Her voice is timid, a gentle thing that needs to be kept safe.Her appearance is pale and willowy.I suspect she’s in her mid to late thirties, though her porcelain skin makes her appear younger.She carries an age with her, like her soul is full of memories.Her soft demeanour and dark hair stark against her pale skin and quiet words.
She reminds me of glass and things that break.The type of beauty that you pray is eternal while recognising things that poetic never last long.
I edge away but my heart inches forward.
“Wait.Don’t go.I’m not mortal either.”She pushes her long dark hair away from her face and two horny nubs appear on her scalp.“I was here making a deal, an interesting one as it happens.A resident from Nefari City made their way here.”
She’s clearly a friendly demon, but of no use to me.I leave, but her voice halts me.
“Are you okay?”she says.
It’s the warmth in her words that makes me crack.I haven’t spoken to another being in weeks, and I crave the closeness of connection.What harm can asking for help do?It’s not like I’ll see her again.
“I’m looking for another… like me,” I say, staring at her horns.I’ve never seen a demon in real life.Only in the books the Celestial Library contains that taught us about the mortals and the demons.
I find myself suddenly closer, peering at her nubs.She smiles and tilts her head forward to give me easier access.
My wings shiver back into place as I calm down.
“You seek another angel?”she asks, bright yellow eyes staring so far into me that it makes my soul quiver.
“A fallen one.”
She tilts her head, her eyes travelling down my body as if disrobing me.It makes my insides heat.“What do your kind eat?”she says.
I frown.“What a strange question.”
“Do you eat mortals?”
The furrow between my brows deepens into a crevice.“I certainly do not.”
“What would happen if you did?”She brushes her hair back into place, hiding her horns as if she should be ashamed of them.It makes me want to reach out and scoop her hair up to display them.I swallow the urge; it makes my fingers tingle.
My mind flashes to the day we entered this realm.I swallow hard, my heart dropping.Interitus ate a shade.
“You’re talking about shades?Dead mortals, yes?”
But she shakes her head.“There are many rumours circling the city.Mortals are having their souls stolen.”
I clasp a hand to my mouth, having to suppress the urge to vomit.“Show me,” I say.Interitus wouldn’t go that far.It has to be a mistake.
She takes hold of my hand.The sudden warmth glistens between us and makes a surge of adrenaline kick around my tummy.She weaves me through the park’s ancient trees and scruffy shrubs.
“The name’s Gellara,” she says as we head towards the heart of the city.
“Architecti,” I reply and the fluttering knot in my belly bloats.
The city is darker than I expected.The low lamp lights create an orange hue that burns like sunsets over oceans.
It creates a lie.Makes the streets appear warm when really, the air is frigid against my skin.Gellara edges closer to me, whether to share my heat or because she is feeling the same frisson of electricity between us, I’m not sure.
But I don’t push her away.
She natters away about a project she’s campaigning the seven devils on.She wants to make contract terms more favourable to humans.
“They don’t stand a chance really, not once they agree.And I just don’t think that’s fair.Everyone should be given a chance to change their fate and repay their debts, don’t you think?”
That makes me falter.Do I think humans should be allowed to change their fate?I’m not sure I do.It invalidates the concept of control and destiny in the first place.
