Abigail

Abigail wasn't the slightest bit surprised that Ramiel took them to another cave. He immediately turned his attention to the sigils on the cave's walls, leaving Elias and Abigail to mill about the entrance. This chamber was larger than the one in Italy. In its centre was a raised platform about seven feet long and two feet wide. Kilometres worth of sigils spiralled out from the platform's base. Abigail could barely make out the individual sigils, however. The light emanating from the top of the platform was dim, flickering like the last embers of a dying fire.

Is that Sariel up there? The platform's the right size for Ramiel or Lucifer to lie on. He's probably about the same size.

Abigail shifted forward to get a better look at the platform, but Elias pulled her back.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, peering at her brother's pale face.

Elias sighed and shook his head. "What are we doing? This is cruel."

Lucifer slammed his feet down into the stone floor, making the whole chamber reverberate. He let Najran slip out of his hands and slide onto the floor. Najran barely whimpered at such treatment. Lucifer hadn't exaggerated, the reaper had a head-wound and a gaping gash in his stomach. Elias peeled away the blood-soaked fabric of Najran's shirt and hissed in sympathy.

"His organs are practically spilling out! How did you even do this?" Elias scoffed. "And his legs are mangled."

Lucifer shrugged. "Can you use something to keep his innards in place?"

Elias took off his jacket and stripped off his shirt. He ripped the material apart and with some difficulty bandaged Najran's stomach. Seeing blood immediately began seeping through Elias' makeshift work and Abigail fought the urge to turn away. Najran deserves this, don't forget that. He had brought the world to the brink of annihilation, he had a heavy hand in the deaths of several nephilim. And hadn't Elias said that Kiara claimed Najran had killed her mother when the woman became inconvenient? Najran was a monster.

She turned her back on Najran and Elias, then walked over to the platform. From up close, she could make out rows of minuscule sigils running down the platform's sides. Abigail went up on her toes so that she could see what was on the top of the platform.

"Abigail!" Ramiel called out. "Stay away from there."

"Why?"

"Just do as you are told."

"This is Sariel's tomb, isn't it?" Elias said.

"He is not dead." Ramiel waved his hand to catch Lucifer's attention, then pointed to a section of the wall. "What do you think?"

"It will do. Elias, help me with the reaper," Lucifer replied.

Elias gritted his teeth and after a long pause, he answered, "No. I'm not being party to this."

"What? Eli, why are —"

"Don't bother, Abigail," Lucifer said. "This is clearly a step too far for your brother's sensitivities. Why don't you help me out instead? I need three hands for this."

Elias crossed his arms and glared at her. Stubborn prat. Sensing Elias wouldn't listen to any argument she could think of, Abigail turned to Ramiel for support, but he was preoccupied with modifications to the sigils along the ground.

Fine. Then I'll do it.

"What do you need me to do?" she asked.

"Grab his legs," Lucifer answered.

The moment she pulled Najran's legs up, he screamed. Elias had been right, his legs were broken in several places. As Abigail and Lucifer carried Najran over to the section of the wall Ramiel had pointed out, she tried to focus her gaze on anywhere other than Najran. Her broken wrist had been agony, but Najran's injuries were far more severe.

Lucifer pulled Najran up against the wall. "Hold onto his torso," he said. "Don't struggle, reaper. I'm not generous to those who defy me."

Frowning, Abigail did as asked. Lucifer, meanwhile, grabbed Najran's right forearm with one hand and with the other drew a sigil on the wall. Najran's palm began to sink into the stone, then his forearm. It was as if the solid granite had become wet concrete.

"Don't let him move," Lucifer said.

Abigail pressed her whole body again Najran's torso, trying to ignore the realisation that Najran's blood was seeping into her own clothing. He screamed and thrashed, but he was too weak to over-power even Abigail. Soon his arm, all the way up to the elbow, sank into the wall and Lucifer repeated the exercise with Najran's other arm. Abigail jerked away. She was hardly needed anymore. Lucifer, however, wanted to finish his job properly. He pushed Najran's legs into the stone also.

"Not too tight, I hope." Lucifer wiped away the tears rolling down Najran's face. "Come, don't be like this, it can't be worse than what the demons did to you. And now you have a purpose to serve."

"You're no angel, you're an abomination," Najran choked out.

Lucifer took out a pair of small knives and handed one of them to Abigail. "We're all children of God here, Najran. If you have complaints about the old man's creation, take it up with him. Abigail, look at what I am doing and copy it on the other side."

She glanced back at her brother, who remained standing awkwardly at the entrance to the chamber, and found him staring back at her. He looked downright queasy.

He just doesn't get it. After everything we've seen, why hasn't he realised it yet? If we want to survive in this messed-up universe, we can't afford to be squeamish.

Though the stone looked solid and kept Najran fixed in place, the wall's surface hadn't hardened entirely. Abigail's knife slid through as if she were carving through wax. Lucifer's sigils were plentiful, but they were easy shapes to carve. Together they formed an outline around Najran's body.

"Ramiel, are you finished?" Lucifer called out.

"One moment."

While Lucifer and Abigail had been busy with Najran, Ramiel had drawn a string of bloody sigils from the base of the platform to the wall where Najran was now trapped. Presently, he was carving a complex hexagonal sigil into the centre of his chest. Abigail grimaced. Just as well Ramiel was an angel, were a human to try that, they would be mutilating themselves for life.

Once he was done, Ramiel moved over to Najran and cut open the tatters of Najran's shirt to expose the reaper's chest.

"Please," Najran moaned.

Ramiel sunk his knife into Najran's skin, then nudged Abigail to move away and next to Elias. Once Abigail was out of the way, Lucifer held out his hand towards Ramiel. Having completed the sigil on Najran's chest, Ramiel handed his knife over to Lucifer and nodded. Lucifer took a few paces back. His shoulders were tense and he seemed more uneasy than he had been back in Arkhangelsk.

Ramiel pressed his palm against the sigil he had carved into Najran and spoke in Enochian. The chamber exploded in light. As a surge of heat washed over them, Elias caught Abigail and pushed her towards the ground.

"Ramiel!" Lucifer shouted.

Squinting, Abigail turned her head just enough to see what was happening. Lucifer had pulled Ramiel away from Najran, whose unmoving and mute figure now emanated bright light of its own.

"Lucifer. Ramiel."

What now?

Abigail pushed Elias off her so that she could see what was happening in the chamber. Lucifer steadied Ramiel and they both turned to the platform in the centre of the room. A tall figure stood by its base. He was dressed in strange armour made of bronze plates and leather, but lacked a helmet, exposing his flaxen-coloured hair, which was gathered into a frazzled braid.

"Sariel." Ramiel said cautiously. "Are you well?"

"I thank you all for your assistance," Sariel replied. Although he stood right before them, his voice sounded as if it originated not from his body, but from the walls around them. "Lucifer, I will restore the shield to its proper state. Michael and his guard are stationed just on the other side of the shield. If you do not wish to be seen by him, leave now."

"Wait!" Ramiel protested. "We've barely had time to say a word to each other."

"It was more than I ever expected." Lucifer pulled back his shoulders and forced a smile. Even Abigail, who had known him for less than a day, could never mistake this stilted expression of Lucifer's for genuine sentiment.

Beside Abigail, Ellias shifted his feet and she thought he was about to say something, but he seemed to think better of it. It was probably the correct decision. Ramiel's jaw quivered with dismay and Lucifer seemed unable to choose a spot on which to focus his gaze. Whatever the full story between them and whatever this moment represented for them, it was unlikely either of them would welcome the interjection of a nephilim right now.

"You should flee now, Lucifer," Ramiel replied, "while you can. Your part in the day's events will not go unnoticed. Whatever method you used to escape your captivity, it will be discovered and closed."

'But you won't go with me, will you?" Lucifer said and without awaiting Ramiel's answer, added, "If I escape, that is the end of your liberty, however conditional it may be already. No, that won't do. I had an unlooked-for chance to see you again; I will content myself with that stroke of good fortune."

"Luci —"

"Farewell, Ramiel," Lucifer said.

As he turned away, Ramiel caught him and pulled him into an embrace. They stayed there for a few moments, then Lucifer untangled himself from Ramiel's grip and disappeared.

Wingbeats. Half a dozen angels, all armoured, surrounded Ramiel.

"Who the hell are they?" Elias muttered and the same question echoed through Abigail's mind.

A seventh angel arrived, his heavy boots sending echoes through the chamber. In the brief flash before he hid his wings, Abigail saw he only had one pair, but they had a wider wingspan than that of Ramiel's largest pair. Every piece of his armour was etched with sigils each only millimetres large and a sword with a great red-coloured stone for a pommel peeked out of the scabbard at his waist.

Michael. That's got to be Michael.

The other angels bowed to him. Catching sight of Michael's furious expression, Abigail and Elias did their best to imitate the angels. But Abigail dared to edge her head up until she could see something other than the floor beneath her feet.

Michael barked out something in Enochian and Ramiel answered in a weary tone. Suddenly, Michael's gaze was on Elias and Abigail. He flicked his hand. Two of the angels that surrounded Ramiel broke off and advanced towards them.

"Hey," Elias said. "We are on your —"

The angels seized Elias and Abigail. The world spun. They were flying, Abigail had experienced it enough times by now to recognise this blend of nausea and disorientation. And they landed badly. The angel that had grabbed Abigail fell on top of her. Elias seemed to have rolled off to the side upon landing. Before either of them could get their bearings, both angels were gone.

"What just happened?" Abigail asked as she slid onto her back and sprawled out her limbs over the weed-infested lawn they had landed on. She had to squint. It was hours past sunrise and the sun beamed down.

"I'd wager a guess and say this is what Lucifer meant about Michael." Elias offered her a hand and pulled her up to her feet. "Whatever. We're home now."

Abigail blinked away the after-images in her eyes and frowned as she looked around. Elias was right, of course. The unmowed lawn, the hills hoist with its peeling white paint, the gumtree bending over the rusting picnic table — all of it was intimately familiar. But that moment, the sight of all the individual set-pieces of her childhood left her skin prickling.

Minutes ago, they had been saving the world. Now they were home and everything looked the same, as it had before Ramiel, even before Jala. Abigail shook her head, trying to make sense of the emotional whiplash.

"Michael looked pissed off," she said. "I hope Ramiel doesn't end up his punching dummy."

Elias shrugged and while Abigail sunk into a chair by the picnic table, he opened the latch to their father's shed. He dug around there for a couple of minutes, then emerged with a bottle of scotch in his hand.

"Always thought dad had a stash somewhere in there," he said, making himself comfortable on the shallow steps that led up to the back door of the house.

He opened the bottle, took a few of gulps and set it down. Moments later, he picked it up again and gulped down more. Already, a third of the bottle was gone.

"Eli," Abigail said. "You're not dad, please don't do his 'I'm so tired of looking at you, I'm going to get drunk' spiel. We did the right thing."

Elias let out a cold laugh. "I killed an angel; you helped the devil entomb another angel. They're immortal, how long do you think he'll be there?"

"He deserved it."

"Whatever is going to help you sleep at night." Elias picked up the scotch bottle and turned towards the back door, then paused. "Let me guess, your keys are back in Bolivia too."

He tipped more of the scotch into his mouth