Between the mockery and the sudden act of violence, Aziraphale felt his own anger push to the forefront. He was not the type to lay hands on anyone, but aggression in his space, after repeated intrusion for no real reason that he could see, funneled all his anger forward and out, so that when he spoke there was wrath behind it that there hadn't been since the Dark Ages (or, depending on whose story you believed, since the last time Crowley had touched his first edition of Earnest).

With a brief, almost cursory glance at Re-l, he told her firmly, "Put him down and be still." Turning to Gabriel: "You will unlock the door now. Thank you."