Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Dantalion sighed. “I can’t even say I find it hard to believe. Abel always had a mean streak. It was magnified by a thousand when it came to you, Cain.”
Very true. “Did Saul explain why it is that Aeon apparently can’t afford to fall?”
Azazel shook his head. “He merely kept repeating that we’d one day regret not handing Wynter over to the Aeons, but I’ll keep working on him. There is something else, though. Abel has allegedly been campaigning for years to have our cages and everything in it crushed. Adam refused to okay it—he prefers that we’re alive and imprisoned. Abel always backs down when reminded that Cain’s not the only brother he has here.”
Seth frowned. “Then why was Lailah allowed to declare war on us?”
“She wasn’t,” Azazel replied. “She acted against Adam’s wishes. Lucky for her, there were plenty of people who shared her view that we should be eliminated. She and Saul rounded them up and brought them here to fight alongside them.”
Cain felt his lips part in surprise. “I would not have guessed that.”
“Get this,” Azazel went on. “Abel knew that she meant to come here and wipe us out. He wasn’t willing to go against his father so he didn’t accompany her, but he didn’t report her intentions either.”
Cain scraped his hand over his jaw. “That is no small thing for Abel. I’ve never known him to risk his father’s displeasure.”
Seth nodded hard. “He didn’t fear Adam, but he feared disappointing him. With this new knowledge in mind, I’m thinking that, if given the chance, Abel would do exactly what we want and bring a battle to our land.”
“I agree,” said Cain. “But if we’re to make him finally rebel and go against Adam’s wishes, we need to really step up our game, because it so far hasn’t driven Abel to do exactly that. My pushing his buttons won’t be enough.” As a thought occurred to him, Cain turned fully to face Seth. “I think you should attend the meeting with me.”
Seth’s eyes widened slightly. “Me? Why?”
“As you know, Abel spoke of you during the last two times I met with him via a conduit. He’s still exceptionally bitter that you sided with the Ancients—even going as far as to sell your soul to one. More, he still chooses to believe that I brainwashed you into turning against him.”
“You want me to piss him off by showing him just how wrong he is,” Seth guessed.
Cain dipped his chin. “He doesn’t want to kill you. Let’s change that.”
Seth shrugged. “I’m up for it. Playing ‘bad cop,’ as they call it, could be fun.”
Dantalion looked over his shoulder as the other Ancients came into view. He switched his gaze back to Cain. “Azazel and I will explain everything to the others; you and Seth go on ahead.”
So that was what they did.
The conduit, Griff, didn’t seem keen on the idea of letting Cain spring the surprise appearance of his brother on the Aeons, but he kept any objections to himself.
Cain appeared in the psychic space first, finding Abel and Adam sitting side by side just as they were last time. Both men were the image of smug superiority. Until Seth materialized beside Cain.
Shock rippled across Adam’s face, and his entire body stiffened.
Abel’s jaw dropped—right along with his guard. A boyish vulnerability took over his features as he stared at Seth, his eyes dull with grief.
Seth flicked his gaze from one Aeon to the other, his expression closed over.
After a few moments, Abel cleared his throat and quickly wiped all emotion away from his face. “Seth, it has been a while.” He sliced his gaze to Cain. “Wanted to have some moral support, did you?”
“You talk about him so often I thought you might like to say hello,” Cain told him, “thinking” another chair into view. He and Seth then sat.
Adam studied Seth carefully, a predatory gleam in his eyes that said he was looking for a weakness to manipulate. But Seth met those eyes boldly, making it clear that Adam was wasting his time.
“So very different from the sweet, sensitive boy I once knew,” Adam said to Seth. “There’s a terrible hardness in you now. Here you sit before your father and older brother—two men you have not seen in so long—yet you show no emotion.”
“You’re not exactly overflowing with emotion yourself,” Seth pointed out, a note of boredom in his voice.
The corners of Adam’s eyes tightened. “I still to this day do not understand how I could have fathered a traitor.”
Seth’s brow puckered. “Why? You fathered a fuckup like Abel.”
Cain almost barked a laugh.
Abel, however, sucked in a sharp breath. His eyes blazed at Seth but quickly shot to Cain. “You are something that should not even exist, yet you have convinced him that I am the fuckup?”