Page 176 of Inbetweeners
“Hard to think of a way.”
There was a knock on the door and Emmett went to answer it. A really good-looking man stood there, smiling at him, holding a strip of paper. He handed it to Emmett. It had a1on it.It took Emmett a moment to get it.
“You’re archangel Gabriel.” Emmett gaped at him. “You’ve spoken to all 452,345,662,921 others on the list?”
“You remember how many?”
“I’m good with numbers. But I thought it would take years. I don’t think I need to see you anymore, but thank you for coming.”
Emmett tried to shut the door and the archangel put his foot out and stopped him.
Phoenix dragged Emmett backwards. “Sorry. He’s overcome with shock and awe.”
Gabriel chuckled as he walked into the room.
“Sorry,” Emmett blurted. “Shock and awe and me—dangerous combination. Thank you for Phoenix. I’ll do my best to be as good a person as he is. He is…safe, isn’t he? Vin’s not going to find a way to get into him again? Or Kaelip?”
“Kaelip wasn’t strong enough to resist the summons made by Greyson and Sophie. The means by which they summoned him has been made…inaccessible to others, but the summoning of demons is not something we can entirely wipe out. Vin has been punished. The privileges he’d earned have been removed. He’ll no longer have access to the upper levels of Hell.”
Phoenix gave a heavy sigh.
“Why was I chosen to go back?” Emmett asked.
Gabriel tilted his head. “You were interesting. Not accepting, yet too quiet in your non-acceptance. Most new arrivals eventually fit in and you didn’t, even after a year. Not liking Heaven is something we rarely see.”
“More that I thought it was du—” Emmett pressed his lips together just before Phoenix put his hand on his mouth.
Gabriel smiled. “Most don’t find it dull. Very few choose not to remember their past. In hiding from it, you trapped yourself in limbo. Once we became aware of what Vin was planning, I conversed with Lucifer. I chose you, and Lucifer chose Phoenix. Though he was guided in that choice.”
“Guided?” Phoenix asked.
“You were the one we required him to pick, but we didn’t want him to know that.”
“So Vin didn’t choose me?” Phoenix’s head was reeling.
“No. He merely took advantage when he discovered you’d been selected. In truth, Lucifer and I could have possibly nipped Vin’s plans in the bud, but that wouldn’t have had the required outcome. Lucifer needed to believe he had some part to play in what was happening. You were chosen because both you and Emmett had not lived the lives you might have done. Your parents let you down, Phoenix, and Emmett’s mother let you and your brother down. That you and Emmett both died in the same accident seemed apt. That one of you chose not to remember his life while the other remembered too much seemed significant also. I could see a way to put some things right.”
Gabriel strode straight over to the windows that were apparently doors, threw them open and turned to face them. Emmett’s knees turned to jelly.
“Trust,” Gabriel said, and huge white and gold wings erupted at his back.
He took a step backwards and his feet were no longer in the room.
“Friendship.” Gabriel smiled and beckoned them.
Phoenix walked towards him, Emmett didn’t.
“Love,” Gabriel said. “You showed all three.”
Phoenix stood right on the threshold of the room and Emmett wanted to run to him and drag him back to safety except he’d been struck by an illogical, ridiculous notion that he’d end up falling and taking Phoenix with him.
“Heights,” Emmett mumbled.
“Watch.” Gabriel just tipped backwards and dropped out of sight.
Nix leaned to peer out and Emmett whined, worried that anything he did would make matters worse. Then beyond Phoenix’s head, he saw Gabriel with his wings spread, flying, and Emmett forgot to be afraid and just gaped. Though he didn’t step any nearer to the window.
A few minutes later, Phoenix moved back and Gabriel stepped into the room. He closed what Emmett now knew were very dangerous doors, only to be used in a situation of acute emergency, and really, not even then.
