Hell in Every Breath

Prologue

Two angels are falling from the sky.

One Sigeian and one Thrausian.

Past low-hanging clouds, their hands desperately grasped together, the white of their wings burning away into black, embers and ash drifting away through freezing channels of air.

The winds are strong. It’s storming. Lightning arcs across the sky, tossing white light and harsh shadows over their burning feathers.

Neither one can breathe, but with each additional inch of onyx searing over their once-white wings, it gets easier. The extremely low neon concentration becomes bearable. They’re adjusting to Earth as they undergo this irreversible transformation.

Irreversible.

They won’t be allowed back into Heaven ever again. This decision is a final one.

The rain makes their palms slick, slick enough to slip away from each other, wind forcing space between them, bodies plummeting through turbulence and brutal cold.

They’re reaching, trying to grab each other again, but the distance is too great now.

It keeps growing and their wings keep changing, the last wisps of white smoldering into smoke.

One angel slams into the canopy of pine trees on the cliffs, breaking through branches, needles stinging and scraping his skin as he falls. His body crashes to the ground, bleeding and broken—but alive.

He doesn’t think about the hurt.

He struggles to his feet, gritting his teeth against the pain of bones healing and wounds sealing shut, blood and ichor dripping down his abdomen, chemicals changing in his body.

The scars on his back burn like they’re on fire.

It’s a pain he’s never felt before. It’s sharp and physical. Earth-made pain.

And he will never feel Heaven-made pain again.

He staggers towards the edge of the forest, blind with panic and fear, crashing through the underbrush until he reaches a cliff.

His chest aches with everything he’s left behind, with everything he’ll never see again—his family, his life—but there’s only one thing in the universe he can’t survive without.

He sees the other angel crashing into the ocean, sees him get swallowed by a wave.

After a second, his dark head of hair resurfaces and he’s choking on air again.

The Sigeian soars off the cliff, diving towards the ocean, rain stinging his skin. All he can think about is getting to the Thrausian.

Thunder cracks the sky open and it’s pouring now, but that doesn’t stop their reunion. Warm bodies crashing together surrounded by ocean water and the violence of a thunderstorm. They don’t speak, but they don’t need to.

I’m sorry, Kill.

Don’t be sorry, Ash. I would do this for you a thousand times over.

They are in love. Vast, overwhelming, terrifying love. The sort of love you sacrifice pieces of yourself to feel.