Gabriel was losing it, and what little sanity he had left was going fast. When he’d lost Michaela’s connection, he had also lost her location. Gabriel knew the general area, but he and the Archangels were struggling to find her exact position. By the progress of the moon, midnight had come and gone, which meant Michaela had been missing for most of the night, and the longer it took to find her, the tighter Gabriel’s skin became.

Gabriel’s head snapped up at the sound of a twig breaking underfoot. “Anything?” he asked, forcing his voice to be even and quiet.

Raphael, an Archangel with arm muscles the size of cannons, shook his head. “Nothing.” His dark skin gleamed in the moonlight as he waited with Gabriel.

Gabriel raked his hands over his face, grabbing the back of his head. The skin under his eye twitched. The area was too big with too many caves, and Michaela was just one lost angel who could be hurt…or worse. Gabriel had never felt so hopeless.

Ophaniel, Simiel, Uriel, and Zarachiel approached, joining Raphael and Gabriel in a small clearing beside a Mammoth Park sign. They spoke quietly to each other, but Gabriel didn’t bother to listen. For the countless time, he searched every corner of his being, looking for her presence. He only heard the echo of his heartbeat.

“Gabriel?” He looked up. The Archangels stared at him. He arched an eyebrow, not speaking, because he didn’t trust himself at the moment.

“We have a summons to return to Heaven. Everyone feels it,” Raphael said. Gabriel nodded, because the pull was in him too. “We need to go back.”

“I can’t leave without her,” Gabriel said around the tightness in his voice. He paced away. There was an animal in him trying to claw and shred its way out if he didn’t get to her soon.

“Have you thought—”

“Raphael, don’t.” Gabriel looked back when Zarachiel warned Raphael. “Don’t say it.”

“What shouldn’t he say?” Gabriel’s eyes narrowed on the two angels.

Zarachiel put his hand on Raphael’s arm, which Raphael shook off when he spoke to Gabriel. “Have you thought there is a reason we might not be able to feel her anymore?”

“What reason is that, brother?” Gabriel stalked to within inches of Raphael’s nose.

“She’s a fallen.”

“Don’t you dare—”

“Do you guys smell that?”

Gabriel and the others looked at Ophaniel. Her long, wispy blond hair blew in the breeze as she took a deep breath. Everyone paused, sniffing the wind. After a second, Gabriel spun around, as did the other Archangels, their noses pointed east. Without looking at each other, without a word, they eased toward the smell—their movements, lithe and silent.

Down a small ridge, Gabriel and the other Archangels found a newly dug entrance into a cave. Gabriel smelled the freshness of torn dirt. The Archangels circled around the hole and waited.

It wasn’t long until the other group of angels Ophaniel had smelled climbed out. Gabriel expected to meet fallen, but holy angels stepped out instead.

Immediately, Gabriel recognized them as Seraphim by their red tipped white wings and silver eyes. The Seraphim were a choir of holy angels—like the Archangels. But unlike the Archangels’ high standing in the order of angels, the Seraphim were relegated to a much lower, servant choir whose duty was to serve the higher choirs. They didn’t question or doubt or wonder. They did as they were told.

The Seraphim climbed out, their eyes oddly cautious when they took in the Archangels around them. Gabriel signaled for the Archangels to step back and give their fellow holy angels room.

The Seraphim gathered above ground, wary and watchful. Gabriel’s eyes drifted to the cave the Seraphim had just left. Michaela’s scent blossomed out behind them.

“Gabriel,” a seraph acknowledged.

“Jehoel.” Gabriel greeted the seraph, recalling his name easily. Jehoel looked surprised for a moment before an unfamiliar hard mask slid back onto his face. “Is Michaela with you? Was she in there?”

Jehoel tensed. The group of Seraphim stared back at the Archangels with narrowed, almost angry eyes that cut through the darkness. A stifling tension hung thick in the air that Gabriel hadn’t expected. It made everyone uneasy.

“No. Is she with you?” The suspicion was evident in the Jehoel’s voice. Gabriel’s hackles rose. He motioned to Zarachiel, a tall, handsome angel with short, cropped dark hair and tanned skin, who immediately stepped forward, his eyes trained on the Seraphim. Uriel mimicked Zarachiel’s movement. Her short black hair was slicked back, unmoving in the night breeze.

“Search the cave,” Gabriel told them.

“No.” Jehoel stepped forward, blocking the two Archangels’ path. The Seraphim tightened behind Jehoel.

“Why not?” Gabriel asked.

Raising his eyebrows, Jehoel said, “So you don’t know then?”

“Look, seraph, you’d better tell us what is going on now. We’ve been on Earth a while, and we are ready to leave,” Raphael said, stepping forward until the Seraphim where almost backing into the cave again.

“Heaven was invaded,” Jehoel answered, glaring at Raphael. “Michaela left the gates open. Thankfully, we fought the fallen back.”

The other Archangels were stunned, but Gabriel paid little attention to their anxiety filling his head. Since they had been on Earth together for the same amount of time, their telepathic link was still functional. “Michaela would never leave the gates open. Why did she go outside Heaven’s walls?”

“Presumably to let the fallen in.”

“What are you saying about her?” Gabriel asked quietly. The Seraphim must have seen something in his eyes, because they all stepped back, hissing beneath their breath.

“Let’s all calm down and quit acting like a bunch of humans,” Simiel said with an easy smile on his pale, freckled face. He patted Gabriel on the shoulder and stepped forward, blocking Gabriel’s view of the Seraphim so all Gabriel saw was the red shock of Simiel’s hair. “Is Heaven okay?”

Jehoel nodded tightly. “Yes.”

“Okay. So why can’t we look for Michaela?”

“We already searched the cave. She isn’t there anymore,” Jehoel said.

“Well then, I think it’s only fair that we get to look too, right?” Simiel motioned for Zarachiel and Uriel to go into the cave. The Seraphim didn’t want to part, but the Archangels shouldered them out of the way and disappeared underground.

“Is this where you sensed her?” Jehoel asked, looking at Gabriel. “You followed your connection to her here?”

Gabriel nodded. Ophaniel shifted behind him, snapping a twig in the process. It was the only sound in the woods.

“Do you feel her now?” Jehoel asked, pressing the point.

“If I did, do you think I would be standing here talking to you?” Gabriel said pointedly. He stepped around Simiel, his patience a thin wire. Just then, Zarachiel and Uriel emerged from the cave. They shook their head at Gabriel as they returned to their spots behind him.

Zarachiel spoke to Gabriel’s thoughts. She was down there not long ago like the Seraphim say. We probably only missed her by a few minutes.

How did we miss her? She had been so close…

It looks like she went out through an underground exit that put them on the other side of the park. We couldn’t have smelled her. There was something else we found in the cave…

Zarachiel paused as if he didn’t want to mention the next detail, but Uriel charged ahead indelicately. There was a lot of her blood. We smelled it everywhere. She was likely too weak to reach us telepathically.

Gabriel didn’t react to the brutally delivered news. Zarachiel went on much more delicately after shooting Uriel a frustrated glance. We smelled a human too. We think he must have come through the ceiling of the cave. It was at least a hundred foot fall.

His body? Gabriel questioned, assuming the human to be dead after such a long drop.

There was nothing. Not even a drop of human blood. He left with her, Zarachiel answered before Uriel.

Gabriel took a deep breath. He was starting to get a bad feeling, because something was bothering him. “We need to search this area thoroughly.”

Jehoel narrowed his eyes. “No. We have our orders.”

Gabriel’s brows rose. “Last time I checked, we are your commanding choir, and you are not to speak to us with such disrespect.”

The seraph behind Jehoel sneered. “Then clearly you haven’t checked recently. A new choir leads Heaven now—the Aethere. They took control of Heaven after the fallen attacked.”

Gabriel knew about the Aethere. They fell right below the Archangels in the power ranking of choirs with the duty of judging souls. They sat in chairs for never ending days, hardly speaking except to issue judgments and rarely went outside their tower. In truth, the other angels avoided them, because the Aethere were a breed of angel far outside the normal.

The Archangels stirred at the seraph’s words, drowning his thoughts. His brain swelled, pressing against his forehead and making the vein pulse faster. But Gabriel didn’t react. He had always resented the fickleness of feelings, which is why he often chose not to express them.

“And why did they do that?” Gabriel asked.

“Doubt has been cast on your allegiance, because half your choir fell from grace.” Jehoel squared his shoulders and lifted his chin.

Everyone grew silent as the news sank in. The Archangels didn’t even speak to one another through their thoughts. They had been on Earth for weeks, drowning out their telepathic link to the others in Heaven so that they hadn’t even realized the moment they lost touch with their fallen brothers and sister. Small tinges of denial and blooming sadness welled up from the others in Gabriel’s mind, but he couldn’t let himself dwell on those who had fallen. His one and only concern was Michaela.

“You are to come with us. The Aethere have summoned the remaining Archangels to Heaven,” Jehoel said.

“Well as you can see,” Gabriel said, “we did not fall. So why are we being questioned?”

Jehoel frowned at Gabriel’s resistance. “My orders were to bring you back to Heaven once we found Michaela.”

“And yet you haven’t found her. Which makes me wonder…how did the Aethere know where Michaela fell if they were busy saving Heaven from the fallen’s attack? I doubt they watched where she crashed. So how did they know?” Gabriel delivered the words quietly, evenly, in the manner of someone who didn’t take the time so speak out loud much.

The Seraphim stirred. Wrinkles formed in Jehoel’s sharp, angular face, like he was thinking too hard. Gabriel knew from looking at their reactions that none of the Seraphim had thought to ask before they’d come to hunt Michaela.

Jehoel faltered for only a second before he said, “It is not our place to question the Aethere’s information.” His wings tightened, and he pulled two rounded knives from his belt that hung low on his hips. “But the summons have been issued. You will come with us.”

“No,” Gabriel said. The air shifted as he lost the pretense of civility. The tension slashed a thick line between the angels, drawing sides and marking enemies.

Jehoel took a threatening step forward, like he was ready to fight. But Gabriel only shook his head and said, “I wouldn’t do that.” His pointed words stopped Jehoel.

“The Aethere,” Jehoel snarled through clenched teeth, “demand your presence.”

“I will go with you. But the rest of the Archangels will stay on Earth for now,” Gabriel said.

What? The voices of the Archangels around him were in his head all at once, loud and clashing.

“Everyone is supposed to come with us. That’s what the Aethere want. They sent us to bring every one of you back,” Jehoel responded sharply.

“I will go alone, or you get none of us,” Gabriel said, his words a promised threat. The air around him sparked. The Seraphim shrank away from it.

You all will stay on Earth. Wait for me. Hide. Gabriel’s words brought immediate silence.

Why? They asked as one, confused and unsure.

Because something bad has happened, he answered them, echoing Michaela’s words.

“Ready?” Gabriel asked the Seraphim.

“I will go too.” Zarachiel stepped forward from behind Gabriel. Uriel’s hand twitched, like she wanted to grab Zarachiel and pull him back. Her face was grim, but she didn’t speak.

You might need help. Zarachiel was the one who spoke the words to Gabriel, but the other Archangels agreed. Gabriel nodded slightly, and Zarachiel quietly stood beside him and regarded the Seraphim.

Jehoel glared, knowing he had lost. His wings stretched out and slapped the air, lifting him ten feet above the ground. The other Seraphim followed. They hovered, waiting for Gabriel.

Hide. Gabriel said one last time.

He crouched deeply and surged into the air with such force he left an almighty crumbling hole in the ground. Zarachiel followed in Gabriel’s wake. Their speed took them far beyond the Seraphim, who struggled to catch up. The Archangels who remained on Earth shifted away from the growing hole in the ground and melted back into the shadows of the woods.