Zach said he'd given me a choice. No. No, he really hadn't. "Adrian..." I began.
He dropped his hands and spun away, lunging violently toward Zach. As soon as his hands closed over the Archon's throat, Zach simply disappeared.
He reappeared behind me. I turned around, and a flash of near-blinding light made me throw up my arm in front of my eyes. That light also stopped Adrian from charging at Zach again, and he, too, used his arm as a shield against the beams of light shooting out of Zach with the brightness of several nuclear detonations.
Even with my eyes closed and my arm shielding my face, it still felt as if the light was burning its way into the back of my skull. Then the painful light dimmed enough for me to risk opening my eyes. When I did, I gasped again, and lowered my arm.
Zach's trademark blue hoodie and jeans were in a heap on the floor. So was his human body, which looked like a crumpled-up flesh suit that someone had tried on and discarded at an elaborate costume shop. The being in front of me had no skin. No distinct form, either. Instead, amid that halo of incredible light, I saw what looked like wings made of lightning surrounding a shape that I guessed was humanoid only because I thought I saw arms and legs.
Then, just as abruptly as it had appeared, all the dazzling light was gone and a young man stared back at me with ordinary brown eyes and a mocha-colored face that was partially shielded by a low-hung hoodie.
"Why did you do that?" I managed to gasp out, blinking to get the hot spots out of my vision.
"Now that you have chosen to see your destiny through to its conclusion, I wanted you to see my true form," Zach said, his deep voice sounding slightly husky. "You have often wondered what I felt for humanity. I used to love it, but after many millennia watching your kind tear each other apart, I began to long for humanity to reap its well-earned judgment. Once it does, the last war between Archons and demons will be fought, and I will finally be able to avenge the blood of my fallen brothers and sisters."
I'd often wished that Zach would drop his cryptic way of speaking and just tell me what he was thinking, but now that he finally had, it hurt me to the core. "So, you've always wanted me to fail?" I said, fighting against the burn in my throat that threatened tears at this confirmation of one of my darkest fears.
"At first, yes," he admitted, a hard smile ghosting across his lips. "Yet my ‘boss' forced me to watch over you. Witnessing your struggles, your pain and even your recklessness reminded me why I loved humanity to begin with. It wasn't because your race was ever good, or even better than it is now. Your race has always been fatally flawed, yet they are also ever hopeful. They might be cruel, yet they are also capable of great love, and while each of you is inherently selfish, you are also able to sacrifice, when the time comes." He shook his head slowly. "I am very powerful, yet I have never had to struggle against myself the way that your race does every day of your lives. Now that I am reminded of that, I no longer wish for humanity's end to hasten. My fallen brothers and sisters can wait a little longer for their vengeance."
Then Zach reached out, brushing my cheek in a gesture that I would've called affectionate, if he were anyone else. I was as stunned by that as I was by his many revelations. He hadn't painted a pretty picture of humanity, but we weren't pretty. Still, most of us tried. I didn't have much to say for myself aside from that, and according to him, it was enough.
"But you still want Ivy to sacrifice her life," Adrian said, and the bitterness in his voice broke my heart. "Even now, Zach, you still don't care enough to help Ivy save her life. Instead, you want to help her to end it."
"Adrian, please," I said, reaching out to him.
"No," he said sharply, and the look he gave me chilled me to the bone. Those weren't his eyes. They were his father's eyes.
Just as suddenly, Adrian's gaze softened, making me mentally lash myself for ever thinking such an awful thing. Then he held out his arms, and I gratefully ran into them.
"You're right, I'm blaming him and it's not his fault," he said, kissing my face with light brushes of his lips. "We'll figure something out with the last weapon. We always do. You'll be okay, Ivy. I promise."
"I love you," I replied in a choked voice. "No matter what, I love you."
"I love you, too," he said, his voice deepening with single-minded intent. "More than you'll ever know. We'll get through this, I promise you. Both of us."