Free Embracing Eternity by Voirey Linger

will always be disappointed. Forget this quest of yours. Don’t give up your eternity for me. I’m not worth it.”
    Didn’t she know that she would always be worth whatever sacrifices he had to make?
    “Ah, Meela. Don’t you understand? You are my happiness and I would do anything for you. You always have been. I used to live for your smiles, would do about anything to see you grin.”
    “Don’t say that.”
    “Why shouldn’t I? It’s true. I always believed that one day, when you smiled at me, you’d stay instead of running off after another seraph. Now your smiles are more precious than ever.”
    She dropped her hands and moved away once more, this time to the center of the clearing. An air of melancholy surrounded her, and an answering heaviness grew in Evan’s chest and he once more had the feeling that time was slipping away from them. There was no hope left in her, and soon she’d harden her heart and lose her sense of longing too.
    He needed Ren and Gabriel to find something soon. He had to save her before it was too late.
    From here, the ice-glazed shoreline was just visible through the skeletal trees, and beyond that the lake stretched to the horizon. An icy wind came from the water, whipping his hair away from his face and making her dreadlocks dance and sway as they lashed around behind her.
    “I believe you feel this now, Evan. But I also believe you must get past this and forget about me. I can’t be the key to your joy. I’ll…I’ll hurt you.” Her face contorted as if the thought of harming him caused her physical pain. “If you don’t move on, I’ll hurt more than you can fathom, and I don’t want to do that to you.”
    He refused to believe that. Meela could never harm him. She cared for him, at least a little, and she’d protect him. It was the way of angels. The fact she was trying to warn him proved that she wouldn’t hurt him.
    A sound caught Evan’s attention, something that should not be there. Something was making its way through the brush. He stepped in the direction of the noise, searching for some sign of movement.
    There. Something dark was shuffling through a patch of dead grasses. But he could not feel the presence of any animal. Whatever was there was not natural.
    It went still and he could just make out a dark outline through the grasses. He reached out to pull them aside.
    “Evan, no!”
    Meela’s warning came too late. The creature leapt.

Chapter Six
     
    Evan had a split second impression of a wrinkled face with ratlike teeth and a gaping cavity in its face where a nose ought to be. The creature came at him, going for his throat. Those curved rodent teeth sank into his flesh.
    Demon.
    Thrown off guard by the lesser’s attack, he stumbled backward, tripping over the hem of his robes and falling to the ground, hard.
    He struck at it, swinging his fists and beating his wings about him in an effort to drive it away. It clung, sinking its teeth and claws in tighter with every move Evan made. There was a rush of movement in the dead grasses and more demons appeared.
    They were misshapen beasts. Some had skin, other scales. Some were shaped as rats, others had more apelike appearances. All had sharp teeth and talons that dripped venom. And they were slowly surrounding him.
    One by one, they jumped. Dark blurs of movement launching themselves at him, biting into his flesh. Weakness hit him. His limbs grew heavy and his head spun as the demons siphoned off bits of his power.
    Meela was there, slashing at them with her claws, trying to force them from him. Kicking and hitting at them did no good. Every attempt he made to dislodge the beasts only made them cling tighter, their claws and teeth ripping into his flesh and burning him with their poisons.
    One of them turned on Meela and Evan’s heart stuttered in fear. A demon was slashing at her, gnawing at her. Demon cannibalizing demon. One after the other rushed at her, abandoning him for easier prey.
    She was too weak