“You will not suffer, Kae.” Abaddon’s steady, calm voice interrupts my furious rant with intense polarity. “I have sworn a sacred oath to protect you from harm. I intend to keep that oath by whatever means necessary, starting with ensuring your training is successful and expeditious.”
My gaze locks on him. My eyebrows are scrunched completely together, my mouth gaping open slightly. “What?”
“Yes, I swore an oath.” He nods, his eyes shifting to the table. “That is what you interrupted moments ago.”
Before I can even process the words, he picks up his knife and?—
He slices it across his palm.
Dusk swears; I swear.
Abaddon ignores us, uttering a short phrase in Latin. The only words I can make out are ‘Kesbeel’ and ‘sanguis’—which I’m pretty sure has something to do with blood. As soon as he’s done, he squeezes his palm, forcing blood to gush from the deep cut.
The falling droplets turn to black smoke before ever reaching the table.
After some arbitrary amount that he deems satisfactory, he unfists his hand, allowing the remaining blood to reabsorb into his body and his skin to heal over. It happens in a way that defies physics, like a video being played in reverse.
“What the fuck,” I whisper, staring at his hand with wide eyes.
He casually picks the bloody knife back up, cleans it off with his napkin, and continues to use it to cut his food. Simply, he states, “I do believe it’s a properly bound oath now.”
I glance at Dusk, trying to gauge his reaction to this occult madness.
And, yep, he looks just as appalled.
“None of that was necessary, you know?” He mutters. “Nobody does that anymore.”
Abaddon merely shrugs at him.Shrugs!I’m already beyond baffled, but then he goes on to look at me and say, “Why does that bother you?”
Because, apparently, it’s not obvious enough.
The dry laugh that escapes me is anything but humored. Hysterical, more like. “Why does that bother me? You just ripped open your palm and offered your blood to some celestial entity like a lunatic cultist.”
“They must have learned it from us,” he offers, like that’s fucking helpful.
I shove my face into my hands. “Yeah, this is gonna goswimmingly.”
“You’ll have your books and your letters,” Dusk adds in some poor attempt to console me. I can hear the concern in his voice, but I can’t believe he truly cares for my well-being anymore. Not if he thinks it’s acceptable to put me in this situation and leave me with no other option.
“Okay. Fine,” I concede, mainly because it’s starting to sink in that this is happening whether I like it or not. I’m just going to have to fend for myself and get the fuck out of here as soon as I can. I have to focus on my goals, on acquiring information from these brick walls of angels. “Can you at least explain how the Elohim, Earth, and the Abyss all work together? If the Council can tellyouwhat to do, why can’t they tellmewhat to do?”
“The four executive Council seats of Elohim are filled by the four Principalities of Earth,” Abaddon answers. “The Abyss is outside of their jurisdiction. You are currently a resident of the Abyss; therefore, you are under my governance. Not theirs.”
Huh. Okay. Well… “It would have been nice if I had known that sooner. Actually, a lot of things would have made more sense if I had a tiny bit more contextual knowledge for your worlds.” I shoot Dusk a glare. He had all this time to clear that up, yet he let me be confused. Maybe depending on him to be my guide through this hasn’t been my best decision. Not that Abaddon is much better, but at least he’s making an effort to be transparent. “Abaddon, what other basic facts am I missing?”
“I do not know what you don’t know.”
Figures. “How much of the Bible is real, for starters?”
“All of it, depending on your interpretation.”
A breath of hot air escapes my nose. And here I was, thinking getting answers about the nature of the universe from this angel mightnotbe like pulling teeth. I’ll have to be more specific, I suppose—which might be difficult, considering I haven’t read 95% of the Bible. “Okay, um… how about the rebellion? Did Lucifer revolt against God? Is that how you guys got here?”
“Archangels were occasionally sent to Earth before, but we were never intimately involved with humanity. Until, that is, Semyaza led a legion out of Heaven, which we call the Fall.” He responds in a steady voice, making everything seem like such common knowledge. “His experiment on Earth inevitably failed, and it suffered the full Wrath of God as a consequence. In its aftermath, the City of Elohim was created in a pocket realm to prevent further delinquencies while guarding humanity. With it came a need for governance, so they formed the Council and the Council’s Code of Conduct. The prophecy of Judgment Day, and thus the Abyss, just happened to arise around the same time.”
“Heaven.” I taste the word on my tongue. “So it’s real? What’s it like?”
He shakes his head, a somber expression falling over his usually stoic face. “I only vaguely remember the feeling of it being the most glorious, magnificent creation. Angels in the higher Spheres protect the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. They withhold our memories of it when we pass through the Eye of God to take an origin form here.”
