Page 88 of Revelations

“Grey, you don’t feel responsible for Kael getting himself into this situation, do you? The freak had it coming.”

Who’s he trying to convince?

“Come on, darling. He’s a bastard who deserves eternity of the worst Hell has to offer. We should throw a damn party to celebrate!” Jasper stomped over to rummage through the kitchen cabinets.

Thankfully, Thomas returned in time to intervene before Jasper could go off on another tirade about Kael. “Dude, you know I’m a recovering alcoholic. There’s no booze in the house.”

Jasper’s expression turned contrite as he slammed his palm into the refrigerator door. “Sorry, man. I …”

Thomas shrugged. “Forget it.”

The guardian stood in the kitchen clenching and unclenching his fists. The ice fire in his eyes betrayed his inner turmoil.

With a stiff smile, Thomas provided his own opinion. “I think you’re missing the point, man. Not only do we have Olivier calling the shots, but now Lucifer has put his chips in, too. With that archangel appearing to Greylyn back in DC, it’s an all-out war with her stuck right in the middle.” He cast a glance between them before adding in a softer voice, “Also, Kael saved my life. No matter what evil he’s done, he did at least one good thing.”

Shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts, Jasper walked over to where Greylyn sat on the tattered rattan chair, looking out the back porch doors of Thomas’s house to the tree line. Kneeling in front of her, he placed his hands on her knee.

He was so close that his breath warmed her face. Since Tibet, she’d felt chilled. Not like she’d just stepped into a freezer, but like she had been out snowboarding all day and was accustomed to the cold so much that she no longer noticed it.

“Grey, we can’t fight three fronts of this war. Heaven wants this prophecy stopped, or so we’ve been told. Gabriel may be willing to back you up to find a way to get around it, but don’t doubt that if ending you would mean ending the prophecy, hewilldo it.” Jasper’s icy eyes burned brightly. “Lucifer wants it stopped. He may be agreeable to giving you a chance, but don’t doubt he’ll slaughter you and everyone close to you if he thinks it’ll put an end to this. Then there’s Olivier; the only bastard who wants this to happen. All three forces are using you. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.”

Greylyn sighed heavily. Yes, she was trapped in a corner with the only solution in sight being toplay all three sides against each other. No matter which side came out on top in this battle, they would all be gunning for her when it was over, if not beforehand.

“Well, I’m not exactly overjoyed to be someone else’s pawn, especially when I don’t know what is supposed to happen, but uncertainty is part of my existence. The one thing I counted on was that good was good and evil was evil. Now…I’m not sure I can tell the difference.”

Jasper clenched his hands together in fists and released them. He did this a few times. “Good is still good, darling. Evil can play at being good, but it’s just an act. That’s all Kael was doing. Acting. You know this. You’ve seen what destruction he’s capable of. If he’s been working for Olivier all this time, I’m assuming he’s capable of much more than we thought possible.”

There was an uncomfortable silence, as if a guillotine blade hung in the air just before the executioner let go of the rope.

Jasper grasped Greylyn’s chin and pulled her face closer to his. “And if he survives Olivier’s thrashing, he’ll be much worse than ever before.”

She knew that, somewhere deep down she certainly did. Every time that the thought crossed her mind, the hole in her heart grew wider.

Jasper cleared his throat to regain her attention as she had lost herself again in visions of a tortured Kael. “Honey, I hate to be the one to say this, again—Have you reconsidered about letting Olivier have Kelly and the child?”

She jumped up so fast that the chair fell over with a loud thud. Her hand smarted as it swung out and slapped Jasper’s face. “Have you lost your mind?”

Thomas quickly wedged himself between them, facing her. Frightened hazel eyes implored her to back down. If not for him, she was pretty sure that she would have pounded her best friend of over four hundred years until even he was unrecognizable.

Strong hands grasped her shoulders. “Okay, calm down. I’m sure Jasper didn’t really mean that.”

They both turned to face Jasper. His ice blue eyes sparkled with fury.

“Actually, yes, I did. Very much so. If it means saving Greylyn from the clutches of Hell’s Most Wanted, then…yes! Give him the humans while we come up with a plan to finish him off that doesn’t involve you dying. Because if it comes down to it, you know that’s what will happen. Either you’ll die fulfilling the prophecy for Olivier, or Heaven or Hell will kill you in order to stop it.” He shook with untamed emotion.

A hothead to his core, she finally understood the lengths to which he wouldgo to in order to protect her. That revelation alone frightened her more than staring down a demon army.

“NOT an option!” Greylyn didn’t recognize the sound of her voice as it reverberated through the small house.

Innocents would not die because of her. Heaven wouldn’t be breached by a megalomaniac fallen archangel who, quite frankly, was more sinister than Satan; not when she could stop it.

Jasper grabbed her hands before she slugged him again. She was strong, but there was no breaking free of the death grip he had on her.

“Greylyn, I won’t allow you to sacrifice yourself…for anyone. You’re too important. Too dear to me.”

There it was; the way that his eyes narrowed into slits of ice; the way that his voice shook, and his words came out clipped; the desperate clutching of his hands on hers.Fear. Jasper was afraid. He was never afraid. As quickly as her anger had spiked, it crashed back down to earth again in a plume of regret.

Determined, but with understanding, she laid out the truth. “I don’t intend to die for anyone, but if it’s required of me to saveanyhuman, then I’ll gladly do so. But I don’t want Olivier to succeed. What he intends cannot be good for anyone but himself. The only way to fix this is to find a workaround, a loophole; something to satisfy the prophecy without unleashing Olivier on Heaven.” She peered up into Jasper’s face, willing him to grasp the last straw of possibility she envisioned; the one tendril of hope. “Help me find a way to defeat him.”

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