Wrath of the Fallen by Eve Archer

Chapter Thirty-Three

Dominick

Another flash of lightning illuminated the dusky interior of the cathedral and the archangel who stood between us and the damaged altar, the gilded cross charred behind his gleaming white wings.

“I’m not hiding her from her doting father,” I yelled over the crackle of lightning and rumble of thunder. “I’m saving her from death at your hands.”

Gabriel flinched, his perfect features twisting into a grimace that made him appear like one of the stone gargoyles clinging to the top of the cathedral. “Why would I want to kill the child of my only love?”

“For the same reason you murdered your only love.” I sneered the last two words, still sickened by the thought of Ella’s parents being killed by divine powers which were supposed to be used to save.

Gabriel pivoted, and Rami and I followed his movements in sync with one another, never looking away from him as the interior of the church grew even darker, as the dark funnel clouds danced overhead.

“Have you truly been banished for so long that you would ascribe human sins to the most loyal and holy of angels?”

It turned my stomach to hear him refer to himself as holy when I knew what he was and what he’d done. “How is your sin any different from mine? You descended from heaven and were captivated by the beauty of a human woman just as the Watchers were.”

He shook his head. “You signed a pact to disobey the heavenly rulings. You were driven by lust and not love. Our actions were very different.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. He was right that we had not loved the women we’d originally fallen for. They were beautiful and alluring, but we’d been in the first blush of our interactions with mankind. We were only driven by lust, desiring to sample the pleasures of the flesh. We’d cared little for deeper feelings, and even less for commitment.

But all that had changed when I’d met Ella. I now understood what it was to truly love and be willing to sacrifice for that love. Loving Ella made it impossible for me to understand what Gabriel had done. “And your love was so pure you abandoned your child and murdered her parents?”

Gabriel flapped his wings, taking a step closer to us. “I never laid a hand on the woman I loved, but I did leave Ella alone so she could be raised by a human father. There is a heavenly precedent for this, you know.”

“You compare yourself to God?” Rami asked as droplets of rain began to splatter down from above.

Water hit Gabriel’s face, and he tipped it up for a moment. “I follow His example.”

Rami and I exchanged a look. Gabriel might have gone mad, if he was denying his own sinful actions and claiming to be like God, and a mad angel was dangerous.

“When has he ever killed humans to save his own wretched neck?” I asked, blinking rapidly as the sharp raindrops stung my cheeks.

Gabriel cocked his head at me. “Who do you accuse me of killing?”

“I know it was you.” I used the tip of my ebony wing to point at him. “You sent an angelic storm and ran her parents off the road and into a tree. There was a witness that you didn’t know about. Someone saw the chaos in the sky you created on a cloudless day.” I lifted my hands out. “Like the one you’ve made today.”

Gabriel clenched his jaw. “Your tongue is still silver, Semyaza, but your lies have become more intricate.”

“I do not lie,” I spit out each word, “but that is more than I can say for you. How long has your affair with the human been hushed up and hidden for you? How many angels have done your bidding to keep your own fall from grace a secret?”

The archangel bared his teeth. “I had nothing to do with Azrael’s attack.”

“Why would the angel of death come down with Uriel’s sword to take one particular human when he has so many to claim?” Rami asked, swiping at his wet face with the back of his hand. “How did he even know about Ella?”

Red crawled up Gabriel’s neck. “Azrael has always relished his role in bringing death to mortals. You know that.”

“Had,” I said, giving him a malicious smile, “Azrael has met the true death.”

“Thanks to you.”

“You keep telling yourself that, but soon all of your evil will come out, and the heavenly hosts of angels will know that you are just as fallen as we ever were.”

Gabriel roared and lunged for us, bringing his powerful wings forward with immense force. Rami and I leapt backward just as the wings hit each other, the resounding boom making the stone pillars of the church tremble and my own teeth rattle.

I shot up through the pelting rain, somersaulting in midair and landing behind Gabriel. With a nod to Rami, we both crouched and spun, turning our wings horizontally so they sliced through the air like a knife. Gabriel barely escaped their impact, leaping up and landing on top of the tilted cross.

Kneeling like he was, with his face in shadows, his arms braced between his bent legs, and his wings flapping to keep his balance, he appeared more like a gargoyle than an angel. It struck me how quick the fall from angel to demon could be, yet the return trip was virtually impossible.

“Do you plan to add fallen angels to your growing list of victims?” I bellowed over the raging storm.

He didn’t answer, springing off the cross and diving for me. I wrapped my wings around my body to create a shield, but the impact didn’t come. Instead, Gabriel screamed.

Flinging back my wings, I peered through the driving rain that was splattering the marble floors of the cathedral. Gabriel was pulling himself up from where he’d landed, and Rami stood next to me, a few of his glossy, blue-black feathers bent.

Gabriel twisted his neck to look at us, his wings tucked around his shoulders, making him almost appear hunchbacked. “You could never be good enough for her, Semyaza. She’s the child of an angel.”

I heaved in a breath. “I might not be good enough for her, but that doesn’t stop her from loving me, and you cannot stop her from loving me or me from loving her. Not even with death.”

“You’ve been around humans too long,” he snarled.

Rami flexed his wings. “Or perhaps you’ve held yourself above them for too long.”

The archangel locked eyes with me. “You know I can’t let you have her.”

“And I can’t allow you to hurt her.”

Gabriel gazed up at the heavens, lifting his hands up as the gray, spiraling clouds extended their grasping tendrils inside the cathedral, bits of scaffolding tearing off and flying through the air like spears. One of the metal beams whizzed by me, grazing my shoulder as I dove to the side. Rami wrapped his wings around his head as the inside of the church became a whirlwind of flying debris.

Then a small, dark figure plummeted from above, spiky wings flapping as he hurled himself at Gabriel. Then another and another, until the tornado of debris became a torrent of gargoyles—and they were all attacking the angel Gabriel.