Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
LILITH
“As lovely as you all are, I’m growing quite tired of interrupting my day-to-day with plots and schemes.
We have all the weapons. What are we supposed to do now?
” I asked, cutting a glance at my pouting fae prince.
He’d been cross with me ever since I made the deal on his behalf.
And yes, there it was. His glower was still in full effect.
I’d just have to make good use of his temper later.
Evander stood and began a slow pace back and forth across the room. “With the fully attuned weapons, all that’s left to do now is—”
“If you say wait, I just may put my fist through your face, angel.” Alek’s interruption would have been amusing if he hadn’t been serious.
“Now, now, children. It doesn’t serve to interrupt. Continue, Evander.”
The angel nodded and returned to his speech. “All that’s left is to present the weapons to their bearers. The chosen who will wield them and see this through to the end.”
“And h-how do w-we know w-who they are?” Ben asked with a frown marring his handsome features.
“Isn’t it obvious? It’s the sex trophies, duh,” his twin answered with a smirk.
“Sex trophies?” Rosie asked with a lift of her brow.
“Would you rather I went with crotch goblins? Semen demons?”
Rosie slapped her hand over his mouth. “I’m going to stop you there, or this will become another hot floppies moment.”
I slid my gaze to her before I stopped myself from asking for clarification. It was highly likely this was something I didn’t want to know.
“Remi does have a point,” I mused. “The children of the horsewomen seem the most obvious answer.”
“There’s a definite element of divine purpose to it,” Gabriel agreed.
To which Michael nodded and murmured, “Very fitting.”
“I can’t believe you guys don’t know this for sure. I mean, you’re the ones with the harps and wings, and those beams of light you come down in to deliver your messages,” Kingston blurted. “Fucking angels. I thought you were all-knowing or some shit.”
“We are. To a point.” Michael’s mouth was pressed into a firm line of disapproval as he glared at the wolf.
“That’s not what all-knowing means, pal.”
The flash of anger in Michael’s eyes would have unnerved me any other time. I’d seen him smite a demon with nothing but a touch to the forehead more than once. But he calmed himself and took a long breath. “Has anyone consulted the book?”
Gavin lifted his long, elegantly fingered hand. “I’ve combed through it a plethora of times. Nothing specific as to the weapon bearers, although for what it’s worth, I also agree with the angels’ consensus.”
“If we’re all just offering up completely unnecessary opinions, I think it should be the other dudes,” Asher said, jerking his finger toward the four horsemen. “I already did the whole ‘banish the pesty bird from the earth thing.’”
“And I already gave up my horns to defeat her,” Pan added.
“Plus, last time I checked, neither of us know how to use a bow.”
“I do,” Rosie offered.
“Us t-too,” Ben said, gesturing to himself and his twin.
“Of course the lumbersnacks are handy with wilderness weapons,” Moira said with a laugh.
“That doesn’t help the whole ‘sexually transmitted dependent’ theory, though,” Remi added, wincing when Rosie elbowed him in the stomach. “Sorry. I’m done.”
“Why can’t the horsemen wield these weapons?” I asked, making my way across the floor to where the four of them stood with Merri in the middle. Lucifer glared at me from his place behind Merri, his hand on her shoulder.
“No one said we can’t.” Chaos stalked to the table where all four of the attuned artifacts had been placed. He reached out for the blade, confident as ever, but instead of taking it up in his grasp, the saber shot across the room and embedded itself in the wall. “What the fuck?”
“Forget how to hold your staff, Chaos?” Grim asked, poking at his brother as he approached the table.
War could not have looked more offended. “It’s not a fucking staff.”
“You know what I meant.”
“You think you’re going to fare better? Go right ahead,” Chaos said, gesturing to the remaining items.
Death reached out for the dagger, and the same thing happened. This time it slammed into the wall a mere inch from my Drystan’s head.
“I beg your pardon,” he complained. “You got dust all over my silk shirt.”
“Well, there goes that theory,” Asher said with a frown. “Did that happen before?”
“No,” Malice said, with a slow shake of his head.
“What changed?”
“This is the first time all four weapons have been together.”
Sunday huffed and stormed to the saber, gripping it and easily yanking it from the wall. “Looks like you guys can’t keep us out of this one.”
Caleb grumbled under his breath, clearly not thrilled his mate was going to be part of this fight. But he should have known better. Fate had not brought these groups together to stand idly by. None of them.
“How’s that gonna work for us?” Asher asked. “I doubt we can learn how to use a bow well enough to face off with our mother.”
Gavin gave Rosie a considering once-over. “I might have a solution for that.”
Asher nodded before looking to Pan. “Rock, paper, scissors?”
“You can have it. I’ll be better use in hand-to-hand, anyway.”
Sunday returned the blade to the table before joining her group, wrapping her arms around Caleb’s waist in an obvious effort to placate him.
Without missing a beat, Thorne asked, “So we have the bearers, but how do we draw the horsewomen out so we can strike?”
“We wait for them to snatch their kids again and use them like a Trojan horse?” Moira suggested.
Not a single one of the mated men looked happy about this suggestion. Rosie, by contrast, seemed to at least be considering it. She may seem sweet and innocent, but that little Blackthorne was tough as nails.
“How would that even work, Sabrina?”
Moira rolled her eyes at Kingston and then pulled five glittering pendants from her pocket. “We’d track them to their final destination with these magical LoJacks and then just pop on over.”
“Like the Wakandans and Dr. Strange!” Remi blurted enthusiastically.
“The what?” I asked.
“It’s always a fucking Marvel movie,” Alek muttered under his breath.
Remi ignored him and waved a hand. “Never mind. But that sounds super fucking cool. I say we go with that plan.”
“That’s a solid plan B. But what if we can draw them out? Bring them to us instead of putting the heirs at risk?” Tor offered, finally putting his warrior mind to good use.
“What are you suggesting?” Chaos asked, clearly intrigued.
“We amass our army, go to a place of power, draw them out, and then distract them with combat while the weapons are ready and waiting in the wings.”
“I dunno, man. Doesn’t that seem too obvious?” Sin asked.
“They’ve been trying for weeks to get to us, so let’s bait our own trap.”
“Do you really think they’ll fall for that?” Sin asked his brothers.
Chaos considered his question and then slowly nodded. “They’re cocky enough to see it for the trap it is but show up anyway because they believe they’re invincible.”
“So we call their bluff,” Gavin said.
“Exactly.”
Moira passed out the pendants, watching intently as each recipient put them on. “Don’t take these off.” She pointed at Sunday. “That goes double for you, missy. I remember what happened the last time I gave you something to wear.”
“I learned my lesson. It stays on until you tell me otherwise.”
“I knew you were more than a pretty face,” she teased, patting her best friend on the shoulder.
There were a few soft chuckles throughout the room, and then Lucifer broke into a slow clap.
“Bravi.”
Grim glowered at him. “What are you going on about?”
“They figured it out. It only seemed sportsmanlike to recognize the achievement. It’s not every day a motley crew such as this finds a way to gain the upper hand with such insurmountable odds.”
“You are the king of the backhanded compliment,” Malice deadpanned.
“Why, thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“It sounded like one to me. Now, when do we start setting this delightful little trap of ours? We have our advantage for now, but if the horsewomen discover the existence of these weapons, we will lose our element of surprise.”
I cleared my throat, calling everyone’s attention to me.
“Lucifer is correct. The longer we wait, the greater the possibility of discovery becomes. Tonight you all should take care of whatever you need to do in order to fuel yourselves. Rest, recuperate . . . feast.” My eyes locked on Merri. “You too, pet.”
“Feast tonight.” Remi cleared his throat, standing in what I assumed was his version of a heroic pose. “Because tomorrow we die.”
Asher slapped the back of his head. “No, you ass, they are the ones who are supposed to die.”
“Right. That’s what I meant. Tomorrow they die.”