes, his bronze wings surrounding his body so magnificently. Sophia heard the lyres, she witnessed the decadence, the crystal goblets, the nectar, the overwhelming perfection all over again. Smells met her: spice, and something like lilac, and amaranthine.

  It seemed like only yesterday that such a beautiful dream ended in a haze of blood and violence. To Sophia, mere seconds could have passed since Lucifel’s children were torn from her lithe body, since she started her War, and then fell to Hell with Sophia by her side.

  That punishing fate for Sophia was ironically what Raziel had wanted.

  Back then, Sophia had been safer with the Devil than living in an unstable Realm where the Father would have destroyed her at the first opportunity. Yet what a nightmare it had been to witness Lucifel’s deathly majesty hanging in a spider’s web of chains for so many eons.

  Sophia shuddered in spite of herself.

  A brief flash of light signaled Mikel’s arrival. So—she’d been willing to speak to Sophia, after all.

  Sophia knew that Mikel was nothing more than a child, even more so than Python. And children wanted nothing as much as attention. Surely the pain she saw behind Mikel’s eyes could be healed. Mikel had done great evil, yet hers was the evil of an infant throwing a violent and prolonged tantrum that accidentally slapped others in the face. She didn’t understand the value of a soul, because she’d never been taught.

  If Sophia could somehow turn her against Lucifel, who Sophia knew cared for her daughter as much as a spider cared for a fly, then the odds stacked against Angela would change considerably.

  Mikel didn’t realize she and Angela were so much alike. Both of them had suffered from the beginning of their lives for their parents’ sins. Israfel’s solution of imprisoning Mikel in a flesh-and-blood body in Heaven—his attempt at keeping her dangerous power in check—had never been wise.

  Sophia turned around. A tall person wrapped in a heavy hooded cloak stood opposite her on the rooftop.

  “I’m glad you decided to come,” Sophia said carefully. “If you’ll just let me explain about Angela, I know we can come to a better understanding, Mikel.”

  The tall person let her hood fall back. Raven black hair fluffed around her shoulders, and Lilith’s dark face and slim neck appeared. She scanned the rooftop, glanced at Malakhim, and then examined the stars with such a hungry expression she could have been starving for millennia. “How long it’s been,” Lilith said softly, “since I saw this beauty.”

  A spider peeked from underneath her hood and then escaped back into the warmth of the fabric.

  Sophia’s heart went cold.

  “What are you doing here?” Sophia managed to croak. But the answer was obvious. Lilith had used the Mirror Pool below Python’s mansion to arrive in Luz.

  The demon swept her gaze across the snow-covered city as if examining every soul that remained, claiming each for her own.

  “As I’m sure you’ve guessed, Mikel isn’t coming,” Lilith said with her sweetly poisonous voice. “My son truly thinks I’m an idiot, but I’ve been observing his correspondence with that brat of an angel until it recently went sour. I actually came to Luz for him, but capturing Lucifel’s child in the process was most certainly a welcome reward for my hard work.”

  “Capturing her?” Sophia said angrily. “Why would you do such an insane thing?”

  “Insurance,” Lilith said. “If I’m to oversee Hell while Lucifel sits on her new throne, I need some way to keep our former Prince from getting too greedy again. I guarantee dangling her daughter in front of her nose will keep Lucifel’s relations with me friendly from this point on.”

  Sophia wanted to laugh. “Lucifel cares nothing for Mikel. She’s using her and that’s all.”

  “Oh, I know she cares little for her. But Mikel is dangerous. A loose cannon, as humans say. We both know it’s in Lucifel’s best interests to kill Mikel when her usefulness passes; otherwise, what other havoc will she instigate before the end? But now that I have the chick, the stakes in this drama have changed. I can always release her if I choose.”

  “Lilith,” Sophia
said, trying to control her rage. “Free Mikel and let her act while Lucifel has her somewhat under control; otherwise—”

  “Now, now, not so fast,” Lilith said.

  She waved her hand and a very familiar hourglass appeared, hovering in the air beside her. Its insides shone a soft blue.

  It was the hourglass Python had used to link Angela’s and Kim’s spirits.

  “But . . . Python destroyed it,” Sophia murmured. She clearly remembered Python smashing it to pieces in the institution as he told Kim his time was up.

  Lilith granted Sophia a pitying look. “Well, he pretended to. My son can be quite irritating like that. But I suppose he didn’t tell you that the half-breed’s essence now resides in the glass, hmm? I guarantee Python left out that little detail when Kim made his deal to help the Archon.”

  The blue light . . . that was Kim’s soul in the glass! So how had he been able to help Angela enter the past?

  Sophia thought quickly. That was it—Kim must have slipped his hourglass pendant to Angela somehow. Since it connected to his soul, he’d been able to control its power when Angela entered the ocean. “You know what this means, then,” Lilith said, her tone instantly scoffing and sharp. “Now Kim’s soul is in my hands. And in a way, so is the Archon’s.”

  Sophia’s heart quaked. She didn’t like where Lilith was going with this. At all.

  “Angela isn’t dead, certainly, but she could be. I wouldn’t try anything rash,” Lilith said. She let the hourglass hover before her. “Because it wouldn’t take much to accidentally drop this hourglass and send the Archon’s spirit irretrievably to the Abyss.”

  “You’d be a fool then,” Sophia said, unable to hold back her angry tears anymore. They poured out of her as if she could cry another ocean into life. “Without Angela’s intervention this universe will be silenced, Lilith. Forever. Or have you forgotten that overwhelmingly obvious fact?”

  “But all we really need now is her blood to keep the universe intact. Well, that and you,” Lilith said in her silken tone. “In fact, I suppose there’s no real reason to stall the more I think over the situation. Perhaps I would have thought differently if Kim were still alive. He was a sweet boy when he didn’t irritate me terribly. I could also say the same for you, dear. How nice it was to speak to you again, Sophia. How much I’ve missed our chats during the time you still resided in Hell, standing like a statue beneath the spider’s web of our Black Prince. Here’s to our memories.”

  Lilith lowered her hand.

  Now it was as if time continued after endless frozen moments. There was a hideous pause where nothing significant seemed to happen. Then the hourglass began to fall.

  Sophia dashed for it with all her strength.

  The hourglass tumbled end over end, its carved metal gleaming in Malakhim’s light.

  Sophia dove below it, and the hourglass dropped into her waiting arms.

  Now! Sophia thought, sending all the power of her mind to the winged Kirin hiding in the ether.

  The beast leaped from the space between the shadows and reared frighteningly on the rooftop. Its sides flickered with ghostly blue light, and it charged Lilith with its spiraling horn aimed right at her heart.

  Lilith gritted her teeth angrily. “This horrid thing,” she whispered. She kicked Sophia away with her foot and lifted her hand.

  Sophia grunted painfully and tumbled, still clutching the hourglass. The shingles tore at her skin and dress and she stopped perilously near the edge of the roof, looking up in time to see green light pulse around Lilith’s body.

  Before Sophia could do or say anything, the energy shot toward the Kirin.

  Sophia shielded her eyes from the blinding light. A terrible animal scream tore through her. The roof shuddered as an enormous weight dropped against it, and when Sophia opened her eyes, she knew even before looking that the winged Kirin was gravely wounded. Its legs and paws trembled and blood streamed from its flanks. Its leathery wings thrashed against the rooftop, and it screamed piercingly again.

  The angels would definitely hear that.

  Lilith lowered her hand. Her face was far from triumphant. Just like Sophia, she probably also knew that by defending herself, she’d given everything away.

  She looked over her shoulder at Malakhim, her orange eyes burning. One of them flickered red for the briefest second.

  Sophia blinked, hoping she’d imagined everything. But of course she hadn’t.

  That was how Lilith had chosen to capture Mikel? Then she’d sorely miscalculated. Lilith mustn’t have known that Mikel could possess more than one person—that her spirit could split its essence. Lilith’s means of capturing Mikel had clearly been offering herself to be possessed, as some kind of twisted bait. In the end, she was housing something too great even for an ancient angel like herself to control. Mikel was a child of the Supernals. Her powers would in some way always be above a creature’s like Lilith.

  “Mikel, listen to me,” Sophia shouted at Lilith. “It isn’t too late for you to help remedy at least a little of the evil you’ve caused. Mikel. Please.”

  “It’s no use,” Lilith said, but her tone suggested it was another person speaking.

  Lilith’s eyes widened. She clutched her throat.

  Sophia could only imagine what it must feel like to have another soul within you controlling your voice and actions. Lilith’s horrified face suggested she was fighting Mikel, but Sophia already knew the battle was a useless one. Even so, Sophia waited, holding in her breath, trying to balance on the roof’s edge with the heavy hourglass still clutched protectively within her arms.

  In a minute Mikel completely took control. Lilith’s left eye deepened to a bloody crimson and her face calmed as her hand lowered back to her side. She turned and stared out at Malakhim again, but without any trace of the hunger and memory that had haunted her expression before.

  Sophia watched with her.

  Against the glory of the angelic city’s crystalline bridges and spires, a swarm of dots of varying size appeared. They grew larger with every passing second. Soon, Sophia could faintly make out wings and serpentine forms scattered among a sea of angels.

  “I appreciate your faith in my goodness, Sophia,” Mikel said to her, still looking out at Malakhim and its approaching army. “But I can’t turn back now. Israfel and my dead brother made sure of that. Besides, haven’t you ever wondered whether you’re on the right side in this battle? My mother only seeks to end a cycle that refuses to stop. Each and every turn at life has ended terribly for all of us. It’s much better to allow a deep silence to take over. It will be so much better to rest for eternity.”

  “Except that what you’re calling rest is merely a twisted way of saying ‘eternal death,’” Sophia shouted at her. “Mikel. Please. For pity’s sake, stop this madness while you can help.”

  “As I said, it’s too late . . .” Mikel gazed proudly out at the horizon, her eyes blazing as the dreadful army approached. “Mother is on her way, and no one will be able to stop her victory now. At last . . . the real Revolution can begin.”

  Lucifel was arriving on Earth in the flesh?

  Sophia felt like all the blood had drained out of her at once. Where would she hide now? And with the precious hourglass? She clutched it harder and peered down at the cobblestone alley below. She would survive the fall, of course. But her legs would break. Then there would be no escape.

  Mikel turned around and watched Sophia carefully before striding toward her. Using Lilith’s long legs, she crossed the space between herself and Sophia all too quickly.

  “That hourglass,” Mikel whispered. “I know Mother would want it. I know if I give it to her . . .”

  “What?” Sophia said frantically. “You believe it will make her love you? You heard what I said to Lilith, Mikel. Lucifel can’t love. Or—she has only ever loved one person truly.”

  “Who?” Mikel snapped. “Herself? How trite and predictable of you to say such a thing. I expected better than that.” />
  “No, not herself. The Father. Lucifel has loved and will always love only him. Everything she has ever done since he rejected her was solely to spite him. Everything.”

  “No,” Mikel said, laughing though her face twisted with pain. “That’s ridiculous. He tortured her—”

  “She welcomed torture. But she couldn’t bear being ignored. She couldn’t stand rejection. She couldn’t live knowing that the Father hated her simply for who she was—embodied darkness like himself. Even when she discovered the Father wasn’t her true Creator, her feelings couldn’t change. And for the sake of her rejected love, the entire universe has been suffering longer than it should.

  “I am right,” Sophia said. “I know her better than anyone, Mikel. She is no different from Israfel in her obsessions. The selfishness of my children has been the cause of endless pain, but Angela’s soul is innocent, and it’s utter foolishness to think destroying it will help in any way. The Supernals are parts of who she used to be, but she had no hand in their creation.”

  “Then who did?” Mikel demanded. Her voice dripped with rage and disbelief.

  “I did. My spirit sought to amend the sin I had been unable to prevent when Angela’s twin tore her apart. After so many painful cycles of time, I’d gathered enough of Angela’s original mutilated body to bring the Supernals to life. I shared my essence to give them souls. And then I had to fall asleep for eons and eons. That was the ultimate price of my intervention, and I knew it would be a great sacrifice. By the time Raziel discovered the fragments that remained, there was so little left of me that this”—Sophia pointed at herself with a free hand—“this was the best he could replicate. If it weren’t for me, Mikel—you would have never existed at all. Be sure of that.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Mikel said. Her face was terrible to look at. “It makes no sense to me, because then where did you come from? Who are you?”

  Sophia allowed a stony silence to settle. She breathed hard, holding the hourglass.

  The more Mikel stared into her eyes, the more pained her face became. She looked at the hourglass again, thinking.