by J. L. Myers
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…
Chapter Twenty-Two
Watching from the looking glass, Michael had seen everything. Lucifer stealing below. Gabriel forcing him to leave. And then the humans—advancing on Gabriel with the intent to harm her.
To kill her.
Now he waited in silence, crippling emotions he shouldn’t feel swirling, but none as strong as the hate that had taken up residence in his heart.
He felt the moment Lucifer materialized above, even before his physical body reformed with a flare of light inside the scribe vault Michael had left him chained in. Lucifer was oblivious to what he’d caused as well as Michael’s waiting presence as he traversed instantly to his location. The disgraceful angel swooped up the manacle he had abandoned—as carelessly as he had abandoned her. But he never got the opportunity to return it to his ankle. Dropping the links with a clank, he straightened and spun to face away from the entry.
Michael moved too, catching Lucifer by his throat and squeezing with heavenly might. He snatched the robe pin from Lucifer’s shoulder with his free hand, feeling the stray remnants of power it had contained. “You deserve to die for what you have done.”
Lucifer didn’t even bother to retaliate. Instead, he stood there and smirked. “For having a mind that wants more than what I am told to want?” His voice came out strained, the words fighting to escape as Michael squeezed his windpipe with his fist. “Why don’t you say how you truly feel, Michael?”
“Your life is not valued above hers.”
Lucifer’s goading expression pinched at the mention of Gabriel even though her name had not been spoken. “You think I do not know that?”
“I care not what you know or about your misplaced emotions.” The panic in Michael rose exponentially. He’d read the intentions of the men that were marching over the ridge to greet their heavenly sister. “You have condemned her to die!”
Now Lucifer did react. Face boiling red, he drove his fist up to break Michael’s tightening hold around his neck. Fisting the pale material over Michael’s chest, he drove him back toward the fiery blue well. “You dare to threaten her?”
Michael shoved back, grimacing as his feathers sizzled. In spite of how much he wanted to pummel Lucifer’s face into a bloody mess, he clicked his fingers instead, spitting words like venom. “No. You do.”
With a flash of light, Michael reformed them both beside the looking glass. In Lucifer’s surprise, Michael swooped down to lock a manacle around his brother’s ankle. Unsurprisingly they were alone. Michael had already sent every angel on various duties, mostly of prayer, to make sure none would interfere.
“Gabriel will die this day, and it is none other’s fault but your own.”
“She sent me away!” Lucifer stood so close Michael could feel his hot breath bat against his face. “If God punishes her for following his command—”
“Not God.” Michael moved like lightning, catching Lucifer by the back of his neck. Yanking hard, he forced him to face the still water of the looking glass. He couldn’t keep his own eyes from following his directing hand. Gabriel hovered above that field—and then she plummeted back down. Noah was in danger, and she was choosing to stay, exactly as he knew she would. “They witnessed your sweeping arrival and gathered their men. They had seen the ark before this day, though they had judged Noah as crazed of the mind. Until they beheld you, a winged man from the heavens. But when they marched to confront you…”
Michael’s punishing hold released and Lucifer fell to his knees, silver pooling in his eyes. “They found her.” He watched as Michael did as a broad man leading the group of vil
lagers held his flaming torch up near Gabriel’s face. The horror he felt matched Lucifer’s expression as she jerked her face back out of the searing flames but remained earthbound. Her face remained calm, strong. And Michael knew why. Like him, her devotion to God’s orders came first, even above self-preservation.
Lucifer growled and leaped up, getting in Michael’s face. “Unchain me. Right now. We must save her!”
Michael wanted to, so badly he wanted to, but this was not his decision to make. It was God’s. He had alerted him to the goings on and ordered him to clear the looking glass from all onlookers aside from himself and Lucifer. Even as his body tensed, knees locking to keep him upright, and that earlier panic turned to morbid reality, he could not disobey a direct order. “We…” He choked on his words, feeling physically ill in his obedience and torn apart by his choice. Gabriel leaped up to take flight—but she didn’t get far. “We cannot.”
Lucifer looked like Michael had ripped his heart straight from his chest. He staggered, eyes darting back to the pool. The men now prodded Gabriel with their torches, bringing her down hard into the dirt. He roared when Gabriel fell to her hands and knees and struck out to catch Michael’s wrist. “You mean you will not. Fine. Be a coward. Release me.”
When Michael refused to move, the grip on his wrist tightened. He tugged but was pulled back, coming face to face with Lucifer. “Let. Go.”
“Never.”
Michael barked as bone cracked, his fingers convulsing with sharp stabs that zapped out a ball of light. It clinked on the bright floor, bouncing over the edge and into the water.
Lucifer dove for it, but Michael caught his wing at the base and launched him. Lucifer shot through the air, coming to a sudden falling stop when the glowing links yanked him back. There was a resounding thud, and Michael blocked the way as Lucifer scrambled up and raced for the sinking ball of light. The force hit him like an asteroid and Michael got airborne, but he kept his arms tied around Lucifer’s body. His wings flapped to keep them both aloft. Punches pummeled Michael’s ribs, cracking more bones as Lucifer screamed. A swift knee to the angel warrior’s groin reminded him he was most definitely of flesh and bone. And then they fell, bombing down into the water with an erupting splash.
Freed from Michael’s restraining arms, Lucifer speared a hand below the surface to snatch the ball of light.
Michael reacted slower, his body singing a song of internal bleeding as his bones moved unnaturally beneath his skin. His anger peaked at Lucifer’s actions now and to endanger Gabriel in the first place. He had done this, caused this.
And now Gabriel would die.
Breathing hard, he grabbed Lucifer’s hair with his good hand and drove the angel up out of the water only to slam him back down on his back.
Water erupted again, but Lucifer used his elbows to keep his head from being pushed under. “You cannot allow this,” he gasped, spitting water. “Not her death. Not Gabriel’s.”
Michael’s desperation was a double-edged sword. He had never disobeyed. He had never gone against a direct order. But could he really let Gabriel die for Lucifer’s mistake? Michael shook his head, fighting back the feeling of suffocation that threatened to drown him as he caught blurry images through the water that saturated them.
Gabriel was hurt, skin weeping in patches, robe blackened and muddy—and her singed wings bound to her back. The moment they started to haul her backward as she kicked and screamed made his heart leap into his throat.
Fighting back the images behind his burning eyelids of Gabriel deadly still and charred, her burned face frozen in an expression that would haunt him forever, he roared at the injustice and shoved Lucifer’s face under the water. Lucifer retaliated, striking out at his broken wrist and then his ribs to get the upper hand. Michael relented, agony stealing his breath. He doubled over, forfeiting his return strike.
Now free, Lucifer dropped to his knees. Hand spearing the water, he snatched the ball of light up, ready to slam it into the manacle.
Michael forced his heavy legs to move and leaped. He caught the back of Lucifer’s neck and shoved him face-first into the water. With Lucifer’s arms and legs beneath him, he was less dangerous, unable to strike out at Michael with as much force.
But then he did something Michael had not expected.
Still clutching the ball of light, Lucifer stopped moving. Small bubbles floated up from his downcast face. And then his other hand came up with one finger—to point down through the water.
As Michael stared, the view below came into sharp focus as the water resettled. And then he saw her, tied to a tree with her wings bound at her back…and one of the men setting Gabriel’s robe alight.
Michael froze, feeling the blood that warmed his veins run cold. His hand on Lucifer’s neck remained, but its punishing grip loosened. He couldn’t disobey, but he knew someone who would—
Lucifer must have understood the slight change in Michael’s actions because he reached down and smashed the ball of light into the manacle. The glowing restraint cracked open and fell.
Michael went to restrain Lucifer, but his brother spun in the water and booted him in the ribs, sending him flying from the looking glass until he hit a soaring ivory pillar. Michael fell to the ground, seeing the unstoppable as Lucifer punched his fist forcefully down through his bent knees. The sound was deafening, shattering glass and gushing water.
But Lucifer would never make it in time. Unless…
Michael flung punishing light out as he screamed his lie, “Lucifer, stop!”
The blast hit Lucifer, right as he dove through the jagged hole and plummeted down to Earth.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lucifer plummeted. Spinning down through the darkening sky the light he’d been shot with seized his muscles and bones. Torture rode his insides like the fire Gabriel was set alight with. But there was no time to wait until he hit the ground. She’d be dead by then.
Accepting the agony rather than fighting it, Lucifer’s teeth grated as he redirected the power to his hand. One click vanished him from the rushing air to deliver him lower. Another click. Lower. Another click. The ground rushed up, appearing every split moment as he spun in the air. His wings flung out, bones seizing, control failing.
This was going to hurt.
Lucifer collided with the Earth with a resounding Boom! that vibrated the field. Right before landing, he stabbed his feet down, taking the rising land with bent knees that buckled and popped. As the dust settled, he struggled to stand—and saw the horror he’d glimpsed from Above.
The men no longer pumped their torches and weapons in the air. Now floored by Lucifer’s ground-shaking landing, they all scampered back to their feet. Flames caught from their dropped torches, the dry grass succumbing to crackling orange fire that grew and snaked out. But Lucifer cared not for the danger the fire posed to any of these men or even Noah and his ark.
Because all he could see was her.
Surrounded by the men, Gabriel writhed against the tree she was tied to. The flames had eaten up her robe in the seconds he took to plummet to Earth, acting as a fiery cocoon. Skin ignited with oozing silver blood and bubbling flesh, and flames crackled higher as they reached her bound wings. With eyes pinned shut she screamed, yanking at the ropes over her chest while fire climbed her arms. Her head shook at the same time, fighting to evade the embers racing up her hair toward her tear-streaked face. So consumed by her will to get free and survive, she was blind to his sudden arrival.
But not for long.
The men yelled words he didn’t care to hear, words that failed to drown out Gabriel’s screams. A few ran for the village. The rest ran at him, brandishing their spears.
Lucifer let out a war cry and his wings flung out. And then he was running too. His splintered legs stabbed with pain to slow him down, but his sore wings lifted him from the burning field, flattening men as he plowed straight through them. In the quick sweep, he secured hold of a dagger from the bearded leader and did
n’t stop. Arcing around the tree, he sliced the remaining ropes to release Gabriel.
She fell and he caught her, flattening her to the ground to strangle the flames with his body and wings. Her screams stopped on impact and the heat died off, embers snuffing out. Her raw flesh stuck to him, sticky and wet. But it was her softening sobs that struck his heart. And then Gabriel breathed in deeply—like she thought she never would again, like she could smell him—and her bright eyes blinked open from her blackened face. “Lucifer? You came—” She gasped in a rattled breath, horror stealing the shock from her face. “No. Oh no. Leave, before they get—”
Lucifer tensed, grunting as jabbing pain pierced his wings that sheltered their bodies. The humans were attacking, stabbing their long spears at them, trying to finish what they had started.
“If they fly we are all doomed!” The leader screamed in his authoritative voice. “Keep them down and sever their wings!”
Fury burned in Lucifer as if his veins had absorbed the flames he’d doused over Gabriel’s body. Despite how badly he wanted to stay and make sure every ember was out, how much he desired to hold her close and never leave her side, he had to act. He would not allow these men to get away with what they had done to her. They would not draw another breath when he was done with them. “No being will ever hurt you again. I vow it.”
Rising up fast, his unfurling wings threw off the closest men. His healing bones re-fractured with a shock of sharp stabs, but there was no time to repair. More of them closed in, cutting the fiery grass down with their running strides.
“Lucifer!” Gabriel reached for him, but he was already staggering away. Brandishing his stolen dagger, he was ready to make it bloody.
Despite his injuries, he was still fast—faster than any mortal.
The first men he bashed down with the dagger’s hilt, knocking them senseless as fire closed in around them. The next ones he sliced their arms, making them drop their spears as blood flowed like crimson rivers. None of them were dead, but soon they would be. Though this was not going to be a quick death for any of them. For all they had done, they deserved to suffer, slowly and steadily.
