Page 160 of Wicked Believer

What’s going on?

I test the handle, and thankfully it opens.

I stumble haphazardly from the car, inhaling deep breaths as I attempt not to hyperventilate at how the entire city suddenly appears frozen around me.

The Town Car is pulled to a stop mid-traffic, and it’s not the only one. Passersby on the street stand frozen mid-step, and a woman near the crosswalk, holding her cellphone flat in her palm like she was talking on speaker, is paused midsentence.

What in God’s name—?

The whole city is eerily still.

I take a few tentative steps, dropping my hands to my sides how Mammon taught me.

I can’t do anything but make my palms glow enough to occasionally cause the curtains inside the penthouse to smoke, let alone blast anything, but right now eventhatfeels better than nothing.

Slowly, I step forward, coming to stand in the middle of the intersection in front of the frozen Town Car where Dagon stares blankly out the window.

He’s a demon, not a human, which must mean ...

One of the streetlights at the end of the block goes out suddenly, and my muscles clench as I turn toward it.

Followed by another.

And another.

My stomach drops.

I watch in horror, my pulse racing, until finally the last remaining light snuffs out, and the whole block plunges into darkness.

Except for the eerie ethereal glow of my palms.

The wind blows, mussing my hair, and the nearest streetlight overhead flickers, illuminating where a naked woman steps forth from the shadows, covered only by her long hair. She’s as nude as the day she was born.

Or the dayshebirthed everything.

I feel myself pale.

I know who she is instantly.

“Lilith,” I breathe.

Lucifer looks just like her.

“Charlotte.” She smirks, stepping toward me, her voice like a thousand furies.

My shoulders tense, and I have to lock my knees extra hard to keep from shaking. “Goddess.” I lower my head slightly in deference.

It seems like the right thing to do.

She smiles. “Oh stop, it’s Mother to you. We’re family,” she says, as if she can hear my thoughts. It sounds even more horrible coming from her than every time Mimi’s said the same thing.

Lilith is darkness embodied.

Chaos in human form.

Somehow, I know that instinctually.

She steps near me, drawing so close I fight hard not to take a step back.