OF THE FATHER
While everyone’s lost, the battle is won.
—The Killers, “All These Things That I’ve Done”
FORTY-SEVEN
Gabrielle
remember everything now.
I had decided to walk after the performance. The music moved me, it was so beautiful and sad. But I was happy. We were happy then. You and I. We had learned to love this world, and we had not yet known despair. I had discovered something that could change our world forever, and I’d meant to tell you but I wanted to be sure. It was a wonderful secret, and I’d planned to tell you that we would soon be home in Eden.
I went past the courtyard and down the steps, and decided I would take the passages to visit our friends in Lutetia. But as I walked down, I heard something—a noise, something different. And I followed the noise to its source. The tunnels were different, and I realized I was no longer in this world, but in another. I was not even in the passages anymore.
I was on a di
fferent path.
I heard his voice, booming in the darkness. The voice of our friend and emperor. Gaius. The one they called Caligula. Addressing his people.
I turned the corner and I saw.
Their eyes glittered crimson and silver; their fangs outstretched. I saw their hunger and greed, and I knew all was lost. That Gaius was Lucifer, hidden among us, and that he had discovered the Paths of the Dead, and he would lead an army of the Fallen and demons to take this world.
So I ran.
I ran away, to tell you, to warn you, to warn us all about the betrayal that was in the Coven, that we had nursed and nurtured among us.
I ran.
And Lucifer followed me.
FORTY-EIGHT
Mimi
ingsley’s sword was at her throat. “Why is this happening again?” he asked. “Why do we always seem to find ourselves here?”
“Destiny, I suppose,” Mimi said, finally breaking her silence; though she knew it probably wasn’t the time for joking around.
“You know I love you,” he said.
“Do you? You’re so in love with me you’ve been running around with half the girls in London?” she said with a raised eyebrow.
“They meant nothing—and I did nothing with them. I tried to forget you. God knows. I was mad. I tried to find something—anything—that would make me forget you. But no one could. I’ve been faithful, I swear. Appearances can be deceiving. You of all people should know that.”
Mimi continued to glare at him even as she felt a tremendous sense of relief.
Kingsley brushed his sword on her skin like a caress. “And I know you love me. You told me that you’d love me no matter what, and I should remember that. So why are you trying to get me to forget that now?”
“Because this is how it has to end,” she said.
“You know that’s not what I want,” he said, but Mimi could see doubt in his eyes. He didn’t understand why she was doing this, and that was good. She needed to confuse him, to convince him that she was hateful.
He was better off without her. He’d have a chance at happiness, at a better life. He could find someone else, someone who wasn’t so complicated, so difficult. Someone nice. That was a word no one would ever use to describe her.
Kingsley’s sword hovered at her neck, then slashed at the collar of her blouse.