Page 26 of The Monsters We Are (Devil’s Cradle #3)

Wynter was relieved to discover that the battle was in fact over. The residents of Aeon were completely wiped out, but they’d first managed to eliminate a fair number of the people from Devil’s Cradle. Her chest squeezed each time she came upon the dead body of someone she recognized.

She’d known in advance that there would be casualties—it was sadly inevitable at times of war. She’d also known she might even be one of those casualties. That didn’t make the sight in front of her any easier to bear. And the loss of Inanna . . . damn, that was a heavy one for every Ancient.

Wynter would never like Ishtar, but her heart still broke for the woman. To lose someone so close to you, someone who had been at your side through the passings of eons, who was the only person you ever truly loved . . . yeah, Wynter wouldn’t wish that sort of pain on anyone.

Passing her old home, seeing it burning to the ground, wasn’t easy either. She had some good memories of that house. Memories of the time when Davina still lived.

No one wanted to just leave the corpses sprawled around like their sacrifices had meant nothing. As such—aside from Inanna’s body, which Ishtar carried around and quite simply refused to part with—the Ancients incinerated each one . . . which sounded cruel, but it was done very respectfully, as if honoring every life lost. And no, they didn’t send the souls to hell. Some people gathered the ashes of those who were cremated, intent on scattering them back at Devil’s Cradle.

It was while injuries were being tended that some were-coyotes reported they’d found Eve and Rima in a cellar. Both Aeons were sleeping deeply, and the efforts to fully wake them failed. The clearly drugged females would stir, flutter their eyelids, mumble crap, and then fall right back to sleep. Seth gave up attempting to rouse them, sure they’d wake properly on their own at some point.

Once wounds were taken care of, the Ancients blasted the land with fire, flattening the ruins, leaving it a clean slate—just as they’d done to the underground city.

Aeon had officially fallen.

For the sake of the land itself, Wynter put a hand to the ground and halted the spreading erosion caused by her curse, knowing the rot would then die off.

Outside the walls, everyone piled into the waiting vehicles and then began the long-ass drive home. Again, Wynter claimed a jeep and rode with Cain and her coven. Not a lot of chatting went on. People were tired, achy, grieving, and dealing with adrenaline crashes.

After the two-day drive was over, vehicles were returned to the warehouse, ashes were scattered, and people went home.

Wynter followed Cain and Abaddon to the grotto, where they settled a sleeping Baal into the water. He’d slipped into a state of Rest during the journey home, and the Ancients hadn’t bothered trying to rouse him; they felt it was better to let him sleep.

“Do you think he’ll wake any time soon?”

she asked.

Cain moved to stand beside her. “No. And it would be best if he doesn’t. The Rest is what he needs for his mind to heal.”

He sighed. “If I’d known that he was still alive—”

“There was nothing you could have done.”

“Your consort is right, Cain,”

said Abaddon. “You were just as much a prisoner as he was.”

Cain scratched at his temple. “I don’t understand why Adam never told us about Baal. Why didn’t he boast that he’d captured and tortured my uncle?”

“He got off on the fact that you didn’t know,”

said Wynter. “It made him feel like he’d got one over on you.”

Abaddon nodded and settled a hand on Cain’s shoulder. “Take comfort in this: Now that Adam is exactly where he belongs, your father will subject him to even worse torture than what Baal received.”

Cain’s frown smoothed out, and his brows lifted. “Yes, there is that.”

“You two go on,”

urged Abaddon. “I’m going to sit here awhile.”

And Cain’s frown was back. “Do you wish to Rest again?”

“No, that is not why I hesitate to leave. I simply don’t feel ready to walk away from my brother just yet.”

Abaddon gave him a faint smile and settled on a stone ledge. “Go. I will be fine.”

Cain gave him a nod, took Wynter’s hand, and led her out of the grotto. They headed up the stairs and then began making their way out of the temple.

“So, it’s finally over,”

said Wynter. “With the exception of your mother and Rima, the guardians are dead. Aeon has been leveled. And you and the other Ancients are free.”

“I spent the entire journey back to Devil’s Cradle processing it all. Or trying to. My mind has not yet fully absorbed this new reality, or that Inanna has gone, or that my consort hosts an actual Rephaim.”

“But you meant it when you said that you’re not freaked out about the latter, right?”

Because it would be a problem if he was. And she’d be tempted to punch him in the junk, considering she’d accepted his creature without a qualm.

“Of course I meant it.”

Junk-punching averted. “I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t get to see your monster. It’s not fair. You saw mine.”

She knew she sounded like a whiner, but whatever.

He draped one arm over her shoulders. “I’ll let it free sometime soon so that you can officially meet it.”

“Awesome.”

“I don’t think many people would find the thought of being face to face with a Leviathan ‘awesome’.”

“We’ve already established that ‘normal’ and I long ago got divorced.”

His lips twitched. “I suppose that’s one way to put it.”

As they exited the temple and began walking along the garden’s twisting path, Wynter cast him a sideways glance. “Are you truly not mad at me for keeping so much from you?”

she asked, her voice unintentionally hesitant.

“I’m pissed that you withheld things from me, but I’m not pissed at you. I’m pissed at Kali for giving you so many conditions.”

He jerked slightly as the deity then brushed over them both in her breeze-form in a sort of tsk, tsk gesture. “Wait, She’s still hanging around?”

“Don’t worry, She has no other plans for me. She just . . .”

“Cares for you in Her way and wishes to be near you,”

he guessed.

“Kind of. I think She’s also lonely. Anyway. As for Her imposing conditions on me, I didn’t like it much either. But She swore that things had to happen a certain way. And I was not going to cross Her on that, because She also said that She’d allow me to stay with you after the battle was over if I followed Her orders to the letter.”

Cain blinked, his brows snapping together in affront. “Allow you to stay with me? As if She had a choice in the matter?”

“I didn’t like how She worded it either. But you and I both know that, while it doesn’t seem fair, She did have a choice in the matter. Anyway, Her original plan was apparently to bring my soul back to the netherworld after I’d achieved Her goals so that it could move on and begin a new life. But She promised that She wouldn’t if I did as I was told, although it would mean I’d have to permanently keep the entity I host.”

“Why?”

“Without a monster inside me, I wouldn’t be a revenant anymore. And if I wasn’t a revenant, I’d be nothing at all. Dead rather than undead.”

“Ah, I see.”

They slowed their pace as a snake slithered across the path in front of them. “So it was Apep who repeatedly called you here, hmm?”

“Yup.”

“It explains why the snakes stayed close but didn’t harm you while you were sleepwalking. Apep is a serpentine deity; He can communicate with any serpent. He would have ordered them to leave you alone.”

“Kali told me a lot about Him. There was such grief in Her voice when she spoke of Him.”

Wynter swallowed. “She mourns Him, in a way. Mourns what they once had until they were separated. All that grief and rage and bitterness and spite brewed inside Her until She couldn’t take it anymore. And I get it. I’d have become just as twisted up inside if someone took you from me.”

Cain gave a soft nod, lightly squeezing her hand. “As would I have been if someone dared try to separate us. What the deities did to avenge themselves . . . I wouldn’t have done any differently in their shoes.”

“Me neither.”

“And it was Nyx’s idea to put one of the Rephaim in you?”

“According to Kali, yes. The deities needed something powerful. Fearless. Monstrous. But also obedient. The Rephaim inhabit the area of purgatory that Nyx oversees, and She sort of leads them. She sent one Kali’s way, ensuring that it knew it had to obey Her.”

Wynter felt her lips faintly curve as a snake lunged at a white moth and missed.

“Did you know it was one of the Rephaim?”

“Yes. I just didn’t know that Nyx basically gave it to Kali. Not until recently, anyway.”

Reaching the gate, he pushed it open and waved her out of the garden. “Will it bother you to keep the entity with you permanently?”

he asked as he closed the gate behind them.

“Nah, I’m used to it at this point. Plus, you said it didn’t kill you when it might have tried, which I find very reassuring. I wouldn’t have believed it would ever have hesitated to hurt you or anyone else. All I can think is that it recognized you. Recognized that you’re mine. Or something. Maybe.”

“I think it did, but not before Kali all but barreled into it. She might have told it who I am to you. My creature likes that you have something so powerful inside you.”

While Cain personally had nothing against the Rephaim, he would prefer—for her sake—that his consort wasn’t a vessel for something that was pure darkness. Leading her into the Keep, he asked, “Does it usually call on other Rephaim like it did tonight?”

Her nose wrinkled. “I don’t think so. But then, I black out when it takes over. I’m a little jealous that you see everything your monster does when you set it free. So, when do I get to meet it?”

He felt his lips quirk at her eagerness. “Soon. It will be more than happy to spend time with you. And bind with you, which you won’t fight us on.”

“No, I won’t fight the binding.”

He blinked. “You won’t?”

He hadn’t expected such easy capitulation, given he hadn’t uncovered the answers to her questions.

“Kali made it clear to me last night that twining my life-force with that of your monster would have no ill-effects on it or you. She was also adamant that your death wouldn’t drain or weaken me as, given I’m undead, death doesn’t really have as much of an impact on me as it does others.”

Both Cain and his creature settled on hearing all that. “Good. Because I won’t be satisfied until the binding is done.”

Once they were inside their bedchamber, Cain tugged her close. “Why didn’t you tell me that Kali promised not to drag your soul back to the netherworld if you followed Her orders?”

“Two reasons. One, I knew you’d get all cranky at the whole Her ‘allowing’ me to stay with you thing—you hate that She feels She has more of a claim to me than you do.”

“Because she doesn’t,”

he clipped.

Wynter rolled her eyes at his tone. “Easy there, I’m not disputing that. Anyway . . . my second reason was that it would have felt like I could be giving you false hope, since I wasn’t sure I could trust that She’d live up to her promise. Deities are a law unto themselves.”

“That they are,”

he conceded. “Ishtar accused me more than once of playing games, using you and others as pawns and positioning you all exactly as I pleased. But in this instance, the chessboard was never mine. It was the deities’ board. They were in charge of the game all along.”

Wynter wrapped her arms around his waist. “But the game is now over. We’re not pawns anymore. Our choices are our own. So . . . what do you want to do next?”

“Honestly?”

He slid a hand up her back. “Toss you on the bed and fuck your brains out.”

She chuckled. “Okay, let me rephrase. What do you want to do now that you’re free? Or, more to the point, where do you want to go?”

He pursed his lips. “I haven’t quite decided. As I’ve said before, not all the Ancients can be away from here at one time. I do wish to travel, but I’m not in any rush, so I’m fine with letting some of the others go first.”

“You’re worried about Abaddon,”

she guessed. “You don’t want to leave him.”

His consort read him well. “My uncle’s need for vengeance gave him a sense of direction. He no longer has that. Though the relatives he lost have been dead a long time, their loss still feels very fresh to him. All he has left of his family are me and Baal, and heaven only knows when Baal will rise. So, yes, I’d like to keep an eye on Abaddon for a while.”

“Understandable. In truth, I’m a little concerned for the guy myself.”

“I would also prefer to keep watch on Ishtar—I don’t know just how she’ll react while processing her grief. She has been known to fly into irrational rages over small things, after all.”

“Rima’s grief will be just as deep and strong,”

said Wynter. “Rima might not blame me for killing him, all things considered, but she’ll still hate me for it. I wouldn’t even be able to judge her for that. Noah was her twin, and they’ve been alive since almost the beginning of damn time.”

“I’d judge her. You did what you had to do. And it would never have happened if he hadn’t betrayed us.”

Cain brushed her bangs away from her face. “You’re fine with waiting for other Ancients to return from their travels before we head off anywhere?”

“Sure. I’m not terribly fond of the outside world. What I saw of it wasn’t very impressive. Plus, I love it here. It’s our home. It’s my coven’s home, and God knows the world is safer when they’re tucked away here. So, no, I’m not hankering to leave.”

“Then we’ll content ourselves with weekend breaks here and there. Couples do that sort of thing, yes?”

“Yes, they do.”

He pulled her closer and brushed her nose with his. “You know something else that they do?”

“Fuck each other’s brains out?”

He blinked.

“You weren’t going to say that? Sorry. You put the thought in my head a minute ago, and it really isn’t going anywhere.”

Humor warmed his gut. “Giving you what you want will be my pleasure. Literally.”

“I was hoping you’d say something like that.”