The Angel King (boyxboy)

Chapter Nine

Nyx

I had just barely gotten used to the painful purity of Heaven when Will and Uriel decided it was time to Descend to the Surface. It was infinitely better, I reflected. The world wasn't so bright or harsh. Uriel still remained distant and disgusted with me, and even Will looked at me with pity rather than respect.

Then again, I was sure that I would pity myself too, if I was them. I spent most of the time hidden in the closet of the room they had given me. I still wasn't sure where we were, but I had deduced it must be some kind of hotel.

My wings had fully healed. I was itching to try them out, but I was too terrified. I wasn't even sure I was allowed to leave the room. We had only been here about a day, but I had already been introduced to two other angels: a seraphim named Sofia and an archangel named Samael. Sofia had been kind and reserved, like Will, but Samael had been skittish, never looking at me in the eye.

He hadn't come to see me,  but instead spoke to Will and Uriel. At one point, Will made a suggestion, and Samael practically exploded. "I'm not here to be your personal assistant!" he shouted. "I'm here to purify the Earth, not help you solve your personal drama!"

He was quickly quieted by Uriel, who I had recently found out was the Archangel of Chastity. In another world, I would have made fun of him for that. Eventually Samael calmed down, and left the room muttering.

I curled into a ball on the floor of the closet, my wings wrapping around me in a big blanket. I wondered if Luke was okay. Was he panicking at the angels' arrival? Did he know I was with them? Did he know about Will?

I doubted Will knew who I was, but I knew him. I still remembered Luke coming home that fateful day, bleeding and bawling his eyes out. He wasn't even able to bring himself to say the word "dead". Will was dead, and it was all Luke's fault.

I had hated Will then, even though we had never met. How dare he hurt my best friend in that way? Even though deep down I was aware of Luke's wrongdoings, I turned a blind eye to them. That night, he had slept in my room, crying into my shoulder. He hadn't gotten up for about a week, and refused to let me leave.

The closet door opened, and I saw the angel himself looking down at me. Will crouched down, gently coaxing my wings away from my face. I glared at him through the feathers.

"What do you want?" I asked. Even now, my voice sounded hoarse. Whether it was from the eternities I spent screaming in Hell, or from the lack of use, I didn't know.

Will smiled sadly. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Are you?"

I hated that he was so nice. It made it very hard to hate him. "Fine," I said defensively. "I want to go home."

"To where? Hades?" he countered.

"To my friends. To my King."

Will's lip twitched at the allusion. "You are here because I believe in Redemption." He said the word as if was capitalized. "If it's possible for a demon to repent and become purified, then it's possible for anyone."

My wings tightened around my body. "You want to make me an angel?"

Will looked around the room, but we were alone. Uriel had probably left a few minutes ago. "Look, Nyx, I'm going to be honest with you. Michael is a power archangel, but he's only a Prince. We need a King. You are, or you were, a powerful demon. If you gained the powers of an angel..."

I laughed out loud, the sound full of derision. "Okay, so not only do you want me to be an angel, but you think that I could be a king? More powerful than Michael? I'm not even a King in Hades. And in case you haven't noticed, my time in Hell hasn't exactly helped."