"Gabe," I say as he stands from the sofa, visibly upset.
"You know, you aren't the only one who would be affected," he yells at me, waving his arms. "You'd be leaving me, too. And if you did, I'd hate you. You'd give up everything you love for one human girl. I could never forgive you." He rests his arms on the windowsill and stares down at the portal, his back turned to me.
"I'm sorry," I tell him, but I know he doesn't want to hear it. "If it comes down to it, I'd give up my wings to get her back. You and I both know that Luke has no powers on Earth. It's the only thing I can offer him for Annie."
"You've planned it all out, huh?" he snarls.
"It's not planned. But I know that's what it will come down to. And I'm prepared to give it all up—for her."
"Time to go," he says and steps away from the window. He retreats behind me without another word, and I step forward, dropping the subject. I don't want to upset him more by talking about it again so I walk to the window and see that the portal is clear. There's nobody surrounding it. It's the perfect time and with the sun nearly set, the darkness will conceal us.
"Let's go," I tell him, stepping out onto Annie's balcony.
"What about the kid?" he asks, glancing behind us.
"He won't come out alive. Leave him."
"You promised him you'd take him," Gabe says, frowning at me.
"I'm not taking him to his death bed. He's a good kid. I said leave him," I tell Gabe with authority in my voice.
Gabe and I join hands at the edge of the balcony. During our descent I don't want to split up or lose on another. My wings unfurl. I look to my left, and Gabe does the same. Mine are taller, but not by much.
"Ready?" I ask him.
"Go," he says and flings us both off the edge. We fly so we're just above the portal and dive down. The wall is barely a speed bump, and we free fall into the blackness. I refuse to drop Gabe's hand as we silently drop.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Holding On
The Veil is white. Everything is colorless, odorless, and plain. I like it that way. There are no complications. Smells don't compete to see what is the most prominent. Colors aren't flashy or bold: they're white. Angels don't even know the difference between sweet and salty.
It's simple there. You know what's expected of you. My guardians, along with all of the guardians, push children to their limits. You have to act and dress a certain way.
Gabe squeezes my hand hard, drawing me away from my thoughts. I look towards him but in every direction, I can only see black. I reach my empty hand up to my face to make sure that my eyes are open, because the darkness disorients me.
Before I have a chance to brace myself, my body lands hard against the ground. My legs give out beneath me, and my wings don't have time to catch up and save me. I crumble to the ground and fall forward. I have to let go of Gabe to catch myself before I face plant into the hard ground.
Gabe groans beside me, his voice seemingly farther away than I anticipated. I crawl over and try to find him, but I can barely see my own hands a foot in front of me.
"Is that you?" I ask as I touch something hard. I think it's a leg.
"Yeah," he answers, his voice light. "How are we supposed to get around in this?"
"I have no idea. I can't see a thing," I tell him, hoping that my eyes will adjust. They always seem to do that on Earth when all the colors start to focus.
"Same," Gabe answers back. "Don't let go of me. Let's try to find a door or something." Gabe grabs me and takes my elbow as we both stand up from the floor. We start walking around wherever we are, flailing our arms to try and find a way out.
"Here!" I yell when I feel something like a doorknob on the wall. I pull on it, but nothing happens. I push it and all at once, red light floods into the room, like I hit a magic switch.
Gabe and I both jump backwards, away from the wall, and cover our eyes to shield us from the electric red light. My eyes burn at the heat and intensity of the light.
I cradle my head in my heads, shielding myself from the redness. "What is that?" I ask Gabe, yelling because it feels like we're far away.
"I have no idea," Gabe answers, his voice close by.
After a moment, I slowly start to open my eyes and let them adjust. Despite the fact that the room is coated in red light, that addition of color gives me hope that we can find a way out of this place.
When my eyes have adjusted, I peek through my fingers to get a good look at where we are. Gabe is already standing up, turning as he looks around the circular room we are in.
It's much like a cage, but without the bars. The walls are deep brown stone, seemingly never ending as they rise high and fade into blackness. The red light seems to be coming out of thin air, which confuses me.
"What is this place?" Gabe asks me.
"It's like a jail cell," I think out loud.
"There has to be a way out," Gabe says as he steps forward and presses his hands against the wall. I turn and walk to the other side of the room, which is only a few feet, and try to find a switch or door.
The walls are hard and bumpy, cracked in some parts. I let my hands scour up and down the ridges, searching for any weak spot. But I can't find a single thing.
Gabe and I meet after we both circle around the room and shake our heads in defeat. In anger, I slam my fist against the wall. It barely cracks under my strength.
I punch it again and again, hoping to break through, but my strength is useless. I crumble to the ground, feeling defeated.
"We're stuck here," I mutter.
"There has to be a way out," Gabe says, his voice hard.
"There's nothing here. It's a plain room with nothing in it." I look up when Gabe moves, and he flies upwards. He barely get far before he hits an invisible wall and is violently thrown to the ground.
His body falls right beside me, and I lean over and turn him so he's face up. His eyes are open, but they're filled with anger.
"Meditate, then we can figure out how to get out of here," I tell him, knowing that to move forward, he needs to be fully rested and healed. Me too. My hand throbs out in pain from hitting the wall over and over.
I lean back on the uncomfortable ground and floor and shut my eyes, allowing myself to fall into meditation, despite the fact that my body is alert with danger.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Let The Tests Begin
"Welcome to your tests!" Lucifer's voice booms out from somewhere above me. I startle from my restless meditation and jump to my feet, preparing for a fight. I look to my side to see Gabe awaken similarly to the way I did, and then come to my side.
We stand back to back, rested but at the same time disoriented—or at least I am. As I'm about to speak to Luke, the lights drop completely and we're left blind.
"I think it's about time you boys threw out your orders." Luke laughs, deep and hearty. His voice echoes as it comes to us against the hard walls. "Enjoy!" he yells, and then something clicks.
The lights flash on, three times in quick succession. I'm left feeling stunned. I look beside me, and Gabe is staring straight past me. I turn to see what it is. Demons come out from the walls, bleeding through, as if the walls are made of thin air. There's at least twenty, maybe more. All of them poke their heads out first, their huge bodies following.
"What are we going to do, Micha?" Gabe asks me, stepping back to create space between the enemy and us.
"I don't think we have a choice," I tell him, reaching behind me and pulling Rem's sword from my back where I hid it. I grab my bag of weapons from the floor where I left it when I mediated and start looking for weapons to use.
Gabe watches ahead of us as the Demons emerge while I grab as many weapons as I can. Gabe takes two long swords and a knife from me, which he shoves into his pocket. I grab some, too, but I trust Rem's sword to help me through this trial.
"This will be fun," Gabe chuckles as we ready ourselves for a fight.
"Once you do this with me, we're going
to be in major trouble. Are you ready to take the heat?" I ask him to make sure that he knows the consequences. We're locked in with the Demons, so it's not like he has a choice, but I could try to kill them all for him. I'd do anything for Gabe.
But before Gabe has a chance to answer me, a Demon charges us. I lift up into the air with my wings, and the Demon just barely grazes my foot as I rise.
Just as I think I've made it to the clear, the Demon snarls, its yellow, canine teeth looking extremely sharp and slimy. The Demon uses its pointed fingernail to run a trail down the front of him, ripping his shirt right off.
With the shirt gone, its red wings are fully visible and my heart plummets. I wasn't sure if they had wings. The Demons we see on Earth are more like Nephalem so they don't. But it's clear now that this is going to be harder than I thought.
Its blood red, veiny, and rigid wings furl out to a wingspan similar to mine. I'm afraid of this Demon, but I have to tell myself I can handle it. Before I can panic, the Demon flies up and tries to attack me, but I counter him perfectly.
I lunge backwards, and when the Demon is leaning forward, I bring my sword down on his back. Black fluid spurts from where I hit him, but it doesn't deter him at all. He pushes forward as if my swipe was barely a scratch.
"Watch your back!" Gabe shouts as he battles his own Demon on the ground. I use my sword to swing around blindly. The head of the Demon behind me falls to the ground. For a second, it's silent. But only one second.
The beheading only infuriates the other Demons and three come towards me quickly. I look over and Gabe has his shirt off and is coming towards me, his own black wings doing all the work.
We're back to back, and we're completely surrounded. For the first time in my life, I feel truly threatened. Gabe feels strong, his energy ricocheting against mine.
"We got this," Gabe chants, shaking his body in a confident way. "When you hit, hit to kill."
"I've never heard you sound so merciless," I tell him.
"Kill or be killed, Micha. And we're not dying here."
Just as he finishes his sentence, the Demons attack, all at once. My heart sputters at the suddenness of their movement, but I push every single emotion aside and get into the right mode to fight. I block out everything except my senses, trying to anticipate their movements and counter them.
Gabe grunts behind me, but I ignore it. I have to focus on the five or so Demons in front of me. My wing vibrates in pain as I'm struck from the side. I don't turn that way, though. I slash my sword forward and nail a perfect hit on the Demon in front of me.
He screams and retreats back a bit. I then swipe left and hit the Demon focused on my wing. But when I'm pulling my arm back, he claws my arm, and I drop my sword to the ground.
I don't have time to think about it. I lunge forward with both of my arms out and grab him around the neck. I pull him, using all of my wings' strength to guide me past the others.
Mid-air, I thrust the Demons head onto my knee and turn him around so that he's facing outward. I yank his head backwards while kicking his body forwards, hoping that I have enough strength to decapitate him with just my bare hands.
I hear his spine and neck crack, but my strength isn't enough. But it is enough to bring him to the ground and leave him there while I focus on the others.
Before I can fly back up to the main fight, I'm tackled from behind and thrown forward into the ground. My head bashes against the rock hard floor, and I can feel wetness drip down my eyebrow.
I flip over so I'm face up, but I can't see anything because a Demon gets right over me and lands a hard punch to my cheek. I roll twice to get out of the way, and then jump to my feet.
It's then that I see the sparkle from my sword, and I don't hesitate. I sprint to it and lift it into my hand. I have just one second before the Demon comes to me but again, I don't hesitate.
I slice him right across the neck, and then punch him in the face hard enough so that his head falls right off and lands on the floor next to my feet. I kick it to the side in anger.
My brain switches into kill mode; it's like an out of body experience. I've never had one before, so it's the strangest feeling. I know I'm moving around and fighting, but it's like my brain doesn't recognize itself.
I kill Demon after Demon, with my hands, with my feet, with my sword. I get creative and Gabe and I work together, one pulling one way, the other pulling the other.
Black blood coats everything, including my clothes and body. It's thick and goopy, but I don't even care. All I want is to kill more and more Demons.
When the last Demon has fallen, I return to my body. It's almost as if the light switch turns on in my brain, and I'm back to my normal self. Though, I think this experience has forever changed me.
"We did it," I mutter, looking at all bodies lifelessly lying around us in a large circle. They fill up the small room, and the retched smell turns my stomach.
"You were awesome," Gabe says between pants. I look over and he has his hands on his bent knees as he takes in large gasps of air.
I don't know what is going to happen next. It's painfully obvious that Luke is putting us through some sort of testing before he lets us into his kingdom. But it doesn't scare me anymore. Not after defeating somewhere around twenty Demons.
I can take on Luke. I can take on anyone to get to Annie.
I figure since it's deafeningly quiet, the fight is over. No more Demons emerge from the walls, and I use this as my chance to regroup. I grab my sword and walk over to the black bag against the wall.
There's a towel inside of it, and I use that to clean off the black substance the Demons bled all over me and my sword. When I'm satisfied, I re-sheath the sword on my back and gather the rest of the weapons.
Gabe comes over after he's caught his breath and he does the same with his three swords and knife. He places them back in the bag and throws it over his shoulder.
We stand, side by side, in the middle of the room and anticipate what comes next. We don't talk since there's nothing to say. We just await our next instruction.
Suddenly, a black door appears in the wall. It's small, just about an inch taller than I am. It's simple and looks out of place in cavernous room. There's a silver knob on the door with no lock on it. The door has a design engraved on the front that I've never seen it before.
I look over at Gabe to determine what he wants to do. He nods, so we walk to the door together and open it. Gabe lets me step through first. The room is pretty dark and when a faint white light flickers on, the first thing I see is Annie.
I run to her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
A Secret
My Annie is so close to me. But as I run closer and closer to her, I notice the glass box she's trapped in. Then, when I look up into her eyes, I can see the pain in her, the tears that threaten to spill out of her.
When she finally distinguishes that it's me, she begins to bang against the thick glass. Her fists are balled up so much that her knuckles are sheer white. The tears fall, and she cries and yells for me to save her.
I get to the box and try to break it. I slam my first against it and then punch it, using all of the strength that I can muster. The glass doesn't crack. It doesn't even budge.
When I know it's useless to keep expending my energy, I stop and look at Annie, trapped and broken inside her cage.
"Are you okay? Annie, talk to me!" I yell as I look at her in there. I try to search her body to see if she's been hurt, but I can't tell from out here. She looks weak, but she's alive.
"You have to leave! He'll kill you!" she yells at me, urging me with her eyes to run.
"No!" I yell back, shaking my head from side to side.
"He's going to kill you, Micha."
"I don't care," I say back honestly.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I'm so, so, sorry!" she chants, resting her hand on the glass, palm out. I stand in front of her. Despite the thick glass between us, I rest my palm aga
inst hers and try to feel her heat through the glass. I rest my head against the glass and she bends forward. I can almost feel her forehead against mine.
"Well isn't this the most adorable thing I've ever seen," Luke's voice comes into the room again.
"Let her go!" I yell, looking up, but he's nowhere to be found. I start walking in circles, as I have no idea where he is. Since I'm not focused on Annie any longer, I take a second to look the room we're now in. It's similar to the last, small and circular with no windows or exit. I can't seem to find him anywhere, and it frustrates me that he won't show his face. He's a coward.
"Another test to save the girl you love?" Luke asks, humor in his voice.
"Anything," I answer back sternly. "Just don't hurt her."
"You mean don't do this?" Luke plays back. Before I can object, Annie screams. I run to the box. She falls to the ground, clutching her head between both hands. She screams again, the most agonizing noise I think I've ever heard.
"Stop!" Gabe yells at Luke, dropping the weapons bag and coming towards me. "What do you want us to do?" he asks Luke.
"Okay, okay. You've got me," Luke says. As he speaks, Annie stops screaming. She remains on the ground, curled into a small ball. Though she's not screaming anymore, she's crying, small tears falling against her skin as she cradles herself. "Read the note, do what it says, and she'll live," Luke says as if he's bored with the conversation.
Gabe and I both rush over to a small, black table where a white piece of paper is folded in half. Gabe reaches it first and reads the note aloud. "What can one not keep, two hold, and three destroy?"
"Air!" I yell as loud as I can. It's the first thing I can think of, and I want to get this test over with so that I can save Annie.
"Wrong-o," Luke drawls. A loud buzzing rings off in the room and Annie screams again. She leans against the glass walls and cries as Luke tortures her.
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