“Are you here to confess?” he asked, his voice flat and void of emotion just like it should be.
She snorted. “Not exactly.” She pressed a petite palm to his cheek, and energy flared between them.
He tried to step back to avoid the impact, but it was too late. A series of memories unfurled inside his head, each one a new explanation that left him gasping out loud.
“Remove them. It’s the only way,” Gabriel said, his voice void of emotion. Yet he felt the ache in his heart, the pain of having to make this choice.
She’s better off, he promised himself. At least she isn’t drowning.
However, as the memory began to change, Gabriel wondered if they’d made a mistake. What if he found out via other means? Would he break all his oaths to rescue her?
“The loop will help,” Vera promised. “I’ll do what I can to regulate it for you all.”
“I know you will,” Gabriel replied. “Do what you need to do. Make me forget.”
The council had found Caro hours after Osiris had left her at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. They’d saved her only to put her in a different sort of cage, one where they would do their best to reform her.
But her ties to Sethios could never truly be broken.
Even a hundred years in that reformation chamber wouldn’t be enough to destroy their bond.
He’d bring her back.
He’d have to. There was no other alternative.
As the memory of his mother’s captivity slid from his mind, another came to him, the one of Vera delivering the news of the council retrieving Caro from her water prison.
A debate had followed. To save her now could dismantle everything they were working toward, not just in regard to Osiris but also in safeguarding Astasiya. She was too young and therefore susceptible to their influence. If the Seraphim found her now, everything Sethios and Caro had given up would have been for nothing.
No, they had to let this play out. Reformation wouldn’t hurt. It would just put Caro in a state of limbo, her mind constantly monitored for any and all signs of emotion. Another Seraphim would be there to bring her back, to reprogram her under the mentality of her true purpose—to live a life of practicality.
She’d grown up in that environment. Then Sethios had changed everything. He would just have to do that again.
“It was the best way,” Vera whispered now, drawing Gabriel back to her.
Next, she showed him the memory of altering Leela’s mind as well, removing the knowledge of what the council had done, while adding in little changes that protected her from discovery.
No one knew they were searching for Caro.
Vera had orchestrated everything, morphing the loop within his mother’s mind to ensure the regular blasts went unnoticed.
“But she keeps undoing them,” Vera muttered, stirring Gabriel from his thoughts. “Your mother is a lot more powerful than she realizes. She continues to access that back door because she sees it as a connection to her bonds. I have to shove her out every time so the others don’t notice what I’ve done.”
“Why are you showing me this now?” Gabriel asked, his voice a rasp of sound from the electricity humming through his head, reweaving paths that had been magically altered by the Seraphim beside him.
“Because you already know they have Caro. Adriel informed you of the council’s decision to rehabilitate her, and you agreed to it.”
Another memory slammed into him, one showcasing his father’s golden hair and fiery red wings—both traits Gabriel had inherited from him.
He’d arrived at Gabriel’s house in the South Pacific only hours after Gabriel had left Astasiya with the Davenports.
And it was just minutes after Vera had flashed in to warn him about Caro’s fate.
Adriel had flatly told him about Caro’s choice, including her bonding to Sethios, creating a life, and then hiding that life. Then he’d ended with a short “She will be rehabilitated and cured of her fractured mindset.”
Gabriel had dully stated that it was the right course of action.
And that was it.
