A lewd smile played at the corners of Molloch’s lips, and all Michaela could think was that he looked like a caricature of his former self, an animal stuffed long after its vitality was gone. “I hope you’re this easy with other aspects.” He stared at her body, and from the gleam in his eye he wasn’t talking about allegiances.

“Molloch! Leave her alone!” Asz snapped.

Michaela stretched her wings out fully behind her. Her hands curled into tight fists; her knuckles popped with tension. She spoke low and deliberately. “Of course not, Molloch. I’ll never consider joining the fallen. I was created Michaela, Heaven’s General, and I’ll fight to the very end as such.”

Molloch’s smile dropped. “Fine. Frankly, I was sick of you anyway. Kind of a shame though.”

“You’re still adjusting to the transition into your human form. You can’t win against me, Molloch. Just let me pass, and you won’t get hurt.”

“Michaela, you don’t have to fight!” Asz acted like he wanted to separate Michaela and Molloch, but Cassie’s slight weight was his anchor. Her hand in his grounded him.

“Yes. She will,” Molloch said.

Gabriel, Michaela thought. She sent his name out like a beacon even though their mental connection was still weak. Michaela didn’t know if she had reached him or if she could, but she tried again. Gabriel something bad has happened. Something is wrong.

“Are you talking to him?” Molloch shouted. “I see it in your eyes that you’re talking to him!”

Michaela flinched, but her voice was steady. She looked at everyone when she spoke. “It’s time for me to go and fix this horrible thing you have done.”

“I hope you told him goodbye.” Molloch’s words were a growl, and he looked at her like he wanted to hurt her.

“Stop!” Asz screamed. “Don’t fight!”

Molloch’s wings snapped behind him. He gathered his legs in a crouch and sprang from the earth, soaring into the air with a menacing glower of hatred.

Reacting only a breath after him, Michaela pushed off the ground, channeling all her strength into her injured back. The ground buckled beneath the force of her propulsion and caved downwards into a rush of crumbling, sliding rock. With a loud crack, she collided with him midair.

They pounded into one another’s flesh, landing kicks and punches that only accelerated them toward the wall of the cave. Michaela twisted her legs around his waist, pinning his wings to his back. She fit in one harder jab to his face with her elbow before their bodies slammed into the other wall. His ribs popped beneath her legs.

Michaela’s hold jarred loose on impact, giving Molloch the opportunity to slam his fist into her face. The first punch shattered her nose, the second cracked a cheekbone, and the third broke her jaw. Shards of teeth scrapped down her throat when she gasped for air.

She fell a few feet, stunned, locked in Molloch’s combative embrace. The moisture from the waterfall weighed heavily on her wings and slicked across their skin. Blood poured from her face. Desperation flooded her body, coursing through her veins in a race against the adrenaline.

Before she caught her breath, his powerful hands wrapped tight and hard around her neck. She panicked. Brilliant spots of light lit her vision. Her windpipe contracted, crushed beneath his grip. Her eyes slid back and met his.

Michaela didn’t have to see the hate there, he expressed it clearly enough with his hands. She tried to break his grip, but he was locked on tight. His brow wrinkled in concentration, and his tongue traced the line of his upper lip

“Don’t hurt her, Molloch!” Someone screamed from far below. Michaela barely registered their words. “He wanted her awake!”

They fell ten or fifteen more feet in free fall. Molloch focused only on strangling her and didn’t bother keeping them aloft. With her last ounce of strength, Michaela flung her wings out as far as they reached and wrapped them around Molloch’s body.

Before they hit the ground, blood spurted from Michaela’s mouth onto Molloch’s face. The brilliant gold looked like paint against his pale, determined expression. He looked wild, crazed, and Michaela felt the first lick of fear, because, for once, she didn’t know what to expect of her enemy.

Their weight and momentum met the cavern’s floor with a deafening boom. Only her back broke their fall. The junction where her wings spanned out was crushed. A horrible, wrong numbness spread through her wings that were still tightly, but uselessly, wrapped around Molloch. She meant to scream in pain, but the sound came out a gurgle in her destroyed throat.

Molloch’s hands fell away from her neck. The weight of his body settled heavy and solid on top of her. She looked into his eyes, waiting for his next attack, knowing she was defenseless without the use of her wings.

No attack came. His eyes were wide and unstaring as she searched for any sign of life. She pushed Molloch off, and as his body rolled to the side, she heard a sucking, pulling sound when her wingtip slid free from his back.

“What…what happened?” Michaela rose to her feet and looked down at Molloch. Her throat opened, allowing her to draw in small breaths.

“What did you do?” Cassie’s screams were wild, manic in the small space. “You killed him!”

“No! He’s okay. He’s going to be okay.” Michaela willed Molloch to move.

The other Archangels came closer. Cassie sobbed into Asz’s chest as he held her close. His eyes were wide and disbelieving when he looked away from Molloch’s body to Michaela. “But we can’t die,” he said.

“He’s not dead!” The trembling started in Michaela’s fingers and spread until her whole body quaked.

One of the twins knelt beside Molloch’s body, probing a finger along the unmoving angel’s neck. The motion stilled. He couldn’t find a pulse. “Yes. He is.” Without looking at Michaela, the twins, heads bowed together, left the cave without a backwards glance.

You killed him. You killed him. You killed him.

“No!” Michaela screamed, sinking to the ground beside Molloch’s body. “No! No! No, no, no. Please, don’t be dead.”

“Michaela,” Asz said, struggling with the words. His arms clung to Cassie’s shaking body. Her cries filled the cavern. “Michaela, I have to get her out of here.”

Michaela looked up at Asz. “You can’t leave me here with him!” Her voice was high-pitched, foreign. Her teeth clattered.

“Michaela, I’m so sorry. But I have to leave now.”

“Why? Who’s coming?” Michaela asked, but Asz was already gone.

Michaela sat there, staring at Molloch, her body numb, her tears silent. The power that once filled Molloch only made him broken and hollow now. The dark color of his eyes slowly seeped away until nothing was left but clear, uncolored, empty orbs. His skin faded from pale to opaque.

And then she looked straight through him. She saw the empty air inside him and then the ground below him. The feathers of his wings slowly released from their bindings, floating in the air. Their blackened hue leaked to a ghostly white.

She reached out to touch one, but it slipped straight through, undisturbed on its journey upwards. More and more released until all she saw were feathers rising.

The blinding, bright remnants of Molloch’s once great wings clouded the air above with their ethereal luminance. Kneeling so close, her eyes stung, watering from their brilliance. Blindly, her hands scraped across the rough rock ground as she searched for Molloch’s body.

A sob caught in her throat, loud and choking. Her vision slowly cleared as the brightness dulled. Blinking rapidly, her eyes caught a shiny, black object on the cave’s floor. Her hand wrapped around something like a cold cylinder that writhed within her grip.

Michaela furrowed her brow as she groped along the object. Then, the feathers evaporated, revealing what was in her hand.

There was nothing to do. The gleaming, black cobra reared back, fangs flashing, and dove straight for the crook of her arm. Michaela screamed, falling backwards.

She yanked at the snake, but its fangs only sank deeper, slicing through her skin and latching on. The venom emptied into her bloodstream, scalding its way up her arm, leaving a path of numb, blackened blood vessels from the middle of her bicep down to the arch of her forearm.

Michaela heard Molloch’s laughter in the back of her mind as the snake faded. Its slithering presence grew inside her as if she had drank water too quickly, swelling and straining her belly. The snake completely disappeared, and she held nothing but air in her hand. A thick spider web of dark lines curled out from two huge black bite marks.

Tears rolled down her face. She rocked back and forth, cradling her arm and chewing on the saltiness of her lip. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She had only wanted to leave, so she might try to restore order back in Heaven. She hadn’t meant to kill Molloch.

No matter what, angels were not killers. It went against the terms of their creation. Her eyes skittered to where Molloch had fallen. Her whimpering filled the cavern.

She was the first to take a life.

Her arm pulsed. It drew her attention in the same way someone tapping her on the shoulder might. Deep within, she saw a dark stain on her soul. That mark, borne of a single second, an unconscious decision, an accident, rid her of her purity. Her actions were solely self defense, and she had never meant to kill Molloch. But no matter her intentions or the amount of guilt she felt, Molloch was still dead. The snake seemed to have found a new resting place inside her. It nestled around her spine and slithered its tail against her gut.

Another sob broke loose. She didn’t know who she cried for: Molloch or herself. She looked up at the cave’s dark ceiling and tried to imagine Heaven beyond the cavern—but she couldn’t. Now, more than ever, she needed to remember she was the Archangel Michaela, General of Heaven, and she knew how to fix this.

But she didn’t feel like herself anymore. She opened her mouth to pray for forgiveness, but the words never came.