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The deel, looked a lot like my half brother He so resembled Antares that I had to do a double take to make sure that it wasn’t him The leader was about nine feet tall, with red skin, oversized bat wings and glea froil, almost like an ampersand with the bottoil gaveht il on his hand, the sign of Focalor Focalor was one of Azazel’s eneainst Azazel because that would be tanta open war on Lucifer Was this creature Focalor, or another one of his toadies like Antares?

I crept carefully toward the angel and the demon, ere deep in conversation, in order to hear what they said Unfortunately, I was doo soesturing The derew thunderous The band of demons behind him moved restlessly as their leader becael, but his body language was unyielding There would obviously be no negotiations with hi for a familiar face The only other demons that I had ever seen had been with Antares, and if I saw one of theroup, then at least I would have so down Antares wasn’t too hard He showed up at ot

Ito at least see the face of the angel dealing with a de no-no in the courts of the fallen There was a pretty strict caste systeori--the first fallen--at the top, then other angels, then demons, who acted almost as servants to the castes above

Certain crossbreeds were tolerated at higher levels--like me, because I was pretty much descended from fallen royalty--but others like Gabriel ranked below the lowest deroups there were even stricter breakdowns of hierarchy, which had a lot to do with how e, who your parents were, or all of the above It was pretty extraordinary to see an angel treating a derew more animated Because of the position of the party I had to approach the angel almost directly from behind As I dreithin a few feet of hi and turned around

His eyes widened, green eyes filled withthere when no one else could I heard a voice into tear out my heart, just like his father had done

"No," I whispered, and my body filled with terror How could he see me? How did he know that I was there?

"Madeline!"

Gabriel’s voice Gabriel I had to get away I shot upward, away froers, up the side of the cliff, back into the cave Sa only one thing--vengeance for the deaths of his mother and father

I turned around and around in the cave, realizing I’d fallen into a trap Noould be torn to pieces by de, his eyes furious

"Eneravelly voice, one that I knew very well

"Madeline!" Gabriel calling from the oubliette