Page 89 of Legacy of Chaos

“Stop. I see the glyphs,” Cyan said. “Tell me what I need to do. I’m guessing we’re going to attach angelic energy to mine and turn the nanomachines into a trillion little Heaven bombs. Am I right?”

That would be brilliant. If she could get the nanomachines to the eternal fire, they could douse it with the power of Heaven. Which would destroy the Gehennaportal and keep Revenant trapped.

But it could also destroy the Gaiaportal. And keep angels trapped.

Damn.

“Gabriel?”

He hesitated. The noises were getting closer. His mind spun, plotting out all the courses of action available to him, all the repercussions, all the scenarios. More eerie sounds…and a big shadow to his right. They needed to hurry.

“Gabriel!”

“Yes. We’ll do that. No, wait.” Indecision left him paralyzed in a way that rarely happened. As a powerful angel—formidable even by Archangel standards—he rarely doubted his decisions. Who would dare question him?

But with the Thrones in charge, a wrong move here could affect his upcoming Ordeal. Worse, leaving the rift sealed but the Gehennaportal operational could endverybadly.

“Gabriel!Helloooo.”

Damn it! “We’re not destroying the portal,” he practically yelled. “Repair the breach.”

“But I thought—”

“Repair it!” he snapped, hating his decision but knowing he’d hate the other equally. “Hurry!”

His heart tapped rapidly against his chest wall, and his mouth went dry. This needed to be kept secret until he could trust someone else with the information. But who? Reaver was comatose, Metatron was being held under guard, and all the other Archangels were imprisoned inside their heads. Not that Gabriel was allowed to talk to anyone anyway.

How long would he have to keep this to himself? Well, himself and Cyan. Cyan presented a problem.

I have to kill her.

Strangely, he didn’t like that thought. Generally, he enjoyed killing demons. They were abominations deserving of torturous slaughter. But he’d also been around long enough to know that some deserved to live, even if their usefulness would eventually come to an end.

Cyan struck him as one of those. Low on the evil scale, just wanting to live her life. And she was, currently, on the right side of the war between good and evil.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

She remained still, her focus on the glyphs he couldn’t see. “I’m almost done.”

“Cyan?”

“Yeah?”

He was about to make another risky move. “I’m going to need you to lie about what happened down here.”

“Excuse me?”

“Keep working,” he said calmly, even though his pulse was racing. “There are…things coming toward us. We don’t have much time.” Next to them, Hutriel was pointing animatedly at the things.

“Iamworking. Keep talking.”

“We’re going to tell everyone that we destroyed the portal.”

Silence. Then, “Why?”

Here was where he should tell her that he was an Archangel, and she didn’t need to know why. But she was a scientist, a technician of magic, and she wouldn’t lie for no good reason. So, he’d go all-in with this demon and trust her.

I am such a fool.

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