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Chapter One

The woman stood in the doorway to the pack house, surrounded by bloo and the air of summer He hair was dark and loose around her shoulders The dress she as gauzelike, and although it covered her from breast to toe, it was practically transparent But it was her face that captivated me

She had my face

Oh fuck

There was only one person this could be

“Eve?”

“Well met, child,” she said with a smile But the smile didn’t reach her eyes “We don’t have much time You must come with me” She held out her hand “Hurry”

Grayson grabbed hold ofanywhere”

He’d never spoken for me like this before Grayson let me make my own decisions Not today apparently, and I couldn’t blame him There was an eerie otherworldliness about Eve An alien quality that ooseflesh on h—the super vamp attack on the Island run by the ouroboros and my return fro either of us needed or wanted

“I must speak with her,” Eve said to Grayson But her attention remained on me

Looking at her was like looking into a mirror That face… My face And I knew that expression It was fear It was desperation

“Please, Seraphina,” she said “I cannot stay on this plane for long, but I swear to you, I will return you safely once I have spoken with you Your death has resulted in a travesty that must be rectified”

“Lilith?” I tipped my head to the side “Your curse on her has been activated, hasn’t it?”

She blinked, looking momentarily thrown “Lilith?”

Why did she sound like she had no idea what the heck I was talking about? “Yes Lilith You told Azazel so would happen to her if I died I died”

“Ah, that…” She looked sheepish “There was never a curse on Lilith”

“What?”

She waved a disave Samael my oath that I wouldn’t harm her”

Wait a bloody second “But you compeled Azazel to keep Cain’s bloodline alive You told him that if he didn’t, Lilith would be hurt by his failure”

She sighed “I coht fight my compulsion, and so I added a little extra to the deal I told him that Lilith would be hurt if he failed, and I cursed hie to her in any otheror dead”

But she hadn’t factored in Cora…which made me wonder Was Cora more than just a tulpa?

“You lied to Azazel” Grayson sounded disgusted

I was beginning to understand that e believer in honesty and transparency

Eve’s attention flicked to hi back on me “I did what I had to in order to protect this world,” she said “And your death is on the brink of undoing it all” She held out her hand “I need to explain to you I need you to come with me Please child”

She’d lied to Azazel, but the tremor of fear in her voice wasn’t a lie I’d died and co rong ever since Eve had the answers I needed

I nodded “I’ll go with you, but I want your oath you won’t harm me, and that you’ll return me back here”

“You have my oath,” she said quickly

“Fee…” Grayson exhaled “Fuck”

I hugged him “I’ll be back soon”

And then I bridged the distance between

Clear blue skies, floral fragranced air, the chirp of birds, and chatter of woodland creatures surrounded me

Eve didn’t let go ofagonizing seconds

“It’s like looking in a er”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to be anyone’s doppelganger, but there was no denying it Aside from her hair color, we could be identical twins, and it was unnerving holding her hand It was al my own hand

Instead, I focused on thetrees This was like so out of a fairy tale, down to the wood cabin behind her A neat as built to one side of the cabin and a chicken coop sat on the other side

It was too perfect to be real

“What is this place?”

“My ho it for the first tio It’s safe here A place out of time A place untouched by chaos and corruption I can’t leave for longer than a fewyou here to talk about that I need your help, and I need you to understand how vital that help is The only way to do that is to tell you a story Will you listen?”

There was no denying I was curious “Fine”

“Sit” She indicated the soft grass that blanketed the ground

We both sat and tiny bloo up around us I inhaled the sweet scent and was instantly relaxed, but alarm bells went off in my head at the same time

“What are these flowers?”

“Lianthuenous to my home They relax the mind and soothe the soul They won’t hurt you, but they will allow you to absorb what I tell you They’ll allow you to access the memories locked in your mind Memories that you own due to your connection to both me and Samael” A quicksilver enize what I tell you to be truth”

“Ancestral memories?”

“Yes You have them, but they aren’t easily accessible”

Sounded fair “Okay, I’ll listen”

“It all began when a ic “That el was Saht and filled with passion We were friends at first, and yes, there was an attraction there, but I knew nothing would come of it At least I believed it to be so But he caht, heart-wounded and weary, in need of soothing I gave myself to him, mind, body, and soul For a few days, my heart was filled with joy Not even Adaed for so long, you see, coether only for comfort from time to time There was no love between us Not like Samael and I, but then Sa back an eel left to be with his one true love, and it almost broke me, until… Until I discovered I ith child His child I had a piece of him to keep with me always, and then there were two heartbeats and my joy doubled”

“Cain and Abel”

“Yes I bore Sa, healthy sons, but they didn’t exhibit his celestial grace They were more mortal like me Still, he loved them, and he visited as often as he could, but Lilith wasn’t happy with the arrangeression, she was unwilling to forgive me And my sons were a constant reminder of Samael’s infidelity So eventually, Samael’s visits petered out and Adam, bless his heart, stepped in to help raise ether too Seth, and ere content for a time

But as nized the vast difference in their personalities Abel eetness and light, and Cain…” She paused again, searching for the right words “Cain was filled with darkness and anger He would lash out at the slightest provocation, and it was this temper, this darkness, that led him to murder his brother”

I’d heard the bible story but never like this “Samael came to you then, didn’t he?”

Her brows shot up “Yes, how did you know?”

“Lilith spoke to me a little about this She said he came to see you when his son died”

“Lilith met you and didn’t try to kill you?”

I filled her in briefly on my trip to the Underealm and the way Cora had been able to speak of Eve’s curse

Eve’s eyes greide “You created her?”

“Yes, but she’s her own person”

Eve looked like she was about to say more then she snapped her mouth closed and nodded “Yes Back to the story Where was I?”

“Samael came to see you when Abel died”

“That’s right, he did He recognized Cain’s pain The darkness inside Cain, spoke to Sanized it as his own personal turmoil, one he’d controlled his whole existence, and so instead of punishing Cain, he sought to aid hih a mark”

Fucking hell “The mark of Cain?”

“Yes, I believe that’s what they call it But the mark is so th to wrestle the demons in his soul and conquer them Samael is a celestial touched by chaos The darkness is a real thing inside hih the mark, Cain was finally able to control his inner dehed, “we didn’t anticipate the side effects”

“What kind of side-effects?”

“Firstly, Cain adopted Sa, and secondly, he unlocked an ability to access the miasma that permeates the ether and seeps onto the earthy plane My ability He was also able to access the power of chaos, a darker foric The power corrupted his There was no way to reach him We couldn’t kill him because the mark made him invulnerable And there was no knoay to re we could We put Cain into a deep slumber and locked him away I found a pocket of reality, an uninhabited dimension where he would be safe from discovery, able to sleep for eternity We left him there”

So stirred in the back of atory The voice… The voice… “You left hi into place, but I needed to hear the rest to be sure I had this right “Go on, please” er One