Gabriel’s smile disappeared. “This world that once was a gift has become a revolting curse in which people are judged by their skin or who they love and not by their deeds. Those who are most vulnerable and in need are the most ignored or vilified. If the Son were alive today, He would be scorned and feared, and that is what mankind has done. Children kill children. Mothers and fathers murder their young. Strangers kill strangers by the dozens, and—the worst sin of all—it is often done in the name of who is Holy. That is what man has done since creation.”

Okay. He kind of had a point there. Mankind could be pretty terrible. “Not everyone is like that, though.”

“Does it matter when it takes only a small part of decay to rot and destroy the entire foundation?”

“Yes. It matters. Because while there are terrible people out there, there are many more who are good—”

“But are they? Truly? No one can cast a stone, and yet that is all man does.”

“No.” I shook my head. “You’re wrong.”

“You say that, with your limited experience, when I’ve had thousands of years of watching man aspire to nothing? Watching man become so obsessed with the material and the fallacy of power that they will sell their own sons and betray their own countries to make a profit? Time and time again, I’ve witnessed entire nations fall and the ones birthed out of the ashes follow the same path as the ones before them. You think you know better?”

“I know enough to know you’re making broad—like, huge—generalizations.”

“Tell me, what festers in that human soul of yours? The need to make the world better? The desire to protect? Or is it consumed with carnal needs? Is it full of anger over his betrayal... Misha’s?”

I sucked in a sharp breath.

“It was I who came to him. I who was able to sway him and from whom he learned the truth. He knew what needed to be done to rectify this, and while you might have ended his life, you did more damage to yourself than you could have ever done to him. Your heartache. Your rage. It was your ruin. Your human soul is corrupt.”

The same words Sulien had spoken carried a different weight now. There was a heaviness of truth, but it was more than that. “Humans are complicated. I’m complicated, capable of caring and of wanting multiple conflicting things. Those things do not necessarily corrupt.”

“You’ve killed without guilt.”

He had me there.

“You’ve broken rules.” He stepped toward. “You, like the human side of you, are capable only of destruction. Man treats life like it means nothing but flesh and bone. Therefore it will no longer mean anything more.”

My stomach hollowed. “So, God wants this? Wants the end of the world?”