The sun was setting, but the light in the Aurelis family's tea house felt cold.
Eleanor Aurelis moved behind the counter, pouring a last cup of lemon-honey tea for Elder Matthias. Her pink hair caught the pale evening light, but her usual gentle smile was gone. Her blue eyes, normally bright with warmth, held a knot of dread.
She was thinking of her parents.
Twenty-four hours ago, Elizabeth and Lucian Aurelis, two of the Zenith Guard's finest, had left on a supposed "routine border mission." But the air in the small village of Sunridge had felt wrong ever since they left. Every shadow, every gust of wind, felt like a whisper of danger.
Elder Matthias, taking his tea, cleared his throat gently. "They're the finest warriors in the Guard, child. They'll return."
Eleanor nodded, but the familiar knot of worry remained. She was nineteen, tired of being treated like a child, and furious that she wasn't strong enough yet to join them. She was tired of simply waiting.
A crash outside shattered the peaceful evening.
Not the sound of a falling tree or a clumsy neighbor. This was a shriek of warped, high-pitched metal, followed by a shockwave that rattled the tea canisters and sent the holy light spheres dimming violently.
Eleanor didn't hesitate. She grabbed a cleaning cloth and vaulted the counter. "Stay inside, Elder Matthias!"
She burst out the door just as Vera Nightingale, an older angel, stumbled toward her. Vera's dark eyes were wide with a panic that was chilling.
"Eleanor! You shouldn't be out here alone! There's been an incident!" Vera's voice shook. "A Goddess! Here, in our territory. She had Black Angels with her, and the energy—it was beyond anything we've ever seen. The Zenith Guard was sent immediately."
A Goddess. Elizabeth had called it a routine border attack. This was no routine.
"When?" Eleanor's voice sounded strange, tight with adrenaline.
"An hour ago. Maybe less. Eleanor, you need to get inside, find somewhere safe—"
But Eleanor was already moving. Her wings, typically a soft white, spread wide with a rush of power she rarely used. She launched herself into the twilight sky, cutting through the cooling air like an arrow.
Please be okay. Please, please be okay.
She flew faster than she ever had, the familiar landmarks of home blurring beneath her. Then, the scent hit her before she saw anything else.
Blood.
Rich and copper-sweet, carried on the evening breeze like mockery.
The clearing opened up before her like a wound in the earth.
Bodies. Dozens of Zenith Guard angels were scattered across the grass like broken dolls. Their white uniforms were stained crimson. Wings were torn, and some bodies were too damaged to recognize.
Eleanor landed hard, her knees buckling. The metallic stench was overwhelming, but beneath it was the sharp, bitter smell of ozone and sulfur—the sign of divine power unleashed.
And there, in the center of the carnage, stood a figure that made Eleanor's divine blood freeze in her veins.
The woman radiated power like heat from a forge. She possessed an otherworldly beauty that hurt to look at, with skin like polished obsidian and hair that moved as if underwater. Her eyes were twin empty spaces, pupils that burned with violet fire.
No wings. Goddesses never had wings.
In one elegant hand, she held something that made Eleanor's world shatter.
"Mom..."
Elizabeth Aurelis hung limp in the Goddess's grip, her golden hair matted with blood, her neck bent at an impossible angle.
Eleanor tried to move, tried to scream, but terror turned her bones to lead.
"Eleanor, don't!"
Her father, Lucian, stumbled into view. His axe was clutched in white-knuckled hands. Blood streamed from a gash on his temple, and his left wing hung at an unnatural angle, but he was alive.
"Dad—"
"Stay behind me," Lucian choked out, his voice shaking with barely controlled fury. "That's Mariam, The Dusk Goddess. She's here for the Sun Angels."
The name hit Eleanor like a physical blow. Mariam the Destroyer. The Goddess of endings. She was here. Holding Eleanor's mother like a broken toy.
Mariam's voice, when she finally spoke, was like silk wrapped around razors. "How quaint. A family reunion."
"Why?" Lucian's question was a broken whisper. "Why here? Why them?"
"You know why," Mariam said, her void-black eyes fixing on Eleanor with predatory interest. "I seek the remaining Sun Angels. Your wife proved... disappointing. But perhaps the daughter will be more illuminating."
Understanding, followed by desperate determination, dawned in Lucian's expression. He straightened, raising his axe.
"The Sun Angel you want," he said, his voice growing stronger with each word, "is me."
"No!" Eleanor's scream tore through the night air, but it was too late.
Mariam moved with inhuman speed. One moment she was holding Elizabeth's body, the next her hand was buried in Lucian's chest. Dark energy crackled around her fingers, and Lucian's agonized cry echoed through the clearing.
"Interesting," Mariam thought aloud. "You do carry the bloodline. But you're not the one I seek."
She pulled out her hand, and Lucian collapsed against a tree, gasping. Dark veins spread from the wound on his chest, and his skin began turning an ashen gray.
"Eleanor..." he choked out, blood foaming at his lips. "Run. Please. You have to—"
The light faded from his storm-gray eyes.
Silence fell over the clearing. When Eleanor looked again, Mariam was gone, vanished like smoke, leaving only death and the lingering scent of sulfur.
Eleanor fell to her knees beside her mother's body, then moved to her father. She gathered his cooling hand in hers.
"I should have been here," she whispered, tears finally falling. "I should have protected you. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
Dawn came like an accusation. Eleanor had not moved from her vigil. She knelt in the dried blood of her family, her white dress stained beyond redemption.
She dug two graves with bleeding hands, burying her parents side by side. Her wings ached. This is going to take forever to wash out of the feathers, she thought, the sheer exhaustion forcing her mind to focus on something entirely stupid.
Then she knelt between them, folding her hands in prayer, the words drilled into her since childhood. "May the Light eternal guide your souls to peace. May the Creator's love—"
She stopped. The words tasted like ash.
"Why am I praying to them?" she whispered into the dawn. "To the ones who let this happen?"
The silence was absolute. Her faith cracked like ice in spring.
"Survivor."
The voice came from the edge of the clearing. Eleanor looked up to see a figure silhouetted against the morning light. It was an angel with platinum blonde hair and wings that gleamed like polished silver. She wore the white and silver of the Zenith Guard, bearing the insignia of an Ascendant-rank Commander.
"I'm Meredith Virelle," she said, her voice carrying crisp authority. "You're Eleanor Aurelis."
Meredith's gaze lingered on the fresh graves. "I knew your parents. They were good soldiers."
"They're dead because they served a cause that couldn't protect them," Eleanor said, the bitterness cold and steady in her voice.
"No," Meredith said sharply. "They're dead because evil exists, and good people pay the price for fighting it. That's the reality of our fight."
Eleanor laughed, without humor. "Your fight. Not mine."
"Isn't it?" Meredith stepped closer. "Mariam killed your family. She'll keep killing until someone stops her. The question is whether you want to help."
Eleanor stared at the graves. She thought of Mariam's void eyes, her mother's peaceful face, and her father's desperate, dying warning.
"What would I have to do?"
"Train. Learn. Become strong enough to stand against the darkness." Meredith's expression was serious. "The Trials begin in three weeks. Pass them, and you'll join the Guard as a God-Hunter."
"I won't fail."
Eleanor walked to where her father's axe lay abandoned in the bloodstained grass. She picked it up, feeling its familiar weight. The handle was worn smooth, and she could almost feel the echo of her father's grip.
"I do now," she said, slinging the weapon across her shoulder.
For the first time since arriving, Meredith smiled. It was a predator's expression, sharp and promising violence.
"Good. The application process for God-Hunters is a nightmare, so skipping that is a plus. Now come with me, Eleanor Aurelis. Let's see what kind of god-killer you can become."
Eleanor took one last look at the clearing. Then she turned her back on the blood and grief and followed Meredith into the light.