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“I take it Micah hasn’t told you?”
Micah remained quiet.
I nodded. “It’s not his fault, and I’m not about to feed you a tale of woe. I’m going to get right to the point. I want to talk about Medrion.”
“Medrion?” Helena asked. “Aren’t we supposed to be talking about Abaddon?”
“I’ll get to him, but first I need to tell you what Medrion did to me. Both of you have to hear it.”
Micah didn’t even want to look at me. I didn’t think he knew the extent of what had actually happened to me, but he suspected something. Either way, it was time to get it off my chest.
“What…” Helena paused, her eyes narrowing. “What happened to you?”
“Before I Fell,” I said, “I was thrown into the Chantry dungeon up in Heaven. One of my angels had fallen in love with a human and they sentenced her to the pit. I didn’t think that was right… so I wanted to break her out of the Chantry. I wasn’t sure what we would do after I got her out, but I thought maybe I would get another chance at pleading her case.”
“That seems… reckless.”
“It was. I know that now. But I did what I thought was right… and I got thrown into the dungeons myself. By Medrion, not the Council. When I saw what he had done to my friend, how he had beaten her, abused her, broken her… never in all my existence had I considered angels could be so cruel to their own kind.”
“What are you saying?”
“The truth. Medrion enjoys tormenting angels. He broke Gadriel and hurled her into the pit, and then he tried to break me. He wanted to send me to the pit, too.”
Helena shook her head. “How? Without a trial he wouldn’t have had the authority.”
“He alluded to notneedingauthority. Maybe he knew Heaven was already starting to fall apart, and he wanted to enjoy one last bit of torture before the ride was over. He showed me, then, just how much he loatheslesserangels. I was lucky for the Fall. If not, I would’ve ended up in the pit eventually.”
“But… I have never heard of anything like this before, certainly not from an Archangel.”
“It gets better. It was Medrion who drew first blood against the Tyrant and his people, causing the death of an Oracle and capturing many others. I was there. I saw the way he set the Tyrant up, provoked him into attacking Meridian. He didn’t want to fight Medrion. He wanted only to free his people, but Medrion had no intention of walking away without spilling angel blood.”
“Angels don’t kill other angels,” Helena said, though she was clinging to those words, I could tell part of her didn’t believe they were true anymore. “Why would he want to kill other angels?”
“Because he hates us. He proved that when he…” I shut my eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled. “Murdered my friend in cold blood.”
Helena’seyes widened. “What?”
I nodded. “In Meridian, before the Wretched attacked, the Archangel caved in my friend’s skull with his foot. His name was Aithen, and he was one of the gentlest angels I had ever met.”
Helena looked like she was having trouble with this. “Medrion murdered an angel… I don’t… how could he?”
“I know this might come as a shock, and I’m sorry. But it’s the truth. Medrion is not the shining Archangel he makes himself out to be.” I paused, then I looked over at Micah. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Micah hadn’t said a word until I looked at him directly. He turned his eyes up at me, then he shut them. Though, outwardly, he looked like a boy, there was nothing boyish in his expressionnow. I could see the weight of years on him, the weight of knowledge.
“I’m sorry,” he simply said.
“I know you are,” I said, although maybe I could’ve said the words a little more softly. I couldn’t help but taste the venom in my mouth whenever we spoke of that rat-bastard. “I also know there was nothing you could’ve done.”
“Not then…” he trailed off, and I understood what he meant.
Cherubs weren’t made the same way angels were. Though Micah had the power to release me from my cell, even take Medrion down, he physically couldn’t take any action God hadn’t authorized him to take. God was dead now, though, and Micah had Fallen just like everyone else. I could feel the words he’d left unsaid, a promise to try to right an old wrong.
“Alright,” Helena said, interrupting the silence that had fallen, “So what does the Tyrant have to do with all of this? Why is he here?”
“I’ll explain everything to you,” I said, “I promise. But I need you to know that Medrion is not your friend, he is not your ally, and he will one day come looking for me.”
“Why you?”
