Chapter 33 #2
Gabriel considered the suggestion before shrugging.
“I’m sure there are plenty of scenarios, but the limitations of the dream realm will be your greatest deterrent.
For instance, the last time Lucifer was trapped, it required the efforts of an entire coven.
You could bring a coven into the realm, but anything they required for the spell outside of their innate power would not come with them.
And dream elements are all figments of the dream realm. ”
“They hold no actual power,” I said, stating what he had not.
“Precisely.”
“So we’re just meant to send her in to fight him alone?”
“Just as David fought Goliath. Your mate will face Lucifer.”
My heart stuttered. “She’s not my mate.”
There was far less conviction in the statement this time.
Gabriel sat up straight, leveling me with a dubious stare. “Isn’t she?”
“Horsemen don’t have mates. We have no souls. It’s impossible.” I’d come to understand the meaning of what a soul was very quickly. Reaping countless of them resulted in a deep and intimate knowledge of who did and did not possess one. I could touch my brothers. None of us had souls to be reaped.
Gabriel laughed. He fucking laughed at me. “Who told you that?”
“No one. I put it together easily.”
“Well, you’re wrong. You may not have a human soul, but I assure you, you’ve got one.”
“How can that be?”
“Likely much the same way it is for angels and all other supernatural creatures.”
“Angels can have mates?”
He nodded, some of the light leaving his eyes. “They can, though it requires them to fall.”
“How is that fair?”
“Who said anything about fair, horseman? Love rarely is. Though it very well may be the only thing truly worth fighting for.”
I didn’t have any rebuttal. I was too rocked by his admission. I could have a soulmate. I could have Merri. She’d been right all this time, and I’d thrown her vulnerable confession back in her face and dismissed it as ridiculous.
Unable to fully wrap my head around the truth he’d just laid at my feet, I mutely shook my head and pulled myself back to my original purpose.
“So there’s really nothing you can tell me that could help us against him?”
Gabriel tilted his head incredulously. “As if I did not just hand you the most important thing on a fucking platter?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but he held up a hand with a world-weary sigh.
“I explain, and explain, and explain, and no one ever listens.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “This must be how mothers feel. Constantly repeating themselves, always ignored.”
Still staring at him, I waited for him to give me something useful.
Pinning me with his gaze, he groaned in pure frustration. “The answer is your mate. All paths lead to her. She is the final piece of the puzzle, and without her, we may as well hand the world over right now. Go to her. Support her. Strengthen her.”
If only I could.
I had the sudden fear that I’d already ruined things beyond repair.
“It’s never too late, Grimsby. Until it is.”
I glared at him. “Fortune cookies are more helpful than you.”
He flung his hands up. “You were the one who came to me.”
“A lapse in judgment I will be sure not to repeat.”
“Well, thank the Creator for that.” Falling back into his seat, he pulled the paperback from his coat and began flipping through the pages until he found his spot. When I didn't move, he looked over the book with an eyebrow raised. “Is there anything else? I was just about to get to the good part.”
“What do you consider the good part?”
He stared at me as if I were the stupidest being in all existence. “When he stops being an obtuse fool and confesses his love for her.”
For some reason, I had the sense he wasn’t talking about the book. I didn’t say another word as I left the greenhouse, stalking my way back to the room where my brothers were currently under Merri’s spell.
As if my presence summoned them back, the three all shot up as one.
“Enjoy your little nap?” I drawled, doing my level best to shove my jealousy down as far as it could possibly go whilst they got to their feet.
Sin smirked. “Fuck yeah.”
“I’ve never felt so relaxed,” Malice murmured, his eyes half-lidded.
She’d fed on them. All of them. And my stubborn arse hadn’t been included.
“She tried, Grim.” Chaos’s words pulled me out of my one-man pity party. “She said your bond was too weak and she couldn’t bring you in.”
Fuck. I was right. This was all my fault.
I sat down with a groan. If only I’d had the clarity of Gabriel’s words earlier. Everything would be different. Merri would have never fled. I’d have had the opportunity to collect more moments with her.
My mate.
“Is he . . . crying?” Sin asked.
I was so startled by the question I sat straight up and wiped at my face. There were no tears. I glared at Sin and chucked the first thing I could reach straight at his head.
Chaos caught the lamp before it could make contact.
“No, I’m not fucking crying, you twat. I’m frustrated with myself. I was wrong. So bloody wrong, and now I can’t fix it.”
“Well, you’ve been wrong about a lot of things lately, so could you maybe tighten that statement up a bit? What were you wrong about now?” Sin flinched when I looked at him, but I didn’t throw anything this time.
“She is my mate.”
Chaos cleared his throat. “Our mate.”
I nodded. “Right. Merri is our mate.”
Sin and Malice just looked at me.
“Well?” I said. “No reaction?”
“Was that supposed to be news or something? We already know. We’ve been telling you that for weeks now,” Sin said.
“What made you finally accept it?” Malice asked, his gaze a bit softer than the others.
“Gabriel.”
Chaos frowned. “The angel?”
“Yes. I always thought it was impossible for us to have a soulmate. We are horsemen. We have no human soul. Our purpose would be in jeopardy if we were distracted by having a mate. But I was wrong.”
Again, none of them seemed as profoundly affected by the news as I’d been, but then I was the one who dealt most intimately with souls, so perhaps they had none of my preconceived notions to inform them.
Sin chuckled and came over to me, clapping me on the shoulder. “Welcome back to the team, buddy. Better late than never.”