Elias

Abigail stopped mid-step. "Did we take the wrong turn?"

Elias shook his head. Although he was fairly certain they hadn't strayed from the directions Caleb had provided, this wasn't a section of the city they wanted to be in. Broken masonry lay on the street and the scent of burnt plastic hung in the air. Further up the block, one facade had collapsed entirely, spilling over parked cars. Elias shuffled forward a few steps. The cobblestones were covered in splatters and washes of dried blood.

"We should've waited for a taxi," he said. "But let's keep moving; there's nothing we can do now."

Abigail took the next right turn. Elias didn't question her on the rationale, although this wasn't the route Caleb had suggested. Instead, he turned back to take another look at the bloodied cobblestones.

Someone had been injured there, possibly fatally. This was one block on one street out of however many streets there were in the city. The previous day, the clinic had been overrun almost at once and the hospital today was worse still. I should've stayed and helped.

A whistle. Elias turned and saw Giorgio on the other side of the street.

"What are you two doing here?" the reaper demanded. He strode over to them, his boots thunderous against the cobblestones.

Something rigid in Elias' chest released. "We're kinda stuck in this country. Why are you here? Did Raphael send a message for us?"

"Do you know where they've taken Ramiel?" Abigail threw in. "Or what's happened to Harold?"

The angel's face, already strained from the moment he spotted Elias and Abigail, darkened. He motioned towards the door of the building behind them.

"Let's talk in private."

The wooden door groaned when Elias pushed it open. Inside were a set of stairs up to the upper floors and on either side, the entrances to the ground floor apartments. Giorgio chose the one on the right. He pressed his thumb over the lock; it clicked open. He held the door for Elias and Abigail to walk through, then slammed it shut.

"Explain what's going on here," he said.

The apartment was, in fact, a single room. A folded-out sofa with a muddle of sheets and blankets across it took up most of the space. An old television and a minuscule table took up the rest. While Giorgio made use of the table as a chair, Elias and Abigail remained dawdling awkwardly by the door. Neither was eager to make themselves comfortable in a stranger's house.

"Have you two gone mute?" Giorgio snapped. "Talk!"

Stumbling over each other, Elias and Abigail explained how they ended up in Bolivia and everything that had happened since. Giorgio didn't interrupt, but sat silent and played with the end of his tie.

"This raises more questions than it answers," he said when Elias and Abigail finished their tale. "To answer some of yours, after Ramiel's last escapade down here, I was ordered to keep a closer watch on him. He should've checked in with me hours ago. No, I have no message from Raphael and no, I don't know where Ramiel would've been taken. They'll have found a hideaway on Earth, I imagine. If we cannot leave, neither can they."

Abigail frowned. "You can't leave? Why?"

"Sariel's Shield has always been a porous barrier for reapers. We must pass through it whenever we shepherd souls from Earth to Heaven. Or seraphs. High and mighty they may be, without a reaper they'd be as lost in that labyrinth of thorns as any demon.

"Anyway, yesterday, the shield sealed itself. Neither reapers nor human souls can pass — we're stranded here. Nor can we contact Heaven. Likely, this is why you've received no reply from Raphael."

"Ramiel thought this was the last anchor. If it's destroyed, then why has the shield become stronger instead of collapsing?" Elias asked.

"Then Monsignor Ramiel was wrong."

"Or maybe the anchor wasn't destroyed," Abigail said.

"I saw the crater Najran and his lot made," Giorgio replied. "The anchor is gone. Another defencive mechanism must have kicked in. Who knows how we're supposed to dismantle it."

"That's good news then, it gives us time to find Ramiel."

Giorgio's eyes narrowed. "There won't be a rescue mission if that's what you're thinking."

"Are you serious? Najran's beef with the lot of you is that you left him for dead. You'd think there is a lesson to be learnt out of that," Abigail said.

"Ramiel's not a reaper and he's back where he belongs. Come on, I'll bring you home. Since I am feeling generous, I'll be on the lookout for your missing retiree as well."

The reaper offered his hand to Elias, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Abigail shift away from the reaper. Elias shook his head and did his best to look apologetic. Until Abigail agreed to go, he wasn't going anywhere.

"What exactly is your problem with him?" Abigail asked.

Giorgio laughed a cold, humourless laugh. "With Ramiel?"

"Yes, Ramiel. You've been rude to him at every possible opportunity and you don't seem concerned about what the demons would do to him. What's he ever done to deserve that?"

"The bastard spent millennia as Lucifer's bosom buddy. He killed dozens of reapers; more than most demons. And after all that, Sariel talked the Council into permitting him to return to Heaven, which is an insult to every loyal angel. That's my problem with your dearest Ramiel."

"No way," Elias laughed, then went quiet.

Just yesterday Kiara had made a quip about Ramiel's "old friends". Najran had too, back in Italy. All be damned. Elias had actually thought Ramiel cared enough for Elias and Abigail to want to see them get out of that god-forsaken cave alive. No, the angel had been sweating about Najran's threat to release the demons. About old friends who were now out to get their revenge.

"He's not with Lucifer now," Abigail said. "If he's been allowed back into Heaven, he can't be."

Giorgio snorted. "You know nothing about this, girl."

Elias' protective instinct kicked at those words and he had a sharp retort ready at the tip of his tongue, when his brain caught up. They really didn't know a thing here. What little they had been told about the war between Heaven and Hell had come from Ramiel. He had clearly skimmed over certain details.

"Tell us then," Abigail said.

"I don't have time for this. Do you want me to take you home or not?"

Abigail sucked in a breath. "If you aren't interested in helping Ramiel, who would? I want to speak to them."

"Abby —"

"He sacrificed himself for me. I can't just let that go. And he saved us both in the church in Italy. We owe Ramiel to try to help him."

"And you, Elias," Giorgio said, "are you eager to run off and die for a traitor?"

Abigail turned to Elias with a pleading look.

He longed to use the well-trodden excuse that it was Ramiel's fault they had been caught in this mess, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. It just wasn't true. Jala had used their mother for her ends before Ramiel had even entered the picture. Without Abigail's instance on investigating Jala's notes, they wouldn't be currently stranded in South America. Both he and Abigail had multiple chances to exit this story and they had opted not to. Somewhere along the line, they had to take responsibility for their decisions.

"He's been looking after us when it would have been smarter to look out for himself and himself alone," Elias said. "The whole affair's been a disaster, if we're honest. We've found no trace of Sariel and three anchors are now gone. This is the only way I see for us to salvage something."

And perhaps we'll find Jala too. I'd like some words with her.

"Fine. You're both idiots, that much is obvious," Giorgio replied.