 
# Fallen Angel 1

### Ashes of Eden

## J.L. Myers

#### Fallen Angel Series Book 1

### Contents

MORE BOOKS BY J.L. MYERS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Thank you for reading!

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About the Author

# MORE BOOKS BY J.L. MYERS

THE BLOOD BOUND SERIES

(New Adult Paranormal Romance)

_What Lies Inside_

_Made By Design_

_Web Of Lies_

_Born To Die_

~

OTHER BOOKS

* * *

_Nerve Damage_

_(A Chilling Psychological Thriller)_

_~_

FALLEN ANGEL SERIES

Ashes of Eden

Dawn of Reckoning

Breaking Lucifer

Cold-Blooded Fate

Falling Stars
Copyright © 2018 J.L. Myers

* * *

The moral right of the author had been asserted.

* * *

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author's imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved

No part of this literary work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the author J.L. Myers.

* * *

Cover art © 2018 J.L. Myers.

* * *

Visit the Website:

www.jlmyers.com
[]

* * *

_As we evolved, we didn't bring the light like we used to._

_Still immortal, our bodies dimmed as flesh joined our great, towering wings._

_Her smile is the first thing I remember, from her full lips across her pale ethereal face. Her first smile was directed at me._ Me. _And as it touched my heart, I felt the change._

* * *

_This was the beginning of something new and profound._

_After this moment I would never be the same._

* * *

_My heart now beats faster...for her._

# Chapter One

Gabriel writhed against the tree, flames entering her robe from the ground up. She cried out, the burn attacking her toes and climbing her legs, melting and burrowing through her skin. This was the end—her end—here in this grassy field. Here under a darkening sky before the eager eyes of all the human men who had captured her. Here— _alone._

With agony consuming her on the outside, Gabriel retreated into her mind, away from the smell of her cooking flesh and the sound of her bloodcurdling screams. No longer able to feel the wet tears that forged tracks down her face, she conjured the memory of her last encounter with Lucifer.

He had come to watch her. To observe her down on Earth.

But of course she had known the moment he landed nearby. As always, she had felt him.

At first her heart had taken off in her chest, soaring like a bird's rapid wings on the breeze. But her heart did not make the rules.

_"I want you to leave, Lucifer. Leave me be."_

And he had, despite the tears she could not hold at bay. Despite how clearly his heart was breaking as he staggered away and took flight up into the twilight sky. Clinging to the image of his shell-shocked face, she remembered the sheen to his wide silver-blue eyes, the bunching of his tan brow, the way his lips trembled over clenched teeth as if he were fighting the temptation to refuse her demand. Her hand cupping his jaw had been their last touch, a touch that could never compare to the slide of his rough hands over her bared body or the hungry pressure of his mouth against hers. But that would never happen again.

_"As you wish."_ Lucifer had surrendered to her refusal. He had granted her wish. And now...

She would die alone.

Gabriel's screams shattered her memories as the blaze engulfing her robe-clothed body licked even higher. Legs bared and bloody, flames now lashed her stomach and arms. Renewed panic made it feel like her insides were smoldering too. This couldn't be her end. It couldn't be _their_ end.

Yanking her arms up to evade the burn, the lowest rope snapped around her hips, ripping skin away in its wake. Gabriel hissed at the sting, swallowing her screams. Raw hands snatching and tugging at the higher ropes, they refused to budge, her strength failing her.

Darkness fell, teasing her senses with the promise of cold that could never combat the inferno of flames that climbed ever higher and renewed her tortured cries. Wings trapped to the tree behind her catching alight rapidly, even escape from her bindings would not spare her. Those men stood by, spears in hand and murder painted in their eager gazes.

Strands of her windblown hair sizzled up to her scalp with flaming embers, and Gabriel's eyes pinned shut. The burn attacking her arms had a hold of her ribs, eating away inside her, breaking her. Her heart felt hot, _too hot._ Soon her screams would turn to fire—with her final shriek.

Unable to speak, parting words formed in her mind. A telepathic message, a goodbye...that would never reach its source. _Never blame yourself, Lucifer. This was not your doing. It was mine. I was wrong. I need you. I have always needed you._

A sudden commotion sounded, a booming ruckus as the ground shook. But the cause mattered not. Nothing mattered anymore. Her end was imminent.

And then everything changed.

Gabriel's bindings suddenly released and she fell like the dead. A blanketing weight covered her, blocking the cooling breeze and dousing the consuming fires that coated her sticky body and wings. Skin stuck and peeled away, the sound joining her rattling sobs. And then she sucked in a choked breath—and smelled _him._

Unable to believe her senses, Gabriel cracked her melted eyelids open.

Staring down at her was the one face she had never expected to see again. Tan, rugged, and filled with a fear of losing her that resonated in his eyes with silver tears. "Lucifer. You came—" she rasped, realizing this was real. Realizing Lucifer had returned to this field on Earth and was surrounded by murderous men. Tongue feeling like it was on fire, she gasped out, "No. Oh, no. Please. Leave before they get—"

There were screams, men barking orders out of sight that refused to break through the sound of rushing blood in Gabriel's ears. The look of relief across Lucifer's face morphed with animalistic fury. "No being will ever hurt you again. I vow it."

And then he was gone.

Chilled air swept in at his absence, fighting the burn that clawed at her bloody body and causing a fresh wave of agony to dance across her melted skin. Grunts and shouts rose up, and then wet thumps—bodies hitting mud. Dread hooked into her insides as if worms had suddenly risen up to devour her charred remains. Murder of men was a heinous sin. A sin so much worse than her forbidden interactions with Lucifer. She needed to stop him. She needed to—

With a gasp of pain, Gabriel rolled to her side, seeing movement through the long brown grass as men fell injured but still alive. Her eyes scoured through the mass of men screaming commands to kill. Finally locating Lucifer, she saw a dagger in his hands as he caught the throat of the man who had led this village of men and ordered her death. The man's face turned red then purple as he was lifted from the ground. Spit sprayed from his lips, but no sound escaped. The grip on his jugular was too tight. A death grip.

"You attacked the wrong angel, you disgusting excuse for a human." Lucifer's smile was a promise as he pointed the dagger at the man's wide eyes.

Gabriel struggled to her hands and knees, the grass ripping more of her raw skin away. About to fall in a heap, she grunted through the agony.

"And now you die."

Gabriel pushed upright, choked words flying from her bloody mouth. "Lucifer, no!"

Dagger freezing mid-air, Lucifer's head cranked sideways. His eyes widened and flung the man aside to run at her. "Gabriel, look—"

Something punched into Gabriel's back, stealing a gasp from her as it tunneled through her heart and exploded out through her chest. Her head fell forward, and a bloody spearhead gleamed up at her.

The end of Gabriel and Lucifer's story was upon them...but this is far from where this devastating love story began.

# Chapter Two

Lucifer felt the change the moment God's almighty power surged. Circled around the concaved pool that glimpsed into infinity, he witnessed the phenomenon as their levitating creator glowed brighter than the sun. Every one of his nerve endings tingled with warmth, forcing the light he was made up of to burn brighter and brighter. Yet he was not afraid. He believed in his maker with his grandiose plans, and he was far from alone. The eleven other archangels glowed brighter too, the luminosity that made up their essence burning with intensity in reaction to God's will.

Then the warmth and serenity they had come to trust in the Realm of Light shifted.

Lucifer choked back a cry as agony ripped through his soul. The shock of sound heightened a sudden panic in him. The other angels gasped and screamed too, vocalizing their pain as the trustful offering of their light took a brutal turn. It was the first vocalization that had ever been made since their maker forged them from his own radiance. The beginning of language that was passed from lips rather than telepathically—because with this torturous pain, something epic was happening. Luminous strands tangled through the air around the concaved looking glass, the brilliant white being drawn from the twelve angels and into their God. With each passing moment, the ground vibrated and the pool rippled. Sounds of shifting and forming crashed and rattled behind them. The angels' glorious light dimmed too, growing fainter and fainter.

Lucifer was the first to feel the change, the weakening of the power God had infused them all with. Yet he did not question it or give in to alarm as his essence was floored. He trusted the one who had brought him and his heavenly brothers and sisters into existence. He trusted God's plan. His vision for a future unlike anything that had ever existed.

Still now and forevermore immortal, Lucifer watched in awe as the angels' spherical forms dimmed. Glowing curves and lines evolved, becoming more an more clear as something in him expanded, forcing breath to fill what had never needed air before. Folded and hunched around the edge of the water that glimpsed below, he saw cuts of flesh form and stretch over the others, all the while feeling the cutting phenomenon morphing his essence into something more... _tangible_.

A quiet cry to his side sent a strike of fear through Lucifer. He reached out fast with a _hand_ that appeared in _bone_ and then _flesh_ —the names came to him as if God were telepathically implanting the knowledge of their new forms—to grasp onto a much smaller and more delicate hand. The instant touch of her dulled the striking agony that felt more like Lucifer was being torn apart piece by piece rather than being created into more than what he or any of them had ever been. The sigh she expelled at his touch eased his consuming worry for her. He had never felt anyone before, never had flesh and bone to reach out and touch _her_ with. The one angel who had been beside him in light since the dawn of existence. _"Gabriel."_

The name he had never spoken out loud—and now he wanted to say it again, over and over. Instead, the reflection in the shimmering water stole his focus as his stinging flesh continued to take shape. Sight blurred, their two evolving forms rippled. Lucifer looked toward her, squinted eyes traveling up over the radiance still obscuring her developing form. His sudden need to behold her compelled his actions—but before he could see her face, he was brought to the glowing ground. Lancing pain shot up from behind him, high on his raw back and his mouth gaped to scream. Other screams joined the chorus, different in tone to the deep timbre of his voice.

The hand he still held squeezed tighter, trembling as Gabriel clung to him. _"Lucifer..."_

Her soft voice gasping his name for the first time sent a wave of chills through him. He squeezed back, struggling to form words, desperate to let her know she was not alone in this, that she would _never_ be alone as long as he was alive. What had once been telepathic words in his mind solidified into clumsy speech. "I am...here."

With a last surge of power, light was stripped from every one of the twelve angels, leaving a gentle glow that haloed each of their— _bodies_. Lucifer gaped at the reflection in the water, seeing the distorted reality of what he and all his heavenly brothers and sisters had been transformed into. He didn't look up as the sounds of shuffling and groaning reached his ears. The siphoned light centering them all in a levitating sphere above the rippling water was not enough to hold his gaze. Gabriel's hand slid free of his, and he felt an instant loss as her warm touch faded. Worry overtook his senses, yet he could not move to sit like he could hear the others were doing. A burdening weight pressed down over him, covering him in a velvety blanket of warmth. Yet it was not what continued to keep him floor bound. Vision blinking crystal clear, it was what encompassed his sight that kept him down.

He could do naught but stare.

Draped in magnificent white _wings,_ Gabriel gasped short, yet slowing breaths beside him. The arch of her feathered attachments covered her shoulders. The tips stretched so long that they sheltered her entirely from view. And then she shifted. Back levering up, her concealing wings moved with her. Little glimpses of her long limbs and equally pale body peeked out from the iridescent feathers. Her skin was the softest thing Lucifer could ever imagine seeing. Even softer than his own feathers that brushed over his new and sensitive flesh that prickled and tingled with each breath. Studying all he could glimpse, his eyes traveled from her _legs_ that were folded beneath her to her petite _bottom_ , slight _hips_ , to the silvery hair that cascaded down over her shoulders to pool between her legs. Letting his gaze travel higher, he counted each _rib_ bone beneath her—

Lucifer sucked in a breath as he saw the small swells that ballooned out further up her _chest_. With the rest of her skin so pale, the blushing circles with their own pointed peaks captivated him. Her shimmering hair curled gently around her _breasts_ that swelled from her chest as if to draw and keep his stare.

Gabriel's vast wings cocooned her body then, cutting off Lucifer's view and causing him to finally shift to sit upright. " _L...look_." The gentle lilt of her voice caused a flurry inside him as her delicate hand reached out from beneath her wings, pointing to the area above the looking glass.

The heat all around them spiked, that centering brilliance so bright it was almost blinding. Lucifer wondered if all the heat solely came from the visible and powerful source. He breathed in as if inhaling her angelic words into himself. Something forever changing was on the precipice of happening, and he was here as a witness as much as a source of power to be called upon. God had put his light into all of them in the beginning, and now that power was needed for something else. Something new.

Yet he could not bring himself to look away from her.

He had to see more. He had to behold every detail of the angel he'd been spiritually— _soulfully—_ connected to for more than a millennia.

A sudden explosion of light shook the realm. Gabriel shielded her eyes from the sight, watching lower as God sent his and their combined power down into the darkness of the great beyond. There was a sound of collisions and a resounding _BOOM_ that shook the luminous ground beneath them.

This was the moment they were meant to witness, the creation of Below, a new realm of physical and living things.

Lucifer couldn't do it.

He could not bear witness to all the beauty that was being forged below, because what he was fixated on at this very moment was the most beautiful thing he could ever have imagined. Even obscured in clarity by the intensity of the brightness all around them, he studied every detail, seeing in his mind what was beneath the blurry edges that were like looking through water. Her chin was round yet pointed, leading back to a jaw that disappeared below her long silvery hair. He gaped as he studied her lips that were both full and rosy, so living in color that they made him think of her swelling chest hidden below. But the one thing that stole his gaze and kept it there was none of that. Above her little nose, he found her eyes. The first eyes he had ever seen. Rimmed in black lashes, the pools of her eyes glittered with blue and silver, and as he stared, he saw something welling in them that he did not understand. Something that intrigued and fascinated him. Her eyes were misty as she peered down at the changing sight below. And then she blinked.

A silver drop plunged down, rolling a sparkling track down her pale cheek.

Lucifer touched her jaw, the drop that was wet and warm trailing down his finger and tingling as if absorbing into his flesh. Gabriel gasped and looked right at him with her beautiful eyes that resembled the pools of water that were forming below. Scouring his features, she studied every part of his face. As the wonder in her own eyes brightened, Lucifer dared to glimpse his reflection in the rippling water they were crouched by. Unlike Gabriel, his flesh was golden as was his hair that reached his broad shoulders. His eyes were the same silver-blue color as hers, but his body was much larger and defined by bulges and ripples compared to her soft curved lines.

"Lucifer."

His name from her lips was like a soft caress that cascaded over his entire body. With each fleeting moment that took but a second and eons at the same time, the blurry lines around Gabriel came into focus. Even his imagination could not have prepared him for this. The crystal clear sight of her, and even more than that, the raw emotion that sparkled from her wet eyes.

Lucifer saw with total clarity the one being that would come to be the center of his universe—and the bane of his existence. "My Gabriel."

# Chapter Three

As time continued on, changing from infinite to measure, Lucifer remained by Gabriel's side— _where he belonged_ —watching over the rotating world below from the edge of the looking glass. Now draped in flowing silk and woven cloth to conceal the differences God had given them, it was not her naked flesh that consumed his thoughts to distraction. Even now, he remembered the first sunrise, an awe-inspiring sight that had parted Gabriel's beautiful, blushed lips with an expression of wonder that he would never forget.

Stealing fleeting glances at him from behind the veil of her long, silky hair, Gabriel marveled at how such a simple thing as light, or the lack of it, could change something so profoundly.

The world below had evolved from mountains that spurted burning red to cool into hard rock and stone, dividing water that flooded the valleys and reflected pure blue from above in the vast expanses it covered. Sprouts of green flourished soon after. Trees grew tall enough to touch the sky, and the ground offered bountiful blooms.

Lucifer was captivated too, though not even mostly because of the view. The words Gabriel spoke, the way her expressions changed, the slight rosy hue that attacked her pale cheeks when he caught her looking his way—the faraway world was nothing compared to the evolving being right beside him...or the thrill he felt at beholding her animation.

Lucifer brushed his golden hair behind his ears as he glanced at her with a steadying breath. His hands that were clenched on the lap of his white robe uncurled, yearning to touch her ethereal face and feel the warmth of her pink cheeks.

But then he noticed something across the motionless pool that acted like a mirror as well as a view to Below. Watching them with a furrowed brow from under his sand-colored hair, Remiel's shifting eyes were at odds with his casual kneeling position.

In confusion, and although he loathed the thought of distancing himself from Gabriel, Lucifer rolled onto his knees. "Rem—?"

Gabriel's soft, warm hand pinned him down and turned his body to stone. She released her grasp almost instantly, holding her hand to her stomach while curling her fingers in tight—as if she too had felt the spark between them. "Do you see, Lucifer? The waters flow from high up..." With wonder dancing in her eyes, she uncurled her hand and pointed to a sheer cliff that teased the darkening sky where gushing water tumbled down, splashing over jagged edges until it met the far-away gathering of water below. "...to disperse over the land, bringing growth and life."

A wide river stretched out from the lagoon, twisting and twining through luscious green and forking out to thinning rivers and streams.

"This _E-earth_..." Gabriel's widened eyes sought affirmation, making Lucifer smile as he nodded. "It is God's greatest vision." Her eyes sparkled while her long delicate fingers gripped the edge of the looking glass tighter. "We must protect it and help it grow."

Affected by her evolving language and the expression of wonder across her face, Lucifer shared her hope. But that was not all he felt. A desire for more than the world they were tasked to watch over and record on stone tablets swirled inside him. He felt it every time he let himself look at Gabriel. He felt it every time she spoke, especially whenever she said his name in the gentle lilt of her voice. And every time they accidentally touched...

"Look, look!"

Lucifer reminded himself to breathe as she tugged on his wrist. Despite the tingles, she refused to let go as she used his arm to point out what kept her interest. Sparks of forking light captured his gaze, bolts driving from the thickening clouds along the sky and down through falling drops of water at the earth.

"Heat raises the water, and then the skies cry. They wash the Earth clean and feed it for a new day."

As the tingling became bearable, Gabriel's grip on his arm squeezed. Lucifer saw the gathering of her brows above her petite nose create an expression he had never seen before. "Gabriel..." He stalled his hand mid-air, refraining from touching her cheek. "What ails you?"

Gabriel shook her head, and her silvery flaxen hair pooling around her robe-hidden waist shimmied. "Angels cannot succumb to an ailment. Not here above."

Lucifer gathered her soft hands in his, covering their small size with ease like a protective cocoon. He stared at her expression, confusion swirling. "Your face...it is..."

The look melted away from her face, and Gabriel nodded through the looking glass. "I know it is part of their life cycle. I know this. Though I still feel..."

Releasing her hands that made his body hum, he followed her pointed finger to what held her gaze. Far away from the rain, a formidable creature with golden fur and a thick mane of hair stalked through a grass plain. A lion. In the long shadows of sunset, he leaped, taking down a young fur-covered animal with spindly legs. With heaven-created large paws and powerful jaws, the lion tore into the smaller horned animal. Red spilled free, coating the lion's fur and staining the flattened wiry grass. Watching them, Lucifer admired the strength of the beast and thought nothing much of the animal it fed upon.

Gabriel's words confused him as much as her expression had. _"Feel?"_

Silver welled in her eyes, threatening to flood down her prominent cheeks. "Sad. I feel... _saddened_. But look," Gabriel said before Lucifer could question the emotion he had never experienced. "Their _herd_."

Tearing his eyes away from Gabriel, Lucifer saw the gathering of long, thin-legged animals in a wooded clearing that lay a safe distance from the hungry lion. The many animals were unaffected and calm, eating the long golden grasses.

"One life to feed another, while the rest grow and create from the cleansed earth." Gabriel sniffed, but her tears had dried up. "See? Safe amongst the older animals, the _deer?_ " At Lucifer's nod—she could call them anything she wanted and he would agree, eager to hear the words spoken from her blushed lips—she continued. "The young ones are protected to thrive. They populate the world below and grow along with the lands."

Lucifer glimpsed the younger _deer_ with their mothers, drinking of them while the others ate the long grass. New life, created by the creatures themselves, not by their light and God's hand.

"You feel it, yes?"

Lucifer looked at Gabriel in confusion. "Feel _it?"_ Gabriel reached for him, and he instinctively leaned back, though not enough to evade her. And then her delicate hand touched his chest, laying flat against the material that covered his flesh—and his beating— _racing_ —heart.

"In here. The warmth. The pain and joy all wrapped up together. The understanding that death is not the end of a life but the continuation of all life."

In Gabriel's eternal hope for God's creation, Lucifer _felt_ a change. It was something new and frightening. It was infinitely more severe than all he had already experienced. The erratic beating beneath his ribs and her gentle hand felt like the organ inside was trying to punch free of his flesh and bone. In response to her unwavering hope? _No_. The reaction in him was from something even more amazing than her belief in all that God had created and its ability to sustain a total utopia upon the earth. As he looked down and saw her hand with her long, delicate fingers pressed over his heart, he came to know a truth that was undeniable. It was because of her touch. _Gabriel's touch._ This was the birth of something new and profound, something that no one could change.

After this moment, Lucifer would never be the same. His heart now beat faster... _for Gabriel_.

No longer able to control the impulse, Lucifer reached for her face as her touch fell away—but then let his hand fall short, resting it so close to hers on the edge of the looking glass. Despite the anticipation of flooding tingles, another sensation suddenly awakened parts of his body he did not understand. Lower parts that confused and concerned him.

"Look, Lucifer!" He tried to follow her pointed finger below, seeing movement as his enhanced vision made sense out of the mingling shapes and colors as sunlight streaked over mountains. "Horses, wild and free. They are...what is the word?"

Gabriel's brushed into Lucifer's side, and he sucked in a sharp breath as inundating sensation ripped downward through his entire body. Trying not to make a noise, he contained the shudder that made his insides squirm as he leaned away. He coughed. As the powerful sensation faded, a desperate need to connect in a profound way rose inside him. His hand edged closer, his smallest finger almost near enough to kiss hers. His face had neared too, lips parting as he licked them. "They are...beautiful." _Though not nearly as beautiful as—_

Lucifer stopped the internal thought, body freezing as a strange weight settled over him. His searching eyes skimmed across the looking glass. Beyond his heavenly brothers and sisters who he'd all but forgotten were watching alongside—the few who were not currently recording their findings or investigating Below—he realized _he_ was being watched.

This time it was not by Remiel—but the angel he nudged before glancing away.

Framed by soaring pillars that led to one of four corridors, Michael sat still as a statue across the looking glass, his muscled legs dangling in the tepid water. With his black hair tied back, his face looked more severe than usual. Though it was nothing he saw below that was encouraging the threatening look. Staring right at Lucifer, Michael's lips pressed together tight. His arms were crossed over the dark material draped down over his chest. His piercing silver-blue gaze shot to Gabriel then back at Lucifer. He shook his head, his nostrils flaring.

Lucifer knew his reaction to Gabriel had been seen by the one angel who was tasked to watch over and command all the archangels, and from the look on Michael's face, his reaction was forbidden.

Lucifer dropped his gaze down to his folded legs, shameful and confused, shifting in discomfort as he tried to force himself further away from Gabriel. Every fraction of distance hit him like a loss—like he was cutting off his own arms or legs, vital pieces of his body that were now part of him and belonged with him. It wasn't the space between them so much, but more of the realization that whatever was simmering inside of him was wrong. Whatever he was feeling towards Gabriel could not be. Not for her. And especially, not for him.

# Chapter Four

Michael watched from afar, the saturated light surrounding him keeping his presence unnoticed as he peered out from behind one of the twin pillars surrounding the circular space. There was no doubt the two gathered angels peering down through the looking glass could sense him, but without being able to distinguish one from another, they would assume the sensation came from each other. Lucifer and Gabriel. Michael's jaw clenched, his fists tightening at the closeness. As the commander of all his heavenly brothers and sisters, he had ordered the others away from this location in the Realm of Light. Histories needed to be etched in stone, souls awaited retrieval from the Angel of Death, and ground teams had much to do to steer God's developing Earth into its full potential.

The gathering of only these two angels was not by accident or inconsequential planning.

It was a setup. A test.

From where Michael stood, his white robe and pure white wings blending into the brightness surrounding him, he could not ignore the same churning of his insides that he had experienced already too many times before. Lucifer sat closely beside Gabriel, his knees folded to one side as he leaned into his muscled arm. Air barely separated Lucifer from the angel he leaned in close to, the edge of his great wings at his back almost stroking Gabriel's with his measured breaths. His hands on the golden rim of the glass were tense, bones jutting with his tight grip.

Gabriel's soulful eyes watching through the still water were full of wonder at the utopia Michael had ordered them to watch over. Eden was but a small part of the rotating orb below, a haven of lush green and every blooming or sprouting color imaginable. Life filled the land within the protective mountain walls, furred creatures big and small living and roaming with the purpose of a life cycle that could sustain itself for eternity. A life cycle that would give mankind a form of Heaven on Earth. "Can you imagine the whole of Earth like this?"

Her rosy lips remained parted as she looked at Lucifer, a small intake of breath revealing her surprise to find him already gazing at her. As the bones in Lucifer's fingers and hand tensed further, Michael felt a jab of irritation. The look in his brother's eyes as he failed to keep them off of her lips told Michael all he needed to know. Gabriel noticed the lingering gaze too, eliciting a small bloom of color to creep across her cheeks as she glanced away. What Michael was witnessing was not pure or heavenly. It was not part of their purpose or order as God's first created, his righteous and pure archangels.

"Through your eyes..."

Tempted to act as he'd been granted to do, Michael stalled when Lucifer's words trailed off and he leaned away from Gabriel.

Furrows lined Lucifer's forehead. His golden locks fell over his face as he shifted his hand away and redirected his hungry eyes below. "Through your eyes, I can imagine _anything_ is possible."

Gabriel reached out, slowly lowering her hand over Lucifer's. He drew in air through his flared nostrils and seemed to turn to stone before gently pulling away. The action relaxed Michael's worry. He did not want to have to report or act against any of his heavenly brothers or sisters.

"Adam and Eve." Lucifer pointed below, his finger dipping into the iridescent water to create ripples over the surface. "There they... _are_." The already tense angel gulped. Every visible muscle up his arm and between his folded wings strained and popped.

Gabriel followed his direction, mouth opening in scrutiny as she stared below. Renewed pink bloomed over her porcelain cheeks. "I believe that is how they...it is... We do not have a word for it yet."

Michael wished he knew what they could see, but his view below from this angle was blurred and of an entirely different plain that was brown and desolate. Michael was almost tempted to make his presence known, to enter and see what had enticed their strange and varying reactions.

Before he could, Lucifer gravitated closer to Gabriel, his watchful eyes still unwaveringly set below. The hand he had pulled out from under Gabriel's touch planted back over hers, fingers curling around her delicate bones and milky skin. The hasty contact surprised Michael into stillness, but as his mobility returned, a flurry of images inundated his mind. Swirls of white, gold, and cream coalesced into a moving scene, revealing Lucifer standing so close to Gabriel that there was no air between them. His hands shook as he brushed her hair back from her shoulders and slid the pinned robe from her slight frame. Bared naked in his mind, Michael struggled not to utter a sound at the sudden and sinful thoughts that assaulted him. He wanted to cup her face in his hands and taste her rosy lips. He wanted to run the backs of his hands from her neck and down her perfect pale skin, venturing over her womanly curves lower and lower. Seeing flashes of Adam and Eve in their created form, touching and caressing, joining as one amidst a grove of trees with round, orange fruit, he felt an insidious urge to act on all that filled his mind. To be with Gabriel in a raw and primal human sense.

But these were _not_ Michael's thoughts.

They were in his head, but they were not of his heart, his devotion as a pure being. Michael knew this was true as he felt a surge of power like a tiny ember spark inside of him that grew to a roaring blaze. God's power. The reason he was ordered here to watch over God's messenger and his Morningstar.

The light that saturated the Realm of Light intensified, noticed by Michael but not by Lucifer who now moved his hand to cup Gabriel's blushing face. All he had seen had been delivered from Lucifer's mind into his own. _By God._ The infused power bursting inside of him was a command, an order to obey—to punish.

Still connected to Lucifer's mind, the disgusting images warped, turning the sight of Adam and Eve into Lucifer and Gabriel. Bared of cloth, Lucifer lay atop Gabriel, her legs around his tight body and ready to accept—

Michael's clenched hands flung out, releasing the coiling power that needed to explode from inside him. Lucifer's hand retreated from Gabriel's blushed face as if zapped by lightning. Crying out, Lucifer doubled over, moisture sprouting all over his skin as he screamed.

"Lucifer!" Gabriel scrambled to roll Lucifer onto his back, clinging to his taut arms in an attempt to still the shakes that claimed his convulsing body. Her lovely features were a mask of fear that made Michael want to relent. But this was not his doing, nor his will to reject. "Lucifer, what is wrong? What is happening!"

Michael snapped his hands closed, cutting off the energy as quickly as he'd released it. Lucifer slumped, gasping to return his breathing to normal. At the same time, Michael ignored the drain of vitality he felt to ensure his ordered punishment had delivered the message intended.

Gabriel reached for Lucifer again, stroking his arms that glistened with sweat. "Lucifer? Lucifer, say someth—"

Lucifer moved as fast as God's power being delivered, pulling his arm from Gabriel's touch. He lurched up and stumbled to his feet. "I...I am fine. I...I..." With eyes wide and hands raised, he backed up. "Forgive me. _Please_..." __ He spun away and pushed off, mighty wings beating to take him up through the eternal light above the looking glass—and away from her.

As warm air from Lucifer's departure batted his face, Michael shrank back into the endless light of the corridor. He could not dislodge how conflicted he felt. His duty had been completed, but having to act against his heavenly brother warred with his sense of achievement. He sighed as Gabriel's upturned face left his sight. "It is done—as you wished."

# Chapter Five

Gabriel rushed through the labyrinth corridors of the Realm of Light, long feathered wings trailing in her wake and feet silent but fast. Her heart raced along with her steps over the glowing floor—it had started the moment God had excused her from Heaven. The moment she made a choice.

"Lucifer." His name instilled her with a sense of excitement, but as she rounded a bend, clearing chamber entries, she stopped short. Mingling with her excitement was a sensation she did not want to feel. Dread. Her hand lifted as she caught her breath, fingers tracing the edge of the glittering drapery that shielded the chamber she had stopped at.

Lucifer's chamber.

All around there was no sight or sound of any of the eleven other archangels, no one to see and scrutinize her uncertain presence. Yet it was not the fear of being found that stalled her previously sure intent. It was Lucifer himself. He did not appear, but he did not need to. She could sense his closeness, his undeniable presence inside.

Which meant...he could sense her too.

She longed to see him, to say his name and see the way his face changed as he looked at her. The way he hadn't looked at her for so long now. Since that fateful and terrifying day beside the looking glass, her closest and oldest friend, the man who had been at her side since their finite beginning, had shied away from her. Gabriel had thought his avoidance would improve with time, with patience, but she had waited too long.

She missed him too much.

So much...it hurt.

With a steadying breath, Gabriel listened to the racing of her heart instead of the knots in her twisted stomach for once. Lips parting, she tried and failed to control her voice. "L-lucifer?" She'd intended to sound strong, to sound sure of herself. Instead, his name had escaped her in a weak whisper. A question. She cringed and, after hearing a clink followed by a moment of silence, she brushed the jangling drapery aside to enter Lucifer's private chamber.

Inside was warm with light, his reporting platform beside stacked tablets to one side, and curved steps up to a reflection zone of downy pillows and blankets to the other. Despite the tranquility, this curved chamber was anything but inviting—because the angel she'd been certain to find was nowhere in sight.

But he was here.

Gabriel knew the fact as she stepped further into the chamber, her sad eyes panning over the drapery that lined the luminous walls. In her hesitation, he had shrunk away, concealing himself from her.

Gabriel's heart fell, feeling like a heavy rock in her chest. A burden. She sniffed as she walked barefoot to his platform, trailing her fingers over the chiseled tablet he'd been carving into. With tiny clumps of stone cluttering the flat glowing surface, it was clear he had been busy recording...

Gabriel snatched her hand back and sucked in a small breath. Her name.

Lucifer had been recording a historical event from Below, yet the last word was not part of his reported story to be delivered to God. It was her name. _Gabriel_.

Feeling bolder than she'd ever had the courage to feel, Gabriel spun away from the platform. This time, when she spoke, her voice was clear and unwavering.

"I know you are here. I can feel you."

There was not a sound, leaving an ongoing silence that was deafening. But he was here. As she had since their bodies formed, she could sense his presence like a warm vibration that slipped through her like moving water. The sensation had weakened over the years, but it was still there, still connecting them.

Gabriel opened her mouth to demand he reveal himself, but the words choked back down before any sound could pass her lips. Eyes set ahead, she meandered past the stacked blocks that needed sorting and climbed the steps. When she reached the flurry of large pillows, her chest constricted. Bending down, her sapphire robe bunched as she plucked up the item that had stolen her words and compelled her movements. Lucifer's feather. One he had shed in his haste to hide away from her?

Biting her lip, she shook her head. Letting her mind wander, she recalled the day she'd last been at Lucifer's side, watching Adam and Eve. Their actions had affected her, yet it was her memory of Lucifer that came to her now. The way he had fallen sideways in agony. The tightening and bulging strain of his body. The fact that naught she had done had helped. And then it had all stopped: his pain—and their companionship. Yet the confusion remained. No amount of questioning had encouraged Lucifer to explain, not then and certainly not now.

Gabriel sighed, dropping his feather onto the soft, puffy layers as she straightened her back and gathered her long hair over her shoulder. Turning away, she returned to his writing platform, vision becoming more and more hazy with each step. "I am tasked to venture below. To Eden. There is a message I am to deliver. Mayhap I will see you upon my return?" She sighed once more when all remained quiet, the hope she had arrived with struggling to stay alive. Her voice fell to a whisper as a single tear fell onto the platform. "Mayhap not."

Bringing her hand up, Gabriel clicked her fingers as Lucifer called out, "Gabriel, wait!" But it was too late. Spears of white light shot from her body like a million-pointed star, drowning out the sound of Lucifer's voice. And then she was gone, traversing from the Realm of Light to fly below.

"Gabriel, wait!"

Lucifer rushed out from behind the concealing drapery—too late. The flash of blinding light that had been Gabriel— _his Gabriel_ —vanished, stealing the sight of her away along with the tingle her presence awakened in him.

Suddenly alone, he stumbled down the steps toward where she had been, her departure resonating in him like a profound and burdening loss. With each step, a word arose in his mind, one that he felt suited given he had been hiding from the one angel he could not imagine staying invisible to. _Coward._

He had wanted, _needed_ , to go to her, to respond to her presence and her voice. And it was this want, this _weakness_ that had forced him to stay hidden. Not only on this day but all the long days that had passed since he ruined it all. For so long he had locked down his desperate need for physical closeness with Gabriel and resigned himself to merely existing in the background, watching the developing world on different rotations, turning and walking in the opposite direction at the sight of her in the long corridors. And now...hiding when they both knew he was there.

Deep down he knew the stolen glimpses and fleeting glances would never be enough. To feel as he did and to know it was forbidden was like a culmination of Heaven and a term he'd come to name as _Hell_.

His vision blurred as he reached his writing platform, conjuring the memory of her standing there as he fingered the letters of her chiseled name. It felt like forever since he had seen her this close. Yet the interaction so long ago between them remained fresh in his mind. He'd felt things for this heavenly creature that were not his to feel. Inside, his body had blistered with sensation and heat. His thoughts had been uncontrollable and compelling. So compelling that he had thought to give in to them. To want for himself what the humans below acted out between a man and a woman. Why give him those distinguishing parts if they were forbidden to be used? The answer was not his to know.

All of that seemed like a dream now—if angels could dream, or sleep, which they could not. But her being here, wanting him, needing him...

Lucifer blinked his vision clear and a small glimmer of light drew his gaze down. Somehow brighter than the glowing platform, a small glistening drop of silver beamed up at him. He sucked in air, seeing in his mind Gabriel's back as he hid, her wings hanging low from her shoulders as she sniffed. Crying—out of sadness Lucifer inflicted with his cowardice.

Frowning as his heart ached at the thought, he reached out, letting his finger connect with the iridescent drop. "Gabriel, forgive—" His words cut off as a zap of power struck through his finger and up his arm. God's power. Power she'd shed in sadness. He remembered then the words he had been too stunned to hear. _Tasked. Below. Eden._ And now her essence was calling to him, fully revived by the tear she had shed. The depression he had instilled in her along with the potential dangers of venturing below caused panic to take control of Lucifer's heart and mind. He could not be near her, but...he had to protect her. To show her he cared, even in his avoidance.

Mind made up, Lucifer acted without a plan.

Without permission.

One second he was caught up in the grief he had caused her and the loss of her renewed presence. The next second his fingers clicked of their own accord, and he was transported far from the Realm of Light and its infinite expanse of warmth and light.

Below a late afternoon sun, Lucifer tilted facedown, tucking his wings in tight to his back—and then he fell. As fast as a projectile, he plunged downward through the sky, following the setting sun as wind assaulted his face, batted his feathers, and flailed his white robe. The fall felt eternal, but finally, _finally,_ Eden came into view.

Wings flinging out, vast and powerful, he fought the painful uprush to slow his descent. Banking sideways, he zigzagged through clouds, using the bordering mountains to keep his arrival from sight. Landing on a tall rocky ledge, a click of his fingers had his body vanishing and reforming amongst a grove of trees that were twice as tall as himself. A worthy hiding place where Lucifer's sense of Gabriel directed his seeking eyes straight to her. Seeing her through the dense foliage, he clung to a thick branch to hold himself back, to remind himself of his need to remain distant.

Out beyond the shadows of the planted area, a meadow rolled on, filled with purple and yellow blooms. Gabriel stood amongst the beauty. In her rope-tied robe, her silver-flaxen hair blowing in the fragrant wind was a thing of envy to the surroundings.

And she was far from alone.

Standing naked before her was a woman with dark auburn hair down to her waist. Eve. The same woman Lucifer had seen lying with Adam. He breathed deeply at the memory of what he had witnessed them doing, though not because he held any thoughts for this human who seemed bewildered in an angel's presence. Even naked with Gabriel covered before her, Lucifer's thoughts were only of the archangel who was his stationed equal—the angel that could never be more. In spite of the path he was created to walk, Lucifer found himself watching Gabriel's lips as she spoke. Not to hear the words. No. He could care less what message she was presenting from their maker. He was captivated by the fast pace at which she spoke, and the way her brows furrowed as her eyes sparked with intensity. Continuing to watch her budding lips move, the thoughts and instincts he had been trying to ignore since he'd flown away from her so long ago rose up again, compelling and unyielding. His grip on the tree limb tightened, nails biting into the rough bark. He wanted...

He could not say it. He could not think it.

But he was not in control anymore. Not when it came to her. Something in him was changing. It had started on that first day when they had become flesh and bone. All the eons before melted away, because with that first sight and the sound of her soothing voice, something that was supposed to remain pure and angelic in him broke. Deep down he knew it. He feared she knew it too almost more than he feared the fact that God had seen the changes.

Biting his lip, Lucifer tried to stem the thoughts as if trying to reattach a severed arm. His eyes squeezed shut, but the image of her lips when she had been beside him at the looking glass attacked his mind. He licked his bottom lip, envisioning how he would hold her jaw to draw her closer. How he would feel her surprised breath across his chin and neck. How he would lean in as his lids became hooded. And then...how their lips would meet, hers soft and supple and his hungry and desperate for a taste as his tongue swept inside—

A new sound, a sort of creaking and brushing brought his eyes wide open. Lucifer gasped, seeing red swells growing from all over the tree he clung to—with his glowing hand. The same hand he'd absorbed her silver tear through. Every branch bloomed with the fruit, each growing ample and glossy, ripe for picking. Jaw slackened, he plucked one from its hanging place and turned it over in his hand. Its rosy color matched... _Gabriel's lips_.

Lucifer's eyes darted through the thicker branches, seeing the empty field. He felt it then too. Gabriel was gone.

"Who be you?"

Lucifer flinched at the soft voice and twisted away from the tree to find the bared woman Gabriel had been exchanging words with. Eve. His eyes darted up to where the white clouds turned blue as the sky took on a purple-blushed hue. There was no trace of the archangel. It was time to go before Gabriel went looking for him. "No one. I must be away." With no need for the fruit—being an immortal meant he didn't require sustenance to survive—he tossed the red bounty to the woman.

She caught it with a fumble as Lucifer's broad wings unfurled with a proud _whoosh_. Her voice stalled him from lifting off, "What do you call it?"

Lucifer peered around at the other trees, seeing orange, green, and yellow fruits. Nothing resembled what he had sprouted from his secret and sinful yearning. "It is an... _apple_." And with that, he batted his wings and took off up into the endless sky.

# Chapter Six

"T _o the looking glass. At once."_

God's telepathic summons punched into Lucifer's head as he materialized in the warm ambiance of the Realm of Light. His heart stopped momentarily, then thundered back to life. He braced, expecting a sudden dose of pain to floor him in the glowing corridor outside his chamber, to punish him for his impure thoughts down on Earth. When no pain came, he quickly scanned ahead and behind himself, worried he would encounter Gabriel. With not a single angel in sight, he breathed through his mouth and followed the order toward the looking glass, keeping his guilty face down while wondering if _somehow_ his musings had gone unnoticed.

Any thoughts on escaping retaliation for his misdeeds stalled as he came through the thick towering columns that ended the corridor.

She was here.

His gaze was like a magnet that could not stop from settling on her. Though the second Gabriel felt his presence and looked up with relief on her beautiful face, Lucifer glanced away. Keeping his head down, he ignored the other ten angels as he took his spot beside her, desperate to look at her and afraid to do so at the same time. He could not control his thoughts, maybe not even his actions, when it came to her.

"You were not above when I returned." Had she not sensed him below? Gabriel leaned closer to him and the scent of her, like fresh blooms in spring, overwhelmed him, preventing him from uttering a word. There had been no accusation in her tone, only happiness mixed with wariness, but he was certain she could see the guilt all over his face. Her hand that she leaned into slid closer on the ground between them. To touch him? To show how grateful she was to be near him? She stopped before she could graze his knee, seeming to notice the rigidness that suddenly froze Lucifer's body. If only she knew what ran rampant through his mind... "I have missed you, Lucifer."

For the second time today Lucifer's heart stopped, then it lurched back to life, drumming exponentially faster. His mouth parted to utter a lame reply, but the clearing of another angel's throat stopped him. Glancing up, he found Michael glaring at him from across the looking glass. His tall arching wings and his arms crossed over his bulky chest made his expression even more formidable. A directive to abstain from any physical or even verbal contact with Gabriel. Or was the look induced by knowledge of Lucifer's sins?

The angels alongside his angelic brother looked up too, frowns taking shape in confusion of their silent interaction.

Lucifer relented first, as always, glancing down through the still water over the concaved looking glass. His eyes slammed shut as a sudden beacon of light flared into existence to center the gathered circle. Vision adjusting, Lucifer blinked as God's voice shook the realm and his racing heart. "You are all gathered here on this day to bear witness..."

A strike of humming light shot from God's glowing sphere—right into Michael.

All eyes trained on their heavenly leader as he went down to one knee with gritted teeth. The light subsided, leaving a brighter glow that haloed his muscular body as he pushed back up to his full towering height—to set his intensely silver eyes back on Lucifer.

When all remained silent, Remiel questioned from beside Michael with open interest, "Witness to whom or what?"

Fearing he already knew, Lucifer held Michael's narrowed gaze, watching as the angel brimming with God's infinite power brought his fingers together. "To this."

Michael vanished with a click of his fingers, but when the Angel of Death pointed, "down there," all the remaining angels followed Azrael's view down through the water as a location appeared. Eden. There among the serene landscape with its plunging waterfalls and bordering mountains to keep the rest of the world out was Michael. Infused with God's power, the travel below had been instant. Adam and Eve were there too, and they both hastily stood from their reclined place against a tree at his arrival, ditching items from their hands.

Lucifer squinted, seeing the grove he had taken flight from—and the discarded fruit that littered the tree he had sprouted. The same tree Adam and Eve had been positioned under.

Gabriel gasped. "My dear God. No," she breathed the words out like a desperate prayer. Her hands came together, to which she pressed her lips.

"Gabriel?" Lucifer had wanted to be the one to speak, but the terror across her face had turned his tongue to stone in his mouth. Instead, it was Remiel who addressed her. "Pray tell, what is wrong?"

Gabriel shook her head, her hair swaying back and forth over her quivering shoulders. When she looked at Lucifer, silver streamed from her eyes. "I delivered _His_ message. I warned Eve about the rosy fruit."

Lucifer felt ill, his stomach turning like an ocean tide. "Fruit?"

"It was forbidden. The only thing in Eden they could not partake of."

"Mayhap the humans did not understand your message," Azrael suggested, sharing a strange look with one of the two other female angels across the pool.

With her returned glance to Azrael fleeting, Ariel added shyly, "Mayhap their freedom blinded them?"

A ground-shattering blast erupted below from Michael like a beacon, cutting off anyone else's assumptions. Adam and Eve crumbled to the ground—as did the bordering waterfall and protective mountains that contained their paradise, collapsing in a rumbling quake that leveled the land. Eden was unprotected, now open to the entire outside world. All that was safe and eternal within its walls was not anymore. It was exposed and open to ruin.

Michael appeared through the slow settling dust as animals fled. His pointed arm was a direction that needed no words, and Adam and Eve crawled upright from their knees to stumble away from what had been their paradise. Their safe haven.

Lucifer and Gabriel stayed in their positions by the looking glass for the longest time. Gabriel sobbed, trapped by sadness and a look of guilt that must have been caused by her message failing.

_"Though it was not Gabriel failing that cause this destruction—was it, Lucifer?"_

Lucifer cringed as God's voice punched into his head. At the same time, he was glad for the pain, the internally delivered words that only he could hear. Because God was correct.

Knowing the truth and what he'd set in motion, Lucifer could only stare. He knew what had happened, what had caused the irrevocable damning of Eden. _He had._ In his thoughts and in his actions, he had undermined the message Gabriel was sent to deliver by placing that fruit—the ones he had sprouted through his cravings for her—into Eve's very own hands. Lucifer hadn't known it would be forbidden. He had called it an apple. How could he have known?

_"Knowledge is not your burden, Lucifer. It is mine. Now you must learn_ before _it is too late."_

Before Lucifer could even think to question the meaning behind God's telepathic words, the levitating sphere glowed brighter.

_"Control must be learned. Through suffering, you will become stronger. Do not react..."_ God's light burst open, raining upward with his departure.

And then, every muscle in Lucifer's body contracted so tightly around his bones he was sure they were about to shatter. Already on his hands and knees, he clenched his teeth and braced against his forearms. The instruction had been explicit. _Do not react._

With sweat sprouting as he swallowed the agonizing cries that threatened to rip from his throat, Lucifer felt torn in two, but not solely because of his punishment. Gabriel's quiet sobs had broken through the pain. She was suffering, and that knowledge hurt a thousand times more than the physical torture he was enduring. Feeling his desperation rising, he wanted to curve his bulging arms around Gabriel. He wanted to console her, to tell her she was not at fault, to dry her streaming tears and put an end to her sorrowful sobs. He wanted to—

Michael appeared with a blast of white light. His massive wings remained extended as his chest heaved from his necessary flight back after expelling all God's gifted power below. "You are responsible for this."

Lucifer ratcheted his fusing neck up with a crunch, noticing that all the other angels were gone. Only he and Gabriel remained.

"I know it was my failure." Still distraught, Gabriel struggled to her feet, seeming weak with distress.

Lucifer jumped up as she stumbled, his knees popping and making his movements messy as he caught her body that was so much smaller than his. Steadying her on her feet, he cracked his jaw open, forcing words to rasp from his throat. "No. This is not your—"

"Release her!" Michael's voice boomed as he marched around the looking glass. He snatched ahold of Gabriel and tugged her back, his face becoming even redder with fury.

Lucifer tensed all over. A new burning emotion even stronger than pain flooded through him. "Don't you dare hurt her."

"It is not me who will hurt her, Lucifer. You must know by now that I know. Or do you think I am that blind?"

"Blind? _Hurt?_ " Despite her size, Gabriel ripped her arm from Michael's stronghold. The sight of his handprint imprinted on her skin maddened Lucifer, but her question as she faced him kept him from reacting. "What in Heaven is going on?"

Unwilling to give Michael the satisfaction or let Gabriel suffer in guilt any longer, Lucifer cracked his jaw open once more as he struggled to stay on his feet. The torture receded at once—a reprieve to do what needed to be done? To reveal his mistake? "I followed you below. I watched as you delivered your message." He took a recovering step closer, wiping the silver stream from her cheek with his thumb before he could think not to. Seeing Michael clench his jaw and fearing further punishment, Lucifer dropped his hand. "Though I did not hear what you delivered, please believe me, for it is true."

"I would _never_ distrust you, Lucifer."

"Yet you would be wise to," Michael barely held back from snapping as he reached around Gabriel's folded wings to rest his large hands on her shoulders. "What Lucifer fails to speak is that—"

"I created the fruit, and then I handed one to Eve."

"You... _did_?" Gabriel stepped closer to him, forcing Michael's hands to fall away from her. She collected Lucifer's tightly clasped fists and separated them, holding each one in her own. "Why? How?"

The lack of judgment in her eyes stunned Lucifer. How could she look at him like that after what he had confessed? After ruining Eden? "It was not through malice or intent. I knew not that the fruit was forbidden." Lucifer stopped himself before he could admit to what he had imagined when, in lustful thought, he had unintentionally grown that fruit.

"Now Eden is no more. _Utopia on Earth_ is no more."

Gabriel turned to face Michael who'd spoken and she reached out to touch his arm. His hard exterior softened so minimally it was almost unnoticeable. Almost. "I delivered _His_ word. _His_ message. Adam and Eve used their gift of choice. Lucifer did not force them to eat the fruit. He is not to blame for their actions."

That total hardness returned to Michael's features, and he bared his clenched teeth. "If you only knew..." He glanced over Gabriel's head to Lucifer, brows raised and eyes narrowed. It was a look of promise—a warning of revelations if Lucifer failed to control himself.

Lucifer dropped his head, staring at the luminous floor as Michael stomped through the corridor that led to the scribe vault. _If you only knew..._ Those few words held so much promise and so much danger. If Gabriel ever found out, she would never speak to him again. The look of understanding and acceptance across her face would morph into disgusted disbelief. But how could he keep it all hidden inside? How could he lie to her?

Gabriel's silky soft fingers touched his chin, and he allowed her to tilt his face up. When his eyes remained downcast, she sighed. "Look at me, Lucifer. Please, _look_ at me."

Unable to deny her request, he blinked up fast, refusing to let his gaze sweep over her mouth for fear of getting stuck there. Her eyes were now dry, and the emotion in them resonated in him as profoundly as her gentle hand cupping his jaw while her thumb caressed his cheek.

"Eden is not your burden to carry. You are not to blame."

"You cannot truly believe that."

"I do. And you should too." Gabriel's touch fell from his face. She collected his hands again, holding them together as she raised and held them close to her heart. "I know you, Lucifer. I know your soul as I do my own. We were born of light, and we live for _His_ cause. Your total devotion has never wavered. Not now, and not in the eons before the Earth came to be. Like me, you have always followed _His_ plan. If you were not meant to create that fruit, why would God send me to warn Adam and Eve?"

With the total belief in her eyes, Lucifer could not help but see the world as she did. Perhaps he had merely been a pawn in God's game, a soldier to act without the need for instruction. Still, her belief did not change the facts. He knew that much as invisible agony shot back through his bones.

"You see it?"

Molars clenching and the muscle along his jaw ticking, Lucifer fought to keep secret the agony that ripped through him. His response was a lie, one he had to tell to end this encounter. "I do." When he let his focus sharpen from its blurry haze to return to her, he almost stumbled. And not because his legs were about to fail him. Gabriel's smile hit him like a bolt of lightning, somehow making her infinitely more stunning, despite the notion being impossible. The first smile he had ever seen—and it was directed at him. His struggling heart that felt like God's hands were squeezing tight around it stumbled then roared to life, racing like it never had before. In words he'd never imagined possible, he felt sensation inside of him that was forbidden and raw. In spite of the renewed strike of pain that had sweat attacking his brow, Lucifer could not stop from reaching out to touch her breathtaking face, a face that looked at him with unending hope and acceptance.

Color heated Gabriel's cheeks and she shied away.

Lucifer's lips parted, but he choked back the words he could never say out loud. The words that formed and solidified in his mind to encompass all of what he felt for this ethereal woman standing before him. The words that, if God heard him utter, would damn them both.

_I love you._

# Chapter Seven

Alone in the scribe vault, Gabriel breathed in sharply. A stirring sensation coiled through her like a curling wind of jagged stars. Only one angel had ever affected her in such a dramatic and uncontrollable way.

A way that was heavenly with a touch of pain.

Lucifer, the one angel she longed to see, was near.

Rising up from the glowing platform, Gabriel rushed from the scribe vault—and came face to face with Lucifer. Startled by her suddenly barreling into him, his downcast eyes shot up as he caught her arms and spun them both around. Letting go as suddenly as if her touch had burned him, he stumbled back. The log that sat before the platform crowded with stacked tablets stopped his retreat. And the look on his face—it was the saddest thing she had ever seen, worse even than witnessing a young deer ripped to shreds by a lion.

Loneliness ruled his crestfallen face.

And it broke her heart.

"Lucifer, I am sorry." She reached for him as she steadied herself, her long robe swaying around her bare feet.

Since that day by the looking glass, and with Michael switching their rotations, Lucifer's avoidance had not only continued, it had worsened. Now he evaded not only her but also all the other angels too. Every time she crossed his path, he shied away, not so much as speaking a word to her. Days had turned into weeks, weeks into months. Every day without him felt like a lifetime. Enduring another? She did not think she could do it. Not for herself...and especially, not for him. Looking at him now, his heavenly ambiance seemed even duller than only days ago.

Desperation to bring the light back to his eyes, and to feel the spark that warmed her entire body at his touch, made her step forward. "You have stayed away..."

Words caught in her throat as his eyes darted away from her and he sidestepped as he if were trying to escape a burning room and she was the fire. It reminded her of the way his eyes cast down after settling on her appearing form in any location. His rejection sliced through her as if he had impaled her with the angel sword. Though she was sure the only weapon that could end her instantly and permanently could never hurt so much as the loss of her oldest and dearest friend.

And to know he had no one, that he was alone by choice? It took her broken heart and ground it down to dust.

"Lucifer, please wait." When he abandoned his escape, Gabriel shook the hurt and sadness away, forcing it deep down as she let her hope resurface. She would not accept this. Not now. Not ever. The Realm of Light may have been infinite, but so was her faith in him. And this day, he would not refuse her efforts. She was through with letting him push her away. "We do not need to talk about it. Please..." Gabriel noticed for the first time that he was dressed in common brown attire. "You are descending below on an Earth mission?"

Lucifer remained frozen like a beautiful statue, but his eyes betrayed him, traveling up her body and to her face where they stayed. A smile tugged at one side of his lips, and his golden locks fell forward as he tilted his head to one side.

"Lucifer." Gabriel started forward, desperate to remove the space between them before the reserved yet welcoming look on his face could change. "I have missed you." _In so many ways_ , she thought, feeling like maybe, _maybe_ she could get through to him now.

After she ventured a few hurried steps closer, that teasing smile fell from Lucifer's handsome face. As she felt a change in the warm air, he folded his arms over his chest, drawing her eyes to multiple red spots across his inner arms before they were cut off from view. A hard edge morphed his expression, shutting down the invitation she had felt from his eyes and turning it into something of anger and sadness. His nostrils flared, his lips pressing together tight as his silver-blue eyes glared over her shoulder. "Michael," he spat with a nod, utter distaste rolling off his tongue.

Gabriel froze at the archangel's spoken name. His presence, the change she had noticed and ignored, too consumed by Lucifer, now bellowed around her like a dark, suffocating cloud. She could not speak.

Right at her back, Michael's arms brushed along the edges of her wings, causing her to stiffen as if she were committing some unknown sin. His fingers were gentle as they curled over her shoulders. His voice at her ear was not. "I must share words with you." Lucifer stepped back, closer to the wall of pigeonholes that would lead him around them to the exit, and Gabriel, though she could not see Michael's face, could imagine what expression he wore to elicit such a reaction. "Alone."

"I will come and find you thereafter." Gabriel's voice was steady, and although she did not often make insistences, she refused to lose this moment with Lucifer. She refused to let him go when this disturbed interaction with him had been the most promising revelation between them since that last day so long ago. She kept her pleading eyes on Lucifer, giving him all of her attention even as Michael's broad hands curled even tighter around her shoulders. "I wish to speak with Lucifer."

Lucifer did not react in any way to her refusal to Michael. He did not even look at her when she spoke his name, keeping his narrowed gaze fixed on the commanding angel behind her. "There is nothing to speak about."

Not saying another word, Lucifer's nostrils flared as he nodded once and turned away. The gentle glow that haloed his body dimmed right before her eyes. Gabriel stared helplessly as he strode around her with a wide birth. Tears prickled her eyes as she watched his bronzed body disappear beyond the open doorway, followed by his draping white wings that brushed over the glowing floor. That insidious pain returned to her insides, manifesting like a stabbing blade twisting to gouge a hole in her heart.

Michael spun her around slowly and tilted her dropped face up with a finger under her chin. "It would be wise of you to leave Lucifer to his distance. It is for the best."

Gabriel jerked back, confusion straining her features as Michael's hands fell from her shoulder and chin. "Best for who? You cannot convince me that this is best for Lucifer, or for any of us. We are God's angels. We are meant to be here for one another. One mistake does not make Lucifer worthy of this separation, whether it is enforced by you _or_ himself."

With his arms at his sides after her retraction from him, Michael flexed his fingers as if chasing away a cramp. "His actions in Eden are only the tip of his wrongdoings. If you only knew, Gab—"

"Then tell me, Michael. Tell me what is so damning that Lucifer should be treated as an outcast in his home, that he should accept such separation and even enforce it on himself. All the angels avoid him. They look at him differently." _They look at me differently too_ , she mused in her mind. "Tell me why?"

Michael's broad hands clenched into fists. "The why is not of importance. The result is. If Lucifer felt he was worthy of belonging and acted like the pure being he was created to be, we would not be standing here now and speaking in this way. He knows what he did. He judges himself more harshly than we all do. So leave it alone. Leave him be. Only he holds his fate in his hands. You cannot help him."

With those last rushed words, the soft glow surrounding Michael intensified until he too was gone with a gentle click of his fingers.

Confused and so very alone, in being and in her need to make this festering situation better, Gabriel made a choice.

Striding with purpose from the scribe vault and down the corridors, she reached their private rooms and pushed through the glittered drapery into Lucifer's chamber. More tablets than the last time clogged up the area, spilling over in tall stacks from the writing platform and covering the floor all the way across to the steps. Gabriel thought to neaten things up, to perhaps read some of what Lucifer spent his endless hours and days etching away, but as she collected and shifted a few tablets to begin a new stack, she paused. Below the scattered stone blocks, a slip of cloth peeked out. An unfinished work stared up at her from the platform. The fact that it wasn't written words in stone caught her eye first, but as she cleared the rest of the tablets off of the light-infused surface that resembled flat, hardened water, she gasped.

Gabriel's heart tripped over itself then pounded, flooding heat to her cheeks.

Staring up at her was her own face, sketched in a darkish substance from the tip of Lucifer's feather to grace the silk sheet. The detail was never-ending, adding not only her features but also an undying hope that radiated from her soulful eyes. "Beautiful."

Noticing a few stray drops on the radiant ground and among the scattered tablets, Gabriel realized what substance had been used to create her likeness. Blood. The memory of those red spots on Lucifer's inner forearm graced her mind. Lucifer's blood, pricked from the sharp tip of his feather.

Lucifer had chosen to distance himself not only from all the angels but also from her too. But this detailed sketch was proof that Lucifer cared, that he thought of her even though he refused to speak her name, that he did not truly want this separation he continued to inflict upon himself.

In return, Gabriel could not deny the spark Lucifer's touch called forth or the feelings each one awakened in her.

Feelings that confused, excited, and scared her.

And she understood why. Unlike the other angels that she cared deeply for, she knew that what she felt for Lucifer was different. More intense. More powerful. When he was near, her body felt alive in a way that nothing else had ever made her feel.

Gabriel had endured his avoidance and his lonely way of existing in the background among them for long enough. Each day she expected their separation to become easier, less painful, all the while feeling a hopeless loss at witnessing his lonely, closed-off existence. "No more," Gabriel said, making a choice. A choice to act on the feelings she could no longer ignore, and on the fact that Lucifer belonged with them all—and by her side. She had all but abandoned Lucifer to his misery, and she would do it no longer. They were angels of God, made to exist together in light. He was the brightest of them all and she would not let his radiance burn out. No being deserved such damaging isolation whether self-imposed or not.

She plucked the feather Lucifer had carefully and devotedly sketched her face with and cradled the softly curled length along her cupped palms. The earthy smell of him fanned up at her, making her smile. Raising her hands up higher, she brought her lips down to meet the pure white vanes, and whispered her heartfelt words, her promise. "Though you hide in plain sight, fading into dark misery, I see you. I will always see you. You are my oldest and dearest friend. My Morningstar. I miss you more than my heart can withstand. When you are ready, follow the labyrinth corridors to the west, beyond all the formed and future chambers. There, where the edge of light glows the brightest, and without eyes or ears to see or hear, I will be waiting—even if it takes an eternity."

# Chapter Eight

Lucifer returned to his chamber much later and alone. He stalled inside the twinkling entry with a deep sigh. Wandering the endless maze of illuminated corridors after his short venture below had passed the time, but not even his slip into the scribe vault to deliver a stack of his recordings had cleared his mind. Every time Lucifer blinked he saw that expression on Gabriel's face, the one he had instilled in her the second he'd verbally refused her. She had looked physically wounded by him, like he'd punched through her ribcage to her heart and squeezed with the might of God. The pain he'd inflicted on her with his actions and those few words haunted him.

He never wanted to hurt anyone. Especially not Gabriel.

That was the reason he kept himself away. Why he resorted to hiding in the edges of the blinding light. Why he had abstained from connecting with any of his fellow archangels. He did not want her to feel she had done anything to warrant his avoidance. He wanted her to believe that he simply was not interested in being part of their elite group, to accept that he liked his solitary life.

But she knew him too well. She saw right through his mask of uncaring to the deep pain that grew within him with each passing day.

Being away from Gabriel was ruining him, changing him more than their development of flesh and bone and heart.

Now redressed in clean white, Lucifer fisted the material of his robe, pressing his knuckles hard against his pounding heart. "Damn me." Stepping between the clutter of scattered tablets that dominated the glowing floor and dulled the ambient light, he could not stop his thoughts from returning to his time beside the looking glass this day. He now had a word for what he'd felt on witnessing that physical act between Adam and Eve. _Jealousy._ The feeling had been growing stronger inside of him each passing day as he watched God's humans down below. They, as individuals, answered only unto themselves. Although they were not all-powerful or immortal or protected by Eden's walls, they were... _free_.

Something Lucifer could never be. Never in the way he desired.

"Stop it," Lucifer chided himself, fighting to push all he felt deep down somewhere that it could rot and die. "Stop..."

Lucifer's voice trailed off. Someone had been inside his chamber. His chiseled recordings, despite their disarray, had shifted ever so slightly. But the real proof revealed itself in the slight electricity that lingered on the unmoving air. _"Gabriel."_

At the instant thought of her, he shook his hope away. Anger replaced it as he stomped over and around stone blocks, shoving them aside with knocks that would bruise his ankles and shins to get to his writing platform. "Michael the spy." He ripped tablets off the bright surface, sweeping them away with a resounding crash. "He has no right. I have kept to myself—" Lucifer's words cut short as a feather— _his feather_ —swooshed off the desk with the last few blocks he shoved aside. Catching it mid-air, his breath caught, and his powerful hands turned soft as they cradled the feather across one large palm. "Gabriel," her name graced his lips again as static emanated from the feather and warmed his palm. She had been here, in his chamber, touching part of himself he'd plucked free so long ago...a part he'd hidden under his work. Panic squeezed his lungs and his eyes shot down to the drawing of her, the one he had spent countless reflection time perfecting since that shameful day. It was a perfect image of her, detailing her oval face with its pointed chin, her round rosy cheeks, her petite nose, her plump swollen lips, her long flowing hair, and her eyes of endless hope. Until today, he had not allowed himself to look at her. Every time she had been near, he'd forced his eyes that were desperate to behold her down or away. But all that inspired this realistic drawing was branded across his mind. No matter how hard he tried, he could never forget a single thing about her. And with their separation, this was as close as he could come to seeing her, really seeing her, in the flesh.

"My Gabriel."

He glared at the whispered words that had slipped from his disloyal lips. She was not his. She was _God's_ archangel. _His_ messenger.

But the feather...he could feel her warm and comforting presence radiating from it. She had been the one in his chamber. Which meant...she had found his drawing. The temptation to tear her likeness to rags struck Lucifer like the hand of God, to cover his tracks, so he could pretend it, along with his fixation with her, had never existed. But he could not bring himself to do it. Not now. Not while that humming was intensifying across his palm.

Looking down, he stared at the feather, his jaw falling open in surprise. "A message."

With burning curiosity, Lucifer laid the feather open on one palm and closed the other over the top of it. He shouldn't have done it. Destroying the feather was the right thing to do, the right thing that he did not seem capable of forcing upon himself at this moment. To rid himself of something she had intended for him to hear, a message from her blushed lips, words created from her vital breath for him alone...it was impossible.

The moment his palms pressed together and his breath penetrated his loose fingers, Gabriel's melodic voice rose up, clear and as compelling as if she were standing right beside him and whispering into his ear. _"Though you hide in plain sight, fading into dark misery, I see you. I will always see you. You are my oldest and dearest friend. My Morningstar. I miss you more than my heart can withstand. When you are ready, follow the labyrinth corridors to the west, beyond all the formed and future chambers. There, where the edge of light glows the brightest, and without eyes or ears to see or hear, I will be waiting—even if it takes an eternity."_

As the feather vanished from his cupped hands, stealing her electric essence, another sensation stalled his rushed steps. He'd been ready to follow her directions, to find her and lie to cover his obsession. To protect her from himself.

Lucifer's head shot up instead, his heart jumping into his throat at the figure peeking in through the entry. With dark eyes narrowed dangerously at him and teeth bared, he knew he had not been the only one to hear Gabriel's summons. Michael had too, and with his fierce stare shooting to his writing platform, he knew Michael had seen as much as he'd heard.

"Michael, please."

Expression challenging, Michael shook his head. "You brought this upon yourself." And then he was gone, the swaying drapery chiming as he disappeared from sight.

After a moment of pure shock, dread finally took root in Lucifer's belly. "Gabriel." He knew where Michael had rushed off to, and why. He had to stop him.

Darting back to the platform, Lucifer tore up his sketch. His heart's desire. Jagged fragments fluttered down as he rushed from his chamber, leaving the song of chimes jangling in his wake. After all the time he'd spent aimlessly wandering the maze of corridors, he knew almost exactly where she'd be. Passing through the long stretches of light that hid any hard edges or surroundings, Lucifer felt a buzzing rise up inside of him. He was going the right way, feeling her individual essence as he had always been able to do since wiping away her first tear. The growing sensation drove him on faster over the floor that reverberated no sound of his footfalls with each racing step. And now he was heading west, with only one invisible bend ahead in his way.

The humming that rushed his heart like a drum shifted suddenly as he reached the turn, and Lucifer pulled up fast. Gabriel was there. She was waiting—anticipating his arrival? As he peered around the fuzzy, glowing bend, he found her standing before what appeared to be a dead end of brilliant white light. Drawn like a moth to a flame, he took in the long plait of her hair over her shoulder, her parted lips, her wide and worried eyes, and her entwined hands she held to her chest. His pounding heart tripped and fell.

Gabriel was not alone.

He was too late.

"You really wish to know?" Michael stood before her. His arms were crossed over his broad chest and out of sight with his back facing up the corridor Lucifer peeked around. His towering wings heaved ever so slightly with recovering breath.

The shock of finding her not alone constricted his chest. He watched in horror as her look of worry melted and she tilted her chin up in defiance. "You know I do."

When her eyes flicked up over Michael's shoulder, Lucifer shrank back around the bend, blending into the fuzzy light. The distance, however, did not blur Michael's resounding answer, or the total fear that turned Lucifer's body to stone.

"That day you watched Eden from above, you saw Adam and Eve. You saw them nil of cloth and foliage, bodies intertwined. You saw their mortal display of lust. Of _fornication_."

Each of Michael's words felt like a punch to Lucifer's gut. He couldn't say it. He wouldn't. Not to her. Not to Gabriel, the purest of them all. Lucifer had been wrong to think what he did, but to tell her....

"Lucifer _felt_ something that day. Something other than hope for a world that will always be light years away from us. A world that we are stationed to watch over and lead in God's path. In Lucifer's mind, he saw himself as Adam, bared naked and sweating, groaning and grunting..." Michael's voice dropped. " _Thrusting._ And Eve in his arms he imagined was..."

Though he could not see, despite having recovered movement in his body, Lucifer imagined Michael's brows hiking suggestively when his revelation fell short.

Gabriel's reactive gasp made Lucifer feel like a dagger had sliced from his sternum to his male appendage. There was no undoing this, no taking back the words, the knowledge Michael had now bestowed upon Gabriel.

Now she knew, and she could never unknow this horrible truth.

Lucifer squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath. The light he encompassed grew exponentially as Lucifer made a promise to himself, a promise he hoped he could keep. _I will learn control over my reactions in mind and body. To protect her purity and my honor as an archangel, I must. For I cannot live without her. The day she forgives me of this, if that day ever comes to be, I must be ready. I must be worthy._ And then, with a quiet click of his fingers, he burst into light as he traversed this realm to seek refuge below.

# Chapter Nine

Lucifer's intense stare down at the beautiful face beneath him would have stolen his breath—if she'd been real. Now formed by ink on papyrus, hiding his obsession was easy when he disposed of his sketches below. Still, he could not deny, even the unworthy resemblance of her made his heart flutter, caused his eyes to burn from lack of blinking, and struck renewed pain through him—because this was as close as he could get. As close as he had allowed, until this day—

The silky feather he held, though it was not the same one she had left him, conjured a memory he refused to forget. An invitation he was ready to accept.

After returning to the Realm of Light, as he did every night after spending his days below, he was exhausted. God had allowed his ventures to Earth and even encouraged them to continue on. Spending his time watching man from afar, he had learned their ways and what spurred their actions. Compared to Above, it was an alien existence. Man answered only unto themselves, toiling, stealing, and plotting for so much more than they deserved.

In his limited time above, Lucifer lurked in the distance, far enough away to teach himself—to keep his promise to become worthy of her forgiveness. The internal torment he suffered to remain away from her was a permanent stain on his soul. Her invitation had been a godsend and a curse, a curse he was not sure he was strong enough to control. But he had waited so long. Too long.

The light that surrounded Lucifer's chamber flashed infinitely brighter for a single beat of his heart.

Another soul was passing from Below up to God's eternal Heaven.

In the beginning, there had been no flares to note. Now they came more and more often as a result of human deaths, some by age or accident or illness. Others by means not so natural.

Human life was so fragile and short—unlike his eternal and lonely lifespan.

The memory of Gabriel's declaration tugged at his heart. She had promised to wait eternally—before Michael's delivered revelation. It was too much to expect from her, and now it had become too much to withstand for himself. Without her, the world had lost its color, and every time he caught a glimpse of her depressed face it nearly killed him. But he was ready. He had to be.

He wanted to go to her, to rush to her. It was time to test all his years of subservience and control, to prove that he was worthy to sit beside her as a pure being, to feel happy, content, and accepted, even if only for a fleeting moment, and _maybe_ to even to earn her forgiveness.

It was selfish of him. It was reckless. But he could not wait any longer.

He had to see her.

Lucifer kept his head down as he escaped his chamber and meandered through the endless glowing corridors. The shame he'd felt had been slowly dissipating. He'd been strong of mind and body in keeping to his word, at least in the beginning he had been. Now as he acted on the outside, he knew where his sure footfalls were leading him.

Back to the place of his vow.

A place he visited daily, but one he never entered.

He would never admit it, but being below was a form of torture. Being so far from Gabriel was a significant part of it, but it was not the all of it. Whispering in the ears of humans that dozed or slept, he had done his angelic duty to spread the word of God amongst man. Watching them for the right time, as to not reveal himself and his expansive wings, had shown him so much. Exposed him to so much. Being down in their world, it was easy to relate to the beings that were derived from his and his brothers' and sisters' light. And in relating to them, Lucifer saw all that he felt he was missing out on in life. The ability to react to another in the way he desired. The way he craved. The way he never should.

Realizing he had stopped walking, Lucifer saw he was at the same dead end Gabriel had summoned him to long ago. The same one he'd spied Michael telling her of his damning thoughts. Uncurling his fingers that had squeezed into tight fists, Lucifer raised a hand to the glowing wall. The light was thick and the further he pushed the more tingles attacked his palm. The tingling engulfed his arm and then his shoulder, swallowing his chest and face, and then the edges of his wings as he penetrated the barrier.

The glow dulled with two further steps as shapes and light-infused colors took form around him. Stepping away from the tree he had walked through, Lucifer could not help the breath of awe he drew in and released. So many times he had shadowed Gabriel down the corridors. He had watched as she stalled and looked around. He was sure she had felt his presence most times, but she had never said a word. Then he'd watched as she traversed the light and vanished right before his eyes. He'd never followed her beyond that point. He'd never dared to.

Not until today.

_Why?_ The memory of Gabriel's message challenged him every time he returned above, but it was not the sole reason. With each passing day away from her a tightening had begun and increased inside of him. He could almost imagine there was a cog on a stick beneath his ribs, slowly winding his fleshy insides tighter and tighter with every breath he took while away from her. Lucifer had hoped he would grow accustomed to the feeling and learn to live with it.

But today, the worst by far, he felt like part of him was dying.

He had to see her. Even if only for a moment in time.

And now he was here, awestruck at the sight of what she had created, no doubt with God's permission and power. All the trees and plants between soft grass reminded him of a place he'd seen before. The waterfall that plunged down to one side reminded him of the one Gabriel had pointed out so long ago. There were blooming flowers in every imaginable color, and an arch of light-diluted colors soared from one edge of the expanse and overhead to the other. It was as if she had created her very own Eden, but one that was even more beautiful than the earthly one below. Although everything had color, light radiated from every blade of grass to every leaf in the trees. The rainbow that existed without a drop of precipitation in the luminous sky had bands that were slightly different in color, but mainly in the intensity of their glow. Without the sweeping breath of air, the atmosphere was warm and inviting, the plants and hanging branches unmoving as if they were living statues. The water looked like it was made of sunlight itself, shining and glittering as it plunged down into a tranquil pool of glowing water.

And then he saw her.

Free of the concealing robe that normally draped from fastening pins at her shoulders down over her stunning form, he glimpsed Gabriel beyond the trees. Facing away from him and wading into glowing water that was up to her knees, Lucifer saw the elegant slope of her back that led down to her supple backside.

Gabriel became motionless and he heard her small intake of breath as she drew her braided hair over her pale shoulders.

Lucifer turned away at once, darting behind the tree he'd entered through. Had she sensed him? Had she seen him lingering? Stirring sensations threatened to take over and undo all he had done to right what was wrong with him. He could not look. He had to be strong. He had come so far...

Yet he was here, in the garden she'd created. He had allowed himself to come, knowing he would not be able to leave this time without spying her. And now that he was here, even as he fought with himself to remain turned away, he felt... _better_. Whole. The tormenting pain that instilled havoc inside of him had dissipated as if it had never even existed.

A brighter flash of light rocketed the sky, bringing Lucifer's face up to the infinite glow above.

Another soul.

Before he could stop himself, he peered around the tree, his eyes seeking her out, expecting to find her watching him with disappointment. Except, she wasn't there. Now side-on to him, Lucifer's breath caught at the view of her bared breasts as their rounded undersides teased the water lapping at her ribs. A shudder undulated down his body, and it took everything in him to keep his thoughts contained as he beheld her face. Still the same as the last time and every time before that, she was breathtaking, and Lucifer reminded himself to breathe as he failed to look away.

His control was failing. His mind was not his own.

A sudden memory of the day he had imagined being intimate with Gabriel and the inflicted punishment for his impure thoughts struck fear through him. It was going to happen again. And then she would know: that he was here, that he was spying, that he'd been lurking while she was bared and vulnerable to his musings, that what Michael had told her had been true.

Lucifer knew he needed to leave. He needed to put space between them. Though the harder he tried, the more his feet felt rooted to the soft grass below. He was light and he was connected to it here, grounded to it as he watched her cup water and let it fall over her lips and down her body.

"I would give anything to taste your lips and caress every inch of your perfection," the words slipped from his mouth with a rough breath as another flare of light highlighted the sky.

Lucifer recoiled at once, cowering away in expectation of the sudden pain that would floor him—and the tortured screams that would make his presence known. A moment passed as he crouched back against the wide tree, his wings covering him like a protective shield. And nothing happened. That spiking pain that had attacked his head in the past did not rush in, in fact, no pain or agony touched him even in the slightest.

Lucifer peered out through his shielding wings, seeing Gabriel out of the water and sliding her robe up her legs and over her body.

How had God not heard his wrongful thoughts?

Another flare hijacked the sky, bringing Gabriel's face upward.

"Another soul," Lucifer whispered.

Gabriel gasped. She had heard him this time.

As she turned to face his way, Lucifer dove at the large tree, vaulting through the invisible door that brought him back into the illuminated corridor. Breathing hard, he let a revelation simmer in his subconscious, waiting until another flare brightened the air around him. And then that glorious flash came again. "I still love her." He recoiled again as the words escaped his lips. The brighter glow of passing life faded, evoking a small smile to grace his face. He _cannot hear me when a soul passes._ Did that mean _He_ could not see Lucifer too?

Lucifer was determined to find out.

# Chapter Ten

Lucifer couldn't help but notice as Gabriel spent less and less time around the looking glass. When she wasn't in the scribe vault scribbling down her findings or delivering her written words, she retreated to her garden. Gabriel seemed at ease in her solitude, finding solace in the confinement from the other archangels. Unless otherwise directed by God to venture below to deliver his words of significance, she resided therein.

Lucifer had wondered on many occasions if she was now steering clear of him. She never sought him out anymore, and no more feather messages had arrived. Yet of all the times he shadowed her, those times when God was occupied with a slew of incoming souls, she had to have sensed him lingering. She never looked out for him though, and she never uttered a word to make it evident she knew of his presence.

Now, as Lucifer materialized above after witnessing all the destruction and death below, his need for comfort grew. Before he could think to stop himself, he was marching away from the looking glass and his watchful brothers—especially Michael who narrowed his eyes—and down the corridors, heading to the only place that could relieve the growing despair within.

Before he knew it, the invisible door to her secret place appeared in front of him. Lucifer hesitated. A war was raging below—as well as inside of him. Gabriel would not be anywhere else. She had not been alongside the looking glass. More than that, he could feel her therein. The persistent flickers of bright light revealed the passing of many souls from Below to Above, souls that would take much time to envelop into Heaven. It was the perfect time. The longest stretch to see her, to maybe even speak to her...

Tendrils of fear filled him with doubt. If she had caught him spying, would she look at him with disgust? Would she demand he leave her alone forever?

"Perhaps I should let her be. Leave her alone." Lucifer sighed, hurt by his own words. It all sounded so easy, and if she had ever demanded as much, he would go to the ends of the Earth to honor her request. The fact that she had never said the words brightened even his lacking hope—hope that maybe she felt something for him too. But then he shut that emotion down. What he should long for was not reciprocation, but forgiveness. Concealed from God or not, his intent and his actual reason for being here were not pure.

Lucifer's hand fell from its place amidst the tingling dead end. He began to turn away.

But then he froze.

His torment from Below accompanied by any desires paled suddenly to something so much stronger.

Grief.

Though not his own, the source was not a mystery. Like Gabriel's tears, her strong emotions called to him, drowning him with worry. "Gabriel..."

A tingle of another angel's presence spiked without warning. Lucifer glanced back up the bright corridor. Not a soul appeared, and not knowing if the sensation was her within or another angel incoming, he stole inside before he could be spotted.

Little did he know that the sensation was someone getting a bit too close. Someone who knew where he was going and why had been watching him.

Inside the garden, Lucifer ambled away from the tree, relishing the soft blades of grass underfoot. The smell of never-dying blooms somehow filled the unmoving air. Brushing his hands over luminous rough bark as he weaved through trees, Lucifer ventured closer and closer, hesitant yet eager to disprove the sensation he'd felt outside her garden. The sound of plunging water reached his ears before he saw the waterfall. Then he stalled, not to spy from the non-existent shadows, though that had been his intent. Another sound broke through all the whooshing and crashing water.

Sobbing.

On the other side of the rippling pond, Gabriel was on the ground, her long wings retracted along her back and draping over wild blossoms. With her legs folded beneath her, she held her hands clasped together in prayer. "Please, _please_ stop them." When she peered up, he saw twin streams of steady silver rushing from her reddened eyes and down her cheeks. "This cannot be your way."

_"Gabriel."_ Compelled by the sudden fear that she was hurt or injured, Lucifer rushed through the trees and wildflowers before he could think to stop. The sight of her pain broke something inside of him, and all his learned control was like it had never existed. Any thoughts on being followed or other sensations fled with his spiking worry. Gabriel's head jerked in his direction, and she sniffed back tears and tried to stand as he ran around the pond toward her. When her legs gave out, he caught her in his arms and lowered her gently to the ground. His eyes frantically scoured every inch of her for the cause of her agony. "What ails you? I cannot see—why can I not see?"

"Lucifer, stop." Her voice was an emotional whisper, yet she pushed out of his hold and managed to stand. "Why are you here?"

Lucifer reared to his feet, rocking back as if she'd slapped him. "I..." His eyes continued to roam over her body and robe for a lethal wound that would require healing in the water of the looking glass. "I heard you, and then I saw... You are not injured?"

Gabriel sighed, her small shoulders slouching with her exhale. "Not in body, no." She took a further step back from him. "Why are you here, Lucifer?"

With light still flickering across the glowing sky, Lucifer didn't know how much longer he would have with her. He decided to be honest, to not let duty and his angelic station get in-between them, to not let her hurt at his avoidance and his fear of rejection push him away. "I am always here, at least...when I can be. You know that, Gabriel. You sense me as I do you. You know I watch you."

Gabriel bit her bottom lip, using her white teeth to toy with it in a way that challenged Lucifer's resolve not to think about intimately taking her mouth with his. "I do."

"You have never told me to leave. To never come back." Lucifer cringed inside at what he had to ask her and at the possibility of her response. "Is it your wish for me to leave now? To forget I know of your secret place? Is it me that saddens you so?"

Gabriel remained quiet for the longest time, her watery gaze shifting to the rippling pool.

Lucifer nodded, reading the answers in all that she refused to say but that was clear across her distraught features. Unwilling to cause her pain for a second longer, he turned to leave. "I hope one day you will forgive—"

"Please stay." Gabriel lowered to the edge of the pond, submerging her bare feet below the glowing surface. Her hand patted the grass beside her. Lucifer moved to fill the space before she could change her mind, the mist from the tumbling water cooling his hot face. Plucking a flower up, she began to strip the yellow bud of its petals. "I want to show you something."

Lucifer's heart was already drumming, torn between fear and anticipation, and it pounded harder by the second. "Anything for you—"

The words he should never utter cut off as the water plunging over the rocky cliff froze in perfect form as if it had suddenly turned to ice. The crashing sound vanished and the pond stilled around her dangling feet. Dropping the flower, Gabriel's hands pressed together in front of her and as she slowly spread them outwards, the unmoving water dropped its glow, giving way to a far away view.

Another looking glass.

In all the times he had spied her, had Gabriel only glimpsed Below after his departure? Because she'd been too focused on her silent watcher to do her duty? The possibility had his palms sweating.

Gabriel sniffed and wiped at her damp cheeks. "Mankind does not value their lives. They hurt each other without care or regret. All those souls."

Lucifer was reminded of the constant flashing as he glimpsed below to a raging war. From up here, the battling men looked like ants, but as he let himself see clearly, the bloodshed and carnage was as gruesome as it had been below. Among the living were the dead and dying, some lying in eerie stillness as morning mist swept over them while the rest clung to life with dying breaths. Opening himself up, he felt what must have been affecting Gabriel, her despair at the death of God's humans.

"It is the way of the below. They live and they die. Remember the lion and the deer?"

"This is nothing akin to that. This is not killing to survive and grow. Young ones, good ones, men and women that believe in God, they, they..."

Lucifer felt rocked by the crack in Gabriel's undying hope. She had never questioned God or his plan for them or the Below. She had always accepted every order and result with unyielding trust. Feeling her total despair like a black sea that crashed over him, he reached out before he could think to stop, placing his large hand over her clenched one in her lap. With a tingle ripping up his arm and striking into his heart, he spoke faster than normal. "They are being welcomed into _His_ Heaven above, to life above."

Gabriel shifted and Lucifer retracted his hand at once. With a frown, she pulled her feet free, causing the water to ripple as it dripped from her toes. The hold she had on the view faded and renewed water crashed down into the pond, reviving that cooling spray. Angling her body to face him, he saw that her eyes were now dry. "That is why I need you, Lucifer." She glanced down at the hand he had touched that now lay palm down against the grass, propping her body up. "Remembering how I felt about everything when you were beside me has become more _difficult_ with each passing day."

Lucifer's heart tripped over itself, then roared on faster again. Was this the clue of her returned feelings he had been hopeful for and yet terrified to receive? "Gabriel?"

"I watch from here when you leave. When I know you are gone. I know not of what I did to make my presence so damning to you. Now I stay away out of fear,"—Gabriel's voice fell to a whisper—"of how lonely I feel without you. Of fear that this can never be mended. You mean as much to me as Heaven and Earth combined, and I would give anything to go back to what we were to each other. I...I still miss you, Lucifer."

After learning of all he had imagined doing to Gabriel, this reaction was the last thing he expected from her today...or any day before or thereafter. Though despite her knowledge, it was clear right here and now that she had forgiven him for his wrongdoings. She still accepted him and welcomed his presence, even desired it and needed it. In all the time he had kept himself away, he had never once considered how much doing so would make Gabriel feel. Yes, he had stayed away from all the angels as to not single her out. Still, he had never imagined that she would blame herself for his avoidance, especially when he felt like it was so clear to everyone that all he truly craved was to be close to her.

"You have never wronged me, Gabriel. It is my own self that hurt us both." Glancing up to look into her eyes, Lucifer wanted so badly to touch her face. He wanted to draw her into his arms and hold her close. And he wanted so much more that he could not now nor ever let himself put into words or actions. He looked away, letting his gaze turn hazy over the moving water. "I did this to us. Not you."

"Then why, Lucifer?"

Now it was time to confess, to _finally_ be honest. "I wanted more than was mine to want," he whispered truthfully. As he dared to meet Gabriel's gaze again, her lack of judgment allowed him to breathe. There was a glimmer of surprise in her wide eyes and parted lips, but no rejection. Accepted and not shunned, a sense of peace he hadn't felt in so long withdrew the burdening weight from his shoulders. He released the tight retraction of his wings and thought of the many times he had watched her lay awake under the draping trees behind them, always desperate to know what filled her thoughts. Angels never slept, so he knew her quiet moments were ones of thought. She always seemed so peaceful then, so content and free of heartache. Lost in memories of how they had once been? Unsure, and with the flashes overhead easing off, Lucifer reclined on the soft grass. "If I slumbered like a mortal man, you would be my first thought upon waking, and my last thought before sleep claimed me each and every night."

Gabriel's cheeks flared as red as her parted lips, and Lucifer committed the sight to his many other memories of her. Their time was fleeting, and he didn't know when their next face-to-face encounter would be. He almost hoped for another war to keep God out of his mind and unaware of his actions, but at feeling a stirring sensation, he cut off the thought as his head snapped up. The broad tree over the pond and across the field was free of movement. Free of angelic life.

"What is wrong?"

Gabriel's hand on his forearm was heavenly, drawing his eyes down to her. "It is nothing." He hoped. Though he hated to, Lucifer accepted their time was up and rose to his full height, his great wings towering around him. "I must be away..." When Gabriel's lips curved down, he added, "Until we meet again."

Her smile made his heart soar. "Until we meet again, my Morningstar."

# Chapter Eleven

Michael stormed through the portal from Gabriel's secret garden, barely able to catch his breath. Continuing at speed through the blinding corridors, his wings beat to propel his body on faster. Ire swam in his veins, and his whole body shook with the need to take action.

He wanted so badly to rush back in there, to come face to face with Lucifer as he stared down at the unworthy angel. He wanted to lay his strong hands on his brother, to curl his fingers around his neck and squeeze the recklessness right out of him. He wanted to bloody the angel's face until any thought of whispering seductive and persuasive words were lost to his lips. And he wanted to break every bone in the angel's hand that Michael knew Lucifer desired to reach out and touch her with.

Everything Lucifer had done and said when it came to Gabriel had been pushing so far beyond the boundaries that they as God's archangels existed by that he should have been banished from their sanctuary. Even if any of his musings or desires were not against every law that they stood by, Lucifer would be the last of the archangels worthy of one as pure as their Gabriel. His menial obedience to spread the word of God was not enough to overcome or excuse all the wrong he continued to harbor and act out.

Michael stopped suddenly, realizing he was standing outside the opening to the scribe vault. He glanced down at himself, seeing his leather war clothes and the bloody remnants of the war he had fought alongside humans in God's name while his maker's power concealed his heavenly wings. The war he had helped win for God's people.

Of all the angels, if a physical connection was ever allowed, Lucifer was not the one that was worthy of one such as Gabriel. Not now. Not ever. If any angel was to be worthy...

Teeth gnashing, Michael quashed the simmering thought before it could take root inside of him, before it could fester and grow. As the protector of all angels and as the Warrior of God, he had his duties. He had his calling. And now that the flashes from Below had almost ceased to streak around him, it was time to report on all he had witnessed.

Striding into the scribe vault, Michael glared at the mess. Papyrus scrolls lay strewn across the luminous floor, left by other angels who'd rushed in to note their findings before rushing out to behold more from below.

Michael waded through the mess, shoving the rolled paper aside with his bare feet as his draping wings brushed the ground behind him. He sat atop the large log positioned before the horizontal platform that levitated in place and was unmovable because that was how God had created it. Forcing the tight muscles up his arms to release, Michael plucked a feather from his wing—a feather that would make the sender of this report as clear as God's light. Ignoring the sting as the quill came free, he glanced around the vault. The area was not so wide, but it stretched out for an eternity before him. Beneath the soft glow that radiated from the walls were countless pigeonholes, each identical and perfectly sized to house a stack of tablets or a set of scrolls that had entered the central blue fire for delivery to God, and been returned in historically chronological order of all of existence below. Though the message he was set to deliver—which would not be about his venture below—would not get returned to one of those rectangular homes.

Thinking again as he held the feather up to his tense mouth, rather than inking the tip to press it to paper, the released muscles up his sinewy arms bunched. Heat burned in his heart and spread like wildfire through every inch of him. In sharp words, he detailed all that he had beheld in Gabriel's garden: their reunion, the way they had touched, the desirous thoughts Lucifer's eyes had betrayed, and lastly, his words. Michael could see it even if Lucifer had not yet made the realization. He wanted what humans had, the ability to do and feel without restriction.

Lucifer wanted to be free, and he wanted to damn Gabriel with that same freedom.

Michael snarled at the thought of losing his heavenly sister. Of God stripping her light and position from her. She belonged here in the sanctuary of the Realm of Light, beside her brothers and sisters. Beside _him_.

Snatching up the feather in a tight fist, Michael worried not at the damage caused to the delicate vanes. His report was complete, and no destruction could muddy its message of importance. He stood and was around the platform and yards ahead in a few long strides, kneeling before the round fire well. Feather to lips, his final words left no confusion. "Lucifer and his sinful infatuation must be stopped." Then he reached out, delivering the crumpled feather toward the licking and hissing flames.

"What are you doing?"

Michael stalled right before the dancing blue and white could kiss his offered feather.

Over his shoulder, he saw an angel entering the vault in black robes with wings that looked like they'd been brushed with ashes. Azrael. With one arm folded across the angel's abdomen like a platform to prop his other elbow up, his raised hand partially cover his worried face.

"I am reporting of all I beheld between our dearest sister and that snake Lucifer. He shall know about their continued interaction."

Azrael's eyes fell at once, his head tilting to one side. His voice broke when he spoke. "Can...can we not confide in Lucifer ourselves? Explain the importance of our duties? Remind him of his stature?"

"Lucifer does not adhere to warnings." _Not even painfully violent ones_ , Michael mused, remembering the time he had delivered God's will and struck Lucifer with a blast from their maker. "The past tells us as much."

"Perhaps if we knew why it is forbidden—"

"Are you switching sides, Azrael?" Michael spun up from his kneeling position, striding right up to the angel so that he was breathing down on him. On occasion, he'd caught the Angel of Death watching his dark-haired sister Ariel across the looking glass. Was the transporting of souls from Below that darkened his wings polluting his purity too? "Is your loyalty in question, brother?"

Azrael refused to shrink back even though Michael was a whole foot taller and towering in his muscled form. He sighed deeply and shook his head. "You know it is not. My loyalty is only to _Him_. Though that does not diminish my faith in all of our heavenly brothers and sisters, including Lucifer. I only wish to do what is best."

"Which is why I am the commander of all angels, and you are a transporter." Michael returned to the fire, giving not a second thought as he lit the edge of the feather. The tip caught alight, sizzling as it curled back on itself, being eaten away like an invisible caterpillar eating a leaf. "You may leave now. Those souls you harbor will stain your very soul if you contain them much longer, brother."

Michael didn't look behind himself, but he felt Azrael leave as the sensation of his presence dulled off. Now alone, Michael cupped the feather in his palm, relishing the burn as it smoldered into hungry flames. "Lucifer defies you in his thoughts and in his actions. It is only a matter of time before he ruins her purity, before he betrays you to take what he covets." The fire died, leaving dust in his palms and scorched flesh surrounding the remnants as he withdrew his hands from the flames. The open welts that oozed blood wept as the skin renewed and replenished, cleaning away the proof of his sent message and leaving his hands unblemished once more.

The light all around him suddenly flared infinitely brighter, stealing Michael's ability to see. At the same instant, his maker's almighty presence filled the scribe vault, fluttering the blue flames. Unfiled scrolls skittered outward to hit the side walls and disappeared down the seemingly endless chamber. In Michael's blindness, the images God delivered to his mind almost floored him. The temptation to question God's certainty in his plan was strong, but Michael refused to let himself do so. God's will was God's will, and he was a devoted soldier who would do as he was commanded. He bowed his head, worry and hope for the right outcome joining his hands in front of his heart. "I will go to her now. It will be as you wish."

# Chapter Twelve

"Lucifer!" The angel Gabriel sought turned rigid at the sight of her as she rushed through the glittery barrier into his chamber. His widened eyes drank her in as man did with wine on Earth, seeming mesmerized as her billowing hair and robe settled around her. She cleared the steps up to his place of reflection, bringing herself close. Lucifer's gaze shot up to her warm cheeks, and he vaulted up from the pillows he'd been daydreaming from and stepped back to escape her touch. The excited sparkle in her eyes died a little, and Lucifer stumbled back over the pillows, clutching a fist over his heart as if she'd struck him. Rejection threatened to send her from his chamber at once, but she refused to leave. She refused to let him push her away again.

Looking like he too was thinking of running from here, like he feared her nearness, Lucifer uttered, "What is wrong? Are you—"

"I am well. Wonderful, in truth." As a bright smile returned to her rosy lips, Lucifer appeared to warm to her, letting his guard down as his lips curved upward. "I am to venture below. There is an important message I must deliver."

"Oh..." Lucifer's smile dropped faster than an angel struck from Above. He turned away from her, facing the back wall of luminescent drapes. "I wish you well..."

Gabriel reached out to touch him. The hard muscles of his sinewy shoulder bunched at her connection. "Then wish _us_ well," she said quietly, refusing to relinquish her hold on him. "You are to shadow me."

Lucifer spun so fast, Gabriel's hand flung back at her and she gasped. His eyes were the most intense thing she had ever seen, a raging storm over a sea, his stare drilling into her in a way that was full of fear and want. "Gabriel, I would do anything to guard you in any place. Though we both know _He_ will never allow such—"

"It is by _His_ command that I deliver this task unto you." Gabriel's smile returned. Delivering this command felt like a gift somehow, like God had chosen to believe in Lucifer, to see the shining goodness in him, the way she always had. "Now we must depart." She held out her hand. "Please, Lucifer, will you fly with me?"

Lucifer stared at her hand like it was something that could mortally wound him. Gabriel felt that rejection claw at her soul again, but before she could snatch her offering away, a passing soul flared the light around them. Lucifer struck out, taking hold and curling his strong fingers around her much smaller hand. Her palm tingled to be touching him, the sensation traveling up her arm and into her heart. She felt it every time she touched him, a sort of humming that resonated beneath her skin and spoke to all that encompassed her being. Lucifer spoke not a single word as his jaw clenched, the glow that haloed his body growing brighter in a show of accepting his task. Gabriel's essence responded, beaming around her as if encouraged by his own. With their free hands at their sides, they each clicked their fingers—and exploded in a rain of shimmering light.

Below the barrier of the Realm of Light, Gabriel and Lucifer took form hand in hand, plummeting head first toward the earth. The feel of the wind rushing past her face and through her hair was exhilarating, and the fact that Lucifer was there beside her made this venture her most memorable to date. She had always yearned to have him at her side in her heavenly tasks, and until Michael's confrontation, she had never understood why it had never come to be. But now they were here, free-falling together from Above to Below. The experience was heavenly, and though the fall was long, their smiles at each other while they pointed out life and curiosities below passed oh so swiftly.

Before too long, the marbled green and brown landscape was rushing up to greet them. Gabriel held back from extending her great, white wings, desperate for another fleeting moment of heavenly peace. Looking to Lucifer, he waited for her to react, to stop their fall. His smile, the one she had so rarely seen across his tan face, kept her from taking action. _One moment longer. One more..._

Gabriel's wings flung out a second before Lucifer's followed, and the wind hit them both like it was an invisible mountain, throwing them up as the vast resistance of their expansive wings was met. The ground rose up again as they both fluttered down, landing outside a small village where sheep grazed the land. The animals startled, dodging about and " _baaing_ , _"_ but as the angelic intruders remained still, they calmed and resumed their grazing.

With the commotion over, Lucifer released her hand fast as if her touch had burned him. He busied himself by refolding his wings to his back. The sun was low in the sky over undulating terrain, and long shadows grew by the second, blanketing his troubled expression and bringing a chill to her skin.

And then Gabriel saw a man in brown rags—the charge set to receive God's word—as he waded through the sheep, coming out to see what the disturbance had been. She nodded at Lucifer and he nodded back, taking her wordless direction to take cover behind one of the many surrounding trees.

With her protector watching from the shadows, the man named Noah stalled suddenly, seeing her standing amongst his herding animals. "By all that is holy." He fell to his knees with a squelch of mud, bringing his hands together at once.

With her robe staining as it brushed over the damp grass and dirt, Gabriel eased closer, careful not to startle the mere human. "Rise, child of God." Her single finger under his chin brought him up to his feet as if he weighed no more than a feather. With Noah's eyes set unwaveringly on her, she remembered the message she had been sent here to deliver. The one that being so close to Lucifer had almost made her forget. The one she did not truly wish to deliver. "A great rain is coming, one that will last forty days and forty nights. The Earth will flood with God's tears, washing away the sins of the world, cleansing it for a new day. You, Noah, a true man of faith, will be spared. Gather your sons and build an ark of gopher wood. Build it fifty cubits by thirty cubits and divide it into many rooms. Gather two of each animal upon the earth, one of male and one of female creation. Do this, and you and your family shall survive in this new world, a world that will be cleansed of sin." She nodded past the man to his village where burning firelight blinked into existence to combat the invading darkness. "Now go. And tell no others of what is to come. Sleep tonight, for tomorrow you will need your strength."

Unable to speak a word, the man nodded, kissing the tips of his prayer-joined fingers. Then he zigzagged away through the sheep, leaving Gabriel alone with her thoughts. Thoughts she could no longer bury inside. Gabriel had pleaded for God to do something about the bloodshed on Earth after that terrible battle. And now he was. All but a few of mankind and the animals that walked the below would be wiped out. A clean slate. She could not help but feel responsible for the lives that would be lost, so many that were true to her master, so many that were innocent of sin. The cold penetrated her flesh suddenly, seeping down to her bones as she sniffed.

"You are sad. Why do you cry?"

Lucifer's warm hand touched Gabriel's cheek, sending a wave of heat through her as she turned to face him. Instead of moving away as he had above, he let his hand fall against her neck below her thick hair. His breath was faster as he stared at her, speeding up as her own did. Sensation flooded her like God's rains one day soon would, and she struggled to speak past the knot wedged in her throat. "I feel so...deeply. I weep for all that will die, for being the one to beg _Him_ to deliver the world from sin."

Lucifer stepped closer, his hand on her neck curling further around her nape. "His machinations are his own. Nothing you ever say or did say has changed _His_ plan. You know we do not have that power. We never have and we never will. What we want is not part of _His_ plan."

_"Lucifer..."_ As Gabriel stared into the deep pools of his silvery eyes, she knew there was so much he was holding back, that he was holding deep down inside. His grip on her neck had tightened too, and his body had started to quiver. The sharpness of his voice scared her, but it was also a clue. Despite the flutter of fearful anticipation that swirled through her belly, she needed to know... "What is it that you want?"

Lucifer's gaze fell to her lips, and she gasped at the warmth that suddenly swelled inside of her. He was beautiful, stunning in every way inside and out. He could not possibly want what Michael had claimed, what Lucifer had all but confessed to. Not after all this time. Not from her. But Gabriel was lying to herself. The truth was as clear as the strengthening moon as he kept staring, licking his lips as if starved.

Gabriel knew she should pull away or take a step back from him. She had seen that look on Lucifer's face before when she had not known the cause—the wanting, the heated yearning. The time they had stared through that tranquil pool to the Garden of Eden and witnessed the mortal love between a man and a woman. Lucifer wanted her. He craved her. Michael had claimed as much. And now she saw the proof in his eyes and the way they drank her in. In the way his breath quickened as she bit her bottom lip, pumping his chest beneath his robe. In the tensing of his sculpted arms and the way his free hand curled then uncurled over and over.

Did she want him too?

Without thinking, without giving herself permission, Gabriel leaned closer. Now she felt his warm breath across her face and tasted the masculine scent of him on her tongue.

At her hitched breath, Lucifer hissed, gnashing his teeth together as if trying to distract himself. As he went to pull away, a pang of unexpected loss cut through her. "Gabriel, we should... _leave_."

As Lucifer's possessive grip on her neck relinquished, one rough finger wiping her drying tears as he turned away, she could not stop the words. "Lucifer, stay—"

A flare of light brightened the darkening sky, and Lucifer spun back, reclaiming the back of her neck. The look in his eyes was so intense she could almost imagine they were on fire. Lips a hair's breadth away, she didn't pull back as he froze before her. He seemed to be waiting for her to move, to push him away, to tell him to stop. But she didn't. She couldn't speak. And more than that? She didn't want to. Instead, she tilted her head gently to one side, letting her lips part with a shaky inhale.

Another flash of light streaked overhead, drowning out the pale stars.

Lucifer's hand on her neck pulled her closer, and then there was no more separation. Their bodies pressed into one another, and Lucifer's hot lips connected with Gabriel's, taking the breath right out of her. Flames ignited inside her body and her mouth parted in shock and need, scrambling her thoughts and any understanding of right and wrong. Tasting his sweeping tongue in her mouth, the entire world around them disappeared as if it had never even existed.

Gabriel reached for Lucifer, desperation growing in her at having him so close and needing so much more—

She gasped when Lucifer broke away and the light in the sky above turned to glittering darkness. Breathing hard, she reached for Lucifer, yearning to touch his handsome face that was now blanketed in shadow. He stepped away from her, his chest rising and falling too fast to control.

"We cannot." Lucifer lifted his face to the sky that shielded the heavens way above. "The soul has passed, and he can see all again. He can see _us_..."

Gabriel's hand shot to her throbbing lips as she sorted the meaning out of Lucifer's words. Their union, their _kiss_ , it had been hidden from their maker, shielded by the passing of a soul from Earth up to Heaven. A kiss that she would never forget...and one that, as she looked at him now with his reddened cheeks and weary eyes, they both knew could _never_ happen again.

# Chapter Thirteen

Lucifer sat in the scribe vault, his back to the entry and his sight unfocused, glazing over the infinite vaulted walls that spanned out before him. He hardly remembered the hours he'd spent here already, picking up and sliding the strewn scrolls the other angels had retrieved and read before rushing to witness more below into its rightful slot. Mind a million miles away, all he could see, all he could hear and smell, was Gabriel. The sight of her before him in that field had been more than he could take. Her intake of breath, the parting of her lips, the way she had unintentionally leaned in closer to him... All of it had led to his undoing, to his total lost control. To the first brush of his lips against hers—their first _kiss_.

Even now Lucifer's lips burned with the memory of her mouth accepting his. His entire body refused to cool itself, tingling in anticipation of everything else it craved from her. He felt lost and yet found, a prisoner that was hers and hers alone to command.

Lucifer sighed, forcing himself to breathe through the fever pitch that threatened to overtake him, letting himself dwell on their reinstated separation.

The memory of Gabriel's shock and insistence to return above drowned his lustful imaginings like waves over a smoldering fire. She had known that what they let happen between them was wrong. It had been all over her face. Her actions had said as much as they spoke not of their interaction, but of their need to return. The way she had been unable to look at him while her cheeks remained burnt red was like a fist squeezing his heart.

What had he done? He never should have. Despite knowing this, as he awaited her routine arrival to record the day's events she had witnessed, he found himself envisioning what it would be like the next time. How it would feel, how it would taste, to take her in his strong arms and slant his hungry mouth over hers?

A tingle of sensation brought the actions alive with moving color in his mind. _Finally._

With every thought reserved for her alone, Lucifer awaited Gabriel's arrival. The anticipation of her nearness warmed and terrified him at the same time. He could not stand to see her condemned or punished as he had been for all that he had started between them.

Amongst his fear, his need for her spiked. Closing his eyes, what he imagined was a form of torture, because it could never be, and pleasure rolled into one. Still, Lucifer refused to stop the musings, refused to rein in his growing and desperate need. "You came..."

Gabriel's voice was a seductive whisper, _"I had to."_

Control forfeited, he spun on the log where he sat and reached out for her. With his hands capturing Gabriel's tiny waist, he crushed her to his chest as he stood, feeling up her back and kissing her with all the passion that brewed like a blast ready to explode inside of him. She accepted his kiss with a moan of desperate need, her tongue sweeping and chest pumping against his with labored breaths. Her hands needled into his chest, urging him on. He caught one of her legs and pulled it up around his hardening body. His other hand fisted the material over her shoulder, tugging it down—

An incoming shift in sensations froze his body and the rapid breath in his lungs. Lucifer's thoughts shut off suddenly, reminding him that it was all in his mind. Still perched on the log, facing the glowing platform before the well of fire, the landing of a firm hand on his shoulder between his quivering wings proved Lucifer's suspicions right. He gasped in a breath, feeling the thrum in his veins that announced the angelic presence...of someone else.

"This must end, Lucifer. And it must end this day."

Lucifer flinched at the deep male voice that spoke, his entire body turning rigid as his wings tucked in tighter to his back. He whirled up, facing the brightly glowing angel behind him with bared teeth. A glow intensified by God? "You dare to spy on me, Michael? To slip into my thoughts?"

Michael held his gaze and refused to step back. Dark tousled locks that made it look like he had rushed here framed the look of malice on his face. "It is not my wish to be here, to see what befouls your mind. I am but a loyal servant empowered by His will, commanded to deliver this..." As he held out his hand with one finger extended, the smirk on his face revealed his lie, his anticipation of acting against Lucifer. Light glowed from his finger, burning brighter as he reached forward. "Sweet dreams, Sinner."

Fearing agony akin to what had attacked his mind and floored him in the past, Lucifer went to dodge away. God should have missed their actions on Earth. But then he thought of the unexpected invitation to join Gabriel below. A setup? Even with God occupied, had they been watched? Or had his careless recollection and heightening desires revealed his sin? Either way, he knew one thing. He had to get to Gabriel. He had to warn her before this same punishment could be delivered unto her.

The log stump got in the way as Michael vanished with a click and reappeared closer. Stumbling back around the platform, and unable to reach the exit, a sudden mass smacked Lucifer's calves. A searing burn attacked his palm as he steadied himself at the edge of the fire well. And then it was too late. Michael's glowing finger connected with Lucifer, right between his eyes. Like being struck by lightning, searing agony speared through Lucifer. Every part of him felt like it was raw and on fire—until all the sensation melted as his legs gave out and he fell.

"Behold the destruction this path will wreak upon us all." As darkness stole his sight, he felt a gentle tingle and heard Michael's grating voice one last time—directed at someone else. "This is not your station. Now leave. Forget what you heard and saw."

The light and warmth around Lucifer ceased to exist. So did Michael's and any other angel's presence. He had no body and no control over where he was or what was happening. Then movement and color started to appear in a slowing swirl, huge and inescapable as if the looking glass had suddenly become his eyes, blocking out anything else. In the rounds that connected into one view, Lucifer stared, unable to look away. He saw himself from behind in Gabriel's garden, his great white wings concealing his body. He was not standing still, and he was not alone, he noticed as a pale pair of legs and feet appeared between the shelter of his wings alongside his in the glowing grass. The moving image rotated then, and Lucifer's heart felt like it was ready to explode. Bared naked, he held Gabriel in his arms, touching her, kissing her—

The view shifted suddenly to the looking glass. Lucifer crawled forward on his knees, his lips moving with frantic words as he clasped his hands in front of him.

He was begging, _pleading._

The images sped up after that, events meshing into one another. Bars, chains, wings of satin black, falling like a star, and then fire and blood, screams and cries and glowing red eyes.

As it all faded into eternal darkness, Lucifer knew what he'd seen had been a warning. _A prophecy_. One that began with him and Gabriel in an act that would ripple through the realms and had the potential to threaten the earth and life as they knew it.

# Chapter Fourteen

Gabriel rushed into the scribe vault, tearing her robe as she slid past the platform down to her knees. Gathering Lucifer up into her arms, she held him close to her chest, draping his limp body over her lap. "Lucifer! Lucifer, please come back to me." Fear unlike anything she had ever felt before turned her insides to mush, roiling her stomach and threatening to make her retch. Her eyes darted over him, seeking the injury that had floored him. There was none. His body in all its cut lines and bronzed skin that peeked out from his shorter robe and the strap over his chest was free of injury. Which meant...

"No." Gabriel shook her head, causing her cascading locks to shimmy over Lucifer's chest. "It cannot be..." Angels did not sleep. With their eternal bodies maintained above, there was no need to slumber. Yet here he was, gone as if he was lost to his physical body. Gone as if he were...

She refused to think the morbid word. He couldn't be.

A shake of him returned no living signs, but as her trembling hand settled along his neck to turn his face up to her, she felt something. His heart was beating. Blood still moved like a branching river through his veins. Lowering her face closer to his, she felt his warm breaths that were so shallow the rise and fall of his defined chest was almost invisible.

As the fear for his immortal life calmed inside her, she thought of what had brought her here. Staring down from the edge of the looking glass, a gentle tap on her shoulder followed by Remiel's hesitant words, _"Lucifer needs you,"_ had sent her racing to get to him.

Now she was here and she could do naught to help. Gabriel clung tighter to him, letting his head of golden hair nestle into her chest. If he was not sleeping, was her lack of action hurting him? Would he ever wake up? "Please wake up, Lucifer." The words from her lips continued to come, murmured in desperation and total honesty that was not hers to feel or vocalize. "I cannot be without you. Not anymore. Not ever again. I need you, Lucifer. I need..."

Lucifer shifted across her lap, his lax muscles growing taut and bulging as consciousness returned. His head against her breast nuzzled closer and a moan escaped his lips.

"Lucifer?"

Lucifer turned to stone, every one of his muscles snapping tight as he gasped. The next moment he reared and pushed away, wings flinging out magnificently as he scrambled back until he hit the solid, glowing bricks of the fiery well. Breathing as fast as they had both been down on Earth in that defining moment, he glanced around and then to the corridor beyond the entryway as if looking for something or someone. "You are alone? Why are you here?"

Gabriel lowered her eyes from his beautiful face and body. She wondered if he had heard her words to him, her confessions. She'd had no right to say those words, much less to feel them. What had happened below could not continue. "Remiel found me by the looking glass—"

"Remiel," Lucifer sneered, bringing Gabriel's eyes back up as he motioned to the ground where she'd found him. "He stumbled upon us. Upon Michael—the one who left me like this."

Gabriel leaned closer, her feather tips quivering with released apprehension over the luminescent floor as she reached for him. Lucifer jerked his hand that was holding him upright back, but she snatched hold of his wrist. Her touch softened when he stopped retreating at her circling thumb over his pulsing wrist. "Why would Michael do as such? What happened to you?"

Lucifer seemed transfixed by her massaging touch, staring down at their pale and golden joined hands. His brows drew together with a look of being wounded. But he said not a word, and the cupping of her other hand around the one she held seemed only to drive him further away.

"Lucifer?"

After the longest silence that raised the patter of her beating heart, Lucifer finally spoke. "It should be enough to stop me, to stop all of this. But the moment I hear your voice, or see your face, or touch..." He lifted the hand covering his other one and laid it flat over his pounding heart. "The moment I feel your touch, it all seems worth the risk."

_"Risk?"_ A pang of something she could not describe chilled her blood. "What risk?"

Lucifer dropped her hand and drew away, rising up to stride forward and perch back on the log that was now in front of the platform. His wings slouched with a deep sigh, splayed behind him and blocking the messy surface from view. "I have seen what lies in wait for us in the future." His hands cranked into fists and he belted one down at his thigh. "Havoc. Mayhem. Can two angels and their forbidden actions truly bring about the promise of damnation?"

Gabriel gasped at his angered words and the obvious need to inflict pain on himself. Whatever he had seen had been a message, a warning. _From God?_ Or perhaps her angelic brothers who had already turned their backs on Lucifer. Regardless of the answer, she believed her whispered words and she prayed he did too. "Total damnation is a result of many. We made an error, imperfect as we all are. We are not so powerful or diabolical to be able to bring about such things."

Now he peered up, his sorrowful eyes finding her through his wavy golden locks. "The memory of your taste..." Hunger pulsed in his silver-blue stare as his gaze fell to her lips. "I cannot forget it. You are the light, and I am a moth to your flame. I cannot turn away. I will not. I cannot stop what we have already begun, not unless you tell me to."

Taking what had frightened Lucifer seriously, Gabriel wanted to be strong. But with every word that formed and died on her tongue before reaching her lips, she knew she could not. Despite her resolve and the knowledge that she could never repeat what they committed down on Earth, Gabriel would never turn away from him. She would _never_ abandon him. Their kiss below had changed everything for her. It had brought light to the disarray of everything Gabriel had been feeling from the very beginning. She could not undo what they had begun any more than Lucifer could, but she could control it.

Rising as tall as she could on her knees, she crawled forward and reached for his face, cupping her hands along his sharp jawline. His teeth clenched with a hissed breath and a small muscle bunched under her touch. She smiled as tears welled with the knowledge that they would never be like they had been on Earth again. "I will be our strength. I vow it, Morningstar."

As Lucifer's tight lips separated to speak, Gabriel rose to her feet. A quick brush of her lips grazed his cheek, and then she turned and escaped through the exit, silver rivers streaming across her face.

# Chapter Fifteen

Beside Gabriel in her secret garden, Lucifer luxuriated in the feel of the water that cooled his feet and legs from the pond. Lying on his back, his wings were the softest blanket beneath him, and the view of the brightness above that held not a cloud or the harshness of the blistering sun was relaxing. Since the day of his doomed warning, Gabriel had kept to her word. Unlike him and his wandering thoughts, she had been and remained their strength. Gabriel never avoided or kept away from him, but she did keep her distance when they were close. She refrained from touching him, despite the many times he had reached for her. And in those times that he had been weak, Gabriel had averted his attention rather than refusing him.

Lucifer had not stopped wanting more between them, but he had started to feel a sense of comfort in the security she provided being around him. He may not have trusted himself, but he trusted her...with all his heart and soul.

As the only sounds in her garden ceased to exist and the lapping at his calves died off, Lucifer knew Gabriel had frozen the waterfall to peer into the vast expanse below. For the most part, they watched the world from here in their secret solitude. Away from the prying eyes of the other angels—though not of their God.

Gabriel's deep sigh filled the silence then, and Lucifer felt the despair in it even without glancing up. Her slender hand reached back as if seeking his touch. Then she sighed again, her arm falling limp and retracting until it disappeared in front of her. Unable to remain reclined, Lucifer reared to sit upright, his wings batting gently to shake the grass away. He frowned at her own wings that were pulled around her shoulders as if she needed their comfort. Lucifer ached to be the one to comfort her with his strong and able arms. Instead, he shifted closer, close enough to feel her radiant warmth without touching her silky smooth skin.

With her arms tight around her propped knees, Lucifer peered around the barrier of her thick wings. "Gabriel? What burdens your soul?"

For a moment, part of him hoped her distress was from their lack of contact, from the constant strain of keeping each other at arm's length. The impulse to assume it was that and relive her of her pain was so intense, but then she pointed to the water. Lucifer slid his feet free of the pond and watched as the surface resettled into a stillness that resembled thin ice. At once he saw the cause of her pain and sorrow. Camps of humans had banded together in the past months, setting up their animal-skin tents, and planning their battles strategy. And now the time had come. Metal and wood were wielded, commanded by each man's arm to inflict the ultimate damage. The ultimate end. Bodies lay broken and strewn. Blood ran red in rivers between huts in the ambushed villages. Women screamed as they were set upon by the attacking men, forced into submission as they were raped and beaten. Crying children were quieted, their bodies thrown to the ground like waste.

Lucifer ground his teeth together, anger boiling in him that was as uncontainable as a forest fire. He had seen the flares of light overhead, the sign that souls were passing from Below to Above. But then the flashes had stopped. Except—they hadn't. He saw the proof as more men, women, and children were cut down. The flashes had never stopped...they had become constant. The time lapse in-between spent lives was so quick there was no break. "Why have you deliver that message so long ago when he never intended to act? This plague upon the earth continues, and he does nothing!"

Gabriel touched his arm that shook violently with his clenched fist. Her first touch since finding him in the scribe vault. "The time has not yet come..."

"The hell with the time!" Lucifer snatched his arm away, standing tall before her gentle touch could stop him. The black and white of the restrictions imposed on him and all angels while humans were free to commit any sin dawned on him like a slap to his face. All this time he had obeyed and abstained. He remained pure in _His_ eyes when all he coveted tempted him every single day. All while God's humans sinned at will. Lucifer grated out, "Innocence lays waste down there, and he watches from Above while doing _not a damn thing_. And I refuse to have it. I refuse to stand idly by and do nothing."

Gabriel called to Lucifer as his great wings spread wide, but the click of his fingers cut off the cry of his name from her lips. And then he was by the looking glass in a flash of bright light that startled his few gathered brothers. Unfurling his wings wider, Lucifer raised his arms out, his palms upward. To the light above he screamed, "Do you hold so little care for your free creations that you rejoice in their slaying? How can you watch from your pearly throne hearing and seeing all, their screams, their gushing blood, and still your all-powerful hand!"

Remiel was beside Lucifer in an instant and pushed him back with fear in his wide eyes. "Hold your disloyal tongue." Lucifer stumbled, but Remiel caught his forearm to help steady him. "This is not the way."

Lucifer shoved Remiel back as Azrael stood from the other side of the looking glass. They had both been here, watching it all unfold as he and Gabriel had. And they held no reservations in their orders, in the fact that God did nothing to intervene in the slaughter below.

Lucifer cracked Remiel in the face and Azrael leaped over the glimpsing pool. Remiel recovered, spitting blood from his mouth. But he did not return serve. Instead, he held up a hand to halt Azrael's incoming and stepped back, joining his hands behind him. "God sees and knows all." The intensity in his silvery stare, along with his rising brows, seemed to hint at a hidden meaning. A deeper meaning. "He is aware of the goings-on below. _All of them._ And," he added as Lucifer opened his mouth to intervene, "He will take action when he sees fit. When the time is right."

Lucifer snarled, ready to beat some sense into both of his brothers. Azrael's wings stretched wider, his hands forming fists. But it was Remiel's undefended steps forward that made him hesitate.

"I know what you did," Remiel whispered, his face close to Lucifer's and the breath from his lips tickling Lucifer's ear. "And I am not the only one. A cell awaits you. Michael longs to put you in it—permanently."

Shocked into silence, Lucifer worried that Michael had spilled his spied knowledge not only to the other archangels but also to God. The fact that he had not suffered excruciating pain and suffering gave him hope that he had not. Still, it was clear in Remiel's admission that Michael was ready and willing to act. Willing to endanger Gabriel to punish Lucifer.

At the same time, Lucifer remembered they were not alone. Looking at Azrael back by the looking glass's edge, he saw the angel's narrowed gaze dart to where one currently absent female angel usually watched the world below. His expression became distant with frozen strain, but then it was gone, cutting off as he cleared his throat and exited down a corridor.

More consumed by inner thoughts than Lucifer's own sins?

The misplaced anger Lucifer held for Remiel dulled as the angel patted his arm, nodding with a tense smile before following after Azrael.

Left alone with a deeper rage that had yet to be satiated, Lucifer knew any action would not change a thing. God valued the freedom he had bestowed upon his humans to do as they pleased more-so than each of their meager lives. Their sins were not punishable; they were a right. A right bestowed only upon each human, deserving or otherwise, while angels behaved in _His_ perfect image, an image that was a prison of immortality. A prison Lucifer would one day soon break free of.

# Chapter Sixteen

Alone in the scribe vault, Lucifer scribbled furiously onto the papyrus rolled out on the glowing platform. The stem of the feather he'd plucked from his wing grew blunter by the second, and the indents he left as the ink was sliced across the page threatened to cut gouges in the thick paper. Perched atop the severed log and hunched over, every one of his muscles was on fire with strain. The cramping in his twitching calves and biceps was constant now, but he still refused to stop.

"Hundreds more perished," he spat as he scribbled. "Men, women, and children were dragged from their dwellings out into the dead of night. Throats cut and bodies raped, their blood runs in rivers. Their corpses lay twisted in death, broken and putrid with the decay of their mortal flesh." Lucifer cringed, seeing as his eyes closed the action of it all, the men wielding blades, swords, and spears that cut down their equals as if they were lambs to the slaughter. In the years that had dragged on, not a damn thing had changed. He smashed his fist down on the platform. A jagged crack rang out, making the inkpot jump and fall. Clay shattered in a spray of black across the overhanging length of the scroll he'd been working on for what felt like an eternity.

Kneeling down, Lucifer retrieved a smaller blank scroll from a wicker basket and smeared at the mess. He paused in his aggravated wiping as a tingling ripped through his body like an electric current. At hearing the swish of feathers across the bright floor behind him, his breath caught, knowing exactly who approached. Letting his breath out slowly, he hesitated in rising to face Gabriel, struggling to contain his polluting anger. Instead, he looked at his stained, patchy black hands. In his mind he saw red, the color of spilled human blood.

Lucifer had not once stopped himself from wondering why God allowed humans to commit the unthinkable, while what Lucifer craved was mercilessly forbidden. He was thinking it now—seething with a question that had never found its answer. How could what he felt in his body, mind, and heart for this ethereal being be so wrong?

"All will be as it should be." Gabriel's voice was gentle and warm, free of the depression he had heard in it and seen across her face upon glimpsing through the pond in her garden that very first time. Still, there was desperation underlying it, a hint of upset that she could not hide from him. "God does naught without reason. His Earthly children are showing their true will. The innocent that are lost below are never truly lost—you taught me that. You reminded me of the cycle and eternity of all life. He welcomes the lost with open arms."

Lucifer whirled up to face her. His long wings brushed over the ground, collecting the spilled ink along their tips. "And all those who commit these heinous acts? What of them?"

Gabriel shook her head and shifted to the other side of the platform as if to create a barrier between them. She drew her silvery tresses over her shoulder, worrying at the long length. "I do not know, though I trust in God's plan—"

"You _trust_ in his plan?" Lucifer stalked around the platform and grasped Gabriel by her upper arms. She gasped as he squeezed, but she made no attempt to break free. "And what plan might that be? The one where he allows the humans to populate the world without worry for produce to feed them? The one where he allows the weak to starve and die? The one where he lets greed and bloodlust run rampant, while he delivers no orders and no punishments for the lives that are cut down every earthly day?" He squeezed harder, his rage burning bright as the sun. "What about how he allows greedy men to slice other men's throats and then take their wives, laying them down and forcing themselves into their bodies while the women watch their husband's blood pooling on the ground?"

"God does not permit these things. Mortals choose their own path. We must trust that they will see the light, that they will see the peril they set upon the earth and change their ways. That his flood to end all that is good and bad will not wipe them all out." Gabriel winced as Lucifer's grip turned from squeezing to strangling, her beautiful guilt-ridden eyes pinching. "Lucifer, please...you are hurting me."

Lucifer gasped, releasing his hands so fast it was like boiling water had scalded him. His palms throbbed and his heart went from steady thumping to a racing staccato. He had been holding her so tightly that his thick fingers and hands had left red welts across her pale arms. Silver welled where his nails had dug in, and a few fattening drops slid down to her elbows. "I—I never meant...Gabriel..." He reached for her, and her retreating step back felt like she'd punched into his chest cavity and ripped out his heart. He fell to one knee. "I am sorry. Gabriel, forgive me, _please_."

She was kneeling before him on the ground in an instant, her warm hands soft as she captured his face. "You let your passion control you, your care for others—"

"It is not my care for others that drives me. Not entirely." Looking up at her, he could barely believe what he saw. His aggressive actions had not stunted her total and unwavering faith in him. Though she was healing, the marks fading and the crescent cuts closing over, she still stood by him. She still accepted him. Now, with her right in front of him, his raw emotions for her, as well as his feelings of injustice, bubbled up. With all the carnage on Earth, their maker—despite his long-ago warnings to Noah—refused to act. Refused to save innocence when he contained the power to do precisely that. Lucifer remembered the pain that had plagued him during his explicit thoughts of himself being Adam and Gabriel being his Eve. Then, as he let his gaze fall to Gabriel's reddened lips, he conjured up the memory of their first and only kiss. To taste her like that again, to let his rough hands glide over her silky soft skin...it was worth that pain a thousand times over.

Lucifer had seen the repercussions on humans who sinned. There were none. So even if God did punish him for following what his body and soul craved, how bad could it be? How long could it last? Lucifer could not know for sure, but he was willing to find out. A few moments in their eternal lives to feel Gabriel in his arms was worth the risk. It was worth _everything_.

Gabriel's thumb caressed his cheek, getting dangerously close to his parted lips. "Then tell me, Lucifer. What drives you?"

Lucifer fought to control his breathing, to keep control of his body and its reactions. But he was failing. Still, he couldn't utter all that fogged up his mind and made his body hum like a song. So he settled for a simple answer, one that spoke volumes in hidden meaning. "Your faith in me. Your total acceptance. They drive my every thought and my every action. You are my sun, and I will forever be your Morningstar. A light that beams brighter in your presence. A light that would surely die if I ever lost you."

Seeing her long lashes fall over her blushing cheeks as her tongue peeked out to wet her lips, Lucifer came undone. Touching her heated face with excruciating gentleness, he dipped his head. Their lips brushed, soft and sweet. Gabriel's breath hitched, but she didn't push him away. Staring up into his eyes, she seemed to be begging for him to do something. To let go? Or to touch her? The tempo of her heart that raced with his and the way she bit her bottom lip was his answer. And Lucifer responded, stepping slowly closer until their bodies were touching. His head dipped again, mouth hungry to taste her.

"Lucifer..."

Gabriel seemed to want to say more, her plump lips remaining parted and so close to his, but only an uneven gasp came out as he slowly slid his hand over her collarbone and down along the side of her pumping chest. Looking deep into her eyes, he felt his way to her waist and then her hip, his seeking hand sliding down between their bodies—

"Huh-hm."

Gabriel gasped and Lucifer jerked back. Spinning around, he found Azrael looking back and forth between them from the entry. Even though Lucifer's wings would have concealed their actions, a look of dark irritation crossed the archangel's face. "Lucifer, a mission below awaits you. Extended cleanup."

Lucifer looked at Gabriel, desperate to gaze into her eyes after what he had done, desperate at the thought of being so far away from her. Except she refused to look at him, keeping her eyes down and hands clasped in a knot in front of her. "It will not be forev—"

"God waits for no man, and certainly no angel." Lucifer glared up at Azrael who hiked his chin. A gentle glow radiated from his hand. "Your Below attire is ready. And your immediate departure awaits."

Lucifer considered risking the pain Azrael had the potential to deliver with God's gifted light—but he would not risk Gabriel being caught in the crossfire. Nodding once, he let his wings graze hers as he walked away. "I will return," was all he said quietly as he looked back at her one last time.

# Chapter Seventeen

Lucifer materialized beside the looking glass, falling to his knees. His wings over his back ached from the flight home, and his heart pounded at the exertion of racing away from Below. He couldn't have gotten away from there fast enough. And yet, even with all the distance between him and Earth, the horror refused to leave him. He saw it with every blink of his eyes. Blood. Innards. The lifeless eyes of men, women, children...and babies.

The small lifeless bodies of babes were the worst.

The sounds of their shrill cries falling silent—it was torture, leaving a ringing in his ears that was maddening.

Lucifer screamed out his torment, causing murmurs from the few angels he had not noticed on his arrival who calmly watched through the pool of still water.

Fifteen years of horror. _Fifteen years._

The devastation had broken him. Cleaning up the mess God refused to prevent had maddened him. It still did now. And now he knew what he needed to heal his stained soul and strip the memories from the backs of his eyelids.

"Gabriel."

Standing on shaky legs, he stalked away from the quiet looking glass—and came to an abrupt halt. A flare of light coalesced into a dark-winged angel, blocking the columned entry to their private chambers.

"Azrael," Lucifer grated the Angel of Death's name. His lips curled back at knowing the angel had now returned from reaping the souls Lucifer had been powerless to save. "Remove yourself from my path."

Azrael folded his dark olive arms over his dirty, yet bloodless, gray robe. His lips thinned and his eyes narrowed. "Do no go to her, Lucifer." His wings unfolded enough to block off the wide corridor.

"So I can be spineless like you?" Lucifer shoved at the angel's chest. "So I can lie to myself and all who surround me? So I can be alone?"

Azrael steadied on his feet, fists clenching. "Has fifteen years below taught you nothing?"

Lucifer saw the horror all over again as he blinked. A shiver stabbed down his spine. "It has shown me more than I could ever have imagined. Mostly, it has proven God's inability to deliver on his dire threats. Now move, or I will remove you myself."

Face in a snarl, Azrael stared for a moment, then he put his back to the wall, allowing Lucifer to pass. "I warned you, brother. I tried to help you."

Lucifer ignored the threat as intermittent flashes continued to spark around him. And as a click vanished the Angel of Death, Lucifer knew his time to act was now—while God was busy judging souls in Heaven.

Rushing through the bright corridor, Lucifer headed away from the looking glass and his gathered brothers and sisters that watched idly. After fleeing all the death and destruction, his entire body was shaking with anger. It was his duty to record his findings, but he was nowhere near the scribe vault, heading in an entirely different direction. He couldn't stand to make immortal what he'd witnessed in the last fifteen years. Babies torn from their mother's breasts, strung up and cut open like goats to bleed out. The horror had worsened exponentially with each passing day he'd been trapped below. And still, there was no action. Not from God.

But today...today Lucifer would take action.

Since his last close encounter with Gabriel, he had allowed his thoughts of her to roam, to grow and reenter that forbidden place of flesh and want. He needed her, her tenderness, her comfort. He needed to feel her hope in not only Earth and its humans but in her unwavering acceptance of him.

As Lucifer passed glittering drapery that shielded the entries to chamber rooms, the third one had his heart rate spiking as he stole inside. In a pure white robe on her knees, Gabriel's hands that had been connected in prayer fell to her sides. "You have returned." Her instant smile fell at the sight of Lucifer in his leathers that were stained bloody. Rising up to dart over the plush pillows that surrounded her, she raced up the steps from the circular space that made up the first half of her chamber. She looked him over, eyes seeking and hands trembling in the air as if she feared the red blood might hide his own. "What is wrong, Morningstar?"

Her tender name for him brought Lucifer to his knees, and as she reached him with worry on her face, he caught hold of her hips. Staring up at her, he could not still his tongue. "I need you. I need to forget the horror from below. I need to feel..."

_"What?"_

Gabriel's breathy question was the last of his undoing, and Lucifer rose up. Holding her body close to his, he felt every curve of her mold against him. "Luci—" He captured her lips with his own, and when she didn't push away, he kissed her with everything he had. His tongue slid over hers, and the taste of her awakened a deep need in him that he couldn't shut down. He had wanted her, wanted _this_ for so long. To have her in his arms, taking her mouth with his own, was better than anything he could ever have imagined.

As thoughts of Below disappeared from his mind, Lucifer gave in to everything he felt. Without worry or fear he uttered, "I want you. I _need_ you."

"Lucifer, I..."

Gabriel's hands had been pressed against his chest, resting but not rejecting. Now they needled into his tight muscles. Lucifer's own hands were around Gabriel's back, being tickled by her wings as he slid his palms down flat over her rounded backside. When he squeezed, Gabriel gasped and speared her fingers into his long hair. Her tongue entered his mouth, now taking as well as receiving. Spurred on by her soft gasps, Lucifer moaned and began the exploration of her perfect form. Sliding his hands around her, he grazed up over her hips, loving the way her waist curved in. Then he found her ribs, each one so pronounced as he glided higher and higher. Slanting his mouth to deepen their kiss, he cupped his hand over one of her swelling breasts. His other hand dipped lower, snaking through the folds of her robe to grasp her hips, ready to explore the perfection that was her body.

"Gabriel, I lo—" The words that bubbled up Lucifer's' throat, three little words he had never dared to utter, stalled at a sudden intruding sensation. Lucifer broke away from Gabriel, trying to shove her behind him at the sight of two angels lingering in the entryway.

"What do we have here?" Michael sneered. He clucked his tongue as he stared at them both in disgust, his eyes burning with anger and something else. Anticipation. "Unadulterated sin. Seems your report was well warranted, Azrael."

The Angel of Death's eyes cast down with a shake of his head. "I tried to warn you. I tried to stop you." He lifted a finger that glowed intensely bright at the tip. Infused with God's power.

"No!" Lucifer screamed out, anticipating what was to come. "This was my doing. Not Gabriel's. Spare her—"

Gabriel screamed and dropped down to her knees, her hands covering her head as if it would ward off the pain. Lucifer was torn between wanting to comfort her and the need to seek vengeance toward the one who was inflicting her torture. He chose the better option, lunging forward with the intent of bashing Azrael and Michael bloody to stop the torment.

In mid-air, Lucifer crumbled in on himself. His connection to the ground sent a resounding _whack_ out like a shockwave as agony exploded not only inside his head but also through every one of his bones. He felt like at any moment his insides would liquefy and he would be a pooling mess of lax skin on the ground.

Fearing Gabriel was suffering the same extent of his punishment, Lucifer tried to rise to his hands and knees, growling and sweating with strain. He had to get to her. He had to comfort her. He had to stop what was being inflicted on her even if it meant—the thought of ending his brothers' lives popped into his head. If Lucifer had access to the angel sword, he would not hesitate to maim or even kill them both to save Gabriel from this torment.

As the murderous thoughts manifested in Lucifer's mind, the agony riding his body and brain suddenly died off. Lucifer gasped for air, feeling like his lungs were deflated, but he refused to let himself recover. Hearing whimpering, he slid his weakened body toward Gabriel at the step's edge, wrapping his cramping arms around her. "It is alright. I am here. It is over."

"Nothing will ever be alright again, brother," Michael stated without any hint of regret at what he'd stood by and let Azrael deliver.

Lucifer glared up at Michael, then shifted his gaze to Azrael. "If you ever, _ever_ —"

"It was not my will," Azrael snapped, his expression fierce yet troubled. "And this is far from the end of it."

Before Lucifer could demand an explanation, both angels raised their hands and clicked their fingers—and all four of them burst into brilliant light.

# Chapter Eighteen

Lucifer reformed with his arm still protectively wrapped around Gabriel. He shifted only enough to give his eyes the ability to roam over her, to see if she was still suffering. Blood from his leathers had smudged over her pale robe, reminding him of why he'd needed her. Why he'd selfishly gone to her. He cupped her face. "Forgive me." Although unending silver trails still marred her pale cheeks, he took refuge in the fact that she was no longer crippled by the sensation of having her head stabbed by a million strikes of heavenly power. They were no longer in her chamber room either.

Azrael had been right. This was far from over.

Now beside the looking glass, Michael stood over them as Azrael sent Lucifer a crestfallen look before striding out of immediate sight. Michael remained close, his look of hatred at Lucifer shifting to an almost enraged sorrow as his blazing eyes shot to Gabriel. "Release her."

Gabriel sniffed and levered her quivering frame up onto her arms. Her large eyes widened as she peered sidelong at the looking glass and she pushed Lucifer away. "Let me go." Rising to her knees she faced the pool, clasping her hands in front of her while not saying another word or daring to look his way.

And Lucifer knew why. They were not alone.

He had felt it the moment they reformed in this watchful place. Aside from the vibrating sensation that had suddenly increased to a constant thrum in his veins, the heavy weight of eyes was almost too much to ignore. Yet he had. Gabriel's well-being along with his guilt had been his only concern. Now the expression that contorted her face, the open mouth and the quivering of her bottom lip, forced Lucifer to behold what held her fearful gaze.

Around the looking glass, the other eight angels stood at their designated positions. Azreal, Uriel, Raziel, Raguel, Jeremiel, Ariel, Zadkiel, and Chameul all stood by, hands joined behind their backs and silver gazes set on them with looks of pity and judgment. The reason for their watchful presence became clear. They had been summoned. God's revolving coil of light hovered above the still water of the looking glass, lending understanding to their expressions as his power beamed down over the frozen surface. Like a live reenactment replaying on a loop, Lucifer saw his likeness in Gabriel's bedchamber, his hands seeking as they traveled over Gabriel's body and his lips hungry as they devoured her own.

Standing to the side, Azrael closed his fist with an audible snap. The replay cut off, leaving only God's warm light. The angel sighed, eyes falling from a swift glance at Gabriel and then down to his bare feet. "It is time."

Lucifer rose up to speak, but Michael's fist clamped around his throat. Squeezing tighter, his ability to form words was choked off along with his air supply.

Michael smiled, but the shift in his features was anything but kind. The starry sparkle of his narrowed eyes clouded. "You were warned, Lucifer. You may be flesh and bone, but you are born of light. The bringer of the most light that created all that is below. A star that once shone so bright." God's light pulsed as the commanding archangel spoke, making it clear his words were delivered from God himself. "What you have done is not of angels. It is of man. It is of their greed and recklessness. It is a sin. One I will not permit you to pollute this heavenly place with any longer."

Lucifer heard every word despite the way his head had begun to spin. He had known all along that what he felt for Gabriel was wrong. That it went against everything that made them God's archangels. His eyes circled their sockets, his arms that were holding him up with his hands clamped to Michael's forearms, losing their strength.

" _Please._ Please release him," Gabriel pleaded from behind him as he lost control, dangling like a puppet. He felt the nearing of her physical body and could not miss the shake of her voice. "I am to blame too. I..."

Michael opened his palm and Lucifer collapsed to the glowing floor, gasping in air like it was pure life, the sound horrible and wheezing as his lungs refilled. The loss of air could not have killed him, not up here. Only the angel sword had that ability—and God himself. Yet he felt like he was drowning, his heavenly light suffocating with the threat of being extinguished. "No," he managed to rasp, forcing his cramping arms to push his torso back up. He glared at Michael and then shifted his expression with a look of apology as he faced God's burning light. "I am the only one to blame. Gabriel is innocent."

God's brilliant light pulsed blindingly for two beats, sending a strike out into Michael. And then it sucked in on itself like a vortex snapping shut.

Whispers rose from around the looking glass, each of the angels surprised by their maker's departure and the lack of resolution. Like Lucifer, they looked to Michael for answers. Like Lucifer, they knew every angelic action had a consequence, and he nor Gabriel were getting out of this forbidden act without meeting theirs.

With his hands now glowing, Michael nodded, the glaze to his eyes clearing as if his instructions had been completed. Lifting his head, he addressed the watching archangels. "Bow to God's will. To the fate of this breach."

Collectively, each angel's eyes clouded, becoming vacant as if they were receiving the repercussions telepathically. One by one they dropped to their knees, bowing their heads. Remiel was one of the last to submit, his eyes sorrowful as he looked up at Gabriel and Lucifer. He nodded and knelt, leaving only the Angel of Death.

Looking defeated, Azrael's eyes lifted from their swift glance at Ariel, the dark-haired angel who had already bowed down to her knees, and he glowered at Lucifer. "You condemn us all," he rasped as he bowed.

The thought of what was about to unfold filled Lucifer with fear.

Sneering down at Lucifer, Michael's features softened as he met Gabriel's glistening eyes. "This is not my wish." With a click of his glowing fingers, he transported them in an instant.

Gabriel gasped, and Lucifer jumped to his unsteady feet as they rematerialized in her garden. As beautiful as ever, something was very wrong. There had never been any sounds or movement aside from the plunging water into the nearby pond, but now wailing wind swept around them. It blasted through the trees and long grass, cutting the heads off wildflowers as if blades dominated the speeding air. The trees felt the assault next, their branches stripped of leaves, leaving skeletons in their wake.

As cracks rang out, Gabriel cried silently, seeing her perfect creation succumb to destruction with the crashing down of many of the great towering trees surrounding them.

Lucifer's heart broke to see what Gabriel's special place was being reduced to, to see the devastation in her eyes as she watched all she had created in joy turn to ruin. " _Michael_ , that is enough."

Michael paid him no mind, staring blankly ahead. "Let this forevermore be a reminder of your sins. A reminder to prevent your disobedience." With a shot of pure light from his palm, a glowing orb was flung up into the sky. It exploded in a shower of crackling yellow, orange, and red, glowing brighter as it sprinkled down in the distance.

"Michael!"

Lucifer's stalking advanced toward his brother stalled. The sound of the plunging water that fell so freely over the tall cliff edge quieted. Twisting to face the view, his jaw dropped as he watched the water dry up, the flow stemming until it was barely a trickle over the wet rocks and hidden cave behind. The cause became clear as black smoke pumped up into the glowing sky and a flurry of hungry flames bloomed up over the tall cliff.

That fire Lucifer had experienced before lit up inside of him, rage burning in him like an inferno ready to explode. He advanced on Michael, prepared to flatten his brother and end this cruelty. But even as Gabriel cried out for him to stop, her intervention hadn't been necessary.

Lucifer's body froze mid-step. He cried out, feeling like fiery snakes had sprouted from the ground to burrow up through his feet, tunneling their way upward and weaving around his bones. Lucifer fell with a shout, the burrowing shifting from his legs to his stomach and chest. He felt like he was being eaten alive from the inside out.

At his side in an instant, Gabriel cradled him over her lap, screaming words he could no longer hear as that tunneling graduated to his skull. The heat grew and engulfed him, surrounding him like a fiery blanket. And then everything went quiet.

Well, almost everything.

Cracking his eyelids open, Lucifer saw the devastation as Gabriel sobbed ever so quietly. Able to move again, he pushed off of her lap to stand on shaky legs. The remnants of the diabolical flames neared them as it ate up the long grass and the stems of beheaded flowers. "Gabriel, come." He reached out to grab her hand, wanting to yank her away from the fire that crackled toward her.

Gabriel pulled free and he fell back, landing on charred land as she remained kneeling on the shrinking patch of grass. The hungry flames crept closer, singeing the tips of her wings that grazed the burning ground behind her. The dancing yellow and orange licked her folded legs, burning out to the bank of the water with a fizzle.

With black smudges and swirls over her reddened skin, Gabriel glanced up at Lucifer as her flesh healed itself. The sadness in her eyes resonated all the way out to her quivering black-edged wings.

"You may not leave here at will."

Michael's sudden words whipped Lucifer's head up and around to see the angel still standing behind them. His feet were singed too, and though he looked emotionally drained by what he had done to Gabriel's special place, Lucifer wanted to wipe any and all expressions from his face.

Lucifer vaulted up, ready to drive his tight knuckles into Michael's face, but Gabriel's shocked cry spun him back around.

A thick chain of glowing loops exploded from the bank, and as Gabriel scuttled back in surprise, Remiel appeared and caught the connected manacle in his hand. He held the trapping device out to Gabriel without order or demand, but rather a subservient and somewhat reluctant gesture.

Gabriel reached up without question, nodding as she took the chain from Remiel.

"Gabriel, no!"

She held a hand up as Lucifer rushed to stop her. Extending one of her folded legs, she snapped the open cuff shut around her ankle. "I accept _His_ will. This much I deserve."

"Gabriel, I—"

Lucifer didn't have time to tell her that she would never deserve to be tied down like an animal. That nothing she could ever do would warrant what had been taken from her today. With a pop of light, he was no longer beside her in the ruins of her garden. He was back by the looking glass, breathing heavy and hands balled into fists. He sneered at Michael who stood close enough to crack in the face, but he made no attempt to lash out. What had been done could not be undone, and any retaliation would risk a worse punishment for Gabriel. Through clenched teeth, and even though the other angels all stood in a waiting circle, Lucifer addressed Michael. "How long will she be chained therein?"

Any regret Michael may have shown toward Gabriel melted into agitation as a muscle in his jaw ticked. "As long as is required. And while she is there..." Michael threw his arm out, and Lucifer stood his ground, ready to take the blow. But the ball of light that split from his brother's hand never hit him. Instead, it shot toward the center of the looking glass where it hovered for only a split second before plummeting straight down. Water sprayed up as the ball broke into twelve shooting spears of light out in exact wedges to the water's edge. A clang of glowing loops burst free, fastened to anchors that appeared and were bolted to the ground. Each of the angels around the pool caught a manacle. Remiel caught two as Michael caught his own.

The female angels, Uriel and Ariel, placed their manacles down and stepped back, while all his brothers snapped the manacles shut around their ankles before dropping cross-legged at the water's edge.

Except for Azrael.

Seeing the two female angels depart with their heads down, Azrael glared at Lucifer with a look of hatred that said so much more than his earlier words as he finally chained himself to the pool. This result was on Lucifer, and it had cost them all dearly. It had cost them their fleeting freedom—and some, even more than that.

"What is all this?" Lucifer demanded.

"Watches will now be rotated by gender." Michael held out the manacle he'd caught and smiled when Lucifer took a step back. The chain of light in his hand glowed red. "Your selfishness damns us all."

Snapping his fist shut, the vibrant cuff vanished, and then Lucifer screamed as the poker-hot restraint reappeared, snapping shut around his ankle. Falling to his knees, the dark water within the looking glass gave way to a moving image. Gabriel beside her pond, face in her hands as she wept. And then it was gone.

He was trapped. And Gabriel was alone.

# Chapter Nineteen

Lucifer watched from the looking glass, zoning in on the only thing he cared about. Gabriel was descending below again, doing her heavenly duty as was expected of her. And he was chained above, locked down to watch from afar without hope of ever seeing her angelic face up close or hearing her musical voice as it spoke his name.

Since the day her garden had been ruined, Lucifer had spent the long months locked to the looking glass, waiting and hoping to cross paths with her. Dying on the inside to see a glimpse of her and to tell her that everything would be better. That he would fix this—somehow. But the angels surrounding him, Michael, Remiel, and Azrael, were like his personal guards. They were on his constant rotation, and when finally Lucifer was released from his glowing and unbreakable chains, they shadowed him to the scribe vault to record their findings. He was never left alone unchained. Not even for a second.

And now he could no longer breathe.

It had been too long without her. Too long to not behold and touch her. Lucifer felt like his insides were dying, like he was desiccating from the inside out, withering away to dust. He could no longer stand it.

"This will not last for eternity." Remiel's soft-spoken words offered comfort that Lucifer refused to receive.

He wiped the look of longing from his face and, as expected, he found Michael across the looking glass. The angel leader's judgmental eyes set on him with a look of aggravation staining the harsh lines of his face. Because he knew time had not taught Lucifer to learn from his mistakes? Probably. Because as long as there was danger surrounding their union, he would be stuck watching over his sinful brother? Without question. As the only angel that was never chained alongside the rest of them, he held the light power to lock and release each angel, which, Lucifer noted, appeared to be distinctly brighter than usual.

Uriel and Ariel appeared through the twin columns from the corridor that led to the scribe vault. Each had their hands clasped together in wait. Ariel's black hair and dark golden complexion contrasted to everything Gabriel was, and as she looked at Azrael, he saw a sparkle in his brother's eyes before it was blinked away.

Lucifer did not bother to greet the arriving angels, but a smile did broaden his lips as he looked back at Michael with his superior glow. The extent of Lucifer's punishment had come to an end, at least in his own mind. The plan that evolved in his thoughts would not be everlasting, but it would suffice enough to keep her safe while also feeding his need. Now it was time to act.

Brimming with anticipation, Lucifer fought to control himself as the other male angels verbally greeted the newcomers. Watching Michael unlocked the other two angels from their places with a spark of light to release the restraints, his hands and feet tingled with the need to act. He couldn't stop himself from meeting Michael's warning gaze as the other angel knelt, ready to release him.

"Whatever it is you are thinking, Lucifer..." Michael sent a sharp look toward the looking glass as if it were an open gate to the below. He zapped a spark at the cuff around Lucifer's ankle to unlock the restraint. "Do not even—"

The restraint clattered free, and Lucifer drove his knee up. Cracked in the nose, Michael flew back. The angel slid as he landed, protective light making his tense hands glow. "I warned you."

Lucifer leaped up from the ground, his fist ready as Michael lunged forward—in time to meet his primed knuckle. Blood spurted from Michael's split lip. Uriel and Ariel gasped, edging back. But Azrael and Remiel were coming at him.

Before they got there, Lucifer screamed and ran at Michael, daring the angel to use his God-gifted power. Fists ready, his next hit failed miserably as Michael darted back.

Exactly as planned.

Red-faced and seething, Michael unleashed a ball of light—right into one side of Lucifer's chest. Flung back through the air, his wings crunched as he hit a pillar. The resounding _boom_ rattled the realm and the looking glass as he slid to the ground.

Slow to recover as he grasped his aching shoulder, Lucifer stood on shaky legs. His nerve endings burned and his vision was blotchy. His robe hung only from one shoulder, split on his throbbing side from Michael's blast.

Hands shoved at Lucifer, then gathered the front of his robe into a tight fist. Michael's silver-smeared face appeared through the haze, his free arm driving back, ready to knock Lucifer's lights out with his glowing fist.

Lucifer smiled wickedly. His shaky hands came up in surrender as he flashed an impish grin. "Not the face, lest you wish to bruise my pride."

Michael growled but stopped his ready fist as he shoved Lucifer back into the restraining hands of Remiel and Azrael. He wiped the blood from his healing lip and nodded to the other two angels. "Take him to the vault."

Azrael tugged Lucifer on, almost pulling his arm out of the socket. "You have a death wish."

"Are you granting them?" Lucifer shot back while Remiel at his other arm kept his grip as tight as his pinned lips. They were moving through the blanketing light and down the corridor that would lead straight to the scribe vault.

"I may be the Angel of Death, but I do not grant favors, especially not for the likes of you."

"What about for Ariel?" Lucifer hiked his brow suggestively at the watching females, and Azrael swung his bent elbow up into his jaw. Lucifer's head kicked back, his neck crying out. He chuckled but said no more. He had seen the way Azrael smiled when the dark-haired angel was around.

"Lucifer, you push too far," Remiel whispered, shoving him on. Always the voice of reason and understanding but spineless when it came to acting on his own. "When will it stop?"

They reached the entry to the scribe vault, and Lucifer was shoved down onto the log stump. His wings brushed the glowing platform, shooting spears of pain from small broken bones as he spun to face the other two. "When _He_ along with the rest of you see that all that drives me is unstoppable."

Michael appeared behind them, and the other two frowning angels shrank back out into the corridor to let him through. With his wings expanding to dwarf Lucifer, and his hands glowing in threat, Michael nodded down at Lucifer's feet. "Now."

Lucifer complied with a wry smile, holding out one leg. It was time to force the reaction he wanted. "And you, Michael? What hides behind the menacing facade you wear? Do you covet what I have already tasted?"

Michael's cheeks burned even redder than the anger already staining them. His eyes narrowed with malice, making Lucifer bark out a laugh.

"You do take an awful lot of pleasure in seeing me suffer. Perhaps your true desire is to end me? To commit the sin of murder amongst brothers."

"I would not stain my soul to give you the satisfaction." Michael moved swiftly, swooping up the glowing chain that now sided the platform's base. He locked the manacle around Lucifer's ankle. Straightening faster than he ever had before, he almost seemed surprised at Lucifer's lack of continued fight. "You do this to yourself, Lucifer. You wish to be condemned and isolated? You wish to drown in your own lonesome misery? Then fine. Have it your way."

Michael strode from the scribe vault, the sound of his and the other two angel's dragging wings fading along with their footfalls.

Lucifer was alone. Exactly as planned.

He opened the fist he had kept tight since Michael blasted him and smiled at the warmed metal pin that lay across his palm. The gold pin no longer held the broken side of his white robe together, now glowing with light and humming with power. "I am coming, Gabriel."

# Chapter Twenty

Lucifer smashed the glowing pin into the cuff around his ankle. There was a pop, and he caught the heated restraint before it could clatter to the ground. Waiting a moment, he listened for Michael's return. But there was no noise. No one had heard him.

With the manacle placed silently on the floor, Lucifer clicked his fingers—finally able to traverse now that he was unchained. The light of the scribe vault around him glowed brighter for a heartbeat, and then he was out.

His wings flung out wide, catching the rushing wind that greeted his fall and had him soaring. It was glorious: the freedom, the scent of fresh air, the feeling of rushing wind ruffling his wings that had been immobile for too long now. His wings, though they stung while healing their small fractures, made him feel strong again—free again.

While the fall was freeing and exhilarating, it was not what had forced him to defy orders and escape. It was equally not what had him wishing he could traverse lower rather than having to fly out the distance between Heaven and Earth. Gabriel and seeing her in the flesh, watching over her protectively in the shadows, was his only real motivation.

When Lucifer had been falling for what felt like a small eternity and had tightened his freedom into a doomed sense of fading time, he worried that he would be intercepted, that Michael could have returned and discovered him missing. But then, _finally_ , he saw clarity in the world below as it rushed up to greet him.

Finding the place he needed to be below amongst the patches of green and brown and blue, he maneuvered his body, letting his arms fall flatter to his sides. His wings folded in tight against his body, only their outer edges extended a fraction to direct his dive.

Faster and faster the earth rose up, the air batting his face and whipping over and through his damaged robe. The closer he got the more his anticipation heightened. His original plan had been to merely see her, to glimpse her from a distance that was not a world away, to protect her in his disobedience. But as he neared and the teasing tingle of her presence resonated in him, his plans changed. She would sense him, of course she would. And if she failed to take flight to avoid him, he would have no choice. He would have to go to her. The words he hadn't uttered to her the day they were torn apart were still on his lips, burning with the refusal to be swallowed down and ignored.

The details of swirling rivers and rocky mountains rose up, and then the leaves in the trees and the blades of golden grasses did too. Right outside a peasant village of huts and man-built dwellings as the sun fell towards the mountains, there she was. In that same grazing field among puffs of fluffy white sheep. The enormous structure was impossible to miss, a towering ark of curved wood now tall enough for the villagers to glimpse that sat upon the land.

Lucifer banked right, taking a wider birth around concealing clouds as he plunged down the remaining distance. He hoped she would not see him, that he would not disturb her task as he aimed for a thick, sheltering tree, and though his landing was perfect in its silence, his legs falling down and forward and wings opening up wide to slow his body before impact, Lucifer knew she had sensed him. Not because she turned and glimpsed his arrival as he re-pinned his robe, but because of the subtle tightening of her own pure white wings at her back.

She knew he was there.

Yet she did not deviate from what she was doing. Instead, she rolled her shoulders back and gathered her windswept hair in front of her. Keeping herself facing that man, Noah, she worried at the length as she spoke to him. "Yes, two of each and every animal and enough supplies to last forty days and nights. The time is drawing nearer, and as you and your own have done your duty, your sons and their wives may leave this land with you."

Noah clapped his hands together and knelt before her, bowing his head between his raised arms. "All that you ask I shall deliver." He stood tall, still holding his praying hands palm to palm. "Bless you. Bless thy God for choosing me."

With a silent nod from the angel, the man turned and scurried through the tall grass. He picked up a brown woven bag that was lumpy with whatever produce lay inside and disappeared up the ramp into the ark.

Lucifer glanced from the man back to where Gabriel had stood. His mouth opened and his brow creased. The tall grasses rustled in the wind. Sheep moved slowly and contentedly, _baaing_ intermittently. But Gabriel was gone. Expecting to find her escaping up through the sunset colored clouds into the deepening blue sky, his head craned up.

"You should not be here, Lucifer."

Struck by Gabriel's voice, he gasped and whirled, finding her standing right behind him under the shade of the quivering tree. Every nerve ending in his body came alive at the sight of her twisting her hair in front of her. She was still the same, perfect in her grace and form, gentle in her entirety. Her body, curves, face, lips, the way her heart raced now that she was standing before him, each of them flooded his sight and hearing and overloaded his senses. He took a quick step forward without meaning to, then froze, seeing the wide Os her eyes had become. "Gabriel. I—"

"You were not granted permission to be here..." Though she had to know the answer, she seemed to expect a response. When Lucifer shook his head, her caution turned into distress. She turned her back to him, hiding behind the height of her delicate wings as she braced a hand against the tree. "You must leave."

"Gabriel, _please_. I never intended for any of this to happen. You being hurt. Your garden. And...I miss you. I miss you so much I can barely stand it. Though I felt like I was dying, I tried to stay away. I tried to honor you, but I guess I failed again. I..." Lucifer reached out, tracing the soft feathers at her back. Gabriel shuddered. "I had to see you. I had to. You are everything to me—"

Lucifer gasped as she spun around to face him, the feather he'd been stroking flying out of his grasp as her hair sailed behind her back. The old understanding he had always evoked in her expression was gone. Something harder, something pained, now replaced it. "Therein lies the reason we cannot see each other. Why we must remain separated. We are poison to each other. We cannot be."

Lucifer didn't know what he had expected, but it had not been this, this certainty toward him that felt like she had cut him open to let his innards fall from his gut. He had never intended to beg for her, to appeal to her. He had merely wanted to see her. Despite his intent, the words formed on his tongue as his voice shook. "You cannot mean that. You cannot want that."

"What I want is to do my duty. To be worthy of the position I am granted as one of God's archangels." Seeing the wetness he could feel glazing his sight, Gabriel reached up, that hardness faltering for only a moment in time as her hand cupped his jaw. With a shuddering sigh, a single tear escaped her eye in a shimmering trail. She turned her head to the side, casting her face in shadow. "I want you to leave, Lucifer. Leave me be."

Lucifer stared in dumb shock. His heart turned cold, pounding like it was trying to thaw the ice that was fast growing around it. When her hand fell from his face, he staggered back, crunching grass under his feet. With any and all words lost to him, all he could manage was a nod. He had vowed to himself from the beginning, promised that if she ever asked him to leave her be that he would abide her decision...even if the pain killed him.

In a slow sweep, he allowed himself one last moment to take in everything about her: her beauty, her determination, the hope that he would listen and obey. And the true reason behind her demand. Not to save herself from shame, but to save him—from himself. He dared a step closer, sliding his hand beneath her wing and around her back. Her chest moved with shortening breaths of self-control. But Gabriel didn't protest. He brought his lips to her forehead, breathing in her scent of spring blossoms for the last time. "As you wish."

He let her go, his wings flinging out startling the sheep as his powerful legs rocketed him up into the sky. The last thing he saw as she shrank with speed below him was the trail of tears that streamed down her face.

# Chapter Twenty-One

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

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

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

Footsteps, countless pairs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Now! Keep the creature down!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"So be it," the leader spoke over Noah's continued screams to release her.

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

# 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 villagers 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 didn'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.

Finding the man who commanded this raggedy group, Lucifer smiled. He flattened the last few men that stood between them with near-fatal blows. Then he was right in front of the leader, his punishing grip curled around the man's throat. He hoisted him up with ease, leaving his legs to dangle.

The mirroring of Michael's assault was not lost on him, and being on the inflicting end made Lucifer's smile broaden. "You attacked the wrong angel, you disgusting excuse for a human." With his elbow bent, he lifted the dagger high and pointed the tip down at the man's wide eyes.

Spit sprayed from the peasant's mouth. He was trying to speak. But the hold Lucifer cranked tighter around his neck refused to allow a word to escape.

"And now you die."

"Lucifer, no!"

Head craning at Gabriel's sudden scream, Lucifer saw too late what he couldn't stop.

One of the other men he'd knocked down was back on his feet. A long spear was clutched in his dirty hands—right behind Gabriel. She wasn't aware he was there. Her total focus was set on Lucifer, her face distraught at the sight of him about to murder the same man who had set out to burn her alive.

Lucifer flung his intended kill and ran. The force of his wings propelled him forward while fractures threatened to become broken bones. "Gabriel, look—"

The spear punched through her back—straight through her heart and clean out the other side.

# Chapter Twenty-Four

Lucifer heard Gabriel gasp and watched in numb shock as she stared down at the bloody spearhead protruding from her chest. And then she fell, her blackened legs giving out and her rolling eyes breaking him in two.

Lucifer screamed, torment pouring out of him as he stormed forward. But he didn't stop to swoop Gabriel up into his arms. Sight blinded by white-hot rage, he propelled up as stars claimed the sky. Then he changed course, diving for the attacking man who had delivered the fatal wound. Catching him in flight, he swooped him up off the ground and twisted his head sideways. He felt the crack right before the man went limp.

Dropping his lifeless body like a stone, Lucifer didn't stop. He couldn't.

One by one he swooped the field, driving the long dagger he held through their hearts and across their necks. Heads fell and spines were severed—until there was nothing but Lucifer's ragged breath and the crackle of flames that edged closer to the ark.

Noah was huddled inside, peering out through the ramped opening. Soon the fire that ate up the bodies he had silenced would reach him too.

And Lucifer didn't care. He couldn't.

Not when Gabriel... _his Gabriel_...

He saw movement among the dead below. Except, there were no dead. It had all been a bloody fantasy in his mind, a desire to make every single man on this field pay for the life— _the love_ —they had stolen from him. And that movement among the grass behind the fearful men who brandished their spears and crept closer...was Gabriel.

Curled on her side, her once white rags barely covered any of her weeping flesh. Her singed wings lay skewed behind her. The spear still poked from her chest and silver flooded out like a dam that had broken its banks. Her mouth opened, and her eyes filled with tears as she stared at him.

No words came out—only her silver blood did.

This time Lucifer did scream, unfurling his wings as he pushed up with aching legs. Knocking down the men in a flurry of swiping wings and punishing fists, he fought to disable the barrier keeping him from her. Rendering each and every man unconscious, he didn't stop. Sweat dampened his skin as grunts and cries and then thud after thud rang out. And then all fell quiet. The only sound remaining was his panting breaths and the crackle of grass fires that crept closer.

Lucifer fell to the charred earth in front of her, his throbbing knees splashing in the silver pool that collected around her body. Angels were immortal, so long as they could heal. With the extent of her injuries, the fact that almost the entirety of her body was burnt black and red between weeping silver, and the spear that had obliterated her beating heart, she was hanging on by a thread. She couldn't heal here.

"This will hurt." Lucifer steeled himself at what he had to do, wrapping both his hands around the wooden pole just below the sharpened stone that had speared straight through her back and out her chest. Controlling the tears that burned behind his eyes, he nodded as she started to gasp. "I will not let you die." Lucifer tugged the spear, guiding the long length through the gaping hole in her chest. As it came free with her wheezing gasp, more silver blood poured out. Lucifer didn't hesitate. With fire licking at one of his wings, he gathered her up as quickly and as gently as he could. Still she groaned, but he did not waste time apologizing.

There was no time.

Beating his wings that fanned the rising flames, Lucifer pushed up with all the force his fractured legs could muster, shooting up into the sky like a falling star in reverse. The wind whipped and clouds gathered, thick and cold, to slow his ascent. Lucifer continued on, wings batting harder with each passing moment that could be her last. After flying for what felt like an eternity, the sky opened up to rain down over the land and the fire they had left behind. Lucifer knew the rain was God's doing, that his actions were known, but he forged on. He had to. He had made a promise that this time he could not break.

He was running out of time. He could feel it in the deathly chill her body had taken on. "Hold on, Gabriel. _Please._ I cannot live without you."

With the power he possessed, Lucifer broke through the stars—"Almost there"—and blasted through the looking glass. Water and transparent shards exploded up with his reentry, already reformed since his unwarranted descent. Wings flinging out, he fell slowly, meeting the water as it washed back down into the pool in a splash of lapping waves. The glass beneath snapped back into its perfect concaved shape. Glowing warmth radiated all around, growing from the water that lapped at his torso and cascaded over Gabriel in his arms. He held her lower, his heart pounding with the fear that he hadn't made it in time. She was so still. So quiet. The hole in her chest was unchanging, the silver of her blood along with the ash of her singed skin and feathers tainting what had once been crystal clear water.

At once, he knew he was not alone. Michael was crouched behind him with his knees to his chest and his hands clasped as if in prayer. His eyes pooled with what almost resembled grief. Despite the company and any fear of repercussions, Lucifer spoke only to Gabriel. "Fight it. You have to. _I need you_."

Silence stretched on, only Lucifer's and Michael's anticipating breaths filling the bright space. He could not stand it: the sight of her damaged and burned raw, the dead weight of her quiet body. With a tear sliding free, Lucifer gritted his teeth as he glared up into the infinite light. "Damn this, save her. Heal her. Your messenger. One of the twelve. God, _please._ Give me her wounds, her suffering. Punish me for the rest of eternity. Do whatever you choose, but I beg you, please, _please_ save her."

There was no change in the surrounding light. No response. No—

Michael sucked in a breath, clasped hands separating with a sudden flare of light. The words from his mouth were no more than a strained whisper. "Your wish has been granted... _this time_."

And then he threw the light he held at Gabriel.

In Lucifer's arms, Gabriel tensed suddenly, every bone and muscle reacting to the blast. Then she fell limp once more. But Michael had not been lying. The hole through her heart began to change, internal flesh growing and striking out in sinewy tendrils as her heart reformed. A tremendous beat, the best sound Lucifer had ever heard, brought the vital organ back to life as the healing continued. Still holding her tight, her black and reddened flesh sizzled beneath the water, bubbling as it smoothed and paled. Her frazzled patchy hair cascaded back to its full and lustrous length. Then her eyes flung open with a rattled gasp.

An unexpected clank forced Lucifer to look down as a glowing chain appeared beneath the water to trap his ankle. God's voice punched inside his head. _Here you will remain...until my judgment is decided_.

And then Gabriel vanished from his arms in a burst of pure light.

# Chapter Twenty-Five

The sight of Michael's stony face, as he sauntered down the bright steps that appeared with each descending foot while disappearing behind him, stalled Lucifer's heart. Straight from the arching stairway to Heaven, his hard stare and tight lips told Lucifer all he needed to know. "A decision has been made."

The day of his punishment—for endangering and then saving Gabriel's life—had finally arrived.

Dread of the unknown punched at Lucifer's chest, startling his heart back to racing life. He shifted beside the looking glass, rattling his restraints as he stood tall, all the while feeling smaller with each powerful stride Michael took toward him. Would that cell Remiel had divulged become his new prison? Would he ever be granted the chance to see Gabriel again? The thought alone terrified him, making his blood rush like waves in his ears. "Tell me, Michael. Reveal my punishment."

When only a smirk graced his brother's grim face, Lucifer's worry of the unknown turned to panic.

Noticing the way Lucifer's eyes darted, Michael's smirk became almost feral. "Do not push God's hand, Lucifer. Your downfall is imminent, but your penance could always be made worse."

_Penance. Downfall._ Michael snatched hold of Lucifer's bulging arm. His free hand sent a spark of light down at the glowing manacle trapping Lucifer's ankle. A clank announced its release and then Lucifer made his move, upper-cutting Michael's nose as he ripped his arm free.

A crack and a spurt of silver blood had the angel commander's feet lifting from the ground. The few seconds of Michael's shock was all Lucifer needed. And then he was off, rushing from the looking glass as Michael landed and roared his name.

Gabriel had survived. He knew that much. Yet he had not caught sight of her since. In the months that had passed, he had been chained to keep watch without even a moment of reprieve. Now the rains below had arrived, a torrential downpour that refused to ease as it drenched the Earth with fat drops and blasting wind. Events were coming to fruition. Things were changing. Yet there had been no break to record his findings or even the events he had acted out himself on Earth.

There had been no repercussions, either. None except for Lucifer's lockdown, and the separation between him and the other archangels who refused to speak or even glance his way...

And the removal of his ability to transport at will, he realized as he tried and failed to dematerialize and reform at her special place. Feet pounding down the seemingly endless corridor of light, his ankle was raw from being trapped in the manacle, his muscles weak from being immobile for so long. He pushed on harder, forcing his heavy wings to propel him on faster. Michael's words rang in his ears, a warning that was as much a taunt as it was a promise. _"Your downfall is imminent."_

The fear of what was to come left him only able to think of her. And the fact that, after what he had done, the punishment would have to be more severe than the last. Controlled separation would not be enough. Not anymore after his escape. He refused to consider the dire possibilities, focusing only on his actions right here and now. He had to see her—one last time.

Rounding one long straight and then a bend, Lucifer saw behind his blinking eyes a flash of how she had looked. Lifeless in his arms, burned black, red, and coated in tacky silver. God, her body had been that of a dead weight. Her face had been—vacant. All due to him and his unsanctioned visit to Earth. He saw in his mind the moment that primitive spear struck her back and punched through her chest with a spurt of silver. Straight through her heart. Had Michael been right? Was he honestly to blame for her brush with death?

He shook the image away, bringing forth the moment she had gasped in her first breath of life. The guilt that rode him threatened to make him stop. Threatened to make him turn around and stay away. But he wouldn't let it. He had to see her. After disappearing from his shaking arms, he had to know that she was still alive. That she had fully healed.

Lucifer slowed on the last stretch to reach the hidden door to her once magical garden. He considered the possibility that she may be disfigured, that her wounds may have left permanent scars. To think his actions had damaged her made him hate himself. Not because he cared how she looked. True, she was beautiful, the most beautiful being he had ever gazed upon, but what had captured his heart from the beginning, what had kept him coming back was who she was on a soul-deep level. Her honor, her integrity, her hope for those who truly did not deserve it— _like him_.

Lucifer swallowed down his fear that she may bear the scars to remind him of his selfishness for the rest of all time. And his fear that she had finally reached her limit in her eternal hope for an unworthy soul like him. He had to see her, he had to say _"sorry"_ before it was too late.

Springing off the balls of his feet, wings flapping him onward, he sprinted for the seemingly dead end—and pulled up short as a formidable figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

"You are not permitted to see her." Michael shoved Lucifer, forcing him to stagger back. His top lip curled back from his white teeth. His hands were balled into tight fists, and Lucifer could bet the other angel wanted to crack him in the face. "Time for your judgment has come."

"I must see her." Lucifer went to push past. Michael threw out an arm to knock him back by his neck, and Lucifer ducked, darting into the tingling light.

Michael struck out like a rattlesnake, fingers like fangs catching and clawing into his wing to yank him back. "You will not injure her any more than you already have," he snarled in Lucifer's ear.

Through the suffocating light that surrounded them, Lucifer could make out the fuzzy shapes of the garden. Still charred and black, dirty water plunged from the cliff down into the pond below. Lucifer gasped, finding the only thing he needed to see at the pond's banks. Gabriel. With the distorted view from this distance, her skin looked healed of the black smears and open wounds, once again pale and perfect. Her wings that draped over her were intact, though charred edges still marked some of the outer lengths. With her legs folded beneath her, her hands covered her face.

She was...crying.

Because of him? Because of the rains?

Lucifer's heart broke. Desperation to go to her took over in him. It didn't matter what depressed her. All he knew was that he needed to be at her side. He needed to comfort her and tell her everything would be better. That he would make it better.

Lucifer twisted, trying to free his wing from Michael's unrelenting grasp, ready to come to blows to get free—

A shock of light blasted them both, rippling the ground beneath their feet and the air around them like an imploding pocket of energy. Lucifer's gaze shot to Gabriel, but she didn't seem to feel it, continuing to weep into her hands. He twisted again, fists ready to deliver—when something deathly sharp appeared before him.

Holding a sapphire-jeweled hilt, Michael's arm bulged with popping muscles. The weapon's shiny silver length was primed for use, poised with the sharp tip pointed at the underside of Lucifer's jaw. The angel sword, the only weapon able to snuff out an angel instantly. _Permanently._ With this weapon, there was no healing. There was no coming back. The body would cease to exist, as would the soul it encapsulated.

Lucifer gave up his struggle, his need to get to Gabriel paling as shock rocked him like an earthquake. "God entrusted you with the angel sword?"

Still right in his ear, Michael's words lost some of their ferocity. "I am an obedient soldier. A warrior of God."

"A warrior who is willing to let one of his charges die to remain the almighty's lap dog."

When Lucifer yanked, desperate to continue the fight to get to Gabriel, the tip bit into his skin. Warm silver blood leaked out, trailing from his jaw down the gleaming length. "How easy it is for you to shift the blame, when you, Lucifer, and your actions were the catalyst that delivered Gabriel into death's hands."

Despite how much he had grown to detest Michael, his brother's words held volumes of truth. Fists still clenched tight at the ready, too many thoughts inundated Lucifer. If this was the result, could he fight it? Should he? He thought of Gabriel and how she had almost died. Maybe she would be better off without him... "Then this is my punishment, brother? Eternal extinguishment...after I _saved_ her?" It hardly seemed reasonable. He had never intended to alert the humans to the existence of angels on Earth. Yet the result had been dire. Gabriel had come so close to dying. In the tepid looking glass with her limp in his arms, he thought he'd lost her. Feeling the rage drain out of him, his fists uncurled and his hands came up, fingers extended and palms forward. "If that is God's will, I will not fight it. Though you must do me one thing. Tell Gabriel...tell her I am sorry. I never intended—"

"Your punishment is not death," Michael interrupted, spinning Lucifer around to face him. Everything about his hardened expression said the angel wished the opposite, yet he stayed the angel sword, letting his arm fall to his side so the tip scraped the luminous ground. "It is a second chance. One you surely do not deserve."

A flash of light appeared—not ground shaking, but silent and gentle—and Remiel formed beside them both. He nodded his head, his small smile that of a widening straight line that held no emotion. "The time is now."

"Time for what?"

"To prove yourself worthy as an archangel of God," Remiel explained without giving Lucifer the answer he sought.

Michael, on the other hand, grinned as he elaborated. "As you are so perturbed by the actions below and the way humans use their free will, you shall be granted the task of intervening, of stopping the violence and bloodshed, of securing the completion of the ark and its safe passage into rising waters. Without taking life which is not free for you to eradicate, lest you want the sentence you expected to actually become your reality."

Remiel's hand came up fast, glowing with hot intensity as he placed his palm over Lucifer's heart. Absorbing the power his brother was infused with, Lucifer's body heated, light beaming from every inch of his skin in blinding intensity. This was it, his last moment to behold her, to be near her. And this time, he didn't fight it. He accepted his fate.

Lucifer threw a glance over his shoulder to see her one last time. _"Gabriel."_ Her name from his mouth was a whisper, something too quiet for her to hear. Yet, somehow she did. Her face tilted up and her saddened eyes settled on him. As he became nothing but light and air, she smiled.

# Chapter Twenty-Six

Lucifer slathered the tar-like substance over the exterior of the ark with tufts of bound grasses, coating the wet planks to strengthen its wooden-pegged structure and secure the vessel from ingress when the waters rose high enough. Even now, water lapped at his heels as it continued to fall from the ashen sky, eating its way up to the front of the great wooden structure. The wildlife gathering in the field grew restless, lions snapping out and flightier animals growing fearful with nowhere to run.

Dressed in battle leathers like Lucifer was, Remiel weaved among them, using the light from his hands to calm their nerves. It had taken years to prepare, to gather the pairs and complete the ark. And still, his sentence was not complete.

Noah and his sons exited the ramp hurriedly, waving to Remiel to start guiding the animal pairs aboard. "Hunters first," he called out.

Remiel nodded, then glanced up at the undulating horizon and back at Lucifer with a hike of his chin.

Lucifer spared a moment to look around, peering through his drenched hair that stuck to his face and neck. He knew what encouraged the nervous look on his brother's face. They were surrounded now, half the village submerged in the distance. Through the sound of the rain that sheeted down, he heard murmurs as well as the chatter of weapons being forged and sharpened. The sounds had been growing for weeks now, the village humans planning their attack to take the ark for themselves. Though Lucifer understood their need for survival, he could not let them achieve it. Much of his motivation lay in wait of seeing all the surviving men who had attacked his Gabriel be drowned by God's own doing. The rest of his motivation had been to follow the orders he'd been sent here with in the hopes that it would grant him reentry above. Grant him the possibility of seeing her once more. But his wish was not to be, at least, not anytime soon. The beginning of this day had begun with an order to remain below as the earth flooded.

The gravity of his prolonged stay resurrected and strengthened his sense of loss. Letting himself think of Gabriel now, he knew that no matter what happened, he could never forget her. Yet picturing her every detail in his mind in the months and years that had passed had started to fail him, like the crisp clarity of beholding her beauty was being taken from him. Like the memory of how she felt in his arms and how she tasted in his mouth was purposely being stripped from his mind. Maybe it was. But he refused to let it be. Somehow he had to reach her, to tell her that not a day had passed without him thinking about her. That he had not forgotten her and never would. That he would return to her one day.

Rain continued to pour down as a plan started brewing in his mind, the water creeping ever closer as each of the animal pairs were led onto the ark by Noah and his sons. The wives remained inside the structure, and their voices of direction and calm to the sequestered animals reached Lucifer through the stomp of hooves, paws, and feet of all kinds. When Noah appeared on the external level above, birds took to the air from the canopies of submerging trees, creating a swirling mass of flapping color and descending birdsong as they circled their new land.

Now hovering without even realizing, Lucifer had finished sealing the ark. From this height, he could not miss the bobbing of many heads that appeared over the hill from the village. The humans were about to make their move. Armed and ready, their women and children trailing behind, they were coming to take the ark.

"Remiel!"

The angel responded to Lucifer's bellow, swooping out from the ark's opening by the grace of his white wings. He met Lucifer's side, hovering as he beheld what marched their way. "Today we live up to our commands. Today we purify mankind."

Though his voice was strong, something behind his eyes shone as his gaze glided back to the women and children tailing the angry group. Lucifer felt no sympathy for those who would soon be no more. The innocent would be welcomed above with open arms. And the rest...

For a moment he wondered something he never had before. Were the unworthy snuffed out like an angel culled by the angel sword, or were they sent elsewhere?

With no answer available, Lucifer plunged to the ground with Remiel close behind. "Haul the ramp up!"

With heavy rope attached, the wide ramp began to lift, Noah's sons heaving the thick wood higher and higher. Lucifer and Remiel met the edge, using all their strength to help it higher faster.

"Stop them!"

The leader's shout preceded the stamped of running feet as the village men sprinted for them. There were hundreds of them, all brandishing stone-tipped spears and primitive daggers. Some even held sharpened rocks designed to crack skulls open.

Lucifer and Remiel released the rising ramp and faced their attackers. "The waters will take their lives soon enough. Tell me again, dear brother, why we cannot put them down ourselves?"

Remiel smiled at Lucifer, standing equally ready and weaponless. "It is not God's will."

And then Remiel was away, running through mud and splashing puddles toward the men with naught but his primed knuckles. Lucifer let out a shout, clenching his fists as the rage he held for these men bubbled to the surface. Orders or not, this was going to be satisfying. Human life was so fickle it could be spent even without the final blow being delivered from his own hands.

Like Remiel, Lucifer met the sprinting horde with gusto, leaping over jabbing spears and wielded rocks. In the thick of them, his war dance was a thing of speed and beauty among slower mortals as he ducked and weaved, using only his body to knock men to their knees. Fists swinging, feet sailing, and wings lashing out as mud spurted around him, he floored men before they could understand what was happening.

More and more fell as the battle forged on, all injured but not dead. Still, the numbers were not on their side, and as more men fell, earlier ones recovered.

Fast becoming surrounded, some got in lucky strikes. A slicing dagger met Lucifer's cheek as he flung another man through the air to knock his comrades back. Then a spearhead jabbed his ribs. Lucifer roared, wings flinging out to throw eight more men down. Pain bloomed at the base of his wings with each fresh stab, and Lucifer dove and rolled through the mud to escape the assault.

Rising up again, Lucifer felt the first of fatigue settle in. Being stuck down here and unable to venture above, his strength was waning. But he would never give up. He would never give in. Seeing Gabriel was the one thing that drove him on, the one thing that made his obedience and every sting of cut flesh worth it.

Keeping to head and gut shots, the men continued to fall, spraying mud with their sudden landings. With the pelting rain and his drenched hair obscuring his sight, they kept getting more and more stabs at Lucifer too. For every few dropped men an earlier one would awaken enough to lash out, adding to the growing slices that spilled silver from his body.

Not killing these men was beginning to test Lucifer's patience. And even if he did keep to his orders, could he really expect what he hoped for to come to fruition? Deep down, Lucifer knew that no matter what he did here, no matter how much he followed orders, he would not be allowed to see her. When he was finally invited to return above, he would be chained away from her again.

The thought lit ire within him even as he dropped the weakening men around him. The plan he had already decided on cemented in his mind.

Breathing hard, Lucifer took to the sky and scanned the field of limp bodies. His soaked leathers were stained silver, but only a few stray drops of red married with his spilled blood. Among the quiet bodies, a few twitched. Another tried to regain his footing, using a long spear to push out of the squelching mud.

The same burly man who had led the attack last time.

Tucking his cold, saturated wings in tight, Lucifer plummeted. Flattening the man, his fist caught the leader's neck, squeezing to disable his flying fists. He intended to break the man's jaw—for starters, before bringing his plan to life.

But then something caught his eye.

Closer to the ark, Remiel was battling back a smaller group of men. Behind him, three men were hanging from the ramp that continued to rise up to its closed position. One of the three had his leg up and was holding a cutting rock that he grated across the levering rope.

Lucifer released his intended victim with a head-rattling punch to the face—to stun him until he returned to complete his plans.

Then he took flight, wings driving him up and over the floored muddy men. Arriving in seconds, he caught the man by his neck and tore him back. He went to fling him through the air, not caring if the landing killed him—but the man smashed the cutting rock into his face.

Blinded by silver, Lucifer fell to the ground. But his strangling hold held tight, bringing the man down with him as he managed to land on his feet. His hand around the man's throat squeezed tighter, rage at the interruption taking over. Irritation at his throbbing head and stolen vision made him forget their order not to kill.

"Lucifer, look out!"

Lucifer heard the splashing a second before Remiel called out, and he spun. The man in his grasp was flung in front of him—taking the group leader's spear straight through his chest cavity. Lucifer smiled as he dropped the dying man that croaked and spluttered blood. He couldn't have executed the result better if he'd tried, the death of a man at someone else's hands. The leader's face was a mask of shock and horror, and Lucifer punched the expression away before the man could react.

As Remiel continued to disengage the last of the villagers from the ark's ramp, Lucifer worked quickly. Shielded behind his wings, he plucked one of his dirty feathers. Holding it in his palms as rain pattered down to wash it clear, he whispered into its delicate vanes. "Eternity without you is meaningless. I cannot abide this distance forever. Our time will come."

Azrael appeared with a burst of light—as anticipated—the only archangel with the ability to instantly traverse between realms. Kneeling down to the man who'd been speared and was now unmoving in the mud, his eyes frozen open, Azrael glanced up. His darker wings tucked in close to his back as rain pattered his face. "Lucifer, why?"

The Morningstar smiled and shook his head. "It was not my arm that brought about this end. The human's own leader delivered his fate." Standing closer, his own wings acting as a shelter to obscure them, Lucifer held up the feather. "And now I must ask you a favor."

"I cannot give that to her—"

"You can and you will." He tucked the feather into Azrael's sleeve with a look that challenged refusal. With his ability to traverse and deliver messages blocked, this was his only choice, his only way to reach her. "Unless you wish for your infatuation with Ariel to be brought to light."

"I have no infat—"

"I am not blind, Azrael, and neither is God."

Remiel appeared behind Lucifer and Azrael drew away, tightening the material at his wrist with his fist. "I must deliver this soul for judgment." He knelt, and with his other hand suddenly glowing, he placed it on the dead man's forehead as the water lapped at their feet. Then they were gone, disappearing in a flash.

Remiel landed with a frown but did not question their interaction. Instead, he looked to the field of bruised and battered men that twitched and groaned. Then his eyes cast across to the weeping women and children huddled back by the trees. "Let us complete what we came to do." Flying up, he planted his hands into the side of the boat, and as Lucifer joined him, the enormous structure shifted, sliding downhill on the soft, marshy ground until it met deeper water.

Hovering in the unrelenting rain, Lucifer watched as the ark was carried away on a swirling current, seeing Noah and his family retreat inside with farewelling waves as the flurry of birds that looked like a long ribbon of color swooped inside. Their task was completed.

And his message was sent.

# Chapter Twenty-Seven

Alone on her knees, Gabriel beheld the expanse of her scarred garden. Now mottled black and brown, shades of vibrant green dotted with the purple and white from wildflowers no longer colored the rolling field below the endless glowing sky. The once aquamarine water was now a plunging waterfall of murky gray that pooled into the even darker depths of the seeing pond. Sadness weighed her down like a physical presence, a weight at her back that was so much heavier than the plumage of her wings. Though her upset was not at the lost beauty of her once majestic garden.

She sighed deeply, sweeping a hand over the rough brown grass and feeling the scrape of each blunt tip across her fingers and palm. She should have been watching the world below, seeing the acts of humans that she would then record for God. Yet she could not bring herself to still the waters and gain sight below. For one, the loss of sound from the dirty plunging water would leave only her internal thoughts to fill the void. Thoughts of the face, voice, and touch of one angel that was too painful to unleash, too dangerous to linger on. Even more than that, she knew glimpsing below would not show her the one being she longed to see.

Since being returned to her captive garden years ago, seeing Lucifer had been forbidden from her.

Trailing her hand over her folded legs, she felt the slightest sensation that reminded her of the last time she had seen him. Every part of her had been burned black and red, with silver leaking and oozing all over. And yet those wounds that were now fully healed had not been a threat to her immortality. The spear that had impaled her heart had. Gabriel clutched a fist over the organ, feeling a shock of pain thread through it. _Phantom pains_. Ones that had remained even after Lucifer's actions to return her to the Realm of Light to heal in the pool of the looking glass. His actions had been against any granted permission, and they alone had saved her. _Lucifer_ had saved her. Her heart beat faster with a growing ache that never truly left the organ since that day. The day she had been taken from his protective arms.

Since then, she had heard rumors when Michael had visited her. Lucifer was below, assisting to ready the ark on an extended Earth mission—in the field close by that same village of murderous men. His well-being was not a detail she had been granted. Now, after so long, her fear for his survival grew with each passing moment in her ruined garden where there was no escape. She feared for his life, knowing only that saving her had condemned him to Below.

"I am sorry, Luci..." Gabriel trailed off in her apology that would never be heard. She was no longer alone.

Rising to her feet fast with a flap of her wings, she readied to face the one angel she did not wish to see, but as the angelic figure materialized through the tree across from the pond, she saw it wasn't Michael.

"Azrael?" Gabriel watched as he moved closer, bare feet and gray-flecked wings crackling as they brushed over the scorched land. The Angel of Death had never been affected by his calling to transport souls from living to Above, but the mournful look she saw as his face lifted sent a chill through her. With suddenly weak knees, Gabriel had to consciously force herself to stand. "Is it..." Lucifer's name lodged in the back of her throat like a fist that refused to budge. "What is...what is wrong?"

Azrael glanced up as he met her around the pond, seeming to watch the flickers overhead that indicated passing souls and were so close they were almost constant. With a deep burdening sigh, he reached into the sleeve of his robe and then held out a single white feather. Not a word was spoken as he handed it over, his eyes refusing to meet Gabriel's. She gasped at the hint of electricity she felt the moment the soft vanes and thick stem landed in her palm.

"What does he say?" A sharp male voice barked out.

Azrael jolted before becoming statue still, while Gabriel's head whipped right to see the source of the voice she did not need to behold to know the speaker's identity. Her delicate hand closed tight around the feather, even though she knew Michael had seen it. Like her, he knew who it was from. As he marched around the pond toward them, his steps crushing the dead remains of foliage, she knew he would not leave until he heard the message Lucifer had sent her.

Mouth tight, Michael nodded to Azrael, indicating the invisible door he had entered through back at the scorched, skeletal tree. Harsh lines scored his face, and his eyes narrowed as his hand hovered close to the angel sword suspended from his waist. "Leave. I will find you later."

Azrael did not argue or utter a word, and in a matter of rushed movements, he vanished from the pond and through the tree, leaving Gabriel alone with the angel who commanded them all. Instead of regret and the need to be subservient, Gabriel felt a twinge of something else, a feeling that had been lingering below the surface since the day Lucifer had saved her. The day Michael had stood by with the knowledge of her capture and watched rather than take action. The day he had tried to keep Lucifer from getting to her before her body succumbed to earthly flames and turned to ash on the wind.

Gabriel knew Michael had followed orders, that his choice to stay away had not been his own when he'd made the confession to her. Still, she could not dislodge the hurt at his loyal actions that could have seen her cease to exist. Allowing herself to feel that hurt, she lifted her chin and met his watching silver-blue eyes. "Why does this concern you? Lucifer is on Earth. If what little you revealed to me is true, a few words when we are a world apart cannot bear harm."

Something dark passed over Michael's face, a flash of anger or even torment, but then it was gone, and his strong facade was back in place. "Then there is no reason to hide them." He lashed out and caught her wrist, the action surprising and aggressive despite his passive expression. "Let the disgraced's words speak."

Gabriel's fingers tightened around the feather, but Michael's other hand caught her fist and pried her fingers open. Lifting her palm up, he blew a gentle breath over the crumpled feather, igniting the message to come to life.

As if on the breeze that was nonexistent, Lucifer's voice rose, intense and full of desperate emotion. _"Eternity without you is meaningless. I cannot abide this distance. Our time will come."_

As the feather disintegrated into nothingness, Gabriel tried to stay her reaction. But through her struggle, she felt the way her eyes lit up as the heat of rushing blood from her racing heart flooded up from her chest and across her face. Michael's free hand landing on her shoulder shot her gaze downward as she tried to hide her face from him.

"Look at me." When Gabriel refused to peer up, Michael lifted her chin with his fingers. With lips pinned into a grim line, his eyes held an air of upset. "Do you know how Lucifer managed to get Azrael to deliver this message to you?"

Breathing harder at the insinuation in his eyes, the smells of blackened trees and ash from what was once alive in perfect stillness increased, becoming almost too much to bear. She knew Azrael would only visit Lucifer to transport a soul. But she knew Lucifer down to his very core. He could never. He would never.

"He did," Michael said softly, staring down at Gabriel who only now realized she was shaking her head in denial. "A life was taken, and it was Lucifer's actions that delivered that living being to the realm of the dead. From his hands, a man lost his life."

Gabriel still couldn't utter a word. She still couldn't believe it. Lucifer coveted what humans had, he saw them as pedestal-placed beings that had the world at their feet and eternity awaiting them at their end. Yes, he had caused pain and suffering, but he had never intentionally acted to harm another without being provoked. All he had ever done was to get close to her, to be within her reach, to keep her safe.

"His message is proof enough. Lucifer will do whatever he can to get what he wants. And what he wants is you, soul _and_ body."

"No." Gabriel refused to believe it. She knew Lucifer. She knew the Morningstar. He would never kill another in cold blood. Not ever, and especially not for this. "You are wrong."

"I wish that were true." Michael's flat expression disagreed with his statement. "I watched it with my own eyes."

Pulling her wrist from Michael's grasp, Gabriel kneeled at the pond's edge. Her wings extended back like a long veil as she settled the water's surface with a brush of her hand. As the sound of gushing water fled, her voice was unwavering. "Then show me, Michael. Prove my belief and trust in Lucifer wrong."

Michael was kneeling beside her in an instant. Gabriel gasped as he clutched her face with his large hands, his intense eyes seeming to strike with lightning as he stared into her own. "I am not granted this freedom of revelation..." Glancing swiftly up at the flashing sky, his strained gaze fell back down to hers fast. "But you must be made aware. The past is done, but the future...it is still to come."

Stabbing pain invaded Gabriel's head and she screamed. The agony overrode the throbbing in her heart and dulled every one of her other senses. Her eyes squeezed shut, and although her body crumbled, Michael's grip on her face held her up. The expected empty blackness behind her lids was gone. In its place, shifting images flashed in her mind. At first, she saw Lucifer with a smile that could light up even the heavens and make her forget the ugliness of her charred garden. Then she was in his arms, sheltered by his great white wings, their lips connected in frenzied kisses that made her lips tingle as she watched. As the feeling of being speared by a million tiny probes fled her brain, she got lost in the moving images, in the passion and the emotion. Everything around her physical body became a lost thought, making her forget where she was and who was with her. But then the scenery changed. No longer in each other's embrace, Lucifer was on his knees, begging with his hands pressed together. Gabriel saw herself swathed in light behind him, silver tears streaming down her flushed face. The images sped up without warning, light turning to dark, and then blood and glowing red eyes appeared, filled with a vicious intent that could devour the world.

Gabriel gasped for air, and Michael released her face, catching her around her waist before she could fall. Hoisting her up against his body, something flickered in his eyes as he beheld her face so close to his. Then he shook himself and stood her on her own two feet, taking a step back. "The Earth floods as we speak. Lucifer and Remiel will return eventually. Do you understand now what must be done?"

With her legs wobbly, Gabriel expanded her wings to help steady her center of gravity. The events, the dangers, what Lucifer had revealed to her so long ago had been true. So horribly true. Finding her balance, she nodded, even though merely doing that broke her heart into a million pieces. Knowing the actions she had to take and trusting herself to do exactly that was like trying to win a war against herself. "I am not sure I am strong enough. If he comes to me..."

Michael nodded when Gabriel trailed off. "There is only one solution." He opened his palm, letting a spark of light flare to life. "There is one place that can contain him."

Gabriel knew what Michael was suggesting. Imprisonment. Not for her. It was not her will that would bring her to Lucifer. It was his. He would not stay away. She had witnessed the proof over and over again. She had seen the repercussions each and every time. And now she'd glimpsed pieces of a future that would lay waste to Lucifer because of his lust for her.

Gabriel nodded her head, the motion mechanical rather than intended. Deep down she knew what she had to agree to. A measure that Michael would have no problem getting the other archangels and God to support. "For his own protection, Lucifer must be imprisoned."

# Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lucifer reentered the Realm of Light in a flash of light conjured by Remiel at his side. The other angels chained around the looking glass hushed at their arrival, their eyes wary and watchful at the same time. They had likely seen all that had played out all those months ago. But had they seen what Lucifer had caused—the death of a human? Considering he'd suffered no repercussions, he assumed not. Though even if they had, that mattered not to Lucifer at this moment.

Of the male angels that were present and murmuring greetings to Remiel alone, the one that he had hoped was absent was. Michael was not among the group that included only Raziel, Raguel, Jeremiel, Zadkiel, and Chameul. Though neither was Azrael. The thought of where the Angel of Death might be after what he'd forced him to return above with quickened Lucifer's heartbeat. If Michael had intercepted him...

His freedom back here could be cut short at any moment.

Impatience tightened Lucifer's muscles more than the stirring of whispers that came from the other angels.

Turning toward the framing columns to their private chambers, Lucifer's feet were ready to deliver him to the place he needed to be. To the one being he needed to see. A warm hand curled around his bicep, stopping his escape from the circular room of glowing light. Shoving Lucifer away from the other watching angels, Remiel's voice was a whisper that made Lucifer eager to hear his private words. "I warn you, brother. Do not follow where your heart is telling you to go."

"And why not?" Lucifer yanked his arm free, stepping closer to Remiel so that they were standing face to face. Silence stretched out between them, becoming tangible in a way that tightened Lucifer's skin and had his hands cranking into fists at the time that was being taken from him. His stare begged and dared Remiel to reveal what he knew but had yet to say. "Speak now or get out of my way."

Remiel's shoulders fell with his exhale. He stepped aside. "It is not my place..."

Irritation at his brother's subservience and lack of a backbone stirred anger within him. He shoved his brother further aside with his forearm and stalked through the soaring entry that revealed the corridor he needed to pass through to find her. Already he could feel her presence, that sensation that was like an invisible thread that tethered him to her no matter where each of them was. Intending to pass by the entries to their personal chambers as quickly as possible, Lucifer picked up the pace—until the sensation spiked.

Lucifer had expected to have to weave throughout the labyrinth of corridors to her ruined garden. Even now he could imagine her sitting by the water with her hands catching her quietly wept tears. And he had been wrong. She was not that far away. She was not even in her own chamber ending this corridor.

Turning to face the glittering drapery to his side, he knew where Gabriel was.

She had received his message, she must have.

And now...she was waiting for him, aware of his return. In his private chamber.

Steeling himself and taking a few deep breaths, he dared to venture inside, sweeping the chiming drapery to one side as he went. And there she was. Sitting at the platform he'd spent countless hours sketching her likeness. The sight of Gabriel facing him from the glowing perch, her hands folded in her lap, her hair loose over her shoulders and longer than he remembered, and her lips parted with anticipation, almost made his heart beat right out of his chest. The depth of emotion he felt for her was unchallenged. Nothing had ever made him feel the way that merely beholding her did.

And then he saw it. The feather he'd sketched Gabriel's beauty with was in her joined hands, and it was shaking. Her hands were quivering. Concern and unsettling fear rooted through his soul, making him stumble as he staggered through strewn scrolls to get to her. Had she seen his actions below? Did she know what he had done to ensure his message reached her?

Falling to his knees, he did not dare to touch her. Not yet. Not until she invited him too. He had used that man on Earth to his own advantage, a man that was set to die horribly through drowning. Had the quick death he had not kept from happening changed the way she felt about him? Had her hope for all that was good in him finally met its end?

"Gabriel, I..." He so badly wanted to touch her, and as a stray tear spilled from her eye, he felt something breaking in him. If he had lost her... "I am sorry. I—"

"Shhh." Gabriel's finger to his lips shushed his words as if she had sucked them right out of him. Another tear fell, and she forced a smile that was so sad it crushed him. "I know you are. I know you, Lucifer. And I am so, so sorry..."

_"You?"_ Confusion contorted the fear right out of Lucifer's expression as her tear-filled gaze fell, releasing a few silver drops. She sniffed. "No. You have done naught to warrant those words from your mouth. Not now. Not ever."

Gabriel's fallen eyes lifted with her deep, shuddering breath. Except she didn't look at him. Instead, her gaze lifted higher, settling on something behind Lucifer. And then he felt it as chimes sounded.

They were no longer alone.

"Michael," Lucifer grated as he rose and spun to face their unwanted guest. "Come to greet me upon my return? Have you missed me so?"

Michael regarded Lucifer as if he were an ant in need of crushing. A plague in need a cleansing. His narrowed eyes flicked from him to Gabriel, his lips pressing harder together as he nodded. "It must be done."

Lucifer stepped forward, his wings expanding to shield Michael's unacceptable look from Gabriel while making Lucifer appear larger before his towering brother. Anger fired within him at Michael's cryptic words that seemed to be trying to force a response from Gabriel. "I am standing right here before you," he snarled, his need to protect Gabriel from whatever Michael had planned forcing the animalistic side of him to break free. "What must be done, dear brother?"

Michael's gaze lowered with a nod as if he'd received the instruction from Gabriel herself. "I am here with one task and but one task alone. You cannot be trusted, not even when chained."

Lucifer's eyes darted as if trying to find a way out, an escape. He could sense the severity of what was to come even though he had no answer of what exactly that was. But where would he go? All that kept him forging on, breathing and going through the motions of his punishments, was the thought of seeing her again, of hearing her voice, of touching her hand, her lips... No. There was nowhere else to go. Not without her. And he would not be chained herein. Michael had made that abundantly clear. He couldn't be trusted in this realm.

Assuming the worst, he glared at Michael. "You are set to deliver me back below? For how long?"

"Not below..." Michael said no more. Instead, he lifted his glowing hand from the hilt of the angel sword.

At once he knew where he was going. The place Remiel had warned him of. The prison cell.

"Lucifer, please understand."

At Gabriel's soft voice, he spun down to his knees and clasped her tangled hands. Care that he should refrain from touching her was gone. Care that Michael was right there never existed and would not stop him now. Peering into her eyes that pooled silver and spilled twin tracks down her flushed cheeks, he knew the answer before he asked the question. "You agreed to this? You agreed to lock me away?"

Gabriel shook her head, and Lucifer prematurely let out the breath he'd been holding. "I did not agree. The decision was mine."

Lucifer's lungs hitched. His sight turned hazy as he stared at her sorrowful face, her beautiful features melting from his field of view. With nothing but haze left, her words ' _The decision was mine'_ repeated in his mind over and over again. Each repeat sent a shockwave through his body, feeling like he was being crushed from the inside out. Gabriel had turned against him. She had voted against him, _his Gabriel_ , the only one who had ever stood by him.

A tense hand landed on Lucifer's shoulder, and the shock of power that jolted through him forced him from his knees up to his feet. "Time to go," Michael grated in his ear.

Lucifer was spun around so fast that he became a spindle of light, a subtle click vanishing his body only to reform him in a place he had never seen before. Surrounded by light that appeared endless around him, where Lucifer stood was no different—until a sudden shock of spearing lights shot up around him in a perfect circle. Lucifer suddenly faced bars of pure power that were never-ending as they faded into the eternal radiance above. A prison cell. And he was locked inside, while Michael smirked from beyond the bars, his hand resting harmlessly over the hilt of the angel sword.

Baring his teeth with a hiss, Lucifer clutched the glowing bars, ready to tear this place along with Michael down. The other angel didn't even budge, and Lucifer howled as the feeling of molten lava attacked his palms before he wrenched them free.

"Despite all the warnings, you refused to keep away. You refused to follow our angelic laws." Michael stepped closer, shaking his head. "You brought this upon yourself, Lucifer. You forced God's hand."

Something in Lucifer, a piece of him that had always been there but had been dormant, trapped by love and his angelic nature, slithered free of its cage. It burned hotter than the bars that had taken the skin of his palms and fingers back to the bone. And it poisoned him more insidiously than anger and was longer lasting than ire. The feeling was not for Gabriel. No. _Never_ for Gabriel. This had not been her doing. Her idea. Despite what she claimed, he knew where this result had come from. His arch rival. His nemesis. The angel Lucifer was sure secretly coveted what he had started with Gabriel for himself. The angel who was determined to turn his only saving grace against him. And now that it was out, Lucifer knew he could never lock it away, not anymore. This new emotion was so severe it threatened to drown him as he glared at Michael. It threatened to infect his love and throw it away like burned corpses on the wind.

For the first time ever, Lucifer felt— _hate_.

# Chapter Twenty-Nine

Michael climbed the golden stairs from the Realm of Light up to heaven, each next step reacting to his angelic presence and appearing the moment before his bare foot could gain purchase. For the first time in so long now he felt a sense of ease. A burden he hadn't even realized he'd been carrying had been lifted from his shoulders that now only had to bear the weight of his hefty wings. Gabriel was aware. She was no longer in the dark—at least on a few important details. She knew giving in to Lucifer would hurt him in the long run. It would challenge his angelic station and all that God had bestowed upon him as one of his archangels.

Showing her the result their interactions could create had been enough to sway her choice to lock Lucifer away.

Not that Michael had needed her permission.

God had set him the task of separating the two before they had any chance to tempt their fate. But Michael had slightly miss-stepped. Allowing Gabriel to believe she was making the choice would keep her feelings for him from being tainted. It would keep her warm to him...

Nearing the last few steps, the quiet yet powerful voice of God murmuring a command slowed his steps. With all the drowning deaths below, their maker had been overwhelmed with the action of passing new souls into Heaven. Glimpsing the towering, pearly throne nestled among a blank expanse of light, God's illuminated presence that burned as bright as the sun was partially shielded by Azrael who convulsed. The crippling pain bent the archangel's knees and hunched his back until light split from his body to coalesce into the form of a man; one of the drowned humans from Below. The man fell to his knees at the sight of the brilliant light that filled the throne and clasped his hands together. Words of begging ensued as God's voice boomed, "Rise!" a black hole appeared at the foot of God's throne. The man screamed as Azrael hauled him along and flung him down into the endless black beyond the opening.

In the silence that followed, Michael could not help but wonder where the black abyss led to. His knowledge so far only entrusted him with the existence of the hazy expanse behind the throne and the haven that existed beyond it. It was a place where pain did not exist, where everyone was free to live in their own version of perfection with all the passed people that they loved.

"Is there forgiveness in your soul for me?"

Azrael's unexpected question piqued Michael's interest and diverted his mind from where that disappearing black hole could lead. The other angel was still facing God, his head bowed and his wings drooping in subservience. Michael knew what Azrael was begging forgiveness for—the returning of Lucifer's message to Gabriel that Michael had informed God of. He knew God was unaware of why the angel had helped Lucifer, and on reporting to God before Azrael was inundated by flood deaths, Michael had kept Lucifer's accusations from passing his lips.

The brilliant light that filled the throne pulsed brighter for a few beats. The voice that spoke was all-powerful and, rather than being vocalized, it resonated in Michael's mind with him being within the expansiveness of God's presence. _"It has already been granted, my child. From the moment your heart requested it back when your error in judgment took place. Though this time, my forgiveness cannot extend to your brother, Lucifer, who dares not seek my mercy. I fear his will may be his downfall, and down he shall fall if he refuses to learn from his imprisonment. If he proves he cannot be contained."_ God's light almost seemed to dim, to weaken as the strength of his voice turned wary. _"My hand was forced to cleanse the Earth of what I created. I wish not to see the same fate for my pure angels."_

Michael had started retreating down the stairs even before God's emotional words had ended. Too many thoughts were swimming through his mind, clogging up his brain with possibilities. Gabriel, Lucifer, _himself_... Michael knew his station. He knew what was allowed of him and what was not. He would never admit to the simmering feelings he had for Gabriel. They were not his to feel, certainly not for him to act upon. And he was at peace with that. So long as he could exist near her, he would accept that. But he could not accept this ongoing folly of witnessing Lucifer's actions with Gabriel. Something needed to change. And now God, though forgiving in nature, was ready to set things right...under the right _circumstances_.

Clearing one step after another, each appearing with his reaching foot, Michael met the landing that sided the large cleared area around the looking glass. Remiel glanced up from his chained station, a question in his eyes at seeing his brother's entrance. Michael did not wait or speak a word. Instead, he clicked his fingers to dematerialize and reform right in front of Lucifer's vibrant cell.

The imprisoned angel stood statue still, the only movement at Michael's arrival coming from his narrowed eyes that shot venom at the sight of him. "Come to gloat, brother?" Lucifer threw out his arms, his wings widening to fill the circular cell. "By all means..." He strode closer, holding his face an inch back from the bars. "Though I suggest you make the most of it. My stay here will not be eternal as I am certain you hope for. I will be free. And I will go to her. Gabriel will know you manipulated her into believing this was her choice. And then, dear brother, she will hate you as I now do."

Michael stepped closer, coming within reach of Lucifer should he dare to strike out through the bars. He smiled. Michael knew Lucifer. He had watched him for so long now. He knew what Lucifer would do if given the chance, _the freedom_ , to leave this cage. With the loathing that was clear across his face, he would not be able to stop himself. Lucifer would, as he had threatened, go to her.

And that is exactly what Michael now _wanted_ him to do.

But he could not willingly allow Lucifer's escape. So instead, he came closer, flashing a goading grin. "You will never be with her, Lucifer. Did you fail to behold Gabriel's face? She knows you killed a mortal. You killed a man merely to send her a message. You think she does not know what you would be capable of if given the chance. You are a threat to us all." Michael's hand hovered over the hilt of the angel sword at his side. "A threat that must be dealt with..."

Lucifer snarled, not missing the deadly intent Michael was projecting. Reacting as expected, Lucifer's hands speared through the bars. Catching Michael's head, he drove him forward. The crack as his cheeks hit the unyielding bars was met with a horrible hissing as his skin melted back from his facial bones and Lucifer's arms.

Reacting through the pain, the angel sword was freed, and then Michael speared it up. Knocking one of the glowing bars with a resounding _clang,_ he drove the sword up into Lucifer's chest. Lucifer's hands released his head, his arms losing more skin in their retreat as silver dripped in a sizzling puddle on the ground. Michael yanked the sharp sword free and watched Lucifer stagger back.

A leaking hole marred Lucifer's chest—on the opposite side to his heart.

Not a kill shot.

Lucifer looked bewildered, seeing the mistake before his expression turned to cocky rage. He wheezed. "You missed, _Warrior of God_."

Michael shot a fleeting glance to the bar the angel sword had struck. There was a hairline crack that was visible where the glowing light dimmed. Looking back at Lucifer, he shrugged, smearing the silver blood from the blade before re-sheathing it at his waist. "Perhaps. Though with what I know, your time here will not be long-lived. Humans are paying the price for their sins. Who do you think will be next? Your days are numbered, Lucifer." Stinging lines pulled at his face with his broad smile as he waited for a bright flare to grace the infinite light around them. "Your extermination is set." He brushed the back of his hand across one of his cheeks, feeling the patchy, wet skin slowly regrowing to cover the exposed bone. "Now I must be away. I am sure Gabriel will be eager to hear of your most recent heinous actions against your own brother."

"Stay away from her." Lucifer's voice was a low gasp, yet the murderous threat in his eyes was unmissable.

"While you are locked here for days on end with no one and nothing to pass the time..." Michael smiled, joining his thumb and forefinger as he faced Lucifer head on. With a click, his final words resonated with a chuckle as a single feather was plucked and dropped covertly from behind his back. "Make me."

# Chapter Thirty

Lucifer sat with his knees perched in front of him, watching as the marbled and fraying skin on his forearms stretched and knitted back together. It stung like hell, but it was not as bad as the feeling of his insides healing as he sucked in short, sharp breaths with the reforming of his punctured lung. His eyes remained frozen, staring through the bars at the vacant spot Michael had been standing—

Where a single white feather lay across the luminous ground.

Michael's feather, with the ability to traverse, the ability to deliver his escape from this sky-high cell that, though it seemed endless, had a limit he could fly up to before meeting a burning barrier. With the cells impenetrable bars and the impending doom that awaited him, that feather was his only escape—and it was out of his reach.

Michael's smug words repeated in Lucifer's head.

_Humans are paying the price for their sins. Who do you think will be next?_

Cranking his fists even tighter, his knuckles whitened further, his bones stretching the skin to almost the point of breaking—or cracking bone. God had finally taken action to stop the humans he had so readily afforded free will to. Aside from Noah and his family, he was right now continuing the drowning annihilation of his creation. So many people. So many mortals. He could not help but fear that Michael was right. When God was done with the slaughter, would Lucifer be next? Would his eternal punishment be bestowed?

The possibility had Lucifer closing his eyes as fear grew deep in his gut. He feared not of losing his own life or the pain he would suffer during the process. At least, not entirely, or even mostly. The one thing he truly feared was losing Gabriel forever. To never see her again...to not even exist to have the chance...

No. Lucifer refused to let himself go down that way. He refused to kneel and have his eternal fate decided by a God who would wipe out the good along with the bad of His mistake. Relishing in the memory of Michael's face burning, he let his anger and rage grow. All he had ever wanted was to be free to follow the emotions that churned inside of him. The emotions their maker was responsible for whether he admitted to it or not. They were his first creations, and like his humans, they were imperfect too. God's vision of Above and Below had only ever been that, a vision. Reality was interchangeable, and it was uncontrollable—as was Lucifer.

Breath coming faster, Lucifer was on his feet and at the bars in an instant, his great white wings propelling him up. Ready for the pain, he clutched the glowing beams of light, feeling the hard resistance as his skin seared away. He gritted his teeth, sweat sprouting from his face, back, and chest as he used all his might to pull outward. He only needed a slight bend, a fraction so he could reach that damn feather.

Lucifer roared, hands flinging away from the bars as he stumbled and fell. His thick, feathery wings padded his landing, causing twin spears of pain to attack his back. Silver streamed from his palms and down his forearms. The bars sizzled, burning away the layers of skin that had melted to their curved surfaces. The bars had not budged. Not even an inch.

Lucifer's mouth opened to scream his frustration—but any sound choked back before it could escape.

From this lower position on the floor, his eyes were at waist level...and set on the shadowed crack of the bar next to the two he had failed to move. He remembered the clang from the moment Michael had freed the angel sword before driving it up into his chest. He thought in that second that he was dead, that his entire existence had been over. His last thought as the blade had pierced through his ribs had been of Gabriel, of the last time he had held her in his arms and the moment she gasped in the breath of life.

But Michael had missed his heart—the organ he needed to pierce to end him instantly. Now Lucifer stared at the bar, at the hairline fracture that had weakened its form. Knowing he would not be missed until Michael came to deliver his fate, he had to take action. This was his chance. His one last hope.

With the skin of his palms still raw but healing, Lucifer stood without the use of his hands. Not once did his eyes leave their mark on that one bar. This was going to hurt like hell, but he had no other choice. He had to get to her. He had to tell her his attack on Michael was not one-sided. He had to reveal all of what had happened on Earth and that he was not the monster Michael would have made him out to be. And then, when his muddied soul was bared to her, he had to ask her one monumental question—one that could change both their lives forever.

Screaming his readiness, Lucifer ran and kicked out, hitting the weak spot along the bar with his foot. Skin sizzled as heat shot up his leg, layers remaining on the bar as he landed. "Damn this!" The gust of his wings had blown the feather, his escape, further out of reach, but—the bar had bent, not much but enough to feed Lucifer's hope. Kicking out again, more flesh ripped away, replacing what had already turned to dust as it fell in an extinguishing litter of ash on the ground. More movement. He kicked again. A clear dent. With the feather so far out of reach, there was only one way to ensure his escape. He kicked again with a tortured roar. And again. The crack that erupted was as good as the sound of Gabriel's sweet voice. The bar was now bent well and truly, the hairline fracture now a splintered break. The side of the damaged bar now touched the intact bar beside it, and where they connected, the undamaged bar had dimmed in that small spot.

Lucifer knew what he had to do and he knew exactly how to do it. His freedom was his for the taking...

With his foot throbbing with burning heat, Lucifer hobbled to the bar, leaving silver tacky footprints in his wake. Palms not yet fully healed, Lucifer did not wait. Instead, he clutched the bar with both hands and tugged, roaring as he flapped his wings to add to the backward pressure. There was a creak—and then the bar snapped, the lower length coming free in his hand. The residual burn receded and Lucifer smiled through panting breaths. If Michael hadn't stabbed him with the angel sword, he would be no closer to escaping, no closer to getting to Gabriel, no closer to saving his life. "Thank you, _Michael_."

Lucifer clutched the broken bar and swung. Raking the cooled length along each glowing bar, each one's light extinguished as soon as it struck. Breathing hard with anticipation, he dropped the broken bar, leaving a clatter behind him as he strode forward. Taking hold of the now cold metal that imprisoned him, he grunted as he heaved outward. With a whining creak, the bars bent almost with ease until the gap between the two was big enough. Without looking back, Lucifer squeezed through, and then he was out. He was free.

Swooping up Michael's feather, Lucifer clicked his fingers. His destination was set as he burst into a brilliant column of light. "I am coming, Gabriel."

# Chapter Thirty-One

Lucifer reformed in the corridors somewhere between the private chambers and her garden. Stilling his body while his heart raced with desperation to take chase, he let his senses tune in to her essence. The tug was almost immediate and was as undeniable as ever. Though her near presence was not the only one that tickled his recognition. Other angels were nearby, and he could not risk being caught before he got to her.

Spinning away from the private quarters, Lucifer ran like his life depended on it. After what Michael had revealed, this could be his last chance to see her, his last chance to come clean—about everything. And his last chance to find out if he'd lost her or if their futures could carry on side by side.

Reaching the bright dead end, Lucifer didn't slow as he launched himself at the wall of thick light. He wondered if Michael had somehow shut off access to her garden, but he met no resistance and sailed right through.

Landing with light feet, his wings fluttered, slowing his forward projection. With Gabriel's closeness almost burning through him, the first place his eyes shot to was the pond with its dark murky water. Except, she was not there. In fact, glancing around, she did not appear to be anywhere. The garden was in ruins as he remembered it, all black and brown with no glimpses of color to hint at its former beauty. And now that he was staring so avidly, he could swear the light that had softened the damage had weakened. Instead of feeling warmth all around, an unsettling chill now filled the unmoving air, distracting him from the smells of destruction, reminding him of his actions that had ruined her special place. Lucifer sighed, challenging his intentions in racing here, in all he planned to say, and all he hoped would result. Perhaps he _was_ the problem. Damning uncertainty made him take a retreating step backward.

"How are you here?"

Lucifer whirled back to the tree he'd entered through from the corridor. His uncertainty dissolved instantly, his jaw gaping in surprise as Gabriel stepped out from behind the thick trunk. She was beauty personified, as stunning as he could remember. Her flushed cheeks revealed her surprise at his presence, and her parted blushed lips begged for him to sweep her up and taste her. The despairing and even fearful look on her face stopped him from doing all the things his body and mind were screaming at him to do. Her clasped hands trembled before her. Refraining from coming any closer, her eyes darted. After all she had been told of his actions, did she now fear him?

Fighting to keep himself pinned to the charred grass and rocky dirt, Lucifer clasped his healing hands before him. With souls passing as flares continually streaked overhead, he didn't hold back. "Believe me, Gabriel. I would _never_ harm you."

A softer look passed over her porcelain face, though the fear in her eyes still remained. "I know you would not, Lucifer. I..."

"Please, let me explain." Lucifer fell to his knees, begging to be heard, desperate at the reaction he might receive. At Gabriel's quiet watchfulness from behind the tree, he swallowed his racing heart down from his throat and continued. "Below, I did not kill a mortal. It was not my hands or weapon that delivered his fate." He stilled his tongue for a moment, knowing he had to be honest without illusions that painted him in a better light than what was real. "Though I did use the life, and death, of a man to my advantage. He would have perished a horrid demise at God's own hands soon after. I used him as a shield against his own ally that sought to run me through—against the man who led the attack on your life. I know my actions were without order. My message to you was forbidden. But I could not abide the distance between us. I needed you to know my heart and that in all my time below, nothing had changed for me...and even now, or after anything others or we ourselves do to each other, nothing ever will. I am sorry, Gabriel, because I do not regret anything I have done when it comes to you, and I never will. I cannot change who I am or who I have become. I cannot change my heart. I only hope you can see who I still am deep down inside and accept me as the imperfect being I have always been."

"We are all imperfect, Lucifer. Even I." Gabriel frowned as her eyes lowered from his face, seeing the welts and drying smears of silver peeking out from his clasped hands and down his forearms. Rushing out from behind the tree, she fell to her knees before him. Her soft hands touched his, gently prying his tacky palms apart. She gasped at seeing what his raised hands had been hiding, the fresh silver that stained his dirty leathers and the deep hole in his chest that was not quite healed. The angel sword injury seemed to be taking longer than normal to mend. Gabriel's hand laid flat against the hole as despair wreaked havoc on her beauty. "What happened to you?"

Of course, Michael would not have revealed his retaliation that could have ended Lucifer's life. He would only have laid out the way Lucifer had attacked him. "Michael. Who else?" Though he longed to keep her touch, Lucifer rose up from his knees and paced. "He provoked me. Taunted me. I reacted badly, but his face...it will heal."

"His face?" Gabriel looked utterly confused—and horrified—her hands still raised before her now tainted by his silver blood.

Lucifer gulped. Michael had not told her, he had not come here to paint Lucifer in a darker image than he already had been described in. But why?

"What did you do, Lucifer?"

Gabriel's question deterred the growing suspicion that tumbled his insides like a spinning free-fall. "I had to get out. I had to come to you." When he stepped forward to take her bloody hands, Gabriel rose up quickly and stepped back. He sighed. "Michael is fine. His flesh wounds were but a fraction of what mine are. But what he said..." Raising his eyebrows, his pleading eyes silently asked permission to come closer.

When Gabriel failed to deny him, Lucifer chanced a slow step, then another and another until he was close enough to gather up her hands with his own.

"You should not allow Michael's taunts to provoke you." Gabriel sighed deeply, her folded wings rising and then drooping. "And you should not be here. I do not deny anything. It was my choice to lock you away, and I loathed to do it, but I wanted to protect—"

"It is not you I need protection from. Without you, _everything_ is meaningless."

"Lucifer, stop. _Please_. You cannot speak these things. You cannot think them."

"I could not stop even if I wanted to. And I do not." His grip on her hands tightened as she went to pull away. The pressure sent throbbing pain from his raw palms up through his arms, but he refused to let her go. "We do not have long." Proof of passing souls still lit up the atmosphere, but it wouldn't last forever. "Please, I need you to hear me out."

"Long?" Gabriel glanced behind her at the tree as if expecting someone to appear. "Why? What is going to happen?"

Seeing that she was fully ready to listen with her resistance to his touch easing up, Lucifer spoke fast. Once Michael came to deliver his death sentence, he would know Lucifer had escaped his cage, and this would be the first place he would come to find him—to deliver him to God for his ultimate punishment. But Lucifer planned to be long gone before then. "God acts below. The floods ride the land like a suffocating blanket. Humans perish. After what I did, my sentence is surely coming. Our maker has no indecision in wiping out his creations, whether bad, good, sinner or innocent. Almost all of mankind is being annihilated."

Sudden guilt graced her pale face, but it didn't last long. A line of confusion formed between Gabriel's eyebrows. "What are you saying, Lucifer?" The murky water plunging down into the pond stopped, and total silence settled all around. Only the sound of his own heart beating in his ears was present along with the quickening breath from Gabriel's lips. She had stalled the water, but she seemed not to even notice the change, her eyes widening as she came to the conclusion Lucifer already had himself. "No. God would never."

"Women, children, babies that have not even had cause to sin." Lucifer released her hands to cup her face, coming in so close it was torture not to taste her. "I am a sinner for all that I feel that is not free for me to feel. For all that I have done." His piercing silvery eyes dropped to her lips, and Gabriel gasped. He so badly wanted to kiss her, to be connected with her in that way, but now was not the time. "My turn is coming. My extermination. Michael declared as much."

"I will never let anyone hurt you, Lucifer. I will stop—"

"You have no power to change this. Not up here under the chains in which we serve."

"What do you mean—not up here?"

Under the pulsing sky, Lucifer gave in to his needs for the briefest moment, brushing his lips against her rosy ones. Tasting her sweet breath on his tongue as he drew back, he pleaded with his eyes. "Leave this place. Leave the above for good. Come to Earth... _with me_."

# Chapter Thirty-Two

"I...I can't."

Those simple words hit Lucifer like being blasted out of the Realm of Light by God's own almighty power. His hands flung back from her face like her touch had jolted him with zaps of lightning. He stepped back from Gabriel who stared up at him with sorrow. Sharp twigs and burned roots dug into the soles of his feet, but he didn't feel it. The only sensation that resonated throughout his entire body was pain that felt like the blood in his veins had turned into fire. Knowing his life was to end, she had refused him. His voice broke and his eyes burned. "You condemn me to my fate."

Gabriel's hands were the ones to come together now, palms joined in pleading. "No. Never. It is not too late to mend this. Repent and God will grant you his forgiveness. I know he will. Please, Lucifer. I cannot turn against God and my devotion to _Him_. I am an archangel. _His_ messenger. My life is not my own. Not now and not ever." A steady stream of tears forged torrents down her beautiful face as she said the words. The pain in her glassy eyes broke his heart into a million unfixable pieces. "I belong here, not down there. As do you."

Lucifer roared his frustration and desperation, filling the silent scorched landscape with the sounds of his torment. "You are wrong. So tragically wrong." He had been so sure she would come with him, that she would stand by him as she always had. He had been so sure of what they shared. Had he been wrong all this time? Had everything between them been distortedly one-sided and he'd merely been too blind to see it?

"Do not do that, Lucifer." Gabriel was before him in an instant. Her wings quivered as she clutched for his hands that he tugged away from her. "Do not think what you are thinking. It is written all over your face. I see it. All of it. Do not let this taint who you really are. Don't let it change you."

Lucifer stared at her, the pain of his emotions crippling his expression and making his words sharp. "I am already changed. And I am an outcast. Soon I will be no more, and you will remain, knowing I stayed because of you. For it is true, I cannot live without you. I will not. I would rather kneel before _His_ almighty presence and accept my total obliteration. I would rather die than live knowing I can never be near you. That I can never _have_ you." He struck out fast as lightning, clutching her shoulders in a punishing grip. The tears that fell faster down her face doused his ire like rain over a blazing fire. His hold on her softened, and he pressed his lips to her forehead. "Forgive me, Gabriel. I never want to see you sad or hurt. I never want to be the cause for your tears, yet it seems I cannot control it. I have tried, so hard I have tried. I wanted to be good. I wanted to be worthy." Despite her usual resolve, Gabriel leaned in close to him. Lucifer laid his forehead against her own, sliding his hands along her shoulders then neck, causing her to tremble before arriving at her wet cheeks. Where the heel of his palm grazed the side of her neck, he felt the erratic racing of her pulse. It was as fast as his. "I...I am in love with you, Gabriel."

Gabriel gasped, jerking her face back out of his hands. Her tears stopped. "You...?"

The smallest of smiles tugged at one corner of Lucifer's mouth. He could not deny his confession. What would be the point? He nodded in answer of the remaining words she seemed unable to utter. "With all my heart and soul."

Lucifer expected her to step away from him, to tell him his feelings were wrong and unnatural. He feared she might laugh or declare him obscene or ridiculous for feeling such things when he was a heavenly creation of God's own machinations, a pure being. Except, she did not do a single one of those things.

Catching Lucifer's hands that hung in the air from where he'd held her face, she stepped so close to him that there was no space left between their bodies. The only separation that remained was her white robe and his war clothes. Staring up into his eyes that narrowed with confusion, she laced her long, delicate fingers through his larger, calloused ones. With her chest rising and falling faster and faster, pressing and relieving her breasts from his pecs, her lips parted. "I feel it too. My _heart_...it races at your presence, at your touch, at your..."

Lucifer hissed when her gaze fell to his lips, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would soon burst through his ribs. He caught her face in his hands, bringing his lips so close to hers. With every ounce of restraint, he denied himself the taste of her blushed lips, feeling her faster breaths pant across his own mouth and chin. "Tell me you do not feel the same. Tell me to stop. Tell me—and I will."

A sound of anguish escaped her waiting mouth, her eyes searching his as if seeing into his very soul. Her hand gently snaked around his neck. Gabriel moved ever so slowly as the look in her eyes intensified. Arching up on her toes, she brought her lips closer to his. "I...I can't." Lucifer pressed his lips to hers, kissing her with emotion that mirrored in her eyes right before her lids squeezed shut. And then it was all over. Lucifer's worry for the future, his fear of losing her, his last remaining resistance to control his actions, it all melted away, leaving nothing but a desperate hunger that ignited in him with a force that could never be doused. She loved him, Lucifer the outcast, the angel that brought shame to God's archangels. She... _loved_ him.

Giving in to every desire he had ever harbored for her, Lucifer kissed Gabriel with total abandon. Twigs snapped and dead foliage scraped under his feet, but Lucifer didn't care. Her body against his melted and her lips opened for him, inviting him inside. When her hands released his, he almost expected her to shove him away. But she didn't. Instead, her hands speared up into his golden hair, pulling him closer as her tongue swept into his mouth, dancing with his own. Their breaths were hot and fast, and they only quickened as Lucifer dared to curl his tense fingers around her waist. Sliding one hand around her back, he lifted her from the scarred ground, pressing her body to his. Gabriel gasped, no doubt able to feel the hardness that had overtaken him below. Lucifer lowered her back down quickly, fighting his hunger for her to release her waist from his trapping arm. "I am sorry. I—"

"Shhh..." Gabriel raised a finger to his wet lips, stilling his apology. "There is nothing to be sorry for. Not now and not ever. What I feel for you, it has always been there, begging for release. I tried so hard to be strong, to remain pure. But I cannot do it any longer." Her fast breaths quickened as a stray smile brightened her face. "I am here. With you. I..." She laid a hand against his chest, biting down on her bottom lip in a way that made Lucifer groan. "I want _this_..."

Stunned into total stillness, the gentle kisses she planted against his collarbone above the strap of his leather chest covering woke him back up. Daring to move, he reached up and took hold of the silky material that draped from her shoulders. Waiting for her reluctance as she stared up at him, he found none. The biting of her lip again only showed her nervousness that lacked any refusal.

Barely able to contain his breathing, Lucifer gently, _slowly_ edged the material from one of her shoulders. The flesh that was bared burned his eyes with his intense staring as if he were looking at the sun. Like her face and neck, her skin there was flawless and pale. Sliding the material off the other shoulder, the cover lost its ability to drape from her slight frame as it fell in a heap to the blackened ground. Lucifer hissed at the sight of her small round breasts and their blushed peaks that hardened under his stare. His head felt airy as his perusal of her stunning form continued down the gentle curve of her waist to her stomach and hips. The glimpse of what was nestled between her legs almost brought him to his knees. "Gabriel, I..." He could not speak another word. His tongue tied in his throat. The reality that this was actually happening, that she was standing before him bared naked and watching him, not with fear or uncertainty, but with need, was almost too much to bear.

Gabriel stepped closer again, cupping her hand to his cheek. "I know. I feel it too." Rising up, she kissed him slowly and sweetly. Her other hand unhooked the strap over his shoulder, before doing the same to the opposing side. Lucifer's leathers fell in a heap, the last pieces falling from his waist with a tug at the lower binding—and then there was nothing left to separate them. Their naked bodies kissed, coming together as if they had been made to fit one another. As if they had been fated from the very beginning to join together and become one.

Lucifer's arms curved around her again, pressing her to him as he kissed her hard. Everything he felt and feared he may never experience again drove him on. He imprinted the taste of her to his memory, along with the feel of her breasts as they pressed into his ribs, and his hardness that throbbed against her in barely contained restraint. With her hand on his waist and the other gliding down the peak of his chest to the ripples of his abdomen, Lucifer felt more alive than he ever had before. He felt invincible and starved at the same time. Keeping one hand around her back to hold her close, he slid his other to the gentle curve of her waist, his touch rough but slow moving as he shifted up. Each rib slid under his fingers, feeling her skin becoming damp with sweat as he too began to perspire. Even with the heat between them, Gabriel's porcelain skin prickled as if feeling a sudden chill. Lucifer extended his wings, cocooning her naked body and sealing in their body heat. Kissing her harder, he reached her breast. Lucifer's touch softened, cupping and kneading, and then pinching.

Gabriel gasped against his lips.

The reaction urged him on further, and he withdrew his hand from her back, sliding it down over her backside and then forward to reach between her legs. She was ready for him, moaning as he touched and rubbed her wet, heated flesh. Her breaths panted harder, her soft moans becoming louder. When she edged up on her toes, lifting one leg, it was a signal Lucifer could not refrain from acting on. He grabbed ahold of himself, sliding the thick tip —

Gabriel's sudden rigidness stalled him in motion, freezing his directing hand between her thighs. At first, he thought she had changed her mind, that she was rejecting him. But then he felt it: the growing vibration of someone else's presence. They were no longer alone. This moment, this sacred exchange between them that would never occur again had been interrupted.

Stolen from them.

Lucifer's wings curved tighter around Gabriel in his arms, shielding her bared body from sight. Over the cover, he glanced out, knowing who had arrived through the tree even before he caught sight of him. The red-faced angel stood with his arms crossed over his chest and the angel sword in easy reach at his side. Pure disgust ruled his features, while every visible muscle over his formidable frame bulged and twitched. _"Michael."_

# Chapter Thirty-Three

Gabriel dropped into a crouch within the shelter of Lucifer's great, white wings. Her heart drummed wildly in her chest, and a wave of tingles attacked her suddenly chilled skin. Gathering up her robe, she stabbed her arms through the holes, covering her naked body as if doing so could erase the fact that Michael had walked into her garden and caught her in Lucifer's arms. Caught naked. Caught touching, kissing, inviting of Lucifer and his exploring hands.

Oh, dear God. What had she done?

She had been so strong, so refusing...until those six words had left his mouth. Six words that she could not deny the reciprocation of her returned feelings. _I am in love with you._

"Your pure as snow wings cannot hide your sins, Lucifer," Michael grated with such disgust that she imagined the severity of his expression and felt the threat of malice in his voice. "Nor can they remove the stain you have cast upon our heavenly sister."

Kneeling at Lucifer's feet, Gabriel saw every muscle along his legs pop with tension. Glancing up while trying not to look at his ready hardness, she saw his fists clench into weapons of punishment. "Your black-and-white view on how we should live is the only thing that is wrong here, Michael. What Gabriel and I share can never be wrong. This feeling..."

Snapping her eyelids shut, Gabriel tugged Lucifer's fallen leathers up as he flung his shielding wings open wide. She wasn't fast enough. Gabriel knew it as Michael growled his anger at the sight of Lucifer below the waist. Still, she continued on fumbling to refasten the covering around his waist as Lucifer's rebuttal continued.

"...that I have for Gabriel, my eternal and undying love, it could never be wrong."

Michael freed the angel sword and strode forward. He pointed the blade at Lucifer as hatred raged in his eyes. Shocked at Michael's callousness, Gabriel froze—until Lucifer swept her behind his back, keeping her from harm as Michael poked the deadly weapon at the underside of his jaw.

Michael's teeth clenched, his seething words escaping with only the movement of his lips. "We are angels of God. The first and purest beings after _Him_." He stepped closer, his wild eyes flicking over Lucifer's shoulder down at Gabriel. She recovered from her shock and tried to pull free, but Lucifer's hands grabbed hold of her arms behind him as Michael's rant continued. "Free of the downfalls and trappings of human emotion. It is our duty to lead the many on the right path. To not scorn our purity for mortal longings." He returned his glare to Lucifer who tightened his hold on her arms. "Yet you have done precisely that. You have defiled yourself and your heavenly sister with your selfish desires. You are a disgrace. Unworthy. A _sinner_."

"Let me go." Gabriel tugged harder.

"Never." Rather than attempt to remove the pointed blade from his flesh, Lucifer leaned into it. A trail of glittering silver slid down the gleaming length. "Then you have come to deliver my damnation. My annihilation?"

Michael's smile was cruel and something Gabriel had never seen grace his face before—a kind of deadly anticipation. "Though I long to remove the threat you cause to us all, no. I am not here to end you, Lucifer. I knew you would come. I knew where you would go and what you would do. You think the damage I caused to your prison was accidental?"

_"Michael,"_ Gabriel gasped out his name. "What did you do?"

Michael's glance at the flashing sky and then down at her was full of pity. He shook his head. "A test. One I never expected you to fall for so easily when he came to you, but one I knew Lucifer would fail the moment he saw his opportunity to escape."

A test he had executed without God's permission.

Lucifer shoved Michael in the chest, breaking the contact from the angel sword. Fresh silver trailed down his neck, causing a path down over his collarbone. "You deceived me?"

Michael returned the length of silver to the sheath tied around his waist. He stepped closer to breathe down Lucifer's neck. "I gave you the ability to do what you would have done when given the first opportunity. I let you show your true colors. Your true motives. And your lack of regard for your position and our God. I need not end you, Lucifer. Not with what the punishment will be this time." He peered up to the bright glow of the sky, seeing as clearly as Gabriel could the almost constant flashes that pulsed above. Souls were constantly passing with the flood. He returned a snarl to Lucifer. "God may be unaware of your latest degrading act, but he is ready to intervene. I heard it with my own ears. And you will live the rest of eternity knowing that you will _never_ get to touch Gabriel again. Your eternal banishment is only a matter of reporting now, a report I will gladly deliver."

Michael turned and Gabriel finally broke free, lunging out from behind the security of Lucifer's back. Catching hold of his arm, she spun him back around. Falling down, the dead foliage scraped through her robe, cutting into her knees. Her hands came together, pleading. "Michael, _please_. Do not do this. It will never happen again. I vow it in His name. I should never have given in. It was wrong—"

"You cannot mean that."

Lucifer's voice was so sharp it stabbed through her with each syllable. She wanted to turn to him on her knees and beg his understanding. Though she knew it would do no good. She could not refute what she had declared. What they had done _was_ wrong. It was forbidden. It was a mortal act, not meant for one of God's pure angels. Despite her feelings and how right every moment had felt, they existed by the rules of God. Rules she had broken—with every blush of her cheeks, every lingering touch, every stolen kiss, and with every thought of a life less divine but rich with searing emotion that jacked her heart rate and warmed her from the inside out.

Not moving to face him, Gabriel hung her head in defeat and utter sadness. "Lucifer, forgive me..."

"You set me up." Lucifer moved. The sound of his feet crunched over charred debris as he neared Gabriel and Michael. "You threaten me. And now you turn her against me. You, Michael, are the one who is the sinner. You wear your honor like a badge, but I see you, dear brother. Your jealousy is immeasurable."

Michael growled, baring his teeth at Lucifer. "Your delusions are not my concern. Goodbye for the last time, _dear brother_." He spun with a devilish smile, striding straight for the scorched tree.

"Michael, no!" Gabriel cried, but it wasn't him she needed to stop.

Lucifer launched with a flap of his wings, shooting across the blackened landscape in a flash. Spinning Michael around, he clutched his shoulders and threw him with a roar. Caught by surprise, Michael flung through the air, landing with a splash in the murky water. He climbed out fast to the pond's edge. But Lucifer was already there and swung a closed fist into the angel's eye. Head snapping up, Michael flipped backward, water spraying up as his back hit and he submerged.

"Lucifer, stop this!" On her feet now, Gabriel's wet cheeks dried with the shock of Lucifer's attack. She stared wide-eyed as he stood by the water's edge, his entire body shaking with the evident need to continue the onslaught. He hadn't even flinched at her words.

"You should have let us be, Michael. You should have minded your own business."

"Lucifer, please. This will only make everything worse."

Still, he didn't respond to her. Instead, with each passing second as bubbles floated up and popped on the surface, Lucifer's entire body tensed harder. "Now surface you cowar—!"

Michael rocketed from the water. His wings flung out as he broke the surface, driving him with force into Lucifer. Knocking his feet out from under him, Michael slammed Lucifer back through the air. Ash and grit kicked up as he flew backward—until he collided with a huge tree. The skeletal limbs shook on impact. Lucifer's face scrunched as the sound of bones breaking filled the quiet garden.

Michael was there in an instant, forearm pinning Lucifer's neck to the tree. Water dripped from his body that shook with barely contained rage. "Force my hand, Lucifer, and I will not be reprimanded for my actions." Michael's face was so close to Lucifer's, his eyes daring the archangel to do exactly that.

Lucifer gasped air, his face red as he struggled to breathe. Silver stained the side of his uncovered chest, revealing from the direction Gabriel stood at a rib that had punched right out through the side of him. His eyes promised violent retaliation, visible above the seclusion of Michael's barricading wings. Yet he remained still and silent but for the straining muscles along his neck and his ragged breath.

Michael shoved at Lucifer's chest as he pushed away from him. "Wise choice."

As Michael turned away, he didn't see what Gabriel saw. No longer pinned to the tree, Lucifer advanced on Michael at a stealthy rate. The malice in his eyes was horrible. What he held in his clenched fist—the one that had been out of sight a moment ago—made Gabriel's heart stop.

The angel sword.

The silver length blazed with blue intensity, coming to life in preparation to kill.

Closer to Gabriel now, Michael saw the alarm on her face. Saw the way her lips parted as she choked on words to warn him. His mouth opened to question her while he half turned his head toward his shoulder—as Lucifer launched.

Gabriel reacted the only way she could, racing toward Michael. As if in slow motion, she saw it all. Michael uttering "Gabriel?" while Lucifer propelled through the infinite light, angel sword poised to plunge straight through Michael's back—to still his heart forever. "Lucifer, no!" She caught Michael by the arms and wrenched him forward, spinning him around, blocking Lucifer's kill shot. The burn of hot metal plunged into Gabriel's back, igniting her insides as if she were on fire again like that day on Earth. Except this time, she was burning from the inside out.

The frozen waterfall plunged back to life.

"Gabriel... _Gabriel no_ ," Lucifer choked out.

Following Michael's wide stare down, she saw the silver tip protruding from high up on her chest right before it was tugged free. The sword fell by her feet, the blue intensity receding with a bounce as Lucifer stumbled back. The gaping slice that remained leaked silver in repetitive pulses that were in time with her racing pulse. But she didn't burst into a pillar of exploding white light. "What is happening?"

Swaying on her feet, Michael looped a strong arm around her. Some of the terror eased from his face as he took a ragged breath. "You almost killed her," he spat over her shoulder at Lucifer, looking like the duty of supporting her weight was the only thing keeping him from breaking Lucifer with his bare hands. "This being that you profess to love in the purest way was almost dust at your hands. You are dangerous, Lucifer. You and your _desires_." Still holding her, he swooped the angel sword up and smeared Gabriel's blood across the back of his robe before re-sheathing the weapon. "You must be stopped."

Gabriel met Michael's eyes that softened as he looked at her. She knew what needed to be done as her blood continued to fall, staining all the way down from one collarbone to patter from the hem of her robe to her feet. Oh, God. How could she do it? How could she live with herself? Her sluggish heart raced along with her thoughts, but this time, her heart lost the battle. This had to stop. She nodded, and the movement—her decision—wounded her infinitely more than Lucifer's stabbing had. _"Go."_

Michael nodded once in return. With a warning look back a Lucifer, he released his supporting hold on Gabriel and sped from the garden, gaining air as his wings beat to drive him skyward until the light above swallowed him from sight.

# Chapter Thirty-Four

Gabriel's knees buckled without Michael to hold her up, and she crumbled. Finally breaking out of the shock that had frozen him solid, Lucifer moved for the first time since stabbing her. Catching her in his strong arms, he dropped to the prickly ground. Too many emotions warred inside of him. The water plunging down wasn't loud enough to override the thumping of his heart. And the view of all her ruined land with its expansive black plains, rolling mottled hills, and soaring dirty waterfall was nothing compared to the injury he had inflicted upon her. He had intended to stop Michael. To keep him from tearing them apart in the only way he could. He hadn't cared that what he had been determined to do was wrong. The notion of killing his heavenly brother had come naturally. _Easily_.

And then he'd stabbed her.

Lucifer gagged as bile spiked up the back of his throat. His actions sickened him. They proved Michael's worry and taunts right. He _was_ dangerous. And if the glimpses that had been forced on him so long ago were accurate...his love for Gabriel could ruin more than this once perfect garden.

He was a monster.

An abomination.

A gentle touch tore Lucifer out of his head, forcing him to glance down. With her arm extended up, Gabriel's pale hand laid against his cheek, thumb toying with the stubble there. Her eyes as they looked at him did not propel anger or hatred like Michael's had. Instead, all he saw was sadness and a faint hint of... _acceptance?_ "You react so explosively. So unexpectedly." Lucifer tried to look away, but her gentle touch turned firm, keeping him from doing so. "I know you never meant to harm me. I know this in my heart."

Lucifer could not keep his eyes from traveling to the gaping hole in her chest. It was so close to her heart, being right above the organ, the glimpse inside showing the white of ribs and the erratic flutter of the organ that was still exposed but otherwise intact. But her ultimate end had come so devastatingly close. He gritted his teeth to keep from roaring in torment. The blood loss was lessening ever so slowly.

"Lucifer, my Morningstar... _look_ at me."

He could not deny her and let his gaze glide up from the wet, silvery mess to her face. Staring at her, he saw in his mind how they had been before Michael's interruption: together, naked, ready to become one without any separation. Those feelings of love were still as strong as ever, though now they danced alongside his regret at what he had almost done. If she had died...

"I still believe in you. I always will, no matter what happens. No matter what you do."

In his mind, Lucifer replayed the moment Gabriel had been on her knees before Michael, pleading for him not to return to God with his knowledge. But that was not all she had said. _It will never happen again. I vow it in His name. I should never have given in. It was wrong—_

Lucifer clenched his jaw. Underlying all of his regret, a feeling he had held back rose to the surface. Betrayal. She had vowed never to be with Lucifer again. She had said their love was wrong. _Wrong._ She agreed with God's stringent and restricting laws. She had sided with Michael. And then she had let the angel leave alive to set in stone Lucifer's soon-to-be fate.

"No. You do not." Lucifer lifted her in his arms, walking without really seeing back to the pond. "You think the way we feel for each other is wrong. That it must be stopped." Though he had thought the same himself in that fleeting moment, he now saw reality in a different light. Without God's unreasonable rules demanding Lucifer contain the emotions he had no control over, he would never have done the many things that had made him an outcast. He would never have inadvertently or even directly endangered the love he could not survive without.

"Lucifer, by our rules it is wrong. We both know that." As Gabriel was placed down by the water's edge, the glowing chain she had once been restrained with jangled as he swept it aside. She tensed at the pain of her slowly healing wound while trying to keep her hand against his jaw. She would survive, of that he was sure. "Will you please look at me?"

Lucifer remained close, kneeling at her side, relishing the feel of her palm on his face. He had almost ended her because of their rules, the one being in this world that he'd claimed he could not live without. Now Michael was on his way to inform God. Maybe he was already there, spilling his venomous words at the now. Their time, as always, was short. It was ending. He knew he would be painted the villain, that Michael would spin the story to blacken Lucifer's name further. He also knew Gabriel would be mentioned, that God would learn of her reciprocation to his advances. She had sinned too. She had broken their laws of purity and subservience. He squeezed his eyes shut, knowing what he had to do, knowing that he could not live with himself if she were to be punished too. Her love, her hope, her acceptance, it was not something that should be locked away or hidden from any realm. He refused to see her caged or cast out.

Gabriel's hand fell away. "Lucifer?"

Opening his eyes, Lucifer sighed. A small smile pulled at one side of his lips. "My Gabriel." He leaned forward, cupping her face as he pressed his lips to her forehead. "For always..."

A loud clank sounded and Gabriel gasped, rearing back and propping her knees with a clatter. Around her ankle was the manacle connected to the restricting chain, locked and unmovable as it disappeared beneath the charred ground. "What are you doing?" Panic now had a hold of her beautiful face as she rose to her knees. "Lucifer, what is this?"

More blood squeezed out at her frantic movements, her heart fluttering faster beneath the shrinking gash.

"A parting gift." Lucifer rolled up from his kneeling position at her side, cringing at the sight of her wound. Her heart raced wildly beneath her exposed rib, but the gash was smaller, shrinking with each of her quick breaths. "I will not let you take the blame. This was my doing, now and from the very start. The punishment should be solely mine."

"That is not true." Tears filled her eyes and her hands came together, pleading. _Begging._ "Lucifer, you know it is not."

"It does not matter." Lucifer's smile didn't falter, nor did his conviction. His wings unfurled, casting a shadow over Gabriel and the pond, and then he beat them to lift up. Taking in the view of her below him, he committed her every detail to his memory: her long flowing silver-flaxen hair, her body that had warmed and invited at his touch, her full rosy lips that had spoken returned feelings of love. And her eyes, the most silver-blue and round eyes that still shone with the acceptance of everything Lucifer had once been and of who he was becoming. "I love you, Gabriel. I will never stop."

"Lucifer!" Gabriel's cry cut off as Lucifer beat his mighty wings, sending him up through the light above to deliver him straight to Heaven.

# Chapter Thirty-Five

Lucifer broke up through the thick layer of light like he was diving up through air that was as tangible as water. The warmer atmosphere that would normally have comforted him as he discontinued his upward drive, now felt like a blanket that clung to his perspiring skin and traveled into his mouth and down to his lungs like a thickening force to suffocate him. Wings fanning out to slow his plunging descent, Lucifer landed, one foot and one bent knee absorbing the film of light that was as hard as stone.

Head bent and eyes down, Lucifer did not need to glance up to know who awaited him. God's almighty power radiated through every particle around him, adding to the suffocation that made his head swim and his insides clench. The glow that filled God's throne was close to blinding, and its growing heat warned that his maker was already aware of Lucifer's wrongdoings. But how much had been revealed?

As formidable as God's presence was, another's made his skin tighten and tempted him to ball his hands into fists.

Michael was here.

His self-righteous power stained the purity of all that existed in the perfect realm of Heaven as he stood tall beside their maker on his soaring, pearly throne. The smug look on the angel warrior's face, Lucifer beheld as he lifted his bowed head, was like a dare to step out of place. "So you have come to confess your sins, Lucifer."

Not a question, but a presumption from the holier-than-thou angel.

Lucifer tore his narrowed eyes away from his brother as the glowing orb that commanded the throne pulsed once with blinding severity. " _Morningstar,"_ God's commanding voice boomed with shattering power that, instead of being vocalized, was delivered telepathically with a shock of power that felt like being struck by lightning. Shielding his face from the intensifying light, Lucifer fought back the tears that stung his eyes as his head pulsed, slowly making out the shimmering fog that acted as a veil to conceal all of Heaven that awaited beyond their maker. " _You have forsaken me and all that you are."_

Each syllable felt like a tiny implosion inside Lucifer, threatening to turn his insides to liquid. And then the light flared once more before it blinked out. Shocked at the reprieve, Lucifer's head snapped up and he gasped. No longer was the brilliant orb of light taking up the huge shiny throne with its smooth iridescent curves that made up the towering back or the thick curls of pearl that made up the arms. What now occupied the throne was smaller than the light had been, though still a towering figure compared to him and even Michael—who for once looked as startled as Lucifer.

Now upon the throne was the true form of their God. A manlike being that was not a man at all. With long golden hair akin to Lucifer's and bronzed skin, the face looking back at him was innocent, a boy of maybe thirteen that was draped in the most vibrant of blues, greens, and golds.

Lucifer dropped his head at once, bowing at the privilege of being shown God's true form, forgetting momentarily why he was kneeling before his God in the first place.

"You have disappointed me, Morningstar." The vocalization of God's powerful voice surprised Lucifer, so deep and wise in contrast to his young appearance. "The most brilliant of Heaven and Below, you were the brightest of them all, exactly how I designed you to be. Yet you have scorned it." Each word made Lucifer's head throb like it wanted to explode, only intensifying the threat of having his brain burst from his skull as God's voice grew louder and all the more harsh, sounding as all-powerful as ever and nothing like a boy's. "You have disgraced yourself and your sister. Along with Gabriel, you have defied my laws and acted without the pure intentions I instilled in you all." God's brilliance reignited with a shock of exploding light, engulfing the form of a boy until it had completely vanished. " _You have ignored my warnings and spat at my punishments! And now, you have forced my hand..."_

Meeting the force that demanded his attention, Lucifer held an arm up to shield his eyes. Although he felt like his insides were on the verge of melting from the intense heat that radiated from God, he refused to shy away even as Michael gained a safer distance from his place beside the throne.

Fighting to keep his voice steady, Lucifer did not deny his actions. "It is true. From the day our bodies formed I have followed my own path, held in my heart desires that were not mine to feel." Dropping his arm as his stinging eyes adjusted, he clasped his hands in front of him and dared to meet the place those young eyes had stared at him with such disappointment. The intensity probed his vision, forcing his eyes to release twin streams of silver. "Gabriel was my desire and all that I allowed to lead my heart and my soul. It was I that advanced on her, that worked on getting closer to her in a way that only humans are allowed. _I_ wanted her. I did not care what the repercussions were. I did not care that it was forbidden. I only cared about what I wanted. So I took it." Lucifer lifted from his knees and stood tall, ready to accept whatever fate God chose for him so long as it kept Gabriel from danger. From pain. From condemnation. " _I_ seduced Gabriel. _I_ targeted her. All that happened was my doing. _My_ fault. Not hers. I wanted her and I seduced her."

Alongside the throne, Michael was out of God's eyeshot, and the look he sent Lucifer surprised him. Under all the disgust and wrathful anger was a tinge of something else. Something softer. Appreciation? He knew Lucifer was attempting to take the blame, and he was clearly going to let him.

Good.

_"Is that so?"_

Lucifer jolted as Michael stiffened with the boom of God's voice that resonated simultaneously in both their minds. "It is..." Michael started to affirm the question while Lucifer nodded—

The ground fell out from beneath their feet, the hard light suddenly turning hollow. Michael's wings flung out, but something kept Lucifer's from reacting as they fell. He splashed down into the looking glass, feet diving into erupting water that greedily swallowed his legs then body as gasps rang out from all around. Reacting to keep his face above the surface, he saw the stunned faces of the nine surrounding archangels. Michael landed next with light feet, right at the spot around the looking glass that was his and his alone. Alongside him, each of the glowing brackets that led to long thick chains lay unlocked at the feet of his heavenly brothers and sisters—

And then he caught sight of Gabriel. Kneeling by the pool's edge, her presence made his knees weak, almost causing his head to submerge until he stiffened his knees. He had left her chained, trapped in her ruined garden. And now she was here, exposed and vulnerable.

With tears in her eyes and silver tracks down her face, her hands were clasped high, blocking the rip in her robe right over her healing chest. The material was wet too—because she had attempted to cleanse it before escaping her garden to relocate here? To hide the proof of Lucifer's murderous intent after he had almost killed her? To share the blame for his mistakes? The notion and her presence filled Lucifer with horror. His eyes begged for answers. Gabriel's lips quivered with her sorrow and fear, but she did not dare to speak a word as she bowed her head and broke from Lucifer's stare.

Feeling scorching heat growing above him as God's blinding light glided down from above, Lucifer scrambled out of the water. Taking his spot beside Gabriel, he wanted to demand she leave—but then he saw the glowing loops that trailed the ground, ending in a manacle that trapped her ankle. None of the other angels were chained, but she was. Suddenly her unexpected presence made sense. She hadn't escaped. God had brought her here.

Gulping down morbid dread, Lucifer pleaded with his eyes, hoping she felt his desperation somehow and would look at him. But she didn't, and his words of apology and warning to let him take the blame never had a chance to leave his lips.

"We are all here to bear witness to a breach in our heavenly laws," Michael blurted out as God's light settled to hover above the water. Turning his attention to his brother, it was clear to Lucifer that the angel was now speaking under God's unvoiced orders, and what his brother knew to be coming was not going to fare well. His skin had turned a ghastly shade of white that mimicked the color of his robe, and sweat sprouted across his forehead. "It is time to see the sins of your fellow archangels, sins that must carry a vote of punishment. Gabriel, do you deny your involvement in breaking our angelic laws?"

"Michael, stop," Lucifer begged, feeling ill at the thought of Gabriel being exposed under the watchful eyes of the judgmental archangels, their heavenly brothers and sisters.

"No." Gabriel's voice was strong, and as Lucifer went to catch her clasped hands, she tore them away, keeping the shrinking gash over her chest covered. "I do not deny my actions which are of my doing and no one else's."

Kneeling down, Michael reached out, dipping one glowing finger into the water that had almost stilled to a mirror-like surface. A gentle ripple formed, spreading out in multiple rings, blurring the surface until the first ring met the edge. Images started to appear from the center, moving and changing one by one. There was the moment the angels had formed bodies out of pure light, showing close-up how Lucifer's greedy eyes had drunk in Gabriel's naked form. Next came the time she'd laid her palm over his chest and caused his heart to race. Then there was the moment they had witnessed the intimate act of mankind between Adam and Eve. Lucifer's impure visualizations filled the stilling waters and every angel, even Gabriel, gasped. Images rushed on the surface faster after that as the Garden of Eden was turned to ash, and the moment Lucifer learned God could not see his thoughts and actions in the moments when a new soul passed from Earth. The way her cheeks had flared red at his forbidden and heartfelt words alongside the pond in her blackened garden played out next.

Finally came the first proof that all of this was not one-sided.

That moment in that grassy field when he had been tasked to shadow her. Lucifer had tried so hard to do the right thing, to comfort her sorrow over God's plans for Below when he had wanted to do so much more. He had intended to leave, to shadow her return above. But her words for him to stay as a passing soul lit up the darkening sky had changed everything—with a kiss.

A kiss she invited. A kiss she returned.

Lucifer heard Gabriel's quiet sobbing and could not stop himself from taking her hand. And this time, she didn't pull away. Instead, she glanced sideways at him, a sad smile curving her full lips. "I am sorry."

"Do not be. Not to me. Not ever," Lucifer whispered back.

The last watery images rushed on. Lucifer discovering Gabriel's life being endangered below—because of his carelessness—and then Lucifer battling Michael to break free of his chains and dive down to save and return her to the looking glass. Lucifer's actions to kill a man to send Gabriel his message of never giving up came next, and then his imprisonment and lucky escape. The worst was finally put out for all of them to see. Lucifer's plan to run away with Gabriel, and then his confession of love after her refusal. Gabriel's soft words inside her ruined garden lifted in the air as if she had whispered them again. _"I feel it too. My heart...it races at your presence, at your touch, at your..."_ The next action could not be confused. Gabriel rose up on her toes, inviting, wanting, and then accepting as Lucifer pressed his lips to her. Robes and leathers falling, lips roamed along with hands as flesh was revealed. Fresh gasps cut the air, every angel swiftly becoming slack-jawed as they beheld the raw scene. Their shock turned to silence as every angel stared at the intimate moments Lucifer and Gabriel had shared so recently, leaving only the sound of elevating breaths from Lucifer's and Gabriel's wet lips in the replaying imagery.

The water turned black without warning.

In his heart, Lucifer knew it had all been his fault. He had followed his unworthy heart and disobeyed orders and ignored warnings. He had sinned and tainted Gabriel's purity with his lustful greed. She'd been powerless to resist with his ongoing seduction, seduction he'd had no right to act out. Michael was right. He targeted and endangered her in soul and in existence. He was not worthy of her. Not now, not ever. Yet he still could not stop what his heart wanted, what it craved. "I am the one who should be sorry," he whispered in her ear. "For I still want you..."

"The truth is black and white. It cannot be confused." Michael's unexpected words had Gabriel tugging her hand free of Lucifer's. The other angel's eyes held sadness as they watched Gabriel, sadness that turned back to anger as Michael glared at Lucifer. "Lucifer instigated in the beginning, but Gabriel, in turn, chose to accept his advances. You have both broken the angelic laws that we must all abide by. And as such, a judgment must stand. Are we all in agreement?"

A string of voiced agreements rained out one after the other, though no clarity of the punishment to come was detailed or suggested. It seemed none of the angels, as they watched Gabriel with sadness and maybe even disappointment, wanted to see her harmed.

Azrael spoke finally, taking it upon himself to vocalize for every angel present. "We wish not to determine the repercussions of this breach." From his dejected expression, it almost seemed like he feared the judgment too.

When Azrael's voice fell silent, lips pressing together to trap his words, Remiel added, "We trust God will decide Lucifer's and Gabriel's fates in accordance with their actions as he deems necessary."

In the depths of his growing depression and confusing emotions, Lucifer felt a glimmer of relief and maybe even hope at this result. On top of the angels' reluctance to condemn Gabriel, Lucifer's attempt to end Michael had not been shared. Did God know what Lucifer had tried to do to stop the angel warrior? If not, perhaps his and especially Gabriel's punishments would not be so damning. Though, if it came to the threat of eternal extinguishment, Lucifer knew he would take the blame regardless of what had already been shown. After all he had caused, Gabriel deserved as much.

If he had to use his treason against one of his own to spare Gabriel's immortal life, he would—in a heartbeat.

# Chapter Thirty-Six

"Y _ou are all excused,"_ God's thundering voice boomed, the orb of light flaring brighter with each telepathically delivered word as if it were an extension of his palpable wrath and his need to punish his sinning angels. " _Except for Lucifer, Gabriel, and Michael. You will remain."_

The other angels reacted at once, rising to their bare feet and turning to rush away. Only Remiel and Azrael spared hesitant glances at Gabriel and Michael. The Warrior of Angels tipped his head with an agreed release of their presence. His lips were tight and his hands clenched like he too feared the next step.

Gabriel silently mouthed "Farewell," to them both. Her clasped hands twitched ever so slightly, releasing then fluttering to shift the torn material to better cover her chest wound, rather than wave her last goodbye. It was clear, at least to Lucifer, that she thought she would never see either of them again after her punishment was cast.

And Lucifer could never let that be. With all that he knew about Gabriel, her devotion to God and his creations, her hope for a better future, he would not let her suffer whatever fate was sure to be dealt. He had a plan, but first, he had to try for what he believed in one last time.

Crawling forward on his knees, Lucifer met the rounded edge of the looking glass. With his hands clasped before him, he lifted his face up high, taking in the painful heat that radiated from their maker. The words that left his mouth were unwavering. "We are exactly what you made us to be. Visions of perfection that are none the less flawed. We have not lived up to your perfect image of yourself..." Now that he had seen God's true likeness, it seemed Lucifer, out of all the angels, was crafted to resemble their maker. He was the favorite, or at least he had been. And with God's actions below to wipe out most of mankind, Lucifer knew God felt emotion as he and Gabriel both did. "We are burdened with the ability to feel. Those emotions became part of us when our light was summoned to create the world below. You saw our struggles to hide and bury what we felt, to be all that you imagined us to be. But the order was too great. I only wish to be granted the same freedom you bestow onto every human. I want to be free to _love her_."

Silence stretched on, none of them, not even God, reacting to Lucifer's heartfelt pleas.

Dropping his hands with a sigh, a single tear Lucifer hadn't even felt welling escaped. He did not bother to wipe it away. "We are what you made us. Now I ask for you to reconsider. Do not make our love a crime. Do not decide that it is wrong. Accept us, in our perfection and in our flaws. Accept us with all that we are and will become, as we too forever accept you."

Lucifer braced for God's reaction, for a blast of blistering heat or words that would spear into his mind. But it was not God who reacted first; it was Gabriel. Sliding her hand into his, while keeping the other up to cover her chest, she squeezed.

_"Gabriel,"_ Michael growled from across the looking glass, a glint of warning in his narrowed eyes.

Gabriel ignored his tone and flashed Lucifer a weak smile before turning it and her pleading eyes up to God. "Is love not all that we, human or angel, need in this world to keep hope for the future of your creations alive?"

_"Love..."_ The word from God vibrated the open chamber as if it were made of something hard and tangible that could crumble at any moment. _"It is a word that is used far too freely below. Emotion is what has damaged the Earth and all that inhabit it, and now, here in this place of peace and watchfulness, it wreaks its own havoc...does it not, Michael? What is it you hide from me?"_

The angel warrior's face hardened, his lips thinning into a straight line as his jaw clenched. Yet he breathed not a word, instead remaining quiet as his glare turned to contemplation as if God was speaking into his mind and his mind alone. "Eternal banishment?" he gasped, eyes vacant but darting as if he could see the future. He covered his forehead, sliding his tense hand down his face as he nodded. Lucifer's stomach dropped, anticipating the worst. "I have seen the havoc created in the name of love with my own eyes."

_"Michael,"_ Lucifer hissed his name, knowing the information the angel warrior was privy to, the information that could end him—like he had endeavored to do to his very own brother. Tugging his hand out of Gabriel's, he went to stride around the pool, but his feet suddenly felt rooted to the spot, the hold on them burning as if metal spikes had been driven through them into the ground. "Michael!"

"Michael, _please._ "

Michael shook his head with remorse. "I cannot keep this silent, Gabriel. I will not risk you for him," he added, slicing his eyes sidelong to Lucifer. Lucifer's angered cry as well as Gabriel's continued pleas to stop, met deaf ears as Michael ignored them both and kneeled down. Light collected at his fingertip again, and then he touched the water's eerily still surface.

As the water rippled out and then stilled once more, Michael appeared, fast-forwarding to the moment Lucifer lunged with the stolen angel sword intent on ending his heavenly brother's immortal life. Then came the damning proof; Gabriel being stabbed high on her chest—so close to her heart.

A roar erupted as God's light flared. His heat burned Lucifer who refused to shy away as his skin sizzled and flaked. Instead, he shifted sideways, blocking Gabriel from being in the path of God's wrathful burn. The light dissipated in a flash and the golden boy landed with a reverberating thud alongside Michael. "Your infatuation is dangerous, Lucifer. I will not allow it for another moment, not now, not ever, not for any of _my_ pure beings."

Power surged through the air, and Gabriel cried out. Her body jackknifed in on itself. Lucifer went to grab hold of her, desperate to steal her pain. But it was no use as invisible hands caught Lucifer around his throat. Lifting him up high, he was dragged forward, dangling in the air. His bare toes skimmed the water's surface as he kicked, struggling to tear the invisible force away from his neck to gain air. But the more Lucifer fought, the more tired he became and the more wounds he sustained as he clawed open his own skin. God was speaking, his words clear but somehow muted as his vision turned blurry. _Gabriel. Chain to garden. Permanently._

Lucifer tried to scream, tried to argue Gabriel's sentence. His efforts were useless. Then the hold on him suddenly released, and Lucifer crashed down into the water. Submerging, he sucked water into his deprived lungs, resurfacing fast to cough it back up. Beyond the pounding in his ears, he heard Gabriel speaking, her words desperate as tears forged tracks down her pale cheeks. "It was an accident. One Lucifer will forever blame himself for. I have forgiven him—"

"It is not your forgiveness he needs!" The man's voice that erupted from God without even any movement from the boy's mouth was a warning of what was to come. "It is mine. And it is not granted. You, Lucifer, spit at my feet with your actions while you make a mockery of my laws. Laws that make Above different from Below. Laws that keep my angels pure and righteous. You do not deserve the favor I have given you, nor the past forgiveness for your missteps. Your love is nothing but a driving force to commit sin, and it will never be tolerated."

Michael was before Lucifer in the blink of an eye, water lapping around their waists as his hands glowed with heavenly light. His palms were ice cold as he clutched Lucifer's face, his eyes luminously white like they too were an extension of God's power.

"You will never see one another again," God's voice was a resounding boom in his head that pulsed with agony and trapped Lucifer's screams in his throat. It made his ears hum too, cutting off Gabriel's cries for him to stop. "And you will _never_ be given the opportunity to act in the name of love. From this day forward, you are Earthbound. Banished from Heaven. You reap what you sow, Lucifer, my once brightest star and now the Disgraced of Heaven. Serve your penance and spread word of me throughout the repopulation of mankind. Or continue on this path you have chosen and you will never know my forgiveness. You will never be invited back into the light. "

Like a living projectile, the damning cold that had frozen Lucifer's face and screams shot down his throat to this heart. Splitting in two it struck backward like twin blades of ice that could turn whatever they touched into shattering stone. But Lucifer didn't become stone. Instead, the agonizing freeze shot from his back, spiking outward from the base of his wings and then flowing down like a blanket of vile darkness. A roar finally bellowed from Lucifer's throat as the base of his wings turned black. The dark trail followed the cold down, submerging beneath the water until it had leeched onto every feather down to their very tips.

"Lucifer!" Gabriel cried out, diving forward with her arms outstretched toward him.

But even as he forced his limp arms to reach for her too, it was too late.

The concaved glass below Lucifer's feet gave way with a shattering crash. Like a vacuum tunnel had opened up, Lucifer was sucked down with the glittering glass shards in a unstoppable waterfall. Reaching up as he fell, the last things he saw were Gabriel and her silver-streaked cheeks, Michael with his wings beating to hold him up from falling too, and the blinding light that snapped out like a blast and stole everything above from sight.

Now under a black sky of thick angry clouds, Lucifer fell like a falling star. Wings immobile, he plummeted faster and faster, pinwheeling the air that bashed his body and tore at his feathers. The pain of bones breaking and windburn on his raw skin felt like it would never end. Like it could go on forever. Like the place he was falling to was not Below, but someplace so much further away. Or like his fall could last an eternity.

Would he forever be doomed to endlessly fall?

As fear rose up in him, the collision of something hard into his head stole his consciousness and killed his pain—

Lucifer awoke with a crash of freezing cold, hitting the swelling waters below like a meteor. Letting the undercurrent drag him down, shock finally gave way to conscious thought. Though alive and no longer falling, the darkness that had soiled his magnificent white wings left a stain on his heart. He screamed beneath the roiling waves. God had taken the only thing he had ever truly loved away from him.

But Lucifer could not give up. Not now. Not ever.

Kicking with all his might, Lucifer fought to reach the surface.

Mankind would never live up to God's unrealistic hopes on their own, and as the race continued to disappoint, God would never see the error of his ways. He would never see that he was wrong, that love was not something to be feared or condemned. The free will he had instilled in all of his unworthy humans was—unless Lucifer devoted himself to making them worthy and honorable.

Lucifer's face broke from the swirling current with a horrible gasp. He spluttered and coughed, damaged wings and limbs fighting the tide to keep him from being dragged back under.

Once God realized that love and only love was the answer to his perfect creations, Lucifer would once more have what he coveted most. He would have Gabriel—and he would never let anyone take her from him again.

* * *

. . ☆¸.•°*。☆。*。☆。*°•.¸☆. .

Can Lucifer achieve redemption and return to the angel that owns his heart?

Continue reading for a sneak peek at the next Fallen Angel installment – Dawn of Reckoning.

# Thank you for reading!

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading _Ashes of Eden._ If you enjoyed this book please leave a review. It doesn't have to be long—one or two sentences would be amazing. As an indie author, I don't have a big publishing company promoting my work, so every little bit helps and I'd love for my audience to be a part of it. I read every one of my reviews and completely appreciate the thoughts and opinions of all my readers.

_Thank you, J.L. Myers_

Continue reading for a sneak peek at the new and Lengthened 2018 edition of Dawn of Reckoning.

# FALLEN ANGEL 2 - DAWN OF RECKONING

. . ☆¸.•°*。☆。*。☆。*°•.¸☆. .

Moving around the thick trees, Gabriel's bare feet padded over the leaf-mulched ground. The gentle light that surrounded her intensified as if she were a white flame burning brighter because of their closeness. Lucifer regarded her face, his lips parting as if mesmerized at the sight of her. Yet on glimpsing her saddened expression, his morphed with the same pain that had resonated on his face the day he'd fallen. "Lucifer, please. Let the boy go."

Seconds went by, his expression unchanging and body unmoving. When his arm had almost healed, he blew air through his nose and tugged the shocked boy up by his neck, shoving him back in the camp's direction.

For a moment, Gabriel's heart soared. Perhaps she could get through to him. At the same time, the pained expression on his face dampened her hope, as did the clenching of his fists. His eyes that screamed of internal torment did not leave her face for a second. "It has been almost three decades."

And yet, he looked exactly the same as he had all those years ago. As did she. Timeless and eternal.

But still, so much had changed.

They were no longer who they used to be. From the look in his eyes, she was no more than a stranger he was cursed to remember.

Gabriel spoke as Lucifer remained still, looking more and more wounded for every moment he stared at her as if trying to reconcile all the familiarities of her face against who she now was to him. "I have missed you, Morningstar." Her tender name for him. "You tempt your fate too much." She moved closer with the weightlessness of the wind, coming right up to him.

When she reached for his handsome face, Lucifer leaned his cheek into her warm palm. The reaction tugged at her heart, flooding her with a sense of déjà vu at the scratch of his stubble and the way his eyes became hooded. She desperately wanted to be closer to him, to envelop him with her arms, to show her undying belief in all she knew he could be. Yet she did not move. She couldn't. Doing so would only cause more strife.

"I fear what this petulance will cost you. His forgiveness may not withstand—"

Lucifer jerked back with a snarl, and Gabriel's hand fell along with the hope she had held onto for all these years. The gleam in his eyes turned feral. "God's eternal forgiveness is saved for his precious humans. They alone are his pride. We are merely his servants. Loyal and pure is not what he values. Now I am like them." He held his arms out wide and glared up at the sky. "Existing solely for my own gain and other's demise."

Gabriel unfurled her wings. The soft downy feathers quivered with the sadness that pooled in her eyes. She was losing him. "Lucifer, no. You allow your anger to blind you. He does not want—"

Lucifer shoved Gabriel back, and she continued back stepping as he stalked forward. Feet poked and scratched by fallen twigs, she did not stop until her wings hit a tree. With his next words, her fear and frustration peaked. "I am human. One of his precious creations. Still I am not good enough. He cast me out. He took my wings. He took everyth—"

Gabriel's warring emotions exploded and she punched Lucifer in the face.

It was all too much to contain. Knowing she wasn't getting through to him. Knowing she was failing him like the day he had fallen, and long before then when she had failed to control her forbidden love for him and been caught ready to welcome him into her bared body.

As he stumbled, her wings flung open, huge and powerful as her ability to be soft vanished. Striking out, her long fingers grabbed Lucifer around the neck. "I will not let you continue this." She squeezed with heavenly might as silver tears streaked down her cheeks. At the sight, Lucifer's entire body turned rigid, but he did not fight back as she spoke. "This plague you have cursed the earth with...I cannot bear to see it. Not for them, but even more so, not for you. I know you, Lucifer. You burned so brightly once. It can be that way again." Her grip loosened as she blinked her eyes clear. Her lips lifted with a small, hopeful smile. There was no returning to what they had once been to each other, but there was always hope for redemption and forgiveness. "If you would only let go of this pain and accept your place among us once more. Accept God's love again, Lucifer. Beg His forgiveness. Do it for you, for what we both know you can be."

Tightness melted from Lucifer's body and his sigh was resigned. Gabriel's hand around his throat fell. With her hope redoubling, she tried to ignore the indent she'd left around his neck as it faded. "What you demand is impossible. Without you...I am nothing. God knows my heart. And that I cannot change. You may not feel what we once shared, but I can never forget. I can never let go. And that alone is why He keeps me a prisoner below, why my will to redeem myself died..."

Gabriel wanted to argue despite having seen the moment of his dying plight for redemption, but his severe frown killed the words on her tongue. She reached out to lift his face. "Lucifer, what is—"

He caught her wrist with firm yet gentle fingers. His head snapped up. "You are not permitted to be here."

Remembering her escape, Gabriel shot a glance to and from the faintly glowing manacle that circled her ankle. She pulled her wrist free and tugged her silver tresses over her shoulder, twisting the long length back and forth. "I had to see you." The words were ones Lucifer had said to her many times in their past, and she would have smiled at using them if the cause for her disobedience was not so dire. "There is a place worse than Earth. Michael warmed—"

"Michael is a snake," Lucifer spat through clenched teeth. "You endanger yourself in buying his lies. You should not have come. Leave, before it is too late."

He turned to stalk away, and Gabriel darted forward, spinning him around by his bicep. "No. I will not go. I will not fail you again."

Though his face was red with anger, he stopped to look at her, really look at her. With a deep breath, kindness returned to his starry eyes. "It is not you who failed me." When he reached up, she let him brush her cheek with his rough hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. His hand lingered there with his arm outstretched between them, a battle waging on behind his eyes. Then he took a hesitant step closer and pressed his lips to her forehead. His hand moved at the same time to clasp the back of her neck.

Gabriel softened at his touch, her heavy wings dipping lower as the gentle breeze swept her silver-flaxen hair back from her shoulders. "Lucifer, please..."

"I am sorry," he whispered, his breath warm against her forehead and hard to hear over the rustling of tree leaves. Lucifer's grip tightened on her neck. "I will not let you be condemned too." He freed his sword of its sheath and drove it into her gut, stopping only when the hilt reached her body. "My place is here where he left me. _I_ am the humans' God. Their Messiah. I will make every last one of them mine. I will ruin his precious humans by bringing out their true natures. Tell your God to keep watching from his pearly throne as the world turns black. Or until he undoes this mistake he created and eliminates this hell."

A sudden well of blood choked up Gabriel's throat and she coughed. Silver splatter coated Lucifer's face the same color as her streaming tears. The pain was merciless, but she did not care. This had been her one chance, and now it was gone. Even her love could not sate Lucifer's hate of their maker. "I will pray for you."

"Do not bother." Lucifer tugged his sword back. The anger across his face broke into disgust then fear at the sight of the bloody hole he'd cut into her. His sword fell from his hand as if it had become too heavy to hold. As he spoke, his voice cracked. "God is not listening."

* * *

The New and Lengthened version of Dawn of Reckoning is now live, released in Nov 2018, so you can dive straight into the next installment by following this link: <https://www.jlmyers.com/fallen-angel-series/>

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# About the Author

As a child, Jessica's vivid imagination and quiet demeanor led her to the imaginary worlds of books. Even at a young age, her love for the supernatural was strong, with her first loved books being R.L. Stine's _Goosebumps_ series. Following that she took an interest in other non-fantasy fiction, including Virginia C. Andrews series _Flowers in the Attic_.

In her teen years, Jessica spent many school hours writing poetry and dark short stories. She also took up sketching some of the terrifying things that came from the graphic nightmares she'd grown up with.

As an adult and after meeting the love of her life, Jessica moved to Brisbane, Australia, got married and started a small construction business with her husband. With the birth of her son, Jessica suffered PPD and found escape in her books and their imaginary (real!) characters and landscapes. It was at this time that her need to write flourished. In 2009 the decision was made and the first words to her Coming of Age Paranormal Romance novel _What Lies Inside_ were written.

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