Gabriel stared up into the sky, taming the ends of her wind-blown hair as Lucifer’s great white wings delivered him higher at unimaginable speed. The fading sun had dipped over the mountains in the distance. Darkness and a chill that prickled her skin rose as if a direct result of her distance from him. Tears continued to form trails down her cheeks, and she made no effort to wipe them away, frozen in her grief as time forged on and darkness prevailed. Struck by the separation of him, she paid no mind to the distant sounds that normally would have alerted her. The louder brush of movement through long grass she assumed were sheep, to the crackling of flames that she guessed were fires being lit to warm the rising chill of oncoming night.

What she had said, all of it had been true. She felt responsible for the feelings she stirred in Lucifer, felt responsible for his reactions to her. Even now she remembered that early day by the looking glass when she had placed her hand over his heart. When she had urged him to feel some of the emotion that had flooded her body from the first day their light was borrowed and dulled. The first day they’d become flesh and bone. She had taught him to feel, and now…

Gabriel tore her gaze away long after the sight of Lucifer vanished through the appearing sparkle of stars above. That sound, it was closer now, moving at speed. Human speed.

Footsteps, countless pairs.

She whirled with a gasp. Advancing through the bordering trees from the village over the ridge was a band of men. All of them were looking at her. They had seen her, an angel who was only to be sighted by those she delivered her messages to.

Gabriel’s worry for divine punishment paled as she beheld the faces of each of the men. Faces lined and eyes narrowed into angry stares. The objects they carried proved their meeting was not to be one of kind or Godly exchanges. Weapons. Each of them held one. Long wooden sticks with sharpened stones attached to the ends, or blazing fire torches with cloth-wrapped ends that sent gusts of glowing embers in her direction.

Flinging her wings out, an enormous flap lifted her from the ground. The resulting wave of air flattened the tall grass and made the front line of men stumble. Through the chorus of startled sheep, there was a sudden grunt. Her ascent up into the stars stalled, leaving her hovering mere feet off the ground.

“Leave, winged creature, and your disciple dies,” a burly man heading the group declared.

Noah struggled as two men dragged him from his ark. The rusted blade at his throat kept him from breaking free. Other men stood back alongside the wooden ship, holding their flaming torches out in readiness to set the vessel alight. To burn God’s plans to cleanse the world of human sin, while saving only enough to continue mankind.

Struck by the fear of failure, of disgracing God once more, Gabriel hovered without ascending higher.

The man with a dark beard had loops of rope hanging from one shoulder across his chest. “We shall burn this land boat to cinders too.”

Gabriel plummeted back down, landing with bent knees and sweeping wings before she straightened. She did not know what these gathered village men wanted, but she refused to let God’s plans for Noah and the ark go thwarted because of her carelessness. She addressed the only man who had spoken. “Here I stand, as you order. What is it you want?”

The man came closer, showing no fear at the heavenly creature he stood before. He held a torch to her face, forcing her to jerk back out of its blistering heat. “We demand the truth, winged creature. Why is it you visit Noah and whisper in his ear? Why order him to build this massive land boat when waters are lands away?”

Gabriel’s throat went dry as she swallowed. She was not permitted to reveal her mission that influenced Noah. And more importantly, doing so would expose the purpose of the ark and the fate of all who were not invited therein. With her lips parting on a lie, she could not make the words form on her tongue.

One of the men restraining Noah behind her called out, “There can only be one need for a water vessel on dry land.”

The group’s leader nodded. He spoke to the men gathered behind him. “This winged devil plans to curse the land. To bring rains that will drown us all. All except for Noah and all who grace his ark.”

“Then we steal the land ship!” A thin man in the back yelled out.

Facing Gabriel who’d frozen in fear at their insight, the leading man gritted his teeth. “I have a better plan.”

At the sweep of his hand, and as Noah screamed, “Take flight!” Gabriel’s knees bent to lift her up. A sudden ferocious heat kept her feet planted. Wings on fire from prodding torches, she crushed grass as she fell to the ground in shock, writhing as flames attacked and smoke rose up. Curling into a ball, her wings acted as a cocoon. The protection from the wind sweeping over the grass helped douse the flames as she rolled back and forth.

“Now! Keep the creature down!”

Hands and knees came down on her, so many at once she was pinned to the ground, keeping her wings folded and immobile. She screamed as lines of rope flung out across her back, fighting to throw them off and stand. The men—so many of them—moved fast, wrapping the thick rope around her wings and pulling them in tight to her back.

Gabriel fell, face smacking the ground and breath leaving her as her head swam. A sudden cry punched from her lips as she pushed her torso off the ground. The bindings tightened, bending and snapping bones beneath her feathers as she grunted, sweating and struggling to get to her knees.

A flare of heat popped her eyes open to see a burning torch right in front of her. She jerked her head back before the flames could catch and melt her face. And then she was hauled upright. Dragged backward through the tall grass, she thrashed. Noah’s screams to release her were lost to the pounding of her heart in her ears as sheep scattered in fright of all the noise.

A dagger caked in old blood and flesh threatened the underside of Gabriel’s jaw. She surrendered and was pinned back to a tree. Her bound wings throbbed as more rope tied her body to the wide trunk. With her thoughts racing, she tried to come up with a solution to stop whatever these men had planned. To save Noah and his ark without destroying these men for whom she had no orders to do so. Would they kill Noah and steal the ark? “What is it you plan to do?” she addressed the leading man again.

His smile was crooked and his dark eyes sparkled with malice. “A dead demon cannot deliver on their plans.” He held his torch close to Gabriel, forcing her to shy back from the heat that threatened her face and neck. The smell of the burning fat made her want to retch. “I will stop your curse before it can begin, by burning you and your wicked intentions until you are nothing but cinders on the wind.”

Gabriel feared her immortality was soon to meet its destruction. Still, she held on to the glimmer of relief she felt. If these men believed stopping her would save their lives, she was willing to let them. With her gone on the wind, Noah would be free to fill his ark, and on that day soon, to float away as these unworthy men drowned. Here and now, staying her tongue would keep her promise to carry out God’s work. She would fulfill her duty…and she would die with honor and purpose.

With his fellow men cheering and urging him on, the leading man stayed his torch momentarily. “Have you any last words, winged devil?”

As the flame nestled dangerously closer to her face, singeing strands of her hair that danced on the breeze, Gabriel let her mind conjure up what she knew she should not think of. In her mind’s eye, she saw that tan face with its long waves of golden hair, its sharp lines, and his eyes that sought her acceptance. The most alive she had ever felt was in those forbidden fleeting moments. When Lucifer’s hungry lips had claimed her own. When his possessive hands had explored her body. Her lips parted now, her eyelids sliding shut to cut off the sight of her impending fiery doom with their deadly spears and raging torches. She felt a sense of deep unsettling, remembering her last words to him. I want you to leave, Lucifer. Leave me be. There was no hope for being saved. He would obey her wishes. Worse than that, he would forever believe she had not wanted him. That her only devotion was to her duty as an archangel. Lucifer, please forgive me.

“So be it,” the leader spoke over Noah’s continued screams to release her.

And then the man touched his flaming torch to the hem of her robe…