Page 38

Zoey

I turn on the infamous first woman when I realize I’m the only one in my party still here. It’s me and Lee—still holding his moonstone—left in the parlor, and I wonder if I’m being tricked once more.

“Is there a reason you separated me from my husbands?”

I ask in my iciest tone. A thought occurred to me, one that threatened to make me sick. “Or did you send them somewhere else? Who are you working for?”

“Lady who looks like my mom, do you need me to kill her or something?”

Lee asks in an oddly polite tone, like he’s really not sure the etiquette for dealing with a girl throwdown over one of them sort of kidnapping the other.

Lilith frowns. “Of course I sent them somewhere else. I sent them to the place I saw in the Fae’s mind. Someplace called Frelsi. The wolves were thinking about it, too, as was the vampire. As to the timeline, your bodies naturally want to be in the proper timeline. How did you get here? Was it a spell? Or did you use the blue stones?”

Well, no one could say she didn’t know her way around the universe. “We were given stones and told to go through a doorway that led us here. We thought we were going to the Seelie sithein in our timeline.”

She nods as though listening. “Yes. You needed to go there because there’s a… I believe you’re describing an amulet, child. Yes, I can see it. It does not work here?”

“I’m sorry, who are you talking to?” I ask.

“Look, lady. I don’t know how you got here but this is my kingdom and she’s sort of my mom in some weird timeline where I get to be this supercool vampire and sleep with everyone, and I don’t end up with a crown I don’t want and a weird sphere that’s apparently full of energy, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave,”

Lee announces.

I feel for the kid. “You need to go and meet Mia. I think it will change your life.”

His eyes widen. “Because I like her in your world.”

“You are obsessed with her in my world, and you’re lost without her,”

I explain. “Now I think there’s something wrong with this woman, and I need to have a chat with her.”

After all, according to her, she has my daughter.

“I think she would talk more if we put her in the dungeon,”

Lee offers.

Lilith waves a hand, and Lee is suddenly gone.

“You have to stop that.”

I round on her. “You can’t disappear people.”

“He didn’t disappear.”

Lilith takes a seat on the sofa like this is a friendly girl’s chat. “I sent him to the place where they need the moonstone. I pulled that out of the ascended goddess’s head. She was thinking about her sister, Mia, and I saw her bedroom and then you mentioned Lee should meet Mia, but you were thinking of the other Mia. I quite like this plane. I’m super powerful here. Usually I can only read soul’s.”

She gasps as though having a revelation. “Oh, of course. It’s not the plane. It’s Harriet.”

I put a hand to my belly. “I never said I was pregnant, and don’t you tell me I’m showing. Because I’m not.”

“I would never. You look beautiful, Your Highness. Or I suppose since we’re in Faery I should call you Your Grace.”

Lilith pats the seat next to her. “Seriously, you have my daughter. I would not betray you because it’s not my nature, but I certainly wouldn’t fuck you over before I’ve even seen her. It’s been so long. So many lifetimes between us.”

Her eyes close and when they open there are tears shining. “I am known as the mother of demons. That was the price I paid for defying my creator and denying Adam. A harsh lesson to learn, and yet I would do it again. Sometimes I wonder if my punishment was to try and try and try to give birth to a child who could truly love me. Like I hurt my creator so he would let me feel what he had. And then I gave birth to her. Don’t get me wrong. I have a couple of sons who I get along with. My sweet Tix is a joy to me, and I take such pride in him, but Layla… I knew she held a real piece of me, something the others did not.”

“Nim is a good friend.”

Okay, she’s getting to me, and the truth is Evan is an excellent judge of character. “I don’t think she knows she had a mother who was looking for her. I definitely don’t think she knew her name was Layla. May I ask what happened to her father?”

Lilith’s eyes narrow. “Well, I was having a bit of a bad-boy moment.”

“That era lasted a while if you’re called the mother of demons,”

I point out. I mean we all had one, right?

“Yeah, well, I married the asshole, or at least one aspect of him. You know he can be really charming when he wants to be, but then he sends in the misogynist prick and steals your only daughter and sends her to be the Lady of the damn Lake, apparently, and thinks I won’t notice because I just love being the Queen of Hell.”

My jaw drops. “Dude, you married Lucifer Morningstar?”

“And divorced him, and let me tell you that was no easy feat. I tell you this because I need you to understand how far I’ve come. I have some amount of peace on my little slice of Hell. I spend my time showing the broken creatures of our plane that there is more to life than torture and neglect. Whatever has happened to my daughter, I will help her. And that means I will help you because according to Evan, she likes you and your family. You saved her.”

I shake my head. “She’s saved us, too, and I feel bad for leaving her to Myrddin, but I didn’t know about the thrall stone. I thought… Well, I hate what I thought, but she forgave me.”

“Which is why I wouldn’t harm you,”

Lilith points out.

“But you know more than you should. Evan might have told you I’m pregnant.”

She shakes her head. “She didn’t. Harriet did. I know it sounds odd, but I speak angel. Such a weird language. You’re carrying a Nephilim child. I want that story at some point because we haven’t seen one in thousands of years. You are trying to get to a celestial plane.”

“Yes.”

I don’t know that I like how much she knows or how she knows it. “She talks to you?”

“Like I said, I can read souls, and hers is quite vibrant,”

Lilith admits. “It’s only the fact that she’s Nephilim that I can hear her. I was made part angel. I think that’s where the creator went wrong because angels can be a bit stubborn. Then he went and made Adam from clay and Eve from Adam. You know they were a bit boring, right? Most exciting thing that woman did was eat that apple.”

I would normally love to listen in on her very interesting family drama, but I’m kind of stuck in my own. “I do need to get to the celestial planes, but I can’t figure out how to open that door without dying. Trust me. I’ve called on a couple of angels I know about a million times. They aren’t answering.”

“Because we’re in a crisis, and the creator prefers to let us solve some problems on our own,”

she says with a huff. “No. We have to assume Heaven knows what’s happening, and they are going to let things play out. But you have a secret weapon. I wouldn’t be surprised if that bit of angelic light isn’t your guardian angel’s way of sending you a weapon no one will see coming.”

“She’s not a weapon.”

But isn’t that how we’re viewing Mia? Do I have any right to take her out of her safety and plunge her into war? Yet, I know what her mother would want. She wanted us to find them. She wanted me to bring them home.

“Think of her as an advantage,”

Lilith says. “She’s the one who will take you where you want to go. Her soul holds angelic magic, and that means she can navigate the celestial planes. Because she’s in utero, she can take you with her.”

“Harriet can get me to Sarah?”

Lilith nods. “Yes. All you have to do is ask her. Picture who you’re looking for in your mind, and if she’s on a celestial plane, Harriet can take you there. Then because you’re on a celestial plane, she can take you all back to your home. She cannot transport you across the Earth plane. She would have to access Heaven, and that will get increasingly dangerous because if you do this, she will be on their radar, so to speak.”

I don’t like the sound of that. “I thought you said she was a gift from them.”

“From the angel who watches you,”

Lilith corrects. “But not all will agree with that angel, and there are those in Heaven who think Nephilim are abominations. You’ll find the same in Hell.”

“Yes, that’s what Myrddin called her.”

I can’t help the bitterness to my tone.

“If you think finding your friend could turn the tide of this war, then you should do it because your daughter will still be in danger.”

Lilith stands. “Now, it’s time to make your choice. I can send you to your timeline or you can ask Harriet to take you where you need to go. Either way, if you need me, all you have to do is call. It’s been a while since I spent time on the Earth plane. And I promise, I will take care of Evan. She simply needs time.”

I wish my daughter would come home and heal with her family, but I suspect her family is part of the problem. We have to be patient. “Thank you. I think I’ll find my friend. I’ll talk to Nimue about you and send word.”

Lilith’s head bows and then she is gone.

I hope she’s right.

I put my hand on my belly and think about Sarah Day.

When I open my eyes, I’m in a completely different world.

Heaven. Though not the place with the pearly gates.

I breathe in, and the air seems warm and gentle in my lungs. There is a gauziness to this pastoral place. I stand in front of a rustic cabin. In the distance I see a flock of lambs and… Is that Felix?”

“Hello?”

a familiar voice says.

Sarah. Relief floods my system. Sarah is standing there, though she looks way different than the last time I saw her. Her hair is a natural brown and is in a braid that reaches her waist. She looks like she’s been shopping in medieval Walmart in her long skirt and peasant blouse.

I don’t care. I’m too happy to see her. I wrap my arms around her. “Sarah, I’m sorry it took so long.”

It takes me a moment to realize that she’s not hugging me back.

I step away and there’s a confused look on my friend’s face.

“I’m sorry. Who are you?” she asks.

Not the way I meant for this to go.

Damn it.

Evangeline, Fenrir, and the whole Thieves gang will return in The Rebel Princess.