Page 77 of Death Match

His strained, wounded expression only deepened, and my insides squirmed with guilt.

I stepped around Michael, reaching out to Eli, but he only pressed his mouth into a tight line and moved back.

My heart clenched painfully.

What had I done?

Michael seemed oblivious to the tension between us because he clapped his hands together, still smiling wide. “As you could have guessed, that last Trial was all about the heart’s deepest and truest desire.” He glanced Eli’s way. “And rejecting it for the greater good. Which you did.”

My heart’s deepest desire? But that didn’t make sense. Cole had been there.

Realization punched me directly in the center of the chest, jump-starting my heart into a frenzy. Michael was implying that my deepest, darkest desirewasCole. Not Eli.

The memory of Cole’s “olive juice” confession and the way it had made me feel sprung to mind. Usually, whenever the word “love” was used, I couldn’t stick around. Like when Eli had said it to me. It had instantly made me uncomfortable.

It hadn’t been that way when Cole had said it. Well, he hadn’t said “love” outright, but the message was clear.

It hadn’t been real, though. I had to remember that. Cole didn’t really feel anything for me. After everything he’d done to me while working under Azrael, you’d think I’d be smart enough to kick his ass completely to the curb—and I thought I had, but apparently my heart had other plans.

Sneaky, backstabbing bitch.

More than that, Cole was a half-demon and therefore off limits. As my Guardian, Eli was supposed to be my other half. My partner. He knew me better than anyone else—sometimes I thought even better than myself.

Eli loved me. I could be with him. We’d known each other for close to forever. We could be happy together. I may not feel the same about him as he did about me right now, but I could learn to love him.

Right?

Right.

A relationship with Cole was impossible.

“Th-That can’t be right.” I forced a chuckle to escape, but it sounded strange to my own ears. “Besides, when I was in there, it was hard to remember anything else. It was as if the longer I stayed, the more reality faded away.”

Eli’s pronounced frown indicated he wasn’t buying it.

Dammit. I hadn’t wanted to cause him any pain. I wish I could take it all back or explain it away somehow, but how could I when some cosmic, otherworldly power had pulled out my deepest, darkest desire and laid it out on display for all to see? And when I say all, I meant all. Eli had been watching. Michael had been watching. I couldn’t just pull a Shaggy and say it wasn’t me.

“The problem is that you could have been able to think about me—about us—if you wanted to. You chose not to.” A sad smile flickered across his lips. He wasn’t angry at all. Just heartbroken. “You can’t argue with the heart. Elijah’s right there. It wants what it wants.”

“I—” My mouth dried. I didn’t even know what to say.

“We can talk about it later,” Eli said dismissively.

“Michael.” I turned to the head angel for some kind of reassurance. “Help me out here.”

Michael sighed, his expression falling. “The final Trial is designed to be the most difficult of all. There is no denying the results. The heart never lies.”

Mine didn’t know what it wanted. I don’t care what that Trial had said.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Eli repeated, a bit firmer. “There are more important things at hand here.”

He might be okay with dropping it like that, but I wasn’t. Not when his torment was so clear on his face.

“Elijah’s right, Jade,” Michael chimed in. “You’ve completed the Trials. You bested the hardest tests Heaven had to offer, proving your worth. Now is the time to receive all that you’ve worked so hard for. Your powers and your memories.”

Okay, maybe the issue between me and Eli could wait…

Without warning, the ground started to vibrate. While I held out my arms to steady myself, Eli and Michael remained calm. My anxiety, though, shot to a level ten instantly. It would surprise me if I was plagued with nightmares about moving rocks for the rest of my existence after this. Some Archangel Trial PTSD.

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