Nile felt her coming. Their connection had somehow grown stronger over the course of a single night. It was as if ever since their union he’d known that he could trust her, and a part of his soul went with her. The closer that she came to him now he felt complete and solid.

“You’ve fallen hard, boy,” said the old Hallowed.

“It doesn’t change anything,” Nile offered with a sad smile. “There’s no room for love in a world like this. It won’t happen again.”

Nile leaned against the entranceway to Manor Saffron, resigning himself to the belief that that one, miraculous night with Valeria was the only happiness he was going to get. He had to face the reality of this world. If they survived this, he would find his place in the world, but that was a big if.

The demons still stood sentinel, but they’d become restless when Nethara’s tower became visible. It gleamed in the horizon like a great onyx spear that threatened to skewer the sky. It would be visible even to Leocivat by now and he wondered if the people would be in a panic. They only had four of the Coterie to guide them, and without Ferdinand’s humanity to temper decisions, he feared that things wouldn’t fare well.

The shield glimmered with gold before falling, letting in a cold blast of the Obsidian Sea and the snarls of demons.

Nile’s blood ran cold when he realized that the shield had dropped. A blast hit and he looked up to see Anark spearing into the sky. “Damned angel!” he yelled.

“He’s not abandoning us,” Ferdinand said and pointed to the point of the onyx tower. Somewhere beyond the clouds was the angel city. “He’s going for help.”

Nile ground his teeth together and waited, but the demons didn’t come rampaging in like he’d expected them to do. They still stood sentinel and waited.

Then the rumble on the landscape shook the foundation of Manor Saffron. An army was on the move.

A portal appeared, shadow writhing with a single golden glimmer within. Valeria shot through riding a horse with eyes a ruby red. “Valeria!” Nile shouted.

She yipped and spurred the horse on, barreling through the landscape and sending a wave of dust behind her. The portal closed, and Nile shivered, wondering if that had been Xorn’s magic… or hers.

“They’re on the way,” Valeria shouted as she dismounted the horse. “Half of Nethara’s legion is coming here for another attack. They have help, this time, so we’ll need to fight.” She pointed at the horizon. “The rest are going to Leocivat.” She handed the reins to Ferdinand. “I trust you’ll know how to knock some sense into the Coterie. They have something the demons are after and they need to get rid of it fast.”

Ferdinand didn’t move. Both of them were locked into a stare at Valeria’s belly. She looked down. “Oh, yeah, that,” she said with a lopsided smile. “I’ll explain that later.” She jingled the reins. “There are demons coming for your people, old man. Go.”

Ferdinand broke from his shock. Nile hadn’t ever seen a horse in his life, and wondered if his Hallowed master knew how to ride one. In spite of his age, he moved with fluid grace as he hauled himself onto the horse’s back. “Thank you,” he said to Valeria, then jabbed his sandaled heels into the horse’s side and sent the creature reeling.

Nile watched him go, amazed that the demons parted to let him through. Fear strangled his throat, and for the first time, he realized how brave his master was. “I can’t just let him go by himself,” Nile said, but he knew it was too late. There’d only been one horse, and Ferdinand was already a dot on the horizon.

Valeria gripped his fingers. “It’s okay. I’m going to be needing you very soon.”

He took a closer look at her, taking note of the strain of her voice he hadn’t noticed being there before. Sweat broke out along her hairline and a soft glow emanated from her tattoo where he’d encased the plague of Darkness. “What’s wrong?”

She drew in a shaky breath and squeezed his fingers hard. “The child, he’s coming.”

* * *

Nile blinked with incomprehension. “But, that’s not possible.”

As if in retaliation of the deniable, his knuckles ground under her grip as she released a sharp cry. “It is possible, and it’s happening right now. Come on, Nile. Get me inside.”

He glanced across the horizon and his stomach lurched when he saw a soft line of black… demons. “Now’s not the time to have a baby, Valeria.”

She stumbled towards the door. “Look up. They’ll buy us the time we need.”

Nile jerked his gaze to the sky, only to see a similar glistening line of gold and silver. Angels, a lot of them, were coming. “He did it,” Nile breathed with a short laugh. “I can’t believe it. He’s bringing them to fight.”

All his life Nile dreamed of angels coming to Terra to come to humanity’s aid. He’d always known that there must have been some mistake. Angels couldn’t have just abandoned Terra to its fate. To see the proof of their compassion now made tears swell in his eyes. He’d held out hope for so long. He’d almost accepted that his hope was a fruitless emotion that he should just let go.

“Nile,” Valeria said his name through clenched teeth.

“Right.” He gripped her by the elbow and dragged her inside. “Uh, what do I do?”

She stumbled, but he bore her weight. “Take me to the Light chamber. The baby needs it to survive.”

Nile didn’t question Valeria, not when shadows began to writhe around her body and her tattoo glowed with brilliance. Magic was fighting a battle within her, and he wasn’t going to question which side would win. All that mattered was that Valeria would be okay, that their child would survive.

When they arrived in the Light chamber, he expected the sentient creature to be hovering over their shoulders. It was nowhere to be found, instead Valeria cried out with renewed agony and collapsed to the ground, bringing Nile with her as she glowed with gold and black.

“Tell me what to do,” he said, sounding far more calm than he felt.

She tugged at his sleeve. “Take this off. Use it to wrap the baby when he comes out.”

Nile obeyed, his skin breaking out with sweat when the Light scourged over him, but he didn’t dare complain.

He was about to bring his son into the world, and even though demons clashed on the surface and angels descended from the heavens, he knew this would be the best day of his life.