50
" The voice boomed from the Throne. "One more goodbye."
Together, Luce and Daniel turned to acknowledge the Throne, but the second their eyes fell upon it, the stately figure of the woman blazed into white-hot glory, and they had to shield their eyes.
The Throne was indiscernible again, a gathering of light too brilliant to be gazed upon by angels.
"Hey, guys." Arriane sniffed. "I think she meant for you two to say goodbye to each other."
"Oh," Luce said, turning to Daniel, suddenly panicked. "Right now? We have to-"
He took her hand. His wings brushed hers. He kissed the centers of her cheeks.
"I'm afraid," she whispered.
"What did I tell you?"
She sifted through the million exchanges she and Daniel had ever shared-the good, the sad, the ugly. One rose above the clouds of her mind.
She was shaking. "That you will always find me."
"Yes. Always. No matter what."
"Daniel-"
"I can't wait to make you the love of my mortal life."
"But you won't know me. You won't remember. Everything will be different."
He wiped away her tear with his thumb. "And you think that will stop me?"
She closed her eyes. "I love you too much to say goodbye."
"It isn't goodbye." He gave her one last angelic kiss and embraced her so tightly she could hear his steady heartbeat, overlapping her own. "It's until we meet again. "
― Lauren Kate , Rapture (Fallen, #4)
60
" She huddled next to Daniel in the Meadow, basking in the warmth of a burgeoning love that was pure and sustaining, as Daniel’s name rang out across the Meadow. He had been called. He rose above the riot of angelic light and said with calm self-possession, “With respect, I will not do this. I will not choose Lucifer’s side, nor will I choose the side of Heaven.”
A roar went up from the vast camps of angels, from those who stood beside the Throne, from Lucifer most of all. Lucinda had been stunned.
“Instead, I choose love,” Daniel went on. “I choose love and leave you to your war. You’re wrong to bring this upon us,” Daniel said to Lucifer.
Then, to the Throne: “All that is good in Heaven and on Earth is made of love. Maybe that wasn’t your plan when you created the universe-maybe love was just one aspect of a complicated and brutal world. But love was the best thing you made, and it has become the only thing worth saving. This war is not just. This war is not good. Love is the only thing worth fighting for.”
The Meadow fell silent after Daniel’s words. Most of the angels looked dumbfounded, as if they did not understand what Daniel meant.
It had not been Lucinda’s turn. The angels’ names were called by the celestial secretaries according to their rank, and Lucinda was one of a handful of angels higher than Daniel. It didn’t matter. They were a team. She rose to his side in the Meadow.
“There should never have to be a choice between love and You,” Lucinda declared to the Throne. “Maybe one day You will find a way to reconcile adoration and the true love You have made us capable of. But if forced to choose, I must stand beside my love. I choose Daniel and will choose him forevermore. "
― Lauren Kate , Rapture (Fallen, #4)
