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“Sarakiel,” said Abaddon, placing a hand on my shoulder. “We cannot let the sacrifices we have made today, and those that are still to be made, be in vain.”
I knew he was right, but it didn’t make it any easier to stomach. I looked from Micah to Helena, both of them seemed determined and ready to sacrifice themselves to stop Medrion. The only thing I could do now was not waste their gift.
I had to stop him.
Swallowing the ball in my throat and blinking away the tears, I got to my feet and nodded. “Alright,” I said. “I’ll do this.”
“I know you will,” said Helena, “And I know you will succeed. When you do, this will have all been worth it. We will all be able to go home.”
“All of us except you…”
Helena smiled, weakly. “I am surrounded by angels and bathed in Light. I alreadyamhome.”
That broke my heart. I couldn’t help but break down and cry, the dam I had built to keep my emotions locked away finally collapsing. I was shuddering, my entire body trembling. Abaddon wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close to him.
“It’s alright,” he said, as he stroked my hair. His voice then deepened and lowered. “We will make him pay for what he has done, for the deaths he has caused. I swear on my life, Sarakiel. I will not rest until you have found the vengeance you crave, for it is my vengeance now also.”
“Not vengeance,” I said against his chest, “Not anymore.”
“What, then?”
“Justice.”
Abaddon nodded. “Justice,” he echoed. He then craned his neck to the side. “Do it.”
I couldn’t watch. I didn’t know what was about to happen, only that it was going to be the last thing Micah and Helena ever did. Abaddon wrapped his wings around me, making his embrace of me total, and complete. The last thing I heard was a small “Good luck,” from Micah before all sound and light seemed to disappear around us.
There was nothing.
A void.
For a moment I panicked, convinced that something had gone wrong, and I had been sent to the pit instead, but then I saw it—and felt it—a steadily increasing brightness and warmth, as if dawn was coming.
The warmth enveloped me. Not the warmth of Abaddon’s body against mine, or that of his wings wrapped around me. It was a kind of gentle warmth that seemed to come from within, not without. As the Light and the gently rising heat around us intensified, I felt my body begin to tingle, and lighten.
I felt like I was lifting off the floor, weightless almost.
The light around us reached an apex, and I felt my own weight come rushing back and set me on the floor again. It was a drop of only inches, but it was enough to startle me. I looked up at Abaddon, but I could only see the line of his jaw underneath the mantle of his scaly, bat-like wings.
He was holding me to his chest like his life depended on it, and in that moment, I felt safe.
Protected.
Like I truly was in the arms of a Guardian angel,myGuardian angel.
“Are you ok?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
“Did we make it?” I asked.
“Let us find out together, Lightbringer.”
I nodded, and Abaddon carefully unfurled his wings. His injury was healed, and I knew that mine were too. My chest was heavy, burdened with the weight of what it had cost to get us both here, but we were here. I could feel it. I could smell it. Heaven,home.There was already a familiarity in the air that I felt like I had yearned for my entire life.
Longer, even.
I was back.
But one glance at Abaddon’s face told me something was terribly wrong. My heart clenched as he released me, allowingme to take in the world we had been sent back to. Horror is what I found. Not peace, or warmth, or happiness—but sheer, stark,brutalhorror.
