Read Online Here Shines the Sun by M. David White - Free Book Online

trembled as her eyes scanned up the aisles of the dead, up the blood-soaked steps to the pulpit where the altar stood. And then her eyes found it. It really was there.
    Nuriel scrambled her way toward it, stepping and tripping over the countless bodies. At the foot of the pulpit she slipped on some blood and crawled her way up the steps, leaving bloody handprints as she went. She tossed aside the podium, knocking the hefty bible into the sea of death below, and then crawled like a dog to the altar where she picked herself back up. She staggered to the end of the pulpit and fell to her knees. Silhouetted against a curtain of red silk was a marble statue of Admael. He was holding the fallen Goddess in his arms as he knelt, his eyes staring into her’s.
    Her hand trembling, Nuriel reached to Admael’s face. It was youthful and smooth in that marble, and her fingers left stripes of blood as she stroked them over his cheek. Her chest rose and fell with every breath. Without taking her eyes from Admael’s face, she reached to her side and pulled out her injector. The cold needle pattered against the base of her neck for a moment before she sank it in and pushed down on the plunger. She removed the injector and tossed it aside. Then, using the statue as a prop, she climbed back to her feet.
    “Holy Father, what does this mean? What do you want me to do? Bring me clarity.”
    Nuriel looked at the Goddess as she lay in his arms. She didn’t know if it was the Ev or anger that heated her blood, but her hand balled up. Radiant, white, Caliber light encompassed her fist and she brought it down upon the Goddess’s face. The marble of her neck cracked and her long, flowing hair that acted like little pillars all shattered and the head tumbled away. She brought her fist down upon the Goddess’s chest, shattering away her breasts and arms. She screamed and brought her fist down over and over again until there was nothing left in Admael’s arms.
    And then Nuriel knew what she had to do; she knew what Holy Father wanted. Holy Father wanted her to take the place of the Goddess.
    Nuriel crawled into the statue’s arms. She lay upon the shattered remains of the Goddess and looked up. Holy Father was staring at her. His face was so tender and loving; nothing mattered to him but her. And he was all her’s. It was just the two of them here together. The world could fall apart around them just as it had done for the Goddess, but nothing mattered but each other in this moment.
    Nuriel looked out upon the pews. In her mind the bodies began to burn. Wherever there was blood, it lapped up into licking flames until they surrounded her and Admael. Nuriel looked back up into the eyes of Holy Father. She felt the warmth of the Ev coursing through her body and in her mind it became Admael’s very Caliber. She reached her left arm over his neck and lifted her face to his. She kissed him on the lips, dappling them with red, as her right hand stroked over his cheek. She lay back down in his arms. She stared into his marble eyes, but in her mind they were brilliant and silver, reflecting the flames that engulfed them.
    There was only one star left. The Age of Destruction was coming. Her and Admael would let the world fall apart, just as it had around the Goddess. And then she could be in Admael’s arms. She could lay with him forever.

— 3 —
    The Ghost

    The Grimwatch’s council room was a large hall with a long, oaken table down its center upon which numerous books and ledgers were sprawled. Through a faceted, glass dome in the ceiling the moon lent its light to the gaslamps on the walls. Etheil sat hunched over a logbook, his black shroud draped over his shoulders. Behind him a mechanical clock on the wall ticked away in the silence. He chewed his bottom lip as his blue eyes scanned over munition entries made by the soldiers of the wall. He drew his finger down a column of handwritten numbers and then paused as he mentally did some math. He blew