A note of silence. A heartbeat. A sharp breath. A blink of a wide eye.
And then…chaos.
Dorian flashes to his feet and is crouched over Lucifer, his eyes as pale as opal. Niko tries to pull him back, yet his own expression is painted in fury.
“What did you say?” Dorian seethes just inches from Lucifer’s face.
“Your wife is War, the Red Rider. The one responsible for slaughtering all those innocent people. You wanted to know, and now you do. So you can either take your seat or suffer the same fate. The choice is yours.”
“Lies. All of it. Gabriella is a queen, and a protector of humanity. It would be wise of you to consider the weight of your accusations. Look around. There are three of us and one of you. And word is, you’re not even powerful enough to control your lesser demons.”
“Demons?” Lucifer snorts a laugh, casually crossing his legs. “What do I care about demons? You forget, I was an archangel, one of the first of creation. I was here before you, and I’ll be here after you.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Sensing the real threat of violence, Niko manages to wedge himself between his brother and Lucifer.
“This isn’t what we’re here for. Lucifer, why summon me only to feed us a fallacy? You better have some proof to back up your claim.”
“Proof? Turn on the fucking news. Read the names of the thousands of casualties, struck down in their homes, their schools, their hospitals. There’s your proof.”
Lucifer’s words only work to provoke Dorian further. Blue flames erupt at his fingertips and lick up his forearm. His eyes go paler still. I look over at Gabriella but her expression is blank, her glossed gaze unblinking. Why isn’t she stopping this? Or proving Lucifer wrong?
“Bullshit,” Niko spits. “Why should we believe you?”
Lucifer’s glare hardens, and his lips are tight with fury when he answers, “Because I willed it so.”
Both Niko and Dorian still. The blue flames enveloping the Dark king’s hands recede yet his magic dances at his fingertips, ready and waiting to be unleashed. The thickness of silence is so stifling that I’m struck with the impulse to say something—anything. Even though I have absolutely nothing to offer to refute Lucifer’s claim.
“Maybe we should take a breath and calm down,” I quietly suggest. “There has to be a good explanation for this. Niko, Dorian…please. Sit and let’s hear him out so we can find out how to fix this.”
“There is no fixing this,” Lucifer replies solemnly. “But I want to tell you—sincerely—that I didn’t intend for things to happen this way.”
Niko and Dorian spare each other a glance before taking their seats. Dorian settles beside his wife and takes her hand. She still hasn’t spoken or moved. I don’t even think she’s registered his comforting touch.
“Tell us. Tell us everything,” Dorian commands as calmly as he can muster.
Lucifer nods once. “After the fall, I knew that the war between Heaven and Hell was imminent. The angels would be ruthless, using every advantage at their disposal. Humanity was the perfect pawn. So I made sure there was a way for me to hit them—to hit God—where it hurt.”
“You found a way to spark the apocalypse,” I surmise.
“Yes. At the time, it was out of spite. Them knowing I had the resources to actually do it…it was a power play. Something for me to dangle over their self-righteous heads. It was never my intention to actually carry out my plan. Not now at least.”
“And Gabriella…” Dorian pipes up. “What makes you think it was she who inflicted mass murder? Because I assure you—that would have been impossible. She’s been home with me in Skiathos. She hasn’t left my side, and she damn sure hasn’t unleashed her power onto innocents. You’ll have to do better than a fairytale.”
Lucifer swallows thickly. “She most likely wouldn’t have known she was even doing it. It isn’t something she can control or even stop.”
“If that’s the case, how do you know she was responsible?”
“Think about it: of the eight houses of the Dark, which one is Gabriella derived from.”
“Polemos,” Dorian answers. “Her father, Alexander, is Polemos.”
“And what does that translate as?” Lucifer’s eyebrows raise, urging him to go on.
It’s Gabriella who utters the word. “War.”
Lucifer turns to the Dark Queen, who still appears to be petrified in horror. “Gabriella, do you remember…anything? Any blackouts? Any lapses in time that you can’t account for? Have you been feeling weak or ill?”
Finally, she blinks. “No, no,” she stammers. “Of course not. I’ve been with my family the entire time. After Nikolai informed us of what was going on here, we thought it best to strengthen our wards around our palace. We left Skiathos after what happened…after the bombings. We knew we couldn’t sit in our castle and do nothing when people were dying. We wanted to help.”
She snatches her hand away from her husband and wrings her fingers in her lap. Her dual-colored eyes narrow with contempt as an angry crease forms between her brows. “This is ridiculous. I’m not capable of killing all those people. Even if I was powerful enough, I couldn’t…I wouldn’t. I lived most of my life thinking I was human, and in many ways, I still am. Those people are my people. Their blood is my blood. If I blacked out and did some horrific shit like this, don’t you think I would know that?”
Now it’s Dorian’s turn to cast his gaze to the floor, his jaw tight with unspoken truth.
“What is it?” Lucifer asks, noting the sudden shift in his resolve. “If you know something, spit it out.”
Dorian shakes his head, but says, “Two nights ago, I found her wandering the halls. I called out to her, but she would not answer. She was sleepwalking. I touched her shoulder, hoping to wake her or coax her back to bed, and when she turned around, I knew…I knew something was off. She looked at me like she couldn’t see me at all, and her eyes…they were red. Then she smiled at me, and it was so unlike anything I’d ever seen. No warmth, no fondness. It wasn’t hers. She wasn’t her. And when she said, “Come and see,” it wasn’t her voice. I should have known my wife had been stolen away. Those were the only words she uttered before she collapsed into my arms.”
Come and see.
The same three words I heard in my dream.
The same three words that were etched on the fogged glass.
He lifts his chin to turn to his wife. His own eyes are shaded with despair. “I’m so sorry, my love. You are my life, my whole world. And I didn’t know. I couldn’t stop it.”
Gabriella’s bottom lip trembles just slightly before she nods. “It’s not your fault. I did this. I…killed all those people.”
I expect Nikolai or Dorian to ensure her of her innocence, but it’s actually Lucifer that comes to her defense. “No, you didn’t. There was nothing you could have done. Nothing that I could have done. The moment Pestilence was unleashed, it was only a matter of time.”
“And who is Pestilence, exactly?” Niko questions.
Lucifer brings a hand up to rub his temple. “The first wife. The mother of evil. Lilith.”
“Lilith?” I gasp in disbelief. “That’s why this deadly flu strain originated on the West Coast, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Lilith is the White Rider. I had hoped we had more time, seeing as she’s across the country. I thought that we could get to him before War was activated.”
“Him?” I know whom he refers to, yet I still need to hear him say it.
“Legion was the only other soul who knew how to unlock the Horsemen. It was a secret he would die with, even with us at odds. He knew that information could and would destroy the very humans he had sworn to protect, so he would never surrender it freely. Plus, it would take great power to ignite them, far beyond what he has even now.”
“But what if he isn’t just using his power?” I query. Every eye focuses on me. “Think about it: Legion killed Raphael, right? Then he wounded Uriel before stabbing Jinn. What if he somehow absorbed their power?”
Lucifer shakes his head. “It would have transferred to The Redeemer. It would have literally siphoned their life force.”
“But Jinn didn’t die instantly, right? He’s still alive. What if it was tampered with in some way that disabled it? What if that means Jinn isn’t really dying at all?”
“Well, there’s no way to know that, considering that Cain made it clear that it would stay under the protection of the Se7en,” Lucifer shrugs.
I’m on my feet and racing to where I dropped my bag. Unceremoniously, I open it and dump all its contents onto the floor.
“Maybe there is a way for us to find out,” I mutter, reaching down to the very bottom where a velvet bundle is stashed. I cradle it with careful hands and turn to face the group. “Because I have The Redeemer.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Lucifer’s wide-eyed gaze tells me that even he was foiled.
“Phenex gave it to me. He wanted me to…use it. On Legion.”
I set the blade down on the coffee table. No one makes a move to touch it.
“The death of an archangel is not definitive,” Lucifer begins, unable to take his eyes off it. “Power like that cannot be extinguished, only transferred. So if Raphael is truly dead, I would be able to feel his essence in this blade. And if it’s not in there…”
“Then Legion took it,” I conclude. “And it could be what he used to unlock the Horsemen.”
Lucifer swallows, then scoots to the edge of his seat, his hand outstretched. He looks almost reluctant to even be in its presence. We saw what it did to The Seraph. How easy would it be for one of us to grab it and plunge it into his chest?
His fingertips hover over the blood rubies on the hilt, and he sucks in a breath, letting his eyes flutter closed. No one breathes.
“Where are you?” he whispers. He frowns in concentration, his lips twitching with the effort. After a few minutes of silence, his electric purple eyes flicker open and he backs away.
“What is it?” I ask, my voice a mere rasp.
“Raphael is not there. However, Jinn…” He looks at me and his shoulders fall a fraction. “I’m sorry, Eden. I feel him. Not all of him; he’s strong and he’s fighting it. But he is dying.”
Even though I knew it was too good to be true, a pang of sadness slices through my chest. I had hoped, I had even prayed. I wanted so badly for there to be a way to spare him. Some way to reverse what Legion had done. Because if we save him from The Many, he’ll never be able to live with what he’d done.
“So what now?” Niko asks. “Pestilence, War…do we just wait until the third rider shows up?”
Lucifer shakes his head. “The last I saw, Famine was contained. But I’m beginning to realize that every safeguard I put in place has somehow been thwarted.”
Contained? Safeguard?
I touch my fingers to my parted lips as I realize exactly whom he’s talking about. “Saskia. Saskia is Famine, isn’t she?”
Lucifer nods. “The Black Rider. The first of her kind. I knew it the moment I took her from Irin.”
“Saskia?” Niko heaves out a breath. “So I was right, wasn’t I? You do have Irin’s daughter.”
“Only because she surrendered her to me once she realized that her creation had the ability to kill without even trying.”
Niko looks at me and I nod my head. “It’s true. Saskia is Irin’s daughter, but she gave her to Lucifer for safekeeping. For her sake and the sake of all living things.”
“And there’s no way to know if she’s still in Hell?”
Lucifer shakes his head. “I’ve lost contact. And if I go back, I could be walking into a trap. And until I get a handle on The Many and the remaining Horseman, it’s just too risky.”
“So we wait.”
“We wait,” Lucifer mimics.
“And what if The Many get to the last Horseman before we do? Then what?”
“Then we die.”
A heavy silence falls over the room as we consider that truth. The last Horseman is Death, and the very key to the end of the world. We thought Legion was bad. But honestly, he’d be no match for them. Which makes me think…
“What if The Many aren’t behind unleashing the Horsemen? What if it’s Legion?”
Lucifer lifts a single brow. “Uh, I’m not following.”
“Well, if you hadn’t been acting like such a massive dick earlier…” I cut my glare at him. Niko snorts a laugh. “I would have told you that I heard those words in my dream. Come and see. It was like he had whispered them in my ear.”
Lucifer’s eyes grow in size. “Why didn’t you tell me that the moment you woke up?”
“Because I needed to shower. And like I said, you were being a massive dick, and that detail paled in comparison to all the other foul shit I saw. But also…” I swallow, wishing for another drink. I’m tempted to reach over and swipe Gabriella’s full glass, still sitting on the coffee table in front of her. “After my shower, the mirror was fogged. And someone had written it there in the condensation. Come and see. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. But now I’m wondering, what if Legion was trying to send me a message? Like a clue to how we could find the last rider?”
“And why would he do that?”
“Because he wants us to stop him. He begged me to end it all right there—to kill him.” I shake my head dispelling the thought. “What if he activated the Four Horsemen because he knows they’d be strong enough to kill him?”
“And risk all this carnage?” Niko challenges. “And put Lilith, his friend and sister, through the guilt and shame of sparking a plague?”
“And Gabriella,” Dorian adds. “We opened our home to him. We helped him against our better judgment. She helped Eden, his beloved. He would really be so callous and betray our alliance?”
Lucifer rakes a hand through his hair and shakes his head. “He may not know. There were details I chose not to disclose. He didn’t even know how bad it would be.”
“Fuck,” Niko spits. “So we really do sit around with our thumbs up our asses and wait, huh?”
“Not exactly,” Lucifer proposes. “You see, the real reason I called you here was because you have an old friend that’s apparently been resurrected from the dead that’s been squatting nearby.”
“Stavros,” Niko deadpans.
“No. Aurora.”
At the sound of her name, Gabriella’s interest is piqued. “What is she doing here?”
“She claims that she came to help. She also said that she has no idea where Stavros could be. However, after last night…” He cuts his gaze to me and releases a sigh. “I started thinking. Of all the places she could have fled to, she came here. Now, if I had just broken out of jail, would I be strutting around, stirring up trouble and having ostentatious fuck fests in a city where my mortal enemies once resided?”
“You think she was purposely sent here,” Dorian surmises.
“I do. And I also think she was lying about Stavros. So as an act of good faith, for what it’s worth, I want to help you capture and kill her.”
“We don’t need your help,” Gabriella quickly retorts. “I killed her once. I’d be happy to do it again.”
“I have no doubt that you would be, dear,” Lucifer goads. “However, there’s a good chance that’s exactly what she wants. For you to run in and fall into a trap. She had to have known I’d tell Nikolai, seeing as we’re such great pals.”
Nikolai rolls his eyes, but says, “He’s right. Aurora is much too narcissistic to be suicidal.”
“And if it’s demons we’re up against, you’ll want my help,” Lucifer tacks on.
“I know you all are ready to rip her to shreds, and quite frankly, I’d love to get in on that action,” I begin, meaning every word after that desire magic shit she pulled the night before. “But do you think she could have information leading us to where we could find the fourth Horseman? You said so yourself—Aurora makes it a point to know a little about everything. She may not know where exactly, but maybe she knows something. When, where, who. And if she doesn’t know, maybe she knows someone who does. I wouldn’t be opposed to torturing it out of her.”
“No,” Lucifer shakes his head. “She knows nothing of the Pale Rider.”
“And how do you know? The secret’s out. And seeing as she’s our only real lead, I’m all for exhausting our options. I mean…the last Horseman, the Pale Rider, is the worst, right? It’s Death. First, it was Pestilence. Then a day later, War.” I feel Gabriella’s glare on me, but I can’t dance around reality. “Famine could show up any day now. We’re fighting the clock here, not to mention we were given a deadline by the angels. We need to find Death before Death finds us, and all of this would have been for nothing.”
“We don’t need to find Death,” Lucifer insists. His voice is cool, but there’s something about his expression that tugs at my insides. A memory of a voice, silk between my fingers, a never-ending ache. I know that conjuring look.
I push it aside and press on. “And why not? Huh? So we can let more people die?”
“No,” he shakes his head. “We don’t need to find the fourth Horseman because I’m looking at her right now. And I haven’t been able to stop looking at her since the day she came barreling into my life. We don’t need to find Death. Because, Eden…you are Death.”