Wrath of the Fallen by Eve Archer

Chapter Four

Dominick

“He’s lying.” I strode back and forth in front of the massive, wooden table that dominated our war room. Rami’s arms were braced on the top of a high-backed chair, and Gadriel stood with his legs wide and his arms folded tightly across his chest.

After the archangels had departed, the party had splintered. The guests talked furtively about what the encounter had meant and no longer celebrated our defeat of the demons. It hadn’t taken long for the crowd to disperse. The Fallen had retired to rooms and taken their guests with them, and I’d made sure Ella and Sara were safely tucked away—their rooms guarded by both sentries at the doors and fallen angels flying in the skies outside their windows.

Although I hadn’t wanted to remain at the wrecked celebration, I hadn’t been ready to sleep. I was too wired from the encounter with Gabriel, my pulse racing, and my skin prickling with furious heat. Adjourning to our subterranean war room with some of my most trusted Fallen had seemed the best course of action—and the best way to keep me from lashing out at anything or anyone in my path.

I took a gulp of my single-malt whiskey, wishing my throat had not been dulled by its effects already. I longed for the sharp burn of the first sip and the fire as it hit my stomach.

“What is the lie, Dom?” Rami asked without looking at me.

I waved a hand in the air. “All of it. The archangels cannot be trusted.”

“I’m with you on that.” Gadriel shifted his stance, his biceps bulging against the fabric of his tuxedo. “Gabriel can’t be trusted.”

“None of them can,” I said. “Not even Uriel, who pretends to be the peacemaker. Does he think we don’t remember that he was called the fire of God?”

Rami dropped his arms from the chair. “It wasn’t Uriel who drew his sword.”

I dismissed this with a curt shake of my head. “But he was by Gabriel’s side when they descended from heaven to take Ella from me. He and Raph are just as complicit.”

“They did stop him,” Rami said. “He didn’t take Ella.”

“For now,” I growled, anger stoking deep within my core. “When has Gabriel ever conceded defeat?”

Gad made a rumbling noise that told me he agreed. “It would be foolish to assume that he will give up or that this is about fatherly affection.”

I met Gadriel’s dark eyes. “Agreed. None of this has to do with his love for Ella.” Even the idea of Gabriel having affection for Ella made the words taste like ash on my tongue. “If he truly cared for her, he would have helped her earlier. He’s had years to be her father—years after her own parents died—but he chooses now?” I shook my head. “No, this has nothing to do with her and everything to do with us.”

“It is odd that he didn’t keep a closer watch on her,” Rami said, “especially if the archangels feared an angelic human meeting one of the Fallen.”

“You mean the prophecy Gabriel clearly fears but denies?” I asked.

Gad snorted out a dark laugh. “And she’s not just an angelic human. She’s a demi-angel. Which means Dom was right. Gabriel is no better than the Fallen.”

I took long steps to the enormous table where leather bound books were stacked on the corners of yellowed maps and ancient parchment. “He claims the prophecy is a myth, but why come down now and reveal the truth about Ella, unless he fears something greater than his sin being revealed?”

“You think the restoration of the Fallen is of greater import than a secret of this magnitude?” Rami asked.

I thought about this for a beat, but Gad beat me to a response.

“For the archangel Gabriel, yes.” He unfolded his arms and joined me at the table. “He was one of the ones tasked with banishing us and enforcing our punishment. If he fails at that, then the Watchers regain our rightful place.”

“And that would be next to him,” I murmured, thinking of just how much Gabriel would despise that. After he’d spent millennia ensuring that we were punished on the mortal plane, he wouldn’t bear our presence in the celestial realm.

“So, he would rather reveal his own sin—a sin of the likes that got us cast out—than allow Ella to fulfill the prophecy?” Rami shook his head. “How the mighty archangel has fallen.”

“Apparently not as far as we have,” I said, giving him a rueful grin, “at least, not yet.”

“But he failed.” Rami joined us at the table. “Ella refused to go with him. She chose you. And if he was worried enough to come down from the heavens, that must mean the prophecy is close to being fulfilled.”

I leaned my hands on the table, eying the curled edges of a battered document written in Aramaic and breathing in the scent of dust and weathered parchment. “I was telling the truth when I said I don’t care about the prophecy. I’m not with Ella because I think she can restore us. That means nothing to me now.”

Gad let out a low whistle. “Then you really are a goner, aren’t you?” He thumped a hand hard on my back. “I never thought I’d see the day when Dominick would fall for a woman so hard that nothing else would matter.”

“It’s not that nothing else matters. If the prophecy restores the Fallen, I will rejoice with you, but I can no longer let my existence be ruled by the mercy or wrath of the angels above us.”

Gad nodded. “They’ve pulled the strings for so long that it’s hard not to jump.”

Rami scraped a hand through his dark, wavy hair. “If Gabriel wished to take Ella to heaven with him, why send Mastema first?”

“He did seem to exhaust his options before appearing to her,” Gad said. “I’d have thought sending the prince of demons to do his bidding would have been last on any angel’s list of options.”

I scowled. That had bothered me, too. Although I didn’t believe Lilith had been engaged by Gabriel—her vindictive mission had been her own—Mastema had been sent to take Ella, and he’d claimed that he did not have to bring her in alive. “This assumes we believe what Mastema told me.”

Rami inclined his head in acknowledgment of this. “Demons are not prone to honesty.”

“But why would he lie?” Gad asked. “Demons usually have a purpose to their deception.”

Rami shrugged. “To sow anger in us toward the archangels?”

I stifled a guffaw. “We already have that in abundance. They have been behind our torment on earth for thousands of years.”

Gad stretched his arms wide. “Then what would it mean if Mastema was telling the truth and he’d been sent to get Ella away from you using whatever means necessary—even if it meant killing her?”

Fury simmered like molten fire within me, and I curled my hands into fists. “That Gabriel has no paternal feelings toward the demi-angel he fathered. He might have been obsessed with her beautiful mother, but the baby is evidence of his carnal sin. He ignored her because he wanted to pretend she didn’t exist. And for years she didn’t—until she happened to meet me. Then he realized that his neglect had resulted in his half-angel offspring falling for a fallen angel—the leader of the Fallen, no less—and that would mean two things.”

“The prophecy could be fulfilled,” Rami said.

Gad’s expression darkened. “And his fall from grace would finally be revealed.”

“He isn’t trying to save her from me,” I said, rage igniting within me. “He’s trying to kill her.”

Rami and Gad were both silent as those words hung heavy and ominous in the air.

“We don’t know that,” Rami said, although his voice wasn’t confident.

“But we know she is a risk to Gabriel.” I reached under the table and pressed a button, the wooden panel against one stone wall rotating to reveal a huge screen, displaying a world map. I ignored the bright red dots illuminating our properties and headquarters throughout the world as I walked to stand next to the screen. “What we need to know is what he’s done about this risk before.”

Gad cocked his head at me. “I thought you just said he ignored her and chose not to acknowledge her existence.”

“That’s what it seems, but I’m only assuming.” I tapped a finger on the United States. “I don’t know enough about Ella’s history to be confident in that. I know that she’s an orphan, but I know little about her parents’ deaths.”

Rami’s eyes widened. “You think…?”

“If Gabriel wanted to ensure Ella never knew about him, what better way than to eliminate the one person who could confess the truth to her?”

“He killed the woman he claimed to love?” Gad’s dark brow furrowed. “That’s cold, even for an archangel.”

I pivoted to face Gadriel. “I don’t know for sure. That’s why I need you to discover the truth for me. You’re good at getting people to talk. I need you to go to New York and dig into Ella’s family. Find out how her parents died, and if there was anything suspicious about it.”

Gad gave me a solemn nod. “You can count on me, Dom.”

I crossed to him and clasped a hand on his shoulder. “I know I can.”

“I’ll return with the truth,” he said, spinning on his heel and heading for the door.

“We won’t be here,” I said, shifting my gaze to Rami. “If Ella is in danger from the archangels, not even the fortress can keep her safe.”

“Where?” Rami asked. “The palazzo in Venice? The yacht?”

I glanced back at the map, my eyes scouring the countries. “Someplace the Fallen do not frequent. Someplace we do not have properties or a presence.”

Rami eyed the map thoughtfully. “Someplace they won’t expect.”

Gad paused at the door, twisting his head and grinning. “I have a suggestion.”