Gabriel disappeared after he killed Azazel. Iris’s Nephilim found Michaela, broken and soaked, after they ran off the Watchers. When Michaela told them Gabriel had killed Azazel, they thought her concussion had made her delusional. They convinced her to come to a small Amish community in southern Pennsylvania only because Clark was going there to heal with his mother. It wasn’t the Amish that surrounded her, but hundreds of Nephilim posing as Amish.

Three days had passed since Michaela had come to the farm. The afternoon was sunny and warm, and the Nephilim worked in the fields, cutting hay with horse and mule power. Michaela sat with Clark on the back porch. He healed quickly, but for right now, Michaela positioned his wheelchair in the shade. He sipped on iced tea, and Michaela leaned her head back on her rocking chair for a catnap.

Sometime later, Clark raised his head when Iris approached. Michaela cracked one eye open. Inexplicably, Iris still made Michaela uneasy even though the woman was actually quite likeable. She was kind and sweet. Her long blond hair always stayed in a neat braid down her back. She cooked and cleaned and rarely acted like the creature she was. But when Michaela looked into her summer sky eyes, Michaela knew Iris had many secrets—ones that involved her.

Iris settled her hand on Clark’s shoulder, but she said to Michaela, “He’s here.” The words were delivered quietly, evenly.

But Michaela jumped to her feet, a motion that still hurt, but she ignored it. “Where?” she asked.

“The front field.”

Iris settled down in Michaela’s spot next to Clark. Mother and son exchanged a shared glance, but Michaela was long gone. She raced through the house and out the front door. She hit the ground running with long, limping strides. Her body strained beneath the effort; her injuries complaining against the brutal activity, but she pressed on.

Horses’ ears pricked as she passed. Nephilim in the fields watched her fly by, hair billowing behind her. She only slowed when she met the edge of the front field.

Gabriel stood just at the wood’s line with his back to the farm. The trees’ shadows hid the sun from his form, making him look like he too had grown from the ground. He didn’t move.

She walked out to him, the tall grass swishing at her ankles. Her stomach fluttered as she drew nearer, recalling Gabriel’s angry, black eyes when he had stared down at her in the creek. She didn’t know if it was her head injury or if Gabriel was really a fallen.

The fabric of his thin shirt was pulled tight, straining against the tense set of his shoulders. His wings were pressed against his body, protruding from crudely cut holes in his shirt. When she was within ten feet of him, it was as though she had stepped across a threshold. The air was dry and cold, sending shivers down her spine. The grass didn’t blow, but stood quiet and unmoving within the walls he had created around himself.

Michaela stopped a few feet away, farther than she ever would have before. Her legs trembled slightly. Her smile was long gone. Replacing it was the unbearable urge to turn and run. She shook her head in denial as he turned to face her. One peek at his eyes, and she knew she hadn’t been mistaken.

“Oh, Gabe. No.” Michaela instinctively reached for him, her chest contracting with raw nerved grief. He jerked away, the blackness in his eyes flashing.

“I didn’t come here for that,” he growled. Michaela yanked her hand back like the air around him burned her skin. She wrapped her arms around her waist to ward off his chill.

“I don’t understand.” Her words stumbled, but he wasn’t listening. “Why are you so angry?”

“Do you know what I did? I gave my soul to Lucifer, because the Watchers were coming for you. Only after I killed Azazel did Lucifer tell me the reason the Aethere wanted you dead. If I would have known you set those monsters free…” Gabriel clenched his jaw like he was struggling with the words. He glared at her, his eyes full of rage. “You shouldn’t have done that, Michaela. You should have killed them all. I signed over my soul for you.”

“Gabe, I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Azazel would have killed you! I did it to save you.” He stepped closer. His face was a snarl. “And it was all for nothing. You brought the Aethere’s death sentence on yourself.” He spat the words like even saying them disgusted him—like she disgusted him. Her stomach rolled, sending acid crawling up the back of her throat.

“Want to know something else?” Gabriel asked cruelly. “I would have been okay with being a fallen, for signing away my soul to save you. That’s how much I loved you.” Michaela had craved to hear those words, but Gabriel delivered them like a weapon. She gasped in pain, because clearly he didn’t love her anymore. “But now I despise you. I am damned because of another one of your mistakes.”

“Gabe, I’m so sorry. You know I would never have asked you to do it,” she whispered. Her chest heaved like she was out of breath.

“Is that supposed to reassure me? Am I supposed to feel better now?” he shouted.

“I only did what I thought was best…”

“I guess you just assumed the rest of us would clean up your mess.”

“Why are you saying this? What is wrong with you?” Michaela blinked, and a single tear rolled down her face.

He glared at her, his face an ugly mask of fury. “You have no idea, do you?” he asked. His fists clenched open and closed, open and closed. His knuckles were battered and bruised, like he had fought recently.

“What are you saying?”

“Those creatures you let go, those abominations, are killing hundreds of humans. The world around you is in chaos, yet here you are,” Gabriel said sarcastically. He gestured grandly around him.

Michaela’s brow furrowed. Dropping her arms to her sides, she shook her head in confusion. “No. No, the holy angels would have stopped them. They would have taken care of it. You’re wrong.”

“You really think Abel would give a shit about those things you just let loose?” Gabriel saw his answer in her eyes. “You have no idea what you have caused.” He searched her face, his eyes burning her skin. “What’s worse is that you don’t even care.”

Michaela gasped. Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. “No, Gabe. I didn’t know. I thought I did what was best.”

“Did you know that the Watchers were pardoned?” Gabriel asked. He registered Michaela’s shock with a pitiless smirk. “They are the Aethere’s henchmen now. Any angels who doubt Abel or question too loudly are thrown out of Heaven. Guess what the Watchers do to them?”

He lurched toward her and grabbed her by the arms, lifting her onto her toes. His grip was painful, bruising, and crushing. Looking into his eyes, she knew he didn’t care if he hurt her. She clenched her teeth to keep from crying out.

“They rip their wings from their backs and let them fall to Earth, broken and exiled, just like Zarachiel. They are not fallen. No, they just simply understood your grand gesture and asked too many questions about Abel’s Purification, so Abel rips their wings out in your honor.”

“Let me go. Now, Gabriel,” she said through gritted teeth. He dropped her and she stumbled. She rubbed her arms to ease the numbness. “You know I didn’t think this would happen.”

“I’m sure you didn’t,” Gabriel sneered.

“Why are you being like this?” Her words held a burgeoning anger coiling in her stomach, waking the snake inside her.

“Someone needs to tell you the truth.”

“Stop it,” Michaela said, her voice chillingly quiet. Her fists trembled.

“What? You can’t stand to know you were finally wrong?”

“Gabriel,” she growled.

“Come on, admit that you were wrong.” Gabriel taunted her, bullied her.

“Just shut the hell up!” she shouted in his face.

The anger flared inside her like a cobra striking. She blinked, and Gabriel was sprawled on his backside, and the ground was scorched at her feet. Two handprints were singed through his shirt, revealing freshly burnt skin.

She swore viciously at him and shoved him back to the ground when he tried to struggle to his feet. His eyes dripped venom. The sun sunk behind the clouds. The air grew dense and humid, conjuring a storm from her raging anger—anger that barely concealed the slashing pain in her heart.

From across the field, Iris stepped out onto the porch. Other Nephilim around the farm stopped to see if they would need to intervene before Michaela unleashed a tornado.

“I did what I thought was best,” her voice rasped with anger. “The Aethere don’t have all the power anymore. I’m sorry they are hurting more angels, but I’m glad someone is finally questioning the Aethere.”

Gabriel jumped to his feet. A raindrop fell on her cheek, sliding down and dripping from her jaw. He closed the distance between them in two long strides. Gabriel pointed a finger at her face. The air snapped around her, and she heard a clap of thunder.

“You should have fixed this quietly! Now it’s the whole world’s fight. People are dying. Angels are being desecrated. Too many people will pay a high price for this.”

She slapped his finger away. “You mean you’ve paid too high a price. I didn’t ask you for anything. It was your decision to sign over your soul.”

Michaela was surprised her voice wasn’t shaking, because her whole body trembled. The rain fell harder now. Her hair plastered to her head with tendrils wrapping around her face.

Gabriel stepped closer until they were practically nose-to-nose. The wind picked up. It sliced through her thin robe. “The Michaela I knew would have never unleashed those monsters into the world. Whatever is inside of you has made you as bad as Lucifer.”

“How dare you?”

Something in Michaela’s voice, maybe the toneless manner, silenced Gabriel. He had given up on her, but her eyes said she had given up on him too. The Nephilim drew close now, close enough to hear. The rain drove itself to the ground in slanting, drenching sheets.

Finally, Michaela turned away from his empty stare. He was an empty, burning hole. If she looked close enough, she felt, at that moment, she would see Hell itself inside him. She took a step away.

“You proved your point.” Gabriel shook his head in disgust. “I hope it was worth it. I really do, Michaela, because you have started something that will be the end of everything. The Aethere are calling for the End of Days.” He grabbed her chin ruthlessly, his grip like a vice. “The End of Days, Michaela. You did this.”

Michaela jerked her chin from his grip. She was quiet for a long moment, watching him. Gabriel smirked, satisfied he had hurt her enough.

She would never forgive herself, and she felt a deep, bottomless guilt for the humans who had died and the angels who were exiled. But she remembered her dream, the way the fires had smelled and the screams had sounded, and she recalled how everything had come to an end, even Heaven and Hell. If Abel got his hands on the Seven Seals, everyone would die. Before Abel could end the world, he needed to be stopped. She had to show the other holy angels who he really was. She hated what she had done at the research center, but not enough to regret her decision. Her face was hard.

“Maybe it’s time for the end,” she said.

Gabriel jerked. “What?”

Michaela glanced to the Nephilim standing around her. Far away, back on the front porch, Michaela saw Clark in his wheelchair watching her. She turned back to Gabriel.

“You don’t mean that,” Gabriel whispered, shocked. She felt the harsh, angry air around him shatter like a glass wall. He stepped toward her, his face scrubbed clean of the anger. He was almost normal aside from the black in his eyes.

“This could never have been fixed quietly. The Aethere saw to that. They thought,” her eyes narrowed, and she pointed a finger at Gabriel, “and you thought, that I would just give up because I was too beat down and too broken to fight back. Do you think because of this,” Michaela turned her finger to the dark scars on her arm, “that I wasn’t worthy to fight for Heaven anymore?”

Gabriel’s hand twitched like he wanted to reach for her, his expression stricken. He opened his mouth like he might beg her to take the words back. Michaela stepped away from him, shaking her head.

“I am. I am worthy. I was the only one to stand up for what was right. Just like every time before when I was the General, I made the hard decisions. I shielded everyone from the pain and took it on myself. And now I will be the one to save this world, and apparently I will do it alone. Do you want to know something else?” she asked, mocking him like he had mocked her. She turned so she could see everyone. “The Aethere accused me of organizing an attack on Heaven. They said I wanted to start a war. Well, you know what?”

Her glare leveled on Gabriel. In that moment, she hated him. She hated everyone. They had made her this way, and then they had the nerve to judge her for what she had become. It was time for a change.

“I do.”