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“I agree. I don’t know if you remember, but I tried to free you from the Chantry, however many years ago it’s been for you. I didn’t believe in what God was doing anymore, and now having spoken to the other fallen angels, I know that most of them didn’t agree either.”
“So, you are on Lucifer’s side?”
“Absolutely not! I want to help the humans, not eradicate them. God’s death has broken everything; they cannot pass on, angels walk the Earth rapturing them for Light, and now demons have been let loose on them too. You loved them, back when you were Gadriel, you would have done anything to help them...”
“I have told you?—”
“Yes, yes, Hekata now, Gadriel gone, I get it. I’m not expecting you to have a miraculous change of heart, I tried that before and all it got me was a concussion.”
“What do you want from me then?”
“Right now? An open mind would be nice. And, if you remember anything from your Seeking days, maybe a way out of this sandy hellhole.”
Hekata narrowed her eyes, looked around, and lifted her shackled hands toward me. “Free me and I will assist you.”
“You’re asking for a pretty big leap of faith here.”
“Indeed, but you have asked me to keep an open mind, so you must do the same. Free me, trust my word, and I will get your people out of this desert.”
“And after that?”
“After that, we will see.”
She had me at a disadvantage—if she knew where we were, if she knew which way led to less hostile lands… I didn’t have a choice but to trust her. At the worst she would fly away and abandon us, but that didn’t leave us in any more of a dire situation than we were already in. If she came through, though, maybe it was a sign that Gadriel wasn’t as gone as Hekata insisted.
I reached out toward her manacled wrists, touched the metal, and sent a pulse of Light just strong enough to break the bonds, freeing her hands. Hekata winced and looked away from the Light as it surged. When her bindings were broken, she made circles with her wrists… then she bolted to her feet.
I followed, standing up as quickly as she had. “Wait,” I called out.
She had already taken steps toward the edge of the building and was in the process of unfurling her dark wings. “What?” she barked.
“I…” I hesitated, not quite sure what to say that would be enough. I’d lost her once, and, by some miracle, found her again. I felt like it was my fault that she was like this, wracked with pain and anger and mistrust. I knew I couldn’t fix her, and the Gadriel I had known would not have let me take on the guilt for this, but it was there nonetheless. “Please, just come back.”
She stood with one foot off the edge, her wings fully extended, and smirked, before letting herself drop off the building and soaring into the air.
The only thing I could do was wait.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
So, I waited. Waited as the sun moved across the sky and began to set across the horizon, waited until it fell, and night blanketed the desert. I waited until it became clear Gadriel wasn’t coming back. She had asked me to trust her, and she had lied.
In that time, the rebels had managed to set up in the mostly intact structure we had landed on. They’d found some water, blankets, and even food. It had been a pleasant distraction, watching them fuss over cans of soup. They’d first had to figure out how to open the cans, then how to eat from them, and finally how to swallow their contents.
Most of them didn’t care for cold soup—and I couldn’t blame them—luckily, there had been other finds in the form of dried meats and candy bars. Watching them rummage through what was left of the village and come back with such meagre supplies had brought into stark contrast the gravity of what had happened here.
The mortals had left in a hurry, those who had been able to flee, at least.
Those who hadn’t were all around us, clinging to every surface, piled up in every single nook and cranny, and entering our lungs with every breath in the form of ash. How had that happened? Who had done this to them? And why?
I knew the answers were tied to Lucifer, I just couldn’t see how yet; he had made no secret of his hatred for humanity, but this seemed overt even for him. I’d explored some of the ruins, looking for any hint of what might have set him off, my brain a tumble drier of disjointed thoughts rattling around incessantly, but I’d found no answers.
I took a deep breath of fresh air in the only place I could—the rooftop—and looked up at the night sky. It was beautiful… so full of light, and wonder. Stars, thousands of them, twinkled away against a vibrant backdrop of in hues of blue and yellow.
The majesty of the cosmos wasn’t lost on angels, and I had missed it in Hell. I only wished I knew how to navigate by them. If I did, I would have been able to figure out where I was just by looking up at the night sky, and I’d have at least some clue on how to get us to Helena from here.
I heard someone land on the rooftop beside me and for a moment my heart surged with the hope that Gadriel might have returned—but it was only Missolis. She joined me at the rooftop’s edge and cast her eyes upwards, the light of the stars shining on her face.
“I had forgotten what they looked like,” she said, then paused. “Or maybe I had never known.”
