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be party to the murder of his own father was
capable of anything. “Maybe I’ll have an ‘accident.’”
         “No,”
Jana said. “ Daniella is too smart for that. And she
has complete control over Richard, though I can’t see how when he so loathes
women. It’s a strange relationship those two have. They seem to hate each
other, and yet I know of no two people who are closer. Daniella will want to wait and see how this plays out before she makes a move. You’re
safe for now. The real threat will only come if it begins to look as though the
High Priest will choose you over Richard.”
         “And then
I am good as dead.”
         “We will
protect you,” Victor said.
         “Like you
protected Robert?” Charles regretted the words the moment he saw how they
affected both Victor and Jana. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I guess...
I’m more afraid than I like to admit and so I allow it to come out the wrong
way. It’s not only my own life at stake here. I fear for my sister.”
         “I
understand,” Jana said. Though of course she did not know everything and no
doubt believed his only concern was the marriage agreement his father had made
with Chancellor Rhine. “But if Richard is king then nothing will stop him from
forcing Anastasia into marriage. Isn’t preventing that the reason you’re here
to try and take the crown for yourself?”
         “Yes.”
He’d agreed to do this instead of going with Anastasia and Simon so things
would be safe for them when they returned. “I’m uncertain. I have second
thoughts. It doesn’t mean I don’t intend to go through with this. I’m simply
not sure it will do any good.”
         “We’ll
have to pray to the God Above it will,” Jana said.
         And of
course, knowing what he now knew, Charles had no response to that.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                            

 
    CHAPTER
FIVE

 
 
         Simon sat
on the broad stump of a tree. He was tired. Not physically, but emotionally. Even
in his human form he’d maintained much of the stamina he possessed as an
archangel and so did not tire out as those around him did. Such stamina was
necessary when wandering the blasted plains of the aether where he’d lived out his previous life.
         He’d come
to love his life as a human and even looked forward to growing old beside his
dearest friends and passing into whatever waited after death. But that life was
over now. Simon knew this as surely as he had ever known anything. Charles and
Anastasia had accepted the truth of who he once was and they felt no
differently toward him for it. But it didn’t matter. Much as he would prefer to
maintain his human form even through the pending disaster, his gut told him he
would be forced to shed his human form before he saw an end to all of this.
         Anastasia
was not going to die. He was determined of this. Even if her death truly was
the only way to stop the Cataclysm. Simon felt certain his human form would not
be enough to keep her protected through everything which lay before them.
         And then
there was Selene. Simon had convinced himself he could live a life and pass out
of it without ever seeing her again. Mishkael , whom
he had then known as the God Above, had called him to a higher purpose and he
had gone without question. He’d been born again as a human, while still
retaining all of the memories of his former life, and was sort of adopted into
the DeHaviland household.
         During
all of this, he’d put what he shared with Selene to the back of his mind,
convinced as he was they would be forever parted. Now she was here, standing
only a few feet away though the true distance between them must be counted in
years. She had every right to be angry with him for leaving the way he had, without
a word, only to come back begging her help in