If Celine fails today, it will be my fault, and I cannot allow that. Even if it’s the last thing I do, she must activate the portal and leave me behind.
FORTY-SEVEN
Monster Realm Survival Tip #99:
There are some monsters you never outrun.
CELINE
The pieces are right in front of me, and I’m coming apart at the seams.
Malach, used by my father and trapped by his silence. Dropped in my home as what exactly? A sleeper agent, put in place to sabotage me? Insurance to prevent me from bringing my father down?
My heart thuds painfully in my chest. It’s breaking, even though the details are fuzzy. Is this why Malach wanted me to return to the celestial realm so badly? He might have been planning to turn me in all along, leveraging years of trust to steer my decision. Trust I couldn’t erase, even though I told myself to be careful.
I wasn’t careful, and now I have to make an impossible choice: Malach or everyone else.
He stands unnaturally still beside my father, ankles unevenand bent, his face rigid withpain. My heart is adamant, but my head is unsure... because my magic detected no direct lies.
That should be the end of it, except my father is a master manipulator. I know this. I’ve lived it. And no one knows how to skirt the truth better.
Logically, it makes sense for Malach to want revenge on me, and working with my father is the perfect way to do it. He doesn’t look complicit, though. Malach’s jaw is clenched so hard that the vein in his temple is throbbing.
Head or heart: which do I choose?
In the end, it’s no choice at all.
“I don’t believe you,” I shout. “You’re the only angel here who’s corrupted their word. Malach wouldn’t?—”
“Malach would,” he snarls, “and Malach did. And you’re as much of a fool as you’ve always been if you believe he wouldn’t. There’s no radiant code of honor, Celine, only what you can make of the magic you’re given. Malach has learned that truth, yet you refuse to.”
“Then let him speak.” A gust of icy wind smacks my face. “If you’re confident he’s loyal to you and not me, then cut your leash and let him tell me himself.”
Father rolls his eyes and waves his hand.
A sickly wave of magic rolls over Malach, coating him in a dingy haze.
He stumbles and falls to his knees. When he looks up at me, his green eyes are swimming with pain but free of outside control. He clears his throat. “I did it, Celine, and I have no regrets.”
My stomach flips.
We vowed to never use our radiant words against each other. If I use my truth on Malach now, I’ll be betraying the promises I made to him all over again. They’re already strained. Can they survive another blow? Vows aside, I’m not sure I can.
“You don’t mean that,” I whisper. My fingers curl at my sides.
Alistair and Riven are holding me back, even as every instinct in my body—physical, emotional, and magical—urges me to get Malach away from my father.
Something passes over Malach’s face, but the light is fading and I can’t be sure what it is. I don’t know what’s real anymore. Any second now, I’ll wake myself up and realize everything was a bad dream.
I shudder and glance around me. I wasn’t imagining the darkness; the eclipse is coming. We’re running out of time.
“Tell me, Malach,” I beg. “Tell me he’s lying.” My voice breaks. My father smiles. I can’t bring myself to care. This isn’t about him, no matter what he thinks.
This is about Malach, the boy who tried to protect me, the teen who never abandoned me, and the man who followed me to an unknown realm even after I left him behind. He holds a piece of my heart. A piece that I gave away before I was even old enough to know what love was. I’ll never get it back, no matter what happens here.
“Please,” I whisper, my voice thick with tears. “Tell me the truth.”
Malach’s face shutters. He might as well be carved from stone. The dimple in his chin and the twinkle in his eyes are nowhere to be found. He’s a shell of his former self. A stranger to me all over again.
