River

I’d never been more exhausted or sated in my life, yet I found myself staring at the flickering lanterns on the sideboard. We’d been too tired to go into the other tent with the bigger bed, but collapsed onto the cot and continued to make love there until I had no idea what time it was. Kobal’s leg was locked over mine, his shoulder beneath my ear as his hand lazily circled my breasts.

“What did Mac say?” I asked.

Lifting his head, he propped it on his other hand. “There have been casualties here and all along the wall. They stopped some of the creatures from going over, but they couldn’t stop them all. After the first wave from the seals hit, the ones your father released, they still had communication with the government, but that ended three days ago.”

Horror curdled within me. “What happened to cause that?”

“He doesn’t know. Before he lost touch with them, the government was working on evacuating some of the towns and relocating people to a more secure area.”

“Were they bringing the evacuees to the wall?” I asked as I rolled onto my side to gaze up at him.

“No.”

“Where were they sending them?”

“They were grouping them together with surrounding towns to increase the amount of people who could fight. They felt it would be better protection for all and was a safer option than having people traveling to the wall. They didn’t want a good chunk of the human population located in one place. I agree with their decision.”

“Everyone would be sitting ducks with so many living near the wall,” I murmured.

“Exactly. There also aren’t enough resources to sustain the surviving human population if too many of them live near the wall.”

“Were my brothers moved?”

“Mac doesn’t know, but he thinks they’re most likely still in the same place, or nearby. You came from a remote area, one that can be better guarded than some of the other towns and has a natural food supply in the ocean.”

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves, but I couldn’t shake the crushing feeling growing in me. “What could have happened to the government?”

“If they weren’t killed, they probably fled. Once we have your brothers, we will work to establish a new rule on Earth. I’ve asked Mac to work with us and to assume a larger leadership role with the humans. He will require other humans to work with him, of course, but I want him in charge of them. We will receive his answer when we return.”

“They may have lost contact with our government, but there were still other ruling bodies around the world. What if those governments decide to bomb us all?”

“All they’ll succeed in doing is killing the remaining humans and destroying the rest of their planet. They know bombs don’t kill demons, not unless it’s a direct hit, and they also know we’re their only chance of survival.”

I rested my hand over his heart, taking solace in the steady beat of it. “It’s going to be anarchy.”

“We’ll find and kill Lucifer, which will chop the head off the snake. We will work to rebuild this world and make it a place where humans and demons coexist, but the humans will have to accept their new fate if they’re to live.”

“They’ll accept it,” I said. “The ones who came to the wall already have. People are resilient, and they’ll do whatever is necessary to survive. If anyone can pull everyone together and rule over them, you can—”

“We can.”

I smiled at him. “Yes, we can, especially with the amazing group of fighters we have.”

He chuckled as he caressed my cheek with his thumb, and his gaze fell to my mouth. I so badly wanted to lose myself in him again, but I couldn’t. “We have to get to my brothers.”

I started to roll off the cot, but he held me back. “You need rest.”

“I did rest, and if I stay in this bed with you, I definitely won’t get any more resting done.”

I tried pulling my hand free, but he planted it against his chest. “Mac is organizing things for us with weapons, vehicles, and troops. It will still be some time before we are ready to leave.”

“What if Lucifer gets to my brothers first?”

“He exited Hell on the other side of the world. Even if he knows about your brothers and where to find them, we would most likely still beat him there. He can fly, yes, but his demon followers can’t.”

“But some of the creatures from the seal can,” I protested.

“Yes, and though they are lethal, they are not as cunning, pissed off, or deadly as the upper-level demons he freed from the hundredth seal. He won’t risk going after your brothers, and possibly running into us, without a large number of fighters behind him.”

My blood ran cold at the possibility of Lucifer descending on my brothers with his army of craeton followers and seal creatures. They’d be terrified, and if he didn’t kill them outright, the things he would do to them—

No, I wouldn’t think of it. I couldn’t. “Kobal, I have to go.”

He hesitated before leaning forward to kiss my forehead. “We will see how things are progressing with the supplies.”

Rolling on top of me, he pinned me to the mattress with his thigh between my legs as he planted his hands on either side of my head. I bit my lip as my body instinctively sought out his.

“I will find your brothers, Mah Kush-la,” he promised before rolling over and fluidly rising.

I sat up on the cot as Kobal lifted the tattered remains of my shirt and tossed it onto the table. “Does Mac know the ghosts are coming?” I asked as I rose and walked over to the adjoining tent. Lifting the flap, I slipped inside it. I strode past the bed and opened the doors on the armoire to peer inside.

“I told Mac to prepare for their arrival,” Kobal said from behind me.

I turned to find him standing at the foot of the bed. “He must have been thrilled.”

He smiled at me as he walked over to stand behind me. His body warmed mine as he reached around me to pull out a pair of pants and a shirt for himself. “About as much as I am about it, but we all must adjust to living with each other now, and the ghosts could prove helpful here.”

“Yeah,” I muttered as I uncovered some of my clothes.

It was still nightfall when Kobal led me out of the tent and to the house I showered in. He didn’t like using human showers, but he took a quick one too while I dressed. Lifting the hairbrush I’d brought with me, I worked the tangles from my hair while I watched Kobal exit the bathroom. My gaze lingered on the bites I’d left on his flesh when he dropped a towel from his waist.

My Chosen, for eternity. That was still going to take time to process, but once I had my brothers back and Lucifer was dead, I would take the time to enjoy having an eternity with this demon. I couldn’t wait.

I hastily pulled my wet hair into a ponytail as Kobal finished dressing. Taking my hand, he led me out of the house and back to the area where the demons resided. All their tents formed a circle around an open clearing. On the horizon, the sky had lightened from a velvety black to a deep gray.

We passed three tents before Kobal stopped and rapped his knuckles against the outside of one.

“What?” Corson demanded groggily from within. The murmured complaints of more than one female could be heard as something clattered within.

“Time to go,” Kobal said brusquely and pulled me away from the tent.

A giggle from the woods alerted me to a nymph loping through the trees. Two completely naked male demons chased behind her. “The demons are already adapting to their new world,” I murmured.

“I think many of those who first came to Earth with me would have stayed even if they had to travel back and forth to Hell to keep their immortality,” Kobal replied. “The ones who remained in Hell while we were on Earth will acclimate soon enough.”

“The nymphs already are.”

“The nymphs could adapt to life anywhere as long as they have trees to play in and partners to satisfy them. But they will make it easier for the other demons to adjust too. They’ll make them happier.”

“That they will,” I agreed.

We stopped in front of another tent. Kobal raised his hand to hit the side of it, but the flap pulled back before he could and Bale stepped out with Verin at her side.

“We’re ready,” Verin said. She lifted her chin and stared at Kobal as if she were gearing up for an argument.

I opened my mouth to tell her to stay so she could grieve, or cry, or whatever demons did when they lost a loved one. Then I realized that demons fought, and if Verin had a chance to help end Lucifer, she wasn’t going to miss it. Nothing would have stopped me either.

Kobal stared at her before speaking, “Good.”

Turning, we walked down the hill together. Verin kept her shoulders back, but her eyes remained focused on the ground as she walked and she began to fall behind.

“How is she doing?” I whispered to Bale.

Bale brushed back a strand of her fiery hair as a raven landed beside her. With a ripple of wings and feathers, Caim appeared.

“She is still breathing, but she does not live,” Bale said without so much as a glance at the angel who fell into step beside her.

Her words sounded like one of the skellein’s riddles, but unlike their riddles, I understood what Bale meant. My eyes lifted to Kobal. Knowing that I would have left him like Verin, if not for Raphael’s intervention, made me shudder.

We were almost to the wall when a squeaking noise drew my attention to the field where I’d spent many days training with Kobal. On the horizon, a pickup crested the hill. It idled for a minute before descending toward us.