He closed his eyes, placing his palms flat against our legs. I heard Melisande’s quiet inhale of surprise as his shadows swirled around us, the stars flickering and dying as we became incorporeal.
Soon, we looked like nothing more than a cloud of smoke, barely visible from anything but a short distance.
Lucifer placed his hand on Melisande’s other leg, and the shadows crept out to surround him. “Let’s move quickly,” he said.
She was mostly obscured, but Melisande was rigid as a board as we descended the hill, her shadowy face turned towards Acheron. As much as I wanted to gaze through the dome into the city, I kept scanning the surrounding wastelands, looking for something- anything, even a stray coin or an oddly-placed dead tree- that might be a snare for unwary travelers.
As we hit level ground and the city grew in size, she dropped her hand to Azazel’s, dark flames growing around her fingertips and disappearing into his. I realized she was feeding him magic, ensuring we’d remain nearly invisible to anyone nearby.
A stick cracked and the horses stopped dead. Lucifer drew his sword without ever breaking contact with Melisande.
Several long minutes passed in taut silence, but the only living thing besides ourselves was a gray lizard sunning itself on a rock.
We kept going, barely breathing, and finally I was no longer able to keep my eyes away from Acheron. I stared across the Styx, making out an enormous clock tower. The surface of the magical bubble made it look like it was rippling, the details fading in and out of perspective. Several other towers gushed smoke in the air, and one of the towers was crumbling, a ruin gutted by fire.
My veins ran cold at the sight. For the first time, I was thankful my mother was dead at a Watcher’s hands.
Better to have your soul gently pulled from your body, than to be torn into pieces and have your corpse thrown on a pyre that would choke thousands with the flames and smoke.
Several figures wandered the far edge of the Styx outside the dome. We moved as quickly as we could, but sweat prickled my back at the sight of my fellow Nephilim. It was impossible to tell what was wrong with them, but even from this distance, it was apparent what they were: the twisted ones.
The next hour passed like syrup, as if time itself had decided to keep us in a hellish infinite loop where we were always in danger of being sighted. All it would take was one Nephilim peering from a tower with a spyglass to catch sight of the smoky anomaly traveling the road.
The dark scrub of a forest finally overtook the wasteland, and when the road brought us beneath the branches of gnarled trees, everyone let out a long breath and Azazel released his shadows.
“Can we speak now?” Melisande whispered, but she looked over her shoulder with a twitch, like Acheron might’ve moved closer when we weren’t looking. The city itself was finally blocked from sight.
I felt nothing but relief now. I’d finally faced the home I’d been born in, and it was just as nightmarish-looking as I remembered.
“We can speak.” I dismounted Titan, feeling the inexplicable urge to be on solid earth, and she slid to the ground next to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.
I stroked her hair, wondering if she’d seen the Nephilim. If she lumped me in with them, knew that I came from the same twisted stock.
“Was it hard?” she asked, looking up at me. I touched her face, tracing her straight brows and high cheekbones.
“Not as hard as I thought it’d be.” I held her tight for a moment, feeling the tension in her own limbs. She was still afraid. “I’d burn it all to the ground if I could.”
She cast a look towards the sparse treeline. “Let’s just get as far away as we can.”
The gnarled trees grew higher until we were surrounded by dense forest, but Melisande finally opened up after her fear of Acheron. A pale blue bird flitted overhead and she actually smiled, especially when we passed through a thicker dense with vines and flowers.
“It’s so pretty here,” she said, brushing a flower that closed under her touch.
“We’ve passed through the wastelands,” Lucifer said, much more at ease than he’d been earlier. “We’re closer to Elysium than Dis now.”
Everything became greener, the wasted trees becoming tall, living oaks, but true night fell within several hours.
Lucifer and I pulled the horses through a thicket at the sound of running water, and Melisande picked sticks and burrs out of their manes and tails. Azazel became a cloud and drifted off, checking for signs of hostile life.
I helped Melisande pile dry twigs under several logs. She closed her eyes and summoned her dark fire, sending a spark into the heart of the tinder.
We collapsed around the flames.
Melisande climbed into my lap and took my face in her hands.
“You’re not like them,” she said softly. “I saw the look on your face. You might be Nephilim, but you don’t have to be like that.”
I rested my hand over hers. “I have the same monster inside me that they do. I just have a different face over it.”
She shook her head. “I refuse to believe that because you have the same darkness that you can’t possibly be good. You don’t trap people and torment them.”
I laid back on the ground, feeling my sore back muscles stretch with a pain that was more pleasant than not, and she stretched out next to me. The fire’s reflection flickered in her eyes, deepening them to liquid gold.
“You have too much faith in me, friend.”
She reached out and traced the bridge of my nose. “No, I have just enough.”
Lucifer stretched his legs, the rustle of his wings reminding me that other people were there besides us. “Get some sleep, Tascius. You’ve got the pre-dawn watch.”
Melisande propped
