Ethereal Darkness

Chapter 1

Where Silence Breathes

Madeline

Heaven had its wonders. The gleaming towers of light that seemed to reach as far as the eye can see and the lush meadows of flowers that many said resembled Eden, but none of Heaven's wonders called to me like this tiny, hidden cove.

Here, tucked back in the far corner of Heaven’s reaches. Where the light danced over the mist-kissed rocks and glittered like the stars of the universe. Where the silence breathed like a prayer. This is where I felt the most at peace. And peace was hard to come by in Heaven recently.

I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that there was something much more to the little cove than meets the eye. Like there were many secrets that were hidden beneath the surface of the water, and all I had to do was reach in and pull them out.

It was as if those secrets were calling to me.

Begging to be set free.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, letting the crisp air fill my lungs as it came across the water. I tucked the edge of my robes around me and leaned my chin against my knees, and just watched the world around me: a small butterfly fluttered by, its luminescent gold wings beating against the breeze.

Something else floated along, then right behind the little insect, and softly landed right next to me.

I smiled to myself as I reached out and picked up the long black feather. A soft warmth snaked its way up through my hand and into my chest, a gold thread wrapping around my heart like a call of longing. It felt familiar, like a name on the tip of my tongue that I used to call. Like something I had forgotten.

I placed the feather inside my sketchbook, marking today's drawing in the process. It wasn’t exactly common for an Angel to have a hobby. Angels were not designed to have such human-like behavior. But for some reason, I had taken to sketching instantly. And it was always the same thing.

Eyes

A pair of deep-set ones framed in thick lashes that would make most human women envious.

I tilted my head to examine the drawing. I’ve drawn this exact set every day I've come here, but it never feels right.

Something was always off about them—they were either too narrow, too distant, or too cold, and it never ended. They always seemed to be missing something, and it was starting to drive me insane. But despite my frustrations, I couldn’t seem to draw anything else.

I flipped back through the older pages, looking for anything that might give me a clue, a pattern. Most were just variations of the same eyes. But there was one sketch further toward the back of my book that caught my attention again.

It was not anything significant. Just a tree. A gnarled and old tree, with thick roots that curled like claws around a hillside. Children’s footprints circled the base, and what looked like a set of carved initials faded in the bark. I didn’t remember drawing it.

It felt real.

Like I’d been there.

I suppressed a shiver and shook off the strange sensation, and flipped back to my current drawing. I sighed, tracing the edge of the feather as it met today's sketch. That longing that always accompanied the two grew stronger as I stared at both the drawing and the feather. It was as if they were two puzzle pieces trying to click into place.

They were connected somehow.

“All Alpha Garrison Members, please report to the Commander’s office.” The general broadcast through the pathways blared inside my head.

I didn't want to leave the cove. I wanted to ignore the order and walk out into the center to see if I could find the secrets the shimmering water kept hidden below the surface. To see if I could finally make sense of this world that I supposedly belong to, that I had been made and destined for.

I sighed again as I closed my sketchbook and placed it inside my robes for safekeeping. It was never a good thing when we were all summoned. It almost always meant that someone or something had gone catastrophically wrong and we were all bound to get our asses handed to us for it.

I took one final lingering look at the hidden cove that had become my sanctuary before heading back to my rooms to change. The last thing I wanted to do right now was to get reprimanded for my robes being anything less than pristine. That would just be one more black mark against my name and another reason for the rest of the Angels to shun me for not ‘being a proper Angel’.

I followed the dirt path back to the outer edge of the central courtyard. I stepped through the short bushes and back into a world that I just didn't seem to feel a part of. I made my way through the courtyard to the Sanctum Hall. I passed a couple of groups of Angels, all standing in small groups a short distance away, just under one of the massive silver trees. I met one of their gazes, and I swear it looked as if her face distorted briefly before settling into a scowl.

“What's wrong with her?” One of the female’s companions whispered in her ear. He was trying to be discreet, I think, but he failed miserably at it. The sound echoed across the entire courtyard. The female Angel's face shifted again as she shook her head in disgust. Her eyes bulged slightly, her face stretching in a way that wasn’t entirely right, before it snapped back into a snarl that sent a chill down my spine.

“Who cares. She is just a nobody.” The female all but snarled in my direction.

I wanted to say something, anything at all. The words were on the tip of my tongue, but now isn't the time to smart off to another Angel. Especially one that was older and higher ranking than I was. So I clenched my teeth and hastened my pace to the Hall. Once inside, I climbed the winding white staircase to the second floor. I hurried down the hall in the direction of my room, saying a silent prayer that I wouldn't run into any other Angels along the way.

Thankfully, I made it unfettered, and I flung the door wide and stepped inside.

I quickly stripped out of my dirtied robes and donned a fresh set. I ran a brush through my hair with more force than was necessary before pulling it back away from my face and into a high ponytail.

“There,” I said to my reflection as I made sure that there was not a hair out of place. “That should be sufficient enough not to get harassed about my appearance at least for today anyway.” The corner of my mouth pulls upward in a slight grin.

“You’re late,” A familiar male voice entered my mind through the pathways.

I rolled my eyes; my tardiness might be the reason today instead of my appearance. “Coming,” I replied as I hurried out of my room and out of the Sanctum Hall to the Atrium of Light.

Just off in the distance, the Atrium of Light shimmered like divinity itself at the heart of Heaven’s realm. Even from here, I could make out the massive building that towered over every other structure within the realm. Its columns were made of pure, radiant gold light that stretched toward the sky, woven through with a celestial energy that pulsed with power. The atrium's straight lines and crisp corners were carved from Aurorite, a pearl-white stone that could only be found in Heaven and is said to be the embodiment of dawn’s glow, hence the reason it had been chosen to build the Atrium of Light.

It looked like perfection. But I knew better.

This was the bureaucracy side of Heaven—the side that the humans never saw. Never even knew it existed.

The Angels that frequented this building were divided into two groups, Guardians and Watchers.

A Guardian Angel’s job was to do just that, guard the souls as they passed through the realms, from Earth to Heaven. Once a human soul arrives safely in Heaven, it is then transferred through the celestial pathways to the other side of Heaven. The side that would appear the most ‘Heavenly’ to the humans.

Watchers do just as their name suggests. They watch. They watch everything that unfolds on Earth, making notes to pass on to the higher Archangels or to record important information in the archives during significant events. But those angels are forbidden from stepping in, no matter how dire the situation may seem.

That was the type of Angel I was, A watcher.

As soon as I stepped foot into the Halls of the central Atrium, I knew something was seriously wrong. Everyone was running around like the gates of Heaven had fallen and the Demons from Hell were on their way here to devour us all. I stood there transfixed as several groups of hooded Angels rushed past me, the voices shushed in whispered tones to keep from revealing too much before they were supposed to.

At the farthest end of the Atrium, beyond the flowing pillars and luminous pools, lies the Commanders’ Sanctum, an elevated space that is carved out of pure celestial crystal. The walls shimmer with divine inscriptions, shifting constantly as orders and wisdom are imparted by Heaven’s Archangels.

“Madeline, hurry up, we are waiting on you,” a voice called from the doorway before she returned to the Sanctum without waiting for me. She seemed more on edge today than usual. I shook my head but kept the thought of asking what stick was stuck up her ass today to myself and I reluctantly picked up my pace.

As I entered the room, three pairs of eyes landed on me, each one filled with something that I was not used to seeing from them in any kind of situation.

Panic.

That was the look in their eyes as they stared at me for a heartbeat longer before returning to the looking glass that sat in the center of the table. My brows pinched together as I quickly tucked myself into my place around the table and watched the horrific scene unfold.

The surface rippled once, then cleared—and the world on the other side screamed.

Cities lay in ruins, their building in the skylines were snapped into pieces like bones. Roads split wide open like wounds. And in the middle of it all, a crater smoldered, smoke and ash still rising from the center. Bodies—some human, some that were not—they were scattered along the rim like broken feathers.

This was bad, real bad. No one needed to voice what we were all thinking as we watched the c*****e continue to unfold through the crystal looking glass. We all knew what this meant—the apocalypse had begun.

It was the only explanation for the c*****e, chaos, and death that was happening right before our very eyes, and was completely unstoppable.

Death was everywhere, wreaking havoc like I had never before, and we were powerless to stop it from here. We could only stand by and watch as the world slowly began to crumble. As villages were ransacked and destroyed. Cities that had stood for hundreds of years were completely wiped out within seconds. Militias of humans banding together to survive only caused more turmoil in the process.

“How long ago did this start?” Matthew asked as he crossed his arms over his chest while never taking his eyes off the looking glass.

“Started this morning, but it has escalated rather quickly in a few short hours,” Jameison replied as he ran his hand along his jaw, scratching at the short scruff in the process.

“What do we do?” Remi asked, her face stricken with horror as another bomb decimated a small village in the middle of nowhere. As the dust cleared, it was easy to see that every living being that had once inhabited that area was now gone.

The air in the room shifted as the door opened, grabbing all of our attention. “We can't do anything. You know the rules,” our garrison commander, Azrael, grumbled as he entered the room, clearly annoyed that any of us would say something so stupid. “We are only to observe and report.” The room quickly became more suffocating with his presence, as if he had sucked all the oxygen out the moment he walked through the door.

Report to whom, exactly? It’s not like he’s here anymore. I snorted to myself at the thought and quickly had to school my expression because they were all looking at me now. Azrael’s glare bored into the very essence of my being.

That's what we are expected to do, nothing. It is the one concept that has been drilled into me, into all of us, since we were placed in Alpha Garrison. Just sit here on our hands and pretend that we weren’t seeing any of this. That everything was just fine and that the humans were not being murdered in droves.

But that was the rule—ancient, immovable, and suffocating. And wrong.

Garrison Alpha was a small group of angels who were supposed to be the Savior’s most trusted and loyal. Well, most of us were. I tended to rebel at orders that didn't sit right with me. That appeared wrong and unjust. I'm sure that if the Savior had been here over the last year since my installation in the Garrison, he might have thought twice before adding me and then vanishing without a trace from Heaven.

It had not taken long for Azrael to tire of me in that time. Sometimes he came pre-annoyed with me on most days.

“Should someone, I don't know, maybe, go tell him what is going on?” I said without thinking. That was not the right thing to say right now, especially with the Commander standing right next to me. His ire was instantaneous and rolling off of him in tidal waves.

The looking glass slowly cleared, the images of death and destruction fading away. The darkness of the room slowly lifted, replaced by the bright gold lights above, chasing away the darkness.

I kept my eyes facing forward; I did not need to turn and look at the irate Angel beside me to know that I had royally messed up, once again, by opening my mouth. I could feel his narrowed gaze on me, and I instinctively lowered my eyes to the floor and examined the piece of lint that had become stuck to the soft fabric of my slippers.

Azrael was the oldest of all the Angels in Heaven. He was the one who had been by the Savior’s side from the very start of all of this. None of us actually knew his exact age; he was just always there. A fixture of a being that was crafted thousands of years before any of the rest of us had been.

“And how would you do that?" Azrael asked, his voice dropping low into a growl of sorts. “No, he left us with our orders and we will follow them, no matter what,” he said as he turned on his heels quickly before walking out of the room like he had somewhere more important to be right now.

Maybe he did, but as soon as the door closed behind him, I took a deep breath and I listened to the sound of his footsteps echo as he stormed his way through the Atrium of Light.

The Savior had suddenly left Heaven several months ago, and no one has heard or seen him since. In his absence, Azrael's words had become law. For the most part, anyway. Okay, maybe they were supposed to be for all Heaven’s Angels—but I pushed back. And because of that, I tended to find myself in trouble more often than not.

I tried, I really did try to be like everyone else. To do as I was told. To never question the orders that were given to me, but something inside me refused to comply. It refused to sit idly by and do nothing.

With Azrael no longer glaring at me, I was able to lift my gaze only to find that my three Garrison comrades were all staring at me.

“What?” I asked as I tried to shrug off the unease that their gazes boring into me caused.

They all shared a brief glance, as if whatever they were trying to convey to one another could be done so solely through their gazes. When they turned back to face me, their eyes all held the same expressions: concern and fear.

Their faces briefly shifted, just as the females had in the courtyard, but instead of the typical snarls and looks of disdain that accompanied these three, fear was the only expression on their faces.

“Madeline, you are the only one of us who can do something here,” Remi whispered. Her eyes darted frantically to the now closed door behind me like she fully expected the Commander to come barreling back through it and throttle her. If he heard her, he definitely would.

I stared at them, completely dumbfounded as to what they were saying. “How so?” I asked, my shock evident in my voice even to my ears.

My shock doubled as both Matthew and Jamieson nodded in agreement. Was I dreaming? These three have never stood by my side in anything. Most of the time, they would run and rat me out the first chance they got, but now, they think I can do something. About this? Were they completely mad?

What's changed now?

“You all are kidding me, right?” I asked, and they just looked at one another once again like they knew something that I didn’t and were deliberately keeping me in the dark. I lost it. “ What do you expect me to do? Go find him myself?”

The expressions on their faces said all I needed to know: ‘Yes’. That was precisely what they thought.

I shook my head and took a step back away from the table, putting a small amount of distance between them and me. “This is madness! You all can't be serious. There are more capable Angels in Heaven for something like this. Plus, I have never seen him like the rest of you."

I was rambling now, I knew I was. Latching on to anything that would slap a bit of reason into my three fellow watchers.

Matthew stepped forward, his golden hair reflecting in the lights above like rays of sunshine. He placed his hand on my shoulder with a solemn look on his face, “She is right, Madeline. Azrael would not think twice about you being MIA for a couple of days.” The smile that played at the corner of Matthew's lips annoyed me because I was not sure what to make of it.

These were the same Angels that had shunned me for the last year for no apparent reason. Making me feel like an outsider, and now they want my help? Now they want me to disobey?

“Why now? Why this? You all have never bothered to stand behind me since I joined the garrison, so why now?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest, my robes bunching beneath my arms.

“Because you're the only one who has been brave enough to stand up for yourself. For what you believe is right. Something is happening that no one else can stop but Him. And you're the only one brave enough to break the rules to do what's right, Madeline.” Jamieson added, his tone calm and reserved.

“Something is changing,” Remi added, her voice still barely above a whisper. Not just out there but in here as well. We all can feel it.”

My gaze found the now clear looking glass, and the images that it had shown all of us flashed through my mind's eyes once more. They were right about one thing: the balance was off, it was shifting dangerously from light to dark. And if no one acted soon, it would be too late to stop whatever came next.

For everyone.

Including Heaven.

For if the world continued into utter chaos and destruction, Heaven was also bound to fall.

What would happen to all the souls and Angels in Heaven if it were to crumble?

It would only be for a few days. Right? What's the worst thing that could happen?