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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6jjaeAjTn6
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuFI1wNtQ7L
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVBHg8uOHPL
Dripping with false softness.
“You were once magnificent.”
Lilith turned slowly, her wings flaring.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOUVdi8TwVV
“Gabrielle.”
Heaven’s diplomat.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNVteEWbu3
Her once-sister in light.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYf4H4p5Rt9
Now, a messenger of divine consequences.
Gabrielle didn’t raise a weapon.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKBvpfEvaMD
She raised a mirror — a relic from the Throne of Witness.
Inside it, Lilith saw what she’d become:10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡneX6YwtUYa
Ashen wings. Faded grace. A woman carved by love and rebellion.
“He’s unraveling,” Gabrielle said.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡin3v7IWdWa
“You know this. That fusion… it’s killing him. His soul was never meant to house your essence.”
Lilith’s voice cracked.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNokjw4AlW
“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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNiczxmk7r9
“But he’ll live as a man. Safe. Human. Free.”
Lilith sat beside Daniel again.
His face twitched.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGbERV2fOO7
His fingers clutched at the air like he was drowning in dreams.
She held the vial in her palm — her last light.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDiErDNsZvC
The last proof that she was once divine.
She remembered the first time he smiled at her.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQhSqw92MMl
The way his hands trembled when they touched her face.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUPZQuFtJ3o
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡllESeO3yQg
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.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmJB3azK1a3
Not divine.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6D18hXZSts
Not damned.
But devoted.
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