He was mine.
As battle raged behind me, I ignored the clash of swords and claws and the blasts of magic. I had only one duty—to stop Pestilence, while Lucifer stopped Death. It came down to the two of us. No one else could do this, and we couldn't fail. We wouldn't. I was too fucking mad. Not just because they'd taken my daughter, but because of everything Adam and Death had done to me for thousands of years, going back to my very first life as Eve. They'd tormented me enough, and I was done. So fucking done.
Adam’s face was a nightmare of yellow skin and puss-filled boils, his grin a gash in his face. I landed in front of him and formed my sword of darkness entwined with light.
"So nice of you to return to me, Eve," he said, as he drew his golden bow and arrows. "I'd like you to know I've given up on convincing you to rule by my side."
I snorted. "That's a relief."
"Is it? Because now the only other option is for you to die." He shot a plague-tipped arrow at me, but I used a blast of wind to shoot it wide. He hadn't really intended on hitting me with it though. He was just taunting me. “I’ll take the most pleasure from your death this time, I think. Maybe I'll even fuck your corpse when it's done. One last time, just you and me, like the old days."
I leveled my sword at him, trying not to gag at his words. "You disgust me—and it's you who is going to die today. A final death this time. One there is no coming back from."
"How can I die, when I have Death on my side?" He held out his hand, sickness flickering over his skin as he unleashed it upon me. I used a mix of air and light to block it and send it away from me, while darting to the side. He rapid-fired a dozen more arrows so fast I barely had a chance to deflect them, and then I went after him with my sword. His sickness leeched across my skin, making me feel tired and weak, but I fought it with everything I had.
At that moment, Lucifer opened the portal to Void with a tearing sound I’d never heard, like it had destroyed something in the fabric of the universe, like the realm itself was fighting this intrusion. The portal was a kaleidoscope of endlessly swirling glints of light moving dizzyingly against deep black, as hazes of gray mist drifted across it.
The portal was open—which meant I had to get Pestilence in it. As much as I hated to admit it, killing him was near impossible.
Or was it?
We all stood transfixed for a moment, staring at the portal, before springing back into action. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lucifer fight against Death, trying to maneuver him toward the portal. I barely had time to notice though, as Pestilence dodged my every blow, not even breaking a sweat as I danced him across the plateau toward the portal. As we grew closer to it, he suddenly sprang at me, his face an abomination of evil as he gripped my shoulders and yanked me forward.
“I had thought death for you, Eve.” Again, he used my first name, the one guaranteed to remind me of all we’d started as. The one he seemed to cling to as proof of his birthright. “But now I think you should be in the Void. Lost forever to your family."
Panic flared through me as he shoved me away from him and I fell toward the portal, but before I could save myself, Kassiel blocked me with his body. He helped me stand and said, "Go get him, Mom."
Then he flew off toward the cages, where Damien and Belial were already there trying to free our family. Aurora cried in her cage, and when I turned toward her, she waved her arms at me, her terrified eyes fixed on mine across the distance between us. She needed me, and it broke my heart to see her in such pain, but at least her brothers were there. They would keep her safe, I had no doubt. My heart burst with a mixture of anger, grief, pride, and love, making me even more determined to finally remove Adam from our lives.
I poured my emotions into my magic and made thorny vines grow up from the ground all around Adam, trusting my soldiers to keep Death’s army from me while I focused. My plants wound around Adam’s legs to hold him in place, and around his hands to trap his bow, then around the rest of his body until I could barely see him beneath the writhing green. But I didn’t intend to suffocate him. Oh, no. For every painful death he’d given me he deserved so much more than mere deprivation of air. I squeezed my vines tight enough that a few bones cracked and the thorns dug deep into his flesh, and he cried out in pain.
But Pestilence was too strong, and he was already working to break free of my vines, tearing them off his body and making them wither and die with his sickness. That's when I called on my Famine powers to steal energy and power from him, dragging it out of his body and into me. I grew stronger, while he grew weaker. He tried to fight me with everything he had, but I was too much for him. I kept pulling and pulling, my hunger demanding more and more of Pestilence's essence, until I ripped the Elder God out of Adam entirely.
Adam staggered, his knees hitting the
