Free Iridescent (Ember 2) by Carol Oates Page A

the leather armchair that, apart from the lighting, was his only concession to modern furnishing. The soft leather didn’t creak when she sat down and tucked her hands underneath her thighs.
    “How do I explain a feeling, something I know to be true but can’t rationalize why?” he asked in a hushed voice.
    Candra met his depthless eyes, eyes she could stare into forever and they would still never give up all the secrets he kept locked away. “Do you love me?”
    His eyebrows drew down, but the heat of his gaze melted any residual anger instantly. Whatever came before or whatever the future held for them, right now, they belonged to each other as much as any two people could.
    “I love you.”
    Candra smiled. “That is exactly how you explain a feeling. Just tell me.”
    He blinked, and the muscle jumped when he swallowed. Candra was sure he understood, turning her attention to her knees. She didn’t know what her reaction might be to whatever he was about to say and didn’t trust herself not to display every emotion on her face.
    Her eyes remained lowered when he continued in a voice so quiet and fast that she had to concentrate to keep up.
    “Everything from before is so unclear, but this feeling I have about Lilith is so sharp. She can’t be here.”
    She peeked up for a fraction of a second when he paused and pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing.
    “She isn’t a Watcher or a human. Lilith is something else completely. You might call her a failed experiment. She and her kind existed before humans, but they had too much knowledge, too much awareness of life. If you look at humans as the Arch’s children, her kind were the rebellious teens so obsessed with their own rapture, they almost destroyed everything. The Arch started over, a clean slate, all except for Lilith, the first of them. Lilith was already strong enough to evade death, and soon, she realized she could sustain herself by absorbing human souls.
    “She walked the Earth, but she was unable to procreate and remained alone except for the souls degrading and rotting inside her. The Arch instilled one of the highest-ranking angels to destroy her, but she couldn’t be destroyed, so she was banished…along with all the souls she consumed.”
    “Who was the angel?”
    “I don’t know. For all I know, it could have been me, could have been Draven… Among Watchers, the story of Lilith is the equivalent of dark folklore. What we know is gleamed from collective hints of remembrance. None of us really knows. Until today, I wasn’t sure I even believed the story at all.”
    She glanced up. Sebastian’s thumb and forefinger rubbed his closed eyelids.
    “How was she banished? How do we get rid of her?”
    “We can’t. She can’t be here. She is supposed to be gone a thousand lifetimes ago. If I had thought for a second any of it was real… If such a thing as true evil exists, Lilith is it.” He chuckled humorlessly. “I never considered the possibility, not once. She’s—”
    “She’s a demon,” Candra finished for him.
    Sebastian’s mouth opened as if to say something, but nothing came out. He stared at Candra blankly, waiting for her to speak.
    “Why did you let her go? She was there, right in front of you.”
    “It’s not that simple,” he said. “She is only part of the puzzle. We need to know how she is here. You have to understand, Candra, that if the stories are true, Lilith is not just a demon. She is corruption.”
    An icy chill slithered down Candra’s spine at the deadly tone of Sebastian’s voice.
    “She is a temptress, Candra. She will try every way she can to win you over. She will try to separate us. We can’t let her. We have to figure this out together.”
    “Exactly,” Candra warned him. “It has to be together. You can’t keep anything from me.” She stood up and took two steps toward him.
    He nodded solemnly but made no attempt to approach her or leave.
    “Is this it? Is she the thing I’m