“Our love was so pure, so god-like in its existence, God, Himself, was forced to respond by creating its opposite.”
“But the opposite of love is hate.”
He nodded. “Hate, anger, fear. All of these sins grew out of our love.”
The revelations kept coming and yet they created more questions. My brain ran on a hamster wheel, whirling and whirling.
Intuitively, I knew the answers to all those questions. Or maybe the answers came from my encounter with the Tree. Either way, it was quite a story. One that pissed me off as much as it saddened me. “God separated us. He thought He could kill our love for each other.”
“He put you in purgatory. I broke you out. That rebellion started a war. THE war.”
“Star-crossed lovers.” I snorted softly. “Keisha’s always talking about the various wars and how many of them actually started because of a pair of doomed lovers.”
Doomed maybe wasn’t the best word. “There have been many.”
Silence hung between us. As I stared at the charred forest, I replayed the memories the Tree of Knowledge had coughed up. The image of the angels toppling out of Heaven flashed through my mind and constricted my chest. “What happened to our brothers and sisters? Our friends?”
Luc heaved a tired sigh, stood and brushed ash from his pants. “There’s something you should see.”
Oh, crud. “Do I have to?”
He offered his hand, helped me up. “This won’t hurt like the Tree of Knowledge.”
He was wrong.
On the far side of the charred forest was a wide desert. Scorching wind, blowing sand, and endless mirages. Heads down, we trooped through the sand, the weight of it tiring my legs and wearing me down.
The mirages rose in front of me as we walked. Me, as a baby, in my mother’s arms. Emilia and I playing Barbies. I accidently set one of the doll’s hair on fire with my magic. Running away from my aunt’s home, causing trouble in school, performing magic with Keisha, and finally, meeting Lucifer at the feet of the Venus di Milo statue in Paris.
Luc trudged a foot or two in front of me, seemingly oblivious to the images purgatory was vomiting at me. “God has tried many ways to keep us apart. We always find our way back to each other.”
I stared at the Memorex version of my life rising out of the sand and couldn’t help the self-satisfied grin lifting my lips. “Even as a human, I’ve done nothing but rebel against Him.”
“As the Fallen, we were together. He couldn’t let that stand, so He offered a reward and one of the Fallen kidnapped you and returned you to Heaven. There, He chained you up, knowing Heaven is the one place I cannot enter. Your soul was dying there. Well…” He paused. “You’re an angel and technically you can’t die, but your love, the very essence of your soul, was shriveling up and morphing into the sins of what we had created. I couldn’t bear it, so I struck a deal. I agreed to stay away from you if He allowed your soul to enter a human body.”
“But you couldn’t stay away from me.”
“Keisha cast the spell that brought us back together.” Luc stretched out his arms. “And here we are.”
Keisha was a powerful witch. There was no denying that. But in my heart, I knew Luc and I would have found each other regardless.
Side by side, we climbed a sandy hill and stood at the top. I was breathing heavy even though I didn’t really need to breathe at all. Down below, a marble city sat half buried in sand. Another ghost town.
Nothing moved but the sand. All was silent. And creepy. I glanced around for the monster I expected to come rushing out at us. “Where are we? What is the place?”
“You asked where our angel warriors went.” Luc pointed at the marble columns, crumbling buildings and eroded statues jutting up from the sand. “This, my love, is the City of Lost Angels.”
Chapter Twenty-four – Fallen City
My heart exploded inside my chest. Pure agony. As if the legion of angels here were calling to me for help.
And there was nothing I could do.
Helplessness ate at my insides. I shoved it back, bent forward at the waist and rubbed my chest. “I feel them, but I can’t see them.”
“I feel them too.” Lucifer’s voice was unusually soft, reverent. “Their souls are locked away inside the stones.”
“Like my mother’s soul inside the Tree of Knowledge?”
Luc frowned. “Why do you believe your mother’s soul is in the Tree?”
“Zayfeer said…”
“Zayfeer?” He shook his head in disgust. “Zayfeer is a traitor to our cause. Don’t believe anything he tells you.”