Chapter 62
SIXTY-TWO
Z
I didn’t know how long I stayed there, kneeling over a woman I despised with the entirety of my being, when arms wrapped around me from behind.
I didn’t stiffen, knowing innately who it was, even before Ryland breathed, “Thank fuck.”
Then my mates barraged me from every direction, and I allowed them to hold me in a baking, pervasive heat.
Aaliyah was dead.
It was finally over.
We were all together and safe and alive.
Then a voice sounded from behind me—a somewhat familiar voice that had the hurt marinating until it turned into anger.
Peter.
My angelic father.
“This is rather touching, but I’m afraid it doesn’t change anything. I want what I’ve come here for.”
I stumbled to my feet and whirled towards the asshole standing before me, looking utterly immaculate in his three-piece suit with his hair slicked back. There was not a speck of dirt or blood on him. Definitely no indication that the entire capitol building had just turned into a brutal, bloody battle.
He barely spared his dead daughter a glance, his gaze fixed on me. Power thrummed in the air between us, trembling like a live electric wire.
“What the fuck do you want?” I snapped, aware of my mates pressing closer on all sides.
Peter’s lips curled like he thought he was being cute. “You can’t kill an angel—even one that’s trapped in this…less-than-preferred body.” A scowl briefly broke out on his face before he forced a neutral expression. “I suppose that’s what I get for trusting my bitch of an ex. She agreed to help me come to earth, then trapped me in the body of a prisoner.”
“Lilith?” I blinked at him in alarm. “Lilith helped you come here?”
“Only hell spawn can create portals between the planes of existence. Those up above wish to remain out of earth’s…politics, so to speak, especially after sin ran amok on earth.”
“Why the fuck would you want to come here? What do you even want?” I asked again.
I felt both agitated and exhausted—a bone-deep weariness that made me sway on my feet. All I wanted to do was disappear into my room and process everything that had transpired. Was that too much to ask?
“I want my weapon,” Peter hissed, his mask falling, shattering like it was nothing but papier-maché.
Beneath it, I saw a man driven by anger and violence, a man who wanted nothing more than to watch the world burn.
“I was supposed to get it centuries ago when we first created you and your sister. But alas, it never came to be. One sister embodied darkness; the other embodied light. Together, the two of you would’ve made the perfect complement to each other. The perfect weapon.”
“I won’t let you take my mate,” Lupe snarled, his eyes glowing.
Peter sneered at the shifter. “I don’t want Z.” Then his gaze dropped very pointedly to my stomach. “I want what's inside of her.”
“What?” I stumbled back a step as if he’d physically shoved me.
Fear and disbelief ran amok inside my chest.
What the hell was he implying? It couldn’t be what I thought it was. That was impossible. I would know if I was?—
I couldn’t finish the thought.
Instinctively, I brought my hands to my stomach as the last few weeks played on repeat in my mind.
All those times I got sick and thought it was nerves…
My strange cravings…
My mood changes…
Panic pulled me under like a riptide, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe. The air felt stale and sticky, and every lungful burned. This couldn’t be happening. No, no, no.
But the truth of Peter’s statement sat in my heart like a poisoned blade.
“No,” I breathed, stumbling back another step.
“Your baby will make the perfect weapon.” Pure avarice glinted in Peter’s eyes. “A creature that embodies both the darkness of a nightmare and the gentleness and kindness of a human with angelic memories. The perfect juxtaposition.”
I felt the color drain from my cheeks at his words and accompanying smirk.
“If you won’t give it to me willingly, then I’ll have no choice but to cut it out of your dead body.”
“I’d like to see you try.” A figure moved to join us, splattered in blood and grime.
Her brown hair was braided away from her face, and bruises marred both her cheeks.
“Davia.” I stared at the human woman, stunned, but she merely gave me a passing glance before focusing on Peter.
The angel’s lips curled. “You bitch. I suppose I should’ve expected you to be here.”
Davia smirked and moved to stand beside me. “Long time no see, Gabriel.” She gave him an unimpressed once-over. “Your new form is… Well, it’s not hideous, at the very least.”
Peter bared his teeth. “What are you doing here, Lilith?”
Lilith?
Lilith?!
My heart stuttered with warning, and the acrobats in my stomach went from doing somersaults to performing back flips.
No, that was impossible. Lilith was a demon. Davia was a human and someone I considered a friend. Peter must’ve been mistaken.
But Davia smiled in a way that had chills careening down my spine.
“I thought you were smarter than that, darling,” Davia cooed, venturing a minuscule step forward until she was partially in front of me. “Did your time in the dungeons cause you to lose a few brain cells?”
“I fucking knew you did it on purpose!” Peter’s eyes flared with rage.
Abruptly, Davia’s playful tone from only seconds before evaporated. “I knew that if I didn’t help you get to earth, you would ask someone else. I figured the best way to contain you would be to lock you away.”
“And how did that work for you?” Peter spread his arms in either direction. “I’m free. And I want what I’ve come for.”
Instinctively, I placed my hands over my belly, unable to wrap my head around the fact that life currently grew inside of me. It sounded too surreal to believe.
“I’m afraid I can’t allow that to happen.” Davia took another step closer.
“And you’re going to stop me?” Peter threw his head back and laughed. It was a harsh, grating sound that felt like sandpaper against my skin. “You can’t kill me, love. The treaty won’t allow it.”
“That may be true.” Davia sighed heavily, as if this entire conversation bored her. “But it doesn’t mean that I can’t stop you in other ways.”
Then, before my very eyes, the human I had come to consider a friend changed. Her brown hair turned darker until it resembled polished onyx stones, and her skin paled significantly. Her legs grew, as did her torso, and when the transition finished, I stared at someone else entirely. Someone powerful and dangerous and exuding unbridled anger.
Lilith.
“Oh…shit,” Bash breathed.
My mates immediately encircled me, and for the first time in my life, I let them. If I was truly… God, I couldn’t even think the word. But if I was, then I couldn’t risk any harm befalling me. Not when an innocent relied on me to survive.
Peter narrowed his eyes at the demoness, all traces of humor and levity stripped away. For a brief moment, I swore I saw shadowy wings unfurl behind him, but when I blinked, they vanished.
“There’s a reason you heavenly beings haven’t been allowed on earth.” Lilith took another step closer. “And it’s not because your ruler decreed it so.”
“And why is that?” Peter struggled to maintain his cocky arrogance, but I could see a tiny bit of fear in his eyes.
And that fear grew when Lilith lifted her hands, and all the dust mounds flew towards her.
One by one, monsters began to form—the same beasts we’d just fought and defeated. Gorgons. Gargoyles. Faeries. Banshees. Ghouls. Goblins. Skeletons. Dragons.
“Because hell is in charge now, darling,” Lilith said, extending her hands out.
As one, the monsters charged at Peter, their roars filling the air.
A blazing sword materialized in Peter’s hand, and he sliced at each creature as it came.
He moved like liquid. I’d never seen a fighter quite like him before. He expertly wove between the monsters without so much as breaking a sweat. A stab here. A swipe there.
Something roared above me, and I glanced up, surprised to see a black creature fly through the air, diving towards Peter.
A wyvern.
A very familiar wyvern.
I remembered when I had freed the creature back at Aaliyah’s palace. A part of me had wondered if I would ever see it again.
Yet there it was, fighting the angel, its talons scratching at Peter’s back as he attempted to roll out of the way.
Lilith continued to move forward, the grass beneath her turning brown and brittle. Power saturated the air, coiling around my neck like a noose.
“I can’t kill you,” Lilith said in a singsong voice. “But I can destroy this body and send you back where you belong. This time, you won’t be able to find any demon willing to make a portal for you.”
Blood seeped out of the various wounds on Peter’s body. One of his eyes bulged precariously, looking seconds away from popping.
“Do you think this is over?” He smiled, blood smeared across his teeth. “This is only the beginning. You can’t keep me away forever.”
“We’ll see.” Lilith lifted her hand again, and another wave of pulsating magic blasted Peter straight in the chest.
His back bowed, and a scream left his swollen lips. He continued to scream and scream and scream as a radiant light engulfed his skin, resembling white flames, and webs of silver exploded beneath his skin. A dark shadow clawed its way out of his body and hovered over it, wings extended. Then the shadow evaporated, and the body fell over, his chest unmoving and his eyes scorched.
I couldn’t peel my gaze away.
“What the fuck just happened?” I asked, shivers wracking up and down my spine.
All around me, the monsters were reduced to nothing but ash once more.
Lilith slowly turned around, and I startled at the sight of her blood-red eyes—so eerily similar to Jax’s, yet somehow different. Jax’s were warm and curious and kind; hers were cold and inquisitive. Fear simmered in my heart.
“Don’t stare at me like I’m a monster.” Lilith cocked her head to the side. “Not after all I’ve done to protect you, daughter.”
I swallowed. “What the hell is going on?”
Lilith’s gaze briefly dropped to Aaliyah, and sadness descended over her features. The sight confused me. I’d seen Aaliyah’s memories and knew firsthand how much Lilith despised the two of us. Or at least, that was what I’d always assumed.
But Lilith wasn’t staring at Aaliyah as if she hated her.
She was staring at her as if her heart had just been shredded and she had no idea how to continue on.
Lilith turned towards me, her frown sharpening, and said, “I think I need to start at the beginning. But let me tell you one thing—I never meant for this to happen. I’m so, so sorry.”