Chapter 187: The Only One Still Breathing

Seraphel

Everything happened in the space of a single breath. One moment I was running toward him, and the next he stood in front of me instead, taking a bolt of divine lightning through the back of his skull.

How had that happened? I had been running to save him, and he had been doing the exact same thing, only he got there first.

Everything had always been because of me, and I hated how that felt. I hated how weak it made me, standing there unable to do anything, again.

I had been living inside this story for so long now. I should have grown into it by now, should have become someone who could fight beside them. Instead I just kept dragging everyone down with me.

Was it because I skipped the battle scenes and read only the smut? Was that seriously why?

Tears spilled down my face as I watched blood stream down Azriel’s cheek. "AZRIEL!" I screamed his name one last time, and the tears came harder.

Was he going to die? Sins were not supposed to die. And even if they did, they were reborn. That was how Author Nude had written it. I had always hated stories with bad endings, and she had promised, over and over, that all of hers ended well. So why was this one falling apart in front of me?

Why could I feel Azriel’s life fading out of him with every second that passed?

"Why?" I screamed, shaking his body. "What kind of story is this? What kind of—"

"Seraphel..." Azriel’s soft voice came from beside me, and I looked down to find his crimson eyes already losing their light. "Are you all right?"

"I will be fine," I answered, sniffling hard. "I am definitely going to be fine." The words came out under my breath as more tears ran down my face. "I will be—"

His bloodied hand came up to my cheek. "I am glad you are unharmed. I feared you would not be. I am glad I reached you in time."

"Who asked you to?" I yelled at him. "Who the hell asked you to do that?"

"I love you. It is my duty as your husband, as the one who loves you, to protect you always. I will keep you safe, no matter what it costs me."

I could not hold it together anymore. The tears would not stop coming as I lifted my head to look at him properly, and I broke down entirely.

"Are you going to die?" I asked, my voice splintering apart around the words. "Are you going to—" I stopped, struggling to catch my breath. "Are you—"

Azriel shook his head, then coughed up another mouthful of blood. "I am not—" He coughed again.

"I hate to interrupt your little reunion, but that sin of yours is finished. And if he does happen to survive my light, he will sleep for a very, very long time," Draca’s voice carried across the broken ground, and I raised my head slowly to face him, teeth gritted, fists clenched, hating how deeply his words were digging into me.

"That child of prophecy is mine!" he shouted.

I looked around desperately for anyone who might help, but every single one of them was already occupied. The brothers were locked in combat with the seven lords.

Luceriel lay collapsed on the ground, drained from holding time still and still bleeding from whatever his visions were doing to him, unable to move at all.

Even Pazuzu was pinned down, trading blows with one of the seven, and I heard him call her sister as they fought.

The fight consumed him so completely that he had forgotten Luceriel entirely.

Even Malachi, who was supposed to be guarding me, had his own battle to survive.

I was alone.

I let out a long breath and fisted my hands in Azriel’s robes, then looked back toward Draca, who was already walking toward us, lightning gathering bright in his palm.

"I love you," I whispered to Azriel, watching the color drain further from his face. He tried to speak, but I stopped him, leaning down to press a kiss to his lips instead.

Then I laid him gently against the ground and rose to my feet until I stood facing Draca.

"Seraphel..." Azriel murmured behind me, and he was not the only one.

Luceriel called out from where he lay sprawled across the dirt. "Do not go, Seraphel," he said. "Do not go."

I let out a low groan but kept moving, breaking into a run toward Draca as divine light flared to life in my palm, gold and blue spilling between my fingers, so bright it threw my own shadow long across the ground behind me.

"You bastard! You attacked my mate, and he is dying because of you!" I screamed as I ran.

Draca stopped advancing and simply stood there, smirking, as though this was exactly what he had been waiting for.

I did not slow down. I refused to give him the satisfaction. I drove forward and hurled the light straight at his chest, the whole world narrowing to that single throw.

And then time stopped.

The light froze midair, suspended halfway between us, its glow caught in place like something trapped in glass.

"Luceriel—" I gritted out, spinning toward him, but the words died in my throat.

He was frozen too, still sprawled exactly where he had fallen, one hand outstretched toward me, caught mid-motion. Whatever had done this, it had not been him.

"What the hell is happening?" I looked around and realized the noise had stopped entirely.

There were no explosions. No clashing steel. Above me, every figure locked in midair combat hung perfectly still, my brothers and the seven lords alike, suspended between one blow and the next.

"Azriel," I called, rushing back toward him, but he had gone rigid too, frozen exactly as I had left him.

This was not right. None of them should have been caught by this. They were gods and sins, not ordinary beings, so how had time taken all of them and left me untouched?

My first thought was Castiel. But he had told me plainly that our last meeting was exactly that, the last, so I could not begin to explain why I was the only one still standing here, still breathing, still able to move.

"Azriel," I said again, shaking his shoulder, hoping for anything at all. Nothing happened.

Then a light bloomed out of nowhere.

It was so blinding that I had to throw my arm across my eyes, trying to see through it, trying to understand what was happening to me now.

And when the light finally faded and I lowered my arm, I was no longer kneeling beside Azriel.

I was in a place I never expected to see again.

My school dormitory.