Michael watched as Gabriel exploded through the looking glass. With a shower of shards the water reformed and resettled once she’d cleared it. Collapsing in the shallow pool, warm light beamed up at her. Her knees were bent beneath her, and her hands below the surface held her body up while her head remained bowed. A few deep breaths were drawn, the sight of her back visible as silver tainted the crystal clear water. The bleeding from her slowed, and as she sniffed back tears, she froze momentarily. Splashing water up to cleanse her face, she looked sidelong. “Who is there?”

In her state, she hadn’t felt Michael’s presence straight away. But he had been there the whole time. Watching. Waiting. In her condition, she’d had no choice but to return to this location rather than her private sanctuary. “You almost didn’t survive him this time.” At the edge of the looking glass, Michael shook his head as Gabriel spun around with a splash. Anger speared through him at the close view of her injury. An injury that could have killed her. Since the beginning, he had always kept a close eye on her, especially when it came to Lucifer. She was too blind to the fallen angel’s charms. “You almost died in vain. And not for the first time.”

More than a millennium ago she had danced with death at the hands of human villagers—because of Lucifer’s inability to follow orders and stay away from her.

Gabriel eased onto her backside, and her face scrunched in pain. Peering up at Michael as he towered over her, she seemed so small and fragile, so in need of protection. Even if she did not want it. She was so close to perfect—and Lucifer would never be worthy of her or God’s love.

“Then you saw me—saw him?” Gabriel spoke up at him, that poisonous hope still alive in her teary eyes. She regarded his battle clothes with a frown, her expression shifting with suspicion that swiftly turned into worry. “I almost got through to him. He forced me to leave him.”

Michael repressed a sigh of guilt. He had failed in his duty so long ago. His actions to get Lucifer banished began this mess, and he could not deny they had rippled across time. The prophecy had started in Gabriel’s ruined garden because of his influence. And now he would put an end to it before those murderous red-eyed monsters took over Earth at Lucifer’s command.

No shadow was cast as Michael unfurled his wings, beating them slowly to deliver him over the water that rippled beneath his feet. Tucking them in, he fell a few feet in front of her with a small splash. The water rushed in quickly, soaking him from the waist down. With a shake of his head, his softly curled dark locks swayed. “You are blind to him, Gabriel. You always have been. You choose to see only what you want to.”

Gabriel grunted as she pushed her healing body upright. Her hands remained tense at her sides, looking like she was restraining from curling her fingers into fists. “I am the messenger of God. I choose to know everything that I have witnessed with my own eyes. I choose to see the whole picture, the bad, and the good. To…” She frowned again, trying to look past Michael’s huge frame. “Who is with you?”

Remiel appeared through a bright columned entry as Michael glanced over his shoulder. With his hands clasped before him, his eyes were kind but filled with sadness. A more radiant glow than usual haloed his body, an infusion from God in preparation to clean up Lucifer’s latest acts of war once the dust settled and his vacated location was revealed. But it would come into use way before that order came. Remiel was finally in agreement with Michael. There was no getting through to their brother. Lucifer had to be stopped. “It is time for the both of us to accept the truth. Lucifer is not like us. There is no undoing what he has done.”

When his eyes fell on the silver-stained hole in her robe and the healing flesh beneath, Gabriel crossed her arms over the damage. She looked back and forth between the two of them, perhaps noticing the distinctly brighter glow that haloed Remiel’s body. Nervousness made her eyes dark and her wings fan out.

Beyond the four column-framed corridors, there was nowhere to escape to. In her state, she would not get far. She could not outrun Michael. And flying up to Heaven would only make her breach of imprisonment known.

“We are God’s archangels,” Gabriel said in a rush, her hands coming together as if pleading. “All of us. We are all different in our own right, and despite what you all believe the future holds, I choose to hope for a better way. For all of us.”

“Then you are a fool,” Remiel said with sadness. He strode forward to one of the unbreakable anchors surrounding the looking glass that had once chained the other angels in gender rotations to watch over the world. Hands now behind his back, he faced her from the golden edge but said nothing more.

Michael neared, wading through the huge, shallow pool. Sliding a finger under Gabriel’s chin, he forced her face to tilt up. Unlike Remiel, he did not let any emotion shine through. His unbreakable façade had never been cracked and now was no different. Light pulsed overhead, giving him the ability to speak and act freely while God was occupied with the arrival of souls from Lucifer’s latest folly to stain mankind. “He never belonged here. Not before and not now. And we will not lose you in your plight to save what cannot be saved.”

Gabriel backed up but slipped as the curved glass worked against her. Her frown intensified as she looked from Remiel to Michael. “You helped me escape. You encouraged me to appeal to Lucifer.”

“There is no appealing to Lucifer.” Michael glared down at the shrinking hole in Gabriel’s belly. “How can you not see that?” His words along with his determined stare and Remiel’s inability to look her in the eye must have finally registered. Wide eyes dropping, she saw the angel sword with its sapphire-jeweled hilt strapped to Michael’s side. The only weapon that could kill an angel instantly without any hope of healing.

Gabriel stood taller. Her hands shook. “You have no right to order me to do anything. Only He—”

“He is occupied at the now. Many souls are passing through after Lucifer’s latest reign of destruction.”

Gabriel flapped her wings to lift up—to fly to God. But Michael couldn’t allow it. As her toes broke the water’s surface, he snatched hold of her wrist and brought her back down. His grip tightened with bone creaking strength as she struggled. “I cannot stand to watch him hurt you anymore. To taint your existence with his mistakes. What I must do is for your own protection, as well as Earth’s. I know you will see that in time.” He nodded over his shoulder to his obedient brother. “Do it.”

Remiel knelt and touched the anchor before him, and a glowing chain burst from it with a clatter. Then he flew in a speedy circle to free chains from three more of the anchors. When he stopped short and opened his palm, two manacles appeared with a burst of light. Both were gold with loops to lock onto.

Gabriel flapped her wings harder and tugged to free her wrist, but Michael refused to let her go. “Why are you doing this? What are you planning?”

“Remiel, now,” Michael ordered, tugging her closer.

Remiel didn’t meet her accusing stare as he leaped into the pool and waded right up to them. Instead, he bent to one knee to catch her foot. Gabriel kicked out, water spraying about with her assault.

In her retaliation, it was clear she knew what was coming. A grounding. A lockdown. Michael had to keep her from informing God. A scene through the rippling water came alive as her fight stalled. The camp Michael had spied her stealing below to where she’d met an unfamiliar man, who as he stared had not remained unfamiliar at all. As if stripped, the dark-haired stranger he had seen influencing the king in Babylon had shed his skin—to reveal a golden-haired, bronze-skinned man with bulging muscles and defiant eyes. Lucifer.

And now that he had finally tracked down his unworthy brother, nothing would keep him from ending his plague of hatred and darkness.

Not even Gabriel and all he pretended not to feel for her could stop him. Not this time.

“You cannot use the sword.” Gabriel’s need to fight came back strong, and she slapped his face. “No. You tricked me. You used me.”

As Remiel grabbed for her ankles, Gabriel primed her knuckles. Michael moved his strong hands to restrain both her arms. His face pulsed with heat from her slap, but his voice remained devoid of any emotion. “We wish not to hurt but to protect you. Only our hands will be marred by this.”

“No! You leave him alone. Michael, please!”

The first manacle clanked shut around her ankle. She fought harder, splashing the water every time Michael yanked her back down. “You led me straight to him.” He pulled her close, whispering in her ear. “But I will keep any blame for his end from you. That I vow.”

“Remiel, stop this!” The second clank was louder than the first and Gabriel yelped as if he had nipped her skin. Remiel flew from the pool to gather up the ends of the chains before rushing back in with a splash. With great effort, he fought to get near Gabriel’s ankles as she kept up the thrashing.

Michael captured her body along with her arms, trying to stem her retaliation while zapping each chain end Remiel held up. One snapped down, solidifying over the first manacle. Then the second locked in place. Twisting her body around, the third one secured to the second manacle.

The last chain took the longest, and Gabriel kicked out mercilessly. Yet it was no use.

Michael released his bear hold without warning, and Gabriel flapped her wings to take off—and got yanked back.

Remiel straightened and waded out of the looking glass, keeping his gaze downcast. His lips pursed, his frown changing from physical strain to internal torment. “I am sorry, Gabriel. I truly am.”

With a single leap, Michael returned to the glass edge, dripping wet like his guilt-ridden brother. His eyes traveled from Gabriel's hovering and trapped feet up along her body and to her face. Silver smeared her red cheeks, and the sight caused something to clench inside him. But he refused to let it show. “You will thank me one day. And God will forgive us for what he never had the heart to do himself.”

Michael’s body glowed brighter and Remiel’s followed suit. With Michael’s instructive nod, their wings unfurled to take flight.

“Michael, stop! I will do anything. Come back!”

Gabriel’s words fell on deaf ears as he and Remiel clicked their fingers and exploded in light, traversing this plain for the below.