A new soul entered the room. Only, it wasn’t a wisp. It was a woman. A stunning creature cloaked in white light. Eagerly, he leaned forward.
And what do I have here?
Reaching for her, he pried her secrets opened with careless fingers and plucked the parts of her that intrigued him. This woman was strong. Capable. But… his excitement dimmed. She could not be taught to obey. This he knew as surely as he knew that he wished he could keep her for his own. For his army.
With an angry flick of his wrist, he sent her to the demon-realm. The sound of her terrified scream hung in the air long after she was gone.
The massive doors to the throne room opened and the guard dragged the Fate into the room. She fought like a wild animal. But then, she always did. Wordlessly, the angel shoved her onto her knees.
Her hair had once been auburn but after many years without a bath, it lay tangled about her shoulders, dirtied to an off-putting brown. Her pale skin was smudged with more dirt, but when she looked at him, her green eyes still oozed contempt.
Will I never break her spirit?
“As always, your prophecy has come to pass. An angel and her three demon lovers have begun the first steps of the coming war. They have stolen a goddess from my protection.”
“You mean from your imprisonment,” she spat at him.
A smile curled Caine’s mouth. This was one of those rare times he wished the woman could see him. He wanted her to know how much her useless bravado amused him.
“Tell me what to do. How can I kill the angel and her demons?”
Stubbornly, she raised her chin.
He grasped at the wisps of souls that had been building up in the air above him and pulled them into the center of the room between him and the woman.
“Must we play this game every time?”
Her mouth pulled into a thin line.
He grasped the souls and dragged them to hover above the Soul Destroyer. “What have we here? A teacher. A sick child. A mother. A young father. And an elderly grandmother. All these innocent lives… it would be such a shame to destroy their eternity, all because of your stubbornness.”
When she didn’t speak, he slid the souls lower.
The humans felt their pending destruction like knives through their bodies. Their terrified wails filled the air. Their pain had an instant effect on the stubborn woman. “Stop.”
He raised a brow. “You’ll answer my question.”
Quickly, she nodded.
He tossed the souls into the demon-realm and stood. Licking his lips, he waited, His entire body a ball of tension.
The Fate stood. Her small frame made smaller by the massive angel standing guard over her. “I hate you,” she whispered.
“Do it,” he growled, impatiently.
She closed her eyes, her hands balling into fists. She glared at Caine a moment longer before her head shot back. Her eyes opened and pure golden light poured from them. Every muscle in her body held rigid as her mouth moved, speaking words he couldn’t hear.
He trembled. This was power. True power.
And as much as he hated allowing others such a thing, he gloried in the feel of her magic rolling over him in waves, like the rays of sunlight on a summer day.
A second later, she crumpled to the ground and hurled. He waited, annoyed, as she continued to dry heave onto his palace floor. When at last, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and pulled her knees up to her chin, he sat back down.
“What was the answer?”
The hatred in her eyes warmed his heart. “If you kill the angel and her demons, you will never gain the powers of The Immortal Ten.”
He bit his tongue until he tasted blood. Fuck this insufferable Fate and her inability to lie!
“Take her from my sight.”
The angel grasped her by the hair and dragged her from the room, while she shouted, swore, and threatened him. A waste of words from a prisoner.
Cain moved on. “Elias.”
The angel on the floor shifted and curl his broken wings around his body. His raspy breaths came in short and fast. “Yes, my lord.”
“Let the angels know. The traitors are not to be killed. But they must be stopped.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Soon they will learn that death would be a kindness compared to what I have planned for them.
20
Mark drove with Tristan in the seat beside him. In the back, the woman sat silently, with her child’s head resting in her lap. The little girl slept, her tiny snores filling the car. Her face was still sticky from the ice cream she’d eaten earlier. It would’ve been easier to teleport, but Surcy needed to regain her strength, and they couldn’t risk waiting.
“I still don’t understand where you’re taking me,” the woman said, stroking her daughter’s tangled hair.
Mark stared out at the road, trying to decide how much to say. And how to say it. “There is only one place that Caine can’t reach. We’re taking you there.”
“And this… Caine. He’s the one who wants me dead?”
He nodded. “Caine is The Judge. The man responsible for deciding where each soul goes when it dies. But he wasn’t meant to have that kind of power. He’s abusing it in every way possible. The only way to restore the world back to a time of fairness is to find the gods and goddesses who are meant to make the decision.”
She frowned. “And you think I’m one of these goddesses?”
“We know you are.” Mark’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
Her brows wrinkled. “I just… I can’t believe that a woman who’s never been loved by anyone is a Goddess of Love. Whatever the hell that is.”
Mark smiled. “There’s one person who loves you with her whole heart. I’m not sure anyone needs more than that.”
The woman
