Right. Skulduggery had started somewhere. What next?
Next, he was surrounded by feathers. And a hug so deeply full of caring that, for a moment, it numbed him to everything else.
The last time Gabriel had used his wings like this, the Archangel was protecting him from the space between dimensions - rescuing him from a hell he would have been trapped in forever. There had been warmth in that embrace as well, but it hadn't been focused and Skulduggery hadn't tried to feel or experience anything other than the immediate danger of their surroundings and of the Faceless One attacking them through the gale.
This time, the warmth was prevalent, and composed of everything good Skulduggery didn't deserve. Encouragement. Love. It all wrapped around him like a blanket, and Gabri - Gabe... solid and kind, protecting him from a different kind of danger, rescuing him from a different kind of hell.
He shouldn't have needed to think, should have been able to just bask in the glow. But there was too much else going on, and there was too much else to worry about.
Skulduggery's hand, down to bone once again, gently reached out and touched one of the wing feathers. He watched it trembling with effort, and a fresh surge of guilt washed over him - guilt that Skulduggery caught and gathered so it would rinse away the last of the rage. Of course, Gabe would have had to use his powers. Whatever the angelic equivalent of adrenaline was, it might just be the only thing standing between that telling tremble, and Gabe completely collapsing once again - and this time, it wouldn't be Gabe's fault in the slightest. It would be completely and unequivocally Skulduggery's.
Gabe's voice resonated in the room and in the bones of his skeleton, but China's reply - when it came - Skulduggery could barely hear. It was an assent, that much he knew. However hesitatingly, however reluctantly, China was repeating what Gabe had outlined. One loose end tied up, and if China was the only one Gabe was putting the order to, then Prave and Crux were somehow not a part of the picture anymore. That was just fine. That... just left everything else.
"Are you alright?" Skulduggery asked him quietly when the church was silent again. They could go back to Kenspeckle Grouse, now, if they needed to. Skulduggery wouldn't mind enduring whatever punishment the crotchety professor would have for allowing Gabe to get so much worse. Skulduggery had been furious at China earlier for being the potential cause of a further downward spiral in the Archangel - it would be hypocritical not to put the same fury and blame on himself.
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Next, he was surrounded by feathers. And a hug so deeply full of caring that, for a moment, it numbed him to everything else.
The last time Gabriel had used his wings like this, the Archangel was protecting him from the space between dimensions - rescuing him from a hell he would have been trapped in forever. There had been warmth in that embrace as well, but it hadn't been focused and Skulduggery hadn't tried to feel or experience anything other than the immediate danger of their surroundings and of the Faceless One attacking them through the gale.
This time, the warmth was prevalent, and composed of everything good Skulduggery didn't deserve. Encouragement. Love. It all wrapped around him like a blanket, and Gabri - Gabe... solid and kind, protecting him from a different kind of danger, rescuing him from a different kind of hell.
He shouldn't have needed to think, should have been able to just bask in the glow. But there was too much else going on, and there was too much else to worry about.
Skulduggery's hand, down to bone once again, gently reached out and touched one of the wing feathers. He watched it trembling with effort, and a fresh surge of guilt washed over him - guilt that Skulduggery caught and gathered so it would rinse away the last of the rage. Of course, Gabe would have had to use his powers. Whatever the angelic equivalent of adrenaline was, it might just be the only thing standing between that telling tremble, and Gabe completely collapsing once again - and this time, it wouldn't be Gabe's fault in the slightest. It would be completely and unequivocally Skulduggery's.
Gabe's voice resonated in the room and in the bones of his skeleton, but China's reply - when it came - Skulduggery could barely hear. It was an assent, that much he knew. However hesitatingly, however reluctantly, China was repeating what Gabe had outlined. One loose end tied up, and if China was the only one Gabe was putting the order to, then Prave and Crux were somehow not a part of the picture anymore. That was just fine. That... just left everything else.
"Are you alright?" Skulduggery asked him quietly when the church was silent again. They could go back to Kenspeckle Grouse, now, if they needed to. Skulduggery wouldn't mind enduring whatever punishment the crotchety professor would have for allowing Gabe to get so much worse. Skulduggery had been furious at China earlier for being the potential cause of a further downward spiral in the Archangel - it would be hypocritical not to put the same fury and blame on himself.