Mortal Wounds

Chapter Twenty-Five

Invidian's POV

We murdered an angel. The light left his eyes and travelled into Davian's chest. The shock of the event carries over the few hours it takes to explain what happened to Ascanius and Vanitas.

"Do you even have any idea what you have started?!" Ascanius snaps at me.

I know the answer from his face: a potential war. I keep my eyes downcast as to fake guilt, but the truth is there is very little space in my heart for regret. My eyes follow his shadow beneath him as he stalks around my room. His reflection shows his red irises glowing in rage and he seems to emanate discomfort.

"Calm, brother, the place is aflame. We made sure there wasn't any evidence," Vanitas pitches in from the wall he's leaning against, "And the angel cannot tattle because somehow the reaper absorbed his soul."

The two of them stare at me as if waiting for a proper explanation. I honestly have nothing solid. All I have is what I saw; the blade's power seemed to become absorbed by Davian.

"Kid, are you sure Davian is only a reaper?" Vanitas presses, rubbing his temples, "A simple reaper shouldn't be able to absorb the soul of an ancient angel and survive. That's like cramming a nuclear reactor in a remote control. His body should have detonated."

"He believes he's a reaper," I mutter but now I doubt that is all he is.

"He's definitely more. I think he's become the weapon that stranger gave you."

I glance back at Davian resting on the bed. Just like the weapon let me, Davian could make the angel decay rapidly with just a touch. If that's so, all my means of killing angels rely on him. But I don't want that. To rely on him for it-- to use him like that for my cause. I don't want him to be killed for my sake. He isn't a tool to be used.

"Do you have any idea what blade that is? Are you sure the guy you made a deal with didn't tell you?" Vanitas asks, trying to shift away from the kid who is now babbling about the mysteries of space.

It does no good because the boy only follows him as if he's the duckling and Vanitas is the mamma duck. The child we rescued is cheery as though he doesn't even remember what has happened.

"That book is also very good. So many pictures of flowers. I wanna grow them all. Do you like flowers, mister?" the boy recommends another one of the books his mum bought him to Vanitas, "I used to have a lizard and it ate dandelions."

Vanitas stands in the corner of the room trying to ignore the kid, but keeps sneaking back looks to him as if to ask, "What the fuck do you want?"

To my amusement, the kid isn't intimidated in the slightest. Instead, he seems to be the one making Vanitas uncomfortable and I'm in no mood to rescue him. The boy hasn't once asked about his mother, and when I wanted to ask but he's in too much shock to talk. So, the only option I have to get information from him is to look into his memories. I consider it but I don't want to put him through any more trauma now. I will just let Ascanius sweet talk the truth out of him. He's good with kids.

I'll try finding his father or any other relatives once Davian wakes up. For now, Sleeping Beauty is passed out on my bed, hugging my leg. I sit tensely, not knowing what will happen to him.

I don't know what that knife did to him and I'm uneasy. He saved a boy who was destined to die and murdered an angel. He sucked the life right out of him like a juice popper and isn't dead. After I came to, Ascanius explained how Davian stared at us. His eyes were empty and everything around him decayed rapidly before he passed out. I have no idea how the angel's magic will respond to his body or even if the soul is dead. For all I know, it could be alive and trying to destroy him inside out and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it.