War of Heavenly Fire: The Complete Series by Sinclair Devyn

Author:Sinclair, Devyn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Infinite Endings, LLC
Published: 2024-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

_______

Cassian’s breath evens as he falls asleep. I didn’t actually expect it to happen so quickly, which means I was right, and he is utterly exhausted.

I could sleep too. The sound of his heart beating under my ear is comforting, and eventually it would lull me until my eyes closed.

But I can’t sleep.

Atlas isn’t calling me to him this time, but I can still feel his anguish. It’s louder than the others, and I can’t bear it. Gently, I pull away from Cassian. But he’s truly and deeply sleeping, and he doesn’t move.

I think I remember the way to the library. Or at least close enough. It takes me a couple of wrong turns to find the giant doors, but once I do, I push out a call to Atlas. I’m coming.

Just like I imagined, the library is an entirely different place in the daylight. The light is drenched in shades of blue, and every glass surface sparkles, sending off rainbows and reflecting refractions coming from the water. Outside the water is no longer dark and murky. It’s misty and turquoise and nearly lavender, shifting through the shades as I watch.

Atlas isn’t all the way at the bottom. He’s about halfway, staring out into the water. He doesn’t move as I approach, back straight, hands clasped behind his back. If I couldn’t feel the turmoil inside him, he would look completely at peace.

“Atlas.”

“Why didn’t I know?”

“Which part?”

He turns to me. “Any of it. Even before I was an archangel I loved knowledge. I’ve spent hundreds of years studying everything, and I had no idea Vessels of light existed. Or Vessels of darkness. I feel like I should have known something. Should have noticed.”

I look around at the library, sparkling and glorious, and wonder if that’s the way it looks to him now—still beautiful. Or does he feel like it’s a betrayal, just like Cassian felt?

“He said they hid their tracks. You can’t have known something you didn’t even know to look for.”

“I know,” he says softly. “But I still feel it. This wasn’t before my time, Arielle. Before us, Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel were the only Archangels I’ve ever known. We loved them. They were… nearly worshipped. And knowing that now, given what they were doing… I wish I had been able to see something.”

“If you had known, would you have done something?” I step closer to him and let him be the one to pull me in.

“I like to think so,” he says. “Would I have been strong enough to kill them? I’m not sure.”

Through our bond I feel grudging admiration for Cassian, and an unexpected warmth. All this time they’d only thought of him as the monster who killed the people they loved, and the truth was far more complicated.

But that was the perfect description of Cassian. He was the one willing to become the monster in order to save you. In order to do the right thing.

“You would have done the right thing,” I tell him. “I know you would have.

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