Alleluia and Gibreel reunite and rekindle their romance

Alleluia and Gibreel reunite and rekindle their romance when Alleluia finds him unconscious in the snow and brings him to her flat. The encounter overturns her belief that he died in the Bostan disaster and turns an uncertain reunion into renewed love. It also opens a channel of trust: Gibreel tells her how he survived, and Alleluia discloses the visions she had concealed.

Encounter and Rescue

Alleluia has been troubled by visual disturbances since refusing oxygen cylinders and attempting to climb Mount Everest on her own. So when she sees Gibreel lying unconscious in the snow, she briefly wonders whether he is another aberration. Carrying his weight back to her flat convinces her that he is physically present, not an illusion.

His arrival revives feelings she had been trying to contain. After learning that his name appeared on the Bostan passenger list, she had understood his silence as a sign that their encounter had meant less to him than it had to her. Believing him dead brought grief, but also the knowledge that he had been travelling across the world to surprise her and build a life with her. She had also felt unsettled by the presumption of his unannounced arrival; now, with him unconscious and under her protection, that resentment gives way to the hope of love.

A Week of Troubled Sleep

Gibreel sleeps for nearly a week, waking only briefly to eat and attend to basic needs. His sleep is restless, and he repeatedly speaks names associated with his dreams, including Jahilia, Al-Lat, and Hind. When he is awake, he seems to resist falling asleep, but cannot keep sleep at bay. His condition alarms Alleluia, who calls her mother, Alicja Cohen, to look in on him.

The reunion therefore begins not with an explanation but with care. Alleluia has to accept Gibreel’s presence before she can know what has happened to him; his prolonged, disturbed sleep leaves the history of his ordeal undisclosed even as she shelters him.

Renewed Intimacy and Belief

On the seventh day, Gibreel wakes fully and reaches for Alleluia. His directness surprises her, but she responds with a renewed sense of ease between them, and they resume their relationship. The moment shifts her role from rescuer to partner: she is no longer simply protecting a man she thought lost, but choosing to welcome him back into her life.

Gibreel tells her that he fell from the sky and survived. Alleluia believes him, drawing on her father Otto Cone’s faith in life’s contradictory possibilities and on what her climb has taught her. Her acceptance is not presented as proof or explanation; she finds room for the impossible within a universe that she understands to be capable of wonders.

Shared Visions

In return, Alleluia tells Gibreel about the visions she has never disclosed to anyone: angels and an ice-city that appeared to her on Mount Everest. She adds that the visions did not end with the climb; after returning to London, she saw icebergs during a walk along the Embankment. Her confession deepens the reunion beyond physical return. Each has something extraordinary to tell, and she meets Gibreel’s account of survival with the disclosure of her own unsettled experience.