Chapter Fifteen
“Upon her choice, the future rests. To welcome the Darkness or create a New Light, only her heart can show the rest.”
—From the Zodiac Prophesies
The shrill whinnying came from somewhere in the distance. Perhaps in his dreams. But it grew closer, louder, like the advance of a battle-charged cavalry.
Seven awoke first, sitting suddenly, separating their bodies.
Ben tried to pull her back down, his arm tightening around her waist.
“Benjamin, it’s the Song. It’s warning us. Something is wrong.”
The urgency in her voice finally penetrated his exhausted, sex-drenched haze. He left the bed in one smooth leap and dug into his shorts. The rings were there in his pocket where he left them.
Seven came to stand beside him, already dressed. He quickly pulled on his clothes too as they both stared down at the rings glowing, vibrating in his palm. He hissed at the searing heat but didn’t let go.
“Put them on,” she urged.
“They speak to you more clearly if you wear them.”
At first, he didn’t know how he could, for the rings fit Seven’s much smaller fingers. But the moment he inserted the tip of his middle finger into the Dream ring, it expanded to fit him, sliding snugly to the base. The same happened with the Song, as he slid it onto the middle finger of his other hand.
Both rings blazed with their own unique light, a hot brand around his fingers that singed painfully before settling into a lower burn as if they were conforming to his skin, becoming a part of him.
His world suddenly tilted as if he were having a vertigo attack, and he couldn’t tell which way was up or down. Seven clutched his hand tightly in both her own, helping to steer him back to the bed as he staggered off balance.
There, he sat, his head still spinning, waves of nausea washing over him. She kept him grounded. Anchored. Breathing deeply and slowly to show him how to do the same. The whinnying in his ears, so shrill and loud before, dulled to a distant roar.
“What do you see? What do you hear?” Seven’s soft voice asked.
She sounded far away. As if he was submerged in water or deep within a dream, and she was in another world entirely.
“Darkness,” he uttered, his voice sounding as if it, too, was separate from himself.
“Shadows…They’re converging over and around our home…Everywhere…Sky, earth and sea…they’re everywhere…We must go back…before it’s too late!”
He struggled mightily to come out of the trance, the dreamworld he seemed submerged in. Was it the future or the present?
Gods! Please don’t let it be the past! They couldn’t be too late!
Just as his vision started to focus again on his surroundings, on Seven herself who still clutched his hand, a portal swirled open in the middle of the room.
Out stepped Sai, the water dragon who could walk across worlds with the joint power of his Mate, a faerie queen. He paused slightly when he saw Ben and Seven together, eyebrows lifting with a hint of surprise.
She’s mine, Ben communicated telepathically.
That was all that needed to be said.
Sai didn’t blink an eye, and he didn’t mince words as he held out his hand.
“Come, Ben. It has begun.”
One moment Ben and Seven were in her hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand, and the next, they stepped into the portal and arrived at the second stronghold in the north toward the Beaufort Sea, Sai and Brigid’s base.
Brigid was waiting for them on the other side, along with Cloud and Aella. All three of them gave Ben the same look Sai did. But their expressions quickly cleared at whatever they read on his face.
For her part, Seven was calm and controlled beside him. She was no longer holding his hand. She stood separately but close to him, spine straight, shoulders back.
He was proud to stand beside her thus. They were in this together.
“What’s the damage?” Ben demanded, shifting instantly into military command mode.
He might not have had the experience in this human incarnation, but he’d been a King of Beasts as Byakko. He’d led and won wars for the Twin Goddesses. For his Mate. Taking charge came to him as naturally as breathing.
“All three strongholds are under attack,” Cloud reported.
Ben could hear the not too distant shrieks and roars, could see shadows engaging their aerial fleet led by Zai, Rhys and Shai. Explosions of rock and ice created muffled booms beyond the fort walls, and he knew that Sin and his pride of Breasts had their teeth and claws full of enemy assassins as well.
“I must return to the sea,” Sai said curtly.
“Too many monsters are coming through. Brigid and I will try to push them back and seal them off in other uninhabited realms, but you must be prepared for those that escape our net.”
With that, the Mated pair stepped through another portal, presumably directly into the churning sea a mile away.
A maelstrom could be seen in the distance, blackening the skies and the waters below, making the waves unnaturally violent. Lightning streaked into the water from above; monstrous screams pierced the air.
“What can I do?” Ben asked. “Where can I help the most? Where are they coming from? Is there a way to attack the source?”
“No idea how they got here,” Aella answered.
It was only then that Ben noticed she was armed to the teeth. She and Cloud were clearly on their way out to aid Sin and the Beasts.
“But they were suddenly everywhere, all at once. The last report from Goya and Arthur confirmed that at least all three strongholds are keeping the monsters at bay from human inhabitants. But the forcefield and illusion are most difficult to hold where the surrounding areas are most populated.”
“Mount Wilson,” Ben deduced.
“Yes,” Cloud said. “Ere, Sorin, Goya—they need the most help. They have the strongest contingent, but they are under the severest attack. We must find a way to drive the shadows to the seas. Sai and Brigid’s magic are strongest there. Myself, Lancelot and Rui can add to it, if we are able to drive them all to the same location and we can combine our powers. We can push them into a barren realm and contain them if we cannot outright destroy them—which I fear is nigh impossible. They only multiply for every shadow we eliminate.”
“Isn’t this like the way they were in the Celestial Realm?” Ben recalled, addressing Aella.
“You mentioned that their forces grew stronger the more aggressive we were in attacking them.”
“True,” she said thoughtfully. “This makes me think that containment is the best strategy for now. Maybe if we only use our powers to herd them, rather than kill, they will engage differently as well.”
“How do I get to Mount Wilson?” Ben asked, coming back to Cloud’s assessment of where the most help was needed.
“It’s hours away by eagle flight, and the dragons can’t be spared.”
Cloud shook his head, a frown of frustration creasing his brow.
“If I still had all of my powers, I could harness the elements to carry you there much faster than any winged-form. But…”
Ben recalled the jade green Celestial dragon that Cloud had once been before the Jade Emperor stripped him of his ability for Mating Aella. Yes, that elemental dragon could fly faster than physical beings weighed down by gravity. He’d been one with the air and traveled with the same lightness.
“You can,” it was Seven who stated this. Boldly and confidently.
They all looked at her with astonishment, but for different reasons.
“How…” Cloud uttered, eyes narrowing at a seemingly small, innocuous human.
It was one thing to be Claimed by Ben and clearly inducted into their world, but it was quite another to interject so knowingly at a time like this.
Ben met Cloud’s questioning eyes as Seven continued matter-of-factly.
“Rules are meant to be broken, remember? The power is within you, Cloud. You can still command it if you but search within yourself.”
“Who are you?” Ben’s dragon trainer couldn’t seem to help the question.
“That’s not as important as who you are right now,” she said firmly.
“You must remember yourself.”
She placed each of Ben’s hands around Cloud’s forearms, the rings he wore immediately lighting up.
“Maybe this will help. Benjamin, you have powers too,” she said to him, looking up into his face.
“Remember that. Harness that. Close your eyes, both, and imagine that beautiful dragon Cloud used to be. Remember the wind becoming the breath in your lungs, the clouds wrapping around you, blending with you. Remember the crisp air and the sparks of lightning. You can move even faster. You can command these elements like an extension of your own will. Remember.”
And Cloud did.
Before Ben’s eyes, the Elite warrior’s body shimmered, and his form waved like a mirage before effervescing into a cloud. The cloud embraced both Ben and Seven in weightless arms, carrying them up, up, up. Higher and higher into the sky.
He looked down at Aella, who watched their ascent with rounded eyes and parted lips, awe and wonder on her face. She raised one hand in salute when the jade green dragon took form, curling around them, shifting them to his front claws.
A brilliant laugh burst out of her in pure delight, and she blew her Mate a great big kiss.
Cloud’s answering roar rumbled through Ben too before he got down to business and flew them where they needed to go.
How’s the fortress in the south? Ben asked as they traveled at a dizzying speed.
It’s holding, Cloud answered in his deep dragon rumble, like rolling thunder.
They have the advantage of having the most dragons in their contingent—Lancelot and Rui in the seas, Arthur, Wolfe and Merlin in the air, and Kai on ground.
I notice you didn’t count Divina. Ben was amused.
Well, she’s not exactly a fighter, Cloud said diplomatically.
Plus, they have Eli and Clara too. He is the strongest air Elemental in existence, and together with his fire witch Mate, they have had no trouble keeping the shadows at bay.
So, the plan is to help Ere, Sorin and Goya drive the shadows toward the Beaufort Sea, Ben concluded. Eli will be instrumental in herding the shadows from the south all the way up north. It’s a long way to travel, though. Are there no other means of disposing the shadows where they are?
Not unless there’s a way to destroy them without having them multiply as they have been, Cloud replied.
From what we’ve gathered amongst us, even Eli and Clara’s air and fire evisceration doesn’t stop them. They turn to smoke and seem to dissipate, but then they gather again wherever there’s shadow. They won’t stop coming. And if they strike us, touch us with their ghostly dragonfire, the wounds are real and severe. We are at a distinct disadvantage in the fight.
What about the Phoenix’s light? Sorin’s lightning and sun beams? Ben asked.
It was a newly acquired power that Sorin discovered while skirmishing with his Black Dragon Mate.
Ere pushed him beyond endurance on one occasion, backing Sorin into a wall, so to speak. Just when the Black Dragon cackled in victory, falling upon his Mate with tongue lolling, eyes wild with anticipation, Sorin’s entire body became as hot and as bright as the sun. Blinding everyone around him and blasting Ere a hundred yards away with the force of his beams.
Ben had witnessed the whole thing, thankfully from afar, because even then, his own vision had whited out and didn’t return for many minutes.
Won’t that effectively eliminate any shadow? Is a continuous burst of light the key to dispelling the shadows?
But they always return, Cloud said.
Where there is light, there is always darkness. One cannot exist without the other.
Ben felt Seven stiffen at that, though they were being held in separate foreclaws by Cloud.
He reached into their mind link to probe her thoughts, but she was eerily silent. It worried him.
Just then, the peak of Mount Wilson came into view, and Ben concentrated on the battle at hand.
Flights of raptor Beasts circled the skies, engaging with swarms of shadows in a cacophony of screeches and roars, with Ere and Sorin in the lead, fighting flawlessly in tandem, each guarding the other’s back while they jointly attacked their enemies.
Below, at the base of the mountain and in the surround plains, Goya’s feline Beasts clashed with shadows on the ground. Maximus, Ariel, Tal, Ishtar, Gabriel and Inanna were there as well.
That was his entire family in the skies and on the ground, Ben thought with a burst of fear and panic. But he tamped them the fuck down.
They were going to win this war. He wouldn’t contemplate any other outcome.
As Cloud approached the chaos in the sky, he gathered the energy in the air around them and surrounded his body with a web of lightning, shocking everything in his path as he barreled toward Sorin and Ere.
He released Ben and Seven at the exact moment when Ere flew beneath them, looking up with surprise, then narrow-eyed suspicion at Seven, and finally elation as they landed on his back.
I must rejoin my Mate, Cloud communicated, a split moment before he shot away in a streak of lightning.
Ben silently wished him luck. They all needed it.
But he wouldn’t bank on it. Fate was not a luck of the draw; it was what they made of it.
Glad to have you join us, my boy, Ere rumbled in his mind, then rolled his reptilian dragon eye toward Seven, who sat behind Ben, arms around his waist.
Who’s the human baggage?
My Mate, Ben answered firmly. So watch your tone.
The Black Dragon growled with something like protest but didn’t put his displeasure into words.
Well, at least you’re finally getting some, he grouched instead.
I knew there was something different about you. Thought you lost some weight. Must be all that release of cu—
Get your mind out of the gutter and pay attention, old man!
Whereupon Ere clashed claws with a big motherfucker with gigantic jaws, presently snapping like something out of a nightmare at Ere’s neck.
The Black Dragon deftly dodged each attack, snapping back even harder, managing to take hold of a scaly chunk in the enemy’s shoulder and ripping it out. He then reared his head back to blast the shadow with dragonfire directly in the gaping wound.
The enemy dragon howled in pain and fury before dissipating into smoke.
Piece of cake, Ere huffed.
I can do this all day.
But it seemed as if he already had, Ben noticed. He was still going strong, but he was winded. How long could they keep this up?
The shadows were tireless. If they felt pain, it didn’t seem to slow them. They kept on coming. They were everywhere.
We need to pull a strategic retreat! Ben shouted in Ere’s mind, directing the dragon.
Ere pulled up abruptly from a dive, his giant wings flapping backwards to keep them hovering in place like a helicopter.
What do you have in mind, oh padawan? You have a plan.
The Black Dragon was so in tune with Ben through years of training and through their mind link that he sensed Ben’s strategy before he even voiced it, because Ere was already craning his long scaly neck in that direction.
We draw them northwest toward the Beaufort Sea, Ben said.
Brigid and Sai are opening a portal there, deep in the churning waters. We can herd them through it and seal them off. It’s the only way.
Else, the more we destroy them, the more they seem to swarm us. Remember the Hydra’s heads?
Bite your tongue! Ere admonished with a full-bodied shudder, almost shaking Ben’s seat loose from his back.
I never want to face that monstrosity again. But you do have a point. The shadows seem to multiply the more we cut through them.
Rein in your aggression as well, Ben bade him.
These creatures seem to react to our force with equal or greater force. If we simply lead them away, maybe they won’t unleash mortal attacks.
I wouldn’t bet on it, Ere muttered.
But I don’t have better ideas. So, let’s do it your way. At least we’ll be leading them away from human villages. There’s nothing but barren wasteland that far north.
Thus aligned, Ere reversed direction just as two smaller shadow dragons attacked.
He managed to clip one in the head with one of the thick thorns in his tail, and slashed the other in the chest. But these hits only pissed them off, making them chase him with enraged shrieks.
Ere let out a roar of his own, sending a look over his shoulder at his Phoenix Mate. Sorin got with the program immediately, knowing exactly what the plan was.
While Ere led the way in front, other raptor Beasts flying behind him in formation, the shadows stayed hot on their tail like a stream of dirty smoke in the sky. Sorin took up the rear, pretending to engage some of the stragglers, but in reality, he was herding them like a sheepdog to chase after his Mate.
Just as Ben predicted, the less they locked claws and teeth with the shadows and kept a lid on the dragonfire, the less they directly attacked. But the faster Ere and the raptors flew, the more aggressively the shadows gave chase. It was a fine balance to keep them just far away enough not to do damage, yet close enough to ensure that they followed.
Down below, Goya and the landed Beasts adopted the same idea, running deeper into the mountains, heading dead north. Tal, Gabriel and Inanna stayed behind, making sure no shadows lingered and continuing to protect the small human city about ten miles east.
Faster, Ben urged, flattening himself to Ere’s black.
Seven’s arms tightened around his waist as she, in turn, plastered herself to Ben.
You know I’m not a long-distance flyer, Ere huffed, his breaths like bellows.
You’re the Black fucking Dragon, Ben rallied. Reach into your reserve and push it!
Ere elongated his neck, puffed up his chest and released a resounding, echoing roar, his wings beating harder, tail undulating like a propeller. The other raptors joined him, getting a second wind, letting out their own answering screeches. At this rate, they’d reach their destination within a couple of hours.
This would be an endurance test for Ere. The other raptors and Sorin Ben didn’t worry about. But Ere was going to need some favorable winds to maintain top speed for such a prolonged period of time.
The shadows kept tight on their tail, moving swiftly with the wind, almost transparent in their consistency, like ghosts.
Sorin still lagged slightly behind them, using strategic beams of light from his eyes to keep the shadows in line, singeing the ones that flew off course. He made sure none stayed behind.
This was almost too easy, Ben thought, Ere’s endurance issues aside.
But why should it be hard? They were shadows. Were they sentient and possessed minds of their own? Or did they obey the orders of some other force?
Something niggled in the back of his mind.
The shadows had always appeared when a dragon Claimed his Mate, starting with the more recent quests. Were they there to keep the dragon separate from his Mate, or to Awaken the dragon inside their humanoid forms?
In the Celestial Realm, they tried to keep Ben’s friends from leaving. Why? Because dragons shouldn’t exist on earth? Then why would they trigger the dragon’s Awakening at all?
Round and round he went in his mind, but he couldn’t solve the puzzle. If Seven was right, and the Jade Emperor wasn’t their creator, then who was? Why were they here now?
He looked back at the closest shadow on Ere’s tail.
It met his gaze directly, as if it had been waiting for his eye contact.
Slowly, as Ben’s eyes widened, as he shivered with apprehension, the shadow’s ugly reptilian maw curved in a toothy smile.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Benjamin was right. It was too easy.
They were leading the shadows into a trap, but the shadows were planning to trap them too.
Seven was new to the Mated telepathy thing. At least, in this human form. But she caught on quickly.
She succeeded in keeping most of her thoughts blocked from Ben. As a god, despite their connection, they’d never fully opened up to each other mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Even though Byakko had given everything of himself, there was a part of him that he never voiced, that he protected from Seven’s selfish disregard. Understandably.
Now, Seven didn’t want to hide anything from Ben. She wanted to be a wide-open book. She could certainly read his thoughts very clearly. He held nothing back.
But…
What if keeping him from her mind as she raced through various possibilities could help keep him and his loved ones safe? She certainly didn’t want to distract him from the battle at hand.
This was what she told herself as she kept part of her thoughts contained, shielded from his potential discovery. Because if her latest theory about the shadows was right, she might be the only one who could finish this.
Eerie, haunting laughter drifted through her psyche, taunting her. Like a ghostly echo from the murky depths of a long-forgotten well.
Benjamin was almost entirely flattened against the Black Dragon’s back, his focus straight ahead. The sight of the shadow behind them had shaken him, but he shrugged it off. She knew that he didn’t hear what she heard.
No. That laughter was just for her.
She didn’t look behind them like he did. She didn’t want to see.
Afraid?
The word was drawn out in an echoing hiss in Seven’s mind.
She tried not to react to it, but shivers crawled like spiders down her spine nonetheless. She knew that voice. Knew it as well as her own.
Oh, sister. So good of you to remember me, the hiss snaked into her thoughts, as if she was the one having them.
As if the other entity was inside of her.
She closed her eyes and tried to calm and center herself. Tried not to hold onto Ben too tightly, lest he felt her dismay and tension.
Lilith, she acknowledged grimly.
The one and only, came the sing-songy reply.
You’re the one controlling the shadows, Seven stated it as fact, not a question. There was little doubt now. The question was why.
I am the shadows, darling. I am your shadow.
There was both malice and affection in Lilith’s disembodied voice. Resentment and longing. As if her other self both missed her and hated her in equal measure.
How did you survive the Black Dragon? Seven asked. There was a part of her that truly thought Lilith was gone. Yet, another part of her knew it couldn’t be so simple.
I’ve never felt your presence until now.
But you haven’t felt my absence either, you know that, Lilith reminded her of her own doubts.
As to how I survived…do gods of our powers ever die? Our magic is eternal. Our creations are immortal. We can draw from the Universe’s endless store.
It was true, Seven supposed. She should have accounted for this. After all, she herself had been “destroyed” during the War of the Gods, and yet, she ended up incarcerated in the Celestial Realm. She broke out of it, and now here she was on earth as a human.
Gods of their caliber might transform and metamorphosize, but never disappear entirely.
Why have you not shown yourself? she demanded. Why have you not come to me?
For what? her Twin spat.
You tried to talk me out of my last battle, did you not? Tried to “guide me into the light.”
A serpentine hiss rattled ominously in Seven’s head.
What hogwash. Why would I come to you for more of that drivel?
And look at you, Lilith went on. Not even a shell of your former glory. You’re not a millionth of what you used to be. A zillionth! And now, entirely human besides. Disgustingly weak and mortal. You are of no use to me.
It was time to cut to the chase.
What do you intend to do? Seven asked, automatically bracing herself for the answer.
Why have you been attacking us?
Lilith trilled with dark laughter.
Come now, sister. Don’t tell me the growth of your tiny little heart has impaired your brain. Put yourself in my shoes. What would you do?
Seven thought about it for a few silent beats.
From her perspective, ever since she sacrificed herself for Goya during the War, she hadn’t hungered for power anymore. In the Celestial Realm, which was woven from her own imagination, there was no need for any kind of struggle. Everything was contained. Subdued. Controlled.
She’d passed the incalculable time watching humans across time and distance in the Mirror Pond, inserting herself if her interest was piqued or if she was particularly lonely and bored. Most of the time she simply slept. The less consciousness she possessed, the more endurable the imprisonment.
And now that she felt the full gamut of emotions as a human, especially all of the positive emotions she’d never felt or understood as a god, she wanted power even less. What she truly desired, she realized like an epiphany in the moment, was to feel alive.
To be happy. Not just content at best or unfeeling at worst. But truly happy.
To be free. To love and be loved.
To love and be loved most especially by Benjamin.
But her Twin did not have this experience. She could read Lilith’s memories like books, accessible to her but not quite her own. She hadn’t read all of them, though she knew they were there. She hadn’t wanted to intrude.
Even when they fought against the other gods together, they hadn’t been the same as they were before the Downfall. Before they were “cursed” with souls. There was a rift between them that never healed. A seething resentment of Seven by Lilith.
This, she could understand. She’d chosen Goya over her Twin, after all. Which led to Lilith losing the War. The consequence of that for her, however, was different. Somehow, she became a fox spirit, wearing many different skins to stay alive, but never fully living.
Seven didn’t know the whys and wherefores, or how Lilith must have felt. She’d given herself a name. She’d eventually found Benjamin’s previous incarnation, Mated him, and created a family with him.
Had she felt all of the beautiful emotions Seven felt with Benjamin? Or had her experience been muted, because she wasn’t truly in her own skin?
And then the Dark Queen had taken away everything in the worst possible way. How helpless Lilith must have felt. How enraged and vengeful. She’d bided her time, plotted and manipulated, until finally, ultimate power was within her reach as the Hydra. Only one more step to take to become a god again…
Lilith was more than just a shadow. A mere reflection of Seven. She wanted more than anything to be her own person. To never depend on another.
To live and be free.
And the only way she knew how was to amass power.
Thus, the answer came to Seven:
If I were you…I would try to gather all of the dragons and their Mates together in one place to consolidate their power. Their Mates are there to maximize their potential. I would then attack the Mates to have the dragons unleash their full might. And then…
And then… Lilith echoed, spurring her on, excitement in her hissing voice.
I would take that power for my own, Seven concluded with a gasp.
I would harness and coalesce it into a concentrated core. This pure energy would be enough to resurrect my godhood.
Lilith practically hummed with delight in her head. Seven felt her eagerness and anticipation as if it were her own.
They would all fall…their voices blended together in Seven’s mind.
And I would rise.
I would finally rise again!
The final shout was like a call to battle, booming like thunder in Seven’s head, making her shake with vigor and blanche with foreboding at the same time.
Ah…so you are still my Twin, Lilith said more softly now, surprise and careful affection in her tone.
No one knows me better than you, dear sister.
Seven shook her head mentally, her hands loose and numb around Benjamin’s waist. Her skin flashed clammy and cold one moment and feverish the next. She was unbearably nauseous. Overwhelmed. She was only a frail human, but she had to try.
She had to stop Lilith.
I am Seven, she said with steel in her voice despite her fear and apprehension. You are only my shadow. You are a part of me, and I won’t let you do this!
Maniacal cackling reverberated within Seven’s skull.
What makes you think I am a part of you? Lilith growled.
We created the Immortal Kinds, and they are separate from us. Why wouldn’t I be separate and remain separate from you?
I have always resented being your foil, you know, she hissed with venom.
I resent that Byakko, my gift to you, grew his own soul and died for loving you. Why you? Such a waste! I would never have treated him so badly. I would have cared for him.
Could it be…
Seven realized as Lilith ranted that she hadn’t understood all of her Twin’s motivations, after all.
I did care for him, Lilith said more softly now, almost nostalgic. Even Wistful. Seven had never heard her Twin use such a tone before.
Later. When we were together, Lilith went on. But it wasn’t the same. He wasn’t truly my Mate.
Seven couldn’t help interjecting, now that she knew the truth.
You can’t blame him for what happened. It wasn’t his fault! she defended the leopard Beast who was Lilith’s Mate.
He loved you so! He loved us both, though neither of us deserved it!
And what makes you think you deserve him now, Sister? Lilith whispered darkly.
Why you? Why not me?
Why has it never been ME?!
And there it was. The real reason why Lilith was doing all of this. Seven finally understood.
The power and godhood were only the means. The true goal was Benjamin. Lilith wanted to reclaim her lost Mate.
But she didn’t want to love him and be loved by him as Seven finally learned to appreciate, to yearn for and work to deserve the right. Lilith wanted to master Benjamin the way Seven once did, as a god. To control him, command him, and give him only what she wanted to. Not what he needed. Not what he deserved.
Seven could even empathize with Lilith, for Lilith was a part of her, no matter what the shadow said. A god had no vulnerabilities, no fear. Nothing to lose. She would never be hurt again. Never be alone again as long as she had Benjamin by her side. She’d be in control, never again at the mercy of someone else.
But Lilith didn’t understand what Seven now did: that way of life was no life at all. It wasn’t truly living. It wasn’t truly free. It was just another prison, one of her own making.
No.
Seven wouldn’t let Lilith win.
And she was the only one who could stop her.