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“We are forsaken by them!”
“Deceivers and cowards!”
Abaddon took my hand, and together we ran down the street, through the city, avoiding the mobs of people that had suddenly come alive. Medrion was there already, at the Chantry building. We had to catch up to him, and we had to do it fast.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
SARAKIEL
The Chantry.
One of the Sacred City’s most beautiful places. Golden domes and marble columns, bathed in resplendent sunlight during the day, and reflecting the beauty of the stars at night. Heaven didn’t have a need for seasons, but the trees planted outside it, lining the canal that bubbled gently past, were always dressed in the wonderful colors of fall—yellow, orange, and even red.
I still remembered the satisfying crunch they made when underfoot.
It was nothing like that now.
The dome had cracked and broken, shattered into pieces and fallen into the building itself. I had been there, underneath it, watching it crumble and fall on top of me. Had I not fallen to Earth at the same time, I may have been impaled by the shards of solid gold as they plunged from the sky.
The canal was dry.
The trees, gone.
The Chantry’s columns, ruined.
The only meagre signs of life around it were the tents set up at the base of the wide semi-circular stairs that led up to thebuilding. It wasn’t until we got a little closer that we realized something was wrong—none of the humans within the tents were moving. We heard no groans, no pleas, no angry outbursts like the ones we had just ran from.
Were we too late? Had they run out of Light and faded away?
We approached quietly, aware that Medrion could be lurking around any broken column or wall, but all caution was thrown to the wind when I saw the first of the people… their bodies. There were two of them, lying, discarded, on the side of the shattered path, withered andsucked out.
Their eyes were hollow shells, their mouths twisted into wide o’s of terror and shock. I’d seen this once before but only in the living humans on Earth; they had been raptured.Raptured. Medrion had stolen what little remained of their Light to sustain himself.
He was no better than the Wretched, or any of the other Light-starved creatures we had encountered here.
“Thatfuckingmonster,” I said, my limbs trembling with anger. “Monster!” I roared, hoping he would hear me.
My voice echoed around the ruins surrounding us, and I knew it would be heard within the Chantry too. Good. I wanted him to know we were here. I wanted him to know we were coming, and that we were going to stop him.
Wrath.
Wrath was working through me, and this time, I embraced it.
Abaddon placed a calming hand on my shoulder. “Careful,Lightbringer,” he warned. “I know you are angry, but that is no reason to be reckless.”
I stared at him with wide, rage-filled eyes. “I’m going to rip his wings off myself,” I snarled.
“You must calm down,” he said, placing his free hand on my other shoulder and turning me to face him.
“Calm down?! Are you not seeing the same thing here? Herapturedthem! In Heaven!”
He shook his head but released me. “I know,” he said. “But you cannot let Wrath consume you, Sarakiel. It will not help them; it will only serve to corrupt you.”
I could have run. I thought about it—running straight into the Chantry, marching down into its depths, and ripping Medrion to pieces with my bare hands. As much joy as the mental image brought me, I knew Abaddon was right; this path led to corruption, and disregarding the physical effects of it, anger was a weakness Medrion could exploit.
I couldn’t afford to give him any more power over me.
“I’m… sorry,” I said, “I didn’t mean to snap.”
