Midnight
The underworld is significantly brighter than I imagine.
There’s more glass too. In fact, I’m on the edge of a city made of glass.
Light glints off the skyscrapers, making rainbows in the air.
The underworld doesn’t have rainbows, or glass.
It’s dingy and full of decaying fungus. I scratch my jaw as I glance up.
There’s barely a puff of cloud in the sky.
It’s jarring as I try to understand the heavenly view and radiant warmth kissing my skin.
This is nothing like the underworld I remember. Is this what the shades see when they die? Do we experience a different underworld to them?
I turn around to face a bridge.
I frown. It’s so familiar, I swear I’ve seen it before.
The more I stare the more I realise I have. But it’s not me that’s seen it, it was Architecti.
“Oh… Oh my gods,” I whisper.
This isn’t the underworld at all. It’s the Celestial Realm.
“How the hell did I end up here?”
“Because you made a pure sacrifice,” a deep and silky voice says. I turn to see an ancient angel.
I incline my head in deference. I’m not sure why, it just feels right.
He lets out a soft chuckle. “It was noble, what you did…”
“Thank you? Why does it feel like there’s a ‘but’ in there?”
He sighs, his eyes lowering until his gaze lands on my chest, squarely where Lucy’s crystalline heart sits.
“Oh. I can’t come in, can I?”
He presses his lips together. “It’s difficult. You could, yes. Though, I’m not sure you really want to.”
“I’m not a demon. Not really,” I shrug.
“No. Not yet. But you could be. What you did… it changed things. It gave you an opportunity.”
I frown. His eyes flick to the bridge behind me.
“You have a choice. You made a noble sacrifice and for that I offer you a gift. A choice. You can walk into the Celestial Realm and leave everything behind…”
“Or?” I breathe.
“Or you can take a leap of faith and change your destiny.”
“I thought our fate was sealed.”
He smiles. “We choose our fate now. Do you remember wishing for an Architect moth just once… instead of an entropy moth? A moth of possibility rather than one that takes it away…”
I gasp, remembering that night—the same night I finally got into Finis Academy.
The elder angel sweeps his hand around and the air bursts to life with Architect moths. I brace, expecting the fear I’ve so often felt when the entropy moths assault me.
This is different, they’re light as they flutter through the air.
“You’re giving me the chance to create my own fate? Even if that means rejecting the Celestial Realm and becoming a demon?”
“Close your eyes, and hold your hand out…”
I do as I’m told. I flinch as warm breath trickles over my forehead. Soft lips brush against my skin; it’s the warmest kiss I’ve ever received.
I’m not sure if he speaks the next words or whispers them into my mind. “What if this time, you saved yourself?”
When I open my eyes, he’s gone, along with all the Architect moths save for a solitary one that sits in the palm of my hand.
“It’s just you and me, my friend.”
My cheeks are wet, my eyes blurry. I glance from the Celestial City to the moth in my hand and then the bridge behind me.
Eternity in heaven or a lifetime in hell?
It was never really a choice, was it?