Divinity

Chapter 16

We were all frozen in place, staring at the exact location Travis had been just seconds prior. All I could hear was a hollow, ringing sound - my chest seemed to constrict, the nagging sensation of wings threatening to break out had dissipated, I felt as though I might pass out.

Only I didn't. Could angels faint? I wasn't sure, but it seemed unlikely. 

"I..." Andrew was the first to speak, though he seemed to be finding it difficult. "I touched it... it didn't kill me." 

"Perhaps you were mistaken." Noah suggested, his voice calm, but his expression was desperate, his eyes still glued to where Travis had been. Travis was one of his best friends. 

"I wasn't." Andrew insisted, his brows furrowing together. Though he was more composed than the rest of us, his voice shook with badly hidden melancholy - it was hard to think of Andrew and Travis as being close, but there had of course been a time when they were brothers in Heaven. "It's changed somehow, maybe it..."

His words fell short - none of them could come up with an explanation for what we had just witnessed. 

No one except me. 

The sword had lost its ability to kill angels... when it was storing a piece of me. Somehow, I had neutralised it. But now that I had taken it back, it had been restored to its angel-killing self. 

I felt like an idiot. How could it not have occurred to me that I had something to do with its change? Why had I not stopped Travis from touching it... why had I agreed to tell the angels I had it at all?

It was all my fault. 

Travis was dead, because of me.

"No!" Jasmine suddenly shrieked, her piercing tone cutting through me like a knife. She was in agony. I had never heard an angel cry before, not like this. It wasn't something I ever wished to witness again. Her voice, normally like the chime of a thousand bells, had become something twisted, inhuman, the sound of a broken soul. 

She stormed forwards, her hands pushed back through her hair repeatedly as she looked down at the sword where it still lay, in the place where it had been dropped. For a moment, I thought she, too, was about to touch its blade, following Travis. 

Thankfully, she looked away, turning to face me instead, seemingly she had composed herself. Her expression was unreadable, she simply stared for a few seconds before she turned away. 

Suddenly, I was afraid. Scared of what Jasmine might do now. I had always felt comforted in her presence, but the look on her face was like stone, not even a hint of sadness. It revealed nothing. What was she thinking? What was she about to do?

I had never witnessed anyone undergo a trauma... and who knows what effect it might have on an angel.

Jasmine had just had her entire future ripped away from her. She had forgiven Travis, had intended to be with him. They were finally supposed to be happy, together. 

And it was gone, just like that. 

Slowly, she walked towards the door, she hesitated before leaving, turning back to face us. "I'm going back to Heaven." She spoke in an emotionless tone. I watched her leave, wanting desperately to do something to help. But what could I do? I was the reason this had happened... 

"I'm going after her." Noah said quickly. I wanted to go to him, to comfort him because I knew how much Travis meant to him. But right now Jasmine was more important, and Noah could help her in a way that I couldn't. Seeming to notice my distress, he gave me a lingering look, "I'll come back." He reassured me.