"Understood." Gabriel tossed his head in dismissal.
Wynn left.
"Harmony, pull in all the death-dealers to the lake in an hour," Gabe whispered the order. His gaze settled on the body at his feet.
Will do. She responded mentally.
Gabe opened a portal and strode into the center of the shadow world.
"Fate. I need a moment."
This time, there was no waiting. One of the portals beckoned him before he'd finished the sentence. Gabe stepped into an apartment. He glanced around the penthouse decorated in dark colors with flashes of burgundy and brown, attention settling on the familiar skyline visible through the window.
"You chose an apartment beside hers," he said with a shake of his head.
"What can I say. She's always had good taste," Fate said from his seat on a couch. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, he resembled a college student on break.
"Just when I think things can't get weirder …" Gabriel crossed to the living area without sitting. "You've done a lot of interfering for someone who believes in free will. Wynn, Deidre, me."
"You are still thinking like a death-dealer and not like a deity," Fate chided and motioned to the couch. "Gabriel, what made you hate your predecessor also made her very good at what she did."
"She regarded the world as a chessboard. I know this."
"What made her good was that she was able to work around the Immortal Code that has you by the neck."
Gabriel listened. He didn't like not understanding what to do. He didn't like not being self-reliant. The Code had always been his foundation in a world that adopted him despite his origins.
"You don't follow the same rules you used to. You work around the rules, between them, on top of them, beneath them." Fate nudged him with the top of his foot. "Are you listening?"
"Yes."
"But you're not hearing." After a moment, the deity continued. "View the Immortal Code like a woman and what I'm telling you to do like ...making love to that woman. She's more than a body, and the things you can do are only limited by your imagination. Did I dumb it down enough for you?"
"Yeah. That I understood," Gabe replied. He wasn't expecting humor at such a time, not when everything was wrong. But he found himself smiling at the enigmatic god's explanation.
"The underworld wouldn't have accepted you if you couldn't do this. I'm pushing you to broaden your perspective."
Gabe sat back, eyes on Fate, who looked little more concerned than any other college kid on spring break. The only real difference: the ancient intelligence in the deity's steady gaze, which seemed out of place in such a youthful face. Grimly, Gabriel realized he was still missing too much, even on the mortal world.