Part of Gabe hadn't wanted to know. The rest of him had simply trusted, it was true. With the Institute gone and its prisoners released, was there any reason to worry about details?

Especially when details like that were so chilling. Gabriel nodded sombrely. "I might have been able to track you by our ties and your soul," he said, "but the likelihood of it working would have been remote. I knew you when you were human, and I hadn't seen your soul before then. It's much more likely I'd have gotten lost."

That was why he hadn't tried to find Castiel. He hoped, prayed, that his alternate brother would be okay, but it was so very unlikely Gabriel would be able to reach him at all that he couldn't take the risk of abandoning his own world and family in such a way. The Archangel glanced side-long at Skulduggery, summoning up a rueful grin. "So it's a good thing you hadn't dropped it."