For whatever reason, my words to my spirit did the trick. I could feel him rising to the surface.
There was a brief flash of pain like all my bones were snapping and cracking and stretching. My true form was larger, more formidable. I was nothing but sinewy muscle and sleek black wings.
I’m not really sure why Father had ever created me, but as vain as it made me sound, he’d made me a beautiful machine of speed and cunning with a sprinkle of sarcasm and a level of curiosity that bordered on madness.
I stretched out my onyx wings. Like my cock, they were larger than most celestials. And unique in color. No other had wings of my color. They were beautiful, my pride and joy.
The eyes on my inner forearm were the same color as my original two, amber, with three on each arm. All celestials had them. They allowed us to see things humans couldn’t.
Looking into them was strange since I didn’t have control over them like the ones in my head. Like my wings, they belonged to my beast. Staring into their depths was like looking right into the deepest part of my soul.
And for that very reason, I didn’t like looking into them.
No, my favorite celestial ability was the nifty skill of reading minds. It didn’t work on celestials, of course, but I could glean Eve’s every thought.
And that’s how I knew she was terrified of me. She was trying to hold a brave face, but her eyes were red and glossy as if she was trying to hold back tears, and her mind was a frantic tangle of mostly intangible thoughts. It was like a rabbit’s or a doe’s mind when they ran away in fear. The only thing filling her pretty little head at this moment was the survival instinct telling her to get away from me. To run away. To save herself.
I could hear her heart slamming frantically inside her chest. Her whole body shook as she looked up at me. Like I was some terrifying god of the Underworld.
Why was she looking at me like that? Why was she so terrified? I had expected her to be a little frightened, but this... She was cowering, utterly terrified to the point where she was rooted at the spot.
“Told you. She can’t handle the sight of me. This isn’t our true mate.”
I stretched out my hand to touch her, but she flinched away like I was about to strike her. “Eve—”
There was no time to comfort my ward because another voice rang out across the clearing where we stood.
“Lucifer.”
I slowly turned to see my brother. My twin. He carried my face. But his wings were brown and speckled. His eyes were narrowed into unkind slivers. Judgment and hatred radiated off Michael like poisonous gas. He always detested me, but as his gaze slid over my naked, cowering ward kneeling before me with my sacred body on display, his aura grew all the more potent. “Father demands your presence in the Hall of Trials.”
15
The Silver City – Past
The Silver City was the capital of Paradise. A paradise above paradise. At least, that’s how Father liked to advertise it. When he created humans, he didn’t make them like he’d made celestial shifters. He made them soft and fragile. They wouldn’t live forever. But he had declared, with the making of Adam and Eve and the rest of their kind, that for those who lived good, piteous lives, he would reward the souls inside their bodies entry to the Silver City.
That was all fine and well, but for me personally, I thought the place to be kind of boring. With one exception. The Hall of Trials. It was essentially where celestials who had broken any sort of rule had to go before Father and answer for their crimes. It was basically the place where rule-breakers would be put on trial and reap the consequences of their actions. I had served on the jury a handful of times before.
Celestials went on trial for all sorts of things. Cherubs not praising generously enough, or if a Valkyrie failed to polish her armor before going to war. Stupid little things. The punishments were small. Things like standing watch at the pearly gates for a year with no break. Or tending something mundane on Father’s behalf like tending Eden’s livestock or organizing the celestial scriptures in the Great Archive. Once I witnessed a trial for a principality class celestial who had slipped it to another celestial who wasn’t his wife. Father had his testicles removed so that he could not further his line for fear that his love of adultery would taint the bloodline.
I’d gone on trial myself for little things. Once, when I was a child, I’d swapped the head of the Holy Fertility’s statue with the head of a statue of Father, making it appear as though the Almighty himself had breasts.
Ah, the memory alone summoned a grin.
It’s not like I liked His punishments. But the Hall of Trials was special, mostly because it was the only place I ever seemed to get any time with my father. If I wasn’t breaking the rules, He barely bothered with so much as a hello.
As Michael and I stepped up to the grand gates of the Hall of Trials, the two lower-level celestials standing guard bowed low. “Your Highnesses. The Almighty awaits you inside.”
As they began to haul open the heavy doors, light from inside sliced between Michael and me. I turned to face him, matching his smug smirk with one of my own. “You just love seeing me in trouble, don’t you, Brother?”
His grin stretched wide, oozing with a sickening satisfaction that made my beast prickle with unease. “I love seeing you pay for your wickedness. Too long have you seeped yourself in sin, using your station to protect you against Father’s wrath. It’s not fair that you should—”
“Oh, it’s not fair, is it?” I sneered. “That’s what this is all about. You’ve always been jealous that I’m Father’s favorite. It enrages you that I have more fun than you. That I don’t let my fear of Father squash my curiosity or need for something other than this boring place. And despite all that, he still likes me more. Well, I’m very sorry for your misfortune, but none of that is my fault. How about you turn your anger to Him? He’s the one who plays favorites.”
Even to this day, it was odd seeing my own face regard me with such loathing.
My own twin despised me. And I’m not really sure what I’d even done to him to deserve it.
