Page 40 of Revelations

“Come, Greylyn. Let us go someplace a little less crowded and I will tell you everything.”

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Turns outeverythingwas a subjective term.

They retreated to one of the abandoned passageways currently under renovation as the fifty-three bell Kibbey Carillon pealed, announcing it was noon.

As they walked, all the questions Greylyn wanted to ask flooded her mind to the extent that she could not pinpoint which should be asked first. She would stutter out the beginning of one question, only to interrupt herself with another question.

“You, undoubtedly want to know what the prophecy says, what it does, and how it affects you, as well as Kelly and her child.” Gabriel bowed his head as they passed a sculpture of theRapture. Once past it, he spoke again. “Sadly, even I do not know all there is to know about the prophecy. The decision to keep it unwritten was justified, for it was deemed that knowledge of it would only incite fear and chaos.”

“But surely…you’re an archangel…shouldn’t…”

Gabriel shook his head. “All I can tell you is that itshouldnotbe fulfilled. Even the prophet who foretold it could not handle the strain of knowing. The angel who imparted the word to him said that only divine mercy could save us all when the events of the prophecy come to pass. And then he left.”

“Wait, the angel left? Where? Heaven?” Greylyn’s brain struggled to imagine there could be an M.I.A. angel.

“Left. There was a sudden burst of energy and then darkness. We could no longer feel the angel’s essence in the universe.” A tear streamed down Gabriel’s face as his eyes closed in what appeared to be agonizing grief.

A moment later, his eyes shot open, and he smiled down on her as if the sadness had been instantly vanquished. “Dear, it would be catastrophic if the prophecy became a reality. My brother, Lucifer, is right to want to ensure that it does not come to pass, but for his own selfish reasons.” His eyebrows furrowed. “However, Heaven does not condone his methods of controlling events.”

“You mean, you don’t condone him wanting to kill me?”

His grin grew to brighten his face even further. “Well, there is that. Yes.”

Now that they were standing side by side, he towered over her. She had to crane her neck up to see him, afraid that if she looked away, he woulddisappear.

“You have my protection, for what it is worth.”

Well, that was an improvement from her current situation. Surely archangel protection from Lucifer’s assassination attempts would help, but why the…for what it is worthconditional statement?

Gabriel took her hand and guided her to a spiraling staircase. They climbed the three hundred and thirty-threesteps up the Central Tower to the ringing chamber. Along the way, he would stop to admire the multiple views of the Cathedral. The climb afforded them up-close observations of stained glass, massive bells, and dozens of frightening-looking, and somewhat comical, gargoyles.

Greylyn reached out to touch one of the gregarious gargoyles as she reflected on his statement—"…for what it is worth.” The stone was ice-cold to the touch. A tremor built up inside her and radiated out until her entire body shook. What could cause an honest-to-God angel to condition his words with “for what it is worth”? Couldn’t pure-blood angels do just about anything?

He turned to face her, clasping her hands in between his own large palms. Another wave of peace spread throughout her body. The trembling ceased.

“Unlike popular opinion would have you believe, angels are still subjected to certain limitations put on us by human beings’ free will. If you choose a path that supersedes my realm of protection, I cannot help you.” His hands gestured toward a stained-glass depiction of Eve plucking the fruit from the tree, followed by another showing her handing the fruit to Adam. “Sadly, to do what you must, and what I know you will do because that is the type of guardian angel you are, there will be many times that I cannot intervene.”

Oh, for pity’s sake! Ambiguous statements were of no use to her. She needed facts—specifically, how to stop the damned prophecy. “Okay, if you know so much, then explain things to me. I’m racing around in the dark here and running out of time. Your pal, Olivier, is not exactly what I’d call patient. And I refuse to allow Kelly or her child to suffer for something when I can take their place. However, I also don’t know the stakes. You say that fulfilling the prophecy could be catastrophic. How, exactly? And how do I stop it without endangering them?”

The dam in her brain burst open with all the questions stockpiled away. Gabriel listened with stoic patience, nodding as the words tumbled out in a flood.

“I am sorry, my child. I wish I had all the answers that you need, but the prophecy is as much about a journey of discovery as it is about fulfillment.” He gazed down upon her and wrapped an arm over her shoulders.

“What am I supposed to do?” she sobbed.

He stroked her back like a father consoling a child. With every touch, her muscles relaxed, and the tears subsided. “I wish that I could make it all go away, but what is meant to pass, must pass. Even Heaven learned that lesson the hard way.”

With a fingertip, he tilted her chin up so she was looking into his eyes—emerald stars shimmered, holding her in his trance. “You were divinely chosen for a reason, and I do not believe it is to inflict destruction upon the universe regardless of what the rumors spin about the prophecy. I trust that you will succeed. If it is to fulfill the prophecy, you will do so…and it will serve a godly purpose, not evil. If it is to thwart the prophecy, you will do that. There are no definitive answers. You simply need to trust yourself more.”

At that, she giggled like a maniac losing her mind. “Trust myself? How exactly am I supposed to do that when I can’t even control my own body and heart? Kael… He’s a dark guardian! But…” Words were inadequate to articulate her predicament.

“I think that someone, somewhere, made a big mistake choosing me.”

Confessing lustful feeling for a dark guardian to an archangel had to be a first. What had possessed her to pour out her dirty laundry to him, anyway?

Gabriel’s face softened and he smiled down at her like a loving father answering the myriad of questions of “why this” and “why that” from a three-year old child. But his only words were, “There was no mistake.”

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