Chapter Thirty-Seven
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN
The next time Aurelie opened her eyes, she was surrounded by corpses.
She didn’t know how long she’d been curled around Yuri’s limp body, drowning out the sounds of battle, but the fading heat of Glory still hummed in her limbs.
She was dazed, barely clinging to consciousness.
Somehow, her body had held on until the world became silent.
She felt the brush of Vex’s wing against her cheek as the vesper checked on her.
Even then, she waited, lifting her head only upon feeling Severin relax through the bond.
Signs of his brutality were everywhere—tarlike blood seeping into her boots and matting her hair, dismembered limbs that lay strewn across the stone, the stench of blood oppressive in the air.
Chunks of torn flesh clung to the broken pews, and the walls were scarred with deep gouges where claws had raked through them, leaving jagged lines of destruction.
Many of the bodies were unrecognizable, reduced to twisted, broken forms. Amid the carnage lay shattered horns and severed heads, the eyes wide and lifeless, expressions forever frozen in a state of rage.
The silence that followed battle was always jarring, and Aurelie’s fingers trembled around the hilt of her dagger.
Severin had done this. Dozens of demons, even a hybrid, and he’d slain them like it was nothing.
Vex hovered high to observe the carnage. Voice shaky, she whispered, “They never stood a chance, did they?”
The vesper was looking at Severin. Aurelie hadn’t dared to face him yet, too afraid of what she might find.
The silence between them was suffocating, and it stretched endlessly as she clung to the warmth of Yuri’s body.
It wasn’t until she felt movement against her thigh that she stirred, startled by the motion, and glanced down to see Yuri’s eyes flutter open.
He blinked slowly, as if clearing fog from his vision, and his breath caught as they locked eyes.
“You’re still here,” he murmured, voice frayed at the edges.
“Of course I am.” Her words came steadily, but her body betrayed her. Overly aware of just how close they were, she’d tried to shift to give him room, but the movement sent a shock of pain through her side.
Yuri sat up, brows furrowing in concern. “Here.” He slid his hand beneath her shirt, settling his palm against her side. “Let me help.”
A pleasant coolness bloomed beneath his touch, and Aurelie flushed as she remembered the way it’d felt to open herself up to his bond. The serenity as Glory had flooded through her.
Her breath caught as she grabbed his hand, her pulse quickening with an unexpected heat. “Save that energy for yourself,” she told him, her voice tight with restraint. “I’m well enough.”
The same couldn’t be said for Yuri. His head lolled with every motion, like even his neck had given up on holding him upright. But his wounds had closed, the bleeding finally stopped. He was alive, and for that, she squeezed him tight.
“Aurelie?” He stiffened, and although she was afraid she’d hurt him, she didn’t loosen her hold.
“I’m just glad you’re here. I never should have taken that second room.”
Yuri exhaled a soft laugh before he wound his arms around her. “I’m glad, too. And yes, you should have. We were being ridiculous.”
“You really were.” She swallowed hard, seeing flashes of the battle. The Glory blade searing with light in her hand. Kieran’s fall. The hybrid, immune to Severin’s magic. And then a demon standing before her and Yuri, shielding them with the last of its strength.
She turned slowly, gaze shifting across the ruin.
There, crouched on the bloodstained stone, was Severin, his chest rising and falling with labored breaths.
His eyes were locked on the black blood pooling at his feet, body folded as if an unbearable weight pressed down upon him.
The bond between them pulsed, his guilt leaking through the connection.
He’d thrived during the battle, reveling in the power of his music. Yet in the aftermath he sat in silence, tension knotting his shoulders.
Yuri’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Take it easy, you’re injured.”
But Aurelie’s gaze remained fixed on Severin, her resolve hardening. “He saved us, Yuri. I need to see him.”
She peeled away from him and, before Yuri could protest, crossed the carnage to reach her second bonded.
“Severin?”
He tensed at the sound of her voice.
“All of those demons. Gone, just like that.” He let out a short, humorless laugh. “Killed to spare an angel. What irony.”
His face was sharper, his wings drawn tight. Neither his fangs nor horns were as severe as they’d been earlier, and his body had returned to its usual size, smaller than whatever he’d turned into to defend them.
Had that been his true form? She only wished she’d caught a better glimpse of it.
“Where’s the hybrid?” Aurelie’s gaze swept across the cathedral, but there was no sight of the orange-skinned abomination anywhere.
Good. Seeing it fight, she was more convinced than ever than such a beast would only bring ruin.
Limitless magic with no bonded. Higher resistance to Severin’s music.
It had even looked straight at her Glory without flinching.
The thing was a monster.
“There,” Severin said, expression tight as he pointed to blood on the floor. “And there. Some of it’s probably over there, too. I doubt anyone will come across this. But if they do, I figured it’d be better not to leave any trace of the creature.”
He was right, though he didn’t seem happy about it.
“You saved us,” she said, only then earning his gaze. His eyes were fathomless pits, and they watched her plainly.
“Did I have a choice?” The softness in his tone startled her. There was no sharpness, no biting edge beneath the words. He rose and tossed her a small bundle, which she caught on instinct. A tunic and hose.
Black blood smeared the sleeves, but otherwise it seemed relatively clean enough, though Aurelie shuddered to think where it came from.
“Thank you,” she said uneasily.
Severin gave no acknowledgment. His gaze slid past her, onto Yuri. “It’s time we leave this place. Can you walk?”
“I’ll manage.” Yuri’s wings unfurled, stained gold from his blood. Severin stared at them, his expression unreadable.
“What happens to the rest of this village?” Aurelie asked, her finger curling around Vex as the vesper settled on her shoulder.
Severin didn’t look at her. “We leave it. Some of the demons will try to continue without Kieran. When they grow hungry or realize it’s not so simple to go on without a leader, I imagine several will come to me and pledge their loyalty.
Others will try to make it on their own.
And some will stay here, waiting to see who takes charge next. ”
Aurelie squinted against the welcomed sunlight as she followed Severin out of the church, her boots heavy on the muddied ground beneath her.
Several demons emerged from the pleasure den, their eyes narrowing in surprise at the sight of the trio. Severin’s wings unfurled with a snap, his shoulders squaring and his head tilting upward just a fraction higher. The demons hesitated for only a moment before they averted their stares.
They left the camp, miraculously, without any further resistance.
“You’re wrathborn,” Aurelie said suddenly, her voice cutting through the otherwise peaceful sound of their footsteps.
Severin’s gaze slid toward her, an unreadable flicker in his eyes. “Does that come as a surprise?”
“I thought maybe you were lustborn,” she admitted. “But you were powerful, just like Kieran. Does that mean that you’re as old as he was?”
“Yes. He and I are some of the oldest. The closer a demon is to one of the Original Sins, the stronger they are.”
“And yet Glory cut through him all the same.” Yuri’s voice was light as he kept his wings in check, careful not to let them catch in the trees. “It just goes to show that angels will always be stronger.”
“Says the one who can’t even walk straight without snagging on something,” Severin scoffed. “Angels are certainly the bigger bastards.”
“Last time I checked, it was demons that the world fears,” Yuri countered, the edge in his tone sharpening. “We’re not the ones killing everyone.”
“We wouldn’t be in this war in the first place if not for the angels.” Irritation flared like lightning down the bond.
Aurelie sighed. They hadn’t been reunited for an hour and already the two were back at it.
Yuri opened his mouth to retort but then closed it again, the weight of Severin’s words settling between them. After a few moments, he said quietly, “Perhaps that’s true.”
“Not to mention that you and the other angels all—” Severin faltered, freezing mid-sentence. “What did you just say?”
Aurelie and Vex, too, shared a surprised glance.
“I said you might be right.” The angel’s words were simple, the coolness in his voice a thin veil over his discomfort.
He stared ahead, his features drawn in a way that made him seem less ethereal than usual.
His skin, streaked with ichor and blood, made him appear far more mortal than ever before.
“I don’t know everything the angels have done, but I, at least, have made plenty of mistakes.
And if I’m any indicator, then angels are far from perfect beings. ”
Aurelie’s brows creased, struggling to agree with such a statement. Yuri was an angel. He was one of the Divine that she and her people had spent their entire lives worshipping. Why would they model their own behaviors after the angels if they were not the perfect aspiration?
Severin was quiet for a long while, a storm brewing within him.
“Don’t agree with me, you miserable cur,” he finally spat. “No one wants to hear about your regrets.”
A sharp heat coiled in Aurelie’s chest, but she pushed it down as Vex lifted suddenly from her shoulder, her wings catching the morning light. The vesper hovered for only a breath, ears snapped forward and eyes fixed on the steep mountain ahead.