Page 85 of Grave Revelations

“He was right, of course, for no one is perfect but God.

“And when he fell, he took Eve with him, sharing her bed and the truth of immortality with her. Once her eyes were opened, she could not forget it.

“For a human’s soul to rest in Alaxia, their mortal form must part with their soul in a selfless act. Intention is everything. When she learned she had eternity, if only she let her mortal form expire, the act became a selfish one and in it, she was doomed to an eternity in Hell.”

Rebecca opened her mouth, but Azazel went on.

“I know I haven’t answered your question, but I promised you detailed answers. So let me get to my point.

“Eve wasn’t the only one to share her bed with the seraphim, and another of my brethren’s couplings led to the birth of a child. Neither human nor seraph, it was a bit of both. But these new creations did not possess souls of their own, and without a soul, they could not survive.

“Children are innocent no matter how they were made, and though He had not created the half-human, half-seraphim beings, our Father took pity on them, offering to share the seraphim’s souls with them.

“That day, He tore every seraph’s soul in two, and as each Naphil was made throughout the centuries that followed, their soul found its new home.”

Rebecca rubbed absently at the place in her chest where Azazel’s soul rested.

“So… God is responsible for my soul living in so many bodies?” she asked. “Oursoul.”

“Yes and no.”

She pursed her lips, prepared to ask another question when a vibrant parade of images exploded in her mind. She stumbled back. Strong arms came around her, catching her as she sank into them and watched the pictures dance through her mind.

It was her, but not—forged of different circumstances and at different times. In this vision, she wielded a sword, the same one Allie had and used to fight demonsand night-creatures alike, but her hair was much longer, pulled into an intricate braid behind her back.

The images shifted, and she pressed a hand against his mud-streaked cheek. “You look dreadful,” she said in an English accent.

You’re a sparkling star in the darkest night’s sky, Light,he said into her mind, but it wasn’t Azazel. It was Gabriel, and the image crackled, tainted by his own self-loathing.

The scene changed, and they sat together on a bed in a strange home, her arms wrapped around him.You needed this hug more than I did, she thought, and he squeezed her tightly.

Then Gabriel was inside ancient ruins in what looked like Greece, standing before a man whose skin appeared stretched too thin.

“Your sweet Adalaide gave herself a little too willingly when she colluded to trap my mate in Sheol. The magic demands more.” The strange man raised an eyebrow at the angel. “One life to seal the fate of my mate for eternity from her other half. Did you think it would be enough?”

Gabriel fell to the floor in supplication.

“Stand, brother. You make yourself appear weak. I offer a solution.”

The scene evaporated, replaced by one so bright it burned the backs of Rebecca’s eyelids. In it, Gabriel sat across from another angel.

“I tried to protect her,” he confessed. “I tried to do what was right, but she will die. When she does, she may not choose me a second time.”

When the scene changed, he was still in Alaxia, but this place she recognized. Standing beside the gates she’d seen each time she went there, Gabriel was surrounded by more angels than she ever dreamed existed.

Raphael landed beside him.

Gabriel turned, facing him. “Where is she? Why is she not at the gates?”

Rebecca sat forward, gasping. An object shifted under her, and she realized she was cradled in Azazel’s arms. She looked up.

“But… What happened to her?”

Sanura trapped your half of our soul in Sheol for over a century.

Rebecca touched her breastbone.

“How?” she asked. But Gabriel replied in her mind just as she realized: “Necromancer.”

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