She faced him.
"When you raise someone from the dead, they owe you a favor. No conditions, no restrictions, no questions asked," he said, grinning evilly. "Just, you know. In case you need some leverage with him."
A slow smile spread across her face, and her eyes flickered black before retuning to their normal hue. Without another word, she disappeared through the portal.
"Gabe, there's no one in the dungeon," his mate reported breathlessly as she trotted up to him. "Andre isn't anywhere to be found." A flicker of something went through her gaze. He wasn't certain what exactly.
"Shit," he muttered. "I'll let Rhyn know."
She took his hand with both of hers, gaze going to Harmony's body. "I am so sorry, Gabe."
"I'm not," he said firmly. "It's a new era, a new way of doing things. We'll rebuild the army and clean up this mess."
"Fresh start?"
"Yep."
Past-Death smiled and wrapped her arms around him. He enveloped her in a hug, tension easing from his frame.
"Yo, Gabe!" Rhyn called, approaching. He wiped his bloodied sword on one leg. "Good news: mind-to-mind communications are back. Bad news: something happened at home. I gotta go back." There was concern in the half-demon's silver eyes.
"Katie okay?" Gabriel asked.
"Yeah. Not sure what's going on."
"Rhyn, about Andre …"
His friend's frown deepened.
"He was badly wounded and isn't among the survivors we've found. We'll keep looking."
Rhyn muttered a string of curses, pensive and agitated. "Let me know what you find," he said finally. "I gotta go."
Gabriel watched his friend storm off through a portal, worried yet certain if anyone could handle it, Rhyn could.
"Karma's missing, too," past-Death said. "I'm not surprised. She's got a lot of unfinished business. I just wish I knew why I had her and Peace in my dungeon."
Gabriel scowled. He sought his bond to the underworld and silently asked about the two deities.
The response: the only god or goddess in his underworld was him.
"You know what? I'm fed up with deities today. As long as they're out of my fucking domain, I don't care what they're doing," he said. "If any of them come back, we'll know. I'll unfreeze the world when the dealers are taken care of."
"Smart, as usual."
"Wanna take a walk to the Lake and make sure it's okay?"
Past-Death nodded.
Taking her hand, they started across the roof. Gabriel's focus went from the to-do list he was mentally generating about how to fix his realm to the woman beside him, and he began to believe everything was going to work out the way it should for the first time since he took over. There were no more obstacles between him and rebuilding the parts of his life he cared for most: his mate and the souls.