Colton felt as though he had been stranded in the middle of the ocean. He could feel the sun beating hot on his face, burning him to a crisp as he floated along violent waves that threatened to welcome him into depths he’d never come out of.

He could hear the seagulls squawking and the rush of the water as it moved beneath him. He could see the tropical sun through his heavy eyes that refused to open.

Now that he thought about it, the ocean seemed to have taken all of his strength. He couldn’t move from the raft, couldn’t sit up to see if he could find land or spot a ship he could signal for his rescue, couldn’t see if he was alone.

He felt so alone, like the only other person on the planet was thousands of miles away from him on the nearest patch of land. But he also felt like Evan was right next to him, trying to keep him alive, desperately trying to keep him sane in his torment until even he left Colton behind.

It felt like days passed him by on the raft in the ocean, just floating wherever the violent waves would take him, though the sun never changed its position. Before he suddenly felt as though he were lifted from the raft with a pained groan, he couldn’t tell if it had come from him or somewhere else.

He bobbed quickly, the air suddenly cooled, feeling like ice on his sun-beaten skin. He was gently placed on a frozen platform, and another groan escaped him in his relief.

For the first time, he was suddenly steady and resting in the dark, though he knew he was still alone. But he also wasn’t trapped on the ocean, racing toward inevitable death.

Colton wondered how his family would take his disappearance. Would they react the same way as they had with Evan? Would they offer to pay millions to see his safe return? Would they be on the news, begging people to offer any information that they may have?

Then Colton remembered they couldn’t do any of that anymore.

He began to wonder if anyone would notice his disappearance. He did have a habit of disappearing now. How was anyone going to suspect that he hadn’t done it himself?

Another few days passed in his mind as he wondered about many things, mostly about Rowan and how his family empire would fare with his sudden disappearance. He was lucky they owned the company and that he wasn’t the youngest CEO in Houston. The empire should be fine, he tried to convince himself; there were too many jobs at stake if it wasn’t.

Not to mention his bank account.

Eventually, he heard the sounds of distant voices chattering as his eyelids grew lighter. As soon as his eyes were open, he scanned the room, studying every detail of the sterile metal box he found himself in.

It looked like an industrial freezer, though it didn’t seem cold enough to be on, with the odd empty pallet that used to hold something recently, judging by the still-wet stains left behind. He still couldn’t move, his arms seeming bound again as they had been in his basement.

The distant voices grew closer, though they never got any clearer until the door behind him suddenly swung open and a girl called out, “Be nice, Ryan!”

Colton heard a sigh as the door slowly closed. Heavy footfalls walked around him, in a semi-circle to his left, until he could see the giant man who looked like he had just stepped off a marine base in civilian dress.

“Chamuel.” The man spoke, holding a metal plate.

“Col-” He tried to correct him.

“Not anymore, you’re not.” The man loosened one of his arms and gave him the plate as soon as it was free. “You are from here on out, Chamuel, or S5. No one else.”

Colton wanted to fight back; he wanted to tell him that he wasn’t some angel, that they wouldn’t have picked to be in his position if they wanted to learn anything about humanity. But something held him back, a gentle presence telling him that it would be useless. The real one, he hoped.

He looked at the plate briefly, filled with a sad portion of fish with mystery mash and a side of something wilted and green, then back at the man who folded his arms inches from him. “What do you want with me?” His voice was hoarse, like he really had spent all that time out on a raft surrounded by the salty water coating him and slowly killing him in the sun’s rays.

“The name is Ryan. I am your handler now. Anything you do goes through me.” He studied Colton’s stone-faced glare, “You will follow my orders. If I tell you to jump, you shouldn’t even bother asking how high before you do it.”

“Real nice, Ryan.” He tossed the plate beside him with a loud clatter, spreading the sad food everywhere.

Ryan watched it with an expression he couldn’t place, set so hard that Colton thought he didn’t care until he tugged back on the restraint until it was painful, “Starve, see if I care. Clearly, you need more time to learn.”

He shoved himself off the chair, nearly sending Colton backwards, and his heavy footfalls left him, rounding in the other direction before slamming the door behind him.

Colton almost regretted throwing the food as his stomach growled at him, begging for the scraps that had been given him. Almost, but not quite.

Hours passed with nothing but the sound of his thoughts and the smell of the food for company. He wondered if they had forgotten about him in there, if the girl had known how Ryan was going to treat him, who the girl had been, if she was one of the four.

He racked his brain for everything he knew about them again, but nothing of a “Ryan” came up. He wondered if it was a real name, or if, as his had been, it had been assigned to him to fit the new persona that he was meant to portray.

He had to assume that they had all been reassigned their names. If he were Chamuel, and Evan was Auriel, like he hoped, who could the other three be?

They had to be named after Angels. He thought there were only four archangels, but Bation had mentioned seven Warriors who would come to the island.

Two more people would have their blood drawn, have people kidnapped and returned after being questioned, and deal with two men hell-bent on breaking them in to become the angels that they wanted them to be.

He wondered if Bation was already scouting for the next victim, if he was going to be made to help him. He wondered what he was going to be expected to do for the rest of his stay there. What else could he have said in his ramblings that he didn’t catch?

Was he ever going to be out of the freezer?

It was starting to get colder, like someone had noticed it was off before. He was starting to shiver when the door finally opened again. A quiet pitter-patter of quick steps rushed around to his front, pausing in front of him, and patiently waited for him to finally open his eyes for them.

A girl, bent at the waist, stood before him with her dark eyes glimmering at him as he met her gaze as though it were a choice. Her hair had long, thin braids that had been hastily pulled back into a ponytail at the base of her head.

“Hi.” Her smile brightened when his deadpan expression didn’t change, her voice chirped like a bird with a heavy southern drawl that told him exactly which one she was, even if she hadn’t still matched her missing photo exactly. “You’re Colton, right? Auriel said you’d be a fighter, and you are living up to that. Ryan’s been grumbling about you since he left. You’re the first one that he’s metin’ fresh after arriving, so that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. But you wouldn’t know that, would you? I guess you’re allowed to be surprised then. My mama always said that knowin’ yer enemies should be like knowin’ yer friends, you’d best get on that or you’ll get left behind real fast.” She paused, searching his face like she was making sure that he was actually listening to her.

When Colton still didn’t respond, she huffed and pulled a pallet from the wall, leaving it in front of him before sitting on it. He braced for what seemed like a humiliation ritual.

“Michael is already livid, I’d avoid her if ya can. She may be small, but she’s angrier than a wet Tasmanian devil and just as sturdy. Raphael is ready to meet ‘cha, but I can’t say she’s really much happier than Michael is, just nicer. Auriel hasn’t left the door, but he don’t got the balls to talk to ya yet. I reckon he blames himself fer ya gettin’ picked up,” Her eyes flickered over his right shoulder, where he assumed ‘Auriel’ was standing. He could picture his fiery red hair, folded arms, and scowl that could make a baby cry. She looked back at him and lowered her voice with a wide grin, “Just between the two of us, I think he’s glad you’re here now.”

“Gabriel!” Auriel yelled, audibly pushing off the wall as Gabriel cackled.

“Come on, this gotta be the boy you been whinin’ fer.”

Colton sighed, shifting in his restraints. “I don’t know an ‘Auriel’.”

There was a beat of silence before Auriel mumbled, “I don’t know a Chamuel, but I sure as hell remember the last rodeo we went to.”

“You are an ass, Evan.”

Gabriel shifted uncomfortably, “While I’m desperate to know what happened there, we have to advise-”

“You can’t use our human names, Colton. Trust me, you don’t want to have to learn what happens if you do in front of the island.” His voice was desperate, pleading with him to believe him instead of learning the way he normally did.

Just like he had at the rodeo, when he thought riding the bull wasn’t really all that hard. Colton had ended up in the hospital with a busted-up arm after a solid two seconds of clinging to an angry animal that wanted nothing more than to stomp him into the dirt. The bull had doubled back the moment he hit the ground hard to make good on that desire.

The ranch hands laughed at him; they had warned him repeatedly and only let him up because he had bribed them enough after most of the crowd had left to see what had been set up for after dark.

“What happens?”

Gabriel tapped on the gold wrapped around her neck, “He’ll…enforce the rules.”

“It’s like a shock collar, but turned to a hundred and then some cause we’re not allowed to be human anymore.” The disdain in Evan’s voice was clear. The past five years must have been like running through Hell just for the hope of making it out to see his family again.

Colton nodded, letting their warnings ring clear in his head. “Evan is Auriel now, Abigail is Gabriel, I’m Chamuel, what about the others?”

“Willow is Raphael, and Sam is Michael.”

“Sam?” Colton looked at her, confused, “Who’s Sam? I thought it was just four of you.”

“Lillian and Sam were taken together.” Gabriel looked just as confused as he was, “Sam’s not in yer reports?”

He shook his head.

“Don’t matter much now, I suppose, we can’t use them names no more. Not to anyone but ourselves layin’ in bed at night, wonderin’ where the time went.” Gabriel’s face fell as she spoke, even as she kept her voice light and bouncy like a bird’s song.

He nodded, his face set hard as he racked his brain for any mention of a ‘Sam’ but came up blank every time.

Colton could feel Gabriel’s sharp inhale as she prepared to keep talking before he interrupted her.

“At what point during this interrogation do I get the ratchets off?”

“We’re not interrogating you.” She pouted, disappointed she couldn’t keep up.

“You wouldn’t get them off if it were.” Auriel chuckled behind him, his voice closer than it had been.

“So it is one,” Colton said flatly as he felt the one wrapped around his chest shift, biting into his arms.

He watched Gabriel study Auriel, trying to get a feel for what he was thinking through her wide, watchful eyes. There was a clear power imbalance in the silent room, with the highest rank at his back, trying to decide what the move was.

Her eyes searched Auriel’s, trying to find the silent order he hadn’t given yet. Her eyes filled with disappointment as a long sigh sounded from behind; he could almost feel the shake of Auriel’s head as the ratchet snapped back into place.

“No, Father Bation wants to meet you again.” He grumbled, and a flash of fear spread across Gabriel’s face for a brief moment. He almost thought he imagined it. “Soon, I hope. I’d love to get out of this damn box.”

Gabriel looked down and to the side before standing and shoving the palette back against the wall with her foot. She gave him a sad look as she passed, reminding him of the fear in her eyes, “I’m sure we’ll be fast friends, once we get you out of here.” She whispered in his ear, quiet enough that he was sure that Auriel hadn’t heard her words.

The door creaked open again and slowly trailed closed as he heard Auriel slowly walk back to the wall he had been leaning against.

“If it helps, this is probably the best welcome any of us got,” Auriel whispered, as though it was more for himself than for Colton.

It does not.