“I don’t get it,” Cora said. “How is that even possible.”
“Magic.” Cain looked at Cora for the first time. “Samael and Eve must have combined a fraction of their essences and sent it into the ether to be born into my bloodline…Samael’s bloodline, when the time was right. You are my sister in all the ways that matter.”
Fuck.
“I did not want to kill you. I’m glad you survived.”
Once again, he sounded sincere.
I wasn’t buying it. “Eve said you’d want revenge.”
He’s eyes narrowed. “Revenge? Yes, I’ve waited a long time for revenge.”
“Look, I can’t let you go around hurting innocent people.”
Something dark flashed across his face. “Innocent people?” His smile was wry. “Of course. The village I slaughtered.” He nodded slowly. “Of course.” There was an edge to his tone now. “Eve and her perspective.”
“Perspective? “You have a different story?”
He looked away and shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Well?” Cora said. “Spit it out then.”
He let out a surprised chuckle. “You’re either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Do you know what I could do to you?”
Cora leaned forward across the table. “Nothing. Not in this place. It’s warded.”
His smirk sent a chill down my spine, and then Cora was gagging and clutching at her throat.
What the fuck? What… He was doing this. “Stop. Stop it!”
Cora sagged, glaring daggers at Cain. “You made your point,” she bit out.
The ward didn’t work on him. Oh shit.
He sighed. “I don’t have any quarrel with you, sister. Stay out of my way and you won’t get hurt. Step into my path and I cannot promise you will be left unscathed.” He drained his mug and set it down. “It was nice to meet you properly. Once again, I’m sorry for any pain I caused. But Seraphina, climb into my head one more time and I will not hesitate to snuff you out.”
He was about to leave. Shit. I glanced at Cora. As Cain pushed back his chair and stood, my friend lunged, and the snap of the cuff followed.
Cain looked down at the silver metal clinging to his wrist, and his lip curled in derision.
He slowly raised his gaze to mine and shook his head. “Eve should have stressed, that for this to work, you needed to be the one to place it on me. You,” he said. “No one else, because now,” he grabbed the cuff and snapped it off his wrist easily, “now the only anchor Eve has for me is useless.”
Oh fuck. Oh shit.
His gray eyes glittered with rage.
I backed up, grabbing Cora’s arm and taking her with me. He was going to attack us, and Cora couldn’t poof us out of here because of the wards.
He closed his eyes as if composing himself. “You’re innocent,” he said. “Unaware of the truth, and your mind has given me what I need the most, and so this time, I’ll forgive your idiocy. Next time… Next time, I will not be lenient.”
He vanished.
My mind? What did he mean?
I looked at Cora. “What the fuck do we do now?”
Chapter Eighteen
Fee
Coffee, cake, and feet up in the lounge should have meant relaxation time, but my encounter with Cain, and my failure to capture him, had left me agitated and confused. I’d filled Grayson and Uri in, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of disquiet. It had nothing to do with Cain being out there—free to wreak havoc—and everything to do with…him, the person.
I’d expected a monster. An immortal with evil radiating from his pores. But Cain had seemed almost normal, aside from the mega-powerful thing. He’d seemed weary, jaded, and not as insane as I’d expected someone being trapped in Purgatory for centuries to be.
“There is nothing you can do now,” Grayson said from his spot beside me on the three-seater sofa. “The cuff Eve gave you is destroyed, and if Cain’s powers can’t be contained by the wards on Lumiers, he’s even more powerful than we imagined.”
In other words, please do not go after this guy. I understood his reservations. Hell, I had them too. Cain may have played nice today, but he’d tried to kill me more times than I could count. Even though he’d said he didn’t want to hurt me now, he’d also been clear that if I crossed him, he wouldn’t hesitate to squish me like a bug.
As much as the thought of going after him made my stomach churn and roll, the thought of letting him roam unchecked was a lung crushing sensation of not being able to breathe.
I couldn’t sit idly by and do nothing. “He’ll hurt people if I don’t stop him.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Cora said.
Was she serious? “He tried to kill you.”
“Nah, he was just showboating.” Her hand went to her neck. “Although it didn’t feel like that at the time.”
“You don’t think he’s dangerous?”
“Oh, he’s dangerous all right,” Cora said. “But I don’t know that we have the whole story.”
Okay, so she had a valid point here. There’d been something about the way Cain had reacted to my accusations that he intended to wreak havoc that had been off. Of course, I didn’t expect him to throw his head back and cackle maniacally, evil mastermind style, but I’d expected something. Some glimmer of intent in his stormy eyes. A slight sadistic curl to his lip. Something.
I set my mug on the coffee table. “You’re right. We don’t know for sure what his intentions are. I think Eve’s account might not be the whole of it.”
“What do you mean?” Grayson asked me.
“Some stuff Cain said… The way he said it or didn’t say it. Urgh.” It was hard to explain. “I think there are things we don’t know about Cain. Things Eve may have held back on telling me.”
Cora patted my hand. “There’s more to the story, but Fee, you need to stay off his radar. He let us go today, but there’s no doubt in my mind that if we cross him again, he’ll follow through on his snuffing us out threat.”
“I’m sorry I can’t be more help,” Uri said. “The texts on the origins of man are accessible only to the upper circle and The Righteous.”
“They used to be.” I arched a brow at him. “But the Beyond has a new divine. Which means new rules. Oh, and this divine owes me a favor…”
Uri looked thoughtful. “Yes, he does. And this affects the safety of mankind. I’ll go now.” He drained his mug.
I made to stand. “I’ll come with you.”
“No.” Uri pressed me back into my seat. “You need to rest. I’ve got this.” He dropped a kiss on my head and vanished.
There was silence for a long beat, and I was just about to take a bite of my éclair when Cora made a sound of exasperation.
“Eve can’t be trusted,” she blurted. “She lied to you, and that bothers the fuck out of me. What is she hiding and why? I mean why didn’t Cain just clarify shit?”
“Maybe he just doesn’t think you matter enough to explain himself,” Grayson said, speaking from his alpha brain.