Page 405 of Castings & Curses

As Gabriel stepped forward to move out of the shield's range, she opened it for him.

After taking a deep breath, he flew into the room. As soon as Melinda had closed the shield, we followed.

An entire row of rooms had been blasted apart, and the shattered remnants of at least four rooms formed a larger space. Its splintered timber burned with wayward magic. Just inside the doorway, we found Raphael bleeding on the floor. Gabriel was flying towards a distant figure, which I reasoned must be the enemy we were fighting.

"Raphael," I said as I knelt down beside him.

I hoped to rouse him from the state he was in, and sure enough, his eyes were open. He looked in a bad way, but he was alive and he clearly still possessed his own soul.

"I know who he is," Raphael said as he tried to sit upright, and then thought better of it.

"Who are we dealing with?" Melinda asked, her eyes gleaming with a prospect of vengeance.

"A shard of your precursor lives within Joanne," he said. "Part of Loki must've survived, but he doesn't have your good heart, Melinda."

Her eyes widened at that, and she looked off toward the distant figure before taking Raphael's hand.

I put a hand on Raphael's shoulder and sent him healing energy. I was tired after helping to heal Gabriel, but Raphael needed my help. I didn't like the look of the condition he was in.

"I think we need to get him out of here," I said as I gave him all of the strength I could.

He already had injuries from his prior encounter, and they weren't fully healed. I was concerned about just how badly hurt he might be now.

"You need me," he said as he finally pulled himself up into a sitting position.

"We do. We need you alive," Melinda said. "Aurelia, please help him out of here."

I didn't argue with her about that. It also meant stepping out of the shielded area, but I helped Raphael walk, and we were quick to leave the room.

"Please, help," I said to several angels who were coming toward us.

They took over helping Raphael, and I called out to him, "Stay safe. I'm going to help Melinda."

By the time I got back, she had joined Gabriel in fighting the being who had once been Joanne, and now contained some shred of Loki.

The Norse god had once held the same powers Melinda possessed now. When he died in battle in his former life, his powers passed to a new host. That had been Melinda, but unbeknownst to her, a part of him must've lived on.

A blast of energy flashed past me, and I flew toward Melinda. I realized she no longer had a spherical shield around her. Instead, she carried a glowing blue shield in her left hand while she carried a spear of light in her right.

Gabriel approached the creature from her right side, where he'd drawn his sword, and it glowed with a light that was so radiant and pure, it was painful to witness.

"You're not escaping here today," Gabriel said as he lunged at the creature and narrowly parried a slash of dark claws that Joanne had mysteriously grown. "I don't know how you survived, but what you did to Misha was hideous."

A net slid from the creature's claws, and Melinda immediately tore it apart with her magic. No sooner had she done that, she threw the spear with all her might at the attacker.

It penetrated the attacker’s chest, pinning Loki — in the twisted form of Joanne — back against the wall. That exact moment, Gabriel grabbed its hand. It took me a second to realize he was pulling a ring from its claw. The net — that was where the net had come from. Some kind of talisman.

Within moments, the body crumpled in upon itself, breaking down with unnatural speed, and turning into dust and fragments of bone. As an angel Joanne had become a being of light, but sadness overtook me as I realized these were her human bones.

I wasn't sure how long she'd been absent from her body, but she'd been a good angel. My mentor and superior. It didn't seem right or fair that she was removed from existence. Just gone, forever — like Misha was.

I took Melinda's free hand and drew her back away from the corpse, and from Gabriel, who stumbled back, straightening painfully in his injured state.

I felt Melinda's arms around me before I even had time to think, and I held her there in that damaged room, Gabriel looking on, as her tears fell against my cheek.

I kissed her forehead and glanced back at Gabriel before reaching an arm out to him.

He took it, and I helped both him and Melinda away to a safer place where they could rest and heal.

---