“Hecate… they need healing,” Luna whispered, and I nodded. Though, through my milky white eyes, I knew that there was someone else that needed my attention first.
“Luna, stay here and help these people. I think Gabriel and Shem need me,” I whispered, and Luna nodded, her brow creasing in concern.
“You got it,” she agreed before turning and barking orders out to the other witches so they could begin the long and arduous process of healing the townsfolk.
“Get them out of thechurch. This place is evil,” I ordered over my shoulder before making my way out into the tunnels.
I followed the aching feelings of grief and loss that called to me like a moth to the flame.
Shemhazai… Shemhazai was mourning…
My heart stuttered with fear, and I broke into a run.
I’d never seen the cat demon sad before, but his grief was so loud that it was suddenly all I could hear.
“I’m coming, Hazai,” I whispered as my feet flew over the hardened earth.
I enteredthe chapel to find Shemhazai curled around what appeared to be Gabriel’s body.
Raziel was dead, his head very clearly severed from his body, along with all six of his wings.
Shem knelt with Gabe’s head in his lap, surrounded by a mix of ebony and ivory feathers, as it appeared that Gabriel’s wings had been severed as well.
Slowly, I approached, each one of Shem’s sobs tearing into my chest.
He gently stroked Gabe’s cheeks with his thumbs, whispering quietI love yousand broken apologies into his ears.
“Hazai…” I said softly as I approached. Shem looked up at me, his green eyes flooded with tears.
“It’s my fault… I should have… I should have come with you. I was too weak. And now he’s… Now he’sgone.”
I sank to my knees next to the mourning cat demon. Frowning, I floated a hand over Gabriel’s body, checking his chakras to confirm that he was, in fact,gone.
Hope rushed through me as I felt a tiny shimmer of life from his heart chakra.
I glanced at Shemhazai, gently touching his face.
“He’s not gone. Not yet. Let me try to heal him,” I whispered, and Shem’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“You… You think that you can?”
“I do, my little hellcat.” I smiled at him, and he looked like he might burst into tears again.
“Please.Please save him. I’ll owe you my life,” he begged, and I chuckled softly.
“Consider this one on the house.” I winked. “If you have Gabe around to entertain you, maybe you’ll stop chasing me all over the world.”
Shem let out a choked laugh that seemed to somehow also be a sob.
“Deal. If you save him, I forfeit our game.”
“I agree to your terms.” I grinned before getting to work on saving the only person Shem cared enough about to cry over.
It took hours.
I had lived for thousands of years, but those few hours that Hecate spent trying to save Gabriel felt longer than every other year of my life combined.
While she worked, Luna and Willow herded the sick but free townspeople of Salem out of the church.
