“News?” Icy sweat bloomed across Reaver’s skin. Any news these bastards wanted him to know wouldn’t be good.
Averting his gaze, Gabriel shook his head. “They want me to tell you because, I don’t know…punishment? They’re cowards.”
This time, Gabriel’s bone-breaking backhand came from Zaphkiel. “Tell him.”
Gabriel slowly lifted his gaze to Reaver’s, and Reaver’s heart clenched. This news was worse thannot good. It would be devastating.
“No,” Reaver breathed. “My children? Harvester?”
Gabriel flinched.
“Harvester?” Reaver struggled against his restraints, not caring that his wrists were starting to bleed. “Tell me!”
“I’m sorry, Reaver,” Gabriel rasped. “We don’t know where she is.”
For a moment, Reaver almost laughed with relief. If they didn’t know where she was, she was safe. She’d probably escaped before they shut down Heaven’s borders.
“Finish it,” Suroth prompted. “Tell him why.”
Sudden anger, fresh and hot, flared in Gabriel’s eyes. “Because Zaphkiel chased her into the Gaiaportal,” he growled.
“The Gaiaportal isn’t operational. It’s sealed.”
“She broke the seal.” Gabriel clenched his fists. “At the same time, blood rained down onIlhum a’Aral.”
Ilhum a’Aral. The angelic name for what humans called the Dome of the Rock. The site at which angels had arrived or departed when the Gaiaportal was operational.
“I still don’t—”
Gabriel closed his eyes. “We’re no longer in the prison,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion. He made an encompassing gesture. “This isn’t a mirage. We’re in the Meadow of Azna.”
Reaver looked around at verdant fields stretched into purple mountains. A herd of unicorns frolicked near a forest of fluffy trees.
“Cool. The prison was getting stale. But what the fuck does that have to do with Harvester? I…no.” The meadow wobbled as Reaver began to comprehend Gabriel’s meaning. “No!”
Agony swelled inside him, filling the hole in his soul where Harvester had been.
He hadn’t been able to feel the bond with her while in prison. But if she were alive, anywhere in the universe, he should be able to feel her now. The space she’d occupied was hollow.
His beloved mate, the female he’d hated and loved, loved and hated, over and over, was gone.
Chapter Thirty
Logan had Ares gate him back to the compound in Sydney. It was hard to believe it had only been four hours since he and Eva had left for Limos’s place. Felt like days.
Sabre was there, angrily tossing back shots of Scotch while Mace and Blade looked on.
“What’s going on? Why isn’t everyone still at Limos’s?”
“Party’s over, man,” Mace said. “Turns out dead Guardians and Harvester going through a juicer are fun killers.”
Logan’s body moved before his brain caught up. In the blink of an eye, he had Mace against the wall, his forearm pinning the demon by the neck.
“That is my grandma you’re talking about,” he snarled. “Have some fucking respect.”
Mace shot a glance at Blade, who shrugged. “Don’t look at me for help. You asked for it.”
“Sorry, man.” Mace slowly held up his hands in a show of surrender. “It’s cool.”