Free Breathless by Kelly Martin

care at this particular time, it has to be me. Because the world is a screwed up, messed up mess. And I’m at the center of it, or I would be if my brother didn’t have me chained to a wall—stalling.
    He’s stalling.
    Why is he stalling?
    “No matter what you think you know, you don’t know everything. The angels, we knew Seth was up to something for a while. An angel can’t make a baby with a human and the angels not know. We were told to keep it quiet and see how it played out.”
    “How it played out? Wow, that’s a great plan. It seemed to have played out rather well.” Morons.
    Lucien glares at me. “She wanted me to kill her.” He says it so calm, so dark, that it makes the hairs on my arms stand up.
    “Who wanted you to kill whom?” Part of that question is stupid. I know who… Gracen. She’s the Abomination, and if she’d died, then we wouldn’t be here right now, would we?
    But who was the other she? I don’t know any other shes except my mother, and Amelia sure wasn’t working with the angels. Well, she might have worked with Lucien. He’s Mommy’s favorite. She’d probably fight the devil himself for her precious little boy.
    Side note: I’ve never seen the Devil. Heard all about him, though. That’s one dude I’d rather stay away from, thanks.
    “She…” Lucien laughs. “She… she is the angel who told me that to save everyone, I needed to kill Gracen. She’s the one who told me that if I didn’t, the entire world would suffer. And I said no… that she hadn’t done anything wrong. That she was a pure soul, and it would be murder to do something to her without a reason.”
    “Not because she was pure. Because you were sweet on her.” I don’t say it snarky or even like I’m mad. It’s just a fact. I remember that. Gracen, when she talked about Lucien, made me realize that she might like him somehow. I couldn’t have that. Not again. Not like Colleen.
    “I wasn’t…” He sits up and puts his elbows on his knees. He throws the stick he’s been messing with down on the floor. It falls with a clank. Not a stick. A nail. He’s been playing with a nail. Um, what was he going to do to me with a nail?
    I don’t want to know.
    “I wasn’t sweet on her, Hart. Not really. She was a nice girl who didn’t deserve the hand she was dealt in life.”
    “Like Colleen.” I don’t know why I say it. I just do. It comes out before I can stop it. I look at Lucien, hoping he didn’t hear it. But of course he did. It isn’t like I said it really low, and it isn’t like there’s any other noise besides us talking. And the thunder.
    “I didn’t remember Colleen at the time, but yeah. I suppose like Colleen. I didn’t want to hurt Gracen if I didn’t have to. It made her so mad. She wanted me to take care of the threat so we could get on with our lives. She wanted Seth stopped. She wanted the world not to end, but I convinced her to just let me deal with it. I’d stopped you before. I’d stop you again.” He takes in a deep breath.
    “Then I screwed it up.”
    I can hear the pain in his voice. I’m pretty sure he’s about to cry. Nope, that can’t happen. I can’t handle a brother bonding moment. Not now. My heart won’t take it. Unless I can use it to my advantage and get him to let me go somehow.
    “I screwed it up. I was too late getting to the Hell gate, and then I found out you were my brother. And I remembered everything, including the promise I made Father to keep you safe.” He rubs his eyes and leans back. “So I did. I kept you safe. I took on demon blood, and I jumped into Hell, and by doing that, I killed everything. Because I was weak, and I couldn’t do what needed to be done in the first place. I wasn’t sent to the world to save or protect Gracen, Hart. I was sent to destroy her. And I failed.”
    “I wouldn’t have let you.”
    “Let me what?” He sucks in a breath and looks down at me.
    “Let you hurt Gracen. It was my job to protect her. It