Godforsaken: Book 1 (Shade of Light) (17 page)

Raphael’s eyes were preoccupied. He kept
them pointed down to the floor while Samael gazed at him
impatiently. Raphael knew there was some kind of truth to Samael’s
words, but he still didn’t dare to disobey God and open the Dudael
prison gates.

A bright light appeared from the ceiling.
Its brightness brought Raphael back to the present, and both he and
Samael peered up. The light illuminated the center of the hall, it
crawled in like the roof had broken open. Samael made a step
backward, but he didn't tear his eyes from the roof.

Next, there appeared a shadow in the center
of the light, and in no time a man’s shape dropped down to the
floor. The ground quaked as it fell. The light disappeared as
immediately as it had appeared, and a tall blonde-haired angel
popped into Samael’s view. His wings were more beautiful than
Samael’s – bright white and emanating an unearthly brilliance, they
flooded the hall with heavenly light. His blue eyes were cold, but
filled with courage. Those emotionless eyes looked around the room
before finally settling on Raphael.

“Good angel,” the monk greeted with a bow,
“welcome.”

“Raphael,” the newcomer greeted back, before
he continued regarding his surroundings. His eyes finally caught
Samael, who was standing two steps aside. “You!” the angel shouted.
“Because of you, I have to lead the Heavenly army into war.”

“Please, just tell me you aren’t satisfied,”
Samael sneered, shaking his head.

The angel’s wings opened wide, his eyes
narrowed and filled with malice. Samael only looked at him, his
hands clenched into fists.

“He’s coming after me, Michael,” Samael
spoke in a voice of forced calm. “I’m not one of the archangels of
Heaven and he knows. He won’t attack Heaven’s gates.”

“By getting the girl, he won’t need to
attack, he can pass through them easily,” Michael reminded him,
sniffing angrily.

“What was I supposed to do?” Samael cried
out. “Let them have her, or kill her myself?”

A silence fell in the hall. Michael gazed
into Samael’s eyes, fiercely trying to read something behind them,
but the gray-winged man was too clever to reveal his thoughts to
anyone.

* * *

In the meantime Lily, having felt the quake
and having heard vague voices, rushed down the narrow corridor. She
reached the hall and came to a halt by the door as she saw the
bright angel standing in the middle, shouting at Samael. She lurked
behind the door left ajar and, her ears straining, followed the
conversation.

* * *

“I told you the other day that her existence
is very dangerous for Heaven,” Michael murmured lowering his faded
voice. “You have to give her to us now.”

“Taking her means that we’re obviously at
war,” Raphael broke into the rough conversation. “While she’s here
with us, we have a chance to keep Heaven’s gates closed.”

“Do you believe Lucifer will settle for
acquiring her?” Michael’s beautiful but cold eyes turned to the
submissive monk. Raphael lingered. “I saw him in the Garden of Eden
when you were soaring in the open space above. I watched him
seducing Eve, I followed his first creation, and I was there when
he made a deal with our Father. Do you think Lucifer rushed down to
Earth after Eve?”

“He loved her, don’t deny you saw it,”
Raphael announced bravely.

“He loved power,” Michael snarled bending
forward like a hunting predator. “His love for Eve was only
camouflage. He needed – needs – her to get into the garden,” he
said through his gritted teeth. “Why did he keep fighting after
Samael assassinated Efran?”

“Because he needed hope,” Samael put in.
“But drop it, Michael. You haven’t come here to prove us of his
purpose, have you? You came here to ask me to kill Lily, since we
all know you won’t do it yourself. You honestly think that I'll
move to sacrifice myself and save you and the rest of my brothers,
just because I’m already banished?”

“Hey, watch your words,” Raphael
grumbled.

A cool grin curled Samael’s face when his
words forced Michael into silence. He spun around and came up to
the altar. His gray wings stretched open into the air. “But maybe
I’m not interested in saving you. Maybe I’m interested in Heaven’s
fall.”

“I will never let Heaven fall,” Michael
closed his right hand into a fist so strong that his nails dug into
his palms. “I defeated Lucifer once already, dropping him down from
the clouds, I’ll do it again.”

“Times have changed, my brother.” Samael
faced the angel then. “He’s much stronger than you can
imagine.”

Michael smirked. “Of course. And our
youngest and cleverest brother always picks the strongest side,
doesn’t he? Are you so sure that Lucifer will take you back with
open arms?”

“If he truly followed Lucifer, he wouldn’t
have stolen her from Beelzebub,” Raphael said. “I think there is
something else in him.” He tilted his head, diving into his
thoughts, and paced close to Samael. “But whatever he does, you
should still prepare for war, Michael.”

“I’m always prepared,” the angel said
solemnly. “But I won’t run the risk. You need to give me the girl,”
he demanded.

“Give her to you, so that you can kill her
or imprison her forever?” Samael passed his hand through his
disheveled brown hair. “I won’t let any of you touch her, even if
the whole Garden of Eden must fall in the process of stopping
you.”

“It mustn’t fall.”

“It’s my property. None of the archangels,
or you,” Samael jabbed his finger toward Michael, “can set foot on
it until I summon you.”

Michael sniffed. The conversation was going
against him. He glanced around, biding his time until he finally
spoke.

“I'll give you one day, Samael, until I have
an order from Father.” Michael's threats came through clenched
teeth. “Once the girl's existence is discovered, there is nothing
we can do to avoid the war. Do whatever you will today. But
tomorrow, I will send Gabriel against you. He’ll destroy everything
in his path to keep Lucifer from passing over Heaven’s border.”

“You can’t let the war take part on Earth,
Michael,” Raphael reminded him, his eyes widening in astonishment.
“You know the law–”

“What kind of law are we talking about,
Raphael?” Michael shouted at the monk. “Your brother,” he pointed
to Samael, “has already violated every law in the Torah.”

“We can punish him for breaking the law,
Michael, but we can’t bring war to mankind because of our
faults.”

“This world is our biggest fault,” Michael
growled.

Lily’s heart sank when she heard the tone
Michael's voice had taken on in his last sentence. She doubted
whether he was speaking as the protector of Heaven, or as Lucifer
himself.

“One day you’ll regret your words,” Raphael
exhaled, disappointed. “One day it will be man who’ll save
Heaven.”

“I hope it’ll be before he destroys Earth,”
Michael sneered. He faced Samael. “You heard me, you’ve got no
time. As soon as I get an order, I will come down upon everyone who
has the girl. None of my brothers’ fault will bring harm to our
Father.”

“You still don’t trust me. You can’t
understand me. You still can’t feel the love,” Samael conveyed
mournfully.

“I heard these words before,” his lips
straightened into a sarcastic smile. “You recall what I said to you
then? ‘I learned to love a long time ago and most of all I love
God’.”

* * *

Quiet fell. Raphael looked from Michael to
Samael, opened his mouth to say something, then closed it.

Samael tore his eyes away from the monk and
Michael, and walked to the middle of the hall. Michael followed
him, looking over his shoulder. Waving his white wings, a wind
arose. It whipped through the air to reach Lily, who was still
watching the three
angels
.

“Michael,” Samael said, exhaling deeply.

“Yes.”

“Just buy as much time as you can,” Samael
asked miserably. “Let me have this new wonderful feeling for as
long as you can give me.”

“Do you really think love is a cause great
enough to justify being locked away on the Island of the Dead for
good?” Michael’s glacial eyes widened in surprise.

“Doesn’t your love for Father deserve that?”
Samael grinned. Michael closed his eyes and nodded. Then Samael
bent almost double and opened his wings like an eagle preparing to
fly into the sky. A stream of light appeared on him, coming from
the roof, and in the briefest of seconds, he vanished with the
light in front of Lily’s eyes. She remained immobilized, wondering
whether everything that had happened today was real, or was still
just one of the games of her dreams.

Michael faced Raphael and closed his
wings.

“Take him to Dudael,” he ordered
Raphael.

“You think he can learn something from
Azazel? Something you don’t know yet?”

“He’s planning something,” Michael brushed
his blonde hair back with his two hands. “Both of us know Samael
wouldn’t do anything without thinking it over a hundred times
beforehand. I reckon he always knew of the survival of Eve’s line.
Efran’s family wasn’t the last,” Michael chortled under his
breath.

“He probably kept this a secret at first so
he could give the female heir to Lucifer, but he didn't,” Raphael
thought aloud. “What kind of purpose might Samael be following
now?”

“I daresay even Father doesn’t know, but we
can still discover it,” Michael looked at the monk, and his blue
eyes twitched. “With the day’s first early light touching the sand
of the desert, help will fall down from the slumbering sky. But you
have to pass through a dangerous trial.”

Raphael looked at him disdainfully.

“Don’t lose yourself among him, Azazel and
Lucifer,” Michael murmured.

“Don’t forget who bound Azazel down there,”
Raphael winked.

Michael patted his shoulder, Raphael closed
his eyes and gave a bow. Through the stone roof a bright light
rippled in again and the angel was sucked up with a whoosh, like he
hadn’t even existed a second before. Raphael remained standing, his
eyes closed and head tilted. Eventually every sound died away.

Lily couldn’t move after what she had just
heard. Both the angels and the devils needed her for their own
purposes, but what did Samael need from her?
Was he really in
love with her?
Samael’s words reverberated in her head.
He
would fight and let Eden fall but he wouldn’t give her to
Lucifer.

Lily leaned against the wall, taking her
face into her hands. How could she have turned out so important to
such an unbelievable world? A world of angels and devils. A world
of the supernatural. What if they were mistaken? They might have
the wrong person.

She leaned back against the wall and slid
down to the marble floor, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms
around her knees. What to do next, what to expect next, whom to
believe now.

The door was yanked open. Lily’s teary eyes
raised up instinctively.

The monk came in composed and halted in
front of her, then he knelt down, taking her hand into his. Lily
got up and followed him, distracted, but didn’t protest when his
long fingers touched her skin again. As he did, the same warmth he
had given to her in the room upstairs flooded her soul again. She
sucked in a huge breath and exhaled in relief.

“Anyone else hearing what you did a minute
ago would have run away immediately,” Raphael muttered.

“Where can I run to?” Lily remarked with a
sneer. “Where could I hide from the all-seeing angels?” She dared
to raise her eyes and met his. “Angels,” she went on with a new
kind of anger in her voice, “who long to kill me, to destroy me
just because I was born of the wrong mother.”

Raphael sighed and lowered his eyes. “You've
got him wrong, Michael –”

“I know what I heard,” Lily shouted, pulling
her hand out of his. “He convinced Samael to kill me, didn’t
he?”

Raphael shook his head in puzzlement. He
couldn’t deny it, but he hadn’t the right words to justify the
white angel's actions.

“You saw Michael as cold and ruthless,” he
spoke at last, “but he’s confused as well. He’s not sure his army
will be able to best Lucifer’s in the end.”

“That’s why he's trying to find an easier
way,” Lily guessed. “I just wonder what Lucifer will do when he
gets me. What can I change? Who
am
I?” Her impatient eyes
pierced his.

Raphael sat down on the floor and laced his
fingers together. He brushed his long hair back from his eyes to
see Lily clearly.

“There was a time,” he began, “when Lucifer
fell in love with Eve, and she with him.” Lily’s jaw dropped in
surprise. She opened her mouth to ask, but thought against it.
“Yes, it sounds impossible, but it’s true,” Raphael amended.
“Father – God – he loved Lucifer too much to punish him. And our
eldest brother discovered the mystery of creation, or at least he
thought he did. He was sure his love for Eve would help him to
create his own world.”

Lily, attracted by Raphael’s story, didn’t
even know if she was breathing or not.

“Father didn't approve of Eve's betrayal of
Adam. He called to Lucifer, told him to let her go, but Lucifer
assured him that Eve would choose death over a life without him.
And that was when the deal was made, the deal that inverted history
itself. It was written that if Eve followed Lucifer, she would be
banished from the Garden of Eden with Adam, and Lucifer could be
free of Heaven and find his new world to create,” Raphael sucked in
the air and a slight regretful smile curled his lips. “We all were
waiting to see if Lucifer would come back to us, ready to repent
and apologize after his failure, but–” Raphael paused.

“He didn’t return, did he?” Lily
supposed.