“If you had a chance to save Lex, would you take it?”
It didn’t even need to be asked. “If it was me he wants, would you allow it?”
He searched my eyes for a moment. His hand cupped my cheek. “I would never stop you from being who you are.”
The truth in his words only made me more hesitant. Rifling through my memory, I tried to think of a time when he’d actively stopped me from being true to myself but couldn’t. As much as he raged and ranted, he allowed me freedom when I needed it.
“Please be very careful.”
“I have every reason to be, Sophie darling.”
Back inside the Ley dimension, I conveyed our agreement. The malachim nodded.
The transfer will hurt you, he thought without malice. Just a statement of truth.
That’s okay.
You are a strange one, Sophie Mwansa. I watched out for one like you many eons ago. But she was bigger, fiercer in body. He furnished me with the image of a warrior princess with skin as dark as midnight and eyes that burned with fire. Her golden headdress was adorned with intertwining vines. A huntress in Gaia’s army as they went to their death against the forces of Hell.
I hope our fates end up differently. I did not care for the way he regarded Max with unwavering stillness. All of the breath was knocked out of me when the malachim slipped from Professor McKenna and into my body through my mouth. Max clenched me to him as the alchemy surged to meet the soul of the malachim. The mating link pushed out behind the alchemy, holding on to my soul as securely as Max was holding my body.
I cried out as pain stabbed at my mind. Blood trickled down my nose. Gripping Max’s hand, I focused all of my energy on siphoning the malachim’s soul, piece by piece, until I had transmuted the black evil that had corrupted it in the Abyss. What was left behind was a shining round orb of pure light. A pool of dark sludge lay beneath it. The darkness poured out of my mouth in a gush of blood that dribbled down my chin and splashed the sheet.
“Goodness!” Professor Mortimer said.
Max growled and I thought it was to stop anybody from trying to approach me. My head lolled to the side as the final bit of soul was transmuted. I coughed blood like nobody’s business. My head pounded so hard I thought I was going to faint. The only thing keeping me standing was Max’s arm.
When I opened my eyes, it was to a world bathed in white. And then, in the corner of the room, a seraphim appeared draped in a silver cloak. The supernaturals shrank back and tried to get on their knees but there just wasn’t enough space.
“My lord,” the malachim spoke using my voice.
Azrael nodded his head. “Haniel. You belong with me.”
The malachim agreed. But it made no move to vacate my body. “I wish to remain with the human. I wish to help them.”
“This is not your fight anymore. Your time ended long ago.”
Azrael lowered his cowl and I all but lost my mind. He was so incredibly beautiful in a quietly fearsome way. His expression was not warm like Raphael’s or fierce like Michael. It was an absence of feeling almost. Like...well, death. But a calm death. A peaceful death. Isla was right. When all was said and done, I wanted to be with Azrael too.
“It is all of our fight now, my lord.”
“You understand the consequences?”
I gulped but it wasn’t my apprehension that caused it. “Yes. I understand.”
“So be it.”
Silver and black light sparked before Azrael disappeared. Turning, the malachim, Haniel, set his sights on Max. His attention tracked to where Lex had tattooed the Angelical on Max’s chest. He nodded.
My mouth opened involuntarily, and I felt the world turn upside down as Haniel left my body. Max jerked. His arms slipped from around me to clutch at his throat. Durin reached out for me. Max’s eyes bulged for a moment before his aura became lit with a white fire that made his eyes blaze.
It was the last thing I saw before I passed out.
47
In my dream, I stood on the precipice of the Abyss. Overhead, the red sky made the atmosphere oppressive. It was almost better to be in darkness than to know the sun was not producing any warmth.
Kai stood on one side of me, my great-grandfather on the other. Neither of them moved their bent heads as they stared into the depthless void. Around us, I was acutely aware of the legion of demons that were clawing and biting at each other as they stood waiting.
The air was charged with static and clogged with brimstone. Unsure what else to do, I looked down into the centre of the Abyss. I almost jumped out of my skin when a flash of silver sliced through the red sky and Lucifer came to a soft landing on the other side of the opening. His beauty was painful to behold. Even if he wasn’t wearing that mocking golden Nephilim armour, his presence would have drawn a crowd. When we’d taken his vessel from the seraphim, I’d done everything I could to avoid looking at him. Now it was impossible not to be drawn to his presence, even as my eyes watered.
A force a million times more oppressive than the malachim closed around my mind. I sank to my knees even though I tried to resist cowering.
“You were right to lean on her, Alessia.”
Despite the fear that made me quiver, my head snapped up. She stepped out of the darkness and all the air in the Abyss felt like it was sucked dry. She was wearing jeans and a grey T-shirt, but
