Wingless

Chapter 22 [Celeste's POV]

Raven looks really mad right now. She flies at me again, I dodge. Again and again. Eventually she slams into me, ripping my wings with her pointy nails, pulling feathers out. For a moment everything deserts me, then with a sudden strength I kick her hard in the chest. Not expecting it, she falls backwards and I kick her again. She groans and I fly upwards, trying to assess the damage done to my wing. The right one isn't that bad but the left wing is painful, almost ripped out from the buds. I know she did this on purpose, to make a point.

Wingless.

Suddenly Malum and another demon boy walk up to Lues, they are holding him back and somehow, I can tell it means something more than making sure he doesn't interrupt the fight. Two other demon girls - I recognize one as Caedis - fly up to me, pin me against the wall. I realize too late that they weren't going to do anything fair. Demons play dirty. The plan was always to get rid of me. Not to prove a point. Not to take us down.

But to get rid of me. Forever.

Why? Do they hate me that much?

Raven pins me back and I see anguish burning in her eyes as she takes out a dagger, presses it against my throat. Lues roars in anger, pulls against them, but he isn't strong enough to fight both of them. Then Raven starts talking to me, talking to me with fury bursting through her voice, but so low that nobody can hear it but me.

"Demons aren't supposed to love," she whispered. She looks crazy, eyes popping, shaking as she presses the dagger closer. As her hand jerks, it rips through my throat, only harming my skin, but it stings. "They aren't." I know what she means. She thinks if I die Lues will go back to ruthlessness but I know that's not true. On some level he does love me. And even if he gets over me, he's awoken something in himself. I look at him. He's an angel now, at least half, and he's never going back.

"I was five. At the age of five, I'm sure angels play with Barbie dolls and teddy bears and are taught to treat others like they'd like to be treated," she hisses, still in that deadly voice. "Us? We play with knives, loaded guns and knives. Some of us died, accidently shot or stabbed, some of us like me were injured. It's normal. Every demon has a "childhood scar".  She rips up her top and I see a long scar snaking through her belly button down to the tip of her hip. "Except Lues. He never did. Never. I remember seeing him, dodging the bullets and the knives, looking so graceful. I fell in love with him." My eyes widen. What?

"Demons weren't supposed to love. If I'd told him he'd have laughed in my face. Then he came back, loving you. He'd flirted with me and we'd done stuff at parties when he was drunk. I never was. I pretended to be too, but I never was. I treasured those moments, and you had him completely. You strung him along like a toy. A stupid toy!" Again her hand jerked and I gasped as it cut into my throat, this time a little deeper. "I hope he gets over you. Either way he's going to marry me and he will be mine."

You'd think I'd be disgusted by this but I'm not. In fact I feel pity for her. 11 years is a long time to hide love. 

My pity must show on my face because her own contorts in anger. "Don't you feel pity for me you disgusting little witch," she hisses.

"Raven, just end it," Caedis calls.

Malum jerks up Lues' face so he can see. Raven draws the dagger back ready to slit my throat then stops. "No," she snarls, loud enough for them to hear. "She will suffer." She points it at my stomach. The demons catcall. Lues' eyes widen and he pulls against the arms holding him but nothing happens. I notice demon men holding my mother back, but my father's eyes are cold and unrelenting. He doesn't care. This makes me feel sick, more sick than knowing I'm dying.

I see blood, lots of blood.

But not mine. Raven's?

An arrow is sticking out of her back. 

Who shot the arrow?