Shadows and Light
Lucien
The air shattered around us as the Collared Angels surged forward, a tide of pale-robed figures moving as one. Their weapons—blades forged of holy steels and chains that dripped with a hidden darkness deeper than a shadow—gleamed beneath the cracked red sky.
But Azrael did not move.
Nor did the three figures nearest him—their hoods were drawn low, their bodies were coiled tight like a storm that was on the edge of breaking. They stood apart, at the very back of a field of ruin, watching. Their silence was louder than the war cry of the horde in front of me.
I felt it then—the trap behind the trap. This wasn’t the true blow. They were the sword still sheathed, waiting for the right moment to cut deepest.
The first wave struck.
Power that I had caged for the p
