“Butwhy?”This is it. This is my chance to get answers. It’s what I’ve been wanting, more than anything, since I got here. I can tell he’s holding back. He knows something that I don’t. “Raphael, please, I need to understand. What happened to me, specifically?”
“It is hard to explain.” He sighs. “But I will try my best to do so in a way you can understand. You are a scientist by training, so perhaps I can give you a physical parallel. Are you familiar with the origins of mitochondria?”
“…Yes.” And I don’t like where this is going one bit.
“Then you know that the mitochondria became an essential part of the cell from an endosymbiotic event, where a free-living organism was engulfed by a host cell. Your companions mentioned that you frequently called the Key to the Abyss a parasite, claiming it felt like a foreign entity. This might be true, in a way. When your soul returned, it had been fundamentally altered in a way we’ve never seen. The most logical explanation is that your entity, much like the mitochondria, has become an integral part of you.”
“And… its power, too?”
“In theory, yes.”
So my celestial parasite has morphed into my shiny new metaphysical powerhouse of the cell. Or powerhouse of the… soul. Goddammit, now I’ll never be rid of the thing.
“Great. Love that.” If it starts talking to me again, I don’t think I can handle it. I’m going to have a mental break.
Raphael continues to look at me with pity, ignoring my sarcasm. “I’m afraid there’s one more thing I should tell you, Kae.”
“What’s that?” I take another sip of my water, watching as he suspiciously waits until I’m done drinking before saying?—
“I believe you’re immortal now.”
I still choke, coughing up a lung, before rasping a very perturbed,“What?”
“Yes, I’m afraid you have lost the gift of mortality.” He looks very sincerely into my eyes before grasping my hands in his own. “Your soul is different, evolved—strengthened by an everglowing light. I would be curious to see what other unique changes you may yet uncover about yourself.” With a small pat on my hands, he lets go, standing up to leave. “For now, though, I leave you to forge your own path of discovery.”
“Raphael, wait,” I swing my legs over the side of the bed, cringing as it makes my head throb even harder. “There are so many things I want to ask you. A lot of them are medical, but most importantly, the apocalypse. Can it be stopped?”
He glances over his shoulder, smiling sadly at me again. “Patience, my child. You will learn everything you need in time.”
I have all of ten seconds to process both my newfound immortality and Raphael’s incredibly vague answer about the apocalypse before Dusk and Abaddon come barging in.
I can’t bring myself to look at them. It’s like those moments in movies, where everything becomes white noise. My brain flies and twists and turns around on itself. I haven’t really paid too much attention to how immortality works for the angels. Will it be the same for me? Has there ever been a humanwho became immortal?
And I just keep coming back to vampires. They’re the most notorious immortals in human lore, after all. What if it’s founded in some truth? What if I start craving the taste of blood?—
“Kae,” Dusk calls, pointing towards my vital signs. “Your heart rate is skyrocketing.”
“Well, fuck.” My head jerks towards him. They both seem equally apprehensive about approaching me right now. “I guess I can go ahead and have a damn heart attack, because it doesn’t matter anymore.”
They look at each other like two brothers who know a secret, fully convincing me that I’m living in some sort of alternate reality.
These two hate each other.
What is going on?
“I’m glad Raphael told you,” Abaddon says slowly, watching as I start ripping off my telemetry and standing up.
“How long have you known?”
“I had a hunch it would happen since I first felt the entity inside you.”
“You knewbefore—”I hiss, clutching my head. Fuckingow, fuck,I shouldn’t have yelled. I clutch my head with one hand, hobbling over to a kit of medical supplies left beside my nightstand. One-handed, I start rifling through it. At least the medical gown they put me in actually closes in the back.
“I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
Finally, some gauze! I grab a couple of packs before hobbling back to my bed, shooting Abaddon a glare. “How could you have possibly known?”
“As I said, it was just a hunch. The entity was very powerful. I thought it might be able to sustain your life indefinitely, especially if you could somehow consume it.”
