“Oh, how the mighty fall. But I have to say, it was interesting to watch.”

Michaela whirled around, springing to her feet with barely a hint of pain from her injuries, which were already healing. Her first thought was to hide Molloch’s body—until she remembered it was impossible to hide what had already disappeared. Her shoulders slumped, her overtired body sagging back to the floor.

Lucifer stepped out from the shadows of the cave. Michaela wasn’t surprised to see him. One of his fallen, one of her Archangels, had just died. She stared at him, feeling as empty and hollow as Molloch had looked lying on the ground. Lucifer’s black eyes gleamed at her.

“What was that?” Michaela asked. She trembled. Her eyes settled on her arm that still throbbed painfully despite the healing in other parts of her body.

“I honestly don’t know. I’ve never seen that before.” Lucifer drummed his fingers on his square chin. “The snake must have been the darkness of Molloch’s soul. He may have died, but his soul lives on inside you, unfortunately. Everything has to go somewhere, right? Nothing can ever really disappear. Of course, this is all wild speculation, because an angel has never died before.”

The snake slithered inside her, flicking its tongue at the base of her spine. Michaela cringed.

“Nothing to say? I understand.” Lucifer clucked his tongue in false sympathy. “Your first murder can be straining.”

“It wasn’t murder!” She surprised herself. The words came before she stopped them. The tears continued to fall. She had no right to justify her actions, but the words spilled out anyway. “It was an accident.”

“There, there, Michaela. Everything will be okay. You just saved me some trouble down the road.”

She blinked at him, spilling more tears down her pale cheeks. “How can you say that?”

“Please. It’s me, Lucifer. Of course I can say that. It’s who I am, who I was created to be. I was made to bring evil into this world. Save your breath.”

Michaela opened her mouth, but instead of words coming out, tears dripped in. Lucifer sighed heavily and ran his hand lightly over his perfectly styled, dark hair, smoothing imaginary strays back into place. A few gray hairs were sprinkled above his ears.

“That’s what I thought. How can you go home after all you’ve done? Do you really think they will allow you to come back as a murderer? The one you killed was an Archangel, Michaela. Granted, not a very good one, but still, you killed your own. Think of the darkness that stains your soul.”

Michaela wrapped her scrapped arms around her shaking body. She thought nothing of forgiveness or Heaven, only of her soul. Lucifer was right. She had fallen into darkness, far from grace.

Oh, Gabe, she thought. Gabe, I’m so sorry. I’ve failed you.

Lucifer walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. Before, his very presence had sickened her, yet now she didn’t even shy away from his touch. His hands massaged her aching shoulders. She closed her eyes and let the tears fall freely.

“Do you know who will win this silly war between your holy angels and my fallen? I didn’t know either. Until now. I will. Do you want to know who is going to win this for me, Michaela? Not you. Not your fallen archangels. Not all the fallen angels in the world. None of you. The humans will win this war. They will be my army. I will take your Earth and your Heaven from you. Everything will finally be mine…” His voice trailed off wistfully.

Brushing her hair away from the mangle of her healing wings, Lucifer ran his hand down the center of her back to the broken junction of her wings. One wing sat limp and useless at her side, the other tucked awkwardly beneath her feet. The pain hummed in her bones, building and building.

“Do you remember the day you cast me out of Heaven? I do. I’ll never forget. It’s not the fall to earth that haunts my dreams. No, it’s the moment you held me over the edge of Heaven. Do you remember? You had my wings in both hands like this.” Lucifer picked up her wings, one in each hand. She cried out. The bones of her wings went deep into her back, grinding and scraping together as Lucifer adjusted his grip.

“I dangled over the edge, half in Heaven, half in space. You stood above me, like this.” He eased her forward until all she saw was her reflection in the stream.

There was a stranger staring back, blinking dull eyes at her.

“And then you placed your foot in the center of my back.” He pulled her wings tight as he put his booted foot on the most broken part of her. Her body bowed, and her head lolled back to once again stare at the missing sky. The pain exploded in her bones, searing her insides raw until she was freezing cold. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and bit her lip to keep the screams inside. She couldn’t stop the tears that leaked through or stop her mind from begging for Gabriel. In the most painful moment of her life, all she wanted was him, and it made the pain even harder to endure.

“You whispered something to me. Do you remember what you said, Michaela?” He leaned so her ear grazed his mouth. “You said, ‘you will never belong.’ And then my body split in half as you tore my wings from my back. Half of me went over the edge of Heaven, and my better half, my wings, stayed in your hands. I didn’t understand what you meant at first. Then I realized. Our wings are our only connection to our fellow angels, to Heaven. Without them, I couldn’t sense anyone. It was a permanent telepathic block. I was completely alone, which I guess I’d asked for when I decided to leave Heaven forever. But you know the worst part—the part that will be torture for you? Everything you were will be gone. Who are you without your Archangels? Without your role as General? Without your precious Gabriel? They’re all gone.”

He licked her ear, his breath heavy on her face. She closed her eyes and waited. “Gabe,” she whispered, but Lucifer didn’t hear. Inside her, Gabriel’s awareness flashed like a strobe light. He was coming, but it would be too late.

“I can’t tell you how much pleasure it gives me to bring you down to my level. We’ll have matching scars. You will forever be broken—just like me. Forever cast out. Never able to return home. That will haunt you, eat at you.”

His grip tightened around her wings as he repositioned his leg against her back. Her eyes reared open. The scream, a gasping sob of a sound, finally escaped her mouth. Michaela wished she could take her punishment in wretched silence, endure it, suffer through it, but she couldn’t. Her hands flailed in front of her, clawing the air. Her struggling only wrenched her wings in Lucifer’s grip more.

“Please!” she screamed, begging. “Don’t do this. Please…” Her voice broke, her throat sticking around the mucus of her tears. She closed her eyes. “Oh, God. Please don’t do this.”

“Everything you once were is no more. Everything you can be isn’t much. Michaela, you will never,” he bent one final time and whispered in her ear, “ever belong.”

She didn’t feel anything when his swift kick tore her wings from deep within her back, splitting apart newly solidified muscle and bone, tearing her in two different directions. Her vision went white, a light like the wings of a thousand holy angels shining behind her eyelids, and the pain ended. It was the sweetest relief as her broken body fell into the stream with a thick splash.

Please let this be the end, Michaela thought. Let it be over. Let me die as Molloch has died. For all Earth’s beauty and Heaven’s light, I won’t miss them. The lies, betrayal, and pain will finally be over if this is the end. Let this be the end…

Her last thought was she missed Gabriel most of all. She imagined his arms wrapping around her. Gabe… She smiled into the water lapping at her lips.

And then everything went black for good.

Gabriel, something is wrong.

Fueled by those words and the fear in Michaela’s thoughts, Gabriel ran blindly through unknown woods with the smell of pine burning his sensitive nose and twigs snapping beneath his feet. The pull of Michaela’s soul guided him through the darkness. There was nothing else but the night and the blur of trees between them. The other Archangels struggled to keep up.

As Gabriel drew closer, her feelings flared inside him; her agony was as his own. His name was in her thoughts like a desperate plea. Someone was hurting her, and a bitter acid filled his mouth, turned his vision gray. She was out there—hurt and afraid.

A violent growl ripped from his lips. He sprung from the edge of a bluff, leaping into the sky. His wings hammered at the air with long, crushing flaps. The gorge was far below him, the trees small, the lake a shining nickel in the moonlight. Gabriel flew up and over the tree line on the other ridge before crashing through the branches and sprinting away.

It was slower, but he had to run. If he flew too much, the power of his wings would drown out his connection to Michaela. And their link was already too weak, limited by their human bodies. He pushed his legs faster.

He ran for what could have been hours, but it was likely only minutes. Sweat poured down his naked chest. His bare feet were sliced from rocks and roots, but he paid little attention to the pain in his fervor to reach Michaela.

She was so close he almost heard the beat of her human heart, yet he slowed. His steps faltered. The other Archangels pulled up behind him, circling out, watching him, waiting.

Her pain hit him fully then. He heard her screams, and his mind shattered. He crumpled over, stumbling, and falling to the ground. The Archangels surged forward, arms out, reaching for him. Clawing at the soft earth, he tried to drag his body forward. The creatures of the woods fell silent. The other Archangels shrank back, unsure as to what was happening.

Gabriel realized it was he who screamed. Michaela’s presence had disappeared inside him.

She was gone.