The pair stayed in their embrace for a while. Lunan extricated himself from Elena when the tears on his shirt finally dried. She looked up at him, silently questioning the determination she saw in his eyes.
"Can I stay here until my birthday?" he asked her.
"Yeah, of course," Elena said. "I just need to tell my parents."
He rose from the bed and stretched his arms over his head.
"I'm going to grab what I need from home first. I'll be back afterwards."
Her brow wrinkled in confusion. "Why not just summon the things you need instead of going back home?"
"I want to talk to Gabriel. No, Gadreel. I'll eventually contact Azrah, too. I'm livid, El, but I swear I won't do anything reckless," he explained.
"Alright. Want me to drive you?"
"Nah, I don't live too far," he said. "I could use the walk, anyway."
Lunan ruminated on Elena's revelation as he walked home. He felt like such a fool. How could he have not known so much of his life was orchestrated? Upon befriending Elena and learning that her mother revealed their magical nature from a young age, Lunan always wondered why his parents kept him ignorant. He chalked it up to his parents practicing darker magic, but that wasn't always the case, either. While Elena's magic progressed and grew as she matured, Lunan always had a masive well of energy to draw from. He shuddered, his gaze unseeing, as he thought of his time at the orphanage, of Michael in the gym. How could he have possibly deluded himself into thinking he was remotely normal?
Who was he, anyway? Lunan, the vessel, or Abaddon, the angel? The prophecy frightened him. He promised Elena their friendship would remain intact no matter what, but he didn't know if that was his decision to make. He feared what would become of him when he made his decision and the angel awakened in entirety.
Lunan's thoughts trailed to a halt when he came to a stop at his house. After opening the door, he ignored his guardian and went to his bedroom to pack his things. He paused when he saw the bracelet Gadreel had bought him.
Just more lies, he thought as he set it back on the side table.
Lunan hoisted the duffle bag on his shoulders and marched down the stairs. He went to the living room where his guardian sat. Lunan scrutinized him, taking in his olive skin, blond hair, and burnt sienna eyes while wondering if that remotely resembled his true appearance. His fists clenched.
"Is everything alright? You look a bit tense," he said, noting his ward's rigid frame.
Lunan scoffed. "You can cut the bullshit, Gadreel."
Gadreel's brows raised in mild surprise. "Elena, I presume?"
Lunan felt his nails dig into his palms as he glared at him in earnest.
"That's it? You lie to me for years about who you are, who I am, and that's all you have to say for yourself?" he shot back. He felt power burn through him bright and hot and let it feed his anger.
Gadreel's eyes narrowed. "You need to calm down, Lunan. Your powers—"
The living room light bulbs breaking cut him off and bathed the room in darkness. Gadreel sighed, and a moment later, his face was illuminated in a hazy glow from the fire burning in his palm. Lunan stared at the flames before meeting his eyes.
"Are volatile," he continued. "It will only grow in intensity as your birthday nears. You need to be careful with your temper, Lunan, or you'll risk hurting yourself."
"That's rich," Lunan spat. "Now you spout words of concern about me hurting myself. It's because I'm Abaddon's vessel, right? Don't want your super weapon damaging itself."
"Is that what you want to hear? That I'm an evil angel hell-bent on swaying you to darkness and adding you to my ranks? You're right to be angry with me and I apologize for lying to you by omission. But I have my reasons for doing so, and I won't have you slandering me," Gadreel said.
"Am I not allowed to know these reasons?"
The angel frowned.
"I'm known for keeping my word and I don't intend to break it. However, if you implore me again on your birthday, I'll tell you what you want to know. At that point, you're either going to awaken as Abaddon or die as a human, so you have the right to know then."
"Fine," Lunan acquiesced. He turned from Gadreel and began walking to the front door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm staying at Elena's for the rest of the week." He turned to meet his guardian's gaze. "I can accept that you have reasons for keeping my identity from me, but that doesn't mean I feel comfortable around you anymore. I need space."
"Lunan, wait." His hand froze on the doorknob.
"You should know that Azrah is not what she seems. She's an angel as well."
"Elena told me."
"Her actual name is Azrael. Do with that what you will."
Lunan nodded. "Thank you."
"That took a while," Elena said when he returned to her house. She frowned at the look in his eyes. "Did anything happen while you were at home?"
"He didn't deny anything," Lunan said as he set the bag down. "Only thing is he had some kind of excuse for why he never told me anything."
"What was it?"
He snorted. "He refused to tell me. Since I'm either going to make room for Abaddon or die this weekend, he figured he'll tell me then."
"Please make a choice," Elena said. "It's selfish of me to say, but it's better to live."
"Is it?" he replied. "I'm not trying to argue with you, but the majority of my life has been shit. On top of that, so much of my life is out of my control. If I reject the prophecy, I at least get to make a decision for myself."
"At the cost of your soul," she countered. "It's not just your body that dies. That means no afterlife, no getting to see you after I die, and you don't get to see your parents, either."
Lunan paused at her words, letting their implication sink in.
"I didn't consider that," he admitted sheepishly as heat warmed his ears. "I'll make a decision, then."
"Do you know whether you're aligning the angel with Heaven or Hell? I won't judge you either way," she said.
Lunan shook his head.
"I really don't know," he said. "I'm leaning one way, but I want to hear both of them out before I make my choice. This really doesn't seem like the kind of decision a teenager should make."
"Tell me about it." Elena rolled her eyes as she unrolled the futon mattress from her closet.
"They say God works in mysterious ways, don't they?" She snickered.
"Hey, Lunan. Is everything ok? I didn't see you at school today," Azrah said upon picking up her phone.
"Yeah, I'm fine now," he told her. "I discovered something really interesting while I took the day off."
Elena gave him a thumbs up from her perch on the bed.
"What would that be?"
"The Prophecy of Abaddon," he said. He noticed her baited breath on the line. "Turns out I have to decide whether or not the angel residing in my body aligns with Heaven or Hell, or else I die. Crazy, right? Except, I have a strong impression that you already knew that."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.
"Don't lie to me. That's not very angelic of you, Azrael."
"I—"
"Save it. I'm calling you so that you know you can stop pretending to care about me," he snapped. "We'll talk."
"Lunan—"
He ended the call before she could continue. Elena's whistle broke through his thoughts before he could start to drown in them.
"So assertive," she said with a smirk.
"It was to cover the hurt," Lunan explained. Elena gazed at him questioningly.
"I know you probably don't want to hear this, but I really liked her, El. I thought she cared about me and wanted to help me with my powers. I saw kinship in her that I haven't experienced with anyone since my parents were killed," he explained, his gaze distant.
Elena nodded. "You're right. I'm not going to pretend that I understand how you became friends with her. But, I can at least see where you're coming from. You're technically both angels. Maybe that's where the familial feeling came from," she reasoned.
"Maybe," Lunan echoed.
Try as he did to savor his remaining days of humanity, the rest of the week passed in a blur. A one hour walk stretched into three; offering to cook breakfast for the Diaz household led to him preparing both lunch and dinner; taking a bit of time to sketch resulted in him being glued to the spot for hours as lines and curves formed trees, animals, and human faces. The only thing that was a constant during those days beyond Elena's presence after school—he implored her to continue attending lectures—was a dream that haunted him. Although, "haunt" might have been too harsh a descriptor, for it wasn't unpleasant in the slightest.
He dreamt about being in a cold, mystic place. Green mountains with snowy peaks surrounded him, and a cool, icy river flowed upwards. Lunan had never seen this place before, unsure of its location or existence. Yet with the frequency at which he received this vision and with the pleasant thrum of energy that vibrated through his body upon waking from the reverie, Lunan knew that this was where he would make his decision.
Lunan woke up from this dream on a day like any other. Upon glancing at his phone's lock screen, however, he knew it wasn't an ordinary day. Saturday: 9:30 AM is what shone from his phone's screen. His eyes widened fractionally, remembering that today was his last day as a human being. In spite of the jolt that flooded his system at that realization, Lunan felt strangely calm. It was the kind of calm one feels before going under anesthesia, knowing he might not wake up, and yet trusting in the doctor anyway. Except the trust was in himself and an entity that he knew existed and yet knew nothing of.
Time seemed to pity him on that day, for every minute passed slowly. He glanced at his phone and was surprised to see the time displaying 9:31 instead of 9:50 or 10:15, as had been the case the past few days when he dozed off. Lunan looked up to where Elena slept on her bed and smiled at her fondly.
He meditated, stretched, and took a long shower, doing each of these activities slowly and ritualistically. Things that he once found so mundane, he now felt a true appreciation for, as it was those things in life that reminded him of his humanity. After showering, he went downstairs to cook breakfast, but only made a dish for himself, as the rest of the household was asleep. The Diaz's weren't early risers on the weekends. After breakfast, he changed into his usual attire, but rolled the sleeves up, exposing the angelic symbols that he always kept hidden. Lastly, he returned to his best friend's bedroom and gently shook her awake.
"Calláte, cabrón," Elena mumbled when he whispered her name.
"Harsh." Lunan chuckled loudly, which pulled her more firmly into consciousness.
"Why're you up so early?" she asked sleepily, her eyes barely slit open.
"Guess what day it is?" he said dryly.
Elena quickly sat up straight and glared at him accusingly.
"You should have woken me up!" she complained. "What the hell, Lunan?"
He shrugged.
"You looked really comfortable," he said. "Also, I wanted the morning to myself before everything ends."
She pushed him lightly.
"Don't say that! You promised that you're not choosing death."
"That doesn't mean that I'm going to be the same person afterwards," he pointed out. "Does your aunt or anyone have any idea on what unleashing this power means? Am I even still conscious, or does this angel completely take over me? We don't know the answer."
"That's true," Elena said, defeat lacing the words.
He pulled her into an embrace, and she slowly put her arms around him.
"I love you, Elena. You've been the best friend one could ask for."
She closed her eyes, letting her tears fall freely.
"I love you too, Lunan."
Elena watched him fade away through teary eyes.
***
Author's note: What do you think Lunan will choose?