Page 26 of Trick Of Light

“And?”

“I can’t lie, you know that. I told Tarin to take the road to Nebo and become a real man—which is what he wanted more than anything after being mistaken for one—and once he’d fought to gain his humanity, then he would be given a soul and be birthed into the human world.”

“Did you keep your word?”

“You know better than that,” Gabriel growled at him. “I always keep my word.”

“So Tarin was made real and is now human.”

“Yes, though he’ll remember nothing. He’s a weak, meaningless human now. I have no idea why he would want that.”

Raphael shook his head. “You never understood humanity.” He sounded disappointed.

“Why would I want to?” Gabriel replied irritably. “They’re nothing compared to me.”

“You know who you sound just like,” Raphael baited him.

His glare at Raphael was dark. “I may question, but I would never revolt,” he barked at my mate. “I was not made to turn against God.”

Raphael ignored him. “So you set Tarin on the path to becoming human.”

“Again I say, it was all he wanted.” He huffed a breath. “I liked Tarin—the shell he was, I thought it would be better for him to remain something made and not become human, but that was not his desire. So after he spoke to Marcus at my behest, I did as he asked and even sent a guardian with him because he had served me so well.”

Marcus had been helpless and alone before Raphael found him. I could feel the anger making my teeth clench.

“Tarin was to tell Marcus the hunter was coming. Raphael, the great hunter of all that is unclean and unholy, would find the broken warder and restore him to the light.”

“But you didn’t make that clear to Tarin, so Marcus didn’t know I was coming. He thought some scary creature was going to reach him and kill him.”

He grunted. “I can’t help that.”

“You could have,” Raphael pointed out. “You chose not to.”

Gabriel shrugged his massive shoulders.

“You were watching when I found Marcus.”

“Of course.”

“And you followed me back.”

He nodded.

“All that time you had eyes on Moira.”

“I did.”

“You let her hurt Dylan and kill his friends,” I rasped, interrupting their conversation, overcome with Gabriel’s apathy.

“Angels can’t interfere,” he replied snidely. “Only angels masquerading as kyries.”

“You’re a horror,” Raphael muttered. “How could you do that? Your job is to protect humans.”

He scoffed. “Humans are vile,” he said, and I could hear the disgust in his voice and see the loathing all over his face. “They’re weak and frail and commit atrocities on one another and on the animals and earth they have dominion over. They should be erased from their plane. It would be beautiful without them, and all else would thrive.”

Raphael shook his head. “You don’t see, and you’ve never seen the beauty in a mother holding her child.”

“I watch. I see what is done to children on the earthly plane. There is no defense.”