Page 311 of Caelum

“Ah, a straight talker. Good.” Erlik grated out a sound that could only be a laugh. Still, it was like nails down a chalkboard and had me wincing. “I have a proposition for you. I’m not sure who sent you, but they didn’t tell you something important.”

We fanned out, heading from the tunnel and deeper into the cavern.

I hadn’t anticipated a board meeting before we got down to proceedings, but I’d admit, I was curious as to what he had to say.

Why?

Because I wasn’t entirely sure humans deserved to live without fear.

Horrible of me? Perhaps. But the fact that some bastards had taken advantage of the world’s disarray to set off a bomb in Ankara? And that similar scenarios would be happening the world over as evil people manipulated this situation for their own gain?

Better the devil you knew than the one you didn’t.

I knew I had no say in that. MyJannah, guided by God’s hand, had brought me here for a purpose. Coming to terms with Erlik wasn’t that purpose, but still, I listened.

“What’s so important that I can’t kill you now?” Dre mocked, and I wanted to elbow him for being so damn cocky—it would be the death of him, and that was my major fear.

It didn’t matter that not all of them had told me they loved me. They showed me every day. With their hugs and gentle touches, their belief in me, their faith in me as their woman and as an equal in this fate we found ourselves in.

Sometimes, actions spoke louder than words, but before we’d met our destiny, I had to tell them all. Had to let them know what they meant to me.

I’d never loved before, and now, I had seven loves worth fighting for. Dying for.Killingfor.

“This pit is a portal. It takes you straight to Hell. If you think the devil isn’t gathering his legions to counter the billions of Ghouls you’ve struck down, you’re a fool.”

“Billions?” I choked out, drawing Erlik’s attention my way.

“Yes.” He grinned, and it was so disgusting, the maw that appeared when he smirked had me barely holding on to the toast I’d had hours before. Now I knew why he was considered the original Sin Eater—that open-ended jaw? It was exactly like Frazer’s when I’d seen him kill those Ghouls in the parking lot. “Our numbers are more than even Nicholas’ spawn managed to quantify.” His sneer made me wince, and I realized that he and Nicholas were related—damn, Nicholas was hisuncle.

He couldn’t always have looked like this, could he?

How could Nicholas be so beautiful and Erlik so…not?

I knew they’d gone through the evolutionary process with mankind, but what on earth had happened to this grandchild of Adam and Eve?

Frazer took a step closer, drawing Erlik’s attention away from me and onto himself. Damn his hide. I double damned him when he neared the pit, standing opposite the throne but so close to the rim that my stomach sank. “I’m assuming you’re telling us this for a reason. What do you possibly have that you think you can bargain with?”

“How about the key to Hell’s gates?” He pointed to the water and to the fire. “Those two together keep Satan locked inside his fiery home.”

“Why?” I questioned, reaching up to rub my temple where sweat was pouring into my eyes. I stared at the source of the fall which, if Erlik sat at twelve o’clock, the water ran at three.

“This is the joining of the rivers Pishon, Gihon, Chidekel, and Phirat.”

My mates frowned, but I knew of what he spoke. “How is that possible?” I demanded. “Rivers converge into an ocean, not into a cavern.”

“They fed the Garden of Eden, child, and are nourished by Godhimself. Why wouldn’t he want to control the pit of Hell by containing it with his own holy waters?”

God had made a deal with this monster?

Erlik laughed, and it grated on my nerve endings. “Yes, child, even monsters like me deal with Him.”

He got to his feet, and I saw they were cloven hoofs. The sight had me gulping. “What happened to you?” I asked in horror.

“You spend enough time down here and even the annals of time forget you,” he rasped, his beady black eyes glittering at the unintended insult in my words. “But I am the gatekeeper. Would you like to guard this place for eternity? Or would you like to leave it in my hands?”

A hand clamped on my shoulder, and I turned to look up at Samuel. “Eve, he might not be Satan, but he’s tempting you at that bastard’s hand. Don’t fall for it. How many more Ghouls are out there if we’ve already killed billions of them?”

I heard the uncertainty in his voice, the fear, but all I could think about was this pit… would we have to man it if Erlik died? I couldn’t bear it. Living down here in the constant dark. In this heat. This unbearable heat.

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