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you—”
    Celine steps between us, a hand on Aaron’s chest. “He’ll be fine,” she says, her voice low but potent.
    Aaron bites back his comment and turns to the Board. “What’s the assignment?”
    I haul myself out of the chair, which disappears the instant I push away from it, lift my hand and tap my finger on the Board over Haden. “Help Daniel with whatever he needs.”
    He glares at the Board for a moment. “ Daniel? You’re not serious,” he sneers. “I’m supposed to take orders from a Grigori? He’s fallen, Gabriel,” he adds, folding his arms defiantly across his chest.
    Again, I second-guess myself. I’m within a hair’s breadth of telling him to forget the whole thing when Celine speaks. “That’s her family, Aaron. What’s wrong? Too big of a job?”
    Aaron spins and cuts a glare at me before turning to the Board. “So what is it that I’m supposed to do, exactly?”
    “What you do best,” I reply.
    He puffs out his chest. “I am the best, though no one around here seems to remember that little factoid.”
    It’s useless to point out that being older does not automatically make him better. It’s been a bone of contention since my creation. But the fact is, his real beef is with the archangel Gabriel—not me.
    After the War in Heaven, Lucifer fell and started creating His army. Gabriel determined he could no longer serve as the sole protector of all humanity and asked the Almighty for an army of guardians. Aaron was one of the first trained and one of Gabriel’s favorites. Shortly after, when it was decided that Gabriel would delegate control of the guardians to another, Aaron believed he was the obvious choice. So when Gabriel asked the Almighty to create a Dominion to serve as his Left Hand—one more powerful than the guardians who could watch over them—Aaron was furious.
    And still is.
    He resents me for being what he couldn’t, but he’s smart enough not to take out his frustration on Gabriel. He believes he was slighted, and for the six thousand years since my creation, he’s never let me forget it.
    As Aaron smirks and fades out, and his white light pops onto the Board near Frannie’s house, I have to remind myself that he is, in fact, one of the very best.
    I follow the Light back to the beach, where I sit and stare out over the waves, red in the glow of the setting sun. I pull myself out of the sand, praying I’m making the right call. If there was a way I could just hide Frannie away forever, I would. But they’re going to find us. With all of Hell looking, it’s just a matter of time.
    LUC
     
    Gabriel has gone insane. It’s all I can come up with. Too many eons of breathing ozone has eroded his judgment. And it was questionable to start with.
    How he thinks he can put Frannie in the middle of this and have her—and therefore humanity—come out intact is beyond me. The thought sends a chill up my spine.
    When I’d resolved to stay behind in Haden … away from Frannie … it was because I thought she was better off with Gabriel—he’d keep her safe. It’s only now, as I walk past him lying on the dark beach, that I realize how wrong I was.
    How could he gamble with her life like this? Knowing what she is—what’s at stake—how could he risk it?
    I’m so unaccustomed to this role—the helpless bystander. But if Gabriel isn’t going to protect her, it falls on me. There’s no choice. And no going back. The wheels have been set in motion.
    I couldn’t even look at Frannie as I said those things—implied I didn’t care about her, had only been using her.
    And worse.
    I know my words hit the mark because I could hear the pain in her voice when she answered. The certainty that my words couldn’t have possibly hurt her any worse than they hurt me does little to assuage the guilt. My words cut through my insides like a dull knife. Even the echo of them stings.
    I walk slowly through the gentle lap of the surf. Water spreads out in front of me, a velvet