Chapter 27

Earth.

Sometime later.

Or maybe this was before? One of the things that I'd had the most trouble with since the fall was keeping track of time. It had a habit of stretching and contracting faster than I could keep up with, and after everything that had just happened—well—it felt like we'd just gone back in time, at least a short way.

Standing on Helena's battlements, staring across the ocean, it all felt a little different now than it did the last time I was here. There was something about the colors, or maybe it was the freshness of the air. Everything seemed… new, like I was witnessing the birth of something instead of its death.

I shut my eyes and listened to the push and pull of the ocean beneath me, to the waves as they crashed against the rocks and Helena's walls. Sea-spray touched my face, and I couldn't help but smile. This is how it's meant to feel, I thought to myself, catching my thoughts drifting away on the ocean breeze for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Then I felt a presence come near me, and I floated back into myself. I knew who was behind me before I even turned around. I could feel his energy, his aura, and identify him purely based on that alone thanks to the little piece of Lucifer I now carried inside of me.

"Sarakiel," said Abaddon.

He was the Abaddon I remembered, the one who had found me in the middle of the road. The one who had taken me into his bastion and protected me from harm. The one who had flown halfway across the world, into enemy territory, to win me back.

Though his angelic countenance hadn't fully returned, and he remained partially marked, the size of his horns had drastically come down, and the marks and veins on his body that made his skin seem mottled and twisted had gone. This was by choice, though; a choice we had both made.

When Lucifer gave himself up to us, we all drank of his energy. That energy filled us, healed us of our injuries, and even cleaned us of our marks—if we wanted it to. Some demons had accepted this second chance at being angels, and most angels had jumped at the chance to turn back the clock and feel like themselves again.

Some of us, though, had chosen to wear the scars of our past.

Like Abaddon.

Like me.

The purple marks on my hands would never go away, but I didn't want them to. They were a reminder of where I had come from and the things I had done, and forever they would serve as a reminder of what I could do if I wasn't careful.

I smiled at Abaddon. "Hi," I said.

"Am I interrupting?" he asked.

"Only my thoughts."

Abaddon approached and stood next to me on the battlement. He turned his head to look at the ocean, but I looked at him and admired the way the sunlight danced across his mercurial eyes. "It is done," he said.

"Done?"

"Micah has closed the portal to Heaven. Forever."

"The machines?"

"Inert now that they have served their final purpose. Those lost souls trapped in Heaven will reincarnate instead of languishing on eternally in a broken realm, and from this moment on, no more souls will enter Heaven—not human, and not angel. Instead, they will reincarnate in another life."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "We did the right thing."

"I fear some of us will grow to resent the choice we have made today."

"Maybe… but for now we are united, and Heaven will no longer churn human souls. That's all that matters."

Abaddon seemed… quiet. Subdued. He wasn't quite as happy as I had hoped he would be, and I knew why. "You still condemn yourself and your actions," I ventured.

"I will forever regret the things I have done," he turned his eyes toward me. "With one exception."

"I know it doesn't help, but Micah assured me the people who died after God did will simply wake up again, as if nothing had happened. The world will return to what it once was, so all the things you did?—"

"—I still did them. Whether or not the people I killed remain dead or wake up tomorrow remembering nothing of what happened to them, my own memories remain… as must the scars. I do not deserve to look as I once did, and I do not deserve you. I came here to tell you I will be leaving Helena tonight."

"Leaving?" I frowned. "And going where?"

Abaddon shook his head. "I do not know. Wherever I am needed."

Gingerly, I reached for his hand, brushing my thumb across his knuckles. "You're needed here, Abaddon. I need you."

"You are Sarakiel, a Lightbringer. Your Light now shines far more brightly than it ever did—the angels here will need you if they are going to build any form of lasting settlement for their kind."

"Our kind. You're an angel, too—and so are all the demons we helped. We have a chance at building an incredible world for our people, but I'm not going to do it without you by my side."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, if you leave, then I'll leave with you."

"Sarakiel, you cannot do that."

"Helena has Micah, and it has Azrael. They'll manage without me."

Abaddon shook his head. "You aren't listening?—"

"—yes, I am. And what I'm hearing is you, chastising yourself eternally instead of forgiving yourself and moving on. I won't let you stay stuck in the past, but if you're going to, then I'm going to be there with you."

"I cannot let you do that. I refuse to allow you to wallow in my own…" he paused, realizing what he was about to say. "Self-pity," he continued.

I shook my head. "Tyrants don't pity themselves."

"I am Tyrant no longer."

"You chose to wear these marks. There's still a Tyrant inside of you, only now you can choose to take the best parts about him, use those, and throw out the rest." I paused. "I admired his strength, his passion, his need to protect those he cares about. Be the best version of yourself, but do it with me. With all of us."

Abaddon looked at me, bringing the full weight of his gaze on me. He twisted his hand around so that he could grab hold of my fingers. "I will spend the rest of my days atoning for my mistakes," he said, nodding. "If you would have me."

"I don't need you to do that. I only need you."

"Why?" he asked.

"Isn't it stupidly obvious?"

"Nothing about you is obvious to me."

I took Abaddon's hand fully, approached him, and placed my other hand on his chest. With my chin turned up, I smiled at him. "Because I love you," I said. "I am in love with you. I can't imagine a world where you and I exist apart from each other."

Abaddon grinned a slow grin.

"What's that about?" I asked.

His eyebrow arched. "I wanted to hear you say it."

"You… wait, you wanted me to say it?" I lightly slapped my hand against his bare chest. "So, all this stuff you just said, you were just—" –Abaddon brought his lips against mine, closing the gap between our mouths in an instant.

He kissed me deeply just as a huge wave crashed into the side of the bastion of Helena, sending a rush of sea spray up and over the wall. We were drenched, but I didn't care. I cupped his face with my hands and leaned more deeply into the kiss, savoring every last second of it.

"You are the spark that ignites the fires in my chest," breathed Abaddon against my lips. "You are my Light in the dark, the reason I exist—the only being that could make me want to be better. I will spend the rest of my life proving to you all the ways in which I am worthy of the love you have given me."

I tugged on his lower lip. "You had better," I said against his mouth.

"Ahem," came a voice from somewhere behind us.

It was Micah, the cherub's face shining bright red with embarrassment. "I'm not interrupting, am I?"

"You are, in fact," said Abaddon, but I rushed my hand up to his mouth and smiled brightly at Micah.

"Not at all," I said, quickly separating myself from the angel I had just been furiously making out with. "What do you, uh, what do you need?"

"Well… I closed the portal to Heaven," he said. "No one's getting in without a cherub's permission."

"That's good news."

"It is, except there are other cherubs running around on Earth. We should probably get to work finding them, shouldn't we? We wouldn't want one of them going rogue and making a mess of things."

"Right, right. Of course. I can help with that."

"There's also the matter of Lucifer's demons. We may have dealt with him, but there are demons on the loose and they're very much unaccounted for."

"And that seems like a task for me," said Abaddon.

"Good," said Micah, his eyes darting between us. "Well… carry on but make it quick. The troops are expecting a speech from their leader."

"That's you," said Abaddon.

I took a deep breath. "So, you'll stay?"

Abaddon nodded. "With you. It sounds like we have work to do."

I nodded, took his hand. "We do. This world isn't our home, but we can turn it into one. Together."

"Together."

THE END.