CHAPTER 32

Numb the pain.

I wanted something now, not to numb the pain though, but to wipe what I'd seen from my head.

How could I lock away what he'd shown me?

There wasn't a trinket box big enough to hold that horror.

Behold the Seraphim , he'd said. Born of fire . The Great Winged Serpents. Caretakers of the Throne. Destroyers of the First. Changeless. Eternal . The Highest of the Most High . They are your gods. They are your saviours, your judgement and your damnation.

There were four of them. Four huge creatures, each with twelve wings of fire that burned so brightly it was difficult to look upon them. Their skin shone with coppery scales and their serpent tails, stretched long behind them, twisting and curling together as they flew, spinning a never-ending maelstrom around the empty Throne of the Angels.

Their faces were distant echoes of humanity, as if at some point, the two races had been connected somehow. A sleekness to their sharp cheekbones. A semblan