Free The Judas Relic: An Evangeline Heart Holiday Adventure by A.K. Alexander, Jen Greyson Page A

a prison of his own making, he’d steal whatever he needed to be set free.
    Or so he thought. I’d already dealt with his number one guy, Harrold, a foot soldier sent to keep me from succeeding. But they’d underestimated me. Badly. And I would not fail Griffin… Not this time.
    We’d already found the first relic, the ring of Solomon, along with a handful of items that we hoped would prove their importance soon. We had a rock from the Garden of Gethsemane, where Judas betrayed Jesus, two of the silver pieces that Judas had been paid in recompense for the betrayal, and a knife once thought to be possessed of powers that shielded a high priest from bad angels. My weaponry was as eclectic as my teammates… We had yet to see which was more useful—or the bigger liability.
    Next on the agenda was relic number two and that was going to require the team to walk straight back into danger. All we knew was that the actual relic was another weapon used that night in the Garden, the sword that Simon Peter—Jesus’s right hand—had used against one of the soldiers that night when they came for Jesus. (He lopped a dude’s ear clean off!) From what Clay and I had been able to figure out—and he was definitely better versed in the religious relics—the sword had disappeared that night, lost in the fray of the events of the next few days and never really talked about, forsaken for the “trendier” relics like the shroud, the chalice from dinner earlier in the evening, and even bits of the cross.
    I’d wondered a lot over the last few months at the simplicity of the relics we’d found so far. Solomon’s ring held legendary status as holding the power to control demons, so that at least made a little sense as something that might open a gate to hell, but a stone? A knife? A sword? I thought for sure we were going after a holy set of keys, not a bunch of weaponry. But what did I know about opening the gates of hell, maybe that was exactly the kind of thing that opened them.
    I hadn’t seen Metatron since a few days before Christmas, and he’d been as stingy as ever with details and clues. All he’d parted with was our next location—Greece. I assumed I was overdue for a visit from the archangel, but I figured he’d come see me as soon as he wanted to send us back on the trail. We had a limited amount of time to retrieve Griffin’s soul—apparently it was being stained by evil and the longer he stayed, the less he’d be like himself by the time I got him out of hell.
    Mika finished and spun me around. I looked a little more like myself, except fancier. I met his eyes and smiled. He’d done far more for me today than just managing a few split ends. “Thank you so much.”  
    “You’re so very welcome. Don’t be such a stranger next time.” He flipped the ends of my hair forward, drawing my attention back to my own image. My dark hair fell in waves past my shoulders and before I’d left the house, I’d swiped a bit of mascara so I had lashes to frame my blue eyes, and gloss for a hint of pink across my lips. It hadn’t been much, but enough of an improvement that I looked less like a hired assassin cum relic hunter.
    I pushed up out of the chair and grabbed my purse, but when I looked up to follow Mika he was frozen in place.
    And not because I’d stunned him into silence with my good looks. The entire salon was frozen in time, one of Metatron’s fun tricks that he used when he showed up.  
    With a flair worthy of the high-priced salon, the archangel strode through the front doors, looking elegant and striking in his black suit, blond hair perfectly in place, and impeccably groomed. He grinned and held out both hands to me like we were fast friends. “Good morning, darling. This look becomes you.”
    I arched an eyebrow and took a step back, dodging his grip. “Metatron. I’ve been expecting you.”
    He looked me up and down but I did not fidget beneath his scrutiny. “You appear prepared for the next