"Please...Master, please! Don't walk away, don't do this!" 

Kye pleaded on all fours, ignoring the dirty, wet ground and the murky water rising on her knees and elbows. The rain was getting heavier with each minute. Her dress, which used to be white, was now a questionable color and soaked through. Her whole body shook since it didn't give much warmth. Long locks of dirty brown hair stuck to her face. Dark circles formed under her bloodshot puffy eyes. 

Kye had not slept for four days since Michael'd ordered his men to remove her from the loft and take her to the warehouse.

The place used to be a prison for the "damned souls"— people who Michael deemed worthless or problematic to society. Kye had suspected it'd just been his excuse to build a playhouse. Sure, most humans taken there had been criminals, but Michael was not God. It was not up to him to pass judgment. Since the archangel had lost his interest in the warehouse for the most part, it had, once again, become abandoned. Up until Kye had been taken there.

January was usually the worst month of the year, with bitter cold and nonstop rains. They ranged from drizzles to heavy showers, which lasted for days. Because of that, Ayham was often flooded, especially in Eastwick Alley, where they were all standing, the part of the city that nobody gave a shit about.

They had been waiting in front of a large opening leading into the city's sewage tunnels. It was a complicated system that anyone could get lost in besides the people who called it home. The Resistance had been using the tunnels to commute right under the angels' noses since after the War.

A group of six men surrounded Kye while they waited for the exchange to happen. She stared at the man in front of her. He had not looked at her once since they'd gotten here.

The rain was falling hard. Michael checked his watch, then looked up to the sky. He searched for signs of Heaven, but as usual, all Michael could see was gray clouds and occasional lightning.

The rain had made it difficult for him to open his eyes. Human meatsuits had their limitations, but Michael needed this one. It was adequate. Without it, he was just light and energy floating around, too huge and too intense for this world.

"Did I do the right thing, Father?"
Michael tilted his head, not expecting an answer.

***
Some people said the War had turned the world upside down, but in Kye's opinion, the problems had already existed long before that. The War had just happened to magnify them a thousand folds. People like her, her folks, and their neighbors were just pieces in a shitty board game designed by Fate.

Twenty years ago — a blink of an eye— the Hosts of Heaven had decided to reveal themselves and carried out God's Judgment Day.

No one could confirm whether it had been an order from God, but everyone had had a taste, or more like a whole three-course meal of heavenly wrath. The War had lasted for three years. To Earth's credit, its inhabitants had put everything on the line for a counter-attack, but apparently, the latest and most destructive weapons mankind had ever created had been no match to what Heaven'd had to offer.

In those short three years, a pandemic, then famine, had also happened, wiping out half of Earth's population. The angels' original plan had been a big reset button, but after a long debate, they had somehow settled for "leave half for reeducation."" Called it mercy, or luck. Humankind should feel grateful enough to obey whatever they dished out then. After all, the inferior kind had been blessed with a chance to redeem themselves.

Kye had failed to see the difference between that and immediate death, but she had been 'grateful'. At least, there had not been a lack of food, clean water, or medical care. She had been selected to serve a master in Aax District, the place where all Ayham City Council officials, humans and angels alike, lived.

The Council had been the symbol of a shaky and unequal alliance between the two kinds. It had been established to "ensure human life quality under Heaven's supervision." A government of sorts, much like the old Heaven, but right here on Earth. In reality, it had been nothing but a shackle to mankind.

There had only been a few habitable corners left in the world. All had been governed by different garrisons of angels and their councils. Humans with obscene amounts of money could buy properties in fine places like Aax District, but only with permission from their Council.

Kye couldn't imagine who in their right mind would want to be close to a bunch of supernatural fanatics, who could smite any living thing with a touch of their hands, but she had been hired. Or bought. For seven hundred Cubes even— a price of a nice car, or the average monthly income of a four-person household in her neighborhood.

She had joined a group of twelve young girls before they had gone to different masters in Aax District. They had all been vetted when signing the contract to sell themselves. Ironically, the angels had been very against slavery so everyone must put their signature down before employment could start. Not everyone had been qualified, but the demand had always been there. Recruiters sometimes had gone to different neighborhoods to convince young, naïve people to sign their lives away...

Kye crouched on the ground, but her mind kept going back to her mom and brother. They should be home at the moment, in their three-hundred-and-twenty square feet apartment, converted from an old-world container that leaked everywhere and smelled like socks. It was an unbearable hole to live in but filled with all of her family's memories.

How were Mom and Nick supposed to live after she was gone?

The fact that Kye was still breathing was a miracle on its own. Heavenly hosts and the Councils were famous for their ruthlessness. Mercy was rarely granted, especially to someone insignificant such as Kye.

It didn't matter what kind of relationship she had had with the archangel before that. She couldn't expect an ounce of mercy after what she had done. The pain in Kye's chest was hard to ignore. It didn't come from the miserable state that she was in. Not from the wind and rain that cut into her skin or the uncertainty of her family's future. In fact, the pain originated from a much deeper place.

Kye should have never taken the artifact and given it to Ruby, never replied to the people from the Resistance, and most of all, she should have never betrayed him.

Kye stared at the back of Michael's slate gray overcoat, imagining he would somehow miraculously change his mind. It was pathetic of her to even think so.

Kye's eyes went up to Michael's thick hair. It was slick under the rain. He
was always a treat for the eyes— A man in his mid-thirties, tall and muscular with olive skin, dark brown hair, and stormy blue eyes. Kye remembered how those eyes looked up close.

No one knew, but the cosmic being in front of her had promised Kye the world not a long time ago. He had shown her all the privileges she couldn't even dream of. Wealth. Protection. Immortality. He would deliver them all because that was Michael. He would never lie. Not to her.

That was why it hurt even more thinking of what could have been if she had not messed everything up.

"Michael, please!"

His name slipped from the tip of her tongue like a forbidden liquid. This was not the first time Kye had called him by name, but it had always been in the confines of the loft or whenever they had been alone. No servants or domesticated companions were allowed to call their masters' names. Punishment would vary, depending on the leniency and creativity of the masters, but it would be painful enough to be a lesson.

Angelic grace could fix almost any mortal injury, so nothing was off the table. Michael had never been above getting down and dirty with the "disciplines." He was the First Born and leader of the Heavenly Hosts, but he was also a master in the art of inflicting pain.

An art. That was it for him.

Kye had tasted, as well as witnessed, some of his methods in the early stage of her time at the loft. She would never forget or want to be on the receiving end again.

Kye was baffled by Michael's reaction, or the lack thereof, this time.

Through their four years together, Michael had seemed to change. Quite a lot. Hard to believe, but Kye had felt loved and protected by him. Their relationship had evolved from a master-servant one to a true friendship. Maybe something more even.

It had given her hope. If a cruel and rigid creature like Michael could change, all angels could, and maybe then, humanity could have a real chance. Kye had heard rumors of rogue angels leaving their garrisons to live among humans. She would never expect such from Michael, but deep down, she hoped. And wished. And prayed.

The signs were all there. She had known his heart. Where she had stood with him.

Or so Kye had thought.