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“I almost don’t dare ask what they were doing.”
“Sinning, in every way possible. These angels had Fallen a few days before us, and, after their initial confusion, had immediately begun indulging their darker urges. Untethered by the false morality of Heaven, they were debasing themselves, gorging on whatever food, drink, and carnal pleasures they could find. I made a move to leave, but they saw me. I was afraid they would somehow steal our Light and throw us in with the rest of the corpses.”
“What did they do?”
“They asked us to join them. As horrifying as our initial impression was, they were just as lost and confused as we were. We had no memories of our past lives and all we knew was an all-consuming hunger, for everything and anything. At the time none of us had any idea of the consequences. So, we joined them, in the hopes that sticking together would lead to some eventual clarity, and there was strength in numbers if nothing else.”
“Are you really trying to convince me that all this is because you ‘fell in with a bad crowd’?”
“That’s how it started,” he paused. “It was soon after that our memories began to resurface, and with them, the marks. Imagine an entire host of angels suddenly remembering their purpose, their Commandments, and all the damage they had done to the humans they were supposed to have been caretakers of. It was chaos. The first marks came on slowly, a scar here and a tarnished feather there… and then claws began to sprout, beautiful feathers littering the ground as angelic wings wereswapped for those of a demon.” He stopped again, glancing sadly toward his own ruined wings.
“A demon,” I said, “Like Abaddon.”
“As I said, our memories had begun to return. Eventually every angel in our group remembered their station and name… and my name. They blamed me. They thought I had done something to them, caused the Burn, or made the marks appear, because they had been fine before I turned up.”
“That’s not fair, you were as lost as they were.”
“It did not matter, they now had someone to blame for their sins. They imprisoned me, left me to starve alone and cold in that dark, putrid storage room, surrounded by decaying corpses; their shame, not mine. I would have died in there had Kalmiya not released me.”
The mention of her name still tightened my heart, but it released quickly—he had owed her his life, and now at least that debt was repaid.
“What did you do when she got you out?”
The weight he bore on his shoulders seemed to double when he realized he was coming toward to the end of his tale. Shame, grief, and regret playing across his face as he struggled to put the words together.
“They wanted ademonso badly. A monster they could blame for their cruelty and gluttony. They needed me to be their warped sacrifice so they could continue to sin without guilt,” he stretched his wings as far as the bars allowed. “So, I became what they wanted, what they had feared all along: Abaddon. Over time, my name became taboo and I was referred to only as the Tyrant. Those who did not bow to me had their wings torn from their backs and were cast out to fend for themselves.”
I should have been afraid of him then, but all I felt was sadness. Slowly they had stripped his true identity from him andwhat remained was anger, and vengeance. I understood that all too well.
“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to go through that.”
“I did what I had to to survive in this God-forsaken world.”
“And you damned yourself for it, and for them.”
“You damn yourself for vengeance, but you crave that still.”
“I’m not afraid of a little corruption if it means I’ll put a dangerous predator down for good.”
“Then what?” he asked, moving in on me again. “Say, you find him, and you stick your blade in his chest, and you watch the life go out of his eyes. Look at me now and tell me you’ll be satisfied. That you’ll put the knife down, wipe the blood off your hands, and go quietly into the sunset.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I do. You’re like me. You will never be satisfied, and it will claw at your being for all time.”
“I just want to find Medrion and finish what I started.”
“We want the same thing. Let me out, and we can go and find him together.”
“I’m not done with my questions. You haven’t told me why you want Medrion so badly.”
“I have not.”
“So, tell me.”
The Tyrant arched a lazy eyebrow. “Let me out, first.”
I realized then that he had managed to corner me, and I wasn’t going to get more out of him if he thought he had the upper hand. I needed to remind him who was in charge here. I met his gaze and shoved him, hard. The push caught him by surprise, and I was able to send him staggering into the bars opposite us. By the time he had recovered, I was on top of him. I grabbed one of his hands and pinned it against the bars. He went to grab my throat with his other hand, wrapping his fingers around my neck.
