The forest was taking him to the Lake of Souls, located not too far from the palace. His pace quickened when he realized where the underworld led him, and he began to worry something else had gone wrong with the souls that hadn't yet bled through to the lakes in the human world.
The green glow above the lake - visible during daylight or night - was soon ahead.
Branches snaked into his path and blocked the trail, a sign he needed to slow.
Gabriel did so and unsheathed his sword. The branches left the path.
"I smell them," Darkyn said quietly, drawing abreast of him. His long daggers were drawn. "Four."
"Easy. Where are they?"
The demon lifted his nose to the air and breathed in deeply. "Three right, one left at the mouth of the trail."
"I'll take the three," Gabriel said, cold fury resurfacing at the idea of confronting those who betrayed him and put the entire world in danger.
Darkyn slapped the flat of one dagger across his chest as he started forward. "I need the food."
Gabriel hesitated at the ragged note in the demon lord's voice. Unwilling to pity the source of evil in the universe, he at least acknowledged that he needed the Dark One at full strength if they were to take on a few hundred death dealers.
"Bon appetit," he responded.
Darkyn started forward at a trot.
Gabriel gave him a head start of a few feet, not about to cross swords with the blood maddened demon yet. Darkyn launched out of the forest without a second look, throwing himself into the midst of the three death dealers huddled together, talking.
With a quick glance at his surroundings, Gabriel ignored the sounds of a demon slaughtering and eating his prey and instead, faced the remaining death dealer.
The man's eyes widened, and he raised his sword too late.
Gabriel severed his head with one stroke of his massive sword and sheathed the weapon before kneeling beside the body.
"One fate for traitors," he said, feeling no sympathy whatsoever for the betrayer.
Green fog lifted from the dead dealer's body, swirling and snaking towards Gabriel.
He held out his hand. A small emerald - the Immortal's soul - formed in the palm of his hand. There was a time when he'd regret having to punish a traitor, when it hurt him as much as the soul to crush it and send it to an eternity in Hell.
That time was gone, another shred of his humanity taken when his mate and Deidre were kidnapped. If anything, he hesitated only because he doubted he had too many threads of humanity left in him.