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)
Adam looked over his shoulder. Nothing more happened, but he exchanged a quick glance with Jude before turning back to the crowd and clearing his throat.
Cain smiled. He’d bet his life that his consort was responsible for whatever just occurred in that temple. She’d never stay still and quiet like a good little captive.
Adam set his hands on his hips as he swept his gaze over his troops. “I trust that those of you who head up to the surface to blindside the Ancients will do the rest of us proud. You know every inch of the land. You know how to remain unseen. You know how to defend yourselves against these creatures.”
“Do you want Cain to be kept alive and brought to you?” one troop called out.
“No,” replied Adam. “You need not worry about him. Once the Ancients are distracted by you, I will come to the surface and deal with Cain—he will not see me coming. His death will come at my hands.”
Abaddon let out a quiet snort. “He always was an overachiever.”
“As for the other Ancients, they will also die tonight,” Adam continued, his voice hard. “Every last one of them. Then the witch will restore our home to its former glory, and we will be what we always should have been—the most powerful race to have been born on this Earth.”
Cain’s creature hissed at the brief mention of Wynter. It kept pushing and shoving at him, tired of waiting for him to seek her out.
“He is so very at ease with sacrificing his own people, isn’t he?” said Abaddon. “There are over a hundred troops out there. Most appear to be Aeons.” He paused. “I remember there being far more of them.”
“Many Aeons died in the original massacre,” said Cain. “Yet more died when Lailah and Saul brought an army to Devil’s Cradle. Abel also led some Aeons into battle, though not a great number of them.”
Another rumble came from Eden’s temple. A crack zigzagged its way down one side of the building. Another skittered down one of the thick columns.
Adam tensed, eyeing the latter crack with unease. He whispered something to Jude, who then strode into the temple. Facing front again, Adam began barking directions at his troops.
“It would be so easy to kill Emmanuel right now,” said Abaddon.
Cain tensed. “Don’t. If you strike and miss, you’ll damage the temple. It’s already unstable—”
“And you don’t want to risk your consort being trapped inside, I know.” Abaddon sighed. “Even so, it’s a . . .” He trailed off as yet more vibrations came from the temple. Worse this time. So much worse.
Cain’s heart leaped. Shit, it was about to collapse in on itself.
Adam and Emanuel rushed down the steps using the enhanced speed of their kind, and a shimmering protective shield quickly encompassed them both.
Cain fisted his hands, needing to move, needing to—
Jude came barreling out of the temple. He wasn’t alone. Another figure was a short distance behind him. Wynter.
Relief fluttered through Cain like a warm breeze. She raced out of the building in a blur of speed and jumped down to the base of the steps, her hand fisted in the hair of Noah’s severed head.
That’s my girl.
“Get her!” Adam ordered.
Several troops rushed her, but then they skidded to a halt. Pretty much everyone stilled. Because the collapsed temple was quivering. Shifting. As if something was caught beneath the stone blocks.
“No,” Adam gasped, his eyes on her. “You didn’t.”
“Oh, I totally did,” said Wynter, her lips quirking.
“Stupid girl, you have no idea what you’ve done!”
Her eyes hardened. “Of course I do. Just as I know you’ve kept him here since the massacre all those years ago. You tortured him. Endlessly. Until you felt sure that there was nothing of him left; that he was reduced to a feral, insane thing. And I gotta tell you, Adam, I have a real problem with that. Not just because it was a straight-up evil thing to do, but because he once saved Cain’s life. There was no way I’d ever not repay him for that.”
Cain’s scalp prickled as a possibility drifted through his mind. No. No, surely not.
“He’ll kill us all—you included,” Adam snarled.
“Noah was of the same opinion.” She tossed the traitor’s head on the ground. “I guess we’ll see if you’re both right.” She blurred out of sight.
Stone blocks went flying as something surfaced from the fallen temple. Cain felt his face go slack. People stumbled backwards, crying out in horror as a mammoth-sized serpent stretched its upper body high, its golden scales glittering even through the layer of dust that coated them. It released a hissing shriek that carried screams directly from hell itself.
A Leviathan.
And not just any Leviathan. Cain recognized the distinctive scar on its head.
“Baal,” Abaddon whispered.
Yes, Baal. Cain’s own uncle. A man they’d all thought dead. A being who, if the light of insanity in his monster’s eyes was anything to go by, truly was now only a creature of rage.