Chapter 17

SEVENTEEN

Gabriel

"You are out of your goddamn mind," Sinclair growls.

I straighten my shoulders and level him with my most powerful stare. "The Almighty may very well damn me in the near future, but she has not done so yet."

"Lucifer will break you, Gabriel. Or worse. If he tosses you through the gates of Hell, you would be trapped there for all eternity. Without your wings, you would have no hope of escape."

I shrug, which pisses him off even more. Not that I care. "If one of Lucifer's weapons is our best chance of destroying the Blade, that is a risk I am willing to take."

He stalks over to me, but before he can grab me, I take hold of his arms, spin, and slam him against the wall.

His eyes start to glow. "Remove your hands. Now."

The deadly calm to his tone should concern me. He suffered in Hell for centuries. I did not send him there, but I am still to blame.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Zoe stalks over, slaps a hand on each of our chests, and attempts to separate us. "If you can't play nicely together, one of you needs to leave. You're scaring Willow."

I flinch. Zoe is right. Willow's fear is a bitter taste in my mouth. One I cannot abide. I step back and smooth my hands down my white dress shirt.

"Asshole," Sinclair mutters.

"Hey. You're not blameless here either, partner." Despite her words, Zoe reaches up to touch Sin's cheek. My heart aches at the simple, tender gesture.

"Partner? I am much more than your partner." He puffs out his chest, a hint of his power swirling around the room.

"I love you too," she says.

Willow dashes a few tears from her eyes. "You're really going to Hell? How is that even possible?"

I drop to one knee next to her. "I am going to Hell's gates. Lucifer can come to me."

"But…if you get trapped there?—"

I squeeze her hand, then rise to meet Sinclair's frosty gaze. "If I am not back by sunset, call Azrael. He can retrieve me."

"I am not waiting until sunset," Sin says. "Five hours in the earthen realm is a quarter century in the Underworld. You have ninety minutes. Use it wisely."

The Underworld has a smell. It seeps into my clothes. Into my lungs. The last time I made this trip and found out the Devil had lost Thorn and his concubine, I could not rid myself of the gritty, burnt stench for two days.

My wings still reek of it. It is the scent of decay. Of endless torment and despair.

"Lucifer, you pompous twat, show yourself!"

I pace the rocks outside the black gates, waiting for Beelzebub to grace me with his presence. He owes me for his carelessness.

"If you force me to break in, you will not like the consequences!"

A great rumble starts beneath my feet. The oppressive darkness, broken only by the glow of the flames from the other side of the gates, lifts, and Lucifer appears before me.

Hell's Keeper is not the monster those in the earthen realm imagine him to be. After all, he is—or was—an angel until the Almighty cast him out and shackled him to the Underworld. Black hair, a chiseled jaw, and piercing green eyes give him a magnetism few humans can ignore. At least until they are trapped in his domain and suffering for all eternity.

"Gabriel. To what do I owe the displeasure?" His silken voice twists my frustration and rage into something softer. Until I shake off the glamour he is so fond of using and step back.

"You owe me for your carelessness with the demon, Thorn. I have come to collect on that debt."

Lucifer chuckles. "I have paid in full, brother. Or did you forget while your wings were burning? The daughter of Seraphim and her lover are free, and Thorn has gone mad from some of my more… creative methods of torment."

I grab the lapels of his bespoke black suit jacket and haul him up to his toes. "You have not even begun to clear your ledger. The demon killed close to a hundred after you let him go. If it were not for Sinclair and Zoe, he would still be killing. You are skilled in torture, Samael, but not even you are as cruel as he was to his victims."

"I take that as an insult." Despite his words, a hint of fear churns in his eyes.

Ash floats through the air, staining my white shirt. Rude.

"Take it however you like. I don't give a fuck."

The devil waves his hand, and I fly back, landing on my ass so hard, the breath I'd drawn leaves my lungs in a whoosh .

"This is my realm, Gabriel. Or have you forgotten? And I did not let the demon and his concubine go. I do not let anyone go. Especially not two souls with their particular brand of sins." His eyes flicker with an emotion I do not believe I have ever seen before—and cannot name—and the arrogance ingrained in his very being disappears in an instant. "What do you want?"

"A weapon. One forged in the fires of Hell and capable of destroying a blade crafted when magic began."

The Devil laughs in my face.

I lunge for him once more, slamming him against the supposedly impenetrable gates of his domain. With a great metallic screech, the lock shatters.

We tumble into the oppressive heat, but this close to the entrance, the flames are nothing more than an illusion. Lucifer does not fight me. Not even when I land a punch that snaps his head to the side and splits his lip.

"Do you think I am joking? That I would willingly come down here and banter with you?" Another punch, and his right eye starts to swell. "Give me what I need, or I will tell the Almighty about your little security problem ." I get to my feet and stalk back through the gates. The flames may not be real, but my memories are. My wings demand to be set free. I dig my nails into my palms, wrestling for control. For a moment, I think I have won, but pure agony forces a scream from my lips. Half-burned feathers flutter to the rocks at my feet.

"Gabriel." The Devil stares at me, all hubris gone from his tone. "You are not healing."

"Thank you for that brilliant insight. Did you think I had not noticed?" I try to extend my wings to their fullest, but the pain is too much.

"I think," he says and plucks a single mangled feather from the stone, "you are trapped in a Hell of your own making. One I would gladly free you from if I knew how."

His concern brings a lump to my throat. We were close once. Long before he was banished to the Underworld. He has not cared for anyone since. Or so I'd thought. Perhaps I was wrong.

With a snap of his fingers, he summons a gleaming black axe. The weapon is only as long as his forearm, but the power contained within could level cities.

"Hell's weapons do not belong in the earthen realm. If it falls into the wrong hands, you will be the one to blame."

I feel the weight of the burden as soon as I wrap my fingers around the handle. "I will guard it with my very existence, brother. Thank you."

"Gabriel?" His call stops me before I can picture the Bureau's conference room in my mind. "My Hellions are investigating the breach that freed Thorn and his concubine. I will find those responsible and consign them to an eternity of torment so vile, no one has ever experienced its equal."

Lucifer is many things. An ass, a prankster, and a terrible poker player, among others. But he does not lie. It goes against his very nature.

"Being banished to the depths of Hell was the Almighty's punishment for a crime the likes of which you cannot fathom," he says. "If she finds out I failed, my existence is over. Even you cannot hate me that much."

"I do not hate you at all. I never have." With the axe tucked under my arm, I hold his gaze. "The Almighty does not hold grudges, Lucifer."

He shakes his head. "No, she doesn't. But Seraphiel does."

Willow

No matter how many times Sinclair and Zoe assure me the Bureau is warded, I can't shake the feeling someone's watching me. It crawls up and down my spine, simmering in my blood like something frigid and evil is about to escape.

My whisper comes and goes. I wish we could talk. She hasn't pulled me into her consciousness since we absorbed the power of the Blade, and I'm starting to wonder if she ever will again.

"I should not have let him go," Sinclair mutters. "Lucifer cannot be trusted."

Zoe looks up from her notebook and narrows her eyes at her partner. "You're not helping. Why don't you go grab us some tacos? Willow is probably starving. I know I am."

I don't think I could eat if my life depended on it. But Zoe's stomach growls loudly.

"You swear you will not leave the building?" Sin asks. The tremor of fear in his voice is jarring. I know I only met him last night, but this doesn't seem like him at all.

Zoe frames his face with her hands. "Dion is home. Behind wards so strong, even Gabriel would have a hard time bypassing them. I won't go anywhere. I promise."

"I will be back in twenty minutes. Call me if you hear from Mad and Killian."

A private moment passes between them, and I look away. This isn't just love. It's something more. Something so beautiful and perfect, it makes me ache.

The door shuts with a quiet click. "Sorry about that," Zoe says. "He still thinks what happened to me—to us—was his fault."

I must look as confused as I feel, because the color drains from Zoe's cheeks.

"You don't know. Shit. I didn't even think… Of course you don't know." She goes to the little coffee station and brews two fresh cups, then sinks down into the chair next to me. "Several weeks ago, I was kidnapped by a full-blood incubus and his fae lover. They used my friend, Dion, as bait to get to me. I'd promised Sin I wouldn't leave BOO without him, but when Dion called…I didn't have a choice."

The exhaustion in her eyes mirrors my own. But behind it, there's something more. Sorrow so deep, it goes on forever. "They went after her to get to me. Fae…" She cups her mug in both hands, and even then it wobbles a little. "A fae's command is impossible to resist. Thorn would torture his victims until their minds were nearly gone, then Regina would bring them—us—back so he could break us completely."

Turning, she gathers her red curls into one hand and sweeps them off her neck. A tattoo of a fairy bound in chains glows on her skin. "That mark gave him complete control of us. Body and mind. It's spelled, and there's nothing I can do to remove it."

"Oh, God. I'm sorry..." If I knew Zoe better, I'd hug her. The regret and pain in her voice breaks my heart.

"Sin is so overprotective because he wasn't here to protect me that night. I don't think he'll ever forgive himself, even though it wasn't his fault. If he had been here, Thorn could have taken us both, and we might not have survived at all." She shakes off the haunted look in her eyes and forces a smile. "I'm sorry for dumping all that on you at once. But you need to know how serious BOO is about security. And why."

"Dion is the one Gabriel called to bring me these clothes." I run my hands up and down my thighs, wishing I had a friend who cared for me as much as Zoe obviously cares for Dion.

"She's a panther shifter. When this is all over, I'll introduce you. You'll love her."

I don't tell her that when this is all over, I won't be meeting anyone. I'll die before I let AURA get a hold of the Blade, and even if Gabriel does return from Hell with a weapon, we have no idea if it'll do a damn bit of good against the Blade.

The floor under us shakes. Zoe sighs, rolls her head around until her neck cracks, and returns to her workstation. "That," she says, "will be Gabriel."

Gabriel

I stagger back into the conference room and drop the Devil's axe onto the table.

"Holy shit." Willow gets to her feet. "Is that…?"

"Do not touch it. There are only a few in this realm powerful enough to wield it. I have no idea what it will do to someone who is not…celestial." I capture her hand in mine and bring it to my lips. Being away from her felt wrong .

"If the lieutenant asks," Zoe says, "Sin and I knew nothing about your plans to bring a Hell-forged weapon into this building. Got it?"

I incline my head, then glance around the room. "Where is Sinclair?"

"On a taco run. He should be back in ten minutes. Maybe less." Zoe picks up her phone, and her eyes widen. "Shit. Kàra is awake. I'm calling Mad and Killian now. They say they have news."

If it were not for my desperate need to protect Willow, I would find Sinclair right this second and beat him bloody. He was supposed to protect them while I was gone, and he left .

He left Zoe as well.

As Zoe plugs her phone into the video system, Willow's fingers trail over my bicep. "Are you okay?" she asks. "You're tense."

Fuck. I need to get a tighter hold on my emotions. "Dealing with Lucifer is tiring. He used to be a friend. But I do not know him at all anymore." With a sigh, I drape my arm around her shoulder.

Killian picks up on the first ring. He and Maddox sit side by side, with another couple next to them. The woman is tall, blond, and beautiful. The man is slightly shorter. They're both so pale, their skin is almost pure white.

"Kàra and Ewan, meet Zoe, Willow, and Gabriel," Killian says. "Are we waiting for Sin?"

"No," Zoe says. "He'll catch up. Kàra? We need to know everything you can tell us about the Blade and how we can destroy it."