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)
Son of a bitch.
“Give me both, and I will award you two million,” Adam added. “Give me neither, and you will all pay for that mistake.”
The image of Adam’s face flickered and wavered. Eventually, it winked out, and then the cloud slowly dissipated.
Swiping a tongue over her lower lip, Wynter turned to Cain. “Well, this could be a problem.”
Cain sighed. “Yes, yes it could.”
Chapter Two
As the seven Ancients sat around Cain’s dining table a short time later, he and Azazel relayed the incident that brought the night’s celebration to a screeching halt. Cain kept his voice cool and calm, pushing down the rage that threatened to fog his thoughts. It was no easy thing when said rage relentlessly crawled through his blood and simmered low in his belly.
Beneath the table, he flexed his fingers. A bounty. Fucking Adam had put a bounty on Wynter’s head. Again. Like once hadn’t been enough.
Cain supposed he couldn’t complain too much about the first bounty. After all, it had pushed her to seek sanctuary. It had brought her to Devil’s Cradle, brought her to him. Cain could never lament that. Selfish, maybe, but he was often that way where his consort was concerned. She thankfully let it slide much of the time.
He wouldn’t have imagined that he’d ever wish to claim a consort. But then, he never would have thought that anyone—man or woman—could make themselves indispensable to him. Wynter . . . she was vital to him. As necessary as breathing. Something he would never give up.
He’d been so numb before her. So detached from the world that he’d ceased to want things. Nothing had entertained, intrigued, or brought him any true satisfaction. Wynter had walked into his world, sliced through the listlessness, and settled into his life as easily as if it had been preordained.
He liked to believe that the latter was true. Liked to believe that she’d been made specifically for him. Because it often felt like she was.
She suited him in every imaginable way. She delighted his senses and appealed to him on every level. More, she enraptured his monster in such a way that its possessiveness of her wasn’t shallow.
The creature didn’t covet Wynter as if she was a pretty bauble. It saw her, recognized the witch as a person in her own right rather than a collectible item, and it coveted the entirety of her. Hence why it wanted to bind itself to her—something Cain hadn’t yet run by Wynter. He had no idea if she’d go for it, but he had hope, given that she’d sold him all rights to her soul and given up her mortality for him. That depth of commitment was nothing to sniff at.
Even back when so many secrets had ran riot between them, they’d still gradually built something. Something true and solid and long-lasting. And, despite what he’d feared, the revelation of his own secrets hadn’t destroyed what they’d built.
Wynter accepted him anyway. Accepted that, as a Leviathan, Cain was a gateway to hell for souls. Accepted the presence of his monster, despite that it was a thing of nightmares. More, she’d accepted that he was the only son of Satan—the darkest and most corrupt of the Leviathans who now dwelled in the depths of hell. Which wasn’t exactly easy to digest, let alone make peace with. But Wynter hadn’t pulled away from Cain for even a moment.
Really, she was a true marvel to him. He was quite certain there was no one like her. And not simply because she was far from a normal revenant.
It was fortunate that Adam had no clue just how important she was to Cain, or he would have placed an even bigger price on her head—one so high that it would have been all but irresistible to most who resided in Devil’s Cradle. Because Adam wouldn’t merely plan to use her to lift the curse on Aeon, he’d plan to torture her until the end of time.
Of course, the bastard wouldn’t find it so easy to keep her contained. The deity who’d marked and regularly watched over her would never permit it. Kali would free her somehow if Wynter didn’t manage to free herself. That brought Cain no real comfort, though. Because the thought of her in Adam’s custody for merely five minutes was too much to stomach. Especially when Cain would have no way to physically track and save her, courtesy of his fucking cage.
“I don’t understand,” Ishtar said to no one in particular, giving a slight shake of her head. “The things Adam said do not make much sense.”
Cain’s inner creature snarled at the sound of the Aeon’s name. It didn’t want to be there in that dining room with the Ancients. It wanted to be back in their bedchamber with Wynter, who’d agreed to wait for Cain there. His creature wanted access to the only thing that had the ability to calm it.