Epilogue
Castiel
I watched as the human woman crept through the Great Hall, sticking to shadows. I smirked as I realized she had no idea how strong seraphim eyes could be. Shadows hid nothing from us.
The woman with the long, blonde hair crept toward the front door, glancing over her shoulder.
I stepped forward, into the dim light streaming in from the windows above our heads. My wings rustled.
She froze. “Is someone there?” Instead of sounding fearful, she straightened her spine and demanded an answer.
Interesting.
“Where are you going?” I asked, stepping into the light.
Her eyes, blue like the lake of Remia in spring, widened as she took in my form. “You.” Her lip curled. “What do you want?”
She didn’t know that I could hear her heartbeat, how I knew it increased whenever I entered the room. She was more frightened than she was letting on.
“I want to know where you’re going,” I replied, crossing my arms.
She eyed my bare chest, and I remembered how Eve had admitted it was unusual for human men to not wear shirts. “I’m leaving.” She sniffed. “Or have you kidnapped me?”
“You can leave when the captain says you can,” I told her. “I caught you in the village yesterday, and I know you had something to do with Eve’s disappearance. Until she says you’re innocent, you’re staying put.”
The woman put her hands on her hips. “I need to find my brother Absalom!”
I sighed, shaking my head at her outburst. I’d picked up a number of human mannerisms over the years, and I used them to my advantage here. “Lily, you will wait until the captain and his mate are recovered and come down. Then we will discover where your brother is.”
She glared at me. “My name is Lilith.”
I shrugged, as if it made no difference to me.
Something about this woman made me want to tweak her nose.
Perhaps it was how seriously she seemed to take herself, the way she wore her beauty and demanded I serve her every whim.
After I’d brought her to the manor, she shouted and cursed at me, demanding I take her back to Lownden.
Then she’d told me there was no way I could be a god or a sacred creature, based on the way I laughed. So I’d laughed harder.
Now Lilith crossed her arms, mimicking my posture. It made her breasts swell and press against the neckline of her simple gown, and my cock took note.
She spun on her heel, ready to stalk away from me, when suddenly she froze. Her back went rigid, and her hands dropped limply to her side.
Instantly, I drew close to her. Had she hurt herself somehow? Had she seen something to frighten her? I glanced around the end of the Great Hall, trying to see what I needed to protect her from.
She flinched as I drew to her side, shying away from the edge of my arm. Her face was pale and her eyes wide again. After a heartbeat, she turned to look at me. “What’s that?” She pointed to the round alcove at the edge of the Great Hall, the walls filled with stained glass from floor to ceiling.
I raised one eyebrow at her. “I’m not certain, but…bear with me…I believe those odd little holes in the walls are called windows.”
She rolled her eyes and huffed, then tiptoed closer to the alcove. I think I’d heard Eve call it an oriel once. “This scene is…familiar, I think.”
I took a closer look at the stained glass images, frowning to understand what she saw.
The panels were of a landscape. The lower third was the green of grass, meadows, and trees.
The center two panels showed brown buildings with steep, pitched roofs.
A steeple jutted high above, with something, perhaps a bell?
Inside. Above, the sky was filled with gray clouds, either because the glass was gray or because the actual sky outside only let dim, winter light through the windows.
The sky itself was a deep, midnight blue turning in a gradient to light, morning-sky blue at the very bottom.
But it was the image in the center that arrested my attention. I swallowed hard, taking in the sight that must’ve caught Lilith’s attention, too.
In the center was a male seraph falling from the heavens.
His face, though not etched in great detail, appeared to be screaming in agony as he tumbled from the sky.
Black wings, broken with feathers trailing behind him, spread from his back.
His hands were like claws, reaching for his home. It was a stark, agonizing image.
Chill traveled through my whole body, and it brought back every terrifying memory I had of the day we fell from Rundis and into this world.
My skin prickled and I shuddered, turning away. I couldn’t look at it. I didn’t want to remember.
“I’ve seen this before,” Lilith breathed.
I held onto her voice, her presence, as my last grip on my sanity, putting my hands on my hips. “Hmm?”
Her brow furrowed, and again I saw the intelligence that she’d tried to hide yesterday while in the village. “In…in the reverend’s study, I think. In an old manuscript several years ago.”
My heart stopped, and I turned to face her profile. “Think,” I ground out. “Think hard. Was it a seraph you saw in the illustration?”
“Yes,” she said after a moment.
The hair on my body and my tertial feathers stood on end as I realized how portentous this information could be. “Black wings?” I clarified.
Her eyes sparked as she turned to face me.
We stood closer together than either of us had first realized.
Her cross arms were a hair’s breadth away from my chest. She was a petite woman, even for humans, the crown of her head right at my collar bone.
If she tilted her head her breath would brush against my lips.
My body registered her sweet scent, the softness of those curves just out of eyesight, the curve of her full lips. Stars and skies, she was beautiful. I’d never seen such a lovely human.
“Yes.” She jutted her chin, which only emphasized her mouth further.
It took me a heartbeat to remember what I’d even asked. Black wings.
Not a single one of us had black wings. Gabriel’s were snow white, because he was from aristocracy.
Azrael’s were a charcoal gray, suggesting someone in his ancestry was from the Royal House.
Mine were a shade of brown, like the majority of seraphim.
The cousins in our sedge had vibrant wing colors, an unusual trait that rarely showed up.
Not one of us had pure, unadulterated black.
Black was the sign of the Royal Family.
I grabbed Lilith’s arm and turned her, heading toward the stairs. “Come.”
“Where are we going?” She balked, skidding her feet on the uneven stone floor.
“To tell the captain.”
* * *
Lilith
I huffed, indignant that this strange creature—I could not believe he was another Herald of Death, not after the way he teased and mocked and confused me—dragged me up the stairs and down a long corridor.
It was so narrow we had to press together, for he made me walk by his side rather than trail behind.
Likely because he knew I would bolt given the first chance. I didn’t belong here, with these angels. I needed to find Absalom and get home. Convince Reverend Grimshaw and Elder Tomes I hadn’t had anything to do with this mess, and beg to get back into the elders’ good graces.
This angel, with the laughing, brown eyes and the mocking mouth and the wings of bronze and filaments of gold, he had brought me here and I was so surprised and overwhelmed—awed, but I’d never tell him that—I let him. Castiel, he said his name was.
We paused before an old wooden door. Castiel knocked on it, three sharp raps. His hand did not let go of my arm.
I cleared my throat primly. If he had been a man from home, or any human for that matter, I would have lowered my lashes and babbled something about modesty and humility and moved away from him.
But I had already slipped this morning, and he had already seen some of my anger.
He also seemed to instinctively know I had a mind of my own.
When I returned to Absalom and he took over as the man of our family, I would have to fade into the background.
Castiel glanced at me, then down at his grip on my arm and smirked at me. By all the saints he was annoying. He slowly released my arm, watching me all the while like I was a wild animal who might flee.
Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door, then quiet murmurs and a louder grumble.
The door cracked open, and at first all I could see was broad, pale, male chest. I blinked and forced my eyes up to see the angel Reverend Grimshaw wanted, the captain.
He glared at me and Castiel, and I fought the urge to cringe and hide behind Castiel’s wing.
“What?”
Castiel grinned and gave a mocking salute. “Enjoying your morning?”
The other angel—seraph—glared more. “Why are you disturbing me and my mate?”
“Apologies, but this one said something that’s important for you to hear.”
Gabriel looked over his shoulder.
Eve’s voice drifted past the open door. “It’s all right, Gabriel. Let him in.”
My eyes widened. Eve Lovejoy was sharing a room with this fierce monster? Was she sharing a bed, too? How far had she been forced to pursue the reverend’s mission?
Gabriel sighed, stepping back and opening the door. He wore trousers, thank goodness. I wasn’t sure I’d get used to half-naked men. Castiel’s chest made my mind go blank so I tried to ignore it, but it was difficult.
Castiel angled me inside, then followed.
I scanned the large, stone chamber. One plaster wall was a painted map. A door led to a balcony. Castiel gestured for me to sit in one of the two seats at a small table near a large, empty fireplace. I glanced at the bed and saw Eve sitting there, covered in blankets.
She blushed when she met my gaze. Her brown hair was down and tousled, and I doubted she was dressed under those blankets.
Too many emotions to name whipped through me at the sight. Resentment and shock and censure, yes. Perhaps envy. I glanced through my lashes at the tall, muscular figure of Castiel lounging beside me. He was attractive as sin.
“Captain,” Castiel said, leaning forward, all traces of smirks and smiles gone. “Lilith saw the stained glass windows.”
The captain with the white wings grunted.
“I finished cleaning it the other evening,” Eve put in, frowning in confusion. “The weather has been too poor to see the images created by the darker glass.”
Castiel braced his hands on his knees. “It’s a seraph.”
Silence filled the air.
“A seraph with black wings.”
I glanced between the two seraphim and Eve, wondering what I was missing. The wing color seemed important.
“How old is this manor, Gabriel?” Eve asked. “Was the oriel there when you purchased it?”
Gabriel nodded, staring at Castiel. The look in his green eyes was so intense I shivered. “At least three hundred years.”
“Far before we arrived,” Castiel added. “That means another seraph fell to this earth. If we could find him…”
“He’s likely dead by now,” Gabriel, the captain, cut in.
Castiel nodded patiently, as if being interrupted didn’t bother him. “Yes, but Lilith said she’s seen an image of this stained glass in a book.” He looked at me, eyebrows raised.
It took me a moment to realize he expected me to speak. I was not used to men encouraging me to speak. I was supposed to be pretty as a bouquet in meetings. “I think it was in an old manuscript I saw a few years ago in the reverend’s study.” I cleared my throat. “Why is it so important?”
“We need to search for it.” Gabriel had rested on the edge of the bed, and Eve stretched out a hand to settle on his shoulder. “What if he returned home?”
Castiel nodded. “Maybe he fell through a different rip. Maybe we can return the same way.”
Wait. They wanted to go back? Back where? Did they not come here on purpose? I had been taught my whole life these seraphim would be messengers to Lord Erlik, that they controlled life and death and were worthy of our worship. My mind spun, trying to make sense of everything they said.
“I’ll go,” Castiel said. “If I understand this plot, this church planned to abduct you and force you to live as some sort of god in their midst?”
I opened my mouth to protest his description, but Eve nodded.
“Let me go. You’ve found your mate, and you have both been through a harrowing ordeal.” Castiel’s wings flared a little behind him.
I watched light flicker across them from the corner of my eye. It was too beautiful to ignore.
Slowly, Gabriel nodded. “Make plans. Include Azrael in your planning.” His gaze swung to me.
I emptied my eyes and attempted to charm him with my vapid smile. I’m nothing more than a pretty decoration.
“And you will assist him,” he ordered, the authority in his voice ringing loud.
I nodded. Anything to get home and away from this mess.
“We will make preparations and leave within three days’ time.” Castiel stood and gave some sort of salute.
I hesitantly rose as well, shaking out my wrinkled skirts. I glanced at Eve, but she only had eyes for this seraph captain she was clearly sleeping with.
Castiel steered me from the room again, as if I was a child.
I should be relieved he was beginning to treat me as unintelligent, but for some reason it rankled.
Once out in the hall, Castiel turned those sparkling brown eyes on me. His mouth lifted in an insouciant grin, and he slouched against the wall as best he could with wings at his back. “Well, Lily, looks like we’re going on a journey together. Lucky you.”
A string of curses erupted in my mind. I weakly smiled at him, realizing I needed to be careful to redon my mask. “A true blessing.”
“Come now. You’re going to tell me all about your church and then we’ll plot.” He put a warm hand on my shoulder, and I shivered at the unexpected, but unfortunately not unwelcome, touch, and let him guide me toward his plans.
THE END
Thank you so much for reading Seraph’s Tears! If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review so that other readers can discover Gabriel and Eve, too.