“Wait, there were seven of us?” I asked. “Where are the others?”
“I don’t know. But they’re out there somewhere. All born in similar times, in the same manner. I do not know why this was decided, or whether the children were meant to be the protectors of a pantheon, much like the seven devils did after our defeat. I only knew that you were born and you were out there. If I’m being honest, I didn’t expect to meet you unless you tried to conquer the world. It’s nice to see you skipped our mistakes.”
“And made a whole new set,” I pointed out. “Okay, so a few last questions.”
“Sure.”
“Did you know what I was?” I asked.
Lucifer shook his head. “I had no idea until a short time ago. I’d heard that the dwarves had helped various pantheons re-create the seven devils, but I had no idea where those children had been taken, or even who they were. Like I said earlier, I had no idea one was you, Nate, not until you told me about the memory of the pool of blood in the dwarven realm.”
“How did Abaddon and her people get into this realm?”
“No idea.”
I paused and thought of the last few seconds before she had vanished. “She touched Atlas while they both went. She had something on her wrist—she touched it. Could they have created a bracelet version of that tablet that Kay was using?” I turned to Zamek, who had been quiet for the majority of the time we’d spent in the house. “Is this possible?”
“In theory, I guess. I’m not an expert on the tablet. I’ve only been studying it for a few years, but if you could get someone to create those runes on a bracelet, it could be possible. The runes wouldn’t last, though. Nabu said that they tried making the tablets with metal or wood and the runes would just vanish after being used. The stone was the only thing they could get to keep the runes for more than a few trips.”
“What about Mara?” Selene asked. “She could do that. She made the tablet.”
“She’s locked up, isn’t she?” I asked.
“So was my brother,” Selene said.
“Okay, well, I don’t know where Mara was imprisoned, but I’d really like to make sure she’s still there. I need to contact Olivia about it.”
“Did any of the bodies we searched have those bracelets?” Sky asked.
Zamek shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t look for them.”
“We’ll search the bodies,” Lucifer said.
“I had the same idea Nate had,” Sky said. “I was curious how so many had come here. There were hundreds of attackers in this realm. Unless they all held hands and had contact with this Abaddon woman, which I genuinely can’t see happening, they came here some other way. A second realm gate would be the most logical explanation, but there isn’t one. Which doesn’t exactly leave us with a lot of options I can think of.”
“A way to transport hundreds of people through realms at the same time?” Lucifer asked. “That’s something we should be very afraid of.”
“Considering the list of awful things we should be afraid of is already massive, I really don’t want to start adding to it. If those bracelets allowed this to happen, we need to find out where they’re being made and stop it.”
“One last question,” I said to Lucifer. “Why did you run off from Tommy’s just before we left?”
“I needed to figure out what I was going to do next. I needed time to come to terms with the idea of having to confess everything I’ve been hiding for so long. I was never going to run, or not back you up, but I have notes at home about what the devils had done. Maps, drawings, writings about what we did. I needed to remind myself of exactly what we face if they’re unleashed.”
“I’d like to see that info,” I said.
“When we’re done here, it’s all yours.”
Before anyone could say anything else, Cerberus entered the house. “Not to interrupt or anything, but you’re going to want to hear this.”
“Hear what?” Sky asked.
“One of the prisoners we kept alive has been very chatty, but he can only say the same thing. Over and over again.”
“My Liege?” I asked.
“No,” Cerberus said, clearly unnerved by what he’d heard. “He’s saying something else. Shadow Falls.”
CHAPTER 14
Nate Garrett
I heard the bellows of the prisoner well before I ever got close to the beach, which was where he was being held. The cries of “Shadow Falls” appeared to be part anger and part frustration. Like the previous attacker, this one probably hadn’t agreed to have his brain partially destroyed.
The prisoner was a slight man with a balding hairline and a mustache that had probably been in fashion in the 1970s. At some point his leather armor had been partially removed, and his shirt had been torn open, revealing several dark blood-curse marks on his chest. He screamed at a nearby griffin and received a punch in the mouth for his trouble, a blow that knocked out several of the man’s teeth and caused him to spit blood all over the golden sands.
Cerberus stepped up to the griffin, who bowed her head slightly and stepped back.
“That is one angry female,” Sky said as the griffin walked away.
“How can you tell?” Zamek asked.
“Females have red feathers on the tops of their skull. It’s the only way I’ve ever been able to tell the difference.”
“And no penis,” Sky said. “But you have to get a bit closer to find that one out.”
I turned to Sky, who smiled.
“Shadow Falls,” the prisoner said to me.
“Agreed,” I replied. It was not the time for jokes, but Sky always knew how to make me chuckle.
“Shadow Falls,” the man said again, clawing at the sand.
“You’re not grasping this, but you can’t say anything other than ‘Shadow Falls.’ Your brain is fried. You were a prisoner of The Hole, you were freed, and then you went to work for someone who fucked your head up. Sound about right? Just nod or shake your head.”
The man nodded.
“Abaddon, yes?”
He shook his head.
“Glad to hear she can’t screw around with people who are alive. So, was it another woman who did this?”
A shake of the head.
“A man?”
A nod.
“That doesn’t exactly narrow it down,” Selene said.
I crouched beside the prisoner. “I have some news for you. Firstly, you’re going to die in a few minutes. Not just because whatever they did to your brain is going to kill you, but also because you either die by my hand, or the griffins will kill you.”
“Do you know how griffins deal with people like you?” Selene asked.
The man shook his head, his expression suggesting he was terrified about what was happening.
“They crucify them on a hill overlooking the lake. That’s if they don’t tear you into tiny pieces, slowly, while you beg for mercy, which you can’t do because your brain no longer works.”
The man looked at me, and I nodded to confirm she was telling the truth. “I have one last question. Did you know what you were signing up for? Did you know you were going to come here and kill people?”
He nodded.