Night wrapped the grand sanctum in silver silence.
Moonlight spilled across endless white corridors while sacred lanterns glowed softly along the walls.
Most attendants had long since retired to their chambers, leaving the sanctum hushed and still beneath the watch of the Radiance.
Laliya sat alone in her room beside the open balcony.
A candle flickered weakly near her bed.
The night breeze stirred the thin curtains gently.
And still, she could not sleep.
Her fingers rested around a warm cup of untouched tea while her thoughts spiraled endlessly back toward the same person.
The shiny silver hair, strong golden eyes, cruel words and that strange darkness hidden beneath them.
It allured her.
Laliya exhaled quietly and lowered her gaze.
Why did it bother her so much?
She had been insulted or questioned before.
Yet Anaqielle lingered in her mind like a splinter beneath skin.
The holy maiden closed her eyes briefly.
“You hand out kindness because you’ve never had to learn how expensive it is.”
The words hurt because part of her feared they were true.
A soft sound interrupted her thoughts.
The balcony curtains shifted.
Laliya looked up instantly.
Her breath caught.
Anaqielle stood inside the room like darkness stepping into moonlight.
The fallen angel leaned casually against the balcony doors, black coat discarded somewhere, silver hair loose around her shoulders.
Moonlight traced the glowing fractures beneath her pale skin, making her look dangerously beautiful.
Laliya immediately stood.
“You…”
“Before you start,” Anaqielle interrupted lazily, “I know I shouldn’t be here,” he added to avoid a whole lecture about it from Laliya.
Laliya stared at her.
“How did you even get inside?”
Anaqielle glanced around the room.
“Your security is disappointingly easy to bypass.”
“That is not reassuring,” Laliya muttered under her breath.
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Silence stretched between them.
Laliya’s pulse had already begun quickening.
She hated how her body reacted before her thoughts could.
Anaqielle noticed immediately.
It was the fascination she’d sensed on her visit visit.
She slowly stepped further into the room.
Laliya instinctively stepped back.
“Stay back, Seren!”
“I came to apologize.”
The words shocked both of them slightly.
Anaqielle looked mildly annoyed by her own honesty.
But she needed to disarm Laliya.
Laliya blinked.
“You… what?”
“I said,” Anaqielle muttered, “I came to apologize.”
The holy maiden stared at her carefully.
“You came to apologize?” Laliya was skeptical.
Serens weren’t famous for their manners and she refused to believe that the one she met was well mannered.
“You hurt me.” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
“I know. I recognize my mistake.”
“You made a child cry.”
“He recovered quickly,” Anaqielle answered immediately feeling no remorse for shooing the boy away.
Laliya almost smiled despite herself.
Emphasis on almost because she didn’t trust a fallen that sought her out in the middle of the night to ‘apologize’.
Anaqielle noticed that too.
She moved closer again, slower this time.
Her body emitting a dangerous predatory aura.
“I shouldn’t have said those things.”
Laliya swallowed quietly.
The room suddenly felt smaller and the sound of her heartbeat echoed.
“You were angry,” she said softly.
“That’s not an excuse,” Anaqielle put on a guilt-ridden expression.
There was no humor, no teasing, just her masked self-reproachfulness.
Something inside Laliya softened slightly.
Anaqielle saw it happen and immediately decided softness was much more dangerous than anger.
“So,” the fallen angel murmured, voice lowering, “Are you going to forgive me?”
Laliya folded her arms carefully.
“That depends.”
“On?”
“Whether you’re actually sorry.”
Anaqielle smiled faintly.
“I am. I swear on my black feathers.”
“What does that mean?” Laliya asked, her mood dropping.
“You stop sounding like a saint whenever you’re annoyed,” Anaqielle let out, asking the focus away from her swear.
Laliya frowned.
“I am not trying to sound like a saint.”
“No,” Anaqielle agreed softly.
“You really are one.”
The words landed differently this time.
It was almost admiring.
Laliya’s breath caught slightly.
Anaqielle stepped closer to her.
So close that the holy maiden could feel warmth radiating from her body now, and could smell rain and smoke beneath Anaqielle’s calm body.
“You never told me your name…” she tried to change the subject.
“Me, my name?” Anaqielle’s lips curved up.
“Anaqielle Light.”
She responded and inched even closer, intentionally provoking her.
“Anaqielle!” Laliya placed her hand on her, stopping her from moving closer.
The warning sounded weaker than intended.
She ignored the way that cursed fallen name sounded at the tip of tongue.
The feeling of yearning to call it out over and over again.
The fallen angel lifted one hand slowly.
Laliya should have moved away but she didn’t as Anaqielle had her cornered.
Ice cold fingertips laced with temptation brushed lightly against her wrist.
The touch was so soft, it was barely there.
But a sharp shiver raced through her body instantly.
Laliya inhaled sharply.
Anaqielle saw it.
Her golden eyes darkened with interest.
“So responsive,” she whispered.
Laliya immediately pulled her hand back but Anaqielle caught her wrist gently before she could fully retreat.
The fallen angel’s thumb brushed slowly across the inside of her wrist where her pulse fluttered wildly beneath skin.
“Your heart betrays you very easily,” she whispered, the angelic tone to her voice confusing Laliya. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Laliya’s breathing had already become uneven.
“This is inappropriate, Anaqielle.”
“Probably.”
“You should stop,” Laliya forced a brave front that didn’t fool any of them.
“Do you want me to?”
The question froze her.
Anaqielle stepped closer again sensing her hesitation.
She was close enough now that moonlight wrapped around both of them together.
Laliya could hear her own heartbeat.
It was too loud and too fast.
The fallen angel’s voice softened near her ear.
“You spend your whole life terrified of desire. Yet, you hide so many of them that they are easily triggered.”
Warm breath brushed her skin.
Laliya trembled.
She could feel a slight crack in her Lumen.
An indication that she was losing control and balance.
Anaqielle noticed immediately.
“But desire isn’t ugly, darling,” she whispered.
“It isn’t monstrous.”
Her fingers slid slowly along Laliya’s arm.
It was gentle and lingering.
Every touch sent another wave of heat beneath the holy maiden’s skin.
“It’s beautiful,” Anaqielle said.
“Wanting someone so badly your soul aches for them.”
Laliya shut her eyes briefly.
No, she cried inwardly.
She needed to stop that, pull away and remember her balance and teachings.
The Luminars would be disappointed if she, their best fell to the temptation of a Seren but Anaqielle’s voice wrapped around her thoughts like silk and smoke.
“They teach you sin is darkness,” the fallen angel whispered near her ear.
“But they never tell you how warm it feels.”
Laliya’s breathing faltered completely.
The room felt too hot suddenly, too small and so full of Anaqielle.
Anaqielle lifted a hand slowly to her face.
This time Laliya did step back, but only enough for fingertips to brush tremblingly against her cheek instead.
The contact sent another shiver through her.
‘Radiance help me,’ she prayed.
Anaqielle watched her carefully.
Watched the conflict unfolding behind blue-grey eyes.
Those eyes held fear, curiousity, longing and cracks.
Tiny cracks that were barely noticable unless one was close.
And for the first time since beginning the mission, Anaqielle realized corruption would not be the difficult part.
The difficult part would be surviving what it was doing to her too.
Because deep down, she found her hands dirty, her heart heavier than the day she was cast out of heaven and her soul started to blacken.
She was corrupting an innocent soul for a ticket to heaven, when she had been solely responsible for losing her place in heaven, it didn’t seem fair to Laliya or feel like what an angel should do.
‘I’m a fallen now anyway.
Who cares!’ she gave up such thoughts as quickly as they flooded her mind.
‘Since I’ve already decided to return to heaven.
I’ll see the mission to the bitter end.
This is just my first attack, brace up.
Because I won’t just settle for cracks in your Lumen…
I’ll be satisfied when I paint it pitch black just like the devil’s heart!!’