Page 84 of Revelations

It probably was not a good idea to piss him off, so Greylyn quickly reined in her amusement. “Sorry. It’s kind of an inside joke I have with someone else from your organization.”

“Ah, yes. Kael.” He said it with a smile, but pent up anger tightened his expression as a nerve throbbed visibly at his jaw line. “Had he done his duty, none of this would be necessary. All he had to do was—"

“Kill me.” She finished his sentence. A coldness that had nothing to do with the weather coursed through her veins. “But what if he had completed his assignment and I still came back? Perhaps, he did you a favor without even knowing it himself.”

Why was she so desperately trying to defend Kael?

Lucifer reached over to trail a fingertip lightly over her cheek. Shivers of discomfort coursed through her body, leaving goosebumps all along her arms, legs, and the back of her neck. The way he looked at her, like he was actually peering into her soul, perhaps beyond…it frightened her more than anything else ever had. But there was an underlying sensation of pleasure floating just below the surface.

For several minutes, he just stared at her with a faraway expression. Finally, the corners of his mouth curled up in an evil grin exposing his perfect, even teeth.

“You may have a point. It probably made no difference in how you died or by whose hands. But having you perish at his hands…oh, it was too delicious to pass up.” His hands came up to cup her chin, sending shivers throughout her body just before his grip tightened. “But…he disobeyed ME! He paid dearly for that. And that was not his last offense! For a long time, I was at ease thinking that the prophecy was dead and buried. Regardless of how you died, you were dead. Then you turned up again.”

“Yeah, death didn’t seem to fit me well.” She took the opportunity to wrench away from his touch as it was doing strange things to her insides.

He huffed before retracting his hand to pull out a pocket handkerchief to wipe away some invisible debris from his fingertips, as if touching her had soiled his skin. “Somehow, I did not find out about your resurrection the moment it happened. It was kept a secret from me by none other than Kael. He paid dearly for that betrayal as well, you can be sure.”

The last thing that Greylyn wished to contemplate was what Lucifer had done to Kael for disobeying him and then withholding information from him—information that she was alive and a guardian angel. The torture that he must have endured was undoubtedly horrific beyond words; probably something similar to the torture that Olivier was dealing out to Kael now far under Mount Kailash. Without conscious thought, her eyes darted to the top of the mountain.

Stammering as her nerves flared, Greylyn did her best to sound nonchalant about Kael’s ordeal. “I’m sure that he regrets everything and will be more than willing to make amends.”

Again, why was she defending him?

It was a shot in the dark, but she took it. “Olivier has him on a short leash, but he’s overplayed his hand with Kael. He’s in a prime position to work against your brother now.” Actually, she had no indication that he would do anything against Olivier. For the most part, she suspected that, once he completed his “re-education,” he would be completely lost. Still, Greylyn could not stop herself from speaking on his behalf.

With a knowing tsk, Lucifer looked on her with pity. “You must know Kael is lost to you. No matter what he has done for you in the past, he cannot be anything other than what he is—an evil being with hellfire running through his veins.”

“Uh, yeah. Sure. Whatever you say. I’m just advising that he may be amenable to working to stop this prophecy. And he may be in a position to provide the best intelligence against Olivier. Since only your dear brother thinks he knows what the prophecy is supposed to achieve, maybe we can find a way to use that against him, turn it around.”

A coy grin played on Lucifer’s face as he considered all that she had just said. Finally, with a look of gleeful determination, he nodded. “Olivierthinksas I do. The prophecy was designed to redeem the unredeemable—Satan to be exact. However, he wants to turn it around so that he can be redeemed back into Heaven’s pearly gates, but he does not intend to turn himself into a happy little obedient angel again.”

His eyes narrowed. If Greylyn’s intuition was right, that was fear hiding behind his black orbs.

“He means to tear it all down. All he needs is the keys to open the door.”

That definitely sounded like a bad idea. No wonder Heaven and Hell wanted this prophecy shut down.

Well, that reasoning made sense, knowing what she did of Olivier. Why return to being a sweet soldier of Heaven when he could infiltrate its army and destroy it from within? No, he would not go back and turn into a choirboy again. He would bring it all crashing down.

But why would Lucifer not want to do the same?

“So, you sure you don’t want the one-way ticket back home for yourself?” She thought it was a fair question.

A low rumble from his chest grew to a deafening roar. “Certainly NOT! I have a prime time gig here on Earth and I am thoroughly enjoying my reign.” He abruptly stood with his arms thrown high. “Long live the king!”

Greylyn did not know if she should be relieved or not that Satan fully intended to stick around for the duration.

“Okay, then.”

If that were indeed the prophecy, why would Heaven want a means for their most notorious rebel to return, anyway? Maybe that was not the prophecy at all, but she had to admit that it sounded like a legitimate reason to keep it from happening.

“We make Olivier think he’s getting what he wants, regardless of what the prophecy truly says, and then we smash him just as he thinks he’s about to win. Sound like a plan to you?”

He smirked. “Still a little light on the details, dear. Stopping Olivier will not stop the prophecy. How do you intend to do that?”

There was not much that she could add to the plan. Knowing what the prophecy said was paramount. Could it even be stopped? Was there a fail-safe for bad prophecies?

All she could do was shrug. “Once I find out more, I can strategize a way out of this for all of us, but without that information, the current plan is more a ‘cross that bridge when we get to it’one.”

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