Gabriel’s consciousness fled with her last words, and Michael swooped her up as her legs failed her. Seeing her eyes roll and feeling the dead weight of her slender body made his heart pound. “Gabriel?” Cold drops fell from the thin clouds high above them, dotting his shoulders and Gabriel’s vacant face. He shook her softly, then a little rougher. “Gabriel!”

When there was no response, his eyes darted to the many bite wounds that soiled her milky skin. Bitten by monsters—so many monsters.

Feeling like his heart was ready to burst from his chest, Michael flung his wings out and shot up into the sky. Clearing the trees, the break of dawn over the horizon blinded him. Remiel’s worried call and the flutter of his brother’s wings were lost to the pounding in his ears.

Michael clung to Gabriel as he soared higher and higher. Clouds thickened as he ascended, raining down over them with fat, icy drops. For every moment his wings bashed the air, Gabriel’s limp body burned hotter. Sweat sprouted across her face, neck, and then body despite the chill that poured down over them. The whipping wind that batted her hanging wings and tacky hair did nothing to cool the feel of her. His return above was taking too long. The time passing with every violent thrust of Michael’s wings did nothing to change the cloud-laden scenery. His muscles burned with fatigue. The exhaustion from the battle below only heightened the strain that threatened to cramp his wings and make him plummet. But he would not give in. He would not give up.

Michael broke through the clouds and it was like coming up for air.

At the same time, Michael felt every one of Gabriel’s muscles twitch and every tendon snap tight. She gasped suddenly and reached for his neck, stealing Michael’s focus from the rain that tried to slow him down. The flutter of her eyelids revived his hope—but then her grip around his neck gave out. Though there was no chance of her falling. Not with Michael’s powerful arms that had swooped her up after the battle against Lucifer’s monsters below. A battle he had started and that she had almost died to fight.

The clouds were a world away now, a light and dark fluffy film way below them. “We are almost there. Hold on.”

A few more frantic flaps of his wings delivered an angelic hum all around. Holding Gabriel with one arm, his other hand flung out straight above them, fist clenching in readiness.

Gabriel shifted in his arms suddenly, her consciousness returning with a rattled gasp.

“Hold on.”

A shock of glass burst up with erupting water as Michael penetrated the concaved looking glass from below. Nothing had been visible amongst the ashen clouds, and even if there had been a blue sky, nothing would have been visible. But, as an angel, the ingrained sense that resonated as a pure tingling that increased with proximity was a dead giveaway.

Falling down with the beating flutter of his sore wings, Michael landed as the glass floor reformed and the tepid water rained down over them in cleansing drops. His arms remained around Gabriel, but she kicked her legs free as he went to kneel her down into the water.

Shoving at his chest, she splashed as she staggered and fell to get out of his strong arms. Facing side-on to him, his back remained hunched while her retracted wings rose and fell with her labored breaths. “Leave me be. I do not need you.”

Breathing hard, Michael wanted to rush and help her up. The sharp glare she cut his way and the thin line her plump lips had pressed into stopped him. Seeming less dangerously weak than before their reentry, he conceded, stepping back until he was propped on the edge of the looking glass with his feet dangling in the disturbed water. “You are angry.”

The healing water glowed around her bruised and bleeding body, seeming to return some of her vitality and strength. “I have every right to be.”

Michael clenched his jaw. He knew what evoked her ire and it made him forget how concerned he had been for her a moment ago. “Lucifer did not die.” Despite how much Michael wished he had.

“No thanks to you.” Gabriel whirled in the water to face him head on, but stumbled and had to use her arms below the surface to hold her head above the water.

The shield of anger Michael had adopted cracked at the sight of her weakness. Through the long dark tangle of his hair that hung over his forehead, his piercing silver eyes probed over her body. His concern for her worsened for every second he studied her above and below the blood-tainted surface. “You are healing, but…”

“I will be—” Gabriel winced suddenly, and her hands lost traction below the surface as her arms failed to remain straight. Her eyes rolled and a strangled cry broke free of her throat. And then her face hit the water as she tipped.

Michael reacted with angelic speed, splashing through the water and catching her in his arms. His earlier panic returned in a rush. “H-help,” he stuttered, following up with a louder, “Help! God, please.”

A burst of light tore his head up. But it was not God.

Remiel’s lanky form came into focus, his wings retracting and chest heaving from his long return flight. Sorrow blanketed his face and he fell to his knees at the sight of Gabriel in Michael’s arms. Eyes sliding shut, he joined his palms, his lips moving with hushed whispers.

Teetering between here and out of it, Gabriel no longer had the ability to push Michael away. Right now, the need to gain space seemed lost to her as a strike of fear widened her eyes. Beneath her chest, her heart belted so hard he could hear it. Something was wrong, very wrong. It was clear with the straining of her muscles and the tightening creak of her bones that sounded as if they were being bent to the point of breaking. Around them, the healing waters tingled where their flesh was repaired, but it did nothing to disarm the striking heat that fired across her body as if she were engulfed by flames. “I think…I think I am dying.”

“No. I will not let you. I will never let—”

Michael’s declaration cut off as blinding light exploded above them. Heat and radiance dominated the circular chamber, rattling the surrounding columns with power that was tangible and electric. The dominating essence reformed into a brilliant orb that drifted down to hover above their heads. God was here, but would he help?

Even throughout his panic, Michael remembered when Gabriel had almost died on Earth. Humans had captured and tied her up. They had set her on fire, determined to burn her to ashes. Michael hadn’t come to her rescue. God had forbidden it. Now he had gone against his maker, acted without order in God’s name. Would Gabriel pay the ultimate price for his disobedience?

Now with God’s light above them, regardless of what he’d done, Michael refused to stay his tongue. Gabriel didn’t speak to plead for help. She didn’t beg for her life to be saved, even as Michael sensed something horrible happening inside of her as the heat of her perspiring skin burned his. But he would not let things end like this.

With his voice trembling, Michael spoke to their maker. “Please heal her. On the outside her flesh is whole, but she worsens with every breath. Something more is wrong. Please, God, shine your divine light down on your messenger.”

“The monster’s you provoked, the ones you tried to end without my command, their bites have poisoned her.” God’s words were like small explosions in his ears that, although telepathic, were filled with wrathful power.

The thought of poisoning hadn’t even occurred to Michael, but every word, as well as the damning threat in God’s voice, made sense. Lucifer’s fallen blood had created those beings, and their fangs were a result of his infection.

“This is not something I can heal.”

“You can’t or you—”

“Michael,” Remiel chided.

Michael stopped himself, holding back words of judgment as his jaw clenched. He’d forgotten his brother was silently kneeling by. His nostrils flared, and as he glanced down at Gabriel with desperation, she started to shiver despite the heat burning her skin. “The twelve angels are now eleven. We cannot lose another. There must be something, anything.”

“It is…what I deserve,” Gabriel’s words were shaky. Her lids grew heavy.

Michael’s head snapped up, lips ready to demand action.

But then God spoke again, his voice quieter this time. “Healing her cannot be done, though there is one other option.” His light floated down, coating and enveloping them in its immortal warmth. His words spoken straight into their minds were quieter this time. “I can block the infection so that it is restricted and concealed within. It will never be gone, but for now…”

Michael felt the heat recede from Gabriel’s shivering body like a soothing wave—and then she vanished from his protective arms in a fiery explosion of sparks.

Michael vaulted upright, whirling with a splash as God’s light ascended higher. She was gone. Vanished. “Where is she? What happened?”

Heat dominated the air and God’s reply was clipped. “Your punishment will come.” The gold chain that he had never been restrained with appeared with a flash of light. It shot out from the rounded edge of the looking glass and shot down, spearing the water—to snap shut around his ankle. “Soon enough. And you, Remiel…”

His quiet brother glowed intensely brighter. His eyes shifted sideways as if he were receiving a personal order from God. Then he became less tangible, solid lines and presence fading until he became invisible.

God’s light vanished without another word as suddenly as it had arrived, leaving Michael alone and submerged in the healing waters. He did not know what had become of Gabriel or if she had survived, and the unknown was more damning than knowing his true punishment was still to come.