She screeched as a shower of glass shards buried themselves in her skin, which was exactly when Cain launched a ball of plasma that crashed into her head. Her mouth dropped open in a silent scream as she arched violently … and her skull exploded like a bomb.
A roar of grief rumbled out of a severely injured Saul, who tried reaching for the remains of his sister but was quickly hauled off by two surviving Aeons. The three disappeared out of sight, as did the many others on the cliff.
“Death by plasma ball to the head,” said Azazel. “I bet she never thought she’d go out that way.”
“My, my, my, the rats are all fleeing the metaphorical sinking shit fast,” Lilith observed.
Tracking her gaze, Cain noticed that the troops who’d invaded the town were retreating quickly. He wasn’t sure if someone had called the troops back or if they were taking it upon themselves to scamper after watching their leader fall, but they were sure hightailing it out of there in a hurry.
They were also being pursued by many of the residents, who were battering their numbers fast. The Ancients helped, zapping troop after troop with power. Some managed to escape, but Cain didn’t care. He wanted some to return to Aeon and relay what had happened here; wanted the other Aeons to not only be pissed but scared.
His gaze quickly sought out Wynter, scanning the line of—there.She was facing off against Esther … who promptly disappeared into the ground like it was water.The fuck?
The rest of the Moonstar coven was quickly dispatched, at which point Wynter rolled her shoulders and blew out a breath. Either she felt the weight of his gaze or merely wanted to check on him, because she twisted to look up at the manor roof. Cain took an easy breath as he saw that she was fine. Oh, she was covered in blood spatter, minor wounds, and bruises, but she was otherwise okay.
His creature was too wound up to be settled by that. It wanted her close. Now.
Anabel started poking at Xavier’s forehead with what appeared to be a severed finger. Wynter whispered something into the ear of the blonde, who then tensed. And dropped the finger with a squeal.
“So,” began Inanna, “how long do we think it will be before more Aeons come?”
“Hopefully not long,” said Dantalion. “I’m not sure who will lead them. Maybe Saul. Maybe Abel. Maybe Adam. Maybe all of them. I believe we can be certain of one thing—whoever comes will bring a bigger army, and they’ll be better prepared for us.”
“They’ll still all die,” said Cain.
The other Ancients nodded. Because no other scenario was acceptable unless they wanted to remain caged forever.
“Do you have any intention of freeing Esther from the netherworld at any point?”
Humming as Cain drifted his fingers through her hair, Wynter replied, “At present, no. I’d like her to suffer some, and I feel no need to go traipsing through the place in search of her. But I might later change my mind, you never know.” They’d been talking for a while as they lay in bed, exchanging stories of their personal battles during the war. “Are you sure you don’t want me to free Annette and Bowen?”
“There’s no real point. Both will be killed for committing what was effectively treason, so neither avenue involves mercy.” He stroked over her arm, where she’d earlier been wounded. Anabel’s healing brews had worked wonders, as usual, so there wasn’t a single scratch on Wynter now.
“Was it difficult to hold back your monster during the battle?” he asked.
“No, because it won’t disobey Kali—She has a great deal of influence over it. Thankfully. But it certainly wasn’t pleased that it couldn’t ‘play.’ I couldn’t have let it out, though. It would have killed anything in its path, including my own coven.”
“So you’re finally admitting it’s a coven.”
Wynter narrowed her eyes at his teasing smile. “Anyway… how long do you think it will take to repair all the damage to the town?”
“We have a lot of people here to work on it, so hopefully not long.”
“But there’ll later be more damage, won’t there? When other Aeons come, I mean. You do think they will, right?”
“Some will come, yes. Saul will certainly be one of them as he’ll wish to avenge his sister. Considering she was Abel’s consort, he should technically want to do the same. I’m not sure if they had a tight relationship, though. People claim consorts for all sorts of reasons. It doesn’t always mean that they value that person.”
“Lailah and Abel neverseemedclose to me. And I heard that their relationship was an on-and-off thing that involved a lot of conflict and drama. They weren’t faithful to each other either, or maybe they simply weren’t exclusive—I don’t really know. But if he kept reinstating her as his consort, she had to have meant something to him, right? Then again, if that was the case, he would have either been at her side tonightorhe would have sent someone else to lead the army in her place. I wouldn’t have wantedyouto partake in a battle without me, even if I thought said battle would be easy to win.”
Cain’s face softened slightly. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He squeezed the side of her neck. “Same goes. So, I’d say we can conclude that Abel didn’t feel as strongly for Lailah as another person would for their consort. He might still wish to get even with us. However, he wouldn’t wish to be part of a battle that would mean fighting against Seth—they were once very close. But I suppose it is worth considering that Seth fought against Abel’s consort tonight, so perhaps that will be enough for Abel to turn on him. We shall have to wait and see.”
“Would it bother you to go to war with Abel?”
“No. He was never really a brother to me.”