Page 175 of The Spider Queen

I studied Gabriel. He peered at me with a predatory stillness. My gaze dropped to his pectoral, and my eyes widened. On the left side of his chest where a human’s heart would’ve been, I saw it. A pulsing bright starburst. But it wasn’t pure—a black spot which didn’t move, took up one third of it.

My head swiveled to look at Thane. He nodded ever so slightly. He saw it too. The blight on Gabriel’s soul.

Gabriel’s eye flashed with anger. “Do not judge me.”

“I’m not judging,” I whispered. “But I can’t help what I see. I don’t know what you did, but your soul carries the mark.”

Gabriel shoved back from the chair, and his wings flapped, making a snapping sound in the otherwise quiet night. His eyes glowed. “You both are our last hope. I wish you good fortune.” With that pronouncement, he disappeared in a cloud of golden glitter.

“Fucking angel dust,” Thane muttered, shaking his head, gold specks flying from his hair.

I traced my finger through a trail of it that had sprinkled the table. My surroundings vanished, and I was suddenly on a bank of white clouds gilded with gold. In the distance, I saw a floating castle, nestled amongst more of white gold clouds. Beasts with huge wings made lazy circles in the lapis lazuli blue sky. With every flap of a wing came the sound of thunder.

“Poppy.”

The vision vanished, and I was back in the tree shelter, staring into the flames. I looked at Thane with wide eyes. “What did I just see?” I whispered.

“The Kingdom of Heaven, I imagine,” Thane said, his tone dry. “Angel dust is hallucinogenic. Where do you think the human drug came from? It’s a watered down version, of course, and with some nasty side effects that real angel dust doesn’t have.”

I blinked. “Wow. Yeah. That was weird. I feltthere. I could even smell the air.”

“It’s sweet—like nectar.”

“Peaceful.”

“That’s the danger with angel dust. It seduces you.”

I nodded, even though my mind was no longer on Gabriel and his angel dust, just his message. “Is it too late?”

“I don’t know,” Thane admitted. “It would seem like it’s a lost cause. But I can’t stand by and do nothing. Even if they storm the gates of Heaven, even if demons pour out of every crevice and cavern and breach Earth, how can I not take my brother down? We have to free the mage if for no other reason, so I can help in the fight—if it should come to that.”

“We don’t have any time to spare, do we?”

“No, we have to go, we can’t just sit idly by hoping for a miracle,” he remarked.

“Do miracles even exist?” I wondered aloud.

He reached out and touched my cheek. “Of course, they do. I happen to believe it was a miracle that freed me.”

I rolled my eyes. “That wasn’t a miracle. That was sheer dumb luck on my behalf.” And a sharp pull of lust.

“Ah, Poppy. You could stand to have a little faith.”

“In what?” I demanded. “In an absent God who chooses to watch and wait?”

“The strife between Lucifer and his brother has gone on for a thousand millennia. Before that, even. Before the dawn of time, before the world was a glimmer in God’s eye. Lucifer has always hated his brother’s power. Resented it, coveted it.”

“Are you talking about God’s brother or your own?” I asked.

He shrugged. “One in the same, at this point.”

“Don’t brush it off, Thane. I know it cuts you deeply that your brother betrayed you.”

“He didn’t just betray me. He took everything I loved from me.” He sighed, suddenly looking exhausted. Leaning back in his chair, he rubbed a thumb across his stubbly chin. “It was the eve of my wedding…when Xan betrayed me.”

“Wedding?” I frowned. “You said Guardians don’t have spouses. Not in the normal sense.”

“I’ve loved another human woman, Poppy. Truly loved her. We chose each other. My parents had given their blessing and all was right in my world, but Xan wanted her for his own.”