AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you trying to get a reaction from me?”
“All I’m trying to get out of you is a little honesty. You fell, just like everyone else did, but you hated your old life so much, you stripped yourself of your name, gave yourself a fancy title, and went out into the world with a permanent scowl and a growl in your throat… I want to know why.”
“That isnothow that happened.”
I stepped up to him, almost pressing myself against him. “Then tell me,” I said, gazing up at him. “Tell me who you are… how did you get those marks?”
He turned his eyes away, as if he didn’t want to look at me. He looked frustrated, cornered—you could even saycaged in.Good. I doubted if I was ever going to get the chance to have this angel boxed in like this again. Right now was my onlyopportunity to get him to talk, and I needed that more than anything.
I could see his throat working, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. He shook his head. “My past life is none of your concern, Lightbringer.”
“I’m not asking about your past life,” I said, “I’m asking about this one.”
“What do you want me to tell you?” he barked. “That I’m a monster?”
“I know you’re a monster. I want to know how it happened, and why.”
“If I’m a monster, why have you caged yourself in with me?” he growled.
“Because I’m not nearly as afraid of you as you are of your own past.”
“Watch your tongue.”
“Or what?”
“I won’t warn you again.”
“Yes, you will, because I don’t think you’re brave enough to tell me who you are, so you’re just going to keep deflecting.”
The Tyrant pushed me up against the bars and snarled against my lips. “I am not afraid.”
“Prove it,” I said, trying to hide the steadily increasing pace of my heart rate and the quickness of my breaths. “You can’t intimidate me like you can everyone else. I want to know why. Why is everyone else afraid of you?”
The Tyrant released me and backed away, but only slightly. He shook his head, took a deep breath, and looked away. “I told you who I was in Heaven. Why isn’t that enough?”
“Because that’s not who you are anymore.” I paused, looked at the marks on my hands, then looked up at him again. “I won’t judge you. I just want to know what happened.”
“You will not be able to keep from judging me,” he hissed. “My life on this planet has been struggle, strife, and death. You have not tasted this world like I have. Your purity, for the most part, remains intact. Untarnished. How will you look at me when you know the things I have done?”
“You won’t know until you try me,” I said, trying to lower my tone and show him some care.
The Tyrant was reluctant. Resistant. He gave me his eyes, but his jaw clenched. He didn’t want to do what he was about to do, but I had given him no other choice. “I fell with Kalmiya,” he finally said. “Or, she was the first angel I found after I fell. Almost immediately after.”
Anger. A tingle of jealousy. “I know this part,” I said, a little harshly.
“Neither of us knew who we were, but by our appearances, we knew we were similar beings. That similarity allowed us to foster a bond in those initial days. We were able to find shelter in a cave off the side of the road we had landed on, subsisting on rainwater and whatever animals we could get our hands on. It was a miserable, pitiful existence.”
“Your memories didn’t come back?”
“Not nearly as fast as yours did, though we both quickly became aware of a pressing need. Light. We did not understand what it was, but we knew that we needed it. We left the shelter of the cave and walked for what felt like days until we felt the first sliver of it.” The Tyrant paused, as if remembering something… awful.
“What happened?”
“We followed the Light until we found a group of angels rooting through a building on the side of the highway, at a truck stop. The stench of death hit us even before we opened the door. When we got inside, we found bodies. So many bodies.”
“Bodies?”
“Mortals. Raptured. All of them. Alive once, then dead and packed into a storage room where they would be out of sight. There was music coming from the main room, laughter, moaning. I told Kalmiya to wait in the kitchen while I moved deeper into the building. The things I saw… what those angels were doing… just witnessing it left the first scars.”
