Ascension: Sins of Eden Part 16

"I know," Elise said. "You can be angry at me all you want, and Nathaniel can hate me too, but that's what I had to do to survive. We can't help him if we're dead. Do you understand? As long as we survive, we can still get to Eden and..."

His anger finally cracked. "Marion."

"Marion." She pushed her fingers through her hair, cradling her forehead in both palms. "I have to tell my mom. No. She doesn't need to know. Not until... f.u.c.k." On the other side of the trees, the engines began to grumble to life again. "The cure that you used to make yourself human again. Will it work on a G.o.d?"

"You mean Nathaniel?" James asked. She nodded, and he rubbed a hand over his jaw. His stubble was growing in just as white as the rest of the hair on his head. "I don't know. Even if it worked, I'm not sure that the casting witch would be able to survive the amount of power generated by the spell."

"We have to attempt it. Get everything I need ready to cure Nathaniel," she said.

"Elise, I don't-"

"You heard me. Find your books, pick a truck, and hop in. Ride with the pack to the gate and don't stop until you get there."

Shouts broke through the air.

Elise leaned around the tree. The pack poured from the pickups as silver lights blazed from the clouds like falling stars.

Angels.

They struck within seconds, landing in the middle of the farming village. Each of them was brighter than the sun-bright enough that Elise, in her healed body, felt scalded just by looking at them.

The angels must have come expecting to fight her. She wouldn't be able to approach.

But she wasn't the one they needed to fear.

Snarls and growls erupted. The wolf spirits seemed to appear from nowhere, erupting across the earth as though shot from a cannon. Abel roared with them, surging forward in his animal form, ready to slaughter the creatures that had killed his mate.

Elise couldn't watch the fight. It hurt her eyes too much. She stepped within the safety of the tree's shadow again.

James watched instead. With the way that the light shined on him, his irises almost looked like they reflected the ethereal blue that they used to be-almost.

He wanted to jump out and join the fight. Elise could see it in the leap of his adrenaline, the flood of hormones. He was battle ready.

But he held himself back.

"We have to help." James swallowed hard. "You have to help."

"The werewolves will be fine for a moment," Elise said, yanking a small notebook out of her back pocket and uncapping a pen with her teeth. Gunshots cracked over the village. "And they have Anthony."

"Anthony? Versus angels?"

"He did fine against you." Elise began to scribble out a quick warding rune-something that would protect her from the light enough that she could join the fight.

She didn't get very far.

"We've got a problem," James said.

She glanced over his shoulder. The fight had suddenly stopped-angels on one side, werewolves on the other, and a lot of blood in the middle where the two had met.

Abel crouched on top of one of the angels, silvery blood dripping from his muzzle. The man below him-Makael-had jammed his saber into Abel's mouth, an inch from ripping through his skull. Leliel stood behind Abel, holding a second saber to his throat. And Nash had stolen a sword to press it to Leliel's back.

Standoff.

"I came to speak to the G.o.dslayer," Leliel said tightly, without moving a fraction of an inch.

Abel's responding growl threatened the complete annihilation of Makael, even if it meant getting his head chopped off. Which, judging by the sc.r.a.pe of teeth on blade, was about two seconds away from happening.

Elise tossed the notebook to James.

"Stay put," she told him.

She stepped out from behind the tree. James hissed at her, but she ignored him. "Elise. Elise."

"Back down, everyone," Elise called as she approached. "I'm here."

Some dark emotion fluttered over Leliel's face at the sight of Elise, but she was soon composed. She removed her sword from Abel's throat. Nash stepped back, too.

But Abel didn't let Makael go.

Elise grabbed him by the scruff. He twisted, snapping, and his teeth closed on her forearm. A bite from a werewolf was like getting crushed between boulders-he almost jerked her arm right off. Amber blood splattered to the ground.

She phased out of his mouth, reappearing a few feet away.

The taste of her blood seemed to have broken Abel of his temporary rage. His tongue slid over his muzzle.

He sat back on his haunches and began to shift.

"f.u.c.k," Elise muttered, shaking her arm out. She hadn't been bitten by one of the wolves since getting on Rylie's bad side, and she'd forgotten exactly how much it burned. She forced herself to focus on the angels instead. "What the f.u.c.k is going on?"

"We've freed all the humans in New Eden," Leliel said, helping Makael off of the ground. "The majority awakened with no incident, and our city stands empty of human souls. We transported all of the survivors to a location on Earth that isn't yet on fire. It's the best that we could do."

Elise's eyes narrowed. "But?"

"Almost all of Earth is on fire," the angel said. "It's only a temporary solution."

"And Heaven too," Elise said. "Convenient how much you care about Earth's condition once you have nowhere else to run." She was only vaguely aware of Anthony and Abel-now human-moving up to flank her. The wolf spirits bristled between them.

Leliel looked at the wolf spirits like she had found their spoor smeared on her bare foot. She lifted her sword, its blade igniting with flames.

Elise drew a falchion. One of the wolves growled. No, not a wolf-Ace. Apparently he had decided that he was one of the pack and stood among the spirits. His weight leaned heavily against her calf.

"I'm going to take care of Earth," Elise said.

"Why should we trust you?" Leliel asked. As the wolves had moved up to surround Elise, so had Makael moved to stand at Leliel's side. Electric blue runes slithered up his arms. A silent reminder that angels had found their magic again and might pose an actual threat to Elise.

She didn't need the reminder. Her skin still ached from the vibrancy of their glowing wings.

"I don't care if you trust me or not," Elise said. "I definitely don't trust you. I am, however, going to fix all of this."

"By becoming a G.o.d?"

"By killing him," Elise said. Her wounded arm throbbed as she spoke, which dented her confidence only slightly.

"If you kill Belphegor, you'll have to rebuild the pantheon from the beginning," Leliel said. "Which angel would you station as the ethereal deity? Will it be Nashriel?"

The guy's ego was big enough without adding G.o.dhood to the mix. "There's already an angel in the pantheon," Elise said.

"Is there?" Leliel frowned. "Who?"

"You don't know him," Elise said. "He's not one of yours."

"They're all mine."

What few of them remained. Elise's gaze skimmed the angels surrounding Leliel, taking a quick mental inventory. At least three of them had been bitten by the wolf spirits in the scuffle. Even though they stood straight and tall, forming a united front, Elise could smell the blood and see the wounds reddening.

There were only a dozen alongside Leliel. These few survivors were all that remained of Eve's once-ma.s.sive family.

Elise felt a pang of grief and turned inward. Eve? Are you still there?

There was no response.

"This angel isn't yours," Elise said, realizing that she had been quiet for too long. "You don't know him. Trust me."

Leliel glanced over her shoulder. "Wait for me," she told the other angels, and then she broke free to approach Elise.

Anthony aimed his gun at her. "Freeze, birdbrain."

She didn't stop. "We have to talk, G.o.dslayer."

Elise pushed Anthony's arms so that he was pointing the gun at the other angels instead. "Fine. We can talk." She leaned in close to Anthony's ear. "If they move, start shooting." She didn't have to give similar directions to Abel. There was angel blood on his chin and murder in his eyes.

If anyone even twitched, they were going to find out exactly how much he was grieving his mate's murder. And Elise doubted that she would be able to stop him a second time.

Leliel led Elise away from everyone else, stopping at the edge of one of the fields. The crops were flooded with water. Maybe some kind of rice. There was no sign of the farmers-they had been smart enough to hide from the conflict between the werewolves and angels.

"I'll be brief," Leliel said. "If Belphegor and an angel have already entered the Origin, you will have to kill both."

Elise's hand tightened on the falchion. It made the muscles in her arm spasm, aching where Abel had bitten her. "How do you know?"

"Metaraon and I discussed the next genesis frequently before he died. Despite my protests, he planned to collect a new pantheon. He would have been the lead, as Lilith had led Adam and Eve. He planned-"

"Wait. Lilith led the last pantheon?"

"Yes," Leliel said impatiently. "She was the sculptor. She shaped the universe as we know it."

"Everything I've seen suggests Adam was in charge."

"The most vocal is seldom the most powerful." She gave a delicate, disdainful sniff. "As I was saying, Metaraon planned to have his wife, Ariane, as the mortal G.o.d."

Elise's mother had been in line to become a G.o.d? She cringed to think of how well that would have gone. Ariane was weak. A doormat. She would have been crushed by the others.

"I disagreed, as I said," Leliel went on. "Belphegor disagreed too. He fought the formation of a new pantheon. That was why I tried to ally with him-both of us wanted to prevent anyone from entering the Origin and triggering genesis. Or so I believed."

"But he just wanted to be in charge himself," Elise said.

"Evidently. However, Belphegor doesn't know what Metaraon knew, and what I know." Leliel fixed Elise with an intense gaze. "Once the formation of the pantheon begins, the only way to replace any member is to kill all of them."

Elise frowned. "What if I just kill Belphegor?"

"Then only this mysterious angel will remain," Leliel said. "But you can't replace Belphegor until the angel dies, too."

"And if I don't want to replace him at all? If I just want to prevent him from causing more damage?"

Leliel smiled, like she approved of this answer. "When I built New Eden, I believed that we could postpone genesis indefinitely simply by never replacing Adam, Eve, and Lilith. If you prevent the triad from forming and kill Belphegor, I believe we could stop the progress of this..." She gestured disdainfully at the sky. "And reconstruct through other means."

"You believe. Nice convictions there."

"n.o.body knows," she said. "It's never been done before. There have always been three. However, the world is safer without G.o.ds, and I'll do what I must to prevent the genesis. What's your plan, G.o.dslayer?"

"Kill Belphegor. Save the angel. I'm looking for a cure, so to speak. Genesis isn't on the menu."

"Then perhaps we can help each other." The angel glanced at the vehicles. "Where are you going?"

"I'm breaking into Eden through one of Metaraon's gates."

"Your journey to the nearest of them will take days like this. Judging by Earth's degradation, you're out of time."

Elise gritted her teeth. "I know. Not a lot of alternatives."

"We'll take your people to the gate," Leliel said. "My angels and I. We can easily transport everyone there directly."

She didn't even have to consider the offer. Like Leliel had said, they were out of time and without alternatives. "Fine. Carry everyone to the gate. If you can get us there, I'll take care of Belphegor and the angel."

"And you won't permit genesis," Leliel said.

"Not if I can avoid it."

The angel looked grim. "Then we have a deal."

"You're f.u.c.king crazy," Anthony said.

Elise snorted. "Give me the bandages." The bite wound Abel had delivered was still bleeding freely. She would need to feed before she could heal.

Anthony threw the bandages at her. They hit Elise in the chest. "Letting the angels carry us to the gate? We can't trust them."

"I know." She sat on the tailgate of a pickup. "Help me wrap this."

He huffed, but he still wound the bandages around the injury with quick, practiced hands. It was far from the first time that Anthony had been forced to perform basic first aid, though it might have been the first time he'd done it for Elise rather than McIntyre.