Page 43

Sterling's eyes narrowed. “After everything we've seen, especially since Cade's trip downstairs, I don't discount anything anymore. Which is why I took the liberty of looking into your background.”

My head whipped toward him. “You did what?”

“Your birth records,” Sterling continued, unflinching under my glare. “After Cade got dragged to Hell, I needed to understand who I was working with. What I was working with.”

“You had no right,” I growled, taking a step toward him. “Those files were sealed.”

“And yet remarkably easy to find for someone with my resources,” Sterling countered. “Your birth parents?—”

“I don't have birth parents,” I cut him off. “I have the Byrnes, who were cold-blooded bastards that trained me to be a weapon. End of story.”

“The Byrnes didn't know what they were raising,” Cassiel interjected calmly. “They simply knew you were... different.”

Sterling nodded. “The records I found suggested your biological mother died in childbirth. Father unknown. But there were anomalies in the medical reports?—”

“Stop,” I said, my voice dangerously low. “Just stop. This has nothing to do with whatever we're facing.”

“It has everything to do with it,” Cassiel insisted.

Cade stepped between us, hands raised. “Enough.”

“I don't care if God himself showed up,” I snarled. “You had no right to dig into my past without telling me.”

“Sean—” Sterling began.

“No,” Cade interrupted firmly. “This isn't the time or place. We have more pressing concerns than Sean's lineage. We can sort this out later.”

Sterling and I locked eyes for a tense moment before he finally nodded reluctantly.

“Fine,” I muttered, turning back to Cassiel. “Let's assume for a moment I believe any of this Nephilim nonsense. Which I don't. What exactly does that have to do with whatever's coming?”

Cassiel didn't argue or try to convince me. Instead, he said something that froze the blood in my veins: “Believe or not, you have little time to decide. Asmodeus is breaking the seals.”

Asmodeus. The demon that opened the demon gates six months ago.

“Breaking the seals?” I demanded, pushing off the wall I'd been leaning against. “What seals are you talking about?”

Sterling's expression darkened, his fingers tightening around the edge of the ancient book he'd been studying. “Containment seals. Bindings that hold back something ancient.”

Cade frowned, turning to Sterling. “How do you know about these seals? You've never mentioned them before.”

“I didn't know they were relevant until recently,” Sterling admitted, turning the book around to show us a page of intricate symbols. “When I started digging deeper into ancient texts. Found references to five major seals that, if broken, could release 'The First One.'”

“The First Nephilim,” I muttered, the pieces clicking together. “The one you told us before”

Cassiel's eyes flicked to me, a hint of surprise in them. “You know of the First?”

“We've encountered references,” Cade said carefully. “An ancient being, supposedly the first hybrid of angel and human. Immensely powerful. But the texts we found were fragmentary at best.”

“How many seals have been broken?” Sterling asked Cassiel directly.

Cassiel's face remained impassive, but something flickered in his eyes—concern, maybe even fear. “Three have already fallen.”

“Out of how many?” I pressed.

“Five are needed,” Cassiel replied. “Five to break the prison completely.”

Sterling swore under his breath, flipping through more pages with increased urgency. “That means he's getting closer. The pattern's accelerating.”