Ascend

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“Where is Yuri?” he asked, ignoring her prodding. “Why were you sent here, rather than him?”

“Ours is not to question his divine authority. Zander once understood that.”

“Zander is dead!” he bellowed. “You, Nadia, of all should know this as you were the one to slay him. He came to you, bearing his heart to offer you and you crushed it into fine specks of dust. He risked all to fall from grace, only to be rejected by your cruelty.”

“You would rather I have lied to you and confessed false love?”

“Yuri blinded you to me. We were brothers. I would have died for him, and in essence, I have.”

“I never loved you,” Nadia affirmed. “I do not say this to be cruel. Had I lied to you, we both would have suffered.”

“We both did suffer,” he agreed.

“To deny the presence of love is an unwritten sin,” Nadia attempted to reason. “My love for Yuri is boundless.”

“Why do you believe such a lie? If your love for Yuri truly is boundless as you say, why are you not with him? Why does your Lord keep you apart?”

“Ours—”

“Is not to question his divine authority,” he finished her sentence to mock her. “Mine is not to question my master’s authority as well. All angels and those hosting angelic blood must be destroyed,” he reiterated. “There can be no exceptions.”

“It is more than that and always will be. Alexi is the son you and I were never to have. And when God calls him home, he will ascend to Heaven as an archangel of immeasurable power. Yet you seek to destroy him more so out of vengeance against myself and Yuri over the commands of the vile beast you sold your soul to.”

To halt her words, he reached out, forced her to him, and kissed her to satisfy a yearning spanning many ages. When finished, he looked into her eyes and saw nothing but her vacant stare. Her indifference to him caused him to spit on the ground at her feet in anger.

“Your son, the woman he loves, and all who attempt to protect them will perish. This I promise.”

“Take care of your promises. You have already broken one.”

“And which promise was that?”

“Your promise to hate me for the rest of your life.”

“That is not one I have broken,” he insisted.

“Kiss me again and tell me the same.”

Swallowing deep, though rage grew within him, he held it at bay by his desire to kiss her once more. When their lips parted, he clenched his fists as he watched her back away slowly until she vanished from sight.