Valeria gasped for breath and swung her magicked sword across the row of demons that taunted her. She knew that she couldn’t fight. No one had ever taught her how to use a blade, but she didn’t need trained knowledge. She had the Light.

The sentient creature hadn’t reappeared, but the thick magic coursed through her and burned white-hot across the roses Nile had painted across her shoulder. Valeria would have hesitated to use that power, but now she had someone to fight for. An innocent child who counted on her, and no matter how he’d come to be in this world, he was hers.

One of the demons who’d gotten too close slashed in half under the brazing force of Light that crashed out of Valeria’s blade. Black blood splashed and fed the hungry onyx that littered the ground, broken and trying to rebuild under the onslaught of feet and battle.

“Valeria!” came a cry from above and Valeria jerked her head up to see Anark, the beautiful angel coming full-force.

She growled and slashed her weapon. She didn’t care if she hit him. The wretched creature had brought nothing but suffering and pain.

So far her magic had made sure that her aim was true, yet the Light harmlessly deflected off of the oily sheen of Anark’s feathers as he glided to the ground. His eyes bulged with surprise. “Did you just try to cut off my head?”

She shrugged. “Thought you were a demon.”

He narrowed his eyes, but didn’t have time to rebuke her. A demon came crashing into them and sank his claws into Anark’s wings. The angel growled and swirled to fling him off, but then a blur of white wings overtook them, sending two long, silver blades to cut off the demon’s head with one graceful sweep.

Valeria stared at the angel who looked so different than Anark. His battle armor clung loose to his hips and his chest glistened with sweat. Long, silver hair strained at the back of his neck, bound in a tie as he flexed his wings. “You must be the girl that’s gotten heaven and hell in an uproar.”

Anark smirked and patted the angel on the shoulder. “She has a name, Gabriel.”

Valeria resisted the urge to take a step back. She didn’t like that the glassy perfection of his amethyst eyes that hid Gabriel’s soul. She followed his movements as he shifted and watched her, feeling like one of the unfortunate rabbits her and her father had once desperately hunted even for just a scrap of food.

Gabriel’s fists clenched around his swords as if he wanted to slash at something. But that’s when Valeria saw that all the demons had begun to back away. The fighting diminished until only a dry breeze swept over the Obsidian Sea, bringing with it the acrid stench of metallic blood and death.

“What’s happening?” Anark hissed.

Demons growled as soft black flakes fell from their scales and golden swirls wound about their feet. Each of them bore magicked weapons that glowed with a twisted Light, one that rang familiar in its ferocity and power. When those weapons started to dim as well, Valeria knew something was terribly wrong. Her own mark of Light burned at her shoulder, and the Dark powers within herself burrowed deep before it could be yanked free.

She looked at Anark and Gabriel, hoping that they had answers. But both of them backed away as tiny motes danced around them like gnats, their own magic peeling away from them in beautiful, glittering layers.

“We have to get out of here,” Gabriel said and spread his wings. He thrust into the sky without warning and sent Valeria throwing her hands up to protect her face from the sudden blast of littered magic and dust.

When she peeked through her fingers, Anark was watching her even as the golden glimmers turned into peeling layers that plucked at his wings and coursed through his veins. “You’re making a mistake,” he told her, as if this was all of her doing. “The Seraphim won’t approve defense of Manor Saffron again. This was a one time deal and you’re pushing us away.” He leaned in and the sweet musk of his immortal life drifted over her in a cloud. “But if you come back to us, if you remind him that you’re one of us, he’ll come to his senses. Promise me that you’ll remember who you are. You’re of angels. You’re one of us. I can’t protect you if you drive me away. I made a mistake, but that won’t happen again. I’ll always fight for you and all of the wingless ones.” He spread his wings and the silver metallic glow took her breath away. He waited for her to cover her face even though his skin was already translucent as magic and life continued to seep away. When she placed her fingers over her eyes, he launched and a great wind rolled over her. When she looked up again, he was gone.

The obsidian landscape was just as bleak and littered with onyx as she’d remembered it, but now a layer of bodies added its own grotesque touch. Yet, even those were starting to melt away from the strange force that was sucking out all life and magic from the area. The areas that glistened with white wings betrayed the angels that had fallen. They didn’t move as they disintegrated into dust and Valeria couldn’t believe that such ancient creatures weren’t as immortal as she’d believed. Their amethyst eyes seemed to find her across the distance, sparking with the last desperate gleam of life before their souls whispered out of existence.

No, not existence, she thought. They’d only left. The hairs on the back of her neck rose when she found the power to sense them transverse between realms and into a place she could never go.

That’s when she felt her child’s beautiful soul reaching out and following them like a moth to a flame. Her heart slammed against her chest and she was running to Manor Saffron hoping that her magic lied. She’d only just found meaning to fight for this lift, something more than just revenge, anger and pain. Nile had awakened hope in her and her child was the result.

She spun around the last corner that took her down the winding stairway where Manor Saffron’s pillars burrowed into the ground and housed the precious Divine Material that had created the small oasis of her childhood home. She’d expected the blinding brilliance of the chamber that contained so much ancient magic and power, yet the dim glow seemed weak. She spotted Nile’s Hallowed eyes at the end of the room peering at her with shock and anguish… and she knew.

“No,” she whispered. Her feet felt like iron weights as she dragged herself to him, each step a desperate denial of the pain that thundered through her soul.

Nile trembled and bent his shoulders over the small bundle as he trembled.

She crouched and touched him. He was so cold, so full of pain that the Darkness within her dared to peek out just for a moment to taste it.

She didn’t want to do it, but she had to see. She peeled away his fingers to reveal the cold, empty shell that was her child.

Tears welled in her eyes and she left them come. She let the Darkness wrap around her like a blanket as misery took hold. Nile’s dim gaze found hers and shadows lingered in the depths of his soul. He communed with her pain.

“We didn’t even get to give him a name,” Valeria said and her voice broke.

Nile looked down to the child, his arms still trembling. A soft cry escaped him as dust flowed off of the tiny wings until the child was gone. Magic had been consumed, and Valeria couldn’t face the truth of what this meant. Her child hadn’t been flesh and blood at all. Her child was pure and unadulterated magic, and now he was gone.

“I don’t understand,” Nile breathed. “Why would the Divine give us this child, and take him from us in a single breath?”

Pain washed over her and if her child’s death hadn’t sucked all magic out of their little piece of the world, her own powers would have consumed her in that moment. All angels, demons, and power had been ripped away into the void of her son’s death. She didn’t understand why anymore than Nile did, but she knew who would know.

Her fingernails bit into palms. “The Light is to blame.” She gripped Nile’s arm. “I promise, I’ll make her answer for this. We’ll get our son back even if I have to rip heaven and hell apart.”