“You mean keep the balance? How so?”
Since I could remember, I’d known my place in the universe. Other than protecting my family and training, I’d never really had a chance to balance anything. My title had always been something said and not experienced, and now that my powers had been amplified, my purpose was even more puzzling.
“You’ll know when it’s time,” he said.
I wasn’t impressed. “So you know, and you’re not going to tell me.”
“Trust me, it’s better this way,” Eve said.
The outer doors crashed open with a boom, sending wind and flames toward us. We all held up our arms to shield our faces from the heat.
“Levi?” Ramiel called.
Levi looked to me. “What do we do?”
I frowned and then looked to Ramiel. “If you betray us, if anything said just now isn’t absolute truth, I’ll come for you. I’ll come for you, and I’ll rip you out of Heaven myself. On my mother’s life, if anything happens to Levi, I won’t care about the consequences.”
“Understood.” He pulled out his sword, took a breath, and ran toward the entrance.
Eve hugged her son Abel, who held on a little longer than we had time. Then she kissed his cheek and did the same with Cain. Abel kissed his brother’s cheek as well.
“I’m sorry, my brother,” Cain said.
“I’m sorry, too,” Abel said with a heavy expression. “I didn’t want this for you.”
Cain nodded, and Eve wrapped her arms around her son’s, pressing her cheek against his.
“Levi,” Eve said, squeezing her eyes tight.
Levi positioned himself with Gehenna. “You’re sure?”
“We’ve been waiting for this a long time,” Eve said.
Cain began chanting something in his father’s tongue.
Levi raised his sword, hesitating just long enough for Eve to press her lips against her son’s cheek one last time. Gehenna cut through the air, and then through their necks. Before their heads hit the dirt, their bodies turned to ash and disappeared in the wind being pushed from the entrance. I turned away, despite there being nothing left.
Levi breathed hard, balancing himself with Gehenna’s tip dug into the ground.
Immediately a dark feeling came over me. “Levi?”
Abel spoke, but we couldn’t understand him without his mother or Ramiel to translate. I hadn’t been taught that language, and neither had Levi. Abel resorted to body language, waving for us to pass through the round door.
Demonic shrieking grew louder, as did the millions of feet barreling toward us. The walls shook with the weight of what was coming.
Ramiel’s war cries soon became screaming, harmonizing with the shredding of his skin and the separation of his joints.
I took one step to help him before Abel and Levi grabbed my arms. “He’s in pain!” I said. “Let me end it for him!”
Levi shook his head. “That’s not how it works, Eden, and you know that. It’s what he wants.”
I stepped back inside, feeling defeated.
Abel pulled the heavy door closed behind us, gesturing toward another doorway. I had to shield my eyes from the intense white light that poured from it.
“This is the way home?” Levi asked, bearing his weight on my shoulder.
Abel nodded.
“Something’s not right,” I said, feeling equally repelled and drawn to Levi in a way I hadn’t felt before. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pleasant.
We stepped through, and in the next moment, I felt the coolness of my mattress beneath me. I sat up, breathing hard and coughing.
Levi was struggling to pull in a sufficient breath, too, but he reached for me.
I pushed him away, then covered my eyes, sobbing.
“Eden?” Levi said, sitting up.
“What?” Dad said, pushing open the door.
Mom had just began running up the stairs, but soon she was there, too, her eyes wide. “Eden? What is it?”
“Ramiel!” I cried.
“Eden, c’mere,” Levi said, reaching for me again. I scrambled off the bed.
“Please don’t,” I said. His touched created a new feeling inside of me that I couldn’t explain.
“Don’t what? Touch you?” he asked, confused. He stood but kept his distance.
“Ramiel?” Dad asked.
“We went under,” Levi explained.
“That explains the smell,” Mom said, covering her nose while still trying to comfort me with her free hand on my forearm. “Eden, honey? Are you okay?”
“We did something awful,” I said, unable to stop the tears. I shook my head. “It’s bad. It changes everything.”
“I feel it, too,” Bex said, stepping inside my room.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Mom said, trying to guide me to the bathroom.
“I’m okay,” I said, sucking in a staggered breath. I let my hand fall, wiping my wet cheeks. “There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t save him, or Petra, or Eve, or Cain… All because of the damn rules!” I said, raking my hair back with my fingers. “What good are my powers? What good is Heaven and Hell and everything in between with so much death and sacrifice and torture and evil?”
“Tell me,” Mom said, touching my cheek. “What happened?”
“Ramiel sacrificed himself for us. He did it to get back to Lizeth. He said it had to do with me keeping The Balance. I don’t even know what that means! What the hell am I keeping? Why is it such a mystery?”
Mom turned to Dad.
For the first time, my father didn’t have an answer, and he looked helpless.
“We’ll figure it out,” Dad said, hugging me and Mom to him.
“It shouldn’t be that way,” I said, feeling more tears come. Before I died, my human side didn’t seem like such a weakness.
“Eden,” Mom said, touching my cheeks. “You’re so young yet, and you’ve been through so much already. It’s okay to be unsure, to be frustrated. It means you care. Don’t worry, my love. It will all be okay. We’ll make it so.”
She took me into her arms, and I realized I’d just come back from the dead. She probably had to fight every maternal instinct she had not to hover.
“Are you okay?” I blurted out.
She blinked. “Am I…” She trailed off, thinking.
“I died right in front of you, and now that I’m back I’ve been wrapped up in this sword and Bex, Levi, and Ramiel. Are you? Okay?”
Her eyes glossed over, and a single tear fell from her eye. “What matters is that you’re back. You do whatever you need to do, just…” Her expression crumbled.
“You don’t have to be strong for me, Mom.”
“Just … stay. Okay? I can’t lose you again.” Her bottom lip trembled. “I can’t.”
I wrapped both of my arms around her, careful not to squeeze too tight. I didn’t have to hold back with Levi, my dad, Uncle Bex, or Aunt Claire, but Mom, Ryan, and Allison were different. Even more so now. Still, it made our embraces even sweeter.