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Our light devours every angel standing against us, turning them into pure energy to cycle them back into the universe. I don’t know if they are gone forever or if they will eventually become whole again, but none of that matters.
What matters is that the realms need to be put back together. We need to summon all of the energy we can to heal it before it’s too late.
Raven shouts, her back arching as power zings through her very being, turning her into a light show. My eyes widen as her very essence glows like the sun, sending all the pure souls and the ones bound to Hell flying away from us to clear a path.
My chest tightens at the sight, and panic steals my breath. Flapping my wings, I fly toward her, shielding my eyes as the light stings my skin despite it being made of Heaven and Hell. Despite it being made of the love born between us. Raven is the most powerful being I’ve ever seen alongside our children, and it reminds me of the moment I laid eyes on her crying over her sister’s gravestone in a past life when she was Grace and she had lost Hope. I knew that very moment that she was my world. I knew that I would do anything for the soul. I knew I’d give up everything to be with her, and I know why now. She was always going to be humanity’s saving grace. Even in this life as Raven, she is intended to bring together the realms to make the perfect existence for all of us. Angels and devils. Demons and humans. Animals and plants and everything that pieces together to make this eternity worth living.
I live for Raven. I exist solely to stand by her side. We are soulmates. Forever.
Stretching my arms, I fight through her building energy and manage to grab her wrist and catch her as she begins to descend, her wings drooping as she loses consciousness.
Carrying the weight of the universe alone hurts her deeply. It is my duty to bear some of the weight when no one else can. The devils are busy bearing the weight of the destruction caused by those who refused to see past the light and into the beauty of the darkness. The darkness that allows us to see things clearly from the outside.
“Darlin’, please. Open your eyes,” I beg.
Raven dangles in the air, only my strength keeping her from falling to the ground of the broken planes.
Raven doesn’t respond to my voice, and the twins cry out, their voices wailing louder than ever. I can feel it in my core that they know something is wrong. Destroying Mikail and turning the wayward angels into energy to recycle hasn’t fixed the crumbling planes. The universe still falls apart.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I reach out to Micah through our telepathic link. I need him and the other devils more than ever.
“Micah, what’s happening down there?” My thought sends my head pounding. Micah doesn’t respond right away, and my whole body trembles. What if something happened to my best companion? What if something happened to the rest of the devils?
Silence greets me for another moment, and then finally, Micah swears through my mind, the F-bomb a surprising relief, considering he rarely ever cusses. “Are Raven and the twins safe?” he asks, his telepathic link prodding into my mind as he tries to search for answers. “I can’t hear her. It’s as if she’s walled off.”
“Raven couldn’t handle the amount of power it took to stop Mikail. She’s knocked out.” I say the words out loud, my voice hoarse with the admission, and my mind doesn’t think the words any better.
“Not only him, Elias. She obliterated them all. Every single angel that didn’t surrender was taken by the wave. It has left the realms too far gone. There’s not enough balance to keep the universe from collapsing. We’re going to try our best to hold it together for as long as it takes you, Raven, and the twins to get to the highest point in Heaven. You should be safe there.” Micah’s words are like a knife in the gut. He’s not saying what I think he’s saying. I can’t possibly leave him to face the collapse of existence.
I frown, tilting my head to look at the blurry world below, the haze too thick to see anything happening. “No—”
“Take her now!” Micah hollers, his voice booming through my mind, making me wince in pain. “There is nothing more to be done. It is your duty to save them. Protect them. If you come back here, it’ll all have been for nothing. Do not let all of this have happened in vain.”
He’s right. I have to get Raven and the twins to the safest place in the universe. The same place that Lucian, Kase, and Dante jumped all those years ago to create Hell.
I never thought I would see it again, but here I am, flapping my wings and listening to my companion and his instructions, surely coming from all of the devils.
“I will not let anything happen to them. I promise. I will not fail you. Not now. Never again.” I ascend higher, flapping my wings and launching through the haze, dodging around the blurring light trying to drag us back down.
Raven remains limp, her body swinging with every movement, but she’s safe. I’ll never let go of her. The twins ensure it as their light continues to bloom and grow and wrap around her until she floats in front of me, carried on a beam of light as if they hold her in their loving embrace despite them being so new to existence.
The higher I fly, the more peaceful I become. I feel as if someone pours warmth, hope, love, and faith over me, bathing me in the emotions I remember so clearly surrounding me in Heaven. But this is different. These emotions come from those I love the most. It comes from my devotion to not only Raven and the devils but from the twins and from my devotion to humanity. I will not let the world end. None of this will have been for nothing.
And as I reach the brightest, highest point in all of existence, I see my path again. I know exactly what my purpose is and what I’m supposed to do.
If only my heart didn’t hurt at the thought. There is only one way for me to help Raven, our children, the devils...our family. I do not belong up here in the brilliance of grace. I belong fighting beside the devils, helping them keep the universe together. It takes seven sinners to join Lucian in creating Hell so that Purgatory can rise. If I don’t jump, everything will be lost. Raven has always been my path, and she has taken me right back to here, where everything began so long ago.
“Elias...” Raven’s soft voice breaks through the pounding in my head, and I lick my lips and meet her blinking eyes, her legs heavy and her body still weak as she hangs, tangled in the light radiating from the twins.
“Darlin’, we’re safe. We’re almost there. Just take a couple of deep breaths. I’m sure your whole body is out of whack, and you’re in pain. Mikail hurt you.” I try to keep my voice even despite the rage burning through me, thinking about the bastard angel.
“Where are—” She groans and covers her eyes, her body trembling and shaking.
“Breathe in and out. Please. You’re weak. You used an enormous amount of power and blasted some fuckers into a new existence.” I can’t stop smiling with my words. Damn. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such an amazing woman love me. I’m so fucking lucky that we have children. A family. Before I fell for Grace, I never imagined such a thing possible. And now it’s the only thing I know to be possible. The world could end, but we never will.
The haze in the air clears, and I find the highest point of the Heaven realm, the pure white nothingness of the world shifting to match what I envision it to be in my mind just as I saw it the last time I was here. The massive cliff overlooks a layer of clouds that go on forever. I fly the dozen feet it takes to get to the cliff and land on the edge, setting Raven on her feet.
Without waiting for her to do anything, I hold out the twins for her to take. I know that if I don’t do what I need to, I might not have the courage. I have to do what is right for us and not what is right for me. I have been greedy for far too long, wanting everything my way and wanting Raven to myself. But her love is too powerful to only be reciprocated to one being. Her love is greater than anything I have ever been blessed to encounter.
