FALL FROM PARADISE

by Blair, M. Dylan

  What is this? Alarm flooded through me, the room suddenly growing louder as it did.

  Steady now. Breathe and stay calm. Concentrate.

  I inhaled again, drawing a sharp rush of air into my lungs until the room once again disappeared into the background.

  Good. Now why are you avoiding me? He sat down into the seat beside Mammon and nodded along absentmindedly.

  What are you doing?

  Playing along.

  Isn’t that a bit disingenuous?

  He looked back up at me, his features scrunched with irritation. I am their leader. They know that I have more than just one thing weighing on my shoulders. If it was important enough, Mephis would alert me.

  He can hear us? My eyes darted to the tall, lanky brunet whose wardrobe never ceased to amaze me. Everytime I saw him he looked like he had raided somebody’s closet in Victorian England. The thought that it was probably his own suddenly dawned on me.

  Camael was muffling a grin.

  My eyes widened. Can you hear everything I’m thinking?

  Like this?

  I nodded.

  Yes, he answered. You never answered my question. Now tell me why are you avoiding me? What did I do that has you so cross?

  Why do you keep acting like you didn’t kidnap me? Or that you didn’t stab me? If that somehow falls under your definition of protection, I think your thoughts are a little skewed.

  He scowled at me. Why do you keep thinking you see the whole picture?

  Please, I scoffed. Don’t think for an instant that I believe you did this out of the kindness of your heart.

  I did.

  “Bullshit.” I jumped from my seat, my hands slapping the table.

  Everyone in the room suddenly looked at me, including Mephis who turned around with his eyebrow cocked in amusement. “No, no, Lady Lilith. I assure you the bulwarks in Machon are made from moonstone-fused alabaster.”

  “What?” I blinked and felt my face turn bright red.

  “This meeting is adjourned,” Camael suddenly boomed. “Everyone’s dismissed except Mephis, Mammon, and Lilith. You three, stay.”

  The four of us waited as the rest of the Hosts shuffled out of the room. Na’amah shot me a knowing look as she walked arm in arm with another Archdemon I had seen only once. Lucifuge Rofocale. Rolf, she had called him. From what I understood, he was one of Camael’s generals on the field, one of the Four Horsemen.

  As soon as the four of us were alone, Camael came around the semi-circle to stand between Mammon and Mephis as the three men stared intently at me.

  “I needed to get you alone with the three of us,” Camael said simply.

  “Why?” My eyes darted nervously between them while Mephistopheles beamed like the Cheshire cat.

  “This way.” Camael motioned for me to follow him as he took off around the back of the table to a second meeting room.

  Here everyone had white wings instead of black. From the looks of it, there were more than a hundred, assembled neatly in rows upon rows that circumscribed a smaller group of angels at the base of their meeting area. A massive space, it reminded me of something a gladiator would fight in back in the day, an arena.

  Of the small group, one of them stood at a podium in the center, addressing the crowd before him. I had never seen this angel before, but amid the handful on either side of him, I could make out Raphael’s distinct complexion and bright red hair.

  I nearly ran to him only to be stayed by some invisible force, the image before me rippling like water.

  “What is this?” I choked. “This isn’t real?”

  “Oh, it is,” Mephis said as he came closer and brushed his fingertips over the image, only making it stir more like ripples in a lake.

  “Can they see us?” I looked at Camael before looking back down into the arena, my eyes instinctively searching for Adam though I didn’t expect to find him.

  “No.” Camael shook his head and pointed to the man on the podium. “This man here, he is known as Enoch.”

  That name sounded familiar, as if I had heard it before; and then it dawned on me. “Like from the Bible Enoch?”

  He pointed at me with a nod. “Yes, that Enoch. He is their leader as I am ours. He commands over the Seven. This moment here has already transpired. It happened days ago, possibly weeks. You see this man right over here?”

  This time he pointed at someone with their back turned to face the tribunal of angels.

  Someone who hadn’t been there a moment ago.

  Someone with black wings.

  It was Adam.

  “This was part of the intel our men brought back, Amelia,” Camael said gently. “He’s put a bounty on your head. Dead, not alive, Amelia. They’re going to exterminate every last one of us.”

  Danielle was wrong. Adam was behind all of this.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  I just couldn’t do it anymore.

  The tears couldn’t stop my knees from buckling beneath me, like some gaping chasm had been ripped open inside of me, threatening to drown me in my sorrow. Somewhere between all the wailing, I felt myself scooped up, only to find Camael carrying me in his arms.

  I no longer had the energy to fight him, nor anyone else for that matter. I didn’t care what he was going to do to me; I was already dead inside.

  God had abandoned me; he had abandoned all of us.

  “Why is this happening?” I searched his steel-gray eyes and found them looking at me with the same emotion as when I’d confronted him about the dream.

  His jaw tightened. “Everything will be okay, I promise.”

  Much to my dismay, I leaned into his shoulder as he carried me and wept into his black tunic. More alarming was the fact that he actually let me.

  I cried and cried until everything went black, and I knew no more.

  Ω

  I woke up to find myself in a bed much different from my own, with a plush burgundy and gold comforter pulled all the way to my chest and Camael asleep in a nearby recliner. A small bedside table with a miniature chandelier lamp illuminated the otherwise dark room.

  I didn’t remember even coming in here, and yet Camael had been here long enough to fall asleep with a book in hand. Whatever it was, it was so tattered and worn that I was surprised the stitching was still intact. My curiosity got the better of me, and I reached out to lift the front so I could see the title.

  Faust.

  Oh, wasn’t that cute.

  Camael stirred slightly and opened his eyes to find me leaning toward him. “Hi,” he said groggily, stretching in the recliner as he set the book down on the edge of the table.

  “Faust?” I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice.

  He leaned back, tugging on his arms as he yawned. “You don’t like classic German literature?”

  Was this guy serious? “I like it as much as the next person, but I wasn’t asking for myself. Why are you reading it?”

  He ran a hand over the torn cover. “It has personal significance for me.”

  “Mephis, is he—”

  “One and the same.”

  I leaned back into the mound of pillows behind my back. “So it’s true, then?”

  He crossed his leg and mimicked my relaxed posture. “In a fashion, yes.”

  I stared down at the comforter over my legs, tugging on the plush material as I sat there in silence. This was the second time I had woken up to find a man beside my bed with me incapacitated beforehand. It was like a bad date night. I didn’t know what to do.

  Here I was, a normal girl lost on the road of life, only to find myself dragged into a war that I was told I had caused. I didn’t know what was real and what was fake anymore. I had no business being here, there, or anywhere else in this madhouse. I just wanted to go home and forget any of this had ever happened.

  “You can’t do that,” Camael whispered, breaking the silence.

  “What?” I looked up to find those steel eyes centered on me.

  “Amelia, w
hat’s going on is not your fault. You need to understand that.” He got up from his seat and moved over to the bed, sitting down between the nightstand and me.

  “There’s a lot of things I don’t understand,” I told him. “What is really going on? If you’re not evil, then why are you trying to overthrow Araboth?”

  He pursed his lips for a moment. “Because they took something very important from me a long time ago. The Spheres have been corrupted for a long time. It’s no longer about God’s will; now it’s about something else entirely.”

  “And what would that be?”

  He shrugged uncertainly. “Preserving our way of life, I suppose. Doing the right thing matters less. Belief is a powerful thing for everyone from the Fabled Seven to the guy at the jiffy mart.

  “At first, the Realms were like a well-oiled machine. Each member did his or her part for the good of the whole: seven realms in Heaven, and seven of us to watch over them. It worked for millennia, and then something changed. Things weren’t the same after that.”

  “What changed?”

  The look on his face told me this wasn’t a favorite subject of his. “The Fall from Paradise.”

  I scratched my head. “You were around for that?”

  “Of course.” He rubbed the inner portion of his eye and yawned. “So were you, as was Adam. We don’t die, Amelia. That’s why Hell exists. The soul’s immortal. Hell’s one giant prison to keep everyone in line.

  “It’s not as pretty as everyone would like, and we’re not here to rehabilitate these souls into society, Celestial or Assiyaian. Many of these people lost their souls while alive. That’s how a demon is born. They do something so reprehensible that there is no coming back from it.”

  “And you?”

  “What about me?” he asked.

  “So that’s it then?” I said. “You’re going to start a war with Araboth?”

  He sighed.

  “Why won’t you just tell me what’s going on?” I grabbed his shoulder, forcing the leader of the demons to face me.

  “I can’t,” he whispered suddenly. “I want to, but I can’t.”

  “You mean you won’t.” I let go of him and threw my head back into the pillows. “I thought I proved that you could trust me.”

  “Trust,” he snorted. “As interesting of a concept as that is, it has nothing to do with it.”

  “Okay.” He made no sense. “Then what is it?”

  “I’ve already said.” I just can’t.

  That’s not good enough, Camael. I can’t help if you don’t let me, I said, reaching for his hand before I could help myself.

  Our eyes locked until he quickly looked away. I should never have baited you into coming here.

  “Why do you say that?” I asked. I shifted back in the covers so that my feet were underneath me as I sat beside him on the bed. “Why did you train me if you weren’t going to ever need me?”

  “I have need of you,” he replied, staring absentmindedly around the room. “I just don’t think that throwing you into the line of fire is the best way to showcase your abilities.”

  “Okay,” I mumbled, “and what abilities are those?”

  “You’re the only one who can teleport without an anchor.”

  “Teleport?” I wanted to make sure I was hearing him right.

  You heard me. Teleportation, and without an anchor. There are more reasons for the First Sphere wanting you dead than you realize. You’re a threat to them, and with them, all of Heaven.

  Why me? Why not someone else? Does Adam have these abilities?

  He shrugged. I can’t attest to what he is or is not able to do, nor do I care to.

  Why do you hate him so much?

  He stared off into the darkness where the lamp failed to reach.

  Camael?

  He’s not who you think he is, Amelia.

  And who is that? . . . Camael? . . . Camael!

  But he would not answer me. Instead, his eyes locked on mine, with silence our only companion. Each time I caught him staring at me, I felt my insides tug as if I were being pulled by a cord. But I didn’t know what to do, how to react. I was irresistibly drawn to him. He was so damaged, so closed off, a luxury I had never known personally.

  But most importantly, I could not read his thoughts. His body language revealed nothing. His face, nothing. I was on my own, lost in a sea of thoughts with no help from him.

  Something terrible must have happened to make him leave Heaven, but he wouldn’t tell me, wouldn’t help me understand. His immense dislike of Adam made it irrefutable that Adam was somehow involved, but I hadn’t been there. I didn’t know what had happened to cause this rift; I only knew the outcome.

  “I want to ask you something, Amelia,” he said gently. “And I would very much like to get a truthful answer.”

  “Truth begets truth, Camael,” I said without hesitation. “You tell me what’s really going on, and maybe I’ll consider it.”

  “When Mephis stated that you were dreaming about me, you didn’t deny it. Why?” he asked, picking the book back up once more only to fiddle with it absentmindedly. “Was he right?”

  “Why does it matter?”

  “Because it just does.” He frowned. “I wouldn’t tell you that unless it was true.”

  “But you won’t tell me why it’s important,” I said.

  “No.” He shook his head. “Not yet, but I will. I promise. That’s the best I can say at this point. Do you accept?”

  I thought about it for a moment. What did it matter anyway? Sooner or later, he’d find out about me, and sooner or later, I would find out what was going on. Sharing the information now was just a means to an end. “Yes.”

  I watched the color drain from his face. “Yes?” he repeated.

  I slid off the bed and began pacing the darkened room. “Whose room is this?”

  “Mine, and you’re changing the topic, Amelia.”

  “This is your room?”

  “Yes,” he growled softly, setting down the book, “It is. Why?”

  “It’s so small.”

  He nearly choked. “I’m sorry?”

  “Your room. It’s so small compared to what I expected.”

  “And just what were you expecting?” He stood up and stopped me in my tracks, holding his hands out on either side of me, steering me like a loose sheep.

  “I don’t know,” I said as I tried to dodge around him. “Something grand. Something befitting your title. Something more than this.”

  He laughed and mirrored my movements. “Just because I’m the leader of Gehenna doesn’t mean that I have to live lavishly. It’s just me, and I’m content.”

  I stared at the dark oak paneling on the walls and the thick homespun rug at our feet. The rug’s pattern matched the embroidery on the comforter. I had been lying in his bed without knowing it. His bed. Oh geez.

  I could feel my face flush. “I mean, my chambers are larger than yours.”

  “I know,” he answered. “It’s because they were supposed to be mine when I got here, but I decided on this room instead. So the other room became yours.”

  “Cam?”

  He froze instantly, his face losing all color. The instant temperature drop made me wonder if I had said something wrong. Maybe he wasn’t used to anyone calling him that.

  “Sorry.” I blushed and started to back up.

  He suddenly reached out and grabbed me before I could, his grip strong on my upper arms, trapping me directly in front of him. “Don’t be.”

  My heart leapt in my throat; my mind raced to catch up. I stood frozen, eyes wide, as he held onto me.

  His eyes were as still as night as he returned my gaze. “You never answered my question.”

  Oxygen rushed back into my lungs. “What question?” I whispered a little sharper than I intended. Though I could never read his thoughts, I knew his mind was racing with things unsaid, his shielding too strong for any real answers.

  “Amelia.” He frowned at me. />
  “Camael.” I mocked.

  His hands were warm and distracting. His grip tightened a little further, forcing me to look up at him. “You never answered my question,” he repeated, each word more deliberate this time.

  “I know,” I whispered, my eyes suddenly welling up though I had no idea why.

  “Please,” he begged suddenly, sounding far more innocent than his appearance belied. “I need to know.”

  “Why, Camael?”

  “I just do,” he answered, this time shaking me. “Please, Amelia.”

  I sighed. What more did I have to lose? I was already trapped in Hell. “I dreamt about us.”

  “Us?” he repeated, making it sound like it was something inconceivable.

  “Together.”

  “I see.” He let go of me so sharply that I almost lost my balance.

  “You see?”

  “I’m sending you home,” he said and scooped up the book on his bed.

  “What?” I choked.

  He turned toward the door, his posture rigid as I struggled to get in his way this time. “You have no business here, Amelia. I’m sorry for keeping you here so long. I thought it was the only way, but I was wrong. I’m sorry, and I’m sending you home because of it.”

  “Wait, Cam,” I said before I could help myself and noticed the corner of his lip twitched. “So that’s it?”

  “Yes.” He reached for the door handle, pulling the large oak door open. “I was an idiot to bring you here.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I know, and it’s better that way.” He frowned one last time before closing the door behind him.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Until now, Camael had summoned me rather commonly. Now I was lucky if we saw each other once a week. He was purposefully avoiding me.

  Decisive calculations, said Na’amah. He has put up a wall, something he is best at.

  What period they had spent together remained vague, as neither wanted to rehash what had transpired. However, he had been damaged long before she had gotten to him.

  Perhaps it had something to do with the vendetta he’d now embarked on.