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“They are not flaws. All of us who fell struggle against the deadly sins. Envy, Wrath, Pride,” I paused. “Lust.”
Her cheeks reddened. If they had gotten any brighter, I would have been able to feel the heat radiating from them from here.
“So, you just think I was jealous?”
“You were.”
She looked at me again. “You aren’t meant to say that out loud.”
“When have you known me to be anything less than direct?”
“Well, fine, but?—”
“—you were jealous, and I was… afraid.”
“Afraid?”
I lowered my head. “I have not felt fear like I had that night, not in a long, long time. I had failed to protect my people from Medrion and—worse—I had failed to protect you. In my attempt to deal with Kalmiya’s physical injuries, I neglected the mental ones he had inflicted upon you.”
Sarakiel closed her eyes, turned her head down at the ground, then looked at me. “He filled my head with poison. He convinced me you were using me, that I was nothing more than a tool to you, and that… Kalmiya was your lover.”
“Sarakiel—"
“—before that moment, when you asked me to heal her, I hadn’t wanted to believe it. But you’re right, Iwasjealous. Medrion had planted a thought in my head that allowed Envy to work its way into me at just the right moment. I wasn’t strongenough to stop it, and you were right to see to her first; she was dying.”
“This is all his fault,” I snarled. “I’ll butcher him! Pathetic excuse for an archangel.”
She laid a hand on my chest. It was warm, and soft, her touch calming me almost instantly. “You might be Abaddon the Tyrant, to everyone else, but to me you are Abaddon, the Guardian. I know you just want to protect everyone.”
“You, more than anyone.”
Her face lit up, her eyes sparkling with the majesty of the heavens above us. “I don’t believe you,” she smirked.
“From the moment I saw you.”
“You were kind of an asshole when we first met.”
“And I continue to—” Sarakiel quickly leaned toward me and pressed her lips against mine. I did not have time to react. I did not have an opportunity to fully understand what had just happened before the kiss broke, and she was on her way away from me.
I stared at her from where I stood, watching her as she effortlessly took to the air and melted into the night sky. Following her seemed like the right thing to do, it was what my body demanded I do, but there was another part of me that urged restraint.
Do not rush this.
Do not break this.
I could still smell her in the air, the scent of her hair… I was consumed by it, enraptured by it. I wanted more, not because Greed or Lust were urging me toward her, but because we were not guaranteed tomorrow. Medrion was coming, and he sought to end us all.
With a shake of my head, I took to the skies and went after her. Helena was a Bastion, but that Bastion was set againstthe side of an inactive volcano. It was there Sarakiel had gone, climbing up and along the summit on her large, white wings.
I followed, scanning the night for any sign of her. It wasn’t until I reached the lip of the volcano that I saw it. A light, soft, warm, inviting. She was there, standing at the edge of the volcano and staring into the rocky crater at its peak. The soft light I had seen washerLight, a ball of it gently glowing from the space between her wings.
She did not look at me when I landed beside her.
“It is not wise to be outside of Helena’s protection for long,” I said.
Sarakiel nodded. “I know.” She turned to look at me. “I was hoping you would come after me.”
“I wrestled with the thought.”
