Fic: A History of Heaven (Gabriel/Various Angels, PG-13 for this chapter) 17/59
For full notes and other chapters, please see the Masterpost.
Notes: In this story, before Lucifer fell, his name was Sammael. He was not Lucifer in Heaven.
There is one other canon character operating under an OC name, but I wish for his identity to remain unknown.
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 5,588
Chapter Summary: Years in Hell run together, and Gabriel has to return to her choir. All is not as she expected, however, and Cariel has missed her.
CHAPTER 17:
Gabriel’s Return
Time had no meaning in Sammael’s realm. There was no sun tracking through the sky and no way to peek out at the physical realm. Gabriel lost herself in exploring every last nook and cranny Sammael had made, marveling at her brother’s ingenuity. He was always at her side, his eyes glittering with joy as he showed off his world, fluffing his wings proudly with every bit of praise she sang to him. He let her create too, let her leave her mark on this world, hollowing out new expanses and digging deep into the nothingness that all things came from.
“What are you thinking?” Sammael’s arms slid around Gabriel’s waist as his mouth found her ear. Gabriel fluttered her wings and leaned back into her brother’s embrace.
“This is abrupt.” Gabriel pointed at a stone wall, where a passage bent sharply and continued away. “It feels like something else should be there. I want something else there. I can’t explain it.”
“That’s how it always starts.” Sammael’s smile curved against Gabriel’s cheek and he reached forward, stroking his fingers over the wall even as he kept her pinned between his arms. “How all of the creation of this realm started. It spoke to me, told me what it wanted, and I found a way to shape it. It’s speaking to you now.”
“To me?” Gabriel twisted her head to look at Sammael. “How can it speak to me? It’s yours.”
“Ours,” Sammael corrected. “Go on, look at it again. It wants something else there? How can you set it free?”
Gabriel reached out, pressing her hands between Sammael’s. “Heat,” she declared. “This rock wants to melt away.”
“Do it.”
Sammael’s tempting whisper in her ear was all the permission Gabriel needed. She closed her eyes and took a deep, unnecessary breath, sinking deep within the core of her spirit. Her fire raged around her, licking at her conscience, celebrating her presence. Burn, the Archangel whispered to her flames. They roared higher, streaming out through her arms as she shoved the pure inferno at the rock. It glowed and melted, streaming away from her hands, illuminating her grin. Sammael nipped at her ear before he summoned up his own water, forcing it into the cracks in the rock. Gabriel chased after it, flashing the water into steam that pulverized solid stone with the sudden pressure. The tiny fragments melted even quicker, running across the floor and hardening into smooth glass under Sammael’s deluge.
Together, they opened up a massive chamber every bit as large as some of the fields of Heaven. It sloped down gradually until the ceiling was too high up for even sharp angel eyes to see. Gabriel stood in the middle and laughed, stretching out her wings fully and feeling like she was out in the open instead of confined beneath the ground. She had created this, with Sammael’s help! She had created!
There were many levels to this realm, but Gabriel’s favorite locations were still the massive obsidian field and a conical pit of fire deep within the bowels of the dimension, both of which had been shaped at her hands. She loved Sammael’s magmafall too and would often swoop and dive through the churning, molten rock, whooping with glee as Sammael sat on one of the crystalline ledges and just watched her, shaking his head. The magma was too intense for him to enjoy the way she did. Even just sitting close enough to watch could make him steam after a few minutes, but he never once tried to stop her from reveling in her own element.
Sammael also never again asked Gabriel to rule with him from this realm. He never asked her to stay by his side. Gabriel appreciated his care. He promised that her choice would be her choice, and he was respecting her inability to make up her mind. While the realm itself was staggeringly beautiful-once she got past the bone Sammael used to support every new ceiling or the bloodlike melting sulfur that blossomed in every crevice or the massive root system that slowly but surely worked its way through every layer of this underworld, like a giant living creature that only tolerated the touch of its master, Sammael-the hollow emptiness that resonated in her chest was never far from her mind. It was like a bruised limb she could forget about until she brushed it against something and ignited a new flood of agony. Sammael did what he could to distract her mind from the lack of the Host, and when words alone weren’t enough, he distracted her body from the emptiness with his own.
As every moment melted together, running into a continuous, sticky-slow stream of time, Gabriel found herself growing numb to the ache. It was still there, it still hurt, but it didn’t matter so much. Nothing mattered much, she mused one hour, as she lay against Sammael’s bare chest, his fingers carding through her frizzy curls. She had her brother, and she had her fire. What else did she need? God? Humanity? What did they ever do for her? Michael? Cariel? They never-
Gabriel jerked upright with a gasp, her hands flying to her mouth. “Cariel!”
“Hmm?” Sammael lifted his head to look at her, a puzzled frown creasing his forehead. “What about him?”
“I promised Cariel I’d keep in touch!” Gabriel grabbed for her dress. “Sammael, how long have we been down here? Days?”
Sammael shrugged lazily, reaching out to help her dress (but really just running his hands over her skin before she could cover it. “Weeks, at least. Months probably. A year or two.”
“A year or two!?” Gabriel snapped her wings out, using them to help propel her along the roads of this realm. Sammael followed. “Sammael, I have responsibilities! A choir! And Cariel, I promised Cariel I’d keep him updated! Blessed Father, they probably think I’ve run off on them!”
“Gabriel! Gabriel, calm down!” Sammael surged forward, grabbed her wings, and gently yanked her to a halt. “Gabriel, shh, calm. You’ve been gone this long already. What’s a few more minutes?”
“Sammael, I have to go!”
“Stay.” Sammael pulled her back into his arms, resting his forehead against hers. “Please, Gabriel. Stay with me.”
“But Cariel,” Gabriel whispered, closing her eyes as Sammael brushed his lips against hers. “Cariel, my choir… I can’t abandon them, Sammael…”
“They can come too. I can write their names into the wards. This can be their home too. Many in my choir are already permitted. Yours can be too. This can be our home, the two of us against the two left in Heaven.”
Cariel would follow Gabriel anywhere. Gabriel didn’t even have to ask to know he’d say yes. But what about the others? Gentle Barachiel would suffer underground. He lived for the sun and the Earth. Zachariah would rage, pent up down here. He needed enemies to fight and subdue. And what of the younger angels, of sweet Anael, or little Castiel with his fierce need to be the best Angel in all of Heaven? He wouldn’t understand the move. He’d see it as a punishment, as yet another way he wasn’t good enough. Those were just her angels. What about the ones she’d leave behind, her friends in Michael and Raphael’s choirs? What about Michael himself? Or the Cherubim, whom she always made a point of speaking with whenever she saw them? Joshua, who gave her a flower every time she visited the Garden? There were too many to think about, too many to worry about, too many to ask to follow her here.
“I love you, Sammael, I do,” Gabriel pulled away from the kiss, pressing her face into her brother’s shoulder.
“But?” Sammael already sounded resigned, leaning down to rest his cheek against her hair.
“But Heaven is my home. Is their home. I can’t ask them to leave, and I can’t leave them. I can’t, Sammael. I just can’t.”
“So you would leave me instead?”
“I would take you with me.” Gabriel clasped Sammael’s hands in hers, looked up into his grey eyes, begging him to have faith again. “I’ll talk to Michael. It’s been so long, I’m sure he’s calmed down. I’ll talk with him about ending your exile. He still loves you, Sammael. He has to. If he didn’t love you, your loss wouldn’t hurt him as much as it does. Your choir misses you; you may allow them to come here, but they still dwell in Heaven. Even Father feels your absence. He said as much, last time He called me in to deliver a message.”
“It’s not that simple, Gabriel.” Sammael squeezed Gabriel’s hands. “My grievances with Heaven and Michael are more than just my banishment. And don’t forget how I broke his wing. He won’t be very forgiving about that.”
“I’ll talk to Michael,” Gabriel repeated. “Maybe… maybe the two of you can talk? I can bring him here, so he can see how you’ve been spending your time. You can show him all that you’ve made, just the two of you. Maybe that’s all you need? A bit of privacy, so you can say anything you need.”
Sammael was silent, looking down at Gabriel, before he heaved a sigh. “You really want this.”
“I want you two to stop fighting. Heaven’s not heavenly without its greatest partnership. I hate being stuck in the middle between you two, and I hate not having you near.” Gabriel leaned up on her toes to kiss Sammael gently. “Promise me you’ll at least try? If I can get Michael to come here, promise me you’ll talk to him?”
“If it means that much to you,” Sammael finally relented. “If it really matters that much, then I’ll talk. But he has to promise to listen.”
“He will. I’ll make sure of it.” Gabriel kissed Sammael again, feeling a grin stretching her face wide. This feud might soon be over, and Heaven could go back to the way it was! “Right now, I have to go and reassure everyone that I’m not abandoning them. I’m not abandoning you either. I’ll return soon, couple of weeks at the most. I promise.”
Sammael pouted, but he unfolded his arms to let her go. She gave him one last smile before twisting around to resume her run for the exit.
The web of energy snared her as she tried to push out of Sammael’s realm, and for one brief moment of panic she wondered if he wouldn’t actually let her go. The invisible strands drew tight around her, cutting through her grace, but then they snapped free and she was through, falling to her hands and knees on the rocky floor on Earth’s side. The massive, steaming river roared in front of her, louder even than her scream as awareness slammed back into her consciousness. Every last one of her brothers’ presences, from Michael in his heavenly tower to the lowest Cherubim flitting through the clouds, filled her mind, their songs a harsh cacophony of noise that destroyed the silence she had grown accustomed to. Father filled her again, a pulsing heart of grace that swelled inside her chest and made her whole body ache, feeling too tight, too stuffed. She gasped, clawing at the rock so she didn’t rip at her own skin, willing the Host to quiet down. Had she really been away for so long that she had forgotten all of this?
“Gabriel!”
Hands touched her, hands of light and power, glowing with a brilliance that made her eyes water and sting. They were warm hands, large and unsure, and she flinched away from the touch-notSammael whoareyou howdidyougethere!?
“Gabriel?” That voice again, high and pure and angelic, thrumming against her grace. This was how angels sounded, how they spoke in their true forms. Gabriel knew this voice, harsh as it felt right now. Had Sammael’s realm really been so dulling? Had she actually considered staying?
“C-Cariel?” she stammered, blinking rapidly to try to alleviate the pain. “Cariel, dim your halo, please!”
The glow was gone almost immediately, as Cariel wrapped his grace in tight, cloaking himself to human senses. He was much more tolerable like this, and Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief, reaching up to rub her eyes gingerly. “Figures you’d be the first to notice my return.”
“It’s been five days, Gabriel! Your grace was gone! We thought Sammael had killed you!”
Cariel’s distress reawakened old instincts, and Gabriel surged forward to wrap her second in her wings, drawing him close. Cariel pressed against her, clinging to her, shivering faintly. “We thought you were dead, Gabriel. You promised you’d keep me updated, but nothing, and your grace was gone. No one could find you anywhere. Michael’s locked himself in his tower. Raphael has been trying to keep the Host calm. Sammael was put under guard until we could find some proof of your death…”
“Shh,” Gabriel murmured, stroking Cariel’s wings. “I’m not dead, Cariel. I’m here. I’m right here. I’m alive, and I’m uninjured, and… five days!?” She drew back enough to stare down at her second. “It’s only been five days?”
Cariel nodded, looking up, reaching for her cheek. “Five long days. We didn’t know if we’d ever find you. This river is caustic enough to sear away any residue from burnt out grace, even that of an Archangel. It was the perfect place for an assassination.”
“I thought…” Years, Sammael had said. Had he known, or had he only guessed? It was hard to tell time in his realm. He had probably just been mistaken. “Never mind.” Gabriel shook her head, giving Cariel one last squeeze before releasing him and looking around. Already, old habits were returning to her. She could filter the Host now, dialing down the volume so the loud din became a reassuring murmur. Her spirit had stretched around the presence of her Father, no longer feeling like it was about to split at the seams. Cariel’s grace was comforting again, instead of a harsh glare. “I was in another dimension. There.” She pointed at the opening in the rock face, through which she could only see darkness. “Didn’t anyone look?”
“We tried.” Cariel straightened up, pulling composure back around him as surely as he had pulled in his grace. “No one could penetrate the wards put up there. Michael came down himself and battered at the rock, but they held even against him. We figured if he couldn’t pass them, neither could you.”
“They were keyed to me.” Gabriel stepped up to the entrance to Sammael’s realm again, running her hand over the stone. She could feel the rough gouges from Michael’s attack. He must have used his affinity for earth to try to pull the gate apart. How had they not felt anything from within? “Sammael invented his own warding, things even I have never seen before.”
“They worked.” Cariel’s eyes never left Gabriel, tracking her as she moved across the ledge. “He made an effective prison. How did you manage to escape?”
“Prison?” Gabriel looked sharply back at Cariel. “This is no prison. It’s a pocket dimension, not a cage!”
“So… you hid for five days?”
“I… lost track of time. There’s no means of tracking it in there. Sammael and I were exploring. He’s much calmer now.” Gabriel didn’t feel any need to give even Cariel a full accounting of her activities in Sammael’s dimension. “I honestly thought I was gone for years when I realized.”
Cariel shook his head, frowning at her. “Sammael wasn’t in there.”
“I think I’d know my own brother.”
“He wasn’t,” Cariel repeated. “He’s been in the ocean this whole time.”
“Sammael’s been at my side,” Gabriel said slowly, turning back to Cariel.
“Zachariah has stationed five of his garrisons over the ocean, and they’ve all been watching Sammael ever since your grace vanished. He’s seated in the deepest trench of the ocean, and he hasn’t stirred since, but he is definitely there. His grace is unmistakable.”
“That’s impossible.” No angel could be in two places at once, not even an Archangel. “Sammael followed me into this dimension. He hasn’t left my side, not once.”
Cariel tilted his head to the side, his gaze growing distant as he called to Zachariah over their choir’s frequency. Gabriel could hear his query and Zachariah’s response confirming that the Archangel of the Water had taken shelter in the one place on Earth no other angel dared to challenge him.
“I know my brother!” Gabriel snapped, denying Zachariah’s insistences.
“So do we.” Cariel focused on Gabriel again, still frowning. “You were gone, your grace snuffed out. Sammael flew from here to there. In his current, ah, unsettled state, we feared the worst and took precautions.
Gabriel looked back at the gate to Sammael’s realm, frowning. If she returned, she’d suffer through the ripping agony of being emptied of her Father and the Host again, and then suffer through having it stuffed all back inside her once she returned. Cariel probably couldn’t pass through the gate yet; Sammael had offered to add her Seraph’s name to the wards, but she doubted he’d do anything until she returned. “We’ll go to Zachariah,” she decided. “Let me see for myself what Sammael’s up to.”
Cariel nodded and spread his six wings, which were easily dwarfed by Gabriel’s hundreds. The power difference between the two classes of angels was glaringly obvious when they stood side-by-side like this, but Cariel didn’t flinch away from Gabriel’s impressive display. “I’ll need a vessel, if I’m going to stay on Earth much longer.”
“Take one and meet me with Zachariah.”
Gabriel didn’t leap into the air like she had with Sammael. Physical flying was the most pleasurable way to travel, but when time was of the essence, there was only one way to travel. Gabriel released her grace, expanding out, once again both everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. She folded back in on herself over the Pacific Ocean, beside Zachariah. Five of his Dominions and all of their garrisons, all envesseled, patrolled the air over the blue water, their gazes focused on the bubble of grace far below, little waves stirred up by their powerful wingbeats.
“Gabriel!” Zachariah bowed low, his highest set of wings almost dipping into the ocean. All the lesser angels within ten meters practically folded themselves in half, and Gabriel winced. With all the fighting between Michael and Sammael, all the secret-keeping, it had been a long time since Archangels walked in the presence of Dominions and Angels. Apparently, old habits were resurfacing, and Gabriel’s choir was remembering how they used to be insufferably reverent of her power.
“Your presence is a surprise! We thought you had been gruesomely murdered!”
“So I’ve heard, and so I’m not.” Gabriel beckoned her brothers upright, barely managing to refrain from rolling her eyes. “Stop with the scraping! We’re all brothers here. And speaking of brothers…” Gabriel snapped her fingers at the youngest angel who had bowed, blue-eyed Castiel, whose very grace was singing in relief at the sight of her. “Castiel. Come here.”
The little angel flew forward, nervously glancing to his superiors for approval-first Anael, who smiled warmly at him, then at Zachariah, who jerked his head toward Gabriel impatiently. Gabriel frowned at Castiel’s reactions. She really had been too distant for too long if this was how her favorite Angel was reacting to her presence, once again skittish and uncertain of his place in the Host.
“Y-yes, Choirmaster?” Castiel knelt on the air in front of Gabriel, flinching as she seized him by the shoulders and pulled him up again. His vessel was a young man, taller than Sorcha but thinner, underfed. His huge blue eyes were a perfect match for the Angel’s, though, and Gabriel softened as she looked into them. She willed her frustration at the whole situation into the back of her mind, pulling it out of her grace so she stopped radiating upset and frightening the younger angels. It helped that Cariel chose that moment to materialize at her right hand, now in a vessel of his own. His company was infinitely preferable to the warmonger Zachariah’s.
“Stand up, Castiel. You’re not in trouble.” Gabriel reached out with a wing to smooth over Castiel’s, finding a fond smile just for him. “I need you to deliver a message for me. Can you do that?”
“Yes, Gabriel.” Castiel’s voice shook less as he rose, leaning into Gabriel’s caress like he did when he was a fledgling. “I will not disappoint you.”
From any other angel, that statement would have been unnecessary, just empty pleasantries; no angel ever tried to disappoint another. Castiel, though, spoke with earnest intent. His many failures, from his disastrous fledging to the destruction of the last unicorn herd, had been woven into the song of Heaven. Some angels even whispered about him as ‘the little angel who couldn’t,’ though Gabriel did all she could to silence those unkind teasings.
Castiel had done much better once Gabriel had gotten him away from Raphael. Her twin was many things, but patient in the face of failure was not one of them. Gabriel, on the other hand, had nothing but patience for Castiel, and she had purposely assigned him to her warmest Dominion, Anael, along with Castiel’s partner, an unruly Angel named Balthazar. Under Anael’s guiding hand, the two had grown into shining examples of Angels.
Perhaps more accurately, the two Angels were the most unintentionally troublesome partnership in all of Heaven. Castiel still had mishaps, though without the constant fear of punishment from his superiors, he had managed to relax and not leave so much inadvertent destruction in his wake. Balthazar often slipped away from his duties (and tempted Castiel along with him), unable to keep his hands off of things that did not belong to him. But Castiel hadn’t driven any new species to extinction and Balthazar’s antics were frequently more entertaining than dangerous, so Gabriel counted them both as successes.
Trusting Castiel to deliver a message was possibly a mistake, as Zachariah’s expression implied, but Gabriel wanted to give her little brother as many chances as possible to prove his worth. If he was never given responsibility, how could he ever grow out of his unfortunate reputation?
“I need you to go to Michael, in his tower. Tell him I’m not dead and will come home after I speak with Sammael. Make sure Michael himself gets this message, okay?”
“Yes, Gabriel. Tell Michael himself that you are not dead and will come home as soon as you are done with Sammael.”
“Good brother,” Gabriel said with another caress over Castiel’s wings. “Go.” The younger angel blinked out of their presence with a rustle of feathers.
“If Michael gets a message at all, it’ll probably be garbled into proclaiming your death,” Zachariah warned. “More than likely, Castiel will get lost in a cloud.”
“I like him,” Cariel defended. “He certainly has the most zeal for doing his job.”
“If zeal were real, Castiel would be an Archangel,” Zachariah grumbled right back.
“Regardless of his abilities, the message has been sent. I won’t undermine an angel of my choir by sending a second.” Gabriel stepped between the Seraphim, her words ending the argument. “Zachariah, what has Sammael said in the past five days?”
“Nothing.”
Now that he was being debriefed by his superior, Zachariah snapped into a more professional demeanor. “We haven’t spoken with him. We were ordered to hold our ground here and give chase if he moved.”
“By?”
“The orders came down from Michael.”
Gabriel nodded once. If Raphael had tried commanding her choir after only five days, she would need to have some very strong words with him. Michael was her superior, so he was allowed to take command. As her equal, Raphael was not. “So you haven’t approached him?”
Zachariah’s wings tightened. “He was potentially murderous and sitting beneath nearly seven miles of water.”
In other words, no, Zachariah was neither suicidal nor willing to risk his garrisons, and Michael had been too aware of the danger to order them into the sea. With his water core, Sammael was strongest when he was submerged. Challenging him in the ocean was the last mistake someone could make. Even Michael was weaker than Sammael beneath the waves.
That also meant no one had gotten close enough to see how Sammael was in two places at once. The grace below the gathered angels was definitely Sammael’s, though it was weak and filtered, as if he were hiding in a vessel. Gabriel gave Zachariah another nod of understanding and scrutinized the ocean.
Sammael was not murderous, and he loved her. He would not (likely) attack her unless she managed to completely offend him, and while he had been pouting when she left him, Sammael had been calm and stable, not likely to become unhinged over nothing.
But that had been the version of Sammael Gabriel had lived with for past five days, in his private realm. This Sammael couldn’t be him. This Sammael could potentially still be furious over the fight with Michael.
“Cariel.”
“Yes, Gabriel?” Cariel was immediately at her side, ready for whatever she asked.
“We will descend together. Just us. Zachariah, you continue to hold your positions up here. If we signal distress, bring down your garrisons for an extraction only.” There was no need to risk lives by upsetting Sammael with a show of force.
“Yes, Gabriel,” her Seraphim chorused. Zachariah retreated to his Dominions as Cariel and Gabriel tucked their wings in tight and dove into the ocean. Gabriel gave a full-body shiver as the water closed around her, drowning her inner fire, suffocating her. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced those thoughts to the back of her mind. It was all in her head. Water wouldn’t hurt her. She could endure this.
As the water grew darker around them, Gabriel stretched out her grace and brushed against Cariel’s, whispering privately into his mind. Slow down. I want to talk to you before we meet Sammael.
Your wish, my wings, Cariel answered, flaring said wings to create a drag on his descent. Gabriel did the same, slowing down to half speed to buy them some more time. Talk about what?
First, Naomi. Gabriel’s lips twisted in distaste at the thought of Cariel’s partner. Naomi was one of Michael’s Seraphim, second class, powerful in her own right, but she was also one of the biggest annoyances in Gabriel’s life. Ever since Sammael had been banished from Heaven, she had made it her personal mission to get Gabriel kicked out of his Messenger position. Somehow, she had managed to convince Raphael that it was a good idea (though Gabriel suspected that was more from Raphael’s desire to heckle Gabriel than out of any belief that Gabriel was incompetent in his duties). Michael had refused her constant proposals, resolute in the belief that until God said otherwise, Gabriel would remain Heaven’s Messenger. She is your partner.
Cariel actually growled at Naomi’s name, a rare reaction from an angel. While not all adored their partners the way Michael and Sammael once had, nearly all found peace at their partners’ sides, a greater comfort and security there than with any other angel. Cariel and Naomi had been that way once, the best of friends, spending every spare moment they had with their heads bowed together, wings around each other. In name only. Sometimes, I think we’re even colder than you infamous twins.
I’m sorry to hear that. Lie. They both knew it. That had been exactly what Gabriel wanted to hear. She was sad that Cariel now understood the loneliness that came without a loving partner, but she was glad he had no sense of loyalty left to the irritating Seraph.
I’m not! That bitch threw me under the cart over Mesopotamia, and what she’s been trying to do with you is unacceptable! She didn’t even bother to give the Host a chance to grieve you before she was petitioning Michael to appoint a new Messenger. I nearly ripped her wings off myself when I heard what she was up to!
Gabriel grinned, reaching out to squeeze Cariel’s wrist in appreciation. I’m glad to hear that. Your loyalty is why I wanted you down here with me, instead of Zachariah.
Cariel gave Gabriel a sharp-eyed look, his anger at Naomi already bleeding away. You still don’t believe Sammael is down here.
I know my brother, Gabriel repeated. This may be a trick of his, but it’s not him. He was with me the entire time.
With you, or “with” you?
Gabriel gaped at her impudent Seraph as he emphasized the second ‘with,’ swinging a wing around to swat the side of his head. That’s irrelevant! And none of your business! None of anyone’s business! She was protesting too much, and Cariel knew it, if his smirk was anything to judge by.
For a kiss, I won’t tell anyone. Cariel winked at Gabriel, the gesture invisible to all but angelic senses in the dark ocean.
And now extortion? For all her protests, Gabriel was laughing. Only Cariel would dare to tease her like this, his quips making her laugh in spite of the stress.
Cariel laughed along with her, twisting his arm in her hand so he could catch her wrist and give it a squeeze. You know I wouldn’t say a word, even without the kiss. My loyalty is to you. But I have to say, I understand why Sammael would secret you away for so long, making sure you weren’t interrupted.
You admire my vessel, Gabriel protested.
I admire the spirit within.
Cariel’s last statement hadn’t been teasing at all. Gabriel looked over at him, saw the absolute seriousness in his grace, the affection reflected in his eyes. He couldn’t love her. He couldn’t. Not like how she loved Michael or Sammael. They weren’t even the same rank! You flirt above your station.
Cariel looked down at her words, just a small flicker of his eyes, his grace carefully held in check. Gabriel’s own grace clenched at the sight, and she used her hand on his arm to tug herself against him, brushing her lips over his cheek. She could give him this much, for all his loyalty.
The Seraph looked up at the contact, and before Gabriel could react, he had turned, sliding their mouths together. She gasped as Cariel stole a kiss, the press of their lips electrifying, igniting Gabriel’s grace even despite the crushing water around her. He pulled away too soon, drawing his arm away from her and offering her a smile. So sorry, boss. Couldn’t resist.
Gabriel blinked at Cariel, belatedly realizing that they had both flared their wings fully and come to a complete stop in the water. Try to, next time. Cariel grinned brightly, and Gabriel realized she had implied there would be a next time. Shaking her wings, Gabriel folded them and dove again, headed for the bubble of Sammael’s grace. Cariel followed just behind her.
Sammael’s grace was a divine glow in the deep ocean’s gloom, but nothing more. It sat in a crevice on the ocean floor, humming gently with power, completely devoid of an angel within. Gabriel and Cariel spread their wings to land gently, stirring up mud beneath their feet. The grace pulsed gently at their presence, its glow flickering stronger where it was closest to them. Gabriel frowned, stretching out her hand toward the bright patch of light.
Gabriel, don’t! Cariel lashed out to catch her hand, holding her back. It could be a trap.
Gabriel almost protested that Sammael would never hurt her, but she stopped herself. Cariel was right-it could be a trap, triggered by contact, trying to tempt someone into touching it by responding to their presence. Without Sammael himself physically here to control it, his grace might not distinguish between the various angels. Underwater, even a small amount of Sammael’s grace could be enough to obliterate Gabriel if it went supernova on her.
Drawing her hand back, Gabriel paced around the glowing bubble. I didn’t know you could do this, pull your grace away from your spirit without it dissipating.
Nor I, Cariel agreed, hanging back and rubbing his hands over his arms. His vessel couldn’t be feeling the cold, but something about this situation was making even Gabriel feel uneasy. Sammael can be ingenious when he feels like it.
Gabriel nodded her agreement, flexing her wings thoughtfully. Twisting, she grabbed a handful of her own grace and pulled, but nothing happened. The grace flowed around her as it always did, not separating.
Cariel.
Yes, Gabriel?
You promised me silence in exchange for a kiss. For the kiss you stole, I expect your silence on this too.
Cariel looked at the grace, then back to Gabriel. You’re going to cover for him. It wasn’t a question.
I don’t know yet. I want to talk to him first.
And you don’t want word getting out before you’ve made up your mind.
Now you’re getting it. Gabriel turned and seized Cariel’s arms, her fingers bruising the human flesh that even the crushing pressure of the water above couldn’t harm. Not a word, not to anyone. Not Zachariah, not Naomi, none of your garrisons. Is that understood?
My loyalty is to you, Cariel immediately answered. You don’t even have to ask.
Next...
Notes: In this story, before Lucifer fell, his name was Sammael. He was not Lucifer in Heaven.
There is one other canon character operating under an OC name, but I wish for his identity to remain unknown.
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 5,588
Chapter Summary: Years in Hell run together, and Gabriel has to return to her choir. All is not as she expected, however, and Cariel has missed her.
CHAPTER 17:
Gabriel’s Return
Time had no meaning in Sammael’s realm. There was no sun tracking through the sky and no way to peek out at the physical realm. Gabriel lost herself in exploring every last nook and cranny Sammael had made, marveling at her brother’s ingenuity. He was always at her side, his eyes glittering with joy as he showed off his world, fluffing his wings proudly with every bit of praise she sang to him. He let her create too, let her leave her mark on this world, hollowing out new expanses and digging deep into the nothingness that all things came from.
“What are you thinking?” Sammael’s arms slid around Gabriel’s waist as his mouth found her ear. Gabriel fluttered her wings and leaned back into her brother’s embrace.
“This is abrupt.” Gabriel pointed at a stone wall, where a passage bent sharply and continued away. “It feels like something else should be there. I want something else there. I can’t explain it.”
“That’s how it always starts.” Sammael’s smile curved against Gabriel’s cheek and he reached forward, stroking his fingers over the wall even as he kept her pinned between his arms. “How all of the creation of this realm started. It spoke to me, told me what it wanted, and I found a way to shape it. It’s speaking to you now.”
“To me?” Gabriel twisted her head to look at Sammael. “How can it speak to me? It’s yours.”
“Ours,” Sammael corrected. “Go on, look at it again. It wants something else there? How can you set it free?”
Gabriel reached out, pressing her hands between Sammael’s. “Heat,” she declared. “This rock wants to melt away.”
“Do it.”
Sammael’s tempting whisper in her ear was all the permission Gabriel needed. She closed her eyes and took a deep, unnecessary breath, sinking deep within the core of her spirit. Her fire raged around her, licking at her conscience, celebrating her presence. Burn, the Archangel whispered to her flames. They roared higher, streaming out through her arms as she shoved the pure inferno at the rock. It glowed and melted, streaming away from her hands, illuminating her grin. Sammael nipped at her ear before he summoned up his own water, forcing it into the cracks in the rock. Gabriel chased after it, flashing the water into steam that pulverized solid stone with the sudden pressure. The tiny fragments melted even quicker, running across the floor and hardening into smooth glass under Sammael’s deluge.
Together, they opened up a massive chamber every bit as large as some of the fields of Heaven. It sloped down gradually until the ceiling was too high up for even sharp angel eyes to see. Gabriel stood in the middle and laughed, stretching out her wings fully and feeling like she was out in the open instead of confined beneath the ground. She had created this, with Sammael’s help! She had created!
There were many levels to this realm, but Gabriel’s favorite locations were still the massive obsidian field and a conical pit of fire deep within the bowels of the dimension, both of which had been shaped at her hands. She loved Sammael’s magmafall too and would often swoop and dive through the churning, molten rock, whooping with glee as Sammael sat on one of the crystalline ledges and just watched her, shaking his head. The magma was too intense for him to enjoy the way she did. Even just sitting close enough to watch could make him steam after a few minutes, but he never once tried to stop her from reveling in her own element.
Sammael also never again asked Gabriel to rule with him from this realm. He never asked her to stay by his side. Gabriel appreciated his care. He promised that her choice would be her choice, and he was respecting her inability to make up her mind. While the realm itself was staggeringly beautiful-once she got past the bone Sammael used to support every new ceiling or the bloodlike melting sulfur that blossomed in every crevice or the massive root system that slowly but surely worked its way through every layer of this underworld, like a giant living creature that only tolerated the touch of its master, Sammael-the hollow emptiness that resonated in her chest was never far from her mind. It was like a bruised limb she could forget about until she brushed it against something and ignited a new flood of agony. Sammael did what he could to distract her mind from the lack of the Host, and when words alone weren’t enough, he distracted her body from the emptiness with his own.
As every moment melted together, running into a continuous, sticky-slow stream of time, Gabriel found herself growing numb to the ache. It was still there, it still hurt, but it didn’t matter so much. Nothing mattered much, she mused one hour, as she lay against Sammael’s bare chest, his fingers carding through her frizzy curls. She had her brother, and she had her fire. What else did she need? God? Humanity? What did they ever do for her? Michael? Cariel? They never-
Gabriel jerked upright with a gasp, her hands flying to her mouth. “Cariel!”
“Hmm?” Sammael lifted his head to look at her, a puzzled frown creasing his forehead. “What about him?”
“I promised Cariel I’d keep in touch!” Gabriel grabbed for her dress. “Sammael, how long have we been down here? Days?”
Sammael shrugged lazily, reaching out to help her dress (but really just running his hands over her skin before she could cover it. “Weeks, at least. Months probably. A year or two.”
“A year or two!?” Gabriel snapped her wings out, using them to help propel her along the roads of this realm. Sammael followed. “Sammael, I have responsibilities! A choir! And Cariel, I promised Cariel I’d keep him updated! Blessed Father, they probably think I’ve run off on them!”
“Gabriel! Gabriel, calm down!” Sammael surged forward, grabbed her wings, and gently yanked her to a halt. “Gabriel, shh, calm. You’ve been gone this long already. What’s a few more minutes?”
“Sammael, I have to go!”
“Stay.” Sammael pulled her back into his arms, resting his forehead against hers. “Please, Gabriel. Stay with me.”
“But Cariel,” Gabriel whispered, closing her eyes as Sammael brushed his lips against hers. “Cariel, my choir… I can’t abandon them, Sammael…”
“They can come too. I can write their names into the wards. This can be their home too. Many in my choir are already permitted. Yours can be too. This can be our home, the two of us against the two left in Heaven.”
Cariel would follow Gabriel anywhere. Gabriel didn’t even have to ask to know he’d say yes. But what about the others? Gentle Barachiel would suffer underground. He lived for the sun and the Earth. Zachariah would rage, pent up down here. He needed enemies to fight and subdue. And what of the younger angels, of sweet Anael, or little Castiel with his fierce need to be the best Angel in all of Heaven? He wouldn’t understand the move. He’d see it as a punishment, as yet another way he wasn’t good enough. Those were just her angels. What about the ones she’d leave behind, her friends in Michael and Raphael’s choirs? What about Michael himself? Or the Cherubim, whom she always made a point of speaking with whenever she saw them? Joshua, who gave her a flower every time she visited the Garden? There were too many to think about, too many to worry about, too many to ask to follow her here.
“I love you, Sammael, I do,” Gabriel pulled away from the kiss, pressing her face into her brother’s shoulder.
“But?” Sammael already sounded resigned, leaning down to rest his cheek against her hair.
“But Heaven is my home. Is their home. I can’t ask them to leave, and I can’t leave them. I can’t, Sammael. I just can’t.”
“So you would leave me instead?”
“I would take you with me.” Gabriel clasped Sammael’s hands in hers, looked up into his grey eyes, begging him to have faith again. “I’ll talk to Michael. It’s been so long, I’m sure he’s calmed down. I’ll talk with him about ending your exile. He still loves you, Sammael. He has to. If he didn’t love you, your loss wouldn’t hurt him as much as it does. Your choir misses you; you may allow them to come here, but they still dwell in Heaven. Even Father feels your absence. He said as much, last time He called me in to deliver a message.”
“It’s not that simple, Gabriel.” Sammael squeezed Gabriel’s hands. “My grievances with Heaven and Michael are more than just my banishment. And don’t forget how I broke his wing. He won’t be very forgiving about that.”
“I’ll talk to Michael,” Gabriel repeated. “Maybe… maybe the two of you can talk? I can bring him here, so he can see how you’ve been spending your time. You can show him all that you’ve made, just the two of you. Maybe that’s all you need? A bit of privacy, so you can say anything you need.”
Sammael was silent, looking down at Gabriel, before he heaved a sigh. “You really want this.”
“I want you two to stop fighting. Heaven’s not heavenly without its greatest partnership. I hate being stuck in the middle between you two, and I hate not having you near.” Gabriel leaned up on her toes to kiss Sammael gently. “Promise me you’ll at least try? If I can get Michael to come here, promise me you’ll talk to him?”
“If it means that much to you,” Sammael finally relented. “If it really matters that much, then I’ll talk. But he has to promise to listen.”
“He will. I’ll make sure of it.” Gabriel kissed Sammael again, feeling a grin stretching her face wide. This feud might soon be over, and Heaven could go back to the way it was! “Right now, I have to go and reassure everyone that I’m not abandoning them. I’m not abandoning you either. I’ll return soon, couple of weeks at the most. I promise.”
Sammael pouted, but he unfolded his arms to let her go. She gave him one last smile before twisting around to resume her run for the exit.
The web of energy snared her as she tried to push out of Sammael’s realm, and for one brief moment of panic she wondered if he wouldn’t actually let her go. The invisible strands drew tight around her, cutting through her grace, but then they snapped free and she was through, falling to her hands and knees on the rocky floor on Earth’s side. The massive, steaming river roared in front of her, louder even than her scream as awareness slammed back into her consciousness. Every last one of her brothers’ presences, from Michael in his heavenly tower to the lowest Cherubim flitting through the clouds, filled her mind, their songs a harsh cacophony of noise that destroyed the silence she had grown accustomed to. Father filled her again, a pulsing heart of grace that swelled inside her chest and made her whole body ache, feeling too tight, too stuffed. She gasped, clawing at the rock so she didn’t rip at her own skin, willing the Host to quiet down. Had she really been away for so long that she had forgotten all of this?
“Gabriel!”
Hands touched her, hands of light and power, glowing with a brilliance that made her eyes water and sting. They were warm hands, large and unsure, and she flinched away from the touch-notSammael whoareyou howdidyougethere!?
“Gabriel?” That voice again, high and pure and angelic, thrumming against her grace. This was how angels sounded, how they spoke in their true forms. Gabriel knew this voice, harsh as it felt right now. Had Sammael’s realm really been so dulling? Had she actually considered staying?
“C-Cariel?” she stammered, blinking rapidly to try to alleviate the pain. “Cariel, dim your halo, please!”
The glow was gone almost immediately, as Cariel wrapped his grace in tight, cloaking himself to human senses. He was much more tolerable like this, and Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief, reaching up to rub her eyes gingerly. “Figures you’d be the first to notice my return.”
“It’s been five days, Gabriel! Your grace was gone! We thought Sammael had killed you!”
Cariel’s distress reawakened old instincts, and Gabriel surged forward to wrap her second in her wings, drawing him close. Cariel pressed against her, clinging to her, shivering faintly. “We thought you were dead, Gabriel. You promised you’d keep me updated, but nothing, and your grace was gone. No one could find you anywhere. Michael’s locked himself in his tower. Raphael has been trying to keep the Host calm. Sammael was put under guard until we could find some proof of your death…”
“Shh,” Gabriel murmured, stroking Cariel’s wings. “I’m not dead, Cariel. I’m here. I’m right here. I’m alive, and I’m uninjured, and… five days!?” She drew back enough to stare down at her second. “It’s only been five days?”
Cariel nodded, looking up, reaching for her cheek. “Five long days. We didn’t know if we’d ever find you. This river is caustic enough to sear away any residue from burnt out grace, even that of an Archangel. It was the perfect place for an assassination.”
“I thought…” Years, Sammael had said. Had he known, or had he only guessed? It was hard to tell time in his realm. He had probably just been mistaken. “Never mind.” Gabriel shook her head, giving Cariel one last squeeze before releasing him and looking around. Already, old habits were returning to her. She could filter the Host now, dialing down the volume so the loud din became a reassuring murmur. Her spirit had stretched around the presence of her Father, no longer feeling like it was about to split at the seams. Cariel’s grace was comforting again, instead of a harsh glare. “I was in another dimension. There.” She pointed at the opening in the rock face, through which she could only see darkness. “Didn’t anyone look?”
“We tried.” Cariel straightened up, pulling composure back around him as surely as he had pulled in his grace. “No one could penetrate the wards put up there. Michael came down himself and battered at the rock, but they held even against him. We figured if he couldn’t pass them, neither could you.”
“They were keyed to me.” Gabriel stepped up to the entrance to Sammael’s realm again, running her hand over the stone. She could feel the rough gouges from Michael’s attack. He must have used his affinity for earth to try to pull the gate apart. How had they not felt anything from within? “Sammael invented his own warding, things even I have never seen before.”
“They worked.” Cariel’s eyes never left Gabriel, tracking her as she moved across the ledge. “He made an effective prison. How did you manage to escape?”
“Prison?” Gabriel looked sharply back at Cariel. “This is no prison. It’s a pocket dimension, not a cage!”
“So… you hid for five days?”
“I… lost track of time. There’s no means of tracking it in there. Sammael and I were exploring. He’s much calmer now.” Gabriel didn’t feel any need to give even Cariel a full accounting of her activities in Sammael’s dimension. “I honestly thought I was gone for years when I realized.”
Cariel shook his head, frowning at her. “Sammael wasn’t in there.”
“I think I’d know my own brother.”
“He wasn’t,” Cariel repeated. “He’s been in the ocean this whole time.”
“Sammael’s been at my side,” Gabriel said slowly, turning back to Cariel.
“Zachariah has stationed five of his garrisons over the ocean, and they’ve all been watching Sammael ever since your grace vanished. He’s seated in the deepest trench of the ocean, and he hasn’t stirred since, but he is definitely there. His grace is unmistakable.”
“That’s impossible.” No angel could be in two places at once, not even an Archangel. “Sammael followed me into this dimension. He hasn’t left my side, not once.”
Cariel tilted his head to the side, his gaze growing distant as he called to Zachariah over their choir’s frequency. Gabriel could hear his query and Zachariah’s response confirming that the Archangel of the Water had taken shelter in the one place on Earth no other angel dared to challenge him.
“I know my brother!” Gabriel snapped, denying Zachariah’s insistences.
“So do we.” Cariel focused on Gabriel again, still frowning. “You were gone, your grace snuffed out. Sammael flew from here to there. In his current, ah, unsettled state, we feared the worst and took precautions.
Gabriel looked back at the gate to Sammael’s realm, frowning. If she returned, she’d suffer through the ripping agony of being emptied of her Father and the Host again, and then suffer through having it stuffed all back inside her once she returned. Cariel probably couldn’t pass through the gate yet; Sammael had offered to add her Seraph’s name to the wards, but she doubted he’d do anything until she returned. “We’ll go to Zachariah,” she decided. “Let me see for myself what Sammael’s up to.”
Cariel nodded and spread his six wings, which were easily dwarfed by Gabriel’s hundreds. The power difference between the two classes of angels was glaringly obvious when they stood side-by-side like this, but Cariel didn’t flinch away from Gabriel’s impressive display. “I’ll need a vessel, if I’m going to stay on Earth much longer.”
“Take one and meet me with Zachariah.”
Gabriel didn’t leap into the air like she had with Sammael. Physical flying was the most pleasurable way to travel, but when time was of the essence, there was only one way to travel. Gabriel released her grace, expanding out, once again both everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. She folded back in on herself over the Pacific Ocean, beside Zachariah. Five of his Dominions and all of their garrisons, all envesseled, patrolled the air over the blue water, their gazes focused on the bubble of grace far below, little waves stirred up by their powerful wingbeats.
“Gabriel!” Zachariah bowed low, his highest set of wings almost dipping into the ocean. All the lesser angels within ten meters practically folded themselves in half, and Gabriel winced. With all the fighting between Michael and Sammael, all the secret-keeping, it had been a long time since Archangels walked in the presence of Dominions and Angels. Apparently, old habits were resurfacing, and Gabriel’s choir was remembering how they used to be insufferably reverent of her power.
“Your presence is a surprise! We thought you had been gruesomely murdered!”
“So I’ve heard, and so I’m not.” Gabriel beckoned her brothers upright, barely managing to refrain from rolling her eyes. “Stop with the scraping! We’re all brothers here. And speaking of brothers…” Gabriel snapped her fingers at the youngest angel who had bowed, blue-eyed Castiel, whose very grace was singing in relief at the sight of her. “Castiel. Come here.”
The little angel flew forward, nervously glancing to his superiors for approval-first Anael, who smiled warmly at him, then at Zachariah, who jerked his head toward Gabriel impatiently. Gabriel frowned at Castiel’s reactions. She really had been too distant for too long if this was how her favorite Angel was reacting to her presence, once again skittish and uncertain of his place in the Host.
“Y-yes, Choirmaster?” Castiel knelt on the air in front of Gabriel, flinching as she seized him by the shoulders and pulled him up again. His vessel was a young man, taller than Sorcha but thinner, underfed. His huge blue eyes were a perfect match for the Angel’s, though, and Gabriel softened as she looked into them. She willed her frustration at the whole situation into the back of her mind, pulling it out of her grace so she stopped radiating upset and frightening the younger angels. It helped that Cariel chose that moment to materialize at her right hand, now in a vessel of his own. His company was infinitely preferable to the warmonger Zachariah’s.
“Stand up, Castiel. You’re not in trouble.” Gabriel reached out with a wing to smooth over Castiel’s, finding a fond smile just for him. “I need you to deliver a message for me. Can you do that?”
“Yes, Gabriel.” Castiel’s voice shook less as he rose, leaning into Gabriel’s caress like he did when he was a fledgling. “I will not disappoint you.”
From any other angel, that statement would have been unnecessary, just empty pleasantries; no angel ever tried to disappoint another. Castiel, though, spoke with earnest intent. His many failures, from his disastrous fledging to the destruction of the last unicorn herd, had been woven into the song of Heaven. Some angels even whispered about him as ‘the little angel who couldn’t,’ though Gabriel did all she could to silence those unkind teasings.
Castiel had done much better once Gabriel had gotten him away from Raphael. Her twin was many things, but patient in the face of failure was not one of them. Gabriel, on the other hand, had nothing but patience for Castiel, and she had purposely assigned him to her warmest Dominion, Anael, along with Castiel’s partner, an unruly Angel named Balthazar. Under Anael’s guiding hand, the two had grown into shining examples of Angels.
Perhaps more accurately, the two Angels were the most unintentionally troublesome partnership in all of Heaven. Castiel still had mishaps, though without the constant fear of punishment from his superiors, he had managed to relax and not leave so much inadvertent destruction in his wake. Balthazar often slipped away from his duties (and tempted Castiel along with him), unable to keep his hands off of things that did not belong to him. But Castiel hadn’t driven any new species to extinction and Balthazar’s antics were frequently more entertaining than dangerous, so Gabriel counted them both as successes.
Trusting Castiel to deliver a message was possibly a mistake, as Zachariah’s expression implied, but Gabriel wanted to give her little brother as many chances as possible to prove his worth. If he was never given responsibility, how could he ever grow out of his unfortunate reputation?
“I need you to go to Michael, in his tower. Tell him I’m not dead and will come home after I speak with Sammael. Make sure Michael himself gets this message, okay?”
“Yes, Gabriel. Tell Michael himself that you are not dead and will come home as soon as you are done with Sammael.”
“Good brother,” Gabriel said with another caress over Castiel’s wings. “Go.” The younger angel blinked out of their presence with a rustle of feathers.
“If Michael gets a message at all, it’ll probably be garbled into proclaiming your death,” Zachariah warned. “More than likely, Castiel will get lost in a cloud.”
“I like him,” Cariel defended. “He certainly has the most zeal for doing his job.”
“If zeal were real, Castiel would be an Archangel,” Zachariah grumbled right back.
“Regardless of his abilities, the message has been sent. I won’t undermine an angel of my choir by sending a second.” Gabriel stepped between the Seraphim, her words ending the argument. “Zachariah, what has Sammael said in the past five days?”
“Nothing.”
Now that he was being debriefed by his superior, Zachariah snapped into a more professional demeanor. “We haven’t spoken with him. We were ordered to hold our ground here and give chase if he moved.”
“By?”
“The orders came down from Michael.”
Gabriel nodded once. If Raphael had tried commanding her choir after only five days, she would need to have some very strong words with him. Michael was her superior, so he was allowed to take command. As her equal, Raphael was not. “So you haven’t approached him?”
Zachariah’s wings tightened. “He was potentially murderous and sitting beneath nearly seven miles of water.”
In other words, no, Zachariah was neither suicidal nor willing to risk his garrisons, and Michael had been too aware of the danger to order them into the sea. With his water core, Sammael was strongest when he was submerged. Challenging him in the ocean was the last mistake someone could make. Even Michael was weaker than Sammael beneath the waves.
That also meant no one had gotten close enough to see how Sammael was in two places at once. The grace below the gathered angels was definitely Sammael’s, though it was weak and filtered, as if he were hiding in a vessel. Gabriel gave Zachariah another nod of understanding and scrutinized the ocean.
Sammael was not murderous, and he loved her. He would not (likely) attack her unless she managed to completely offend him, and while he had been pouting when she left him, Sammael had been calm and stable, not likely to become unhinged over nothing.
But that had been the version of Sammael Gabriel had lived with for past five days, in his private realm. This Sammael couldn’t be him. This Sammael could potentially still be furious over the fight with Michael.
“Cariel.”
“Yes, Gabriel?” Cariel was immediately at her side, ready for whatever she asked.
“We will descend together. Just us. Zachariah, you continue to hold your positions up here. If we signal distress, bring down your garrisons for an extraction only.” There was no need to risk lives by upsetting Sammael with a show of force.
“Yes, Gabriel,” her Seraphim chorused. Zachariah retreated to his Dominions as Cariel and Gabriel tucked their wings in tight and dove into the ocean. Gabriel gave a full-body shiver as the water closed around her, drowning her inner fire, suffocating her. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced those thoughts to the back of her mind. It was all in her head. Water wouldn’t hurt her. She could endure this.
As the water grew darker around them, Gabriel stretched out her grace and brushed against Cariel’s, whispering privately into his mind. Slow down. I want to talk to you before we meet Sammael.
Your wish, my wings, Cariel answered, flaring said wings to create a drag on his descent. Gabriel did the same, slowing down to half speed to buy them some more time. Talk about what?
First, Naomi. Gabriel’s lips twisted in distaste at the thought of Cariel’s partner. Naomi was one of Michael’s Seraphim, second class, powerful in her own right, but she was also one of the biggest annoyances in Gabriel’s life. Ever since Sammael had been banished from Heaven, she had made it her personal mission to get Gabriel kicked out of his Messenger position. Somehow, she had managed to convince Raphael that it was a good idea (though Gabriel suspected that was more from Raphael’s desire to heckle Gabriel than out of any belief that Gabriel was incompetent in his duties). Michael had refused her constant proposals, resolute in the belief that until God said otherwise, Gabriel would remain Heaven’s Messenger. She is your partner.
Cariel actually growled at Naomi’s name, a rare reaction from an angel. While not all adored their partners the way Michael and Sammael once had, nearly all found peace at their partners’ sides, a greater comfort and security there than with any other angel. Cariel and Naomi had been that way once, the best of friends, spending every spare moment they had with their heads bowed together, wings around each other. In name only. Sometimes, I think we’re even colder than you infamous twins.
I’m sorry to hear that. Lie. They both knew it. That had been exactly what Gabriel wanted to hear. She was sad that Cariel now understood the loneliness that came without a loving partner, but she was glad he had no sense of loyalty left to the irritating Seraph.
I’m not! That bitch threw me under the cart over Mesopotamia, and what she’s been trying to do with you is unacceptable! She didn’t even bother to give the Host a chance to grieve you before she was petitioning Michael to appoint a new Messenger. I nearly ripped her wings off myself when I heard what she was up to!
Gabriel grinned, reaching out to squeeze Cariel’s wrist in appreciation. I’m glad to hear that. Your loyalty is why I wanted you down here with me, instead of Zachariah.
Cariel gave Gabriel a sharp-eyed look, his anger at Naomi already bleeding away. You still don’t believe Sammael is down here.
I know my brother, Gabriel repeated. This may be a trick of his, but it’s not him. He was with me the entire time.
With you, or “with” you?
Gabriel gaped at her impudent Seraph as he emphasized the second ‘with,’ swinging a wing around to swat the side of his head. That’s irrelevant! And none of your business! None of anyone’s business! She was protesting too much, and Cariel knew it, if his smirk was anything to judge by.
For a kiss, I won’t tell anyone. Cariel winked at Gabriel, the gesture invisible to all but angelic senses in the dark ocean.
And now extortion? For all her protests, Gabriel was laughing. Only Cariel would dare to tease her like this, his quips making her laugh in spite of the stress.
Cariel laughed along with her, twisting his arm in her hand so he could catch her wrist and give it a squeeze. You know I wouldn’t say a word, even without the kiss. My loyalty is to you. But I have to say, I understand why Sammael would secret you away for so long, making sure you weren’t interrupted.
You admire my vessel, Gabriel protested.
I admire the spirit within.
Cariel’s last statement hadn’t been teasing at all. Gabriel looked over at him, saw the absolute seriousness in his grace, the affection reflected in his eyes. He couldn’t love her. He couldn’t. Not like how she loved Michael or Sammael. They weren’t even the same rank! You flirt above your station.
Cariel looked down at her words, just a small flicker of his eyes, his grace carefully held in check. Gabriel’s own grace clenched at the sight, and she used her hand on his arm to tug herself against him, brushing her lips over his cheek. She could give him this much, for all his loyalty.
The Seraph looked up at the contact, and before Gabriel could react, he had turned, sliding their mouths together. She gasped as Cariel stole a kiss, the press of their lips electrifying, igniting Gabriel’s grace even despite the crushing water around her. He pulled away too soon, drawing his arm away from her and offering her a smile. So sorry, boss. Couldn’t resist.
Gabriel blinked at Cariel, belatedly realizing that they had both flared their wings fully and come to a complete stop in the water. Try to, next time. Cariel grinned brightly, and Gabriel realized she had implied there would be a next time. Shaking her wings, Gabriel folded them and dove again, headed for the bubble of Sammael’s grace. Cariel followed just behind her.
Sammael’s grace was a divine glow in the deep ocean’s gloom, but nothing more. It sat in a crevice on the ocean floor, humming gently with power, completely devoid of an angel within. Gabriel and Cariel spread their wings to land gently, stirring up mud beneath their feet. The grace pulsed gently at their presence, its glow flickering stronger where it was closest to them. Gabriel frowned, stretching out her hand toward the bright patch of light.
Gabriel, don’t! Cariel lashed out to catch her hand, holding her back. It could be a trap.
Gabriel almost protested that Sammael would never hurt her, but she stopped herself. Cariel was right-it could be a trap, triggered by contact, trying to tempt someone into touching it by responding to their presence. Without Sammael himself physically here to control it, his grace might not distinguish between the various angels. Underwater, even a small amount of Sammael’s grace could be enough to obliterate Gabriel if it went supernova on her.
Drawing her hand back, Gabriel paced around the glowing bubble. I didn’t know you could do this, pull your grace away from your spirit without it dissipating.
Nor I, Cariel agreed, hanging back and rubbing his hands over his arms. His vessel couldn’t be feeling the cold, but something about this situation was making even Gabriel feel uneasy. Sammael can be ingenious when he feels like it.
Gabriel nodded her agreement, flexing her wings thoughtfully. Twisting, she grabbed a handful of her own grace and pulled, but nothing happened. The grace flowed around her as it always did, not separating.
Cariel.
Yes, Gabriel?
You promised me silence in exchange for a kiss. For the kiss you stole, I expect your silence on this too.
Cariel looked at the grace, then back to Gabriel. You’re going to cover for him. It wasn’t a question.
I don’t know yet. I want to talk to him first.
And you don’t want word getting out before you’ve made up your mind.
Now you’re getting it. Gabriel turned and seized Cariel’s arms, her fingers bruising the human flesh that even the crushing pressure of the water above couldn’t harm. Not a word, not to anyone. Not Zachariah, not Naomi, none of your garrisons. Is that understood?
My loyalty is to you, Cariel immediately answered. You don’t even have to ask.
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