The pain, the loss, the waiting is over.

We’re together again as it should be.

He is mine, and I am his. There will be no one to come between us.

We spin and lock gazes for a moment and a carnal heat flares between us, the white-hot kind that will be assuaged once the battle is done. The kind that will tear cries of release from my throat. It burns through my veins and lends my limbs strength.

And then his gaze slips form my face to a point over my head.

“Seraphina!” he cries.

I catch the glint of a blade to my left and counter. A fresh wave of demon’s attack.

“Samael!” I urge him to focus.

But my love is no longer by my side. I whirl and slice and stab and search for my husband.

I spot him between evasive maneuvers and evisceration. He’s a battering ram, forging his way through the enemy toward the woman with Eve’s face. I see the daemon behind her, a Macer, able to flatten a lesser demon with one blow. I recognize the threat, but none of that matters All that matters is that he chose to save her.

He chose to save her over helping me.

Something dark and dangerous blooms in my chest.

No. This cannot stand.

It won’t.

Fee

“FEE!”

Cora? I spun on my heel to search for my friend as the ground beside me erupted upward from an epic blow.

Fuck!

I leapt away from the monolith at my back. If I hadn’t moved. If I hadn’t... Oh god.

I brought my scythe up to block the daemon’s blow, but the force brought me to my knees. There was a resounding crack and then white-hot pain stole my breath and trapped my scream in my throat.

My leg. I couldn’t move. Oh fuck.

I looked up to see the huge, metal-spiked ball whizzing toward my face. They say when you’re about to die your life flashes before your eyes, but for me, in that moment, there was nothing but an achingly deep sorrow at having to leave my loved ones.

“No!” A roar of rage shattered my eardrums and then the ball was deflected by a huge silver sword.

The daemon spun to face its attacker.

Samael stood over me like a dark, avenging angel.

“You want to a fight?” Samael boomed. “Then fight someone your own size.”

It was such a schoolyard thing to say, but fuck, did it bring tears of joy to my eyes.

The daemon attacked, and Samael countered easily, his blows matching the daemon’s in power and intensity.

“Fee!” Cora hauled me up.

Pain spiked up my leg, and this time my scream found purchase. Samael was visible through my tears. The daemon was powerful but clumsy and Samael was formidable and swift. He fought smoothly, his moves packed with power and surety. The daemon had no chance. Samael kicked it in the chest then sliced his sword across its throat.

I caught a scent on the air, and my Loup rose up and filled me, tightening my limbs as it worked to heal my wound.

Heat bloomed at my solar plexus, and the scent of the vista filled my nostrils.

“Hunter?”

He appeared like a dark saviour, bloody and scraped. His gaze roved over me before locking on mine. His mouth worked then he shook his head and gathered me to him, arms solid bands around me, breath warm against the curve of my neck.

“I almost lost you,” he said. “I can’t lose you.”

A siren blared. Three long bursts.

“Fee!” Cora tugged me away from Hunter. “Something’s going on.”

Around us the liveried demons, Lilith’s army, were backing off. Cheers rose up from Mammon’s minions.

Oh no.

No.

“We have to go!” Samael was beside me. “Mammon has taken the Keep. We need to retreat.”

Oh fuck.

Chapter Forty-Two

Fee

Retreat.

Failure.

We were all thinking it.

But at least we were safe…for now. Lilith, the savvy queen, had a hideout in a mountain several miles from Imperium, accessible only to her and Samael.

It was a vast cavern, hewn into the mountain and kitted out with neat metal bunkers. Several fire pits were dotted about, and a waterfall made up the back of the cavern, pooling into a stream that cut around the outside of the cavern and filtered away into the rock face. It was enough to accommodate the rag tag dregs of a decimated army.

“Is this all that’s left?” Grayson asked.

“Yeah,” Hunter said. “Azazel took a headcount and less than a hundred demons made it here. The rest were either captured or killed by Mammon’s army.”

He was sitting beside me, his arm brushing mine. He’d stayed close ever since he found me on the battlefield. He’d carried me most of the way here while my broken tibia healed.

His scent lingered in my nostrils, comforting, familiar, exciting. I still couldn’t believe he and Grayson were here. They’d come to be with me, to help me and warn me about Cain.

Fucking Cain.

My head ached from the fighting, and the loss, and the potential shit that was still waiting to hit the fan.

Mammon had the Keep and Cain was coming.

“What are we going to do?” Cora asked the question on everyone’s mind.

We were huddled around one of the firepits, but no one had even attempted to start a fire. The atmosphere was one of dejection, and most demons had a glazed look in their eyes as they staggered to and fro like aimless zombies waiting for a whiff of live human.

Across the cavern, Lilith and Samael were in conversation with Azazel, Mal, and Conah. Keon and Uri administered to some wounded close by. Uri’s healing power wasn’t as strong here, but he did what he could, and Keon did the rest. They made a good team, working side by side.

I was lucky the people I loved were safe, but how long would they stay that way while they were here with me?

I covered my face with my hands. “We can’t fight Mammon without an army, and Cain…I need to warn Samael about Cain.

I pushed to my feet and wound my way over to the fallen. Samael looked up as I approached and his face broke into a warm smile.

“How is your leg now, blossom?” he asked.

“Healed.” I hadn’t had a chance to thank him for saving me. “If you hadn’t intervened when you did… Thank you for saving my life.”

His brows pinched. “You’re my daughter. I will not allow any harm to come to you.”

A lump formed in my throat. “And I can’t allow any to come to you, either.”

He tilted his head to the side. “What is it?”

“Cain is on his way here. We believe he wants to kill you. Uri spoke to the Oracle in the Beyond who told him that if Cain succeeded, a world would fall. Is it true that the Underealm is linked to you? That the toxic air from the pit will spread and kill everything?”

Samael closed his eyes with a sigh.

Lilith looked sharply at Samael. “Cain’s alive?”

Samael sighed. “It’s a long story, love, and I will explain it all to you later,” He focused on me. “Yes, the story is true. But I’m not so easily killed. Even if Cain does come to the Underealm, he doesn’t possess the power to end my existence. I am the first. I am the divine’s chosen.”

I wanted to be soothed by his confidence, but unease niggled at the back of my mind, and then it hit me. “I think Cain ate the Dread that were trapped on Earth.”

Samael went very still. “What did you say?”

Lilith made a strangled sound. “Samael, the Dread are one of the first armies of the divine.”

Samael’s mouth tightened. “If he comes then I will speak with him. He is my son, and I will make peace with him. But right now, we must focus on Mammon and find a way to claim back the Keep.”

But there was more he needed to know. “It’s not just him that’ll be coming. He’s bringing vamps that carry the reaper virus.”

Silence greeted my statement before Lilith broke it.

“Outliers can’t enter the Underealm,” she said haughtily.

The rules were only rules until someone found a way to break them. “My Loup mates managed to get here, and I’m sure these vamps have been modified to allow them to withstand the Underealm’s atmosphere.”

Conah cursed softly. “With the attack on the Keep, I was unable to get a message to the labs to continue work on the vaccine.”

The flare of fire drew my attention to a nearby pit. It looked like someone had decided we needed heat, and I could already feel the warmth beating against my skin.

“Enough,” Samael said. “We can’t focus on Cain. We must focus on Mammon. The longer he maintains control of the Keep, the more time he has to fortify and forge alliances.”

“We have no army,” Mal reminded him.

I scanned the battle-scarred and battle-weary troops. “And the ones we have aren’t in great shape.”

Fuck, it was getting hot now. I shrugged off my coat, and something dark fluttered to the ground.

Esmael’s feather.

Oh… Wait a donut-sucking moment. An idea formed in my mind, farfetched but a possible solution.

“What if I could get us an army?”

“How?” Lilith snapped, all dark-eyed derision.

I crouched to pick up the feather and then held it up for all to see. “With this.”

“A feather?” Samael looked confused, but Conah and Mal’s expressions cleared

“Fee,” Mal said. “This just might work.”

“Can someone please tell me what you’re talking about?” Azazel demanded.

But Lilith was staring at the feather with a mixture of awe and horror. She reached for it but decided against it, curling her fingers into her palm and dropping her hand.

“Seraphim,” she said softly.

“Yes. It’s a Seraphim feather. Conah, Mal, and I met one. We saved him, and he gave me this to call upon him if I needed. I think there are more, and I think I may be able to convince them to fight alongside us.”

“This can’t be,” Lilith said.

“Why? Because you had them hunted and killed?”