Breathless Read Online Free

voice is low, his words are drawn out in a way that it makes even me nervous. “Because you have demon blood in you now, Lucien. Or have you forgotten.”
    “I’ve not forgotten.”
    “And that, my friend, means that you can never enter Heaven again. So even if you die at a ripe old age of one hundred and are a saint in every sense of the word, you’ll still go straight to Hell. Do not pass go. All because you tried to save your no good brother.”
    At the Hell gate, Lucien mixed his blood with mine. He jumped. He died. He went to Hell. He was tortured. He turned into this thing with big black eyes that was just, frankly, terrifying.
    He… he can never go back to Heaven.
    He doesn’t deserve this.
    Seth deserves an afterlife in Hell. That’s what he wanted after all. Hell on Earth.
    So why does my brother have to suffer for it? Why does he keep having to pay the price?
    “I’d do it again,” Lucien says before I can’t take it anymore and open the door.
    They, somehow, found gas lanterns and have them set up all around the kitchen. I can see Lucien and Seth. Part of me wishes I couldn’t. I’m still in my wet clothes, but they’ve changed into dry ones. Seth has on a pair of jeans and a white button up shirt, which seems out of place for him. And Lucien has on a pair of black pants and a black shirt. He sure doesn’t look like a Union soldier now.
    I still look very much the Confederate. An old, wet, formerly dead Confederate. Happy days.
    Both Seth and Lucien look at me when I walk out of my pity pit. They are standing on opposite sides of the kitchen table, Seth slightly taller than Lucien, who has his fists balled up like he wants to punch Seth in the nose. I’m not opposed to that. #TeamLucien
    “Gentlemen,” I say with as much sarcasm as I can muster. I pray my eyes aren’t red and that they’ve not heard my little major mental breakdown because that would just be awful. And embarrassing and all kinds of things I don’t want to dwell on. Ugh. “Talking about me?”
    “Ah, good. You’ve finally emerged from your cocoon.” Seth smirks. I hate that angel.
    “Shut up.” Lucien beats me to it. “He’s been through enough without you having to add insult to injury. If you don’t have anything productive to say, shut your damn mouth.”
    Wow, I’m actually pretty impressed by my big brother. He’s always been the least likely to cause a confrontation, even when a confrontation needed to be caused. He was always the pacifist. I suppose that’s why he went to the Pearly Gates and I went to… not the Pearly Gates. “Yeah… just shut your damn mouth.”
    I eyeball Seth before looking at my brother and giving him the fist of camaraderie. In response, my brother rolls his eyes at me.
    Good. We’re back to normal then.
    “I’ll shut my damn mouth when one of you has a better idea.” Seth can’t seem to just shut up.
    “Better idea about what?” I have a feeling while I had my mental break these two weren’t just in here talking fashion and braiding each other’s hair.
    Seth looks at Lucien. Lucien looks at Seth.
    I don’t think I have to be told what they’ve been talking about, but dang if they would just say it. “Gracen. You are talking about Gracen.”
    “No,” Seth says much too quickly. “We are talking about the Abomination. The thing you allowed to live and the thing that will destroy the world.”
    “Me?” Of all the… “She’s your daughter.”
    “And she was your charge.” Seth’s eyes narrow. “You had one job, Jessup Blackwell, and you screwed it up royally. Everything that happens from now on is your fault. Yours alone.”
    “First of all, my name is Hart. Not Jessup. Jessup died a long time ago, so stop calling me that.” Why had everyone decided now was the time to go back to that? It wasn’t even the best name in the 1800s. “And second… you’re right.”
    I surprise myself when I say it. I know I surprised Seth because he blinks a few times. Lucien,