Divinity

Chapter 24

"You seem more confident." Noah noted, reaching across to tuck a wind-swept piece of hair back behind my ear, as we walked. I smiled up at him - it was true. Though I hadn't dared attempt to fly on my own, I was already feeling more comfortable being up there in the sky amongst the stars. It felt like I was reconnecting with a part of myself, a part that I had thought to be lost forever. 

"I trust you not to let me fall." I shrugged. I could still remember that terrifying moment up in Caelum where Noah had let go of me for a brief moment before catching me again. Though it had shook me to the core, it was nothing compared to the feeling of my bones breaking beneath me when I had truly fallen from Heaven. 

The thought made me shiver uncontrollably. Noah frowned down at me, concerned. Angels don't get cold. "You alright?"

My instinct was to reassure him that I was in fact, fine. And yet... that shiver had left me with an unexpected feeling of dread. I froze in my step as my building came into view before us. Noah turned to me with a silent question.

"Something's wrong..." I muttered, moving forwards again, but this time more hesitantly. Noah followed besides me, warily looking around. I wondered if he could sense it too, or simply just had faith in my instincts. 

Something was waiting for us, I was sure of it. After all, the Fallen knew where I was. Somehow, that fact had slipped my mind with everything that had been going on... It had been, what? Weeks, months even, since they had discovered me? I wondered why they had waited so long.

Regardless, this wasn't something we could run from. Whoever was in there was more than capable of tracking us down. The closer we got to the flat, the more my resolve strengthened - we could win the fight, because we had the sword. I only had to get to it, and we would be safe. 

Noah stepped in front of me to open the door, entering ahead of me. I took a deep breath and followed him in, my stomach twisted as I remembered at the last moment that I had left the sword on the table, and not hidden like I normally did.

I didn't recognise the intruders, but I only had to look at their stances to know that they were fallen angels. There were seven of them in total, spread out about the room. Smirks were plastered onto their faces, because they knew that we were already beaten.

The tall blonde one directly in front of us was admiring the blade in his hand, though he was careful not to touch it - only the hilt. "Ah, Gladius domini deus." He purred, standing up straight with the sword raised, pointing in our direction. "We had been wondering where this might be."

"Lucifer will be so happy to know of your whereabouts, Emilia." One of the women laughed - her voice surprisingly babyish for what she was saying. She held herself with confidence, though I noticed how all of the fallen were keeping as much distance as they could from the sword, presumably out of fear. The others joined into her laughter. I wondered briefly why Lucifer didn't already know where I was... the fallen had found me already. I suppose the fallen didn't quite work as one team in the way that the angel's did. "You've certainly been a difficult thing to find."

"Let's just kill her now and get it over with." One of them sighed. I didn't get a look at who said it as it came from behind us - my eyes were fixed to the sword. I couldn't let it out of my sight, just in case they took me off guard. "Before their friends arrive. Lucifer will punish us all if she gets away."

"What if we gave her to Heaven?" The short, dark haired one said. He was fidgeting with excitement as he eyed the two of us up, it took him a moment to realise none of his fellow fallen had responded to him, rather, they were all shooting daggers in his direction. "Maybe they'd let us back in!"

"Shut up, Nicholas!" They all chorused amidst their groans of annoyance. 

"We don't want to go back there! And neither should you!" The one holding the sword hissed at him. "I knew we shouldn't have brought you with us!"