Fallen Angel 1: Ashes of Eden Read online

  As thoughts of Below disappeared from his mind, Lucifer gave in to everything he felt. Without worry or fear he uttered, “I want you. I need you.”

  “Lucifer, I…”

  Gabriel’s hands had been pressed against his chest, resting but not rejecting. Now they needled into his tight muscles. Lucifer’s own hands were around Gabriel’s back, being tickled by her wings as he slid his palms down flat over her rounded backside. When he squeezed, Gabriel gasped and speared her fingers into his long hair. Her tongue entered his mouth, now taking as well as receiving. Spurred on by her soft gasps, Lucifer moaned and began the exploration of her perfect form. Sliding his hands around her, he grazed up over her hips, loving the way her waist curved in. Then he found her ribs, each one so pronounced as he glided higher and higher. Slanting his mouth to deepen their kiss, he cupped his hand over one of her swelling breasts. His other hand dipped lower, snaking through the folds of her robe to grasp her hips, ready to explore the perfection that was her body.

  “Gabriel, I lo—” The words that bubbled up Lucifer’s’ throat, three little words he had never dared to utter, stalled at a sudden intruding sensation. Lucifer broke away from Gabriel, trying to shove her behind him at the sight of two angels lingering in the entryway.

  “What do we have here?” Michael sneered. He clucked his tongue as he stared at them both in disgust, his eyes burning with anger and something else. Anticipation. “Unadulterated sin. Seems your report was well warranted, Azrael.”

  The Angel of Death’s eyes cast down with a shake of his head. “I tried to warn you. I tried to stop you.” He lifted a finger that glowed intensely bright at the tip. Infused with God’s power.

  “No!” Lucifer screamed out, anticipating what was to come. “This was my doing. Not Gabriel’s. Spare her—”

  Gabriel screamed and dropped down to her knees, her hands covering her head as if it would ward off the pain. Lucifer was torn between wanting to comfort her and the need to seek vengeance toward the one who was inflicting her torture. He chose the better option, lunging forward with the intent of bashing Azrael and Michael bloody to stop the torment.

  In mid-air, Lucifer crumbled in on himself. His connection to the ground sent a resounding whack out like a shockwave as agony exploded not only inside his head but also through every one of his bones. He felt like at any moment his insides would liquefy and he would be a pooling mess of lax skin on the ground.

  Fearing Gabriel was suffering the same extent of his punishment, Lucifer tried to rise to his hands and knees, growling and sweating with strain. He had to get to her. He had to comfort her. He had to stop what was being inflicted on her even if it meant—the thought of ending his brothers’ lives popped into his head. If Lucifer had access to the angel sword, he would not hesitate to maim or even kill them both to save Gabriel from this torment.

  As the murderous thoughts manifested in Lucifer’s mind, the agony riding his body and brain suddenly died off. Lucifer gasped for air, feeling like his lungs were deflated, but he refused to let himself recover. Hearing whimpering, he slid his weakened body toward Gabriel at the step’s edge, wrapping his cramping arms around her. “It is alright. I am here. It is over.”

  “Nothing will ever be alright again, brother,” Michael stated without any hint of regret at what he’d stood by and let Azrael deliver.

  Lucifer glared up at Michael, then shifted his gaze to Azrael. “If you ever, ever—”

  “It was not my will,” Azrael snapped, his expression fierce yet troubled. “And this is far from the end of it.”

  Before Lucifer could demand an explanation, both angels raised their hands and clicked their fingers—and all four of them burst into brilliant light.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Lucifer reformed with his arm still protectively wrapped around Gabriel. He shifted only enough to give his eyes the ability to roam over her, to see if she was still suffering. Blood from his leathers had smudged over her pale robe, reminding him of why he’d needed her. Why he’d selfishly gone to her. He cupped her face. “Forgive me.” Although unending silver trails still marred her pale cheeks, he took refuge in the fact that she was no longer crippled by the sensation of having her head stabbed by a million strikes of heavenly power. They were no longer in her chamber room either.

  Azrael had been right. This was far from over.

  Now beside the looking glass, Michael stood over them as Azrael sent Lucifer a crestfallen look before striding out of immediate sight. Michael remained close, his look of hatred at Lucifer shifting to an almost enraged sorrow as his blazing eyes shot to Gabriel. “Release her.”

  Gabriel sniffed and levered her quivering frame up onto her arms. Her large eyes widened as she peered sidelong at the looking glass and she pushed Lucifer away. “Let me go.” Rising to her knees she faced the pool, clasping her hands in front of her while not saying another word or daring to look his way.

  And Lucifer knew why. They were not alone.

  He had felt it the moment they reformed in this watchful place. Aside from the vibrating sensation that had suddenly increased to a constant thrum in his veins, the heavy weight of eyes was almost too much to ignore. Yet he had. Gabriel’s well-being along with his guilt had been his only concern. Now the expression that contorted her face, the open mouth and the quivering of her bottom lip, forced Lucifer to behold what held her fearful gaze.

  Around the looking glass, the other eight angels stood at their designated positions. Azreal, Uriel, Raziel, Raguel, Jeremiel, Ariel, Zadkiel, and Chameul all stood by, hands joined behind their backs and silver gazes set on them with looks of pity and judgment. The reason for their watchful presence became clear. They had been summoned. God’s revolving coil of light hovered above the still water of the looking glass, lending understanding to their expressions as his power beamed down over the frozen surface. Like a live reenactment replaying on a loop, Lucifer saw his likeness in Gabriel’s bedchamber, his hands seeking as they traveled over Gabriel’s body and his lips hungry as they devoured her own.

  Standing to the side, Azrael closed his fist with an audible snap. The replay cut off, leaving only God’s warm light. The angel sighed, eyes falling from a swift glance at Gabriel and then down to his bare feet. “It is time.”

  Lucifer rose up to speak, but Michael’s fist clamped around his throat. Squeezing tighter, his ability to form words was choked off along with his air supply.

  Michael smiled, but the shift in his features was anything but kind. The starry sparkle of his narrowed eyes clouded. “You were warned, Lucifer. You may be flesh and bone, but you are born of light. The bringer of the most light that created all that is below. A star that once shone so bright.” God’s light pulsed as the commanding archangel spoke, making it clear his words were delivered from God himself. “What you have done is not of angels. It is of man. It is of their greed and recklessness. It is a sin. One I will not permit you to pollute this heavenly place with any longer.”

  Lucifer heard every word despite the way his head had begun to spin. He had known all along that what he felt for Gabriel was wrong. That it went against everything that made them God’s archangels. His eyes circled their sockets, his arms that were holding him up with his hands clamped to Michael’s forearms, losing their strength.

  “Please. Please release him,” Gabriel pleaded from behind him as he lost control, dangling like a puppet. He felt the nearing of her physical body and could not miss the shake of her voice. “I am to blame too. I…”

  Michael opened his palm and Lucifer collapsed to the glowing floor, gasping in air like it was pure life, the sound horrible and wheezing as his lungs refilled. The loss of air could not have killed him, not up here. Only the angel sword had that ability—and God himself. Yet he felt like he was drowning, his heavenly light suffocating with the threat of being extinguished. “No,” he managed to rasp, forcing his cramping arms to push his torso back up. He glared at Michael and then shifted his expression with a look
of apology as he faced God’s burning light. “I am the only one to blame. Gabriel is innocent.”

  God’s brilliant light pulsed blindingly for two beats, sending a strike out into Michael. And then it sucked in on itself like a vortex snapping shut.

  Whispers rose from around the looking glass, each of the angels surprised by their maker’s departure and the lack of resolution. Like Lucifer, they looked to Michael for answers. Like Lucifer, they knew every angelic action had a consequence, and he nor Gabriel were getting out of this forbidden act without meeting theirs.

  With his hands now glowing, Michael nodded, the glaze to his eyes clearing as if his instructions had been completed. Lifting his head, he addressed the watching archangels. “Bow to God’s will. To the fate of this breach.”

  Collectively, each angel’s eyes clouded, becoming vacant as if they were receiving the repercussions telepathically. One by one they dropped to their knees, bowing their heads. Remiel was one of the last to submit, his eyes sorrowful as he looked up at Gabriel and Lucifer. He nodded and knelt, leaving only the Angel of Death.

  Looking defeated, Azrael’s eyes lifted from their swift glance at Ariel, the dark-haired angel who had already bowed down to her knees, and he glowered at Lucifer. “You condemn us all,” he rasped as he bowed.

  The thought of what was about to unfold filled Lucifer with fear.

  Sneering down at Lucifer, Michael’s features softened as he met Gabriel’s glistening eyes. “This is not my wish.” With a click of his glowing fingers, he transported them in an instant.

  Gabriel gasped, and Lucifer jumped to his unsteady feet as they rematerialized in her garden. As beautiful as ever, something was very wrong. There had never been any sounds or movement aside from the plunging water into the nearby pond, but now wailing wind swept around them. It blasted through the trees and long grass, cutting the heads off wildflowers as if blades dominated the speeding air. The trees felt the assault next, their branches stripped of leaves, leaving skeletons in their wake.

  As cracks rang out, Gabriel cried silently, seeing her perfect creation succumb to destruction with the crashing down of many of the great towering trees surrounding them.

  Lucifer’s heart broke to see what Gabriel’s special place was being reduced to, to see the devastation in her eyes as she watched all she had created in joy turn to ruin. “Michael, that is enough.”

  Michael paid him no mind, staring blankly ahead. “Let this forevermore be a reminder of your sins. A reminder to prevent your disobedience.” With a shot of pure light from his palm, a glowing orb was flung up into the sky. It exploded in a shower of crackling yellow, orange, and red, glowing brighter as it sprinkled down in the distance.

  “Michael!”

  Lucifer’s stalking advanced toward his brother stalled. The sound of the plunging water that fell so freely over the tall cliff edge quieted. Twisting to face the view, his jaw dropped as he watched the water dry up, the flow stemming until it was barely a trickle over the wet rocks and hidden cave behind. The cause became clear as black smoke pumped up into the glowing sky and a flurry of hungry flames bloomed up over the tall cliff.

  That fire Lucifer had experienced before lit up inside of him, rage burning in him like an inferno ready to explode. He advanced on Michael, prepared to flatten his brother and end this cruelty. But even as Gabriel cried out for him to stop, her intervention hadn’t been necessary.

  Lucifer’s body froze mid-step. He cried out, feeling like fiery snakes had sprouted from the ground to burrow up through his feet, tunneling their way upward and weaving around his bones. Lucifer fell with a shout, the burrowing shifting from his legs to his stomach and chest. He felt like he was being eaten alive from the inside out.

  At his side in an instant, Gabriel cradled him over her lap, screaming words he could no longer hear as that tunneling graduated to his skull. The heat grew and engulfed him, surrounding him like a fiery blanket. And then everything went quiet.

  Well, almost everything.

  Cracking his eyelids open, Lucifer saw the devastation as Gabriel sobbed ever so quietly. Able to move again, he pushed off of her lap to stand on shaky legs. The remnants of the diabolical flames neared them as it ate up the long grass and the stems of beheaded flowers. “Gabriel, come.” He reached out to grab her hand, wanting to yank her away from the fire that crackled toward her.

  Gabriel pulled free and he fell back, landing on charred land as she remained kneeling on the shrinking patch of grass. The hungry flames crept closer, singeing the tips of her wings that grazed the burning ground behind her. The dancing yellow and orange licked her folded legs, burning out to the bank of the water with a fizzle.

  With black smudges and swirls over her reddened skin, Gabriel glanced up at Lucifer as her flesh healed itself. The sadness in her eyes resonated all the way out to her quivering black-edged wings.

  “You may not leave here at will.”

  Michael’s sudden words whipped Lucifer’s head up and around to see the angel still standing behind them. His feet were singed too, and though he looked emotionally drained by what he had done to Gabriel’s special place, Lucifer wanted to wipe any and all expressions from his face.

  Lucifer vaulted up, ready to drive his tight knuckles into Michael’s face, but Gabriel’s shocked cry spun him back around.

  A thick chain of glowing loops exploded from the bank, and as Gabriel scuttled back in surprise, Remiel appeared and caught the connected manacle in his hand. He held the trapping device out to Gabriel without order or demand, but rather a subservient and somewhat reluctant gesture.

  Gabriel reached up without question, nodding as she took the chain from Remiel.

  “Gabriel, no!”

  She held a hand up as Lucifer rushed to stop her. Extending one of her folded legs, she snapped the open cuff shut around her ankle. “I accept His will. This much I deserve.”

  “Gabriel, I—”

  Lucifer didn’t have time to tell her that she would never deserve to be tied down like an animal. That nothing she could ever do would warrant what had been taken from her today. With a pop of light, he was no longer beside her in the ruins of her garden. He was back by the looking glass, breathing heavy and hands balled into fists. He sneered at Michael who stood close enough to crack in the face, but he made no attempt to lash out. What had been done could not be undone, and any retaliation would risk a worse punishment for Gabriel. Through clenched teeth, and even though the other angels all stood in a waiting circle, Lucifer addressed Michael. “How long will she be chained therein?”

  Any regret Michael may have shown toward Gabriel melted into agitation as a muscle in his jaw ticked. “As long as is required. And while she is there…” Michael threw his arm out, and Lucifer stood his ground, ready to take the blow. But the ball of light that split from his brother’s hand never hit him. Instead, it shot toward the center of the looking glass where it hovered for only a split second before plummeting straight down. Water sprayed up as the ball broke into twelve shooting spears of light out in exact wedges to the water’s edge. A clang of glowing loops burst free, fastened to anchors that appeared and were bolted to the ground. Each of the angels around the pool caught a manacle. Remiel caught two as Michael caught his own.

  The female angels, Uriel and Ariel, placed their manacles down and stepped back, while all his brothers snapped the manacles shut around their ankles before dropping cross-legged at the water’s edge.

  Except for Azrael.

  Seeing the two female angels depart with their heads down, Azrael glared at Lucifer with a look of hatred that said so much more than his earlier words as he finally chained himself to the pool. This result was on Lucifer, and it had cost them all dearly. It had cost them their fleeting freedom—and some, even more than that.

  “What is all this?” Lucifer demanded.

  “Watches will now be rotated by gender.” Michael held out the manacle he’d caught and smiled when Lucifer took a step back. The chain of
light in his hand glowed red. “Your selfishness damns us all.”

  Snapping his fist shut, the vibrant cuff vanished, and then Lucifer screamed as the poker-hot restraint reappeared, snapping shut around his ankle. Falling to his knees, the dark water within the looking glass gave way to a moving image. Gabriel beside her pond, face in her hands as she wept. And then it was gone.

  He was trapped. And Gabriel was alone.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Lucifer watched from the looking glass, zoning in on the only thing he cared about. Gabriel was descending below again, doing her heavenly duty as was expected of her. And he was chained above, locked down to watch from afar without hope of ever seeing her angelic face up close or hearing her musical voice as it spoke his name.

  Since the day her garden had been ruined, Lucifer had spent the long months locked to the looking glass, waiting and hoping to cross paths with her. Dying on the inside to see a glimpse of her and to tell her that everything would be better. That he would fix this—somehow. But the angels surrounding him, Michael, Remiel, and Azrael, were like his personal guards. They were on his constant rotation, and when finally Lucifer was released from his glowing and unbreakable chains, they shadowed him to the scribe vault to record their findings. He was never left alone unchained. Not even for a second.

  And now he could no longer breathe.

  It had been too long without her. Too long to not behold and touch her. Lucifer felt like his insides were dying, like he was desiccating from the inside out, withering away to dust. He could no longer stand it.

  “This will not last for eternity.” Remiel’s soft-spoken words offered comfort that Lucifer refused to receive.

  He wiped the look of longing from his face and, as expected, he found Michael across the looking glass. The angel leader’s judgmental eyes set on him with a look of aggravation staining the harsh lines of his face. Because he knew time had not taught Lucifer to learn from his mistakes? Probably. Because as long as there was danger surrounding their union, he would be stuck watching over his sinful brother? Without question. As the only angel that was never chained alongside the rest of them, he held the light power to lock and release each angel, which, Lucifer noted, appeared to be distinctly brighter than usual.