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I looked down at my tarnished hands. “I’m starting to think the word doesn’t apply to me anymore. Maybe it doesn’t apply to any of us.”
“What word?”
“Angel. The things I’ve seen our kind do, the things I’ve done myself since I fell… we would’ve been sent to the Pit long, long ago. All of us.”
Missolis placed a hand on my shoulder. “Let me tell you something. I learned more about myself in Hell than I ever would have in Heaven. I discovered myself down there, in the dirt, and the blood, and the ash. In some ways, I am grateful for what happened to me.”
“You’re grateful you were cast out of Heaven and thrown into Hell?”
“I wasn’t thrown into Hell; I chose to dig my way out of the Pit, just like you did. We chose to survive, and fight, despite everything they did to us.”
“I’ve seen what happens to angels before they’re sent into the Pit. They’re broken, battered, beaten… they’re stripped of their Light, their very essence. They’re weakened to the point that there’s almost nothing left of them. That didn’t happen to me, that makes you so much stronger than I am.”
She shook her head. “I cannot pretend to know all the paths you took to get to where you are, but I know a warrior when I see one. You are determined, strong-willed, and more than a little bit stubborn, but all of the things you do you do out of love—whether it is misguided or not.”
“You just told me I was selfish, now you’re trying to convince me that I’m too loving?”
“Love can be more than one thing, just as rage can be. Both are powerful and easily abused emotions. Angels were given the capacity to feel but were forbidden from acting upon them. Free from Heaven’s yoke, we have both embraced our emotions, and emotion thrives in the absence of Heaven’s Light.”
“For better and for worse.”
“Humans live their whole lives ruled by their emotions, and even they get it wrong most of the time. You tried to help the Ravager out of guilt, but that guilt was born from love, care, and compassion. Don’t chastise yourself too much over it.”
“What I did to her, forcing her to stay with me, was still wrong.”
“It was… but you realized your error and released her. Now it is up to her to forgive you.”
“I’m pretty sure she’s made her choice already.”
“Maybe she has. If she does not return, you should make peace with it.”
“Except she was a Seeker. If she doesn’t come back, we’re stuck out here.”
“We have found shelter, water, and as distasteful as it is… food. We will recuperate, recover from our tiredness, and continue with our search. Together, Sarakiel, we will find a place where we can all feel safe. That is why we have escaped Hell, after all… is it not?”
“I’m almost certain you were safer under that mountain than you are up here.”
“At least here we have the stars to keep us company. It may not seem like much for you, who remembers what it was like to see stars in the night sky, but for us… it is everything. I have never seen my people as… alive as they are right now. We owe that to you.”
I shook my head. “You owe me nothing. I stumbled into your house, sent you on a fool’s errand, and almost got you all killed. There wasn’t even a portal for me to open. If not for Lucifer, we would all still be down there.”
Missolis smiled at me. It was a tired, slightly haggard smile, but a grateful one. “That may all be true… but you gave us something we had lost long ago, even if it was by accident. You gave us hope, and here we stand. On Earth.”
“Out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
“Another figure of speech?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“You’ll have to teach me what some of these mean sometime.”
“It looks like we’ll be spending plenty of time out here together. I’d be happy to.”
The rebel leader nodded. She patted my shoulder, gave me a confiding look, and went to leave when a blinding flash of Light erupted from somewhere behind us. Missolis hissed and shrieked, backing away from it and taking a defensive stance, her claws up, her back hunched.
I leapt toward her, stretched my wings out as far as they could go, and shielded her with them as I turned to face the Light.
Lucifer.
