Chapter 15 – June 2026

Nuriel

Esther stares down at me, her face a picture of doubt and confusion.

“You must have hit your head harder than I thought,” she said. “Because it sounded like you just said that you’re an angel. I think you probably have a concussion—I should take you to the hospital. Again.”

I shake my head slowly.

“I am not injured. And I am angel … or I was.”

Esther presses the serviette of ice against my swollen lip and I wince from the unexpected pain.

“Not injured, huh?” she says, raising an eyebrow.

I stay silent, uncertain which words to choose.

She sighs.

“Nuriel, I like you, and I think you like me…” she pauses, but I wait for her to continue.

She lowers her eyes, a blush stealing across her cheeks.

“And I think you like me, too, but you need to stop with the stories. You don’t have to impress me.” She gives a small shrug. “I like you just the way you are.”

I am smitten.

Smote.

I am wounded and healed by her.

I cannot explain what a gift her words are: to be accepted as I am, weak and human and imperfect.

For my whole eternal life, I had believed that only God could confer such a valuable and unique gift, but now I find it in the last place I had expected: High School.

The more time I spend on Earth with humans, the more I know that I knew so little. This was what our Father had wished for me to learn. He wanted me to know that humanity, humans, his most imperfect and greatest creation, has the capacity for pure and selfless love.

I bend my head, ashamed of the pride that had made me think humans were incapable of loving so purely, so freely, so artlessly.

“Nuriel, please say something,” Esther whispers. “You’re leaving me hanging here!”

I look up into her eyes.

“Esther, you are not perfect.”

I see the flash of hurt in her expression, the heat of embarrassment that courses through her body, and I rush to explain.

“I am imperfect, too. I am prideful, flawed, and have lustful thoughts,” I admit, my own cheeks heating. “I had not thought to find love here, in this desert town, in this pit of depravity that is high school, but I have. I have found love and you have given it freely and unreservedly. You have humbled me, Esther.”

Her eyes widen and then she gives an awkward laugh.

“Okay, now I definitely know that you’re concussed.”

“You are embarrassed by the truth which I speak,” I say, nodding slowly. “Because you are not prideful; you are kind and modest; you do not like to be noticed or admired for these qualities.”

“Okay, Nuriel, that’s … um … great, but you need to stop now.”

“Why?” I ask, genuinely curious.

“Just … please.”

“Very well.”

“Thank you.”

She removes the ice from my lip.

“How does that feel now?”

“Better,” I admit, pleasantly surprised. “It’s extraordinary that frozen water can have such a beneficial effect.”

She smiles.

“Yes, the simplest remedies are often the best.”

She pauses, a brief hesitation, until she moves before me, her sweet breath washing over my face, and she presses her soft lips to my cheek.

A heat such as I have never known before roars awake inside me; lust, burning and volcanic surges through me. I want this mortal woman; I want her in all the ways in which it is possible for humans to combine. I want to watch her belly swell and ripen with my seed; I want to bring forth our children into this imperfect world and fill it with the love I feel in this moment, overwhelming and irrevocable.

I lean closer, inching towards her, afraid of scaring her with the ferocity of my desires. Forrester had tried to tell me about these man-feelings; even Peggy had alluded to it. And finally, I understand the raw cravings of my fellow students, the callow impulses, the lies and self-deceit because they all wish to feel this—this burning, urgent desire for another.

I press my lips to hers, uncaring that there is pain mixed in with the pleasure. And white-hot realization: Esther and I are not friends. What I feel for her is far beyond friendship; it is fierce, it is all-consuming; it is blood and heat and love and pain and wanting.

I want to lose myself inside her. I want to be reborn.

“Nuriel, stop,” she whispers against my bruised lips. “Not here.”

She pushes me back gently, my chest heaving as if I have run a great race.

“Come home with me,” I beg.

“What about your mom?” she asks shyly.

“My mom?”

I realize that she means Anahita.

“Ah, yes. She has gone away.”

“Oh? You didn’t say anything. Has she gone to visit your dad.”

I smile bitterly at the irony of her words.

“Yes, she has gone back to Father.”

Esther smiles uncertainly.

“When will she be back?”

“I don’t know.”

Her eyebrows lift in surprise.

“She’s just … gone? And you don’t know when she’ll be back?”

“No.”

I smile reassuringly. Because until this moment, Anahita’s absence has troubled me greatly, but now I know that I am, in fact, content.

I thought Father had abandoned me but now I can see that he has given me the greatest gift of all: love.

“I love you, Esther Moran.”

She takes a deep breath.

“This is probably crazy; I mean, this is our first date, and you got a concussion halfway through it, so you probably don’t even know what you’re saying. But even if you wake up tomorrow and don’t remember any of this, I’m gonna say it anyway: I love you, too.”

The fire of lust in my loins is softened by the bliss her words bring to my poor, mortal soul.

If only all humanity knew the true power of love.

If only they could…

“Well, well, well, isn’t this sweet? You two could give me diabetes just watching you.”

I open my eyes to see Lamia taking a seat next to us, the stench of hellfire clinging to her.

“Excuse me!” Esther says loudly, her lovely eyes flashing with anger. “We were having a private moment and you’ve interrupted it.”

“Oh, don’t mind me, Snow White,” Lamia smirks. “I’m chillin’ like a villain.”

“I do mind,” Esther retorts. “You’re not welcome here.”

“Leave, Lamia!” I order.

But instead, she just leans back in her seat, her eyes glinting with delight at my fury.

“I gotta talk to you, angel,” says Lamia. “Ditch the human and meet me outside in five. We have business to discuss.”

“I have nothing to say to you, demon.”

“Maybe not, but I think you’ll be interested to hear what I have to say.”

Esther stands defiantly, taking my hand and pulling me with her.

“We’re not interested,” Esther states. “Go and annoy someone else.”

Lamia’s lip curls, flashing a hit of fang. I am uneasy, hoping that Esther has missed this demonic sign.

“Are you letting humans boss you around now,” Lamia smiles maliciously. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

“And the weapons of war have perished.”

I finish the line for her and turn to walk away.

“The war has only just started,” says Lamia, the smile falling from her face.

I want to follow Esther who is tugging on my hand impatiently.

“Just ignore her, Nuriel. She’s a total bitch but I won’t let her spoil our evening.”

Lamia turns to face her.

“I am a bitch. I’m a demon bitch spawned in Hell, but I’m not lying, not now. Nuriel needs to stay and listen to what I have to say.”

“No, he really doesn’t,” Esther insists.

I bathe in the fire of Esther’s beautiful eyes, captivated even more by the warrior spirit that infuses her, the fierce strength that shines forth.

Lamia turns back to me.

“Listen, dude,” she says, her voice serious. “You need to ask yourself why a Chrysolite warrior came down to Earth to nail your ass to the cross, so to speak. And you need to ask yourself why your pal flushed him down the toilet then got her ass out of here like it was on fire. Don’t you get it? A war is coming! An Apocalypse that will make a nuclear winter seem like a winter wonderland. It’s coming, Nuriel.”

“What are you talking about, Lamia?”

My voice cracks with frustration, but her earnest gaze meets my eyes.

“Winter is coming, Nuriel. And you and I are the only creatures on God’s green Earth that can stop it—we have to stop the Apocalypse.”