Lucy, Fallen (14 page)

His smiled widened as he cradled Keilyn before he turned and disappeared with her.

“She’ll die if she stays down here much longer,” Alaric said as he approached me.

“I know, but I don’t know to get her out of here without going through the entire labyrinth again,” I replied frantically.

“Follow me.”

Our families joined together and followed Alaric as he quickly lead us into the Forest of the Uncommitted. Those damned to this Forest had done no serious atrocity in life; they had just done
nothing
with their lives.

“Follow this path. When you reach the fork, go left. You’ll see a large cave a mile down the road. Knock three times when you get there and the door will open into the Between. That’s best I can do old friend,” Alaric said. “But I will do my best to find Stratus and the child. Find me when you return and we’ll dispose of that parasite together.”

I nodded in thanks. I would repay Alaric somehow, someway and I would be willing to give him whatever he wanted.

“Can these things harm us?” Dorian asked, still trying to breathe normally.

I looked at him and saw his body had burn marks all over it and he was missing holes in his wings.

“No, my friend,” I replied softly.

He held out his arms. I looked down at Lucy whose eyes were closed; her face contorted in pain.

“I can get her out of here the fastest, Deveraux. I promise I won’t drop her and I won’t lose her,” he said.

“I ... I trust you,” I said to him as I handed my bride to him.

Dorian held Lucy securely in his arms and looked back at the group of us.

“Meet me in the Nineteenth Quarter. The closer I can get her to the Above, the better it will be for the both of us,” he said, before he ran off with Lucy.

“I’m going to follow them as closely as I can. Dorian is one of the fastest angels and it’ll be hard, but if there is any trouble, I will be there to protect them,” Josiah said as he flew off behind them, with his sword still drawn.

I fell to my knees on the dead grass and sighed. The selfish part of me was telling me that had I killed her when she first appeared in the Western Province, this never would have happened. I would not have lost most of my family and I would not have exposed them to the pain of the Above and the horrors of the Below. They wouldn’t know about anything outside the Western Province and we would still be together and happy.

As happy as a devil could be.

What do I do?

“Master?” I felt Lorian’s hand on my shoulder. “What do you want us to do?”

I looked up at him and saw the rest of my family standing around me looking down at me.

I’ve lost so many of them.

For an angel.

Because of my lust.

“I want you all to go home,” I said softly as I got to my feet. “Return to the Western Province and rebuild. I will end this alone. I.... I’m so sorry that you were all dragged into this. I should’ve killed her when she was brought into our home.”

Lorian looked shocked as did the mixed group of good and evil.

I looked at Isaiah.

“When this is over, when you have your sister back, draw your sword across my throat. There is nothing I can do to redeem myself for the devils lost because of my childish lust. If you cannot agree to this, then draw your sword against my throat now, or I’ll cast all of your angels into the Lake of Ice and Fire,” I said, feeling the evil come to rest on the surface.

Isaiah gripped his sword in his hand firmly and stared at me for a moment. I nodded and waited for him to cut my throat, but instead he sheathed his sword.

“I can’t; it’s not my place to take your life. When the time comes ... It will be Lucy’s hand that will end your life. It is how it was written,” he said quietly.

“How
what
was written?” Lorian asked, stepping protectively next to me.

“I asked you to leave,” I said to him softly.

“Master Deveraux, there are many things you have asked of us. We have always done as you wished with no questions asked or second guessing your judgment. However, we will
not
leave you. We will go with you until the very end and if your life ends it’s because we have failed to keep you safe and have died trying. This is not up for discussion or debate, with all due respect,” Lorian replied, impatiently.

I looked at him and felt myself swelling with Pride. My family, my devils, were so diligent in protecting their master that even after watching their brothers and sisters dying all around them, they refused to leave my side.

“Dev ...” Lorian looked at me with an odd look.

I closed my eyes and thought of my love for Lucy. I thought of how I wanted to save her and be with her for eternity in the Between and I felt the Pride begin to leave me.

Thinking of Lucy kept me from swelling completely from the inside out.

“Now, tell us how what was written, Isaiah,” he continued, once my body returned to normal.

Isaiah looked at me for a moment. Almost as if debating whether he should tell me some secret of the “grand design” that I wasn’t supposed to know.

“There has been some speculation as to who released the Thunderbirds,” he began with a heavy sigh. “It wasn’t the devil Stratus. It wasn’t the humans as I’ve told you earlier.”

“Then who was it?” I asked.

Isaiah looked down for a moment and Josiah came over to stand by his side, followed by the other angels. In response, my remaining family took the same formation around me.

It almost seemed as if the answer was going to cause us to attack each other.

“Isaiah?” I prompted.

He looked up into my eyes, “It was written that an angel of the Ninth Realm would one day be the downfall of the Above. She would rise to the status of Sovereign of the Realm and would then fall. She would fall with the false purpose of saving her brothers and sisters who would be murdered in droves by the Thunderbirds who would be called forth by her unborn child. A child conceived with an Elder Devil. To recycle the world, the child would be born and devour the Above and the Below. And the angel would have to open the throat of her Elder Devil as a sacrifice to solidify the End of the Now Times.”

I felt faint.

I felt as if though my blood turned to ice.
Lucy ... was a fallen angel? She was evil?

But of all the thoughts that ran through my head, the hardest one to grasp was that the devourer of the world; the one who had released the Thunderbirds so that she could be under the radar, was ... Keilyn.

W
e moved quickly. I decided that the only way to save
both
sides now was to end Lucy and Keilyn. I would demonize myself at the right moment so that I would feel no loss, no pain. The next rooms and rivers passed in a blur and I disregarded all of the transgressors and damned that tried to drown us in their sins.

We reached a cavern and I felt hesitant. I knew that his downward spiral stairs made of human bones led to the Lake of Ice and Fire. I didn’t know if the angels would survive so I made a decision.

“Isaiah, speak with me for a moment,” I requested, moving away from the cavern.

“Yes?”

“I have no way to protect you from the beast in the Lake. I need you and the angels to leave the Below now. Go to the Between and find Lucy and Dorian. Chain her as if she were a prisoner; I will deal with her once I’ve dealt with Keilyn and Stratus. I ask you to do this not as a command, but as a request from a friend,” I said to him quietly.

Isaiah’s eyes flared at the entrance of the cavern. I knew why; the ultimate enemy of the Above was in that cavern and it was in his nature and want to go in and battle it but I would
not
risk the remaining angels. If I couldn’t stop this, then I would need them to somehow rebuild the Above and the Below; to restore the balance.

“Agreed,” he said, holding out an arm. I took his forearm firmly and looked into his eyes.

With a parting nod, he looked at the angels and explained to them that they would not be following us down into the cavern. Lorian reminded them of the path in the Forest of the Uncommitted.

I stood there and watched until they disappeared from view before I turned my attention back to the cavern.

“I don’t want you to follow me,” I said quietly.

“Deveraux, when will you understand that we are sworn to protect you and will not leave your side?” Lorian asked with a sigh.

“My dear friend,” I said turning to face him, “I cannot risk any more of you. Alaric is down there; I caught his scent in the cavern and it’s strong. I will be okay. What I ask is for you to somehow make your way to the Between. Help the angels, restrain Lucy, and prepare for my arrival. I will be there soon.”

My eyes iced over to let him know that I would accept nothing less than what I asked of them. Lorian held my gaze for a moment, before he nodded and my devils left me.

I took my first few steps down the Steps of Despair without incident. Once I passed the first spiral, a drac appeared before me.

It was the spitting image of my beloved, innocent Lucy when I had first laid eyes on her in my home. The scared, yet determined angel that Keilyn would convince me to set free and help in any way that I could.

Dracs didn’t speak unless questioned but its eyes, once locked on mine, flooded me with memories of Lucy. Holding her in my arms for the first time when I took her innocence, swearing to her that I would save her family in return. Because of the drac I could feel her breath on me again as I held her down, moving inside of her gently and with purpose. I felt the sting of her purity burn away after my first push inside of her but I saw the fear in her eyes disappear as she gripped me tightly. I felt Lucy’s uncertain fingers tracing down my bare spine as I kissed her naked breasts, while giving her a chance to collect herself from the burn of her purity lost.

I closed my eyes at that moment and held my hand out directly in front of me. This drac was going to be the end of me and I knew it, but I was so lost in reliving my moments with Lucy that I didn’t want them to end.

The drac placed its hand in mine, intertwining our fingers together and my body jolted. My beautiful new bride, my angel, was on top of me moving slowly with uncertainty. I sat up and wrapped my arms around her, pushing up into her as her wings spread out behind her, when we reached our highest sinful point; together.

My breathing was becoming labored and I could feel myself starting to sweat.

The drac took a step closer and I could feel it breathing raggedly. The façade it was hiding behind was slowly starting to melt away as the memories of Lucy continued to grip me.

I remembered how terrified she was when she realized she was stuck in the home of an Elder Devil. I remember how adamant she was in the fact that she would have to destroy the Thunderbirds
alone
to save her brothers and sisters. I remember watching Keilyn going to her and giving her food and water, when she thought no one knew. I remember Keilyn speaking for the first time to fight off Arissa so that she would be able to save Lucy from the incoming Thunderbirds.

The drac stepped closer still. I opened my eyes. I knew that the last thing I would do before it destroyed me was ask it the one thing I wanted to know for quite some time. Once I asked the question it would drag me away after answering. 

“Where did Keilyn really come from?” I asked it.

The Lucy drac smiled, showing off rows of sharp teeth. It knew it had me, but it also knew that it had to answer me truthfully.

“The child appeared a full moon before the angel fell. You believe the elder angel and his prophecy because you were too blind to see the truth. The child
is
the angel and the angel
is
the child. A Devil and an Angel cannot conceive a child together. It is unimaginable and would rip a hole of void through the Grand Design. This was never a quest to save the Above from the Thunderbirds, Elder Devil. This was a distraction designed by the angel child to destroy the Above and the Below; to reign over the newly recycled Earth. Now... come with me,” the drac hissed as it opened its mouth to consume my soul.

I closed my eyes. This would be better than knowing what I just knew. To cease to exist would feel less painful than knowing that Lucy and Keilyn were one; an illusion of each other.

The drac suddenly screamed out in pain and I opened my eyes. I gasped in surprise at the sight of Hadrian holding the drac’s head in his hands. He looked so torn; horrendous scars and pieces of flesh missing, but he had somehow survived the drac’s attack.

“Sorry, Dev. I was getting sick of that damn thing talking,” he said, tossing its head to the side. “I heard everything,” he added quietly.

“Drac’s are supposed to tell the truth in exchange for a soul. I ... Hadrian what do I do?” I asked him sadly.

“What your heart tells you to do, Dev. No matter what you think you want to do, follow your heart,” he replied.

He put a hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. I valued him more than he knew and I was overjoyed that he was still alive somewhat. I also knew that I wasn’t going to be able to decide what to do until the moment presented itself.

“Let’s end this, my friend,” I said, walking past him down the rest of the stairs. “Stay close to me and if it at any point you feel yourself in danger, leave. Understood?”

“Got it.”

We finally reached the bottom of the Steps of Despair and much to my dismay, the heavy iron gates were sealed shut.

There’s no way in.

“I can break it down, I think,” Hadrian said looking up the length of the doors.

“No. It wouldn’t serve us well to destroy the doors of the Beast in the Lake. Alaric is strong; he’ll destroy Stratus for us and he’ll find a way out. I’ll let the demons know on the way out of the Below that they must descend for their master. You and I need to get to the Between my friend. It’s time to put an end to this once and for all.”

I
had never been to the Between. None of us had. It served us no purpose as angels, devils, demons, or any of the sort to be in the Between. When Hadrian and I arrived we exchanged a glance. It was almost as if we were wondering if were in the right place.