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)
Wynter followed Cain and Abaddon to the grotto, where they settled a sleeping Baal into the water. He’d slipped into a state of Rest during the journey home, and the Ancients hadn’t bothered trying to rouse him; they felt it was better to let him sleep.
“Do you think he’ll wake any time soon?” she asked.
Cain moved to stand beside her. “No. And it would be best if he doesn’t. The Rest is what he needs for his mind to heal.” He sighed. “If I’d known that he was still alive—”
“There was nothing you could have done.”
“Your consort is right, Cain,” said Abaddon. “You were just as much a prisoner as he was.”
Cain scratched at his temple. “I don’t understand why Adam never told us about Baal. Why didn’t he boast that he’d captured and tortured my uncle?”
“He got off on the fact that you didn’t know,” said Wynter. “It made him feel like he’d got one over on you.”
Abaddon nodded and settled a hand on Cain’s shoulder. “Take comfort in this: Now that Adam is exactly where he belongs, your father will subject him to even worse torture than what Baal received.”
Cain’s frown smoothed out, and his brows lifted. “Yes, there is that.”
“You two go on,” urged Abaddon. “I’m going to sit here awhile.”
And Cain’s frown was back. “Do you wish to Rest again?”
“No, that is not why I hesitate to leave. I simply don’t feel ready to walk away from my brother just yet.” Abaddon gave him a faint smile and settled on a stone ledge. “Go. I will be fine.”
Cain gave him a nod, took Wynter’s hand, and led her out of the grotto. They headed up the stairs and then began making their way out of the temple.
“So, it’s finally over,” said Wynter. “With the exception of your mother and Rima, the guardians are dead. Aeon has been leveled. And you and the other Ancients are free.”
“I spent the entire journey back to Devil’s Cradle processing it all. Or trying to. My mind has not yet fully absorbed this new reality, or that Inanna has gone, or that my consort hosts an actual Rephaim.”
“But you meant it when you said that you’re not freaked out about the latter, right?” Because it would be a problem if he was. And she’d be tempted to punch him in the junk, considering she’d accepted his creature without a qualm.
“Of course I meant it.”
Junk-punching averted. “I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t get to see your monster. It’s not fair. You saw mine.” She knew she sounded like a whiner, but whatever.
He draped one arm over her shoulders. “I’ll let it free sometime soon so that you can officially meet it.”
“Awesome.”
“I don’t think many people would find the thought of being face to face with a Leviathan ‘awesome’.”
“We’ve already established that ‘normal’ and I long ago got divorced.”
His lips twitched. “I suppose that’s one way to put it.”
As they exited the temple and began walking along the garden’s twisting path, Wynter cast him a sideways glance. “Are you truly not mad at me for keeping so much from you?” she asked, her voice unintentionally hesitant.
“I’m pissed that you withheld things from me, but I’m not pissed at you. I’m pissed at Kali for giving you so many conditions.” He jerked slightly as the deity then brushed over them both in her breeze-form in a sort of tsk, tsk gesture. “Wait, She’s still hanging around?”
“Don’t worry, She has no other plans for me. She just . . .”
“Cares for you in Her way and wishes to be near you,” he guessed.
“Kind of. I think She’s also lonely. Anyway. As for Her imposing conditions on me, I didn’t like it much either. But She swore that things had to happen a certain way. And I was not going to cross Her on that, because She also said that She’d allow me to stay with you after the battle was over if I followed Her orders to the letter.”
Cain blinked, his brows snapping together in affront. “Allow you to stay with me? As if She had a choice in the matter?”
“I didn’t like how She worded it either. But you and I both know that, while it doesn’t seem fair, She did have a choice in the matter. Anyway, Her original plan was apparently to bring my soul back to the netherworld after I’d achieved Her goals so that it could move on and begin a new life. But She promised that She wouldn’t if I did as I was told, although it would mean I’d have to permanently keep the entity I host.”
“Why?”
“Without a monster inside me, I wouldn’t be a revenant anymore. And if I wasn’t a revenant, I’d be nothing at all. Dead rather than undead.”
“Ah, I see.” They slowed their pace as a snake slithered across the path in front of them. “So it was Apep who repeatedly called you here, hmm?”