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“You do not need to apologize,” he said “I know Wrath; I know how quickly it can blind you and lead to carelessness, but we need to be focused. That is how we survive this.”
Another bright flash of Light, this time from inside the Chantry itself. A wave of warmth rolled over me as the second shockwave pulsed through the area, leaving glittering golden motes in the air, and slightly recharging our dwindling Light reserves.
That feeling of warmth brought with it a sudden revulsion that made me want to double over and throw up, because I knew where that Light had come from. Medrion. He had raptured these poor souls for it. Wordless, Abaddon rushed toward the Chantry building, racing up its steps. I followed desperate, my breaths coming in quick and short.
We were close.
Close to Medrion.
Close to the Pit.
Close to Lucifer.
But we may already have been too late. If Medrion hadn’t heard my shout, if he wasn’t waiting to ambush us, if he thoughthe was unchallenged in his goal of reaching Lucifer’s prison, then we had no hope of catching up to him. Still, we had to try.
All we could do was try.
Abaddon broke into the Chantry, busting through what was left of its once magnificent doors. Inside, all was quiet, but it was not dark. While there were no burning sconces, no fires, the air was filled with glowing motes of Light that seemed to rise into the air; up and through the broken dome above us.
It was enough light by which to see our surroundings, but I wish I had remained ignorant.
There were tents in here, too, many more than there had been outside, all cramped together and almost on top of each other. They were crumpled, torn, the fires trampled and their ashes strewn across the cracked, marble floor. The people who had been taking shelter… they were gone. Raptured like the others, to join the tormented Light-less wraiths that rode the wind.
“Medrion!” I roared. “Where are you?!”
Medrion did not reply. He must have raptured who he could and made a mad dash for the Pit.The coward.
“Quickly, this way,” said Abaddon, standing at the mouth of the stairs that led to the cells below.
We moved swiftly but quietly, Abaddon leading us through what was left of the Chantry dungeons. They were a damned place, built to hold the worst of humanity and angel-kind alike. Humans believed that evil people were sent to Hell, but they were wrong.
Hell was for us; the angels that had been thrown into the Pit and warped and twisted by it. Humans went to the Chantry cells and were kept there until… until the Machine consumed their Light, ending their existence. Was it really any different to what Medrion had done to them?
I had to hope that it was, that maybe the Machine was the difference between just fading away peacefully or becoming one of the Lost. I wondered if Lucifer knew what would happen to the humans when he rebelled, or if God kept that from him too.
It was a while before we finally stepped onto a landing of sorts. It felt like we’d been running down steps for hours, but I knew it had really only been a few minutes. Time moved differently down here: faster than Earth, but slower than the rest of Heaven. I looked around, searching for the next path to take, but I hadn’t expected the gut punch of emotions that suddenly hit.
I remembered this place.
These darkened, claustrophobic halls had been my home for… well, I wasn’t sure. No matter how hard I tried, I had no idea how long I’d been a prisoner of Medrion’s. Days? Months? Maybecenturies. Centuries spent suffering abuse, after abuse, after abuse.
He had tried to break me in here, just like he had broken Gadriel.
He had tried to split my spirit into pieces so that he could throw me into the Pit. But I had resisted. If he couldn’t break me, he couldn’t throw me into the Pit—an angel had to be totally, truly stripped of everything that made them angels before they were ready to be damned.
I didn’t know why.
Maybe Medrion had made it all up for an excuse to keep beating us.
“Come,” said Abaddon, who tugged me away from the door to the cells. “The labyrinth is below us.”
I breathed deeply, then sighed. “I forgot about the damn labyrinth.”
“You have fortunately never had to traverse it.”
“Have you?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
He nodded slowly. It dawned on me that he must have escorted numerous angels to the Pit, and he likely remembered every single one of them. This was as hard for him as it was for me.
