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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyisH8cn57w
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrN9jExcIkI
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtUi6cEUxPW
Dripping with false softness.
“You were once magnificent.”
Lilith turned slowly, her wings flaring.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXxGFMeKjl
“Gabrielle.”
Heaven’s diplomat.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZeWuMOI3m3
Her once-sister in light.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxyinbLUxya
Now, a messenger of divine consequences.
Gabrielle didn’t raise a weapon.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9PcZi4QkzR
She raised a mirror — a relic from the Throne of Witness.
Inside it, Lilith saw what she’d become:8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeWnGDsFR6J
Ashen wings. Faded grace. A woman carved by love and rebellion.
“He’s unraveling,” Gabrielle said.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Um90TbiW3
“You know this. That fusion… it’s killing him. His soul was never meant to house your essence.”
Lilith’s voice cracked.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKH5o754wQ
“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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7KPHPY24hs
“But he’ll live as a man. Safe. Human. Free.”
Lilith sat beside Daniel again.
His face twitched.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMGNn6eTsjb
His fingers clutched at the air like he was drowning in dreams.
She held the vial in her palm — her last light.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQRm4wFK2uN
The last proof that she was once divine.
She remembered the first time he smiled at her.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxpnIjmkNln
The way his hands trembled when they touched her face.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbgSH2DpJdB
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHKGhVRZMq
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzuyMPDTsy2
Not divine.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy7eOvPpti6
Not damned.
But devoted.
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