CHAPTER SIXTEEN :Lilith’s Choice
The night after the battle, the forest didn’t breathe.
Not even the crickets dared to sing.
Daniel lay unconscious in her arms.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLE8OTxcmj
His body convulsed between warmth and chill, as if both Heaven and Hell were clawing at him, fighting for ownership.
But he belonged to neither.
He was hers.
Lilith carried him into the ruins — the old cathedral where she once summoned shadows.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDWjPbnVlyQ
It was ironic. A place where souls were once saved would now cradle a man becoming something else entirely.
And it was in that silence the voice came.
Feminine. Familiar.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe7tu4PCRot
Dripping with false softness.
“You were once magnificent.”
Lilith turned slowly, her wings flaring.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmNfbXeFb0B
“Gabrielle.”
Heaven’s diplomat.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrWg9DuO6NH
Her once-sister in light.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhrpy7Zy0zU
Now, a messenger of divine consequences.
Gabrielle didn’t raise a weapon.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlD67ht7soY
She raised a mirror — a relic from the Throne of Witness.
Inside it, Lilith saw what she’d become:14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQqxh396U7F
Ashen wings. Faded grace. A woman carved by love and rebellion.
“He’s unraveling,” Gabrielle said.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2jrnuStPj
“You know this. That fusion… it’s killing him. His soul was never meant to house your essence.”
Lilith’s voice cracked.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkG727iEcdo
“So what? You want me to leave him? Let you take him?”
“No.” Gabrielle offered her a vial — a clear, radiant glow inside.
“Give up what’s left of your angelic core. Give it to him. He’ll stabilize. He’ll live.”
Lilith’s breath caught.
“If I do that… I die.”
“Yes.” Gabrielle met her eyes, no malice — just pity.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpa7vgEPUwL
“But he’ll live as a man. Safe. Human. Free.”
Lilith sat beside Daniel again.
His face twitched.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhsyJ6NVBI6
His fingers clutched at the air like he was drowning in dreams.
She held the vial in her palm — her last light.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xKwabE8aa
The last proof that she was once divine.
She remembered the first time he smiled at her.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1z6hI4xzA
The way his hands trembled when they touched her face.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJp9cXUbZhg
The way he said her name like it was a prayer and a curse at once.
“I love you, Daniel.”
She lifted the vial...
…then closed her fist.
Lilith stood.
“Tell Heaven this…” she looked Gabrielle in the eye.
“I’m not saving him by losing me. I’m saving him… by helping him survive as what he’s meant to become.”
“You would risk his life for this… bond?”
“No. I’d risk everything. Because love doesn’t mean disappearing. It means fighting alongside them.”
Gabrielle vanished, her silence louder than thunder.
Daniel stirred.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8glttyBfKH
His voice a whisper.
“…Lilith?”
She lay beside him, brushing his hair back.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
And neither was the storm inside him.
Because love had made a new kind of monster.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw8IrC8HqSR
Not divine.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNF4qV3glKk
Not damned.
But devoted.
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