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.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa250J1Vosz
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.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPsAFESfmV5
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.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ30G6qQEC7r
Dripping with false softness.
“You were once magnificent.”
Lilith turned slowly, her wings flaring.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqhTISTA3Y2
“Gabrielle.”
Heaven’s diplomat.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl4GlLxLL1X
Her once-sister in light.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTUcc1ZlpsG
Now, a messenger of divine consequences.
Gabrielle didn’t raise a weapon.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwftcTv1zA
She raised a mirror — a relic from the Throne of Witness.
Inside it, Lilith saw what she’d become:6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkXZcmrumos
Ashen wings. Faded grace. A woman carved by love and rebellion.
“He’s unraveling,” Gabrielle said.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSdux9LuXIq
“You know this. That fusion… it’s killing him. His soul was never meant to house your essence.”
Lilith’s voice cracked.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr0dWCxEloN
“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.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQuzVbQyJ5V
“But he’ll live as a man. Safe. Human. Free.”
Lilith sat beside Daniel again.
His face twitched.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXMCt6dIbnB
His fingers clutched at the air like he was drowning in dreams.
She held the vial in her palm — her last light.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFepvr3JFk6
The last proof that she was once divine.
She remembered the first time he smiled at her.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkD1io7nWkU
The way his hands trembled when they touched her face.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbuXskKgDwp
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.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXDPx697Y9L
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.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCUG24CnaK
Not divine.6Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4S4YkgMH8Z
Not damned.
But devoted.
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