Chapter Twenty-Four
It was blistering hot pain that woke her. Seriously hot pain. Like her blood was actually boiling. The agony pulsed through her veins, as rhythmic as a heartbeat.
It took everything Wynter had not to whimper. Especially when, moreover, the back of her head ached like a mother. Blow to the skull, she remembered. She suspected she had a real nice goose-egg back there.
Taken. She’d been taken.
Keeping her eyes closed, she used her other senses to process her situation. She was lying on a cold, hard, rough floor. Stone, if she had to guess. A heavy metal weight was clamped around her neck—a collar of some sort. Bastards.
The smells of dust, iron, and rust laced the cool air, making her nose wrinkle. She could hear the flickering of flames that made her think of the wall torches in Cain’s temple. There were also muffled voices nearby, and she was sure that one of them belonged to Adam.
Her monster was livid, but Kali was keeping it calm and cautioning it to wait. Really, with how rough and drained Wynter felt, she wasn’t sure she could release her monster. There was something very wrong with her right now. She felt weak and bruised and stiff, like she’d been starved for weeks, forced to run marathons, and subjected to more than a dozen beatings.
She subtly tried conjuring a small flame of magick in her hand. Said magick purred against her skin, answering her call, but didn’t follow her request. Not good.
Shoes scuffing stone.
Her pulse jumped as several sets of footfalls came her way. They halted a short distance from her, but no one spoke. She didn’t move, wanting to get a better sense of her situation before—
Cold power slapped her face hard. The shock of it made her body flinch and her eyes snap open. She stared at the four Aeons standing outside her cell. Yeah, she was in a fucking cell. Those motherbitches.
“I would imagine that you are wondering what’s causing you so much pain,”
said Adam, his lips curved in a cruel smugness. “Liquid iron. My grandson injected you with it.”
Noah smirked at her, his eyes drinking in her face as he awaited her response, as if wanting to feed on whatever shock, anger, or betrayal she might feel. So his smirk dimmed somewhat when she gave him no reaction.
Dismissing him with a look, she clenched her teeth as she pushed herself onto her elbows . . . hearing a jangle of a chain. She only then realized that one was attached to her collar. Anger tore through her, but she set it aside, not wanting to give these assholes the pleasure of a reaction.
Without even looking to see what she’d been chained to, Wynter forced herself to sit upright. Every muscle protested and cramped so painfully it took everything she had not to moan. She shelved the pain, more concerned about the spots dancing in her vision as lightheadedness crept up on her.
Dammit, she would not blackout. Not again.
She leaned back against the stone wall, going for casual. Which wasn’t easy when her eyes watered, sweat blotted her skin, and there was a slight tremor in her limbs.
Using only her peripheral vision, she took in the scene. She was in a dungeon or prison, by the looks of it. There were no torturous instruments that she could see. Just rows of cells. It was hard to tell due to how dark it was, but she didn’t think there were any other prisoners here.
Rather than demand answers to her questions, Wynter sat very still, making no sound, showing no fear. She swept her eyes over each male face, boldly meeting their gazes head-on. She recognized the two flanking Adam as his younger brothers, Emmanuel and Jude. Oh, the Ancients would have some fun butchering these dudes, especially Emmanuel since he’d killed Abaddon’s eldest son right in front of him.
Adam folded his arms. “Noah tells me that you are Cain’s consort.”
A sadistic delight flared in his eyes. “Oh, how he will loathe breathing his last breath knowing that I have you in my possession.”
Wynter didn’t respond. She merely stared at him, keeping her expression unreadable. Which didn’t seem to please the Aeon. Yay.
“I can understand now why he point-blank refused to consider surrendering you to me. He wanted to protect you.”
Adam let out a dark chuckle. “He failed.”
The others grinned and snickered. Wynter ignored them all. It wasn’t hard. They were a bunch of dicks.
Jude, who was basically a leaner and shorter version of Adam, rubbed at his bristly jaw. “I wouldn’t have thought that Cain would ever claim anyone as his own.”
“I would not have believed it of him either,”
said Adam. “I certainly would not have thought that any woman would allow him to claim her.”
He narrowed his eyes on Wynter. “You do know what he is, don’t you? Noah believes you must.”
Again, she said nothing. She kept meeting his gaze steadily.
A bright white sphere flew out of his palm and crashed into her chest with the force of a punch. Motherfucker. It was like a mini explosion went off inside her chest and someone poured acid into the wound. She would have cried out if her breath wasn’t trapped in her throat.
Dragging in air through her nose, she gritted her teeth and clenched her hands tight. That rat bastard was gonna pay for that. Dearly.
“Your pain tolerance is impressive,”
Emmanuel told her. Broader than both his brothers yet roughly the same height as the eldest, he was all brawn with some brain.
Adam nodded. “It is indeed. I am rather pleased about that. It will make it so much more satisfying when I break her during our upcoming sessions.”
Okay, she had to snort at that.
His brow lifted. “You do not believe that I can?”
“Kali won’t even let you try.”
The deity was currently pissed—Wynter could feel it.
“If She cares so much, where is She?”
Wynter only smiled.
“You know, I still have a difficult time believing that you are a revenant. Even with the mark on your face. Noah assures me that it is true, however. And it is telling that the liquid iron has proven effective.”
Wynter’s head snapped up as the land far above them seemed to vibrate and rumble. She let her lips curve. “Ah, they’re here.”
Adam’s expression hardened. “They will not penetrate the shields that protect the entrance.”
She flicked up a taunting brow. “You sure about that? Personally, I wouldn’t be. But then, I’m not quite as arrogant as you are.”
“If I were you, I’d watch your mouth,”
Noah said to her.
Continuing to blank him, she spoke again to Adam. “I mean, they broke out of a prison you constructed. Why wouldn’t they be able to pierce a shield?”
Adam gave an arrogant flick of his hand. “They had the aid of Aeons, then. This time, they do not.”
He said it as though the Ancients were nothing when not backed by his own kind.
She snickered. “You people believe you’re so damn special and superior. I cannot think why. Hell, you couldn’t even get rid of a little rot.”
His nostrils flared. “You will do that for us.”
“I will do shit.”
She choked on a breath as power streamed from his fingertips and slammed into her stomach, making it feel like she’d been impaled on four roasting hot swords. God, it hurt, it burned, it made her fucking pissed.
He briefly looked upward as yet more vibrations ran along the city’s surface. “Wrong, witch. You will do whatever I tell you when I tell you.”
She shot him a daring smile. “You’d have to take the collar off first, and I don’t think you have the guts to do it.”
More white-hot stabbing pain rammed into her, sinking straight into her shoulders. She locked her teeth, refusing to make a single sound of pain.
Inside Wynter, her monster pressed forward and merged with her soul before she had the chance to stop it. Power punched into her, but it didn’t surge through her body this time or whip through her like lightning. It trickled, slowly filling up every corner and extremity . . . as if a foreign force had taken a slow, languid stretch inside her and fitted perfectly into her very being.
Even so, the power was too much to bear. She couldn’t hold back the moan as her eyes prickled, her blood bubbled, her teeth rattled, and her head swam.
Distantly, she heard the deep chuckles of males who no doubt thought she was buckling under the brunt of Adam’s petty strike.
A breeze, cool and otherworldly, danced over her face—reassuring, soothing, distracting.
And then everything began to settle as the discomfort faded. She flexed her fingers, feeling charged and restless. Her senses had sharpened. Her nerve-endings were all fired up.
Her monster gently withdrew . . . and she realized then that the pain from before was gone. Just the same, she no longer felt weak, sore, or stiff.
The monster’s power had evidently neutralized the liquid iron. And now she felt hyper-awake and energized—which was hard to hide, but there was no need for the Aeons here to know about it.
“Finished making unwise remarks?”
asked Noah.
Again, Wynter pointedly ignored him. Hearing yet more rumblings from up above, she slowly reached up and tugged at the collar. “It’s only a matter of time before they get in here,”
she told Adam.
He made a dismissive sound. “Our shields are impenetrable, but feel free to believe whatever makes you feel better.”
He rolled his shoulders. “I shall be back later once the Ancients and their people are dead. Then you and I can get better acquainted.”
He cut his gaze to Noah. “Stay with her.” He and his brothers then strode off.
Noah took a step toward the cell, sneering. “I hope you don’t really think that anyone’s coming to save you.”
Wynter flashed him a patronizing smile, planting her hands on the floor either side of her. “Of course they’re coming.”
Noah let out a derisive snort. “The entrance is blocked and shielded.”
“The main entrance, sure. But there’s another way in and out, isn’t there? It’s how you got me here, and I’ll bet it isn’t guarded.”
“Doesn’t matter. Outsiders don’t know of it.”
“You claimed to not know of it, as did Eve and Rima.”
“They were telling the truth. I once saw someone access it. I knew I could use it to bring you down here to my grandfather. He was very pleasantly surprised. He truly didn’t send me, Rima, or Eve to Devil’s Cradle, so he wasn’t expecting me to arrive with an unconscious you in tow. I knew that the only way to get you here was to help the Ancients escape their prison so that you would all declare war on the city, and so that was what I did. And it worked.”
The prick sounded so very proud of himself, like he’d outsmarted everyone. He was clearly also certain that she wasn’t going to escape or he wouldn’t be so chatty.
Wynter cocked her head. “How do you think your grandmother and sister will feel when they hear of your betrayal?”
“They’ll understand,”
he said with utter surety.
“Hmm, I think not.”
She paused. “Where are they?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Meaning you stashed them someplace against their will?”
He jutted out his chin. “It’s for their own good.”
“Nothing you’ve done here is for anyone’s good but your own. Not that it matters. You won’t survive this night.”
He chuckled. “Oh, is that a fact?”
“It is, actually.”
Drawing her knees up, she balanced her crossed arms over them. “You always meant to betray the Ancients, didn’t you? But not for Adam’s sake. You want him dead. You also want the Ancients dead. You figure they’ll all kill each other here and now. You intend to lead whatever Aeons are left standing.”
She snorted. “I can’t imagine what makes you think they’ll bow to you.”
His eyes blazed in indignation. “You know nothing. And if you want my advice, you should worry more about what’s going to happen to you than about my motivations.”
His mouth kicked up into a smirk. “I’ll bet waking up here came as a shock, didn’t it?”
She shook her head, sadly. “Oh, Noah, Noah, Noah. You honestly think this came as a surprise to me? Nah. I knew you would betray me.”
“Really?”
he drawled, his voice dripping with humor and skepticism.
“Yes. Kali warned me that you would. She and I had a conversation after I last died. She told me many things. She told me a few more things in a dream I had just last night.”
Wynter tipped her head to the side, seeing no harm in explaining all—Kali wouldn’t let him leave; he’d be dead in a matter of minutes. “Did you know that Kali, Apep, Nyx, and Nemesis were sent to oversee parts of the netherworld after they failed to watch over the guardians and gatekeepers?”
He snorted. “Of course I knew.”
“What you probably don’t know . . . is that being made overseers of the netherworld isn’t really what bothers the deities. The reason it’s such a terrible punishment for them is that it means they’re separated for eternity. Kali can therefore tragically no longer be with her consort, Apep. And the sisters, Nyx and Nemesis, are equally devastated at being forced to remain apart. I can tell by your expression that you didn’t know that the deities were connected in such ways—I didn’t either. But with this little bit of knowledge in mind, you can see that the punishment truly is one motherfucker, right?”
He blinked, shrugging. “Well, they earned it.”
“Oh, yes, they acknowledge that. But they’re also mightily pissed at the race that caused the war and, in doing so, led to that punishment. And the more time has gone on, the more that anger has grown and deepened. The more it’s been twisted into resentment and bitterness. Oh, and scorn—so much scorn directed at your people. There’s even a streak of insanity threaded through it all.
“Hey, I can understand it. If I was kept apart from Cain, I’d be nothing more than the living embodiment of fury. It would eventually twist me all up inside. Yeah, I’d go a little crazy over time, and I’d be looking to avenge us both. I’d need someone to blame, someone to hurt, someone to destroy. I’d crave revenge, just as the deities do. God will probably punish them for what comes next, yes, but at this point they don’t care. All they want is vengeance.”
Noah swallowed. “Well, then, I guess it’s too bad for them that there’s not a thing they can do about it,”
he snarked.
Wynter felt her lips tip up. “The deities found ways to communicate while in the netherworld, despite being kept apart. They came up with a plan. Having no physical form when in this realm, they needed to use others to achieve their goals.
“Kali found a witch She could use as Her own personal revenant. Nyx sent Kali the perfect netherworld entity for said revenant to host. Nemesis used oracles to indirectly communicate with the Leviathans—manipulating them, really, by informing them of only what She wanted them to know. And Apep led the revenant to Abaddon’s resting place so that the Ancient could be woken, allowing the Leviathans to free themselves—being the most powerful of the deities, Apep was the only one who could unlock the gate to the resting place.”
“You lie,”
Noah accused, a slight shake to his voice that said he wasn’t truly so certain. “They couldn’t have done all that.”
“They could. They did. Kali told me all about it. She also told me that you’d take me to Adam.”
He scoffed. “Bullshit.”
“Nope, pure truth.”
“Yeah? Then why didn’t you do anything to stop it from happening?”
She smiled again. “Because I wanted to come down here, silly. She said that Adam would dump me exactly where I need to be. Yes, I’ve learned that there genuinely is a reason that you Aeons fear the fall of this place.”
Noah stiffened, and his mouth opened and closed a few times. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Wynter leaned forward slightly. “I know what’s here,”
she said quietly, as if confessing a secret. “Or, I should say, who is here. He’s beneath us right now, in Eden’s old resting place. And he. Wants. Out.”
Noah’s eyes flickered.
“I think it’s about time he gets what he wants, don’t you?”
“You can’t free him. You can’t even free yourself.”
Wynter tugged ever so slightly on the iron collar, and it split into several pieces as it fell from her neck. Enjoying how his jaw dropped, she asked, “You didn’t notice me touch it earlier? I infected it with a little rot . . . much like I did the floor beneath me.”
She pushed to her feet, brushing off any pieces of the collar, and walked toward the front of the cell. “That rot is spreading and spreading throughout the foundations of this place as we speak.”
Paling, he shook his head and backed up. “You . . . no. No, you wouldn’t—”
“Of course I would. I do all kinds of crazy shit.”
His face flushed in anger. “You don’t know what you—”
He cut himself off as a tremor ran through the building. Beneath them, something roared.
“Ah, it shouldn’t be long now until he escapes.”
“Are you fucking stupid?”
Noah demanded. “He’ll kill us all!”
“It is a possibility, I have to admit.”
She bit her lower lip. “But then again, maybe Kali’s right and he’ll just go after the people who’ve kept him here all this time. I guess we shall see.”
A breeze whipped around the space, blowing out the torches, carrying an otherworldly laugh that bounced off the walls.
Noah sucked in a sharp, shaky breath.
The breeze returned only to smash into the cell door, which unlocked with a snick. Wynter whipped it open, slamming it into Noah, hearing him hit the floor hard.
She was on him in a blink.
*
A growl sawed at Cain’s throat as he once more failed to penetrate the shield before him. It was little more than a bubble of power. A bubble that surrounded a single door. And yet, his strikes hadn’t made even so much as a dent in the shield.
Unlike with Devil’s Cradle, a building didn’t sit upon the entrance to the city beneath Aeon. There was merely a small hill featuring a thick wooden door. So easy to penetrate if only it wasn’t protected. Powered by the blood of both Aeons and Ancients, it was built to keep all intruders at bay in order to protect Eden should she be Resting.
Only Inanna and Ishtar weren’t helping attack the shield. They were searching for another possible entrance. There had to be more than one way in or out.
Really, Cain and the others weren’t battering at the shield in the hope of breaking it. Their purpose was to provoke Adam. They knew him. Knew how his mind worked. Knew that, being as arrogant as he was, hiding underground would be poking at the man’s ego.
Adam would hate that the Ancients might think he was too scared to face them. He’d hate that they were essentially pounding on his front door while he remained inside where he was safe. More, he would detest what it said about him that he’d left the people on the surface to handle the invasion for him. It showed a cowardice that Cain himself had often pointed out but that Adam had refused to acknowledge he possessed. And so Cain and the other Ancients were playing on that.
In the meantime, many of their aides were currently watching their backs, fighting off any enemies who thought to attack while the Ancients were preoccupied. As for the people of Devil’s Cradle . . . they were still fighting hard, and they were winning.
Azazel chucked yet another sphere of power at the shield, grunting when it had no effect. “I didn’t think he had it in him to hide this long.”
“Neither did I,”
said Dantalion. “It will certainly be an awakening for him.”
Seth scratched at his nape. “Do you think we should try something else?”
Cain shook his head. “If you keep banging on someone’s front door long enough, they’ll do something sooner or later.”
“Especially if they are anything like Adam,”
Lilith added.
Abaddon frowned, his gaze moving to something behind Cain. “Isn’t that your consort’s coven?”
His brows snapping together, Cain turned. And yes, the Bloodrose Coven was hurrying toward them. His heart jumped. Because Wynter wasn’t among them . . . and Xavier was carrying her blade. “Where is she?”
Cain bit out the moment they reached him.
Delilah grimaced. “You’re not gonna like this, and you’re probably gonna be pissed at us. But Wynter made us swear we’d stick to the plan.”
The bottom dropped out of his stomach. “Tell me.”
Delilah licked her lips. “Noah took her to Adam.”
The breath gusted out of Cain’s lungs, and panic exploded in his gut. No. No, no, no, no, no. As the owner of her soul, Cain knew that she was alive. But he was also very aware that she’d suffer at the hands of the Aeons.
“She knew that Noah would do it,”
Delilah quickly added. “Kali warned her—”
“Wait, Wynter knew she’d be betrayed and hauled off to the city below?”
asked Cain, a growl in his voice as anger bubbled through both him and his monster. Anger at her, at Noah, at Kali, at Adam.
“Kali made it clear that Wynter needed to allow it,”
Xavier cut in, a crow perched on his shoulder.
Cain bared his teeth, contracting his fingers like claws. “Why?”
“We don’t know,”
said Anabel, not seeming as unstable and bloodthirsty as she had earlier. “Wynter wouldn’t tell us anything more. She only asked that we watch out for the moment Noah took her so that we could follow him and find out where the other entrance to Aeon is. Then we’re supposed to tell you where to find it. So that’s what we’re doing.”
“Now do you all want to see where it is or not?”
asked Delilah.
Urgency thrumming through his body, Cain called out to two of his aides, both of whom were mages. “I want you both to blast this shield over and over. It won’t crack, but don’t stop.”
He wanted the Aeons to think that the Ancients were still pointlessly slamming power at the shield. Otherwise, Adam would wonder what they were up to.
Once both aides took over, the Bloodrose Coven led Cain and the Ancients to the other side of the hill. It wasn’t until Delilah pointed to a well-hidden doorknob that Cain even realized that a door was cleverly concealed by the hill’s decaying grass. Much as he yearned to try smashing it to pieces, he couldn’t afford to draw attention to his presence.
Silently cursing his need to be subtle, he tugged on the handle. Nothing. It didn’t even rattle the door, let alone open it. As he’d suspected . . . “It’s locked somehow,”
Cain ground out, his pulse thudding with dread as he tried and failed to push aside thoughts of what Adam would do to his consort—because, yeah, Noah would tell his grandfather just who she was to Cain. “Did anyone see how Noah opened it?”
“I did,”
said Xavier. “He sliced into his palm with a small knife, dipped his finger into the blood, and then carefully drew some symbols on the doorknob like this.”
The male witch carefully replicated Noah’s movements. “The blood seemed to soak into it, and then he just pulled the door open.”
Azazel went to speak but then glanced at the coven. “We need Inanna and Ishtar before we can proceed. They’re searching for a second entrance. Bring them to us.”
The coven didn’t look too keen on walking away, but they did as asked.
Azazel then said, “Aeon blood must be needed to unlock the door. It could even be that only the blood of an Aeon related to Adam will work. It would be just like him to ensure that only those who are part of ‘his legacy’ are able to use this door.”
Dantalion nodded. “Seth might have changed in many ways when he became one of us, but the blood that runs through his veins is still celestial. More, he’s Adam’s son.”
Cain’s brows lifted. “That’s a good point. My blood has celestial qualities, but that’s not the same, and I’m not related to Adam.”
He looked at his brother. “Try it.”
Seth shrugged, sliced into his palm with pure power, and then repeated Xavier’s exact movements. He leaned forward, twisted the doorknob, pulled on it . . . and the door opened.
Abaddon grinned. “Wasn’t so hard.”
His muscles tight, Cain cricked his neck and rolled his shoulders. His creature writhed and hissed and demanded that he find their consort. The only thing keeping both him and his monster from losing their motherfucking shit was that they knew Wynter was alive.
“She’ll be all right, Cain.”
Seth quickly whipped up his hand. “I’m not being dismissive of the situation. I just mean that if Kali truly wants her down there, the deity will be with her. She’ll watch over Wynter and do what She can to aid her.”
She’d fucking better. Deity or not, he’d find a way to rain fresh hell on Her if She didn’t.
The coven quickly returned with the sisters.
Ishtar looked unbelievably put-out at the sight of the open door. “We examined every inch of this side of the hill and found nothing.”
“Should we gather some of our people to accompany us to the underground city?”
asked Inanna.
“If there are non-Ancients with us, we will . . .”
Lilith trailed off, casting a quick look at the coven. “There will be a certain something we cannot do when we fight.”
Inanna’s frown smoothed out as she nodded in understanding. “Ah, true enough.”
Cain turned to the coven. “You four need to stay here.”
“Sorry. Can’t. We have very specific instructions from Wynter, and they include us being down there,”
said Delilah.
“We get that there’s stuff you’d rather we didn’t know about your kind,”
said Xavier. “But you have our word that we won’t talk to others of what we see.”
The crow squawked, as if to back him up on that.
“Wynter told us that you’d want us to remain up here,”
Anabel interjected, “so she also asked us to tell you that she literally needs us to be down there. She didn’t explain beyond that.”
Cain cursed, swiping a hand down his face. “Fine.”
Ishtar gasped. “Cain—”
“We don’t have time for debates,”
he snapped out. “We have to move. My consort is currently in Adam’s custody, and fuck knows what is happening. What makes it more important to move now is that we’re going to have to move slowly.”
Inanna’s lips parted. “Adam has her?”
“Yes, courtesy of Noah,”
Cain bit out. “Who I would happily torture for a fucking lifetime if there isn’t one thing I know for certain.”
“What’s that?”
asked Abaddon.
“He’s already dead,”
replied Cain. “Wynter will have ensured that by now.”