“No. Michael, come back! Remiel, please!” Gabriel flapped her wings with desperation as she screamed. The manacles sliced deeper and deeper into her ankles as she tried to break free. Her nonstop screams that rebounded off the tall surrounding columns and walls of light turned to pleas for help, stripping her throat raw. But there was no use. She was trapped. And Michael had been right.

God could not hear her.

Flashes continued to dominate the light above her. But she didn’t give up fighting against her imprisonment. She couldn’t. Her venture below was unknown, but she would scream it from the top of her lungs if it could help. To save Lucifer from what Michael had planned for him, she would do and risk anything.

“God, please. I need you. Lucifer needs you.” Feeling like she was breathing fire, her throat grew more and more raw with every word she screamed.

When her adrenaline petered out and exhaustion finally took hold, she fell to her knees. Her cold chains clattered, hitting the glass below as saturating water weighed her down. “Lucifer!”

She had been so sure she could appeal to the goodness she’d always seen in him. Though like many of the times she had stood by him in the past, she’d been wrong. Some hurts could not be mended by anyone but the person who had inflicted the pain in the beginning. And now she had betrayed him. She had led Michael right to him.

“Lucifer!” she cried his name in vain again, seeing the wavy image of the camp through the water surrounding her. He could not hear her up here. She could not see him either, but the movement of his men made one thing clear. He had not fled the camp. He was still there, turning men into fanged monsters with hungry red eyes. Even if by some miracle he had departed, with God’s glamour gone, it would not take long before Michael and Remiel followed his trail and acted out their plan. He would never see them coming. And yet she still clung to her hope. She would not give up on him—not like everyone else had done.

She had to do something. She had to save Lucifer’s life.

Crossing her legs in the tepid pool, Gabriel forced her need to scream down and attempted to quiet the chaos swirling through her body and mind. If she wanted to be heard, she would need to concentrate. She would need to put her all into sending out her cry for help so that it could penetrate the distraction of passing souls. It was a long shot, but it was all she had. Folding her wings around her like a wet cocoon, Gabriel breathed in deeply. Her eyes slid shut. On her exhale, she let the words she needed to say propel from her mind. My God, please help me. Lucifer is set to die.

When all remained eerily quiet, and there was no sudden flare of light or surge of power, she cracked her eyelids open. The eternal glow above continued to flash, though the pace was dying off.

Crawling up onto her knees, her hands came together, begging, praying. With her voice and her mind, her words flowed out steadily. “God, hear me, your devoted messenger. Today I failed you. I vacated my post without command. I defied your wishes—and visited Lucifer.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “And now Michael is on his way. The angel sword will be used, and this day, Lucifer will die. Please, God. Do not let this be. I will bow to your will. I will accept any punishment, but please, please do not let Lucifer die.”

Twin streams of silver carved tracks down her cheeks. Her held breath threatened her aching lungs, waiting, hoping for something, anything. Her shoulders slouched, her wings fanning out in morbid realization. In the time she’d been trapped here, Michael would have arrived below. Was it already too late to save the one angel she could never forget? The one angel that still owned her heart?

“It cannot be too late.” With a sniff, she smeared her tears away, willing the view of the camp to come back into focus—

An explosion of brilliant light took form above her, coiling and beaming with a radiance that was all-powerful and never failing. God’s light. The view beneath Gabriel vanished, not by her own control, and her head craned up. Her hands flew back together, her lips trembling with the need to beg her maker to take action.

“Hush, angel of mine…” The words from God’s spherical form were intended to be calming, but they brushed through her mind like jagged metal. “It is not too late.”

Gabriel’s heart soared from the pit of her stomach. In this moment she did not care what repercussions she would face. She only cared that God had heard her and that Lucifer was still alive. “I know I have no right to ask…” She cowered a little as God’s light beamed hotter. “But will you…will you save Lucifer?”

“I accept your heartfelt vow, Messenger of God. And what you ask, I can deliver…though there will be dire consequences. Will you agree to the unknown, will you accept my offer, regardless of the outcome?”

“So long as Lucifer lives—” She clamped a hand over her mouth, shocked at the demand she had no right to make. Her words had been honest; she would give or suffer anything to save Lucifer. Her place in Heaven, her wings, even her life. None of it meant anything if Lucifer ceased to exist. Failing him meant failing herself too. All this she knew she should not feel or even think, but she, like he had been, was powerless to stop it. She would not lie, but she would accept her fate.

To her utter surprise as she cringed, God’s heat did not further intensify. Instead, it retreated, bringing the shrinking ball of light down to the water. With a sudden flare, the sphere vanished—and a fair-haired boy appeared. God’s true form. A child of maybe thirteen draped in iridescent blues, greens, and golds that somehow remained free of the drenching water as he stood before her.

With a saddened frown, he laid a palm over her gouged stomach. Heat and spearing light flared, making her gasp. But then he pulled back and the wound was gone, replaced by flawless, pale flesh. His smaller, bronzed hands claimed hers, and sparks of power made her wince. His white eyes glowed eerily, making the hairs across her nape stand on end. “This path will not be kind. It will test your faith and Lucifer’s soul. Will you take both of your lives into your own hands? Will you choose his fate along with your own?”

Gabriel gulped, a churning sensation twisting through her healed stomach. Still, she nodded. There was no other choice she could live with.

God’s young eyes closed, eyeballs moving back and forth behind his lids as if he were seeing something far away and speaking with the power his mind possessed. When his eyes opened, a spark of light came alive like lightning, but then it faded back to milky white. “Lucifer will survive…but he may come to wish he did not.”