“We were not blood. Abaddon and Asmodeus were in a relationship for at least part of our lives together. They were a fearsome couple. If she’s come back, it’s either to bring Asmodeus with her, or because she knows where he is and wants to free him. Either of those options would result in the destruction of a large part of this world. Humanity has grown in numbers in the millennia since the last war, and even back then the casualties were high.
“As for your other question, yes, I saw one of them. Our powers are linked, so the use of our powers in the Earth realm is like a shining beacon to the others. I’ve purposefully not used my power at anywhere near full capacity for thousands of years. I used a little bit here and there, only enough to help out at the time. If the others knew I was alive, knew I was here on the Earth realm . . . they might all try to find a way back. Even so, I spent a long time hopeful that none of them would ever make it back here. One did. Sathanus. He was an incubus. A cruel, vile man with a taste for inflicting pain on people and making them enjoy it.”
“You killed him, didn’t you,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
Grayson nodded. “I did. I killed him and burned his body until it was ash. I saw him before he saw me, and I watched him. It was a thousand years ago in Eastern Europe. He used his power with impunity, reveling in the chaos and pain he caused. Every time he used his power, it drew me to him, and I killed him before he ever knew I was there. I regret a lot of things in my life, but not killing Sathanus. He was one of those who truly deserved to die for his crimes. For the evil acts I knew he’d performed over his life. If there is a hell, I really do hope he’s burning in it.”
“If you can tell when one of the devils is using their power, why couldn’t you sense that Abaddon was here?” Sky asked.
“She’s blocking me somehow. I don’t know how.”
“Dwarven runes,” I told everyone. “She used them in the house. She could use those to block her power from being detected.” A horrible thought came to my mind. “Or, like you, she hasn’t used her full power yet.”
“That is possible. She is exceptionally powerful, and I cannot imagine that her power has diminished over the years.”
“So, could she be behind the My Liege cabal?” Zamek asked.
“That is also possible. I haven’t seen any of them for several thousand years, so yes, maybe. But she was never the type to hide in the shadows for long. She likes to show off too much. She likes people to be afraid of her. If she’s the one behind it all, I imagine she’ll make a very large move soon.”
“And if Asmodeus is back?” I asked.
“Then we will know soon. Asmodeus will lay waste to this realm in the pursuit of whatever he’s after. Humanity is nothing but a nuisance to him, and Avalon will be little more than something to crush. He’ll make it an example. Either way, they are not the kind of people who want to work for someone, not if previous experience is anything to go by. People do change, though, and it’s been a very long time since I last spoke to them.”
“How likely is it that Abaddon is here to bring the rest of the devils alongside Asmodeus?”
“Highly. There’s something else you should know. The method they used to give us our power was used by the Olympians and other pantheons. Together they used this method to create the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They were created, at least in part, in case we ever resurfaced. A weapon to counteract us. But it’s said that the Horsemen were killed to stop their continued plague on humanity. They’d discovered their true origins and took it out on humanity, hoping to drag their creators into a war to stop them. They wanted to destroy humanity, make the world an example for their anger and hate.”
“History repeating itself,” I said. “You remember what I told you back in Basingstoke? Erebus said I was created to be the same thing. I was born to be a weapon. Did you know that?”
“Yes. But I only figured out after you told me about the dwarven realm and the vision of the pit of blood. I think they tried something new with you. Mordred, too. They tried to create you to be less unpredictable. I’m not sure it worked.”
“So much has happened. I’d barely had time to sit and think about it, but we were experiments.”
Selene reached out to hold my hand.
“My mother said she loved me, but we were creations of people who wanted to play God.” I was sure I should have been furious at being conceived and born while a blood-magic ritual took place, but it just seemed like getting upset about it would achieve nothing. It happened, I couldn’t have stopped it, and without the power it gave me, I probably would have been killed a hundred times over throughout my life.
“You okay?” Selene asked me.
“Yeah, oddly enough, I am. I’m not sure how I’m meant to feel at being told that I was created to be a weapon for someone, but calm wasn’t what I’d expected. If my mother was a Valkyrie, does that mean my father was from the Norse pantheon, too?”
Grayson shrugged. “The ritual they used to create me was called From Burning Blood.”
“Catchy,” Zamek said.
“It was called that because those humans who did not manage to conceive were set alight, and their throats slit to allow more blood to pool.”
“That is one of the most disturbing things I’ve been told recently,” Sky said.
“So, when the pantheons created the Horsemen?” I asked. “They used that same ritual?”
Lucifer shook his head. “Over the centuries many people lusting for power used a version of the original ritual, but they rarely worked. And the few who did manage to survive the ritual did not go on to live long lives once we discovered their existence. As for the attempt made by the pantheons, they called it the Blood of Shadows. The original ritual has long since been destroyed. Trust me, I checked. Those who created us weren’t in the habit of sharing information, and they were all killed as soon as we were able to kill them. No one knows how it truly worked.”
“So, this second ritual was based on guesswork?” Zamek asked.
“Mostly, yes. I don’t know the particulars, but I do know that it was decided not to use humans. Humans were too hit-and-miss in the original. Thousands had to die before it worked, and it took years to get there. The pantheons theorized that using people who weren’t humans should speed it up. And it did just that. Unfortunately they hadn’t taken into account the mental and physical suffering of having people born with a ready store of incredible power, and once they were told how they came to be, it broke the Horsemen.”
“And me?” I asked.
“The ritual used was called Scorched Shadows. I don’t know why exactly, except that the ritual called for various magical elements to surround the pit at all times. It was thought that maybe those elements would help contribute to the power given to the child. I know it was carried out on another realm, although I don’t believe the original conception was carried out in the dwarven realm you visited. I think it was done elsewhere.”
“I don’t need to know where I was conceived,” I said. “What else do you know?”