Revelations [malexmale]

Prologue

Prologue

Heaven was dark that day.

The clouds once soft and lined with golden rays of sunlight had become ashen and charcoal. The sound of thunder beat like drums in the distance. Rain came down in a heavy gray curtain, forming puddles in the streets. Street lamps flickered, windows were yanked shut, shops closed early for the evening.

Beyond the city lay the capital. A massive building four stories high with thick smooth columns holding up a pitched roof. Normally pure white in the sun, it now held a grayish tint with orange glows in the windows, for the capital never slept as its people did, especially not on this night.

And he stood there, for about an hour, in front of the massive golden doors that opened up to the capitol building. He knew what was waiting for him on the other side. He could feel the chill of it in the air, right down into the marrow of his bones.

He debated running, he truly did. It was not the fear of punishment that made his legs tremble, but the disappointment of the only creature alive he wished not to crush.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath into his lungs. On his back, his massive white wings fluttered as if they, too, sensed the fury ahead. He wrapped his hand around the golden handles and pulled them open, stepping inside. The sound of his boots clacking on the fresh white marble echoed around the silence. The doors closed automatically behind him. No one was in the main entrance.

He reached up, lowering the white hood from his head, his wavy blonde hair falling freely about his chiseled clean-shaven face, his sapphire eyes flashing as he noted the eerie silence. Despite the silence, he could feel eyes on him, feel the presence of several others in the room with him. He straightened, lifted his head, because he refused to bow beneath those judgmental glares.

"Michael," he called out, his voice echoing off the walls. He strode forward a few steps, then slowed to a stop as all around him, his brothers stepped from the shadows.

Gabriel was the first to come from the shadows. Tall and lean with a mass of long black curls that fell about his shoulders, his deep ocean blue eyes tracking his brother's movements warily. Instead of his long white robes of the finest silks, he wore his battle uniform; shiny pristine white armor that gleamed in the light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

Raphael was the next to emerge, his long white-blonde hair tied back with a leather cord, his bangs framing a nearly feminine face, but his cold hard deep set brown eyes told otherwise.

Jophiel stepped out next, her thick black hair pulled back into a sharp chignon, exposing a deep widow's peak and glaring green eyes. Behind her came Ariel, his dark hair swept back becomingly from a face that was often full of laughter and smiles, now today was twisted in a sneer, golden eyes narrowed. Azrael came next, his bedroom blue eyes filled with sorrow, his blonde hair cut in short curls close to his head. Chamuel followed him, his head shaven and his mismatched orange and yellow eyes haunted. They all wore their glistening white armor.

He turned as he heard a final pair of footsteps step from the shadows, and he watched with a kind of forlorn gaze as his mirror image stepped from the darkness in the capitol. His brother, his twin really, Michael stood in his battle regalia, a long spear gripped in one hand, his flashing sapphire eyes murderous. His long golden spun hair, much like his own, fell loose from its twisted updo, as if he'd spent hours running his fingers through it.

"How dare you step foot in our capitol after what you've done, Lucifer," Michael spoke, his words thundering off the walls, his voice hard and cold.

But Lucifer was no fool; he heard the tremor underlying his brother's words, heard the pain and the sorrow behind them, and the guilt washed upon him once more as he held his breath. He once again questioned why he had done what he had done, why he had dared lift a finger, dare destroy not only his life, but the lives of his own siblings, and for what? A premonition confirmed by a pagan god?