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He watched as though rooted to the floor as a flickering Obedience forced his image into a heated kiss. His reflection fought her, hands scrabbling at her shirt, trying to push her away. Obedience’s fragmented reflection only pressed in closer. Gabriel saw the fear reflected in his mirror-counterpart’s eyes as the memory of how Obedience had stolen immortality from his lips played out before him like a film reel that had been ripped up and then sloppily taped back together.

Gabriel would never forget the incomprehensible pain he’d endured when the witch had ripped his immortal soul in two in an ancient, cruel, nearly forgotten and almost impossible spell. The agony had been worse than if every last hair had been torn from his scalp, worse than if the soft flesh of his heart had been shredded chamber by chamber, valve by valve, vessel by vessel.

As quickly as it had appeared, the mirror-memory dissipated, replaced by the sound of approaching footsteps. Gabriel closed his eyes, assaulted by the perfume-scented air. When he opened them, he was met with the real Obedience. Her glamour was gone now. She stood before him in her true form, her green eyes shrewd, her blonde hair loose over the shoulders of her alabaster dress.

“Feeling homesick?” she asked, a false note of sympathy in her voice as her gaze locked with his.

Gabriel ground his jaw, his hands clasped to stop them from shaking. He didn’t want her to see just how much her little show had disarmed him. He assumed that had been her aim, to make herself seem so powerful that Gabriel would realize there was no point in trying to resist her.

He and Clement had discussed the possibility that Obedience might have a plan in place if they tried a memory spell on her. They had been counting on Clement being the slightly more capable witch, a bet that Gabriel now feared they might lose. Obedience had already displayed a rare aptitude for both illusory and physical magic; the reflections she’d created were mere projections, but the glass itself was all too real. Over the years, she had clearly only grown in power, whereas Gabriel had never been weaker.

He slid his right hand into his pocket, where it curled around his phone. He wasn’t going to text Clement to bring Iris and Blair inside. Not yet, maybe not ever. If he could handle the witch himself, even if he didn’t make it out of this church alive, he would do it. Anything to protect Iris, to prevent his past from taking down the people he loved. If it was the cause of his own demise, well then, so be it.

“No,” Gabriel replied at last. “Clearly you were, though.” He peered around at the mutant furniture and decor, the shards that still lined the room. “I can’t say the place looks any better than it did when we lived here,” he said, pretending he hadn’t noticed the church’s spotless interior prior to her mirror spell. “Shame. You’ve certainly had long enough to make improvements.”

“Ah, but I have centuries to make my mark on it. Thanks to you, of course.” She tilted his chin up with a single finger, her nails long and sharp. “Just in case you forgot.”

Gabriel recoiled from her, but he didn’t turn away. As if he could ever forget the moment of weakness that could have cost him his life, that might still. As if a single day passed where he didn’t regret how thoroughly he’d underestimated her. It was because she’d stolen immortality from him in a single kiss—using a spell that he never would have believed her capable of, even if he had known she’d gotten her hands on an ancient spellbook—that he feared members of the witch’s council coming after him, even after all these years.

The only silver lining was that Obedience had been fairly quiet since obtaining immortality, causing no major disturbances, as far as he was aware. Yet he lived with the very real fear that if she ever were to cause great harm again, he would be held partially responsible in the eyes of the council. If that were to happen, even Clement’s protection wouldn’t be enough to shield him.

In their minds, it was thanks to him that she was still breathing. An even graver sin, given that after Gabriel and Clement achieved immortality, they’d sworn an oath to the council to never share how they’d managed it, nor to aid another in their pursuit of everlasting life.

It was one of the reasons he and Clement had decided against contacting the council for help dealing with Obedience this time around. They didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that the witch who had obtained immortality from Gabriel, however unwilling of a participant he had been, was once again wreaking havoc.

But there were other reasons, too. For one, they didn’t want to put a spotlight on Blair’s volatile condition, which Clement had been working hard to hush up. For another, the council would have taken far too long to deliberate.

“I’m surprised to find you here alone,” Obedience quipped, once more narrowing the space between them. Gabriel cast an anxious glance over his shoulder; he was an inch away from being impaled on one of the mirror shards. “I always knew you were uncommonly brave. Iris is such a stupid thing. Choosing that wimp over you.” She ran a fingernail across his coat, leaving a thin, zig-zagging line in the suede. “Strong. Protective.”

Gabriel wrenched himself out of her grasp. He was nothing of the sort. If he were, he would have protected Blair and Lucy from the wretch in front of him.

A smile flashed across her face like a whip. “Why are you here, Gabriel?” she purred. “Surely it’s not for my benefit.”

“Let’s not play games. What is it you want?” Gabriel grimaced. His choice of words reminded him of the confrontational way he had treated Blair when they’d met. If only he had been more understanding from the beginning, or if he’d shown greater interest in Blair’s life in recent weeks, maybe Obedience wouldn’t have had the opportunity to gain a foothold back in their lives.

“What could I possibly want from you, Gabriel?” Her voice was spun sugar, cotton candy sweet. “Not your powers, surely. They’ve all but shriveled up. What a shame, too. You could have rivaled even me.”

“You think so, do you? You don’t think that I might have been, say, more powerful than you?”

Obedience’s smile tightened into a thin line. “No, I don’t believe so. You may have had more doors open to you, more guidance, but I have honed my craft on my own for centuries with no help from anyone.”

“You think that makes you stronger?” Gabriel asked, cocking his head to the side. He smiled as, for the briefest fraction of a second, he sensed Obedience’s conviction waiver. But there were more pressing matters than throwing barbs back and forth like a couple of schoolchildren. “What do you want from me? Or is it my friend whose business you so kindly invested in whom you seek? I thought you’d decided years ago that abilities like his didn’t serve you after all. Isn’t that why you didn’t pull back when your powers grew too strong the night you killed that innocent girl?” Gabriel laced his words with venom. He flexed his hands, his chest burning with rage—at her, at himself for not stopping her.

Obedience’s laugh pinged unpleasantly against the glass. “That was a fun trick, I must admit. Pretending to want to invest. Even I amaze myself with my ingenuity at times. How did you like your song, by the way? When Blair told me about your somewhat fraught relationship, I suggested he master one of your favorite songs to try to win you over. Pitiful how quickly he jumped on my suggestion.”

“But why?” Gabriel asked, unable to hide the vexation spreading across his skin like a fresh bruise. “What was the point?”

Before she could answer, a waft of cool, rain-scented air coasted across his back. Gabriel turned, the knots in his stomach twisting tighter at the sight of his friends, his only family.

He watched with dread as recognition registered in Blair’s pale eyes at the sight of his tormentor. The edges of his aura flared lightening-bright, reflected in every mirror like headlights before a deadly collision.

39

Oh, hello Blair.” The witch smiled as she stepped over to him. “I’m sorry we didn’t have the chance to set up your store earlier. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow, I suppose.”

Blair flinched, pulling Iris close to his side. His heart beat out an uneven rhythm, his mind buzzing with a kind of persistent hum.

It was her. All along, it had been her.