Seven Archangels: Annihilation by Jane Lebak Read Free Book Online Page A

seen one angel dead and knowing that if he wasn't fully, totally Camael, the next moment would see the death of a second. So many questions, so many different ways of asking the same thing. And every time, the same answers. Lucifer wanted to be sure. You had your hands in him. Did he die?
    Yes, I told you, I think he did.
    You think, or you know?
    I couldn't find anything else. He was there and then he burst into nothing when you moved through me and made that last pull.
    Not mentioning—not even remembering the moment Camael decided there was no choice but to resist, but then not enough time, that moment when it felt as if Gabriel were vacuumed backward, but then there was nothing at all and hope turned into emptiness when Camael realized it wasn't the arms of rescue but the suction of nothingness and the Abyss.
    Lucifer, all excited: had they really done it? And Camael, ripped in half again and again: yes, we did it. Mephistopheles: the evidence indicates that we succeeded, just as I hypothesized. Beelzebub: this is awesome, everything we've ever wanted.
    No, no, Lucifer would say at that point, let's go over it one more time. Just in case we missed something.
    After that excited roundabout, Lucifer and Beelzebub all the more fervent with every exchange and Mephistopheles more analytical and less certain (what if in theory—what if we allow for this differential) Lucifer received a message from Asmodeus, chief of Hell's army.
    Beelzebub let off an irritated sigh.
    "Come in," Lucifer said, but Camael felt that Lucifer actually looped him into the room. These must be unique Guards. You couldn't be let inside; you had to actually be drawn in like a fly on a frog's tongue. Camael wondered if the reverse were true and tried to send out a tendril of thought—but back it bounced. Interesting. In by pull, out by shove.
    Asmodeus bowed. "We've positioned sentries in defense formation as you ordered. No attacks so far." Again the irritated sigh from Beelzebub—Asmodeus had disrupted their meeting to report nothing? Asmodeus continued in his even bass, "I wanted to note something interesting."
    "Asmodeus," and the firmness conveyed that Lucifer's next words, however phrased, were to be considered a threat, "interest me."
    "The angels stationed in Creation are silent," Asmodeus said. "All of them. The tourists are gone, but the angels with assignments are paired up."
    Lucifer's chair creaked. "But silent?"
    "They're doubled up," Asmodeus repeated, "but nobody is singing."
    Camael recoiled. Beelzebub gasped.
    "That's what they did when he died," Mephistopheles whispered, his voice abruptly coming from the same corner as Beelzebub's.
    No one spoke.
    "We did it!" Beelzebub said. "I told you, we did it!"
    "We had sentries surrounding the Guarded dome over the field where you abducted him," Asmodeus said. "That dome remained in place and we were unable to break it, not even enough to see through, but—" and here they felt his excitement surge, "we were able to hear Raphael scream 'No!'"
    Camael felt both Beelzebub and Mephistopheles cringe simultaneously.
    Lucifer and the captain of the army pinpointed the moment the scream happened, about half a second before the annihilation finished. "That corresponds to when I broke their bond," Lucifer added.
    Mephistopheles sounded hollow. "You could find that?"
    "I saved it for last," Lucifer said, "in case Gabriel was in pain."
    Camael stared toward his hands, only he couldn't see them. I feel nothing. I feel nothing.
    "Are they in attack formation?" Lucifer asked.
    "They're not staging anything we can determine," Asmodeus said.
    "Excellent work." Lucifer cracked his knuckles. "Alert me if you think you can interest me again." And Asmodeus was gone.
    Camael's head dropped onto his folded arms, and all three pairs of wings came up over his head.
    Silent angels. A buddy system. No invasion. Gabriel dead.
    Gabriel.
    Dead.
    No—stop feeling. Feel nothing.
    Mephistopheles said, "We shouldn’t