Chapter 90
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injustice.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, GLADIATOR
I exploded into the bedroom to find Jezebel dead and Lilith gone. Fury roared through me as I realized I had once again failed my wife. I examined the arrows that protruded from Jezebel’s chest. They were made of the same gold as the scepters. This was not good.
Hell’s bells chimed, signaling that it was officially midnight. Lilith would be ascending, and the veil would no longer be pliable, which meant if I was going after her, I was going to need to storm Heaven’s gates.
‘They have Lilith,’ I barked into Shem’s mind. He was still in the great hall, fighting the last of the angels with Gabriel.
I was moving again, hopping from shadow to shadow in my Reaper form.
‘I’m going after her,’ I snarled.
‘Wait for us, you can’t go alone.’
‘There’s no time. Meet me there, I’ll clear the way.’
‘Alright. We’re right behind you.’
‘Hazai… be careful; they have managed to craft arrows out of the same material as the scepters. Don’t get shot.’
Hazai fell silent for a beat before finally responding.
‘Who did they kill?’
‘Jezebel.’
‘Fuck… that means…’
‘Yeah,’ I growled. ‘Art was the fucking rat.’
I made it to the Fountain of Death in record time. If I was going to take on God’s armies alone, I was going to need a boost. No one had done what I was about to do, and I wasn’t really sure what the consequences would be.
I knew Lilith’s blood was deadly to mortals, but no one knew what would happen if a demon stepped into the inky pool of her magic. I had felt the way the scythe’s magic had blended with my own when I needed it to fight Yahweh. Something told me this would be the same. I was not afraid of Lilith’s magic. If anything, I craved it. I was her Reaper. Yahweh had been right when he said I was a vessel. I was a vessel of carnage and fucking death and he was about to learn what that truly meant.
Her blood gathered around me as I stepped into the creek. It was as if a current suddenly formed, and the midnight liquid swirled around me in a twisting vortex of ecstasy. It felt so fucking good against my skin. Her blood soaked through my flesh, and I felt my body fill with her magic as if I were a dry sponge.
I continued to walk deeper into the spring until I was fully submerged. Opening my mouth, I swallowed large mouthfuls of her, ensuring every single cell in my body was baptized in her power —s he tasted like honey and salt. As her essence slid down my throat, a thirst awakened within me that felt nearly unquenchable. I craved each mouthful more than the last, and I wondered how I had managed to survive this long without her blood.
I held myself under until I was humming with power. Finally, I broke through the surface and shot through the air, strings of moldy rot and decay trailing behind me like the tail of a comet as I ripped toward the gates of Heaven. The blade of my scythe gleamed in the starlight, and I felt my consciousness melt away.
I was no longer Ramel.
I was only Death, and even God’s angels wouldn’t survive me.