God didn’t want that.He didn’t give a fuck about perfection.
“Speak!”Uriel roared in my face.
“Why are you doing this?Where are your brothers and sisters, Uriel?”I choked out.
“That is none of your concern.That information is well above your station,” he said.
I hadn’t seen another archangel since Uriel brought me here.Something was seriously wrong.“God wouldn’t want this.You have to know that.”
“If God doesn’t want this, then why hasn’t he stopped me?”
I didn’t have an answer.God left us to our own devices.That’s how it had always been.Sometimes, more recently, I’d begun to wonder if he’d forgotten about us.“You’re not infallible, Uriel.You are not perfect.W-we tell ourselves we are, but we never have been.”I was weakening, the torture had taken a toll.“N-not me, not you, not even Michael.We are as flawed as any other beings created by Heaven or Hell.”
“You may be imperfect, Silas, but I am not.I see all.I know what’s coming.”His gaze darkened, became distant.
“What’s coming?”
“A fate worse than death.”His gaze sliced back to me.“Nothing is coming,” he gasped out.“Never-ending nothingness.Forced to live this hollow existence, with no end in sight.I can’t do it, I won’t live like this any longer.”
He was bored.Uriel was doing all of this because he was bored of his eternal live.“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to set the forgotten prophecy in motion, of course.”
Oh fuck.To do that, he had to do something huge, which was why he wanted dirt on Lucifer.“I won’t help you tear the world down.”
“Then there will be no redemption for you.If you do not tell me how to best Lucifer, you will be cast out again, a black mark forever staining your soul.You will never return here, and there will be no sanctuary, no safe place for you when I succeed in my endeavor.”
“You think your soul is clean?If you’ve done what I believe you have to your brothers and sisters, then you are as blackened as I am,” I choked out past my raw throat.
His eyes flashed with rage.“I could kill you right now.”
“Then fucking do it,” I growled.
He drew in a breath, visibly pulling his anger back in line, and shoved his bloody fingers through his pale hair.“You’re obviously not thinking clearly.I will leave you to contemplate your fate some more, and when I return, I expect an answer.”He strode for the door, then stopped and turned before he waved his hand with a flourish, hitting me with a burst of power.
My wings extended and curled around me on their own, reminding me of what I would lose again, and it was the worst kind of torture he could use.The sensation of flying, of soaring through the sky, filled my chest, cracking my heart.
“I’ll leave you with your wings for a while longer, Silas.Maybe you’ll see sense and change your mind.”
Then he strode out.
As soon as he left, Rosalind rushed in.She came to visit me most days, and her level of delusion was astounding.She still thought we had some kind of future, but she saw nothing wrong with what Uriel was doing.
Today, though, she gasped.
Was she finally showing an ounce of compassion.If I could get her to see what Uriel was, maybe I could get her to help me escape.
“Your wings have blood on them!”She bit her lower lip.“I have admired them for as long as I’ve known you.The gold is so striking.You need to be more careful.I always hoped our offspring would have wings the same.All gold is so rare among us.”Her gaze slid down and she recoiled.“You’re covered in scars, Silas.”Her expression was now one of barely concealed revulsion.“What will everyone say?You can’t let this continue, if only for my sake, and the sake of our future offspring.”
“Rosalind—”
“Do you want them to be shamed by your appearance?You can never show these scars, Silas.Never.”
She’d always been a shallow creature.I used to see her as softhearted, but now I saw the truth.Rosaline was beautiful, but utterly without substance.It wasn’t her fault.She was exactly as she was expected to be.Still, I’d hoped there was more to her, more to us than the cold creatures my kind had become over the centuries.No wonder Ursula believed I was the same.“Is that truly the only thing causing you distress?”
She blinked down at me.“What do you mean?”
“I am chained.I’ve been tortured.My blood is all over this floor and now on your shoes and the hem of your gown.Are my ugly scars truly what concerns you most?”