Can you believe we are so close to the end of this story? There's still the whole sequel to go, though… and it would seem Cariel is insisting I tell you what happens in Heaven after Gabriel leaves! We'll see what happens!

HE IS NOT YOURS

Raphael's war room was right below his office, and it was already littered with maps and diagrams. Michael and Raphael stood side by side, their wings lightly brushing, heads bowed together over a central table that currently bore a map of Heaven and the immediately surrounding Borderlands. More maps littered the tables around the edges of the room and hung from the walls. The walls themselves were entirely translucent, but Gabriel knew the view was one-way only. No one outside this room could see in, but from his war room, Raphael could oversee all of Heaven. Various small desks tucked out of the way were left in disarray, their occupants having clearly fled and fled quickly when the Archangels sought privacy here.

Gabriel landed on the western side of the table, his back to his own tower. He had only been in this room once or twice in the billions of years it had existed. This room was Raphael's innermost sanctum, more so than his own office. To work here was to work in the very heart of the Healer.

Raphael glanced up as Gabriel materialized, but dismissed the other Archangel to turn back to the map. His hands flew over the lines, sketching shapes, guiding miniature angels around the Borderlands. Michael said nothing, but Gabriel could see his grace entwined with Raphael's. They were speaking silently, mind to mind.

Gabriel slammed his hands down on the table, accidentally crushing a miniature garrison and a squad of little demons. "You gave orders to Cariel in my absence."

"Someone had to," Raphael answered, flicking his fingers at Gabriel's hand to rescue the crushed angels.

"No! No one had to! Cariel is my lieutenant! I command him, not you!"

"You were on Earth, unaware of everything except the life of your precious human. You couldn't have directed your choir."

"He wasn't my precious human, he was our Father's! I was obeying His orders!"

"Regardless, you weren't here."

"Draw your swords." Michael interrupted the argument without lifting a finger. "Both of you. Right here, right now. Draw your swords and fight to the death."

Both Gabriel and Raphael turned as one to stare at Michael. "Are you legitimately insane?" Gabriel finally asked. "You want us to try to kill each other?"

"I give you permission. When one of you is victorious, I will stand before God and testify that the other's death was entirely because of me. Now fight."

"With all due respect, Michael, that is a ridiculous idea," Raphael said slowly. "Especially now, with the enemy at our gates. We can't afford to destroy each other now."

Michael's arms were now folded, and he was surveying both of the twins. "You won't do it?"

"No!" Gabriel protested. "I'm not about to kill him-"

"Then stop fighting." Michael's eyes were narrowed. "If it's not worth killing the other over, it's not worth fighting over, not now, when, as Raphael so astutely remembered, we are besieged by the true enemy."

Gabriel looked away from Raphael, gritting his teeth to keep from saying anything further. He could feel Raphael's agitation seething across the table.

Michael's heavy sigh weighed down the entire room. "Gabriel, things have changed while you were away. Things had to change. Yes, we gave Cariel some orders, fully aware he was still your lieutenant and part of your choir-"

"You ordered him not to tell me." Gabriel interrupted Michael, his voice quiet. "Cariel would have immediately told me if you were issuing orders, but one of those orders was a gag. You ordered my second to keep information from me."

"Yes." Michael's voice was unashamed. "We did. You were on a mission from God. If you knew we were filling your gap, you would have thrown a fit and tried to come rushing back before you were freed."

"Why are you making such a big deal about this?" Raphael demanded. "Neither Michael nor I berated you when you ordered our choirs around."

"That was different!"

"How?"

"The two of you were physically incapable of attending to your duties!"

"As were you!"

"I could attend to them from Earth, with Cariel as my proxy in Heaven!"

Michael cleared his throat, his shadowy eyes narrowed in a dark glare aimed at both the twins. Gabriel forced his mouth shut, curling his fingers against the map table.

Raphael was not so easily silenced. "The real problem is that we gave Cariel orders which he obeyed, isn't it, Gabriel? Your real offense with this is that you can't pretend Cariel will only listen to you now, that he is yours to his very core, with no other allegiances. You can't pretend that he'll genuinely turn his back on Heaven to run away with you. That's why you're upset. It's not that we gave Cariel orders. It's that he obeyed."

Gabriel slowly lifted his head to stare at Raphael as his twin's words struck too close to home. Gabriel had known his brothers would have tried to step in in his absence. That was precisely why he'd left Cariel in charge and tried to keep his hands off things so as not to undermine the Seraph. He had prepared for them to give orders… but he had assumed Cariel would immediately report back to him when that happened. Cariel hadn't. Cariel had followed the orders given to him, and in the process of doing so, had betrayed Gabriel. It wasn't a serious betrayal, and Gabriel was certain Cariel would apologize as soon as they had a private moment together, but still. Cariel had always put Gabriel first, above everything else, above Heaven itself. Now, Gabriel had proof that he hadn't. If Cariel had a stronger loyalty here, what was stopping him from having a stronger loyalty about other things?

About running away? How could Raphael have even known Gabriel and Cariel had talked of running to Earth? No one else had been in that room. No one else could have overheard.

"Cariel isn't yours," Raphael said, his grace smugly swirling around his form. "He belongs to the Host. To us."

Gabriel launched across the table before he even realized he had given the order to his wings. A fireball summoned to his hand was driven into Raphael's smirking face. Gabriel tackled Raphael to the ground with a scream of outrage, pummeling him with his flaming wings. Raphael hissed and fought back, a fierce wind tangling in Gabriel's feathers and dragging him back, blocking his blows. Fingers sharpened into claws struck out against the side of Gabriel's face, and Gabriel drove his knee into Raphael's stomach.

A strong hand curled around the nape of Gabriel's neck, and he found himself flung into the far wall. Raphael was thrown away from him, crashing into the wall opposite. Michael stood in the middle, arms and wings outstretched, pure fury crackling through his grace.

"Gabriel." Michael's voice was colder than even Lucifer's, with his icy core, ever had been. "Go. Return to your tower and await further instructions."

"But he-"

"NOW, Gabriel!" Michael slashed Gabriel's name across his grace, disappointment, anger, and command thrown behind the word. Gabriel shut his eyes and spread his grace, folding himself through Heaven.

Cariel was sitting in Gabriel's chair, staring blankly at the center of the desk. He jumped when Gabriel materialized in the room, hastily shoving the Archangel's chair back to get to his feet. "Gabriel! You're… you're hurt!" He crossed the room in two quick strides, his fingers skimming along the scratches on Gabriel's face.

Gabriel turned away from the gentle touch, closing his eyes again. "Cariel, I need…"

"Anything," Cariel answered immediately, dropping his hand to Gabriel's shoulder.

Gabriel felt sick, his grace crawling where Cariel was touching him. Cariel had lied to him. "I need you to go," he whispered, taking Cariel's wrist and gently pulling his hand away from his shoulder. "I need you not here right now."

Cariel stepped back, his grace reflecting the horror that shone through his face. "What did they say to you, Gabriel? What did they do?"

"Please, just go." Gabriel turned away, his wings folded in tight against his back. Don't look at me like that, Cariel. Don't make it hurt worse. "I need to be alone right now."

Gabriel could feel the ripple as Cariel reached for him and hesitated, could sense Cariel's grace shifting around him as the Seraph silently turned and slipped out through the door. It shut behind him with barely a click, and Gabriel sagged against his desk, clutching at his head with both hands. Why did this have to happen? Why now? Why like this?