42. Chapter 42
CHAPTER 42
Cassiel
C assiel landed at the peak of the Citadel’s courtyard like a comet. The force of his power cracked the stone beneath his feet and wisps of blue flame scattered out. His army of Valkyrie hovered behind him like a shroud of gold, filling the skies. He instructed them to watch from above first.
His black coat flowed around his legs with the wind as he strode forward, climbing up the steps to the circular planform that held the Hyalus tree. Each step left behind coils of flames in the stone and his gaze leveled with the gathered army of Nazar.
Leading them was Lord Gadriel, flanked by two warriors who shared his squared features. The eldest of them stood tall, well-built with a broad chest, and shot cropped blond hair. The other was more slender but confident in how he carried himself.
Cassiel circled the Hyalus tree and came to a stop before it. All was quiet as they stared up at him, perfectly still. The only sound came from the soft crackling of wood from the torches and the wind. It tugged at his clothing and wings, making them ripple.
As the sun dropped beyond the clouds, the Hyalus blazed and shot glittering white light through the leaves. They pulsed brightly as if to exalt him.
The Nazar Lord looked upon Cassiel’s crown of seraph fire and his throat bobbed a bit before he composed himself. He tipped his head in a slight bow. “Your Majesty.”
“Lord Gadriel. I would say it is a pleasure to greet you again, but I don’t think the feeling is mutual.” Cassiel narrowed his eyes on his army pointedly.
Gadriel had yet to put on his winged helmet, but he didn’t waste time with small talk. “I know why you have come.”
“Do you?”
“Hallel was a fool. He has always been one too ambitious to reach for more than what was his to take. That got him killed, but that was his undertaking, not mine. I had no intention of challenging you.”
“Hmm.” Cassiel climbed down the rest of the platform steps to the courtyard as he played with a petal of flame between his fingers. “Is that so? Then what do you say about the thousand or so armed Nazarians behind you?”
A muscle jumped in Gadriel’s clenched jaw. The arrival of twilight exposed the sheen of sweat on his forehead. But his blue eyes remained cool and focused. “I am told you have usurped the throne from your father and killed two Lords when they did not bend to your will. Skath has been razed to ground beneath a shroud of Seraph flame.” His gaze shifted up to the thousand Valkyrie watching from the sky. “Now you have arrived with your legion. Am I mistaken to fear that you came here to do the same?”
Fear.
It lingered so strongly in the air Cassiel could taste it. He had learned its weight, its shape. He could read it now on their pallid faces and the tension in their bodies. They were terrified of him.
But they need not fear him as long as they didn’t get in his way.
“I have come for only one thing, Lord Gadriel,” Cassiel said, flames slowly licking along his arms. “For justice.”
“Justice, sire?”
“Hallel’s coup did not begin with him alone. These elitists have conspired against me and mine. Traitors of the crown lurk in your Realm. Give them to me and no harm will be brought to your Realm.”
It wasn’t an empty threat. He didn’t come to destroy them, but their streets would not be spared of ash.
Denial furrowed Gadriel’s brow with anger and disbelief. “I have always held loyalty to my king. There are no traitors here.”
Cassiel sneered at that statement. He could still see very clearly Gadriel standing among those who betrayed him so long ago. “Oh, but there is.”
“Lies!” His tallest son bellowed. “To accuse us is to sully our honor. Nazar has never defied the crown, even when it has been usurped by the likes of you .”
Cassiel’s veins bled blue his hands flared with flame. It burst out of him in a tornado and tore into the sky as a column of pure Seraph fire. The Nazarians gasped and quickly recoiled several steps back, nearly falling over each other to escape him. Blue light bathed the courtyard and over their frightened faces.
“Do not speak to me of honor when your Realm was founded in defiance!” Cassiel’s bellowing voice echoed over the Citadel. “These bricks were laid upon your exile decreed by Elyōn a millennium ago for the actions of your ancestors that now you bear in shame.” A red flush colored Lord Gadriel’s face as he looked at him. “Your High King is here now declaring there are traitors in your midst. Do you deny justice?”
The Lord of Nazar palled. Cassiel glanced down at puddle at his feet. It held his reflection. He looked like a creature of obliteration with his eyes glowed menacing blue with a massive pillar of fire behind him.
He cast his flame away. “Answer.”
The Lord of Nazar straightened his shoulders, his expression pinching with acceptance and unease. “No.”
“Then bring them forward, or I will go through you to get them.”
He nodded, clearing his throat. Name them and they shall be put to trial, sire.”
At last, some shred of respect.
But could it be considered respect when done out of fear?
Letting his gaze pass over the silent army, Cassiel tapped against his thigh pensively. Before his untimely death, Lord Hallel had provided a few more names that had not been on the original list.
The only justice they would meet will be his.
“Ismael Sinai,” Cassiel called out.
An older soldier from the crowd jerked back.
“Ah, there you are.”
Ismael tried to flee but Cassiel snapped his fingers, and the Celestial’s wings snapped. He crashed on the courtyard hard, scrambling to his knees. Ismael barely looked up when fire swarmed into his helmet and set him ablaze from the inside. Screams echoed through the courtyard.
“Samiel and Serrachiel Abaddon,” he said next.
Two male brothers stepped forward. One with waves of blond hair and the other with braids. Sneering at him, they readied their spears, and they flew at him from both sides. But their weapons froze inches from Cassiel’s chest and other at his wings.
He canted his head as they trembled against the force of his compulsion. “Who gave you permission to move?”
Fire unfurled at their feet and consumed them. Their screams cut off as they burst into ash. Embers scattered in the wind. Whatever divinity of what made him dimmed like a dying candle. Cassiel was sullying himself with each death, but he did so with purpose. Because he could live with being a murderer. The only thing he could not live with was repeating his past.
Sighing, Cassiel said the next name. “Thaniel—” He whipped his head aside, narrowly dodging the arrow slicing past his cheek. Warm blood seeped from the cut and dripped down his chin.
Thaniel, the little sneak had climbed up onto a low tower of the citadel. He aimed and shot more arrows. With a flick of Cassiel’s hand, a wave of his fire shot forth. But the arrow cut right through it and grazed his arm.
Hmm. They had weapons forged with Skath metal.
Yelrakel threw a flaming spear, and it went straight through Thaniel’s heart. He dropped dead from the tower.
Lord Gadriel’s chest heaved with shallow breaths as they waited for the next name. “Are you finished slaughtering my people without trial?” he bellowed.
“No. I saved the best for last.” Cassiel turned to him. The Lord stiffened. Then Cassiel shifted his gaze on the lean Celestial standing beside him. “Akiel Nephele.”
His brother and father were aghast, her mouths gaping wide.
Akiel, however, wasn’t surprised. His blue eyes sharpened, cold and calculative. A little smile on the edge of his lips.
“No,” Gadriel growled. “My son is no traitor!”
“He is.”
Gadriel drew his sword, as did all of Nazar. ““You didn't come for justice. You came for revenge.” To his son he shouted, “Go!”
Akiel shot into the sky.
The Valkyrie attempted to make chase, but a unit of Nazarian soldiers flew up to defend him. The sky filled with the sound of clashing swords and cries, scorched feathers raining down.
Lights flashed as the fallen vanished.
“You have brought Death’s shadow to my Realm,” Lord Gadriel said.
So he had.
Death had clung to Cassiel with invisible claws since winter, following him around, sweeping away lives by the hundreds. No matter if he wanted to keep the losses minimal to only his targets, events continued to spiral him down a path he had walked before. The further he went, the less he’d be able to turn back.
In his first life, he had killed to avenge his love.
In this one, he would kill to protect it.
Yet Cassiel still gave Gadriel one last chance. “If you choose to fight you choose to die. End this, or I will. Who does Nazar stand with?”
Sneering, Gadriel put on his helmet. “I did not wish to fight you, but I will not allow you to annihilate the Realms with impunity. I see now it is Elyōn’s will that you be stopped. You were never meant to be here … Kāhssiel .”
Celestials flew at him.
Lifting his hand, they all halted in place. Cassiel flickered his finger, and the sound of bone crunched as their necks sharply twisted. He slew every soldier who challenged him by sword and flame.
A blade swept through the smoke. Pivoting, it clashed against his weapon, bringing him face to face with Gadriel. The Lord twisted his sword and shoved Cassiel back a step. His foot sunk into a stone, and he heard a latch click before the sound of a sharp clank . At the touch of icy metal, he looked down at the manacle wrapped around his left ankle. It was attached to chain coming out of the ground.
He had narrowly missed triggering the second snare that would have taken his right ankle. Divinity hummed in the manacle.
It was made of Skath metal.
His seraph fire died away and everyone stopped fighting.
He took the chain in his hand, squeezing it tightly in his fist. “You set a trap.”
Lord Gadriel smirked. “Did you truly think I would not prepare to detain you?”
Cassiel broke out into a laugh. A dark maniacal laugh that echoed through the quiet courtyard. “Detain me?” he growled. “I am the true High King. You are no one to capture me!”
With a jerk of his hand, the ground gave way, releasing the chain. The metal may block Seraph fire, but it couldn’t hold up against his newfound Seraph strength. Cassiel grabbed the manacle and snapped it clean off as if it were merely a dried branch.
Eyes widening, Lord Gadriel flew back. His army fell into formation again and readied their weapons. “Take him down!” he bellowed.
That command echoed through Cassiel’s memories, taking him back to that field of ash and bone as those he trusted came down upon him.
His generals.
His brothers in arms who arrived with him from the Heavies. They took everything from him, then butchered him when he was on his knees.
Fury swarmed Cassiel and fire ruptured from his body. He became the beast of flame they so feared, and he heard another voice in his head.
I WILL BURN IT ALL!
A sea of Seraph flame roared through the courtyard like a living, violent thing, hungry for retribution. But Cassiel did not feel in control of his fire anymore. It came from inside of him, from a deep well of pain and rage. From the remnants of Kāhssiel who demanded his enemies pay in blood. The flame rose in a massive wave into the sky and crested over the frightened citizens of Nazar, who had nowhere to run.
He would render it all to ash.
The wave collided with a beam of golden light.
The fire fell over a large dome, searching for a way in. Confused, Cassiel managed to take hold of himself again and called his power back. The flames dispersed, a few scattered embers left flickering on burned bushes and debris. Thich smoke obscured his vision. It slowly began to clear, revealing what had blocked him.
A transparent golden wall stood before him, as tall as the citadel.
Crackling with magic.
Behind it were the Celestials cowing on the floor, some still frozen in place with their weapons. All eyes fixed on the figure standing in front of the shield.
The smoke tinted by a green light veiled them, but he could distinguish the slender shape of a woman. A path of broken brick led to where she stood as if…
As if she had caught his flame and withstood it.
Two orbs of menacing green light appeared in the night. She was encompassed with flames in the same color. All was quiet, save for her soft steps. She moved like a cat as she strolled forward. He drew his sword as she rose into the air, bracing to fight.
But something stirred in Cassiel.
His veins hummed.
His heart pounded.
A roaring filled his ears.
Then his opponent came forward, glowing like a living flame.
She brought her hands together, one above the other, and a crackling sphere of fire formed between them. Her power violently charged the air, lifting the hair on his arms. She hurled her spell.
Cassiel was too slow to react. Her spell hit and hurled him back with the force of a firestorm.
He crashed into the stairs below the Hyalus tree. Hard enough to make it rattle and send glass leaves raining down. Cassiel groaned, gasping for air. He blinked up at the smoky sky. Past the branches, Yelrakel was arguing with another Celestial with red wings.
That spell.
It held power as if he had been struck down by the Heaven’s. Well, he would not be surprised if Elyōn had sent someone to punish him for his deeds.
The goddess landed lightly a few yards away.
Her magic dimmed to reveal her face as she strode forward. A beautiful terror that had come to vanquish him. And that wrath that had been seeded in Cassiel faded as all of him fell still.
Her boots clacked against the stone floor, the firelight catching on the black leather fitting her body like a second skin. Her red tresses fell free from her coronet and flared around her face in the wind.
A face he had dreamed of for the past three months.
Her cheeks were now speckled with a constellation of freckles, yet all the more enthralling with a fierce beauty that left him speechless. Because she was different.
Strong.
Powerful.
Dangerous .
Cassiel stared at Dyna with a stunned reverence as she strode through his flames. Silent words caught on his tongue like barbs. He was stuck between begging for her to truly be there and fearing she really was.
A part of him was sure it was a dream. He couldn’t get up. Couldn’t breathe. The sound of his beating heart drummed in his ears.
His throat bobbed a few times, words falling from his lips like a wisp of smoke. “Lev sheli...”
Dyna crouched in front of him, her expression cool and indifferent. Bindings of green Essence ensnared him tightly and pinned his arms to sides. But Cassiel couldn’t think to resist. Yanking him up, she brought them face to face. He couldn’t move, and it had nothing to do with the magic immobilizing him.
A shiver coursed through him at the sensation of her breath against his skin. His eyes widened further.
She was real.
Dyna’s full lips curved in a cold smile. “Hello, darling.”
She lifted a glowing green finger and tapped his forehead.
A blow whipped through Cassiel’s skull. He fell through a black void, sinking into the darkness.
And the world vanished.