The Gates of Paradise (25 page)

he couldn’t find him. She couldn’t see where he had gone. They had been separated in the chaos of the fight.
Jack—where are you?
But all was smoke and flame, all was anarchy and war and ruin. The wolves were all around, and the Venators were fighting with every ounce of their souls. The vampires had transformed—they were angels now—just like at the battle that had cursed them to darkness. Now they were in the final battle for redemption, struggling to return to the paradise from which they had been banished.

But where was Jack?

Where was her love?

Schuyler fought bravely and steadily, wielding her father’s blade, finding her way toward the forefront, until she found the two angels fighting against each other, the Dark against the Light, their golden swords clashing over the tablet. Then one slipped…and…

Schuyler held her sword against his heart.

Lucifer lay on the stone tablet.

Michael’s sword holding him there.

Schuyler could taste the victory of her people. This was it. Her chance to destroy him once and for all. To destroy the Dark Prince with the archangel’s sword.

“You don’t want to do that,” Lucifer said calmly.

“Believe me, there is nothing I want more,” she said.

“You can’t see behind you,” he said. “But I can. Abbadon, would you like to describe what’s happening right now?” Lucifer asked. “Tell her what’s going on.”

Jack? What’s happening?

Do what you have to do. Take your chance. Do not think about me,
Jack sent.

“Oh, how sweet,” Lucifer said. “He’s going to sacrifice himself.”

Schuyler knew. She could see it in the glom, in her mind’s eye, even without turning. Victory would be hollow.

Danel held a blade under Jack’s throat. Schuyler could kill Lucifer, but Danel would kill Jack. She would win, but lose her love.

And then she saw that it was not the first time someone had faced this choice. That once upon a time in Rome, her father had stood at the same crossroads.

could feel his arms around me. His wings surrounded me,
their softness on my skin. I could feel his breath on my cheek,
and his lips were on mine.

Gabrielle.

Then he stopped.

You were there. You had found us.

Michael.

You held your sword against his throat.

Victory at your grasp.

Kill me,
Lucifer whispered
, and you kill Gabrielle
.

The demon held me in his arms, held the sword at my belly. He
began to plunge the knife into me.

But time froze.

In that split second when the world stood still.

And you dropped the blade.

Pulled the devil’s sword away from me.

I fell to the ground.

Lucifer saw his chance and he slipped from your grasp.

I lived.

But you could have had your victory, Michael. We would have been
rid of the demon that plagued our people, the demon that brought shame
to the angels and cursed us into darkness. The demon who wanted
Heaven for himself.

You should have let me die.

See what you did?

We believed you had vanquished the Dark Prince.

That you had sent him down to Hell.

But you did not.

You saved me instead.

We thought you had rid the world of evil, but instead evil was
allowed to return to the world, allowed to fester. Allowed to return in
the form of my lover so the two of us would become further estranged.
Allowed to hunt our kind over the centuries. You knew why the Blue
Bloods were dying. You knew the Silver brethren were responsible. You
kept it from me. You let them take us. You allowed the vampires to be
taken, to be sacrificed, to hide your failure. You trained the Petruvians
to kill innocents, and so the war continued between our kind. As your
weakness grew, the Gates of Hell weakened as well. The borders
between the worlds disintegrated.

You were corrupted by your love.

By giving in to your love, you let evil flourish in our world.

And so I kept my secret. About the path that I had found. Kept the
secret of our salvation from you because I trusted you no longer. Especially
when I saw them. The young ones. Drained. Full Consumption. That’s
when I ran into the arms of my human familiar. That was when I
finally stopped loving you.

This was your father’s great failure,
Gabrielle whispered into Schuyler’s ear.
Will it be yours? Will you choose love over all?

So this was the choice, Schuyler saw. This was her destiny. This was what her mother had prepared her for.

Schuyler struggled against it. This was different. It was not the same. She had Michael’s power and his sword. The wolves at her command. The Venators armed with the power of the Holy Spirit. She could
save
her love. She could save Jack, she knew she could, just as her father had saved Gabrielle. It was different this time. She would withdraw the sword. She could not sacrifice Jack. Not after everything they had been through; not after everything they had fought for. They had fought so hard to be together and she could still have both, victory and her love. She could still win, she knew it. There would be another chance. The battle was not over. She would not kill Lucifer right then. She could not sacrifice her love. Never. She could never lose Jack. She loved him too much. She would let the devil go.

My father’s failure.

My failure.

“Schuyler!” It was Oliver. Her friend. He was covered in ashes and blood, and he, too, was holding a sword. What was he doing in the middle of this battle? Oliver was going to get killed. He was the only human. And seeing him made her remember her mother’s words:

Remember that when you arrive at the crossroads. When time
stands still. When the path is open to you. Remember who your father
was.…

Schuyler had two fathers.

Her human father.

Stephen Bendix Chase. Who had none of Michael’s glory; who was a simple human man. Whose only strength was in his ability to do the right thing. A good man. One who’d told Gabrielle to do her duty and return to Michael. Because love was not the answer to every question. Because real love meant sacrifice.

Sometimes love means letting go.

Schuyler knew what she had to do now. What she had been preparing for all her life. Every moment with Jack had always come down to this. Always. There was no escape. No happy ending for the two of them.

It was time to say good-bye.

I love you.

Always,
Jack sent.
Always and forever.
He had always been true, and she was glad that she’d never doubted him, not for a moment. Their time was up. No time for even one last look, one last kiss, one last…

In the glom, she felt his spirit reach out to her. He was so very beautiful, an angel of the Light. They were together; he was with her even as the angel Danel brought down his sword and plunged it into Abbadon’s dark heart.

Schuyler cried in anguish, but there was nothing she could do.

“JACK!” she sobbed. “JACK!”

But she had made her choice.

Jack crumpled to the ground, but he was dead before he hit the stone.

Abbadon was no more.

For the first time, Schuyler saw the fear in the eyes of the Dark Prince.

Lucifer gazed at her in wonder. “You loved him,” he rasped. “And you let him die.”

Schuyler looked at him pitilessly, and with a mighty thrust, she plunged Michael’s sword into the heart of the demon.

There was a great explosion, as the very universe trembled under the force of his death. The demons screeched, the Dark Angels screamed. Their grief was unbearable, and even Heaven itself trembled under the destruction of its greatest son. It was as if the very substance of time had been rent in two, and for a moment, everything was still and silent as the passages healed and fused into one.

Schuyler collapsed under the weight of her sword and her grief.

The Silver Bloods cowered at the death of their prince, their king. But the vampires and wolves took heart from the victory. They fought with renewed vigor, as the madness of triumph brought them strength and ferocity.

Lucifer was dead.

The Dark Prince had been vanquished.

The Light of the Morningstar extinguished.

The wolves howled their triumph.

The battle was over.

he saw Abbadon at the crossroads and tried to call to him, but he was already gone. She floated for a moment, above the battle, and then realized she could return now that his death had healed her wound. The bond between them, that had ever yoked them to each other, had been broken. Finally broken.

Abbadon was dead.

She was free.

Azrael opened her eyes.

Saw that Araquiel had tears in his, and she wiped them away.

His face was joyous and filled with sunshine, but for a moment it dimmed. “Abbadon is no more. I am sorry. I know you loved him,” he said, his voice hoarse and broken.

She nodded. “I will miss him till the end of my days. But he was right to do what he did.”

She realized that Abbadon had been playing a game. He knew Lucifer had discovered their deception and so he had crafted one of his own. Had pretended to be Abbadon of the Dark, when always he had been working for the Light.

They got up and surveyed the remnants of the scene. Many had fallen. Of the Venators, both Sam and Deming had lost their twin. Many wolves had lost their lives. There was grief and there was sorrow, but there was also hope. They had fought and won. Heaven was secure. Lucifer vanquished.

“Why do I feel so alone?” Azrael said. The bond was broken. She was empty. Her twin, her star, her brother, her enemy, her love, gone. She wept for Abbadon.

“Never,” Araquiel said. “You will never be alone again. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

here was someone helping her up, and at first she thought it was Jack. But when she opened her eyes, she saw that it was not.

Michael stood before her. The immortal angel had returned from the prison of the White Darkness, from the Hell that he had created for himself, from the darkness of his failure. Her father was white and pure. The pure light of Heaven shone from his eyes.

He smiled at her gently.

“My daughter,” he said. “I am so very proud of you.”

There was someone with him.

Gabrielle. Eternal angel. Her mother. She was so much more beautiful than she had ever been. She had returned to her full glory, to her full magnificence. So this was the Uncorrupted. Schuyler now understood what that meant.

Free of sin.

Full of joy.

Beauty and light.

There was someone with them. Schuyler’s father. Bendix Chase. He looked strangely inconsequential next to the two golden angels, but Schuyler saw his kind blue eyes and she was glad. The three of them smiled at her.

But there were so many more. Lawrence was there as well, and Cordelia; Kingsley and Mimi, Bliss and Lawson. Oliver. Dylan. Jane. So many of them looking at her, watching, waiting.

“What now?” she asked.

Then she saw that the gate had opened, that the way before them was filled with light.

“Lead us,” Gabrielle said, pointing to the path. “We will follow.”

It is said among our people that Gabrielle’s daughter will bring us
the salvation we seek.

The Redemption of the Fallen had begun.