“By restoring him, the mark on both of you will be removed. Gabriel will no longer feel any connection to you. He will be as he once was, with a purpose that doesn’t include you or the bastard he’s taken in.”
Duncan stepped forward, but I turned to look at him over my shoulder. A tear spilled from my eye. “It’s okay,” I mouthed to him before facing the man who had contributed to my conception.
“I know,” I said with a conviction I did feel. My heart was breaking inside, but it had to be done. Damn the consequences.
Michael had to be stopped. And since he’d gone unchecked for so long, his ideas were warped. He couldn’t see beyond the cruelty he’d caused my mother for what he assumed was a greater purpose. I couldn’t foresee all his plans. But I knew Gabriel the angel, not Duncan the man, would be the only one who could stop him.
Uriel, Zadkiel and Raphael either didn’t have the power or the will to restore Duncan’s inhuman side. That left the man I would never call Father the only one to do it.
“Come,” Michael said, holding out a hand to me.
He didn’t trust me any more than I trusted him. “Do I have your word?” I asked.
Michael nodded as the others remained silent. Duncan’s rage was on a knife’s edge, but he was choosing to believe in me. I didn’t glance back for fear I wouldn’t be able to go through with it.
I didn’t know what would happen when Gabriel was freed of the human flesh that was Duncan other than that the mark would be gone. Even Lilith had hinted that angels were loveless creatures, bound by duty and nothing else.
Still, I took Michael’s hand and let him hoist me up on his horse in front of him. He held on to me with one hand as if he expected me to try to get free. I wouldn’t.
But in this position, I was forced to watch the hurt on Duncan’s face. Luckily, it wouldn’t last. Once it was over, his manufactured feelings for me, induced by the mark, would be gone.
A ball of light formed in Michael’s hand. Then, like an expert pitcher, he flung it Duncan’s way. The light encapsulated Duncan until magnificent iridescent black wings exploded from his back. I glanced down at my wrist and watched as the mark undid itself as the light disappeared from what was now Gabriel.
Our broken connection made me feel hollow and I let my tears fall. My son looked confused as his eyes bounced between his father and me.
“Welcome back, brother,” Michael said.
Duncan—no, not my Duncan anymore, but Gabriel. I had to think of him as Gabriel now. It would make it easier when our paths crossed in the future, and he regarded me as a stranger.
Gabriel inclined his head to Michael.
“I think Jophiel will enjoy his new wife as he’s spent much time with humans. His appetites have changed much like yours had Gabriel.” When Gabriel said nothing, Michael continued. “We can’t forgo this opportunity to create more portals, now can we?”
All eyes were on Gabriel, especially mine. And because I’d been looking from the start while the rest had been watching Michael as he spoke, I swore I saw Gabriel’s eyes twitch and a muscle in his cheek tense before it was gone, a second before everyone’s attention was on him again. Then again, maybe I’d dreamed it. His gaze was vacant now. He looked bored by anyone’s standards as I continued to die a little on the inside.
The mark was gone, but my feelings remained as Michael steered his horse heavenward.
My only other regret outside of the loss of Duncan was not being able to say goodbye to my son. I couldn’t give Michael any reason to suspect he already had a grandchild. I prayed Cin would forgive me when I found my way back to him.
The other bit about Michael giving me to some angel called Jophiel was laughable. If Jophiel laid one hand on me, he’d regret it. That was my vow.
There was only one man for me. Duncan. My second vow was that one day we’d meet again as husband and wife. Or I would die trying.
Fifteen
Gabriel
* * *
It had been hundreds of years since I felt my own skin. The human was gone, and I was fully restored. The Scotsman I’d become was gone, though a slight accent remained.
“Da.”
I peered over at Cináed. “Be still,” I commanded, using a legion of voice power to bind the man-child into silence.
Then I turned to my brothers. Before I spoke, I reached up a hand, extending my telekinesis. In seconds, my heavenly armor covered me as if magnetized. Then I aimed a hand at the tower on the right where the crown I’d kept for so long left its glass prison and appeared in my hand. I put it atop my head.