Page 125 of Deck of Scarlets

“I haven’t forgotten.”

Father Benedict stopped just before the steps on the altar, completely soaked in perspiration. “We leave three days before Christmas break. Remi, you have a month and a half to train with your guardian and prepare for the trip. It would be in your best interest to refrain from killing one another.”

Kind of hard when that was all I could think about.

“I’ll prepare a list of things we need to bring. Any further discussion of what we talked about in my office, Remi, save it for the plane ride. Josh, will you come with me please?”

They both left me standing alone in the church. A heavy weight of defeat and exhaustion crept in, and I couldn’t find the strength to move. I watched the remaining light from the sun peek through the stained glass window above the altar, creating swirls of colors until fading altogether, until darkness engulfed everything I’d lost, including myself.

A sense of dread filled my bones, my chest throbbing from the loss of two important people, my anger and devastation colliding inside, making me drop to my knees because, under all the layers of hatred and despair, my stupid heart left a small fraction of love for Josh.

How fucking sick was that? How could I let myself keep a piece of what I felt tucked away when it should’ve perished within the fire of ferocity? How could he believe that my very existence spawned something so sinister that my friends became the victims? How was it that I knelt before a God who let such vicious actions commence?

I bowed my head, letting a few tears escape to release some of the misery buried within, as if I hadn’t cried enough in Father’s office.

To grin and bare such wreckage only reminded me of what was to come, and I couldn’t sit back and let incapable people take over. If I sat idly by, then what was the point? If Grams knew of such horrendous things to come, then she left it all to me for a reason. Because I would stop at nothing to save the ones I loved.

Lifting my head and wiping the last of my tears, I saw the silhouette of a female appear in the darkness of the chapel, her face barely visible but only recognizable in my dreams that plagued me for months, until the absence cut me right down to my core.

She smiled knowingly before fading into nothing.

My guardian angel.

Juniper.

Epilogue

Josh

Ihope you fucking rot.

The sting of the bruise began to fade, beginning the process of healing. Much like Remi’s harsh words, but not enough to get them out of my head. Her anger toward me was warranted, and I couldn’t blame her, not one bit, but how she said it; the look in her cold dead eyes ripped me to shreds.

For fuck’s sake, the girl had a grip on my goddamn heart.

I ended up back in Father’s office, sitting in the empty seat across from him, the sweat continuing to drip down his face. It could only mean one thing; a vision was coming.

Judging by the looks of his complexion and the nervous shake in his hands, it was going to be a big one, and that put me more on edge.

“Mateo,” called Father Benedict. My birth name, and he was the only person allowed to call me such. A name I despised since I found the truth to it. The only other person who knew was Baron, and even he didn’t dare to reveal it.

“Father, do you think it’s wise for Remi to travel with us?” I questioned.

He smoothed down a spot on his robe, trying to remove a wrinkle. “You’re her guardian. The Aces know what they’re dealing with, and I have come to fear one among the pack plotting against you both.”

“So, Remi is being targeted?”

“So are you. You remember the prophecy I gave you?”

“Yes, but—”

“The attraction will only build unless you can control it. I would rather her be angry at you than bring down the whole human race.”

Father Benedict used a tissue to dab his forehead as I watched him breathe slowly, preparing himself for the blow.

After the Blessing, I’d found Father Benedict barely conscious in his office, covered in his sweat and vomit. I had called for help to the infirmary, unsure if this vision was the one to kill him. The same pain-stricken look and unsteady hands. A vision had come to him in the middle of the night of me and an unknown female with beautiful blonde hair, but chaos was pictured in the distance. Blood and sacrifice, the Earth tilting too far off its axis, trying to survive every known demon walking the Earth. All because my hands held her. All because the power we wielded together created a catastrophic disaster.

Father couldn’t figure out why we were the deciding factors, and at first, I didn’t believe it, but since meeting Remi, the magnetic pull of her very presence twisted all my morals and responsibilities to rubble. The night I met her at Electric Haze turned everything I built to protect upside down, and I tried so hard to be with someone else, to open my heart to a lesser evil.

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