Page 61 of Grave Revelations

“You’re not leaving me again. You can’t,” Rebecca pleaded as Jophiel looked between them and dipped her chin. “Last time you left, she took me. I nearly died.” Ice climbed up her spine, and invisible claws scraped her skin, dragging her back to that dark cave.

Jophiel nodded, and Azazel winked out of existence.

Rebecca twisted around, hoping he’d only disappeared into the shadows, but he was gone. He’d left her.

Raphael launched into the air and disappeared, leaving Rebecca and Jophiel alone.

“How could you let him go? I thought you would help him!”

Jophiel opened her mouth, something placating surely prepared to launch from her tongue, but Rebecca held up a hand.

“Don’t. I don’t want to hear it.” Rebecca marched away from the angel, a chill creeping over her. She hadn’t noticed the cold before, but suddenly the blistering wind whipped at her, cutting through the lacy pajamas Azazel had given her.

She spun when she reached the patio, finding Jophiel behind her. “Don’t follow me.”

“I gave him my word."

Rebecca stopped at the entry and wrapped her robe tightly around herself, and despite her protests, Jophiel followed her in, closing the door behind her.

She scowled at the angel, stomped into the sitting room, and stoked the embers of a dying fire, noticing a chill in the drafty room that hadn’t been there before.

Jophiel flicked her wrist, and the flame roared to life, white at the edges.

Rebecca dropped to the couch and caught a whiff of her burger. Her stomach grumbled, and all at once, she was ravenous.

Jophiel’s display of magic tickled at something in her mind, something that had been just out of reach until now.

“Az said my gifts reflect his,” she said, and Jophiel nodded. “And I’ve seen him use earth, water, and air magic, but my strongest gift is fire. I’ve never seen him use that one.”

“Your strongest gift is air magic, like my brother’s,” Jophiel replied.

Rebecca wrinkled her nose.

“As a descendent of my line, fire should have been your strongest ability,” she continued. “But the bond with your other half supersedes familial transcendence. Therefore, fire is your second strongest ability.”

“So he doesn’t have fire magic?”

“True.”

“But I can share it with him?”

“Yes.”

Jophiel’s one-word answers were sour in her mouth. They weren’t lies, but... “What aren’t you telling me?”

“He would not want me to say.”

“No. He wouldn’t.” Azazel moved into the room, stalking toward them. His dark gaze suggested he may truly harm his sister if she spilled his secrets.

Rebecca glanced between them, some unspoken battle of wills playing out.

Jophiel looked away.

He continued striding forward. Was it her imagination, or did the faint outline of a wispy black crown encircle his dark brow? She blinked, and nothing was there—a trick of the light.

He stopped in front of her, holding out a hand. “Come. We have no time left to waste.”

Chapter 40

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