“Anaqielle, please.”
Laliya’s voice had long since lost its composure.
She was reduced to pleading for mercy from Anaqielle.
The fallen angel remained crouched beside the glowing pool, fingers still drifting lazily through the water while silver currents danced beneath the surface.
Every movement sent another wave of warmth gliding against Laliya’s body, making her breathing uneven all over again.
“Please what?” Anaqielle asked in a soft whisper.
“You know what,” she didn’t want to say it out loud.
“I will enjoy hearing you say it.”
Laliya stared at her helplessly.
Her cheeks burned.
Her pulse refused to steady.
Radiance preserve her, even her Lumen felt unstable beneath her skin.
The sacred water was supposed to calm spiritual imbalance.
Instead, the entire chamber felt corrupted by Anaqielle’s presence.
By her voice, the way she looked at her and the unholy scent coming off of her body.
Laliya gripped the edge of the pool tighter.
“You need to leave, Anaqielle.”
“No.”
“Anaqielle.”
The fallen angel smiled lazily.
“You keep saying my name. Careful it might echo like a prayer,” she warned.
“Heavens help your soul when that happens.”
“That is not what I’m doing.”
“Mm.” Her golden eyes flickered over Laliya’s flushed face.
“It certainly sounds devoted.”
Laliya made a frustrated sound and sank deeper into the water again.
The movement drew Anaqielle’s attention instantly.
The fallen angel’s gaze darkened with interest as ripples slid across the holy maiden’s shoulders and collarbones.
Damp fabric clung more tightly beneath the surface now, outlining enough to make Anaqielle visibly amused.
She was memontarily taken back to heaven, to the sin that got her kicked out from the promised paradise.
Quickly before the thought settled, she blinked and cleared her visage.
Focusing all her energy on Laliya.
Laliya noticed her amusement immediately and wanted to disappear into the floor.
“Im starting to understand why heaven didn’t want you.”
“You haven’t thrown me out. I take that as an invitation to stay.”
“I have asked you repeatedly to leave!”
“True,” Anaqielle nodded, “True.”
“You are terrifying!”
Anaqielle tilted her head thoughtfully.
“That might be true,” she muttered, “because you haven’t stopped looking at me since I arrived.”
Laliya froze because that was the problem.
She had kept her eyes locked on Anaqielle, constantly.
At that point, it wasn’t a secret that she was fascinated by Anaqielle.
Who could resist such a beautiful temptation?
At the end of the day, she was human too and her heart worked the same as others and Anaqielle knew it.
The fallen angel’s smirk widened slowly.
“The sooner you accept what you feel the sooner we can both be free, La.Li.Ya,” she called out her name in somewhat slow motion that tickled Laliya’s heart. This chapter was copied from NovelPing without permission.
Laliya immediately looked away.
No one has ever called out her name like that, with raw desire to ruin her and tempt her off the righteous path.
“I need to get out of the water.”
“Then get out,” Anaqielle encouraged.
“I cannot while you’re staring!”
Anaqielle looked entirely unashamed.
“I like staring.”
Laliya covered her face with both hands.
Her blue-grey eyes could no longer stand to glance at the shamelessness of the corrupted beauty in front of her.
After several more moments of pleading, glaring, and deeply ineffective threats involving wardens and luminars that both of them knew would never arrive in time, Anaqielle finally sighed dramatically.
“Fine.”
Laliya blinked cautiously.
“Fine?”
“I’ll turn around.”
Suspicion immediately crossed her face.
“You’re lying, aren’t you?”
Anaqielle clasped her hand over her chest and pretended to be hurt.
“I’m offended, holy one.”
“You’re a fallen Seren. Can you blame me for doubting your sincerity?”
“Fair point.”
Anaqielle stood slowly from the poolside.
The movement alone made Laliya’s pulse stumble.
The seren looked too graceful and elegant and fully aware of her own body with how she customed the clothes she wore.
The fallen angel finally turned her back toward the pool with exaggerated patience.
“There,” she said.
“Satisfied?”
Laliya eyed her suspiciously for several seconds before carefully rising from the water.
Warm water streamed down her body and soaked the thin white bathing dress clinging to her skin beneath.
The fabric became nearly translucent now, sticking embarrassingly close to her body.
Laliya moved quickly toward the folded robes resting nearby.
Then she noticed something strange.
The room had gone quieter.
It wasn’t physically quiet, it just felt heavier like something had changed.
The air itself felt different somehow.
A subtle pulse of fallen power drifted through the chamber.
Laliya slowly lifted her head and froze.
Anaqielle had changed her clothes.
One moment she had been dressed in elegant black and the next, fallen magic reshaped the fabric around her body like smoke and shadow.
The dark clothing dissolved into crimson and black.
A red off-shoulder crop top now clung loosely around her shoulders, exposing pale skin and sharp collarbones that practically glowed beneath light.
The fabric dipped just enough to make Laliya’s heartbeat stutter painfully.
Below that, a black skirt far too short to belong anywhere near a sanctum.
It barely covered the tops of her thighs and left much for Laliya’s eyes to feast on.
Knee-high red socks wrapped around long legs that suddenly looked devastatingly distracting beneath the silver candlelight.
The entire outfit looked sinful.
It wasn’t vulgar, worse, it was dangerously tempting like Anaqielle had reached directly into every hidden forbidden thought Laliya had never allowed herself to have and turned it into reality.
The holy maiden forgot how to breathe completely.
Anaqielle still had her back turned which somehow made it worse because that meant that Laliya could stare safely and Radiance help her…
Water dripped quietly from her soaked dress onto the marble floor while her gaze remained locked helplessly on exposed skin.
Pale shoulders, the elegant curve of Anaqielle’s neck, her bare thighs.
The small stretch of waist visible between crimson fabric and dark skirt.
Laliya’s mind suddenly betrayed her in horrifying ways.
Thoughts she had never experienced before rushed through her head all at once.
What would that skin feel like beneath her hands?
Would Anaqielle’s waist fit perfectly beneath her palms?
Would her skin feel warm or cold since her skin was always pale?
Would she taste like moon wine if…
Laliya nearly choked on air.
“No no no!” She inwardly cried.
Her entire face burned violently.
The lingering electric currents from the water still hummed faintly across her body, leaving every sensation heightened and unbearably sensitive.
Combined with Anaqielle’s teasing voice, her closeness, and now that display, she was on the brink of collapse.
Laliya felt like her thoughts themselves were becoming corrupted.
They were becoming sinful, hungry and worst part was that part of her didn’t want the feeling to stop.
Anaqielle suddenly spoke without turning around.
“Interesting how you made me turn around so you could change but you aren’t doing that.”
Laliya’s stomach dropped.
Slowly, the fallen angel tilted her head slightly.
A knowing smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
“You got very quiet.”
Laliya immediately looked away.
It was too late because Anaqielle had already felt the intense stare and feelings behind her gaze.
She felt shift in the room.
The heat burning up inside Laliya and the holy maiden’s unstable breathing.
A low laugh escaped her softly.
She laughed in pure amusement at Laliya’s desperate attempt to hide her feelings.
Then, finally, Anaqielle turned around.
Her golden eyes landed on Laliya.
The holy maiden stood frozen beside the pool in her soaked white dress, dark brown hair damp against flushed skin while guilt and desire battled openly across her expression.
Anaqielle took one slow look at her then smiled.
Her smile was acknowledging everything that Laliya refused to admit and the realization hit Laliya like fire burning her skin.
Anaqielle stepped closer.
She took only one step but it was still enough to make Laliya’s pulse spiral completely out of control.
“You should see yourself right now. You’d understand the truth behind what I wrote in my letter,” the fallen angel whispered.
Laliya swallowed shakily.
“Anaqielle…” her voice sounded breathless, weak.
Anaqielle noticed that too and it thrilled her.
It meant her mission was going smoothly and doors to home will open up for her again.
The fallen angel’s gaze drifted lower briefly before returning to her face again.
“You know,” she said, “I think this is the first truly sinful thought you’ve ever had in your life.”
Laliya’s breathing faltered instantly because Anaqielle was right.
That terrified her almost as much as how badly she wanted another sinful thought.
“With such hesitation, holy one. Will you ever see heaven?”