30 FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE
FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE
A LONE IN THE SILENT WAREHOUSE, S UNSHINE AND E VA went over a dozen desperate plans, but none amounted to anything. Sunshine tested the boundaries of her trap, and after being thrown on her back several times, she was forced to conclude it was impenetrable.
For the most part, Empyrean magic was far more powerful than Temporal and Sheolic magic.
Once formed, Empyrean traps were unbreakable.
They had less power over other angels, and Sunshine might have been able to escape under normal circumstances, but with the manacles binding her powers, she was hardly stronger than a human.
It was all for naught in the end—Raphael returned with Raum, flashing into the middle of the empty trap. He flashed out again before Raum had a chance to attack. He tried anyway, shifting into half-demon form and swiping his sharp claws where the angel had been standing.
“Raum—” Sunshine’s voice was strangled.
He glanced at her, and his eyes widened when he saw the sigil she was stuck in and the manacles on her wrists. His gaze traveled quickly around the room, noticing Eva in a similar state. “You okay, Eva?”
“Yes.” Eva’s voice trembled only slightly. “But this is the fucker that cursed Ash. He’s a psychopath.”
“I know.” Raum’s jaw clenched, but that was the only outward expression of emotion he allowed.
“I’m so sorry, Raum,” Sunshine whispered, feeling sick to her stomach. “All of this is my fault.”
“It’s not your fault.” He looked at Raphael.
In half-demon form, he stood a full head taller than the archangel.
His black feathered wings were folded so as not to hit the edge of the sigil, and the scales on his bare torso glimmered in the heavenfire’s light.
“This has nothing to do with her or Eva. Let them go.”
“On the contrary, it has everything to do with them.” Raphael started slowly pacing around the heavenfire sigil on the floor, the blue glow casting long shadows across his face.
“As you seem to have remembered, you and Shamsiel have known each other a long time.
Your corruption of her began centuries ago.
“For many years, she kept it secret, but eventually I became suspicious. Where was the mysterious Shamsiel always disappearing to? She was celebrated, influential on the Tribunal, privileged to have one of the great Second Sphere Powers as a mentor. Everyone was blinded by her flawless reputation … except for me.”
His white wings flared wide as he shot Sunshine a look of contempt she’d never seen on his face before. As if he’d been hiding his loathing all this time, bottling it up inside.
He thought she was the one with power and privilege? Had he not looked at himself? That was exactly how she’d always viewed him, but she at least was intelligent enough not to hate him for it.
“When I finally uncovered the truth, I was appalled. I brought the information to the Tribunal, and a debate ensued on how to address the problem. As far as I knew, it was unlike anything ever seen before in Heaven. An angel, and a powerful one at that, debasing herself by fornicating with a demon. It was abhorrent.” The look of disgust on his face was intensified by the dark shadows cast by the flickering blue light.
“The Tribunal thought Shamsiel should be banished from Heaven. An angel who consorts with demons could not be allowed to represent the Realm. As for the demon, since he’d technically broken no rules, it wasn’t possible to order his destruction.
But he couldn’t be left to spread the news of Shamsiel’s improprieties.
“It was Adriel who offered a compromise in the end. He believed you didn’t deserve to fall, and he somehow managed to convince the Tribunal of that as well.” Raphael shook his head like it was incomprehensible to him.
“The Tribunal ordered me to erase the demon’s memories, and Adriel agreed to rearrange Shamsiel’s to remove all recollection of the affair. She was demoted to guardian angel with a chance to regain her former station only if she could one day prove her worthiness.”
“Wait—” Sunshine stared at him in horror. “You’re saying my punishment was never about my capture like I was told. It was always about my relationship with Raum.”
“The capture wasn’t your fault, of course,” Raphael said, flicking his fingers dismissively. “But we had to give you an explanation you’d believe.”
A spark of rage ignited inside her, rising so fast she nearly choked on it.
She’d been manipulated into thinking she had failed. She’d been manipulated into feeling guilty for being tortured . She didn’t know if she was madder at the Tribunal or at herself for believing their lies.
But no. She had been conditioned—brainwashed—by those she had trusted. The blame lay only with them. She was done admonishing herself for things that had never been her fault. She was done shouldering burdens that never should’ve been hers to begin with.
Raphael went on. “When I heard that Adriel’s task was the final test before your reascension, naturally, I was dubious. I’m grateful now I followed my instincts, or the Tribunal might never have known they were welcoming a traitor back into their midst.”
The Tribunal, Raphael, Adriel—everyone she’d ever known and cared about had been content to look her in the eye and pretend like her past never happened. They’d been content to lie to her face. For four centuries .
Who had committed the real crime here?
“Was the gracious decision to fuck with Sunshine’s memories made before or after you left her to suffer in Hell?” Raum’s glare burned with hatred.
“If Shamsiel had not become accustomed to consorting with demons, she wouldn’t have lowered her guard enough to be captured. Her punishment was discussed while she was missing, and once the Grigori Daniel returned her, it was carried out.”
Sunshine’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.
While she was missing?
“What the fuck?” Eva breathed.
Deep within Sunshine, something cracked.
Mercy, forgiveness, compassion … It all started to leak out through the fracture. The sunshine fizzled out, and a dark tempest took its place. Fury bubbled up like a wrathful volcano.
How dare they. How dare they sit upon their Tribunal seats and dispense decrees without an ounce of empathy for those they condemned. How dare they ruin her life and the life of the one she loved.
And Raphael … He might have had white wings and a robe, but he was no better than a demon. Nay, he was worse . A demon started out evil and could become something better. Raphael had started as an angel, a being of light meant to represent goodness, and he had devolved into something vile.
Worse, he would never understand how twisted he was. He would always believe that, simply because of who he was, he was in the right. His wickedness was justified.
There would be no reasoning with him. There would be no understanding or reconciliation.
Sunshine didn’t care anymore. She was beyond wanting those things.
A loud buzzing filled her head. Her hands curled into fists, the chains clinking between them. Her stomach burned, and her heart pounded, and her skin felt hot, molten , with rage.
Now, she wanted blood.
“Open your eyes, Raphael.” Her voice was low, but it echoed around the ruined chamber. “Your sense of right and wrong has been warped by blind adherence to a flawed system. You are blinded.”
“The rules must be followed,” he snapped, stalking toward her. He stopped outside her sigil and jabbed a finger at her. “They are all that keep this Earth from chaos. Demons do not change or grow. Demons cannot love. Demons cannot care for anyone except themselves!”
“Are you dumb?” Eva hissed. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, and if you took a minute to pull your head out of your ass, you’d know that. If your squirrel brain is capable of that kind of comprehension!”
“Silence, creature!” Raphael shouted, pointing the sword in his other hand at her.
But Eva wasn’t keeping silent. “You think demons are evil? Listen to yourself! You’re planning to murder two people in cold blood just to prove a point!”
“You’re an abomination!” He spun away from Sunshine, Eva’s goading having ignited his temper. “Your very existence is a stain upon this world.” He swept past Sunshine and marched toward Eva’s sigil. “I am the power here! I am the enforcer. I decide who lives and dies!”
“You’re nothing but an overgrown man-child that someone made the mistake of giving a sword to!” Eva shouted right back. In her Nephilim form, she matched Raphael’s height, and evidently, his temper as well.
“I will slay you where you stand!”
“Sunshine!”
Sunshine glanced over at Raum’s shout just as Raphael swung his sword, forcing Eva to duck to avoid the deadly blade. Raum was pointing at the floor. Sunshine glanced down … and saw the smudge Raphael’s footprint had made in the chalk line of her sigil when he swept past.
The magic was broken. The sigil’s blue glow had extinguished, but she’d been too distracted by the fighting to notice.
Without a second thought, she charged.
In only two steps, she plowed into Raphael.
Leaping onto his back between his wings, she flung the manacles’ chain around his neck, pulled taut, and crossed her wrists behind his head.
Raphael froze in shock for a brief instant.
And then he choked and stumbled back, dropping his sword with a clatter as his hands instinctively rose to his throat.
The cuffs bound the abilities of any angel wearing them. And when looped around Raphael’s neck, completing the circuit for the magic to connect, they bound his too.