Elara's POV
"Hello, Elara," Lyanna says, descending the cellar stairs with holy fire dancing around her fingertips. "I believe you have something that belongs to Heaven."
My twin sister looks exactly like me—same face, same dark hair, same brown eyes—except she's everything I'm not anymore. Perfect white robes. Glowing wings folded elegantly against her back. The confident smile of someone who's never fallen from grace.
I step in front of Azrael, my arms spread wide despite knowing it's useless. "Lyanna, please—"
"Move aside." Her voice is cold. "That's Azrael Nightsbane. He's a traitor and a murderer. The Council wants him alive for questioning."
"He's innocent! They framed him!"
"That's not for you to decide." Lyanna's eyes flick to Azrael, then back to me. "You're harboring a fugitive, Elara. Do you have any idea what the Council will do to you when they find out?"
"You mean when you tell them." The betrayal burns like acid in my throat. "You're the one who reported us, aren't you? Your own sister."
Something flickers across her face—guilt, maybe, or shame—but it's gone so fast I might have imagined it. "I'm trying to save you. If you turn him over now, I can convince the Council to show mercy."
"Like they showed me mercy twenty years ago?" I laugh bitterly. "When they ripped my wings off and threw me out of Heaven for saving your life?"
Lyanna flinches. "That was different—"
"How? How was it different?" My voice breaks. "I used forbidden magic to heal you because you were dying from a curse no divine magic could touch. I sacrificed everything for you. And you're repaying me by handing me over to the same people who destroyed me?"
"I didn't ask you to save me!" Lyanna shouts, and there it is—the resentment I've always suspected was hiding beneath her perfect smile. "I never asked you to break Heaven's laws for me! You made that choice, Elara. You have to live with the consequences."
The words hit me like a physical blow. All these years, I thought Lyanna felt guilty about what happened. I thought she carried the weight of my sacrifice the way I carried the weight of losing everything.
But she doesn't. She resents me for it.
"Lyanna," Azrael says quietly from behind me. "I know Raphael sent you. I know he promised you something in exchange for delivering us. But whatever he promised, he's lying. He lies to everyone. It's what he does."
Lyanna's jaw tightens. "You don't know anything about—"
"He cursed me right before I fell," Azrael continues. "Touched my chest and said I'd rot from the inside out. Ask yourself: why would a righteous Archangel use dark magic to curse someone they claim broke Heaven's laws? Shouldn't they just execute me cleanly?"
Doubt flashes across Lyanna's face, there and gone. "He was... ensuring you couldn't escape."
"Or he was ensuring I'd die slowly so no one could question me about what I discovered." Azrael's voice is steady, calm. "About how the Council has been framing innocent angels for years. About the power they're stealing from fallen angels' corrupted essence. About the coup Raphael is planning."
"That's insane—"
"Is it?" Azrael takes a painful step forward. "Your sister risked everything to save you from a mysterious curse that no divine magic could heal. Doesn't that seem strange? What kind of curse resists Heaven's most powerful healers?"
Lyanna goes very still. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying someone in Heaven cursed you deliberately. Someone who knew Elara would break the rules to save her twin. Someone who wanted an excuse to cast down one of Heaven's most powerful healers so they could later harvest her corrupted essence."
The color drains from Lyanna's face. "No. No, that's not... Raphael wouldn't..."
But I can see she's realizing the truth. The same truth that's crashing over me like a wave of ice water.
Raphael cursed Lyanna knowing I'd save her. He wanted me to fall. He's been planning this for decades.
"Oh gods," I whisper. "He's been collecting us. All the fallen angels he's had executed over the years—he's been taking their corrupted essence."
"To make himself powerful enough to overthrow the other Archangels," Azrael finishes. "I found the evidence. That's why he had to get rid of me."
Lyanna's hands are shaking, the holy fire flickering and dying. For the first time since she arrived, she looks uncertain. Vulnerable. Like the sister I used to know before Heaven twisted her into something cold and ambitious.
"I didn't know," she says softly. "I swear, Elara, I didn't know. He told me he'd give me a seat on the Council if I brought you both back. He said it was mercy, that he'd protect you from the other Archangels who wanted you dead. I thought I was helping."
"You thought you were getting a promotion," I correct quietly. "There's a difference."
She looks at me with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. For everything. For not thanking you properly for saving my life. For resenting you. For this."
"Then help us now," I say. "Let us go. Tell Raphael you couldn't find us."
Lyanna opens her mouth to respond—
And the cellar explodes with blinding white light.
Five more angels materialize around us, led by Commander Uriel. His sword is already drawn, pointing directly at Azrael's heart.
"Nobody move," Uriel commands. His cold gaze sweeps over the scene—me standing protectively in front of Azrael, Lyanna frozen on the stairs, the obvious confrontation we were having. "Lyanna, step away from the traitors."
"Commander, wait—" Lyanna starts.
"That's an order."
The life-binding spell I cast pulses between me and Azrael. I can feel his heartbeat like it's my own, his pain, his determination. If they kill him, I die too. If they kill me, he dies.
We're literally in this together now.
Uriel's eyes narrow as he studies us. "What have you done, healer?"
"Bound our lives," I say, lifting my chin. "If you kill him, you kill me. If you kill me, you kill him. We're a package deal now."
"Then we'll take you both back to Heaven for judgment."
"No." Azrael's hand finds mine, his fingers interlacing with my own. "We run."
"There's nowhere to—"
Azrael slams his free hand against the ground, and shadows explode outward in a wave of pure darkness. It's not divine magic—it's something else, something wrong and powerful and distinctly demonic.
The angels cry out, temporarily blinded.
"What are you?" Uriel demands.
Azrael's eyes meet mine, and I see the truth there. The secret he's been hiding.
"Something Heaven should have killed a long time ago," he says.
Then he pulls me against his chest, his shredded wings wrapping around us both, and we fall through the floor into a portal of absolute darkness.
The last thing I see is Lyanna's horrified face as we disappear.
And the last thing I hear is Uriel shouting: "He's half-demon! The Seraph is half-demon!"