Fight, flight, or freeze.

Eden knew those were the responses. She heard the words in her head. They repeated again and again, through the screams and the buffets of magical energy and the blood spraying against the wall. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.

Fight, flight, or freeze.

She was freezing.

“Eden!” Ren screamed from the far corner of the nursery. She was huddled there with the babies. Not that it would matter. Elyon would get them both. As soon as he destroyed Zuriel. Whom he was battling with unholy fury. Right in front of Eden.

Almost all sound from the fight was dampened, muted through the shimmering wall of magic that stood just beyond the reach of her fingertips. Not that her fingers were outstretched. Her hands hung limp at her side. Frozen. Air came in small sips, squeaking into her body past her frozen lungs because she had to breathe or she would die.

She was going to die anyway.

It had started when a shadow angeling appeared in the nursery. Just like that—pop—and he was there. An instant later, he killed Naphtali. The body still lay next to the door, her head rolled off to the side. Ren had screamed and run for the babies. Eden had just stared at the blood gushing on the floor. A split second later, Laylah charged in from outside the nursery, stumbling over the body. The attacker threw his blade straight into her chest then disappeared. Laylah had clutched at it, twisted, and disappeared.

Run away? Probably smart. Because a moment later, Elyon had charged through the doorway.

That’s when Eden froze.

He’d reached for her. His hand extended, eyes wild with the cruel pleasure he always had dancing in them. He’d reached for her… and she’d frozen. The only reason he hadn’t snatched her right then was because an instant before he could touch her, Zuriel appeared behind him. She’d erected the magic barrier, this shimmering force field that split the nursery in two. On one side: Eden, Ren, and the babies. On the other: Elyon and Zuriel battling with blasts of angel energy and screams so loud they shook the walls. Eden could hear the palace shake around her, even as the magic shield dampened the fight itself. Several angelings had tried to enter the fray—appearing inside the nursery on the side of the magic barrier with Elyon and Zuriel.

They were nothing but smears on the wall now.

She was frozen.

Not that she had anywhere to run or any way to fight… but this front row seat to the battle that would end her life held her transfixed.

The babies were crying behind her. She should go to them. And Ren, who was also sobbing. Elyon and Zuriel continued to fight, slashing at each other with energy and tremendous blades, long swords that split the air with sonic booms when they clashed, although it was all still muted behind the barrier. Slowly, like cold molasses heating under the blaze of their magic… Eden moved.

First, she unlocked her eyes from the fight. Then she dipped her head away. Then she slowly turned her back on it. Whatever the outcome, she couldn’t affect it either way. Her limbs weren’t working right, but she stumbled over to Ren and the babies. One was in the bouncy seat, the other in Ren’s arms. Ren was squeezing Ralphie too tight.

“Oh my God,” Ren sobbed. “Oh God, he’s going to kill us.” She was shaking all over.

Eden slipped her hands to Ren’s cheeks, pulling her gaze away from the fight. “He won’t kill you.” Her voice was unnaturally calm and sounded a thousand miles away. She had to raise it to be heard over the crying babies. “You’re Micah’s beloved.” Her hands were steady too. As if the whole nightmare reality were simply a dream. She gently pried Ren’s shaking hands from Ralphie and took the baby in her arms. She cradled him, and he immediately settled, although she could still hear his little whimper against her chest. “He won’t hurt the babies, either. He will simply return them to the nursery.”

He came for her—she knew this.

And even as the battle still raged, she knew he would win. And claim her. And take her back to hell.

Eden calmly walked to the middle of the nursery, next to the shimmering magic wall, still holding little Ralphie in her arms. She ignored the raging battle even as Zuriel was thrown against the wall and screamed. Eden knelt down to the baby bouncy seat, the one that hung like a miniature swing, only for babies whose legs were still getting strong enough to hold them up. She picked up the swing with one hand and strode back to where Ren sat curled up against the wall. Little Eva was in her bouncy seat but crying big, fat baby tears down her face. Eden set up the swing next to Eva and eased Ralphie into it. He was no longer crying, just staring at her with wide eyes. Eden picked up Eva next and rocked and rocked her, shushing her and petting her downy hair.

“It’s okay,” she said. Which it would be for them. This was her goodbye. “It’s going to be okay.” Eva’s cries settled to sniffled hiccups, then Eden put her back in her seat. Ren was giving her an incredulous look, but she also seemed a little calmer. She huddled down next to the babies, gently rocking them as Eden stood back up and turned to face the battle.

She was just in time to see Zuriel’s body sliced in two.

A jolt went through Eden as the two halves fell apart, each with a sickening thump on the carpet—one that could be heard even through the magic shield Zuriel had erected. But with the rending of Zuriel’s body, a flash of light blinded Eden, and when she blinked her eyes clear, not only was the body gone… but the shield was as well.

Air gasped into her lungs.

Triumph blazed in Elyon’s eyes.

Eden turned to run—blindly. She had nowhere to go, but flight had command of her body now. She ran for the door—but only made it halfway there. And invisible force grabbed her and lifted her feet from the carpet. God no. No, no, no. Panic choked her as the force held her tight, immobile except for her head which whipped frantically and her feet which pawed the air. The same invisible magic Elyon had used on her, time and again, to bring her to him. To hold her still while he… a scream bubbled deep inside her chest.

“Eden!” Ren was sobbing for her. Uselessly. But she was staying with the babies. Good. That was the only thing that kept Eden’s scream trapped in her chest. Don’t frighten the babies.

Elyon slowly turned her in the air, agonizingly slow, and as Eden turned, a dozen black-winged angelings appeared in the nursery. Micah. He was among them, his expression hardened like a rock. Poor Ren. That was all Eden could think at that moment. Poor Ren would lose the one thing she had—the belief that Micah had tried to save her. Had loved her. Enough to sacrifice himself to keep her safe. But this hellhole was only an illusion in its difference from the other hellhole. Now Micah was here to bring her back.

Eden’s slow drift through the air had brought her face to face with Elyon, so there was nowhere she could look without seeing him. The parts of her that could move spasmed with fear, but her mind was clear. Calm. She knew it would come to this. She had her safe place to go to when it happened. She would do everything she must to save her child.

The baby must live.

That was all that mattered now. That was all that had ever mattered.

“Take the babies to the nursery.” Elyon’s voice was deep and resonant and… laughing. There was a vast roll of delight under his words. “And Micah, you may have yours for a day. But then I expect her back with the others.”

Others. Of course. Elyon wouldn’t leave his nursery empty even for a day.

The angelings behind Elyon moved. Micah hesitated… but only for a split second. Eden’s gaze followed him until she couldn’t see him behind her. His expression didn’t change as he strode over to Ren. Eden heard her sob, but Ren knew better than to say anything. Eden was glad for that. Ren needed to survive for her baby, too. Whatever it took.

Eden faced the devil who would destroy her. “Only the child matters.”

He laughed, his blue eyes cutting deep into her soul. “You’re right about that.”

“I won’t fight you.” She was choking on the words. “I’ll do whatever you want. Willingly. Just don’t harm the child.”

His magic pulled her closer. She could feel the heat rolling off him, his breath on her face. The air thrummed all with his power. “I don’t want you willing.”

Eden twitched. She couldn’t help it. Flight, fight, or freeze. Everything in her screamed to fight.

“Don’t hurt the child,” she gasped, wrenching her face away. “Do what you want to me.”

“I’ve no use for you,” he snarled. “You have his stench on you.”

Eden’s heart lurched. What?

“But you have something that belongs to me.” Then Elyon leered at her in a way that struck full terror in her heart. “And I want it back.”

No, no, no. She couldn’t help the struggle against the invisible hold.

He reached a hand up to stroke her cheek but whereas that touch before would have been the first flush of pleasure—the horrific pleasure he used to make his attack all the more terrible—now his touch sliced pain into her. She jerked away, and his hand came back covered in her blood. She stared at it, wide-eyed, frozen again in her horror—his hand was no longer human but now a fist full of blades. It drifted down, toward her belly…

“I blessed you with this child, Eden.” His breath was terrifying in her face. His razor hands shredded her clothes. She could hear the ripping of fabric, feel its tug, sense the cold pain promised by the blades.

“No, please. Please, please, no…” She was babbling, gasping, squirming.

“I gave you something you could have no other way,” he hissed, his smile growing as panic beat on her chest. “But you didn’t appreciate what I’d done. So now I’ll have to give that blessing to someone else.”

Her horror was wordless, speechless, breathless. He couldn’t mean… it wasn’t possible… Her mind refused to see it, but then he reached straight into her belly—

She screamed. And fought. And writhed. The pain was unlike anything else. The pain was everything. He was slicing her open. Carving through her clothes and her skin. Her baby, her baby, her baby.

Her scream was endless. He took her baby.

Then he dropped her to the floor.

She landed like meat. Empty meat. A carcass discarded. She saw only the floor as her body emptied the rest of itself—slick, warm blood on the floor. Parts of her that didn’t belong on the outside. A haze fell over her eyes.

She wished for her world of mist, but it was gone.

As everything darkened, there was a pop in the air. Screams and scuffling and chaos stomped the floor around her. She looked up like one might from the bottom of a pool, trying to see the glimmering, warped shapes that floated in the real world past the surface.

She saw Razael, his dark wings spread wide, righteous fury on his face. She thought in that moment of the angels of old, the stories of avenging angels, the Wrath of God brought down from heaven to smite evildoers… he was that angel. A dark angel of fury and might.

But he was too late.

Darkness slammed down on her mind, and as she sunk under, she was grateful for it.