Cassius begins crying in his mother’s arms.
I nod. “And if I train him?”
“Your punishment,” Uriel says in a low voice as he takes a menacing step toward me. “Your curse… is that you will always carry the weight of his decisions. Sariel, we leave you twelve brothers to help you keep the immortals and humans in balance. Now that you have mixed the blood, we are no longer at peace.” The wind swirls, nasty and angry. “But brother, a lifetime of war. Between the races. Between each other, for you have created, and that is beyond our realm. It is forbidden.”
Lightning flashes as I walk away from the tent.
Two thousand angels stand, ready to fight as fire strikes down from the sky, destroying the mountain where my brothers and I watch.
A deep sadness rips through me as all but twelve of my brothers are instantly commanded to sleep by Uriel and fall to the ground where they stand.
“They will slumber,” Uriel commands, “until their penance is paid. As for the rest of you.” He points at the twelve remaining brothers, including Bannik, Azeel, Gadreel, and spreads his hands wide. “Do not fail again.”
In another loud clap of thunder, the angels return to Heaven.
All but one.
He’s small, like a child, possibly ten or twelve, but I know what is happening even if Nephal does not.
Slowly, the child takes a step toward me. He holds out his hands and grasps mine in his.
“We give second chances.” He smiles at me and nods. “To our creation. Besides, nothing is truly a surprise to us, now is it?”
The child smiles brightly like that of a star shining in the sky, sucking the breath from the very air around me.
My wings shove out of my back; they are not black as I assumed but still white. I am still an archangel even though I am punished. I do not know how to respond to this. “Your brothers will not slumber forever. And you will need the strength and knowledge of the heavens for the darkness that is coming.” He spreads his hands again. “Remember, where there is darkness…” His voice lowers to a whisper. “There is also great light.”
The child, one of the forms of the creators, turns to the tent and slowly walks in. I hold my breath as he leans over Cassius and whispers something I cannot hear, and then presses his hand to Nephal’s forehead.
Her eyes burn a brighter blue and her skin returns to its normal color.
He has just healed her from the birth. I no longer smell blood but the smell of flowers and fresh grasses from the fields.
“Immortality,” the Creator whispers, “will be a gift given to his mother so she can look after her son.” He stands. “The very first Dark One has been born.”
TWELVE
Nephal
“Go away from here.” The small child stands up after healing me. “You may stay with her for seventy-seven days—after that, she will always be provided for. What happens during those seventy-seven days is all up to you but when they are over.” He looks at Sariel, eyes burning. “You will continue on with your original purpose.”
“Yes.” Sariel nods. “I will.”
“I say this because I love you, Sariel—but there are things even my angels do not understand or know, things that can tip this world into self-destruction so severe that entire populations will be wiped out—do not be the reason for that, my son. Be the solution. Protect them as I protect you—and show your son the way so that when darkness comes—he looks to the light.”
He walks out of the tent like any normal-looking child and then slowly turns into a man with dark skin and long braids; he pulls out two swords and slings them to the sides causing dust to rise up.
And then he simply disappears.
“W-who was that?” I ask.
“That,” Sariel whispers, “is who you worship.”
“We must go.” Sariel packs up my tent, all of the belongings that I have, and carries them, then pulls me into his arms and presses his hand to Cassius’s forehead.
I have no time to think as he walks outside, our village all stunned into silence, and approaches the twelve remaining brothers. “I’ll stay with her until the days are through and then join you.”
One of the angels is still standing there, the one that spoke all about destruction and seemed angry at Sariel. He speaks with authority. “Go to the twelve points of the earth and guard them until your punishment is through. The rest of your brothers I will take care of.”
“Where will you take them?” Sariel asks. “Or will they merely sleep where they lay?”
Uriel hangs his head. “They will sleep… in the Abyss.”
Gasps go up around the twelve brothers, but nobody says anything as the bodies slowly disappear, as does Uriel.
It isn’t until Sariel and I make it to the next village that I ask, “What is the Abyss.”