After Gabriel slept for a full day, never moving from his curled-up position on the red sofa for conversation or even food, Jael's patience snapped.

She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her in distress, however. She had learned better than that. He had fooled her once. It would not happen again.

"Get up," she barked, kicking the sofa. Gabriel did not stir. She kicked again. "Hey, asshole! I know you hear me."

Turning his head, Gabriel peered at her through the space between the crook of his elbow and his hair. He only looked. He said nothing.

"Come on," Jael said. "The day's starting. Get a move on."

Gabriel lowered his head into his arm again.

"Gabriel!" Another kick. "Get up and do something. You can't just wallow in this self-pity or whatever it is. Get your ass off of the sofa, or the world will move on without you."

"Let it," Gabriel mumbled.

"No," Jael said. "I won't let you stifle yourself like this. You wouldn't let me."

"This is different."

"How? Explain it to me." Jael folded her arms. "What happened to you in the Hellhole? What makes you want to kill yourself?"

"Proctiel," Gabriel said.

Jael blinked. "Who?"

"A Dominion."

"Oh." She pursed her lips. "They don't usually leave Heaven."

"No."

"Then what did he do to you?"

Gabriel's gaze darkened. "Serves in my place."

"Uhh," Jael said. "Gabriel? Are you saying this Proctiel has taken your place as an archangel?"

"Yes."

"Gabriel, I've never even heard of this dude. Michael said you're still an archangel, and you clearly still have all of your attributes. You are still the guy, even if it does suck that you are."

Gabriel made himself smaller.

"Oh. You think your brothers like him more than you." Jael exhaled heavily. "Your brothers adore you. Even I could see that. So don't worry about that for a second."

Gabriel snorted quietly.

"You'll see," Jael said. "Once your head unclouds and you get back to yourself again."

"Please stop," Gabriel said.

Jael pursed her lips. "Stop what?"

"It hurts."

Her first instinct was to scowl. It hurt? Did he think he was the only one? Was he so ignorant of the pain he had caused her? She was fully within her rights to walk away, or even to throw him out of a window, and the temptation to do either was strong.

But she reconsidered. Although she had been forced to endure her own suffering alone, the same did not have to be true for Gabriel. It was a terrible fate, to wonder and wish and question only within her mind, and Gabriel deserved better than that. Everyone did.

"Let's go for a walk," Jael said.

Gabriel shook his head. "I'd rather not."

"Do it anyway." Jael got to her feet and offered Gabriel her hand. Gabriel's frown deepened, but he took her hand and drew himself up.

"Put on a hoodie or something," Jael said. She pulled a jacket on over her shirt and jeans. Gabriel made even less effort: His tousled dress shirt and slacks shifted into a hoodie and jeans.

Outside, the sky was grey and the houses were frail and rundown, but Gabriel was still distracted by the unremarkable surroundings. A third of the houses were boarded up and had been so for a very long time; another third were in terrible shape, despite being lived in at times.

"I've learned some things about human poverty here," Jael said. She tucked her hands into her pockets and started right, toward the train tracks. "Shantael can't have picked this place by accident."

Gabriel followed her. "Where are we?" he asked.

Jael knew that Gabriel would be cognizant of his current location at any time and place on the mortal plane, so she answered his true question.

"Apparently this part of Hollygrove was called the Devil's Elbow," Jael explained. "Mostly due to the trains that would speed through the area and derail as they careened around the corner. But it's not an affluent area, and those conditions give way to crime, so the name is still kind of apt."

"But the rest of the city looks reasonably well recovered," Gabriel said.

"'The rest of the city' could afford to rebuild and renew," Jael replied. "There are pockets of neighborhoods like this one all over, though. Some are in worse shape."

Gabriel nodded, his head bowed. The next block was passed in silence.

"Why'd you change your appearance?" Jael asked.

Gabriel looked up and shook his head as though waking from a reverie. "What changed?"

"Dude," Jael said. "Almost everything. Your face looks like the Almajoyese version of you, and your skin is significantly browner than it was."

"Oh." Gabriel shrugged, and Jael had to wonder when he had last looked in a mirror. "Is that bad?"

"Well, you don't look like an archangel anymore for sure. But that skin will probably help you here." Jael gestured. "I still want to know why, though."

He shrugged again. "Maybe to honor the three people who helped me in Hell."

"Three? You have three friends in Hell?" Jael raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised."

"Only one," Gabriel replied. "The other two projected in from elsewhere. Belial, Queen Twelve, and the Metamorph."

Jael gave a low whistle. "That's quite a lineup."

"Yes."

"How did Belial help you without pissing off Satan?"

"Satan can't touch Belial," Gabriel replied. "They both know it. Satan may rule Hell in practice, but his subjects' hearts, which he chooses not to acknowledge, belong to Belial, and have for at least the past three years."

"Fair enough," Jael said. "But Twelve and the Metamorph? Not gonna lie, but just the idea that you're in their sights makes my skin crawl a little."

"Why? They're both pleasant women."

"They're Celestials. They aren't supposed to care what's going on beyond their realms."

"One of them does live on Earth," Gabriel reminded her. "I'm not sure why Queen Twelve got involved. But I know that all of them kept me grounded. I would have left Hell in a much more fractured state of mind if not for them."

Jael hissed, "Gabriel, every time a Celestial starts nosing around in our affairs, it ends in disaster."

Gabriel almost smiled. "Maybe we need a little disaster."

"I don't like the sound of that," Jael said.

They walked past a house that had been converted into a corner store. Several men of various builds hung around outside, talking in low voices. When Jael and Gabriel came by, the men watched them approach. Jael nodded at them, and they nodded back, murmuring greetings. Then they sized Gabriel up, judged him passable, and went back to conducting their own business.

"So what's the mission gonna be all about?" Jael asked.

"Which mission?"

"The one Michael assigned us."

"He'll explain it when it's time."

"Yeah, but I know you already know what it is, and if you tell me now, i can get a head start."

Gabriel chuckled under his breath. "There's no mission. It's already being handled."

"By whom?"

"Proctiel."

"Okay," Jael said. "This guy is becoming a problem."

Gabriel hid a smile. "Yes."

"Let's turn around and head back," Jael said. "But what is it? Who's involved?"

"Nephilim," Gabriel said.

"Aww," Jael said. "Your favorite."

"Quite."

"All of them?"

"Only a small group of comparatively young ones. They happen to be stationed about an hour's drive from here."

"How fortuitous. What's their plan?"

"To restore the Nephilim to glory. You know the pitch."

Jael did know. Every few centuries, a fresh batch of Nephilim got the Genesis 6 itch and attempted to remake the world in their image. These cases always went to Gabriel. He and Jael had quashed countless such rebellions over the eons. It was almost routine.

"Right," Jael said. "And it's already being handled?"

"They are embedding a friendly Naphil to act as a spy," Gabriel said. "Proctiel is grooming her."

"And she'll feed us information so that we can stop whatever the plan is?"

"She already is, to Proctiel and Raphael."

"That's exactly what we did in 1720."

"Yes."

They passed the converted corner store again. The men were gone.

"Then what part do we play?" Jael asked.

"A very small one," Gabriel replied. "My brothers assigned me this task so that I can prove my devotion to Heaven's interests. They then recruited Proctiel to act on my behalf, to ensure that the operation would succeed without my interfering with its natural progress."

Jael was still considering the archangels' motives. "But you've always been devoted to Heaven's interests."

"Forever."

"Then what do you have to prove? Why don't they just let you handle it?"

"They no longer trust me."

"Why not?"

"Why don't you?"

The question hit Jael harder than it should have in Gabriel's still-faint voice. "Gabriel, we've been walking and talking for not even ten minutes, and I can see that you're still the same you."

"And as such, you've forgiven me? So quickly?"

Jael balked. "Um, not really."

"Why not?"

The answer was an easy one, but Jael searched for words. After watching her struggle for a bit, Gabriel rescued her with a succinct, cutting version of her own thoughts.

"Because it's in my nature to be duplicitous," Gabriel said. "I have always been the archangel who embraced murky moralities most easily. Now I have an attempted genocide and three years of hard time to show for it."

Jael winced. "Gabriel."

"Is it not true?"

"It's true as hell," Jael said. "But there's more to it than that. I know it, and so do your brothers."

"In fairness," Gabriel said, "I think I have spoken more words with you over the past ten minutes than I did during the two days that I spent in Michael's care after the Hellhole."

"Getting some fresh air helps with that," Jael said. "Getting out of your own head."

Gabriel glanced at her. "You have had to do this."

"I had to stop myself asking why the man I loved tricked me, used me, and abandoned me."

The words were out before Jael realized she had said them. She'd gotten a little too at ease speaking so freely with Gabriel, speaking as if it was old times still, when they could talk about anything and not be hurt. Gabriel recognized her error and opted to reserve his hurt feelings for later, in the privacy of his own mind.

Instead, he said quietly, "It's a useful trick."

They walked in silence for a few blocks. Soon they found themselves in the crook of the Devil's Elbow again. Gabriel's stomach rumbled.

"Of course you're hungry," Jael said.

He smiled a bit. "Maybe we should have picked up some fried chicken from that corner store."

"Yeah," Jael said. "Fried chicken, and other things."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

"You have much to learn," Jael remarked. "The gas station across the railroad tracks has some decent snacks."

"Sounds good," Gabriel said.

They picked their way across the tracks and dodged cars on Airline Highway in their quest for quick food.