"Well, I've also never given a child away, so let's stop worrying about how I handle that, okay? Tell me about theCrucis. I don't know a lot about it besides that it’s powerful."
It was held somewhere in Heaven, out of my reach, so I'd never really paid it much attention.
"The humans believe they have several pieces of the cross that Jesus was crucified on." Gabriel’s hands left my scalp only to be replaced by water rushing over my head. I held my breath and listened. "The pieces the humans possess are tiny. The larger pieces they believe to be authentic are not. Some of them are from the crosses of the thieves that died beside Jesus, but not from his. Other ones are ones that we have replaced so that they would not have anything powerful in their possession."
"Okay," I said. "I thought all the ones the humans had were fakes."
Michael chuckled. I wiped the water from my eyes and glared at him. "We want everyone to think that, because the pieces they have do have a considerable amount of power, but they're too small to weaponize."
“And it isn’t enough to break a curse like this," Gabe finished. "We've talked about grinding them down and creating a weapon with theCrucisinside it, but the fear is that any alteration of the wood would release the power within it."
That made sense. The death of the son of God, who was also, in some ways, still God Himself, would've created a disgusting amount of power. And it had to go somewhere. I'd heard stories about where the actual crucifixion had happened. People believed they could journey there for miraculous healings. In all likelihood, it was true. If they'd found the spot he died, where all his blood was spilled, it would be a Holy spot. The wood of the cross, the nails, his crown of thorns. All of it would be unbelievably powerful.
I grabbed my body wash and loofah and lathered it up. I considered their words as I washed my body, then handed it to Gabe to do my back. He'd used Lucian's soap to wash himself at the same time.
"So, the realLignum Crucisis in Heaven, right?" I asked. "And you can get to it?"
"Yep” Gabe replied. “It's in Raphael's weapons room. If we knew where he was it would be a few seconds of our time. Since he's gone, we have to break in there. Not impossible, but neither of us are looking forward to it."
"So, you're leaving me again." I knew it. It couldn't be so easy. They couldn't just show up with the weapon and big smiles on their faces.
"I'm afraid so. It'll take us a few hours to get it."
I sighed in relief. "I can handle hours. Not days."
Gabriel wrapped his arms around me, then moved both of us under one of the ceiling showers to rinse off. "No, not days. We'll try not to leave you alone for that long again. We can take turns being here while Luc is at work. If we're lucky, this will all be over in a few hours."
I nodded and turned off the water.
"Okay. Hurry back to me, then."
Gabe dried off quickly and waved his hand to make his clothes appear on his body again. "See you soon, honey," he said, lifting his hand to help me from the shower. With a kiss to my cheek, he was gone. Michael kissed my other cheek then followed.
A few hours. I could handle it. What was a few more hours?
They were back before I could even finish dressing. As I pulled my jeans on, Gabe and Michael popped into my bedroom.
"What the heck?" I asked.
"It wasn't there." Gabriel flopped down onto my bed. "Gone."
"What do you mean gone? Who would've taken it? And you got in there that easily?”
Michael shrugged. "Only Archangels knew it was there at all. A short list."
I sat on the bed beside Gabe and pulled on my socks. "Anywhere else it could be?"
Gabriel grunted and Michael shook his head. "We're assuming with Raphael, wherever he is. He's officially on the most wanted list in Heaven."
I paused with my sock halfway to my foot. "Heaven has a most wanted list?"
Michael burst out laughing.
"No," Gabe said. "But we've got people looking for him."
"Think he used theCrucisto create the curse?" I asked.
Gabe sat up and stared at me, and Michael froze.
