Silence settled over the room for a mont, the unspoken truth hanging between them. They were furious at Gabriel for his recklessness, for nearly getting himself killed, and for attacking lissa. But underneath that anger was sothing else, sothing none of them wanted to acknowledge.
They’d found him. After days of searching, of following dead ends and rumours, he was here. Unconscious and bleeding, but alive.
Tess was the first to break the mont, her voice sharp as she sheathed her sword. "When he wakes up, we need answers. And he better have good ones, or I’m throwing him back out there myself."
The threat rang hollow, and everyone in the room knew it.
ra continued working, cleaning the blood from Gabriel’s temple. Her jaw was tight, her movents controlled, but her hands lingered on his face longer than necessary. "Reckless bastard," she muttered under her breath. "Could have gotten himself killed."
"Would’ve deserved it," Gilbert added, crossing his arms with satisfaction still plain on his face. "Going after the Church like that. In broad daylight."
But even as he said it, even as the smugness filled his chest, there was sothing else there too. Sothing he wouldn’t admit out loud.
He was glad the demon-eyed bastard was alive.
Gilbert shifted his weight, wincing as his ribs protested. "So what do we do when he wakes up? Besides give him the thrashing he deserves for being an idiot."
"We leave Adaranthe," Tess said imdiately. "Tonight if possible. This city isn’t safe anymore." She paused, her eyes still on Gabriel’s face. "And we make sure he knows exactly how stupid he was."
"It was never safe," Adan corrected quietly. "But now the Church knows soone like Gabriel is here. Or suspects it. Either way, we can’t stay." His gaze hadn’t left Gabriel since they’d brought him in, sothing unreadable in his expression.
lissa pushed herself to her feet, wincing. "I can help with that. I know people who can get you out."
"Why would you help us?" Tess asked, her eyes narrowing. "You’re Church. A sister of Mazrion. He just tried to kill you."
lissa’s hand went to her throat, fingers tracing the bruises Gabriel’s grip had left. "Because whatever he’s beco, the Church made him that way. And because..." She looked at Gabriel’s unconscious form, sothing complex passing across her face. "Because I knew him before. And that boy deserved better than what they did to him."
ra finished bandaging Gabriel’s head and stepped back, wiping her hands on a cloth. Her movents were sharp, angry, but her eyes kept returning to his face. "He’ll be unconscious for hours. Maybe longer. We should use that ti to prepare."
"And to figure out what we’re going to say to him when he wakes up," Ennu added softly.
"I know what I’m going to say," Gilbert said with a smirk. "I’m going to remind him that I’m the one who dropped him. Finally." The satisfaction in his voice was unmistakable.
Tess shot him a look. "You’re going to gloat?"
"Damn right I am." Gilbert’s grin widened. "Been waiting for this."
"He tried to strangle a nun," Tess pointed out.
"And I stopped him," Gilbert replied. "That makes us even. Better than even."
Adan shook his head, but there was the faintest hint of amusent in his eyes. "Focus. We need to scout the routes out. Ennu, check our supplies."
"What about him?" Gilbert asked, nodding toward Gabriel.
"We watch him," ra said simply, her tone brooking no argunt. "And we make sure when he wakes up, soone’s there to stop him if he loses control again." Her hand unconsciously touched Gabriel’s shoulder, barely a brush of contact before she pulled away.
"I’ll take first watch," Gilbert volunteered imdiately. "If he wakes up violent, I’ll put him back down. Already proved I can do it once."
lissa moved toward the door, her steps unsteady. "I’ll make the arrangents with the smugglers. et back here at sundown."
"Can we trust her?" Tess asked ra once lissa had left.
ra looked at Gabriel’s face, at the bandage wrapped around his head, at the peaceful expression that hid whatever nightmares haunted him. Her anger was still there, simring beneath the surface, but so was sothing else.
"I don’t know," she admitted quietly. "But we don’t have a choice." Her hand moved unconsciously toward Gabriel again before she caught herself. "And at least we found him. The idiot."
The room fell quiet again.
Gabriel lay motionless on the table, his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths. The red smoke was gone. The glowing eyes were dormant. But everyone in that room had seen what he’d done, what he’d almost done.
"He was trying to save her," Ennu said into the silence, her voice barely above a whisper. "The woman at the scaffold. That’s why he charged forward. That’s why he lost control."
Adan nodded slowly. "He knew what the Church did to her."
The weight of that settled over the room like a shroud.
"Still doesn’t excuse attacking lissa," Gilbert pointed out.
"No," ra agreed. "It doesn’t. But it explains it." She looked down at Gabriel, and for a mont, all the anger drained from her face, leaving only exhaustion. "He’s going to hate himself when he wakes up. When he realises what he did."
"Good," Tess said, but there was less conviction in her voice than before. "Maybe it’ll keep him from doing sothing that stupid again."
"Or it’ll make him worse," Adan murmured.
No one had an answer to that.
As the afternoon light filtered through the cracks in the shuttered windows, casting long shadows across Gabriel’s unconscious form, they all stood or sat in their own spaces, wrestling with the sa contradictions.
Fury at his recklessness.
Relief that he was alive.
Fear of what he’d beco.
Hope that sowhere underneath the demon, the person they’d known still existed.
Gilbert leaned against the wall near Gabriel’s head, arms crossed. He’d finally gotten one over on the demon-eyed bastard. That had to count for sothing.
Even if part of him was glad the bastard was still breathing.
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