Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“You suspected this?” If Yuri had ever wondered what this demon was truly capable of, those doubts had just been burned away.
There was no stopping it now. The prideborn’s eyes turned white as he clutched his stomach, claws retracting and black markings fading. For barely a split second the beast looked truly human.
And then he was gone.
The room held a collective breath, all eyes fixed on the smoking ash where the demon had stood seconds before.
“Huh.” Severin cocked his head. “I suppose that’s one way to get rid of a demon.”
Yuri exhaled sharply and stepped toward the ashes. He crouched, fingers hovering over them before scooping up a handful. “You’re unbelievable.”
“Yes, I’ve been told that many times. Though not in any context you’d know the first fucking thing about.”
Yuri ignored him. The ashes trickled through his fingers, slipping away like sand.
An entire life snuffed out just like that, and the damned demon was thinking about rutting.
“It’s hardly different from the Glory you tried to kill me with an hour ago,” Severin pointed out, watching him with something between amusement and challenge.
Yuri made a fist around the ashes. Glory was swift. It wasn’t made for suffering. But this?
“I want no part in your experiments.” His tone was flat, allowing no room for argument. He grabbed one of the empty glasses from Severin’s table, ensuring it was clean of residue before carefully sweeping the ashes inside.
“Yuri,” Aurelie pleaded, her voice tight.
But he was already out the door.
Yuri had always wondered where demons went after death. The angels had their beliefs, of course, though he’d found it more difficult over the years to believe in what he couldn’t see.
Not that he’d ever admit such things aloud.
“I apologize for making you a part of that.”
He’d felt Aurelie long before he saw her shadow stretch before him, though he didn’t stir from what he was doing.
“Only danger lies this way.” The ashes slipped from his fingers, carried away by the wind. “If you continue with these demons, this is but a small taste of what’s to come.”
She crouched beside him, arms folding over his knees. “Even if that proves true, how can I stop? Azriel and my father are all I have left in this world.”
“What will you do if he asks you to harm a human next?” he challenged. “Or perhaps kill one in the name of the cure?”
She flinched. “Surely it won’t come to that.”
“But what if it does? What happens when you become desperate, and a human life becomes just another ingredient in your experiment?”
“Then we take that life.” She drew her bottom lip between her teeth.
Guilt rolled off her in waves, constricting the space between them.
But beneath it, steady and cold, was resolve as solid as the fists clenched in her lap.
“A cure would change this entire world, Yuri. Imagine the lives we could save.”
A cure could mean no more war. No more bloodshed or time spent in the mortal realm. He could return to Sanctuary and retire peacefully, his greatest mission fulfilled.
It was the most beautiful dream, but could it ever be something more than that?
“I will not watch helplessly as my family suffers,” she said, “but I don’t want to make an enemy of you. I know this is a lot to ask, but we have the chance to do something no one else can. Say you’ll help me.”
Yuri could report everything and hand this problem off to the commander while he watched the consequences unfold from a comfortable distance. But Aurelie’s desperation was a blade in his gut, bleeding him dry.
Don’t be taken for a sheep, Yuri, the voice inside him warned. Pretty words from a pretty girl have undone better men than you.
“I’ll continue for as long as it makes sense to continue,” he told her. “That’s all I can offer.”
Relief flooded through her, warm and radiant. He tried very pointedly not to pay it any mind.
“Thank you,” she said, taking his hand. “I know it’s a lot to ask, especially of you. So thank you, truly.”
Heat crept up his neck. He pulled his hand back, spared from answering by the arrival of Severin, who poked his head out the door.
Yuri bit down the urge to slam that door in his face.
“A human in the village is one thing,” he said, “but perhaps we shouldn’t advertise the angel so openly. Get back inside.” He pushed the door open wider. They were in the rear courtyard, walled from all sides, but demons had noses like rats. Unwilling to risk Aurelie’s safety, Yuri obliged.
“It was worth a try with the angel blood,” Severin was saying as the two reentered his home.
“I wasn’t hopeful, but we’re still on the right path.
” He leaned against his desk, staring at the burn on the floor where the demon’s body had once been.
His expression tightened, though he looked more offended by the scorch marks on the wood than the fact that a living being had just been reduced to cinders.
Yuri stretched his wings as he stepped back into the study, not caring that they knocked over several stacked books and odd items. “How does a demon burning to crisps indicate to you that we’re on the right path?”
Severin tensed at the fallen books but said nothing. “It had an effect on him. It shows my theories are onto something, though angel blood itself is too powerful. But if we managed to find something slightly less potent…” His gaze flicked to Yuri’s wings, and the angel snapped them back.
“You’re not touching my wings, demon.”
“I could always carve them off you,” Severin taunted, his eyes glinting. “They say an angel’s wings are even more revered than their blood.”
Yuri’s stomach rolled, his body going cold. Suddenly, he wasn’t in this room anymore. He was a child again, young and naive, standing on the precipice of something he didn’t yet understand. The room blurred, sounds growing distant.
His breaths came fast, one after another—
“Yuri?” Aurelie’s hand on his shoulder was solid, grounding him. He forced himself to breathe. To stay in reality rather than the horrors of his own mind.
“I’m fine.” It was a lie, but he nodded anyway. “A feather will likely be just as potent as blood.” His skin was still clammy, but he felt himself settling back into his body, mind easing as he ground his feet against the floor.
“I suspect you’re right.” Severin’s crimson eyes seemed to glow as they settled on Yuri, a curious look within them. “If this is to work, we need to dull the angelic power. Perhaps I should find a way to kill you first. Your corpse would be of great use to me.”
“Angels don’t have corpses,” he spat. He wasn’t sure whether that was a secret, or really, whether it was even true.
He, at least, had never seen a corpse. He’d seen comrades felled in battle, only for their bodies to disappear in streaks of light.
They didn’t die so much as they dematerialized.
“We leave behind nothing when we pass on from this life.”
“That’s not what the vespers tell me.” Severin turned his attention to the tiny creature on Aurelie’s shoulder, hiding in her hair. He crossed to stand before her.
“Hello there,” he greeted her, and Yuri couldn’t contain his eye roll as the tiny vesper giggled and covered her face, bashful. “Care to help me inform our white-winged friend?”
“The angel speaks lies,” Vex said plainly, looking pointedly away and combing her fingers through her hair when Yuri fixed her with a glare.
“I do not lie.”
Severin ignored him, leaning farther toward Vex. “Angels so often do. But in this case, I doubt he even knows the truth.”
Yuri’s fists clenched at his sides. “What truth don’t I know, you wretched beast?”
Vex’s grin was a sharp, toothy thing. “The way to the dead angels.”
The air went still. Shadows loomed large as Lute and Severin exchanged a look Yuri would have given anything to interpret.
“There’s no such place,” he snapped. Not to guard it, but because he hadn’t the faintest clue what the vesper meant.
“There is,” Severin answered. “I just can’t reach it.”
Aurelie’s breath caught. “It’s on hallowed ground. This is what you were talking about earlier.” She turned to the vesper on her shoulder. “Can you take us there, Vex?”
The vesper nodded, eager, but surely she had to be confused.
Such a place couldn’t be possible … could it?
“It’s decided,” Severin announced. “Gather whatever belongings you’ll need for the travels. We leave in an hour.”