"The third Horseman is a woman?" Callan asked beside me.
Zel rose to her feet and dusted herself off. "I will make the sacrifice."
As soon as the words had left her mouth, one of the fae guards moved behind her and stabbed a sword through her chest. I screamed as Zel was impaled, then saw through the fae guard's magical disguise—revealing a gorgeous woman with fiery red hair. Nemesis.
I blasted her back with a gust of air, while Callan jumped forward to catch Zel as she fell. Blood gushed from her chest, and I cursed myself for not allowing Marcus to come with us, and for not seeing through Nemesis's illusions sooner. I'd barely paid the fae guards who'd followed us inside any attention, and now Zel was dying. What could I do?
"Take her body and heal her," I yelled at Famine, as I desperately tried to cover Zel's wounds and stop the bleeding. Zel was barely conscious, her body shutting down as it tried to heal itself.
"No," the rasping, feminine voice boomed. "She is too weak. She would not survive."
Two gargoyle guards I recognized suddenly rushed into the area, and one of them yelled, "My queen, shifters attack outside the temple! We're surrounded!"
I swore under my breath, and turned to the others with me. "Defend the perimeter and get Zel to a healer! I can stop Nemesis myself." When my sons all looked like they would argue with me, I held up a hand and yelled, "Go!"
Callan carried Zel outside, and I prayed it wasn't the last time I would see her alive. Damien and Kassiel followed, along with some of the guards, though Theo and Belial stayed with me.
Famine's form began moving toward the exit too. "I hunger...who will feed me?"
"I will," Belial said, moving in front of Famine, shielding the rest of us with his body. My heart lurched into my throat at the thought of my son becoming a Horseman—but he was also probably the best option here, I was sad to admit.
Famine sneered at him, and then with one ghostly hand she knocked him aside. "I require a female host."
"Take me," Nemesis rose to her feet, with her imps—who had all been disguised as fae guards—behind her wielding weapons. "I'm the one you want."
Famine's green spectral form moved toward her, but there was no way in Heaven or Hell I was letting Nemesis get control of this Elder God. This was my one chance to rescue Lucifer from War, and I wasn't going to lose it. Nemesis had betrayed us time and time again, and now she'd stabbed Zel—I wasn't letting her win.
"No." I strode forward with both darkness and light emanating from me, my air powers whipping at my hair, while thorny vines grew up out of the ground at my feet. It was time to show that bitch what happened when you crossed the Demon Queen. "Famine is mine."
My thick vines wrapped around Nemesis, stabbing into her bare skin with the thorns, but she grew long, black talons and sliced through them, then managed to scamper away to the other side of the cave. Belial and Theo began fighting against the other imps, but the only one that mattered to me was Nemesis.
She split herself into dozens of copies, all of them slashing at me with swords and claws, but I cast out the light of truth around me and found the real Nemesis. I shot her with light and darkness, but she was so fast she seemed to almost blink away, and managed to dodge everything. No way was she escaping though. With a roar, I created a tornado of air laced with light and darkness, then unleashed it upon her. It caught Nemesis inside it, and then my vines reached up and tore her apart, limb from bloody limb. Though I'd never reveled in death, I watched on with grim satisfaction as Nemesis was destroyed.
Don't fuck with a pregnant woman protecting her family.
"My queen, are you all right?" Theo limped to my side, one hand wrapped around his waist.
Imp corpses were scattered over the ground, and Belial delivered the final blow to one of them with Morningstar. Then he turned to survey the pieces of Nemesis lying all over the ground in a pool of blood.
"Shit, Mother," Belial said. "I never realized you were so brutal."
"I did what I had to do." I looked around the cave and my breath caught. "Where is Famine?"
Belial sheathed his sword. "She must have escaped during the battle."
We rushed up the tunnel and emerged into a snowy battlefield. Shifters and imps fought against gargoyles and fae, and I was relieved to see that both Damien and Kassiel were all right. I scanned the area and found Famine's green spectral form floating above them all. She hovered over Mirabella for a few seconds, then turned around and reached for a large white wolf with ice coating its fur, who stood beside Fenrir.
Famine was looking for a new host. I couldn't let that happen. But Zel was gone, carried off by Callan to safety, and Famine wanted a female body.
There was only one person strong to contain her.
Me.
11
Hannah
A path of dead, brown vegetation led directly to Famine. Plants withered and died, flowers lost their petals, leaves turned black. Shifters and gargoyles alike fell to their knees in her path, as if they'd lost all the strength to fight or even stand.
She was feeding.
Everything about it made my soul revolt. I was a goddess of spring and nature, and she was the opposite of everything I held dear. Yet I had to offer myself to her...there was no other choice.
Fenrir, in his giant wolf form, saw Famine coming for the ice wolf and jumped in front of her, baring his fangs. Whoever that wolf was, Fenrir didn't want her taken over by Famine. And here I'd
