That was something of the understatement of a lifetime. Gabriel's mouth quirked with wry but sympathetic amusement as he met Skulduggery's gaze over China's head, although the soothing motion of his hand didn't stop. "He is that, yes."

She recognised that it wasn't just Gabriel she had been attempting to control, then. The only way she could have controlled Gabriel was by wresting his name from God Himself. And she'd only gotten a glimpse; a distant blur of grey ocean on the horizon. Just enough for her to recognise His expanse, to know it would be too much for her to even try to understand. Gabriel couldn't understand Him.

"I owe you an apology, China," he murmured. "The path on which you walk is one whose end you won't like. I won't deny you needed that path illuminated. But I let my initial impression get the best of me, and I did not treat you with the care due to one of my wards, and for that I am sorry."

And he was. Maybe if he'd acted differently this would have been necessary. Then again, perhaps not. That was putting an awful lot of faith in China's ability to recognise when she was wrong, to put aside her hubris. It was quite possible only something such as this would properly make her realise just what sort of road she was on, and if nothing else the loss of her magic would force her to consider things in ways she never had before. Certainly, that experience would be beneficial for her. She was an arrogant woman, not a stupid one.

He knew she'd lost her powers, of course. Her magic, in the place of her mind. It was the kind of magic from which he'd been made, and it had overloaded her entirely.

In any case, magic or no magic, lesson needed or not, Gabriel himself hadn't handled the situation well. The apology was earned.