Page 7 of The Monsters We Are

Seth replied, “Adam has essentially prioritized getting his hands on Wynter. Someone as prideful, arrogant, and bloodthirsty as he is doesn’t justtablevengeance so easily.”

“No, they don’t,” agreed Cain. The Aeon was good at controlling his emotions, but not when it came to wounded pride. His self-restraint often then went out the window. Adam’s ego was a fragile thing. “Vengeance has to be a drumbeat in his blood right now. He’ll want me dead more than he ever did before. Adam has lost the prominent members of his family in one way or another, and he’ll blame me for each of those losses.”

Seth’s brows lifted, his expression going pensive. “Ah, yes. He lost me when I sided with you. He lost our sisters when they died during the first war—it won’t matter that the Aeons launched the attack, he’ll tell himself that there would have been no need for war if it hadn’t been necessary to eradicate you. Although he emotionally lost Eve a millennia ago, he lost her physically when she came here for sanctuary recently with Abel’s twins. To add to all that, Adam then lost Abel when you killed him during the last battle. Adam will for sure hold you accountable for all his ‘suffering.’ ”

“The latter loss will be the one he feels the hardest,” said Cain. “Abel stroked his ego by wanting to be like him, by striving to please him, by being under his complete control until that last moment when he went against Adam’s orders and came for us.”

“Which will be another thing that Adam likely blames you for.” Seth sighed, stroking a hand over his blond layered buzzcut. “You always were his favorite scapegoat. But despite all he’ll be feeling, he’s temporarily settling for turning our people against you in the hope of lessening our numbers. I truly do feel like we’re missing something.”

Poking his tongue into the inside of his cheek, Azazel looked at Seth. “You said that Adam’s prioritizing getting his hands on Wynter. That’s not entirely accurate. He’s prioritizing lifting the curse on Aeon. We have to wonder why.” He paused. “I couldn’t get Saul to confess why it was that he believed it essential that Aeon didn’t fall. But he swore it must not happen.”

“I can’t imagine that Eden is once again using the underground city as her Resting place,” said Dantalion, referring to God’s consort. “I don’t see what else would make it special.”

“I, too, struggle to see why the fall of Aeon would be such a dire event,” said Azazel, scratching at the back of his head, making strands of his short dark hair spike up. “But maybe there really is some great reason why the Aeons believe it can’t happen. And just maybe that’s why Adam is willing to put the wellbeing of Aeon before seeking vengeance.”

“Or,” began Ishtar, “maybe Adam simply insinuates to the other Aeons that the place must not fall so that they will not want to leave; so that they will believe there is a purpose to staying there—it is probably how he got them to stay for so long. Well,thatand telling them that the rest of the world is a terrible place. But, really, what difference does it make? He is clearly going to make us wait, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. We are stuck here, and that is that.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” said Seth. “Three of the Aeons who caged us are dead. The cage will have weakened. Not enough for us to shatter it, but maybe we could at least punch a hole through it. A hole big enough for us to exit through.”

Ishtar slid him a bored look. “That is a very nice thought, but it will not work.”

“You don’t know that,” said Seth. “We haven’t tried. We won’t know unless we do.”

“Three of our jailors might be dead, but their power is still incorporated into the prison,” Ishtar reminded him.

“Yes,” Seth allowed. “But it’s no longer so potent now that they’re in the afterlife.”

“It does not matter. Until Adam too dies, the walls of the cage will remain strong. The Aeons used our blood to power it, remember? It was the only way they could seal it.”

“But they didn’t use Abaddon’s blood, since they didn’t believe he would live,” said Seth, speaking of Cain’s uncle—an Ancient who, unknown to most, lay at Rest in Cain’s garden. “He could potentially open it. With our help, that is.”

Ishtar’s brow creased. “Are you forgetting that he is in some sort of coma?”

“No. But we could try waking him, couldn’t we? We never did before, because there didn’t seem much point when he would likely lose his shit at being confined.”

Who wouldn’t when, for them, it was only yesterday that their children and brothers were slaughtered in a war? “He wouldn’t be so furious if he woke to hear that three of our jailors are dead,” Cain mused.

“But hewouldbe if we didn’t manage to form a crack in the cage,” said Ishtar. “Which we will not.”

“Don’t be so sure,” said Seth. “All Hallows’ Eve is coming up. Our power will be stronger then. Always is. We could take advantage of that and try to pierce our prison on that very night. If we have Abaddon’s aid, I think it could work.”

Cain pursed his lips. “It’s certainly worth a try.” Especially sincesomeonehad repeatedly called out to Wynter in her sleep and led her in the direction of the temple where Abaddon rested. Cain and Azazel had speculated that, even in sleep, Abaddon could be somewhat aware of the goings-on around him. If that was true, he might not be so hard to wake.

As if recalling their speculations, Azazel caught Cain’s eye and nodded. “I agree.”

Seth gave both Cain and Azazel a look of gratitude for taking him seriously. “It might pay to have Eve and the twins add their power to ours—they’re Aeons, after all. Strong. And each of them has a blood-link to either one or two of our jailors.”

They did indeed. The twins were actually fathered by none other than Abel. They’d helped Eve flee to Devil’s Cradle after learning that—in an effort to provoke Cain and throw him off his game—Adam had planned to kill her and then dump her body on the border of the town.

“Their contribution could therefore be truly helpful,” Seth added.

Ishtar gave him a look that called him slow on the uptake. “If they are here on behalf of Adam they are hardly going to aid us in such a way.”

“But they might not be here on his orders,” Seth pointed out. “We all recently agreed that they are likely not, remember. They certainly weren’t here on Abel’s behalf—he was prepared to see them dead.”

Ishtar let out a haughty sound. “I am still not inclined to trust them.”

“I’m not suggesting that we should.” Seth spoke to everyone as he continued, “But consider that they’ve made no move against anyone since coming here. They also didn’t take advantage of our distraction during the battle with Abel to pull any kind of stunt. We all agreed to allow them to come and go from my Keep as they pleased because we wanted to see what they would do with their freedom. My people tell me that they haven’t done anything that could be considered remotely suspicious.”

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