Godforsaken: Book 1 (Shade of Light) (25 page)

“Do you know all the secrets of Eden?”
Samael asked, ignoring Azazel's jabs.

“Which one do you want to know?” Azazel
taunted.

“Tell me the last conversation Lucifer and
Michael had,” Samael demanded.

Azazel laughed heartily. “Why do you need
it? It's bizarre. Just several words for goodbye.”

“Tell me. Do you remember what they talked
about?”

Azazel’s smile faded away, and his eyes
became as thoughtful as Raphael’s. The only one who didn’t follow
Azazel's reasoning was Lily. To her, the angel’s words didn’t make
sense.

“Any creature that is able to think can’t be
perfect,” Azazel announced after a while. “Lucifer was sure that
the only creature who discovered love was him, but he was wrong.
Michael recognized love against Father as blindly as Lucifer
against Eve. Those were their last words of peace,” Azazel
finished, remembering. His glass was already empty. He heeded the
bottle that Samael was still holding and lifted it. Samael didn’t
mind filling Azazel's glass.

“After that, the garden became less
populated with every single day,” Azazel took a sip and resumed.
“When I saw Eden for the last time, it was just a reminder of life
on Earth, where everything is immortal, but nothing has purpose.
Nonetheless, I was happy knowing that the new keeper was you, as
you’re as emotionless and cold as the garden is. You live, but
you’re as dead as the fellows you had sent to the Island of the
Dead.” A cool smile curled over Azazel’s lips. “There are a lot of
rumors about the island, but nobody has seen it but you.” Samael’s
eyes rolled up at Azazel instinctively. “Did you touch the waves of
the black water surrounding the island, Samael? Did you feel the
torture pressing in the air on the island? The torture that our
brothers and sisters feel there forever?”

Samael stepped close to Azazel and bent
forward. “I feel them every second. I feel every fallen creature in
the war of heaven and every one of them damns you, Lucifer, and me.
Being locked in this prison you still haven’t realized the truth,
Azazel. The world isn’t made of love, it’s made of power. This is
not a struggle for love–”

“What do you struggle for, my friend?”
Azazel interrupted, grinning. “The rumors run faster than even
angels move. You saved Eve’s heir, didn’t you? You stole her from
Beelzebub.”

“He knows about Samael and me,” Lily thought
aloud. “He knows that Samael is in love.”

At that moment the chamber door opened, and
Lily jerked around, her heart hammering. There in the shadow were
three people walking. Lily peered at them closely.

The one in the middle was a tall man. His
dark hair shadowed his face, and light itself seemed to be avoiding
him. On one side of him was Lilith, the beautiful woman immortal
who ruled the underground, the one whom thousands of men had
slaughtered each other over. On the other was a thin man with a
sharp face and narrow eyes. His long brown hair was drawn back into
a thick rope, his cheeks thin, and his lips pale.

Raphael took Lily’s hand and pulled her
close to the wall, not taking his eyes from the newcomers. He was
definitely shocked, and Lily herself was busy trying to see the
middle man’s face, so she didn’t protest against the monk. In spite
of Raphael, Samael behaved suspiciously calm, holding out the
bottle to Azazel.

Finally the dim light illuminated the man in
the middle, and Lily’s heart stopped. It was him, the man from her
dreams, the handsome prince dressed all in white who had invited
her somewhere heavenly. She felt a weakness in her legs, and she
thought she was going to tumble to the floor, but an invisible
force held her up.

“This is a dream, Lily,” she muttered under
her breath, but even she didn’t believe it.

“Samael, what a surprise!” that man
exclaimed, opening his arms wide to embrace Samael.

“Who is he?” Lily released a fearful
whisper, but the monk didn’t reply.

“You’re not surprised, don’t act foolish,”
Samael gave a dismissive wave. “You’ve come here for me.” He
glanced at Lilith, then back at the man. “She sent word to you,
didn’t she?”

“Aren’t you happy to see your brother?” The
man lowered his arms to his sides resentfully. “I’ve been waiting
for this meeting for a long time, and now you treat me like a
stranger on a dark and empty street, Samael. What has happened to
you?” He cast his eyes down to the floor and sighed
dismissively.

Samael took a step toward that man and,
standing in front of him, regarded him unblinkingly from head to
toe. He stared maliciously at the man’s face.

“It’s what happened to you, not to me,”
Samael hissed like a snake. “Your game has gone too far, so far
that you won’t be able to control it anymore. It’s already out of
your hands, isn’t it?”

“It wouldn’t be this way if you hadn't
turned your forces back just in front of Heaven’s gates.” The new
man’s voice was colored with malice, his right hand balled into a
fist. “You emotionless son of a bitch, you brought everything down.
And what do you have now?”

The man looked as though he would fling
himself against Samael within moments, but he kept his anger locked
in his fist and turned to Azazel instead. As he made his way toward
the prisoner, two glorious white wings formed on his back out of
thin air. They filled the chamber with heavenly light and blinded
Lily.

“Who
is
he?” she asked Raphael
again.

The monk kept silent as though he didn’t
even hear her.

“You’ve ruined all my dreams. Why did you do
it, Samael?” the man asked, his back still turned to the
gray-winged archangel.

“It was your fight,” Samael shouted angrily.
“Don’t try to blame me for your failings. You couldn’t defeat
Michael using your power fueled by love. Didn't you see that that
power wasn’t enough to destroy Heaven? Did your other fellows see
it? I told you that the power of emotions would only bring us to
loss.”

“You were created by the power of love, you
fool,” the man stared back at Samael. “Father created everything
using love, he put all his feelings into the creation of life. But
it’s my belief that he put nothing into your creation. You've been
this cold since your were born, Samael. Unlike the other creations
– unlike even the humans – you’ve got no heart. Your blood itself
is frozen. The only thing you know how to do is gamble, and you
gambled that my power was weaker than Michael's. Besides, you knew
that by conquering Heaven, everything would be over. But you
couldn’t let it be, of course, you needed more time to fully
realize how many things have remained outside of your
understanding.” The man spun around. He approached the gray-winged
one smugly. “You are a player, and this is just a match of chess to
you. You need the game to be more
interesting
.”

Lilith came up to them slowly, her
high-heeled footsteps adorned the taciturn walls. She put her hands
on Samael’s shoulder from behind, then traced her finger over his
cheek affectionately and blew on his ear.

“Lucifer,” she crooned dispiritedly. “Cease
your shouting at such a handsome creature. After all, he’s your
baby brother. The youngest ones are always naughty.”

That was it. Finally, Lily met Lucifer, the
first and eldest archangel who moved to leave Heaven, the one who
had rebelled against God. Now the handsome man from her dreams was
entirely realized by her, or almost entirely. Fate had been showing
her destiny all her life, but she had denied it and turned her face
away from it. Lucifer was meant for her, not Samael. Lily put her
hand on her heart holding her breath. Now the world froze for her
too, as it had for Raphael.

Samael turned his head to peer at Lilith’s
playful eyes and thin lips.

“I believe he has come to give you the girl,
Lucifer,” Lilith mouthed, allowing herself a prudish smile. “You
know, I want to meet her too, Samael. Where is she?”

Samael chortled, ignoring her. He looked
suspiciously at the other man who had been keeping silent all the
while.

“Saraqael,” Samael grinned wickedly and
shook his head in puzzlement. “It was you who opened the door for
Lucifer. You let him into Dudael.”

“Are you surprised?” Saraqael’s lips
stretched into a wide smile, his narrow eyes filled with
smugness.

“Oh no, of course not,” Samael said back,
laughing soundlessly. “I warned Michael about you, but he demanded
proof.”

“Ah, yes,” Saraqael glanced at Lucifer
standing with Azazel. “Don’t you have a cell phone? Take a picture
of me,” he laughed.

“Nothing to worry about. I’m taking it,”
Samael winked.

“Enough,” Lucifer cut them off. “All these
years and you didn’t let me into the garden, Samael, but now I’ll
give you one more chance. Give me the girl, give her over to her
destiny and go with my peace. Don’t let me do what I don’t want
to.”

“Don’t make him send you to the Island of
the Dead forever,” Azazel finished instead of Lucifer.

“Ha!” Samael chortled and freed himself from
Lilith’s arms. Ignoring her stunned look, Samael glanced at Azazel.
“Whose side are you on now, angel of the garden?”

“I haven’t been called that for a long
time,” Azazel tilted his head.

“And you haven’t been that angel for a long
time, either,” Lucifer reminded him. His black eyes stared at
Samael. “Now, Samael...”

“I have nothing to give to you or to
Michael,” Samael said mildly. “I stepped aside from the war a long
time ago, don’t ask me for anything.”

“Nobody is beyond the war,” Lucifer cried
out in rage. “Give me the girl, Samael.”

“Why do you need her, Lucifer?” Samael
asked. “You don’t love her, she’s not Eve. Eve is dead, you’d
better understand that.”

“She’s not,” Lucifer waved his wings and a
strong wind grew up tossing things in the chamber against the
walls, but the unearthly creatures stood their ground like trees
with long and deep rooted into in the floor. “She was sent to the
Island of the Dead. Why for? Because she was in love with me? No.
Because Father wanted to torture me. Because I had a gift, because
I discovered the secret of creation. He became afraid that he
wasn’t the only person who could make life. As soon as there were
others like him, he would cease to be as powerful as he was. You
and our other brothers are just the fools that blindly believed in
him. He’s not different from us, he’s struggling for his power
too.”

“Now,” Lucifer laced his fingers together to
calm himself down, “I need the girl to show the truth to the
world.”

Silence fell. Lucifer was waiting for an
answer, but Samael lingered. Lily wondered what he was thinking
about. Was he going to tell Lucifer of her whereabouts? If he
looked back at her, Lucifer would possess her before she could even
blink.

“Listen, Samael,” Lucifer calmed. “You can’t
change everything alone. It’s beyond your power. You know that
nothing is able to stop me, that no matter how far away you keep
Eve’s heir from me, I’ll find her everywhere you hide her. I’ll
tear the very garden down if you kill her to save her from me.” He
jabbed his finger toward Samael, threatening him. “Just her
existence is enough for me to get out of my world. Look! I’m
already out. It’s only a matter of time before I occupy your Eden
and take my army into Heaven.” Lucifer passed his hand through his
hair taking a little pause. “Look at the situation Samael, you know
who’s going to win. I’ll gladly give you your life back if you
facilitate my goal.”

He trailed off and peered at Samael with his
sneering eyes. The gray-winged man was reasoning.

“Lily, I can’t keep us invisible forever,”
Raphael whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”

But Lily stood rooted, her eyes stopped on
Samael. She was waiting for the answer too, to see if Samael might
be ready to relinquish her in exchange for his own salvation. If he
did, then life would be over for her. Could his words of love have
been lies all along?

“If she loves you, she will come to you on
her own. Don’t worry, brother,” Samael teased, then wheeled around
and made his way out of the chamber. Out of the corner of his eye,
he surreptitiously looked in the direction where Lily and Raphael
stood. Lily saw his green eyes glitter playfully, and she wondered
what was on his mind now.

Lucifer looked after him, taken aback.
“Don’t turn your back on me.” He raised his hand into the air and a
long spear appeared in his hand. Its sharp end shined in Lucifer’s
light as he started off after Samael.

“Raphael!” Lily cried in full measure. “He’s
going to kill Samael!”

But the monk did nothing to help Samael.
Lucifer threw himself at the gray-winged man and both of them
disappeared from Lily’s view behind the black door. Azazel,
Saraqael and Lilith rushed into the corridor. Lily couldn’t stand
to wait. Holding her breath, she darted after them.

The corridor was already empty, neither
Lilith nor Saraqael nor Azazel were seen at the end. Crossing the
corridor, Lily was thrown into a dusty atmosphere. She was standing
in front of the platform railing, but the arena was covered with a
dusty cloud and remained unseen by her. Lucifer’s and Samael’s
roars echoed in the air. They were fighting below – in the arena.
And Lily was the prize.

She peered around in search of help. She was
confused, not knowing what to do, or where to go. She realized that
her heart was still beating for Samael. If he didn’t come out from
the dusty mist hovering above the arena, then her life was surely
over. But Lucifer wasn’t a fool like Kali, Kali who’d been serving
Beelzebub and who’d been sliced into pieces with one blow of
Samael’s sword. This enemy was Satan himself, the eldest archangel
who had revolted against God.

In that bustle of inhuman shouts and
explosions, Lily spotted Raphael. She darted back to him and flung
herself against his chest.