Page 129 of Legacy of Chaos

“Stop!” she shouted, rushing toward him.

Gabriel appeared in her path, blocking her. “Don’t,” he warned her. “Theywillkill you.”

Golden Mane doused his finger, his smile grim as Stryke struggled against his captor’s hold.

“Tell me how Hutriel died,” he repeated.

“Chaos,” Stryke rasped, his gaze glued to the glowing orb. “Please, don’t. Don’t hurt him again. I swear I don’t know anything.”

Golden Mane eyed him with skepticism. “What of the Gehennaportal?”

Oh, shit. Cyan’s heart leaped into her throat, clogging it so badly she could barely breathe. What was the right answer for these guys? What had Gabriel told them?

They were going to die today, weren’t they?

Stryke’s expression was impassive now, completely stone-faced. “What of it?”

Dove Gray cuffed him in the ear. “Was it destroyed?”

Stryke’s split second of hesitation cost him. Cost Chaos. Golden Mane put the orb to the flame again.

Stryke screamed in agony. “Stop! The portal is—”

Suddenly, Gabriel crashed into Golden Mane. Taking advantage of the moment of confusion, Cyan swept a stapler off Stryke’s desk and hurled it at Dove Gray’s head just as Stryke power-jabbed his elbow into the angel’s groin.

Cyan didn’t see anything else. Everything spun as she was catapulted backward, tackled to the ground by—

Gabriel?

“Listen to me,” Gabriel hissed into her ear.

He spoke so quickly it seemed impossible, but she heard it all, and she dropped to her knees in shock.

“Countermeasure,” Stryke shouted distantly. “A-Four, New-F!”

Fog spewed from vents in the ceiling and floor, boiling and writhing, and Cyan’s shock turned to horror. She knew that fog.

A malevolent heaviness filled the room, and the angels began to wheeze. They moved as if suspended in gelatin as the weight of pure evil bore down on them from all sides.

“Countermeasure,” Stryke shouted again. “A-Two!”

A glowing red ball appeared in the center of the room. Golden Mane’s eyes shot wide. He tried to reach it, but he moved in slow motion, his white wings dragging like sodden towels on the floor.

Too late. The ball burst, and a concussive wave hit all the angels on a level Cyan couldn’t feel but that slammed them into the air, their bodies vibrating and contorting. And then they disappeared. Just…winked away.

“Cyan!” Stryke rushed over to where she sat against the wall, dazed, one hand draped across her belly.

“Cyan—”

“I’m okay,” she assured him. “I just need…to catch my…breath.” She sat up straighter as he went down on his haunches in front of her. “Using the evil fog was brilliant.”

“I got the idea while we were on theSea Storm.” Closing his haunted eyes, he rested his forearms on his legs and bowed his head. “If that bastard hurts Chaos—”

“He can’t.” She reached out and gripped his wrist. “Gabriel made sure of that.”

His head whipped up. “What?”

Gabriel’s words rang like musical notes in her ears. She couldn’t explain it, but when he’d spoken to her, she’d experienced a strange kind of peace, as if his voice had struck a frequency that tapped into infinite joy. And what he’d told her…it changed everything.

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