Broken Wings (An Angel Eyes Novel)

3

Pearla

Pearla watches the demon chained to the floor. He struggles to stand as the Fallen assembled round about bite and snap at him from a distance.

The Fallen are a species who eagerly devour their own kind. Cannibalism, the humans call it. Yes, they specialize in cannibalism. Only here, in the depths of hell, the beings are spirit. Not flesh and blood. And death doesn’t come easily to spirit beings.

The chewing lasts for ages.

But the blistering, smoking wounds on this one weren’t inflicted by another demon. The Fallen don’t use fire as a weapon. They fear it. The demon waiting below is nursing wounds that could only have come from the pit.

The abyss.

The eternal fire created for the devil and his angels.

Pearla’s seen it—navigated the cavern on occasion. It’s a place that cannot damage her. When the Prince’s stronghold was formed, the Creator confined the celestial light that was displaced to a chasm just beyond the black walls of Abaddon. There holy fire reflects itself eternally, magnifying in that ever-brightening divide.

The pit is a glorious thing to the angels of light. It is God’s goodness multiplied. But for those who chose darkness, the abyss is feared above all. Because even the Fallen heal.

Angelic beings are eternal; regardless of the damage they sustain, their spiritual bodies cannot be destroyed. Those sent to the abyss for punishment are burned by the Father’s radiance again and again, only to spontaneously adapt and scar, healing in their own twisted way to be singed and charred once more.

It’s hell.

And ironic, really. The very thing that energizes Pearla and the other angels of light is devastation to their adversaries. All because of a choice they made long ago. A choice none of them has the capacity to regret.

Pearla has surfed the abyss, searching for answers, for clues. She’s watched the Fallen count their time there in licks of flame, wondering, between screams of misery, when and if the Prince will summon them from its cavernous depths.

Silence consumes the assembly now, imposed on them by the sight of an icy white figure dropping into the hall from above. His wings, spread wide, are white, save the tips, which retain a char he’s never rid of.

Black-tipped wings for the Prince of Darkness. Healthy wings. Strong wings. His skin shines like polished marble. His hair lies in curls of midnight around his face—still fresh, still bright, still retaining the beauty that seduced a third of the angels. Human eyes would have a hard time distinguishing the Prince from a Warrior like Michael. But the absence of light behind those pale blue eyes hints at the creature’s true nature. And they are pale, so pale the blue seems buried far below, glinting like coins at the bottom of a well.

He’s exquisite. Majestic.

And he’s afraid.

Celestial light has been banned from this place, but even here among the arctic shadows, fear cannot hide. Its blackness swirls in a controlled spin down his right arm, over his well-formed bicep, around his elbow, circling around his forearm, and sliding from his palm down his middle finger where it puddles beneath his throne. Tendrils branch out across the stone floor seeking, seeking.

He cups his hand, allowing the fear to pool there. His fingers close around the sticky substance and he prods it, molds it like a human child playing with a handful of clay. All the while, his eyes rip into the demon before him.

After a slow descent, the Prince’s feet touch upon the seat of his throne—the graven dragon behind him. His legs and waist are wrapped in cords of white. His torso and arms are bare. Very little separates him from the other archangels. And yet so much.

Pearla watches the Prince. The Creator gave him beauty—a beauty unrivaled—and he’s taken great pains to preserve it. His time here in Abaddon has kept him from the damage his hordes have suffered in the light of the Celestial. Pearla’s heard stories of the Prince venturing above, but his untarnished appearance alone is proof that his time to heal greatly exceeds that of his minions.

“Sit.” His celestial lips are still, unable to vocalize anything but animalistic rages—like those assembled, like the demon chained to the floor, like every angel he led astray—but they all hear. They all obey. It’s sad, really. His song, like his face, was far superior to all others. Now his mouth is good for nothing.

Wings rustle and talons scratch as countless demons crawl and flap toward rough shelves cut into the cliffs surrounding the hall. The demon chained to the floor drops to his knees.

Humility, even false humility, is appreciated here.

The Prince doesn’t sit, though. No. He stands on his throne, his legs spread wide, looking down at the demon trembling on the floor.

“It’s unfortunate, brother, to see you in chains. Again.”

His voice—sincere, seductive—vibrates through Pearla’s small being.

He’s opened his mind to the entire assembly, which makes her job much easier, but the Prince’s voice is dangerous, his lies far too easy to believe. She draws her legs more tightly into herself, ready to launch up and away should occasion call.

“Let us relieve you of that burden.” A small flick of his hand. “Please, friend, release Damien from his chains.”

From the darkness beyond the throne emerges another soul—coal black, his shoulders broad and thick, his arms and legs muscled. Scars zigzag across his body, the largest—the one gracing his chest—bears the undeniable shape of a Shield’s sword.

Pearla knows this one. This is Maka. Confidante of the Prince. His wings snap on approach, taunting his demon brother. Strange. The rumors had him suffering the pit. It seems he’s been shown mercy. A rare thing here.

Damien stands and offers his hands. Maka draws his scimitar and slices through the binds, wrists first and then waist and ankles. His icy blade rubs against the chains of fire, sending up a haze of steam, but Pearla can still see Damien’s wings unfurl as the chain around his waist is cut through. They spread wide, like sails released after a storm’s confinement. Relief shivers through him, a growl escaping his lips and sending tremors through the hall.

Maka turns and marches away, his talons clacking against the stone floor. The Prince examines Damien like a bird eyeing the worm beneath its feet.

“So subservient, so docile you are, Damien—here in my fortress. And yet, it seems, you cannot be trusted beyond these walls.”

Damien stands tall. “I can be trusted.”

“Can you?” Dark brows lift over those pale eyes, but the Prince’s voice remains silken. “I do not recall asking you to rally your brothers for a heroic battle. Nor did your assignment require it.”

The Prince squeezes the ball of fear in his hand. Like sickly blood, it clots and coagulates inside it, oozing between his fingers.

“If I’m not mistaken, and correct me if I am, you developed a fascination that pulled you from the enslaved. Am I mistaken, Damien, or are your ears as damaged as your eyes?”

Silence.

“I require an answer.”

“You are not mistaken, Lord Prince.”

“Ah.” The Prince flings the ball of goo from his hands and twines his fingers together. He peers over loosely bound knuckles at Damien as the fear continues to drip. “I didn’t think so.”

“You must admit, there was ample cause for my fascination.”

Damien’s outburst is dismissed with a shrug. The Prince drops into his seat, his wings lowering him slowly.

“I admit nothing. I’ve spoken to Maka, to Javan. I’ve spoken to the Twins, Damien. I know what it is that captured your imagination.”

“Then you know I was right.” Damien is shaking now. Fear, rage. It all seems bottled inside this one. “That boy can heal, Lord Prince. If corrupted, his value to darkness is insurmountable.”

Fear trails from the Prince’s elbow now, running down the arm of the throne. He watches it.

“Others claim to heal, Damien. He is not the only one.”

“But this boy can do it with a touch. He’s different, Lord Prince. Like me. Like you.”

The Prince stiffens. His nose flares and his eyes narrow. The idea of another being approaching his glory in any manner has always unsettled him.

“Oh, I doubt very much he is like me.”

“No, no. Of course not, but beyond the gifts bestowed to other men, this boy has something, Prince. Something.”

The Prince glances sideways to Maka, who has established himself against a pillar. Maka seems uncomfortable with this line of questioning, but nods slowly.

It seems they’re holding a private conversation: Maka and the Prince. The ability angels have to control just who hears their thoughts is a frustration to the cherubic order, to those who gather information. Pearla grows frustrated that they’ve closed out the assembly. She’s not the only one: growls and hisses sound all around, and the twitching wings of the accused say they’ve closed out Damien as well.

Finally, with a decidedly more curious expression on his face, the Prince opens his mind to those gathered.

“I see.” He stretches his wings luxuriously wide so they gently brush the arms of his throne. Then he settles back and raises a fear-streaked hand before his face. “Hands like ours.”

“Yes, Lord Prince.”

The Prince doesn’t sigh, but everything about his posture says he’d like to. “It is now widely known, Damien, that you and your brothers allowed a Shield to claim the victory that night.”

Before Damien can unleash an argument, Maka intercedes. “There were two, Lord Prince. Two Shields.”

“Two? Well then.” The Prince turns his eyes on Maka, quelling him with sarcasm. “I’ll not patronize you, Damien; this information is valuable and something must be done with the boy. And yet the question begs to be asked: of what value are you to me? You, with eyes so frail and weak . . .”

“You could fix that.”

They’re dangerous words for Damien to utter, and the assembly reacts as such. Pearla expects nothing but satanic fury at the near-demand, but is surprised at the Prince’s docile treatment.

“I could, yes, but I’d prefer to return you to the pit for a millennium or two while another of your brothers—Maka, maybe—handles this boy.”

“Lord Prince—”

“What’s to stop me from doing that, Damien?”

“Because this thing, whatever it is, has grown beyond just the boy, and I deserve a chance to make it right.”

“Deserve?” It’s Maka.

But the Prince interrupts. “Beyond the boy?” His mawkish voice is low now, rough. He tilts his head, the icy shadows pulling his nose and chin into darkness. “Tell me, Damien. Regale me with a tale that will change my mind.”

Pearla considers Damien. His straightened gait, his squared shoulders. He has the look of a gambler throwing his final card to the table. The one he’s hidden up his sleeve.

“She saw me,” he says. “The girl.”

The Prince stands. His face, once passive, is now rigid as stone, a sense of urgency pulling his wings tight.

“Saw. You.”

“Yes, my celestial form. This girl, this Brielle, saw through the terrestrial veil with understanding. It was like, like . . .”

“Like Elisha’s servant. In Dothan. The site of your last great failure.”

“Yes, Lord Prince.” Damien averts his eyes, but only briefly. Then he steps forward, toward the Prince, his face set. “She knew where I stood and what I did. She knew what the greatest expression of love looked like in the Celestial. Somehow, some way, Lord Prince, mankind is breaking into our realm.”

Even Pearla gasps at this revelation.

Yapping phrases like “the beginning of the end” begin to permeate the great hall. “Cataclysmic.” “Armageddon.”

The Prince stands silent for what seems like years, while the raging of the assembly builds. And then with measured, soundless footsteps, the Prince of Darkness crosses the floor. He lifts his hand toward Damien’s face—an offer of healing, it seems—and Damien steadies himself visibly for the honor. It’s not like the Prince to offer healing—even to one of his own—and Pearla is perplexed by the gesture.

But before the Prince can make contact, a noisy clatter echoes through the hall.

From the shadows, a small, blackened creature scurries—all four of its limbs moving one after the other. It’s an impish spy, the fallen counterpart to Pearla’s cherubic order, and she recoils at the sight of her traitorous kinsmen. His small, bat-like wings lift him here and there on his chaotic trot across the stone floor. When he reaches the river of fear running in a sticky trail from the Prince’s arm, the creature groans in delight and swims through it toward his master.

The Prince’s hand, so close to Damien’s face, drops away, reaching down and allowing the imp to latch on to his fingers. It scurries up the Prince’s arm and shoulder, leaning past the lush black curls and into his ear.

The Prince’s face hardens at whatever he hears, and with pale fingers he pinches the imp like a naughty cat and drops him to the floor. The imp chirps and gurgles, sliding in the train of soupy fear, finally springing from the hall.

The Prince waits until the hall is free of the imp’s clamor, his face a carved stone. When at last silence returns, he reaches out a near-perfect hand, placing it on Damien’s eyes. Fear drips from the Prince’s arm and onto Damien’s chest, mingling with the thin coat of terror the Fallen always wear. With the lightest touch, the accuser of the brethren restores the demon’s celestial vision.

A swift movement, and his hand is gone.

Damien’s eyes snap open and the Prince watches him, awaits his response. Damien flinches, his large hands grip the sides of his head, and he wails in agony.

“Yes, Damien?” the Prince asks.

“You are . . .” His mind sputters. “You are beautiful.”

The Prince’s lips part in a specious smile. “But I will not forgive again.”

A flick of his wrist brings a scimitar to the Prince’s hand, its frostiness smoking. He slides it into the sheath at Damien’s waist. “Bring them to me at Danakil, Damien. The girl who saw through the veil and the boy with hands like mine.”

This order surprises Damien. “To Danakil?”

“You question me?”

Damien cowers now, his hands raised in surrender. “No, Lord Prince.”

“If these two are as special as you say—if they bear angelic gifts—I should very much like to meet them myself. Give their . . . abilities . . . a little test.”

The Prince’s wings flutter softly and then snap open. Grace and force.

“If you fail, brother,” he says, stepping into Damien’s face, “the cavernous pit will be nothing compared to my rage.”

Damien nods—a soldier ready for battle.

The Prince turns toward Maka. “Maka, are you ready to redeem yourself?”

There is something very, very wrong with the Prince of Darkness using the word redeem, but Maka stands tall, rising to the opportunity.

“I am. You know I am.”

“Good, then.”

The Prince’s wings take him back to his throne, where he hovers high above. Damien and Maka look on, the assembly growing restless.

“Hear me, brothers.” The Prince waits for silence. “Hear me! You who love freedom, arm yourselves. Prepare for battle.”

Pearla’s wings twitch as the Prince reaches his arms wide, his pale eyes roaming over hell’s manic hoard.

“The Sabres have been released.”

And like that, the chamber is a torrent of angry noise and skitter, of spastic movement, claws and wings and snarls. Pearla’s mind is just as chaotic.

“Calm yourselves!” the Prince cries, and silence permeates the hall once again. “This is not the first time the veil has undergone attack. You remember, yes? The Sabres have torn through it before, but we repaired the damage. We were victorious. We will be victorious again.”

The once-slow trickle of fear leaking from beneath the Prince’s wing has spread, and now a waterfall of terror pours, hiding the bottom of both wings and covering the Prince’s lower body in the black tar.

Now he looks like darkness’s prince.

“The earth is mine. My domain. My veil. Mine to control. War is upon us.”

The noise is raucous, but the anger is tinted with celebration now. Amidst the chaos, Maka draws near the throne.

“Where, Lord Prince? Where will the Sabres attack?”

A terrifying smile splits the Prince’s face. “Can you not guess?”

Maka bows his head. He can guess, it seems, but his silence is nothing but an ache in Pearla’s chest. The Prince turns his eyes to Damien.

“You have fourteen days, brother. Fourteen days to secure the boy and the girl. After that—hear me, brothers—after that, the first demon to bring either of them to Danakil will be rewarded. And you, Damien, will never again see beyond the chasm.”

“Y-Yes, Lord Prince.”

“General Maka, I am putting the Palatine under your command. Have you confidence in yourself?”

“Pride, my Prince. I will not fail.”

“With ten thousand of my finest at your command, I don’t imagine you will. A defeat of that magnitude would demand consequences of severity.”

“I will. Not. Fail.”

“That pleases me. What say you about our brother Damien and his task?”

“I say fourteen days is too long. Surely he can secure them in less time.”

The Prince shakes fear from his wings. “It will take some days before your war band is ready, General.”

But Maka’s muscled form is taut. He’s not satisfied. “And the Sabres?”

The Prince places a pale white hand on Maka’s massive black shoulder. “Their progress will be slow, friend. I know them well, and they will not risk harming the humans. We have time. But, Damien,” he says, rounding on the fallen one, “come that fourteenth day, I will send the Palatine into Stratus to destroy the work of the Sabres. And I will have my prize whether you bring it to me or not.”

“Yes, Lord Prince.”

“Make your arrangements, then. And, Damien, keep your new eyes open. I imagine our old friend Michael won’t be long.”

Damien’s wings falter. “Light is already on the move?”

The Prince shrugs. “If not, they will be soon.”

“My lord?”

The Prince’s pale eyes search the cliffs. “You are not so naïve as to believe our walls don’t have ears, are you?”

Maka and Damien turn, following the Prince’s gaze.

“If their King doesn’t tell them, their Cherub will.”

Pearla’s legs tense.

“But what does it matter?” the Prince says. “The skies over Stratus will be ravaged. The boy with hands like ours and the girl who sees will be brought to me, yes? And the veil—”

“Will be restored.” This time it’s Maka who answers.

“Good, General Maka. This matter is now in your hands. Now go.”

Pearla doesn’t need to be asked again. Up, up, up and through the rocks, through the very earth itself she flies. Toward the Commander and the only army capable of handling the deadly forces of the Palatine.