“What happened to you?” he demands, roughly grasping my shoulders.
He doesn’t wait for my answer before he spins just in time to slam his power into three more approaching demons. Their eyes glowed bright red before Lucifer snuffed the life out of them. Andras, Lilith, and Niko are just feet away, fighting off the horrid beasts that seem to be coming from every direction. They aren’t slowing down. It’s as if they’re charging at us in sacrifice, knowing that they’ll be slaughtered.
“Shit, I think I blacked out. Where…where is everyone?” I stammer.
“We got separated,” Lucifer bites out. He flings out another blow of darkness that takes down five at a time. “We’re outnumbered. By a lot. These motherfuckers just keep multiplying, drawing us deeper into the cemetery.”
My heart stops.
This was all a set up. Legion wanted us here all at the same spot, the burial ground for immense sin. And I know in my gut that he won’t let us walk out of here alive.
“They’re pushing us towards him,” I mutter aloud. “Legion. They’re bringing us to him.”
Lucifer nods then moves in so close that we’re nearly chest-to-chest. “He knows you’re here. You can feel it, can’t you? You can feel it writhing inside you.”
I glance up at him, my eyes wide with horror. “What’s happening to me?”
Even under the dark cover of night, I see him grimace, giving me my answer. “He’s trying to make you turn.”
Lucifer slams his fist into the tomb, in the space right over my head. Concrete cracks and crumbles, raining pebbles down onto my shoulders.
“I knew this would happen. He knew you wouldn’t be able to resist, but you must. Eden, listen to me.” He squeezes my arms even tighter. “You have to fight this. Do not let it take you. Don’t go towards it, even if it pains you to deny its allure. Do you hear me? Fight, Eden. Fucking fight it with everything in you.”
I nod, but the movement seems wrong. How can I fight what’s already inside me? How can I slice open my veins and twist my organs into knots to keep from becoming who I already am?
“There’s too many of them!” Lilith shouts back at us. “We need to find the others before it’s—“
Too late.
Before it’s too late.
That’s what she meant to say, but the words are choked from her throat.
It’s already too late.
Four demons overtake Andras and drag him to the ground. Before anyone can even dash to save him, the demons fall over him and begin to…eat him.
“No!” Lilith cries, emptying her entire clip into them.
Niko hits them with a massive blast of Dark magic, but they barely flinch. Not even Lucifer can make them cease their assault, even after he’s flayed the skin off their bones with a potent burst of rage.
My palms are not my own as I lift them outward towards the harrowing scene before us, and push every ounce of my will, propelling a stream of blinding light that flows from my fingertips like water. The second the light touches the demons hunched over Andras’s writhing body, they disintegrate before our eyes, leaving no trace of them behind other than defined piles of ash. The other enemy demons quickly scurry away, retreating back into the shadows.
Lilith and Niko rush to Andras’s aid, yet I’m left frozen, stunned by what I’ve just managed to do. I look down at my hands and flex my fingers. They still tingle with pulsing power.
“What was that?” I wheeze, unable to contain my confusion.
This wasn’t an orb of holy light that required time and concentration to conjure. It felt…different. I feel different. Energized and powerful when exhaustion should be tugging at my stamina. Yet, I honestly could run a mile right now.
“I…” Lucifer is at my side. He extends a hand over mine but doesn’t make contact. “I don’t know.”
I look up at him and frown. “You don’t think it’s…” Death. I can’t say it, but he knows the word is on the tip of my tongue and shakes his head.
“No. I don’t.”
Lilith calls out for help, breaking me from my ruminations. Andras is down, but he’s alive. I can see that he’s bleeding, but he waves off Lilith’s attempts to aid him, anxious to get back on his feet and rejoin the fight. I walk over to where the three of them are huddled and my eyes nearly water at the sight of his torn, oozing flesh. His beautiful face has been ripped to shreds, and there are chunks of sinew missing from his limbs, exposing bone.
“I’m fine,” he rasps through a pained grimace. “Just help me onto my feet. I’ll get this patched up later.”
“You’ll lose too much blood by then,” Niko chimes in, inspecting his wounds. “We need to get you out of here.”
“There is no way out of here,” Andras grits. “We’re too far from the exit and those red-eyed fuckers will be back any second. We need to move, or one of you will be next.”
Just like before, I don’t know what comes over me. It’s as if someone else is ordering my steps and guiding my movements, and I am merely a marionette for a greater purpose. A vessel for someone else’s will. I crouch to my knees and place my hands on Andras’s ravaged body, and I feel the tingling sensation of light skate across my palms and dance along my fingertips before it leaps off my skin and washes over him. He flinches at first, his expression just as bewildered as everyone else’s. But his face morphs into one of wonder and relief as his body begins to mend itself back together. The blood on his clothes ebbs back into his wounds that mystically close and seal, and his skin smooths to its usual alabaster tone.
“How did you…?” Lilith gasps. She takes a step closer, her wide-eyed gaze darting from me to Andras. “You healed him?”
I look at the blond demon as he takes inventory of his newly mended frame, touching each place where there was once a gaping gash, and shrug stiffly. “I guess I did.”
The other half of our group comes rushing around the corner just as Niko helps Andras to his feet. They stop abruptly as they take in the scene before them: the ground splattered with fresh blood, Andras’s ripped clothes, and four distinct piles of ash coupled with the noxious stench of burned flesh.
“We heard the screams,” Toyol says, obviously flustered. His face is speckled red, but he doesn’t appear to be wounded. “We tried to find you, but there were just too many of them. What happened?”
We glance at each other, the five of us unsure of how to explain the unexplainable. I don’t know what that was. It wasn’t anything like the sensation I felt with wielding holy light. It was purer, more focused. And much more potent than anything I had ever experienced. It’s one thing to completely obliterate demons into ash. But healing Andras? I can’t even wrap my head around that, and I’m way too rattled to try to compose a decent lie.
But, thankfully, Andras saves me from stumbling over the truth.
“We got jumped, but we fought them off and they ran.”
Cain nods. “Yeah. Us too. We thought we could lead them out of the cemetery, but there’s some type of spell on the gates.”
Niko pipes up, a deep frown dimpling his forehead. “What kind of spell?”
“It was like we were going in circles. The entrance is gone. There’s no way out. We couldn’t even jump the fucking fence!” He shakes his head and scrubs a hand caked with grime and dried blood over his buzzed hair. “Luckily, they just…left. Fell back like they were being called or summoned or some shit. There’s something seriously fucked up going on here.”
I can tell Cain is less controlled than usual by his gruff demeanor. Even Dorian and the other warlocks appear disheveled, which is startling considering I’ve never even seen them with even a lock of hair out of place. Something is wrong here. Something sinister and black and terrifying.
“Legion,” I whisper, conjuring my voice and the reality that we’d all been skating around. “He’s here. The demons were just a diversion to trap us. He didn’t send us that dream to save Gabriella. He sent it so we’d come and he could take us all out at once.�
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It’s silent as we all digest the revelation that had been clawing its way to the surface all night. I wanted so badly to believe that Legion was still in there, that he was still redeemable. I had hoped that it was him reaching out to us, just as he had done all those times before. Because the alternative would only mean one thing: he isn’t strong enough to fight. And I’m not sure I can battle The Many while also combating my own fate.
The first one to speak is Cain, who steps forward, his glare hardened with unshakable resolve.
“He wants us here?” he sneers, not a touch of sorrow or regret in his voice. “Then let’s go find the motherfucker.”
The cemetery isn’t huge, but it’s almost maze-like with dozens of tombs crammed together without any rhyme or reason, making it a feat to navigate without getting turned around. Add in the fact that there’s not a star in the sky and the moon seems to be entrenched in a wall of dark clouds, and I’ve been rendered nearly blind. But I don’t need my sense of sight to know that Legion is close. I can feel him. I can taste him. I can hear his hummingbird heart thrumming inside me as if it’s my own.
We round a corner, and that flutter in my chest ceases. My blood runs cold. And whatever spark of determination I felt just seconds ago is snuffed out by immense sorrow.
Standing in a clearing in front of the very tomb that Lucifer pressed his palm against to summon the most powerful Voodoo witch in New Orleans is Legion. He is just as I remember him: angled jaw dusted with stubble, his hair a stylish mess of dark waves, and his massive, chiseled body draped in black from head to toe. He is and always has been a beautiful beast of a man. And even though I know he is not the man I love—not really—I can’t help the tug of familiarity and fondness that twists my insides.
Gabriella stands to his right, her clothes ripped to shreds and her face and hair soiled with dirt and dried blood. The very second her eyes lock with Dorian’s she whimpers, prompting him to rush towards her. But he only gets three feet from his beloved before his body slams into an invisible wall of iridescent magic that shimmers and sparks before propelling him backward. He slams into an adjacent tomb, causing it to fracture with a resounding clap of thunder, but he’s on his feet instantly, rushing back towards that translucent wall with his wife and unborn child trapped on the other side of it. But before he can reach it, Niko and Alexander pull him back, expending all their strength as Dorian thrashes against their hold.
Legion laughs, but it’s not the warm, encompassing timbre that had both shocked and comforted me the first time I heard it. It doesn’t match the deep dimples that I had kissed goodnight before laying my head on his chest. It doesn’t meet the starlit silver eyes that saw past my rough edges and made me feel like the most desirable woman in the world.
Legion’s laugh is no longer what I had once thought was mine. He’s no longer mine. He belongs to The Many.
“So nice of you to join us. We’ve been expecting you,” they hiss in that multi-layered, fragmented voice. Icy prickles crawl up my spine like a dozen frozen spiders.
“Then why don’t you come a little closer?” Dorian hollers back, still struggling against his brother and father-in-law’s hold. “Release my wife, and I may consider letting you keep your head before I extract your heart from your chest, demon.”
The Many grin sinisterly, the threat of violence both amusing and enticing them. “Why would we do that? She’s exactly where she needs to be. Reunited with her sisters.”
I look over at Lilith at the same time she peers over at me. Reunited with her sisters? So this wasn’t the work of Legion. He didn’t conjure The Four Horsemen so that we could stop him. The Many did. But for what cause?
Lucifer steps forward, palms raised in faux surrender. “What is it that you seek, Legion of Lost Souls? What business do you have with the Horsemen?”
The Many regard Lucifer intensely for a long beat, as they contemplate showing their hand. “They are the First Women—the beginning. And they will be the end. Your brother has foolishly fought this fate with his life and, in turn, we may not survive this body. However, we plan to take this world with us.”
“What do you mean he has fought with his life?” Cain pipes up. “What have you done to him?”
The Many release a raspy chortle as they turn their beady black eyes to Cain. “We do not answer to you, Demon of Murder.”
Cain snarls, but before he can bite out something vulgar, Lucifer counters, “Then answer to me. What have you done to Legion?”
The Many smirk. “No more than he has done to himself.”
“And that means?”
“He thought killing himself would save all of you.” They turn that black, lifeless stare on me, causing me to flinch. “That it would save her. He was wrong.”
“Are you saying…” I begin, my voice so meek and shaky, it’s barely a whisper. “Are you saying he’s dead?”
The Many smiles at me as if they’d been waiting for me to join the conversation. As if the very sight and sound of my trepidation is a gift.
“He will be. Soon, sweet girl. Very soon.”
I’m going to be sick, but I swallow down the bile rising in my throat and try to still my trembling. “What do you want?” I manage to choke out.
“What do we want? We have everything we want. We have the Horsemen. We have the demons. And soon, we will have this world.”
“But you don’t have the Horsemen,” I challenge. “You want to destroy everything in this realm? Then you’ll need the four of us.”
The Many grins again before snapping their fingers. There is movement from behind Marie Laveau’s tomb and the sounds of a scuffle that end with a loud slap. And then we all let out a collective gasp. A red-eyed demon drags out the petite figure by her black hair. She hasn’t faired as well as Gabriella, and it looks as if she’s been tortured for days. But Saskia doesn’t give up. She struggles against the demon’s hold, and when he yanks her up to her feet, she spits a mouthful of blood into his face.
It’s over. There’s nothing else left to fight for.
Legion is barely alive. We’re trapped and outnumbered. And every piece of the puzzle that will destroy us all is aligned.
The Many have already won.
I look to Lucifer for a plan, an explanation, anything, but he refuses to meet my eyes. He just continues to stare forward at The Many. He’s not even blinking.
“You don’t have everything you need,” I call out, hoping to buy us some time. They may have all of the players, but two of us aren’t in the game. Especially their MVP.
“What are you talking about, girl?”
“You don’t need the other Horsemen. Sure, they’ll do a good amount of damage on their own, but if you want to destroy this world, all you truly need is me. Why waste time with a plague or a war or starvation?”
“Eden, don’t do this.”
“What are you doing?”
“Are you insane?”
“What the fuck? He’ll kill you.”
I hear the sharp whispers, but I ignore them all. Because I need every ounce of my focus to stretch myself towards each one of the Horsemen’s minds and penetrate their frontal lobes without the barest of clues as to what I’m doing. I can’t flinch. I can’t even wince. I need to keep The Many talking so I can connect myself to their consciousness and try to save their lives.
Connecting myself to Lilith is simple, being that she’s less than a yard away from me. However, I wasn’t positive that it could be done, considering the first time I tried to infiltrate her will, I nearly suffered an aneurism that made me pass out. But this time, I slink in easily and rake a warm, comforting hand down her awareness to let her know it’s me.
Don’t react, I tell her. I have a plan.
Reaching Gabriella and Saskia is a much greater feat, especially since I’m not sure I can break past whatever barrier The Many have put up around them. But in the place where Dorian tried to break through, I find there are tiny, paper-thin fissures. I fold mysel
f as small and thin as I can, conjuring the essence of wind and water. I need to be a speck of dust carried by a whisper. I need to be nothing.
“Go on,” The Many urge, their black beady eyes widening with curious glee.
“Take me. I’ll be everything you need. Together we can wipe humanity from history as if it never existed.”
On the outside, I’m cool, impassive, just as Niko taught me. But inside, my mental strength is being stretched as far as it’s ever gone as I strain to slip through those invisible cracks and piece myself back together again. I smell blood in my nose, but I quickly swipe it away before a single drop can roll down my lip. I feel the wet, sticky substance in my ears, and I pray that it’s concealed by rogue wisps of hair. I just need a few more minutes to reach them. Then I can bleed.
“And what do you request in return?” The Many question, their interest obviously piqued.
“Let them go. They’ll just slow us down.” I step forward on trembling, weak knees, working to keep my mind lassoed around Lilith’s while also pushing towards Gabriella and Saskia. “You don’t need them. All you need is me.”
Lucifer and Niko try to pull me back, but I brusquely push them away. “Stay away from me,” I snap. “This is what I want. This is what I’ve always wanted. Humanity has done nothing for me but give me pain and poverty. You all chose people over power. I won’t make that same mistake.”
I can’t worry myself with their looks of betrayal and hurt. Instead, I couple my manufactured fury with the last drops of my strength, and by the grace of God, penetrate Gabriella’s and Saskia’s minds simultaneously. I’m too weak to waste time with niceties like I did with Lilith, but I tell them not to make a sound or movement. And with the four of us connected, I show them my plan as quickly as I can before I collapse to the ground.
“So…do we have a deal?” I ask, pretending that the quaver in my voice is from annoyance and not exhaustion.
The Many tip their head to the side, contemplating my offer. “Possibly. Are you willing to leave all your loved ones behind? Are you prepared to watch them all die?”
Fallen Reign (Se7en Sinners Book 4) Page 21