Devon #2
He was enormous, at least a head taller than Archon, with hair so gold it was almost metallic.
His wings were out—massive, iridescent, and edged so brightly they shone like flames.
He wore white pants and a gold robe open over his bare chest, which seemed excessive but also exactly right for a celestial being.
His eyes glowed with something that wasn’t quite light, but intent, focused and almost terrible to look at.
He approached with slow, predatory grace, every step deliberate. When he reached me, he lifted my chin with two fingers and stared into my eyes.
“Arielle,” he said, and my heart bucked at the name, a memory unspooling inside me. “Why do you run?”
My voice in this memory was different, higher and softer. “I am not running,” I said. “I have only come to see the garden.”
He smiled, but it was not a kind smile. “You never do as you’re told.”
He reached for me, hands on my waist, and pulled me to him with a force that was both thrilling and terrifying.
His mouth was at my neck, breath warm and sweet.
My body responded in ways that were confusing—this angel was beautiful beyond anything, but the cold in his eyes said he would take what he wanted, whether or not I gave it.
“Let go of me,” I said, but my voice was barely a whisper. “I do not want this.”
He laughed, and the sound shook the branches of every tree in the garden. “I have warned you, Arielle,” he said. “Last time you disobeyed me, I was merciful. This time, there will be no mercy.”
He pushed me so I was pinned against a wall of living vines, flowers opening and closing like mouths all around me. He pressed his entire length against me, hands roaming my body, and I wanted to disappear.
“I will tell the Creator,” I said. “You cannot do this.”
He leaned back and slapped me hard across the cheek, not enough to draw blood, but enough to shock me into silence. “You are mine. All of you. When I say jump, you jump. When I say stay, you stay. You are nothing but what I make you.”
He pressed his lips to my ear and said, “This is your last warning.”
The next memory was jagged, like a scratched film reel. I was in a room of light, where I stood alone. Sariel stood at the front, arms raised.
“You have defied me,” he declared. “You have corrupted the order of heaven. For this, you will be erased.”
I tried to speak, to defend myself, but no sound came.
Sariel seized me by the arm and dragged me to the center of the room. “Kneel,” he commanded. I did, because the force of his will was a mountain on my back.
He began to speak in the same language Archon had used, only this time the words were razor blades, each one slicing away a piece of who I was.
The pain started at the base of my skull, then radiated through every nerve.
My wings. My beautiful, glowing white wings.
He was hacking them from my body. I screamed, but the sound vanished before it reached my lips.
There was no one to intervene on my behalf. Sariel made certain of it.
The words grew louder until they were all I could hear, and then…
Nothing.
Just blackness, and the memory of falling.
I woke with a scream trapped in my throat, choking on my own breath. I was back in the mansion; the sitting room blurry with tears. I was curled in Kazimir’s lap, his arms wrapped so tight around me I thought my ribs might crack. Archon knelt on the floor beside us, his hand stroking my hair.
“It’s over,” he murmured. “You are here. You are safe.”
Kazimir rocked me, slow and steady, his voice a low chant in my ear. “You are mine. You are mine. Nothing will take you from me.”
I turned and wrapped my arms around him, pressed my face to his neck and sobbed, every muscle trembling. The vision clung to me like cold sweat.
After a few minutes, I pulled myself together. I wiped my face on Kazimir’s shirt and tried to stand, but he wouldn’t let go until I pushed him off. I looked at Archon, who seemed… sad. Older, somehow.
“That was real,” I whispered. “All of it.”
He nodded. “Your name was Arielle. Sariel was your superior. You refused him, and he made you pay the price. He clearly understood the wrongness of what he had done. That’s why he erased your memory and hid you in a place even unknown to himself.
But you have been missed. Now you’ve become a loose end. ”
I laughed bitterly. “All this for saying no?”
Archon’s mouth was a straight line. “In the angel ranks, authority is absolute. You challenged it, and he destroyed you rather than allowing his shame to be made known. This is not what the Creator intended when he allowed an archangel to rise in the ranks. We are to be about the Creator’s business, which even at times difficult, ultimately is for the greater good. This act was not.”
Kazimir brushed the hair from my face. “He cannot destroy you now. You are not alone.”
I looked at my hands, expecting them to glow, or sprout feathers, or something. But they were just hands. Scarred from working with a fryer in a greasy spoon.
“So what happens now?” I asked, voice hollow.
Archon stood, drawing himself up to his full, impossible height.
“Now you live. Sariel will come for you, but you have allies. You are no longer a pawn. Your wings will likely regenerate in time now that you know what you are and given the fact that you were banished from heaven without just cause.”
I tried to feel triumphant, but mostly I just felt empty.
Kazimir tilted my chin until I met his eyes. “You are still the same,” he said. “You are mine, and I am yours. This does not change that.”
I let myself believe him, just for a second.
Archon smiled, and for the first time, it reached his eyes. “You have chosen your fate, Arielle. Now claim it.”
I leaned into Kazimir, letting him hold me until the shaking stopped.
I was not a monster. I was myself—fallen, broken, but alive.
I would allow my mate to claim me as I would claim him, and we would fight the evil that came for me. I was Arielle Devon Wade damn it. Let them come.