Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Noah swallowed. “Well, then, I guess it’s too bad for them that there’s not a thing they can do about it,” he snarked.
Wynter felt her lips tip up. “The deities found ways to communicate while in the netherworld, despite being kept apart. They came up with a plan. Having no physical form when in this realm, they needed to use others to achieve their goals.
“Kali found a witch She could use as Her own personal revenant. Nyx sent Kali the perfect netherworld entity for said revenant to host. Nemesis used oracles to indirectly communicate with the Leviathans—manipulating them, really, by informing them of only what She wanted them to know. And Apep led the revenant to Abaddon’s resting place so that the Ancient could be woken, allowing the Leviathans to free themselves—being the most powerful of the deities, Apep was the only one who could unlock the gate to the resting place.”
“You lie,” Noah accused, a slight shake to his voice that said he wasn’t truly so certain. “They couldn’t have done all that.”
“They could. They did. Kali told me all about it. She also told me that you’d take me to Adam.”
He scoffed. “Bullshit.”
“Nope, pure truth.”
“Yeah? Then why didn’t you do anything to stop it from happening?”
She smiled again. “Because I wanted to come down here, silly. She said that Adam would dump me exactly where I need to be. Yes, I’ve learned that there genuinely is a reason that you Aeons fear the fall of this place.”
Noah stiffened, and his mouth opened and closed a few times. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Wynter leaned forward slightly. “I know what’s here,” she said quietly, as if confessing a secret. “Or, I should say, who is here. He’s beneath us right now, in Eden’s old resting place. And he. Wants. Out.”
Noah’s eyes flickered.
“I think it’s about time he gets what he wants, don’t you?”
“You can’t free him. You can’t even free yourself.”
Wynter tugged ever so slightly on the iron collar, and it split into several pieces as it fell from her neck. Enjoying how his jaw dropped, she asked, “You didn’t notice me touch it earlier? I infected it with a little rot . . . much like I did the floor beneath me.” She pushed to her feet, brushing off any pieces of the collar, and walked toward the front of the cell. “That rot is spreading and spreading throughout the foundations of this place as we speak.”
Paling, he shook his head and backed up. “You . . . no. No, you wouldn’t—”
“Of course I would. I do all kinds of crazy shit.”
His face flushed in anger. “You don’t know what you—” He cut himself off as a tremor ran through the building. Beneath them, something roared.
“Ah, it shouldn’t be long now until he escapes.”
“Are you fucking stupid?” Noah demanded. “He’ll kill us all!”
“It is a possibility, I have to admit.” She bit her lower lip. “But then again, maybe Kali’s right and he’ll just go after the people who’ve kept him here all this time. I guess we shall see.”
A breeze whipped around the space, blowing out the torches, carrying an otherworldly laugh that bounced off the walls.
Noah sucked in a sharp, shaky breath.
The breeze returned only to smash into the cell door, which unlocked with a snick. Wynter whipped it open, slamming it into Noah, hearing him hit the floor hard.
She was on him in a blink.
*
A growl sawed at Cain’s throat as he once more failed to penetrate the shield before him. It was little more than a bubble of power. A bubble that surrounded a single door. And yet, his strikes hadn’t made even so much as a dent in the shield.
Unlike with Devil’s Cradle, a building didn’t sit upon the entrance to the city beneath Aeon. There was merely a small hill featuring a thick wooden door. So easy to penetrate if only it wasn’t protected. Powered by the blood of both Aeons and Ancients, it was built to keep all intruders at bay in order to protect Eden should she be Resting.
Only Inanna and Ishtar weren’t helping attack the shield. They were searching for another possible entrance. There had to be more than one way in or out.
Really, Cain and the others weren’t battering at the shield in the hope of breaking it. Their purpose was to provoke Adam. They knew him. Knew how his mind worked. Knew that, being as arrogant as he was, hiding underground would be poking at the man’s ego.
Adam would hate that the Ancients might think he was too scared to face them. He’d hate that they were essentially pounding on his front door while he remained inside where he was safe. More, he would detest what it said about him that he’d left the people on the surface to handle the invasion for him. It showed a cowardice that Cain himself had often pointed out but that Adam had refused to acknowledge he possessed. And so Cain and the other Ancients were playing on that.