A Touch Menacing (58 page)

“I caught you,” he choked out.

She got a hand beneath her. Pressing her palm into a puddle on the floor, she tried to push herself off him. The puddle spread slowly out from underneath Az, dark red. Eden scrambled up. “Oh God, you’re hurt!”

She looked down and saw the wound on his chest where Michael had sliced him. It swelled from ribbon to rift with each rib it carved across. On either side of him, his wings shivered and twitched. The feathers smeared delicate threads of crimson.
He’s hurt,
her brain screamed.
Bad. Deep.

Eden rocked her head back and screamed, “Gabe!”

“It’s bad,” Az gasped. “Michael. You were falling

and . . .” She heard the rattle of each erratic pull for air.

Eden brushed back his curls. “Don’t try to talk,” she said. “I’ve got this.”

She tore the sleeve of her shirt and pressed it against the wound. There was a pop beside her.

Gabe dropped to his knees, horror on his face as he took in Az. “Oh no,” he whispered.

“Fix him,” she said. “Quick. I think they’re coming. None of us have a weapon.” The words tumbled over themselves, struggled out nightmare slow.

A wet cough broke up Az’s words. “Eden. Where’s Eden?”

“She’s still here,” Gabe told him. “I’m going to try to help you, okay?”

“Don’t kill her, Gabe.” Az moaned in pain, and Gabriel’s face fell. “Don’t kill her, please.”

Eden could hear the tears in Gabe’s voice. “I’ll get her out of here. You just hang on.”

This isn’t real. This isn’t happening.

She heard a rhythmic scraping noise—his foot, kicking out and back in a spasm.
We’re losing him.
She pushed down harder on the already soaked bandage. “He’s bleeding too much! We have to stop it!” Her fingers were slick. His eyes drifted closed. “Az?”

He opened them again and smiled up at her weakly. “They’ll make you mortal again. You’ll have a shiny new path and—” He cut off as the last of the blue in his eyes tarnished to a washed-out green. “I love you, Eden.”

“I love you, too,” she said, clutching his hand in hers, using it to add pressure to the wound. “You stay with us. I think it’s slowing a bit.” In her relief, she glanced up at Gabriel, saw the tears spilling down his cheeks. “No, it’s going to be okay. He’s gonna be fine.” The bleeding had slowed to a trickle. “See? It’s stopping.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said quietly. “It’s stopping now.”

“We’ll get you out of here, Az, okay?”

“Eden.” She hated the way he said her name, the way it shivered out of him broken, split and separate.

“No!” She gave up on the useless bandage and gripped Az’s hand tighter. He opened his lips as if he were going to say something more, and then he stilled. “Az, please,” she whispered. “Please don’t.”

He stared up, eyes wide, unfocused. And then Eden felt herself, too, go still.
He’s gone. He’s dead.
She looked up at Gabe.

Two tears raced down to his jaw. With every blink his irises flashed redder, bloodshot and glowing.

They took him from me. From us.

Her chest ached. Her head throbbed with tears she wouldn’t let herself cry. “If I had been a regular girl with a normal path, I wouldn’t have been able to be with him. And Jarrod wouldn’t have met Sullivan and . . . Gabe, we’re all going to be mortal again and he wouldn’t have been able to be on my path.” She swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t have left him. I wouldn’t have!” she sobbed, falling against his shoulder.

“But,” Gabriel said carefully, his voice breaking, “now you will. Because we’re going to save the Siders.”

She stood and took the first few steps backward, her eyes locked on Az, every fiber of her body screaming against leaving him.

I love you,
she thought. And then she turned. “Come on. We’re ending this.”

The building was oddly quiet. No one fought anywhere that she could see. She and Gabriel took the stairs up a floor, had to climb over a body on the landing. A knife stuck out of the chest. Eden pulled the weapon free and took it with her.

He stopped them at the base of the stairwell. “Ready?” he asked, but she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be ready for.

She kept the knife at her side and followed him down the balcony. Another body blocked the way, and suddenly she realized Jarrod and Sullivan weren’t with them, that she hadn’t seen them since the brief glimpse over the balcony railing. “Gabe?” she called softly.

He raised a finger. Barely audible voices came from a room ahead.

As they got closer, she could hear muffled whacks. “Release her to us!” someone yelled.

“No!” The voice that answered was so full of venom, she almost didn’t recognize it as Jarrod’s. Gabriel’s hand was on her shoulder, anticipating her reaction.
Hurry,
she thought at him desperately.

Gabriel burst across the threshold. “I demand cessation!”

His voice thundered through the room. Eden couldn’t see past him, but she heard the shuffle of feet, the rustle of fabric as the angels turned toward him.

“What have you done?” Gabriel demanded. Eden squeezed past him. Jarrod was the first thing she saw. Doubled over on his knees, he’d been stripped of his coat. A wide V of Bound spread out from him on either side, packed into the room. His white shirt was striped with dirt and grime. A few of the streaks were red at the edges where blood had soaked through. Even from the door, she could see the way he trembled. Under him, protected from the worst of the blows, was Sullivan.

The angel closest to him held a baseball bat–sized chunk of wood.

“Who allowed this cruelty?” Gabriel snarled. “Let them up! Now!”

“No one will do such a thing,” a voice called out.

“Gabe.” Eden held up a shaking hand when she spotted Michael. The angel swiveled to her, his gaze heavy and without pity. “He killed Az,” she said.

Everyone’s eyes were on her.

On the floor, Jarrod uncurled, his face contorted. Every movement was stiff, his shoulders pulled back in pain. He dropped his head again as if he couldn’t take the effort, whispered something to Sullivan. To Eden’s relief, she stirred.

Gabriel moved slowly toward Michael.

“It’s true,” Michael said simply. “Azazel offered me his life in a promise Upstairs. When that promise went unfulfilled, Azazel was ended by my hand with mercy in my heart.”

Eden waited for some sort of reaction from the other angels, didn’t understand when no one moved. “Why aren’t they doing anything?” she cried.

Gabe kept his eyes on Michael. “Is that how he got out of the cell you all were keeping him in?”

Michael’s crimson irises lightened, yellowed. “And now I fear our Gabriel has been tainted by these cursed creatures.” His voice rose and sharpened. “Gabriel chose to surround himself with temptations. He has a history of giving in to sin. He failed a mission he never should have been trusted with!” he said, glaring down at Eden. “He is impure and unloyal. The Sider plague is being eradicated, and Gabriel consistently stands in our way.”

Gabe’s arm shot up, pointed at Michael. “I accuse you of having hands that shed innocent blood,” he spat.

Michael gave a dramatic sigh. “Innocent blood! Azazel was not innocent.”

“Not Az,” Gabriel said. “Another.” He trembled, but kept going. “At Kristen’s, you found a girl on the back stairs. Do you remember her?”

“I do.” Michael broke eye contact as a silent tear ran down Gabriel’s cheek.

“Her name was Madeline,” Gabriel said to the crowd, “and she’s the one who helped me when I was Fallen. When every other abandoned me, she stood by my side. We learned so much about the Siders from her, and from Kristen and Eden and her friends, whom you’ve
beaten
.” He paused. “Did you kill Madeline?”

A murmur passed through the crowd.

Eden felt a presence behind her just as Kristen’s hand touched her shoulder, her sympathy silent.

Gabriel’s voice boomed. “I accuse you, Michael. Do you deny it?”

Michael said nothing.

Luke gave a low whistle from beside Kristen. “Formal accusation? I haven’t seen one of those since . . . mine.”

“What is it?” Eden tightened her grip on the knife at her side.

Luke slid closer. She could smell the metallic tang of the blood drenching him, but couldn’t look at him. He smelled the same as Az had. “Sins need to be spoken,” Luke said. “Gabe accuses and then Michael must answer.”

Michael sneered. “I was sent to exterminate the Siders.”

“That wasn’t an answer,” Gabriel said. “Luckily, I wasn’t finished.” It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Gabriel’s gaze was trained on Michael. “I accuse you of shedding innocent blood. Of savagely ripping Madeline, sinless and innocent, from a path she’d just started upon.” The words strained out. “And doing so knowingly. You knew she was mortal, did you not?”

Even from where she stood, Eden could see the betrayal sink in, Michael slowly shaking his head. “Gabriel, why?”

“You could Fall for that alone,” Gabe said. “But I have more. How did the Siders start, Michael?”

The color drained from his face.

“You were always stubborn,” Gabe said. “Jealous. But the last few years, you’ve become cruel and hateful. Sometimes you hide it well. Others . . .” He gestured to Jarrod, the bloodied dirty shirt he wore. “Not so much. I know how it felt to keep my sins inside for mere months before I Fell. I can’t imagine what it feels like to keep them for years.”

Raphael pushed his way through the crowd. “Gabriel, what’s the meaning of this?”

Gabriel didn’t waver. “The Siders aren’t just some plague that happened into being. I met the first Sider today. A girl who told me about a chance meeting with Az.”

The annoyance in Raphael’s
tsk
wasn’t reserved to him alone. Others grew restless. Eden shifted the knife.

“And again, Azazel had gotten involved when he shouldn’t have. It does not bode well to speak ill of the dead, Gabriel,” Raphael scolded as if Az hadn’t been any more than an acquaintance to Gabe, instead of his best friend.

It took Gabe a second to recover. “You wanted a way to get rid of Az, make it so he didn’t need me anymore. And so you stole away the path of a girl you thought was in love with him. You took her future. But that potential, that life force built in her still. You thought she was dead, so you left her body to rot, but she became a Sider. She spread Touch on to others until their own futures became so confused and crumbled that their paths, too, disintegrated. Michael, I accuse you of starting the Sider plague.” He turned to Michael and uttered two words. “Deny it,” Gabriel said, his face dark.

The room took a collective breath. Disbelief fluttered through the gathered angels when no denial came.

Michael glanced away for a split second before he struggled back, like looking at Gabe was a punishment he endured, a penance.

When Michael finally spoke, his voice was small, like that of a child. “I loved you, Gabriel. Always more. And
never
was I chosen.”

Eden saw Gabe’s cheeks flare red. “That’s not true.”

Heartbreak shone on Michael’s face. “Azazel kept you away from me, don’t you see that?” he said, reaching. Gabe shook his head, moved his hand behind his back. Michael grimaced, but went on. “He made you believe only you could save him from Falling. I tried to give him a girl who wouldn’t leave, wouldn’t die, because then you could come Home. Then you could come back to me.”

“The terrible part was, she didn’t even know Az. You made a mistake, Michael. You stole her life,” Gabe spat, shaking. “Just like you stole Madeline’s. I accuse you of taking mortal life, Michael.”

Michael closed his eyes for a beat. “Even dead you choose Az, and now I’m nothing.” He turned to face the crowd, his head held high as his voice rang out, loud and clear. “I stole the path of a mortal girl. I did so for my own selfish gain. For love. And I took a mortal life. I am guilty.” His voice fell. “Forgive me, Gabriel.”

Eden watched as Gabe pressed his lips together.

“Forgive me. Please. Give me this one kindness.” Michael clutched at him, but Gabe stepped back.

“No,” Gabe whispered. “Your choices were your own.”

In front of her, the dozen Bound angels all spoke at once. “He killed the girl? She was a mortal? He stole their lives. Then he’s Damned. Damned.”

Michael pushed through the crowd, past Eden, and broke into a run. Eden watched as he stumbled away, his shirt tearing apart as wings sprouted from his back. His scream curdled as the wings smashed against the metal railing and then shed their feathers. He writhed toward the stairs, his back a lacework of raised pink scars, the wings gone.

Kristen’s words were a whisper: “(‘When the rest of Heaven was blue)/Of a demon in my view.’”

Eden stared in silence as he crawled. She wanted to feel vindication. Relief. Anything. She didn’t realize she was collapsing until Kristen caught her, leaning her against her shoulder.

While she’d been watching Michael, Gabe had gone on speaking. “All they need is time,” he was saying from the room. “We can help Rachel find the Siders, and she will cure them. They’re no longer a risk to the mortal paths.”

Sounds of agreement filled the air.

“Are you all right?” Kristen asked.

It’s over
, Eden thought. The Siders, the strange life she’d carved out for herself. Az. “I don’t know,” she managed.

CHAPTER 33