Seven Archangels: Annihilation by Jane Lebak Page B

flooded with Satan's filthy light, nor the paralyzing fear of discovery.
    Now for the real propaganda.
    "The Guard broke."
    A number of demons protested. "They said it held!"
    "Naturally they'd say it held! It didn't—I was there. God himself assaulted that room, but our leader worked quicker, desperate to succeed, and Gabriel's soul dissolved faster and faster, everything but our memories, until Gabriel screamed and screamed and even damned himself to make the pain stop, but by then he was too far gone for even us to restore. God grabbed Lucifer by the throat, but I gave one last blast, and the Cherub was gone."
    The demons cheered. Camael closed his eyes.
    "Lucifer begged for mercy," he said. "God dropped him. Beelzebub and Mephistopheles reset the Guard, but Gabriel's whole form had vanished. There was only a flame kept burning on the altar."
    The groupies gasped.
    Camael added. "It floated from the room—and we don't know where it went. But it's somewhere in the lab area. Somewhere."
    They all stood gawking, the groupies.
    He noted the beginning of a push away from the dark to the western part of the room.
    Leaving them to their awe, Camael vanished from the thick of them to Gabriel's prison chamber, where he fought back any vestiges of Remiel and tried to regain composure.
     
     
     

Chapter Seven
     
    Michael and Raguel flashed into the conference room with tense wings and clenched hands.
    "I never realized you hate this too," Raguel said.
    "Why do you think I always asked Gabriel to handle them?" Michael sighed. "I thought he enjoyed them."
    "He probably did, knowing him." Raguel laughed. "He'd take any chance to offer a lecture."
    Michael caught Israfel's eyes across the conference room, the betrayed glare, and he realized they'd begun using the past tense.
    The room itself had stadium-style seating for fifty, a ring of windows on all sides revealing a partly cloudy day and the valleys falling away around them. It had no doors because souls didn't need them.
    Everyone fell silent as Michael went to the table at the front. He scanned the crowd and recognized the heads of all nine choirs, but of the Seven only himself, Raguel and Saraquael. Five humans attended including Peter, the equivalents of "heads of the choir," and he missed Mary if she was there.
    With a deep breath, he called the meeting to order, and then in as brief a summation as he could, delivered the official news of what had happened.
    Silence overspread the others. Even Saraquael and Raguel, who had been present, stayed unmoving and rapt, as if in the retelling they might find a way out, some way this hadn't happened.
    Before he'd finished by urging them to keep the details away from the enemy, Mary had appeared in the back and slipped into a seat.
    Michael quieted, not having the heart to ask for questions.
    "But he's going to recover?" said the head of the choir of Angels.
    Michael swallowed. "I can't say for certain."
    A collective flinch from the angels. Michael closed his eyes. They all projected at the same time—he might die? He might really die? God would allow that? But couldn't they save him?
    Michael looked for Mary's eyes, and he arched his brows. She shook her head: no.
    No improvement.
    Michael summoned a chair and guided himself to a seat. He put his head in his hands. God, center me. I need to lead them. They need it right now.
    Raguel stood. "I want to know how we're going to respond to this."
    Michael looked up, weary. "What would you have us do?"
    "A full siege of Hell," Raguel said. "Immediately."
    Michael sat back. "We do need to respond, but I'm not sure that's the best way."
    Raguel folded his arms. He was the tallest and broadest of the Seven, arguably the strongest even though the Principalities were in the lowest triad of choirs. Michael put a little ice into his glance, but Raguel remained unmoving.
    Fine. Michael returned to his feet. "None of us denies the basic facts: two hours ago, one of our own was abducted and