“And it’s such a tragedy, too,” Gabriel said mournfully, flicking his fingers toward the same. “Used to be I could eat as much as I wanted without blinking. Ah, desserts. Could humanity have invented anything finer?”

He grinned, then, and it was the slow, sliding, wicked grin of an inveterate prankster. “Oh, you know. Keeping busy. Sending up idiots who think they’re all that. Conjuring a few alien visitations.” The smile faltered before he pulled it back up as a smirk which rang hollow. “Beating some sense into a few idiotic brothers.”

Now if only that had gone better.