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Legs.
A head atop a pair of shoulders, framed by a large Halo that seemed to float behind it, moving and spinning constantly. I thought I saw its head tip down, as if to look at me, but the features were hidden by the shadows from the Halo’s incessant glow. The wings shuddered, and I heard the clanking of chains.
“Careful,” came the softest, gentlest of whispers. It sounded like it was coming from inside my mind.
All of a sudden, the world around me tipped forward as the ground went out from under me. Scrambling, I tried desperately to pull myself back from the edge I found myself on. I fell back onto my haunches and realized I was staring into a deep, dark void. I was at the Pit’s edge, only barely having stopped myself from crawling straight into it. A rush of air came up and washed over me.
Cold.
Foul.
Putrid.
The vertigo of looking down into the never-ending Pit made my head spin, I thought I was going to pass out. Panicked, I pushed myself away from the edge and looked up to find the source of the Light, hanging from chains embedded into the stone walls above the Pit.
I could see him clearly now…and he was magnificent.
An entity of absolute perfection, an almost indescribable being of such immaculate beauty that words would never do him justice. Just being there, so close to him, made me want to weep the happiest tears. Heaven was nothing now.Thiswas truly what home felt like.
“Lucifer,” I breathed.
“Get up, Sarakiel,” he whispered.
His chains rattled as he spoke, and there seemed to be a sadness around him that broke my heart and made me want to weep again. But I had to get up. He had asked me to get up and I had to—for him.
I had almost got to my feet when—from out of nowhere—Medrion kicked me across the cheek so hard I saw stars and toppled onto my back.
“I am so glad you could make it, Sarakiel,” he sneered, arms held wide in a mocking welcome. “I would have no one else here to witness my grand ascension.”
I turned onto my side and spat a glob of blood onto the floor.
“Pathetic,” Medrion said, and he came around me to land another kick square into my gut. I doubled over, breathless, all the wind sucked out of my lungs. “Why do you insist on interrupting my affairs?I. Alone. Am. Chosen. You. Are. Nothing.”
He kicked me with every word, but I grabbed hold of his foot and blocked the last blow. He pulled his leg from my grasp andwent to strike me again, but I managed to roll away from him and his boot instead struck the ground underneath us.
By rolling away, I had put myself too close to the Pit again, and he was marching toward me once more. I could go around it, but that wasn’t going to put any distance between us, and he was much faster and alert than I was. I only had one option: up and over. So, I scrambled to my feet, and just as Medrion reached me, I vaulted over the Pit, using my wings to push myself up and into the air.
But the Pitpulled, and it pulledhard.
I hadn’t expected the sudden force, and I plunged toward the opposite lip of the Pit instead of gliding gracefully to the other side. My body slammed hard into the edge, and I scrabbled with my nails to find purchase and stop myself from falling in. The Pit’s immense gravity tugged at my legs and wings, and already my muscles were struggling, my grip failing.
“Lucifer!” I screamed. “Please, help me!”
Lucifer looked down upon me. “I can’t,” he said, rattling his chains pointedly; though, there didn’t seem to be any urgency to his voice. Only sadness… or, was it indifference?
“Allow me a moment,” said Medrion, “And I will release you, as is my destiny.”
“No! He’s going to kill you!”
Lucifer smiled sadly. “I know. You did your best, Sarakiel—you have to know how proud I am of you.”
“No!” My grip faltered, and I slid a few inches before I was able to dig my bleeding nails into the rock again. “No!” I screamed again. “You can’t let him do this!”
“He has to. You heard him, it’s his destiny. He’s going to cut my bindings, and then absorb me.”
“You can stop him. You have to stop him!”
“I am powerless.”
