Lilium

Sixteen

Sixteen

She watched Oliver's body with tears in her eyes, a scream bubbling at the base of her throat but lodged there. Just moments ago, Abraxas had been inside her head, taunting and berating her and making her say the words she regretted in a heartbeat.

...And then the next Oliver's neck had snapped and he pitched forward. Someone shouted, though whether it was her, the weird man in the duster, or the woman with the bloody mouth screaming, Lilith wasn't quite sure.

"You should be gone"... why did I say that?

It didn't matter now. She had said it – or maybe Abraxas had made her. Did she even have autonomy over her own body anymore?

Her thought was cut short as Abraxas's body dissolved into dust and Oliver hit the floor with a solid thud. For several moments there was only the gasps of the over-exerted and the thunder in Lilith's ears as she stared at her brother's body. Or would it be considered a corpse now? Still?

She watched as the tip of a spade-head tail reared from Oliver's backside and flicked at the air.

Definitely not a corpse, she decided. Oliver never had a tail. So then...She looked around her and at once her stomach flipped. The man behind her had winged hands coming out of his back, for God's sake!

I'm surrounded by monsters.

The moment Oliver's entire body twitched, someone grabbed her from behind and yanked her backwards. Panic – and heat – surged through her body and she reeled back to lash out – until another hand stopped her fist short. She stopped. Looked over.

The woman with blood on her mouth stared at her, pupils slitted and elongated fangs poking past her lips.

"You don't want to hit Magi Raphael," she said, a faint lisp to her words. Her fingers curled and she dug deeper into the fresh wounds Abraxas had made. "Trust me; you don't want to mess with any of us."

Even the winged man – Magi Raphael, was it? - ignored the woman's words. He pulled at Lilith again.

"We need to leave," he said in an icy voice. "Right now, or you're going to get killed."

Oliver's body jerked once more and Lilith's heart skipped to match his pace.

Even in death, we're connected, is that it? She turned her head and stared the man full in the face – though it was difficult with his off-white hair catching the light and burning her eyes.

"We can't leave Oliver," she said, though her voice was weaker than she'd intended it to be. "We..." She looked back to Oliver and the words caught in her throat.

He was fully upright, long and jagged claws erupted from the tips of his fingers. Embers burst into the air and drifted, turning from red to orange to grey in the blink of an eye. Lilith had never seen anything quite as enchanting – or batshit terrifying – in her entire life.

Another yank backwards broke her reverie. Magi Raphael must have given up on arguing with her, because with a single nod of his head, he let Lilith go and let the woman have her instead. Faster than Lilith's legs – or the rest of her – could process, they were bolting for the door and then outside. Cold wind hit Lilith full in the face, contrasted by the heat in her forearm.

"Come back, Little Dove!"

Lilith's stomach dropped. She glanced to the woman dragging her along and sighed.

Either I die in there or I die out here with her... And I can't go back in there.

Leafless trees framed the path. Lilith's feet pounded against the asphalt louder than her blood did in her ears. The back of her calves burned, but there was a prickling sensation in her that told her if she stopped, she would die.