Phantom Pain (trilogy)

The Catacombs

Chapter 25: The Catacombs

The first thing I noticed was Javan standing in the doorway, wearing something that looked like a cloak.

The second thing I noticed was the staff of Moses, clutched in his hands.

My fingers reached helplessly for my sword.

“You again?” he asked. “I heard the angels had taken you away.”

“Well-” I struggled to get enough air in my longs to answer. “Well I'm back. Please, I just want to talk.”

My feet dragged across the floor, the tip of the wooden staff pointed at my mid section. Javan pinned me to the wall. Taking more direct approach, he grabbed my neck, though I was still held in place mostly by some invisible force.

“Do not come here speaking of diplomacy. I know what you have done.”

My heart dropped. All hope was lost. Someone had told him; Kera or Dez if I had to guess. It hadn't been Gavyn. I knew that it couldn't have been Gavyn.

“I am sorry.” The words were true to my core, but they sounded empty on my lips.

The man in front of me boiled with anger. It bubbled up inside him, making itself visible. The staff did not look right in his hand, I realized, and my heart beat a little bit faster.

“What have you angels ever done for us?” he asked me. “Huh? You're corrupt. And you're pathetic. Who do you answer to? Because I know it isn't God. Lucifer's a warning to us all, of what you'll all become. It's only a matter of time.”

I had never heard a human speak like this before, and it terrified me. They lost faith in us, sure, who wouldn't? But this was something completely different.

“You're a perfect example,” he hissed in my ear. “You're so pathetic I almost feel like I'm putting you out of your misery.”

This wouldn't be a bad way to go, killed by something like the staff of Moses. There was no shame in it. Because I was sure it could do the deed, where Raphael had failed. I felt my skin begin to bubble. Of all the times to die permanently—I hadn't seen this coming.

Then something was happening, something loud, and I was on the ground, curled in on myself. My arms burned, where nasty boils were just making themselves seen above the skin. Something exploded above me: bright and soothing. I pushed myself into a halfway upright position.

Ambriel towered above me, huge from this angle, wings seeming to take up most of the space in the room. The staff of Moses was on the ground, just having been knocked from Javan's hand. The tip of Ambriel's sword rested against the skin of his neck.

“You attempt to kill my brother?”

I knew terror, and it was reflected in Javan's eyes. He had not been here to witness Lucifer, and I wondered if he had ever encountered an angel this close and personal.