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Abel’s face tightened. “You lie.”
“Often,” Cain easily admitted. “But I am not lying about this. You shouldn’t find it so difficult to reconcile what I’m telling you, really. As the evidence must surely demonstrate, I didn’t have a single issue with killing her.”
Abel’s jaw hardened. “I suppose you would also have no issue with taking my life, despite that we’re brothers.”
“We were never really brothers.”
“No, we weren’t. I had only one true brother. You took him from me,” Abel all but snarled. “You turned him against me.”
“I didn’t need to. You did that all by yourself. Shockingly well, in fact.”
“Seth was good.”
“Still is. There’s no need to talk about him in the past tense. He’s alive and well. We all are, in case you were wondering. I know that wasn’t part of your plan when you created your little prison.”
Abel ground his teeth. “How are you all still alive?”
“Why didn’t we kill each other, you mean?” Cain let his mouth curve again, enjoying how it pushed Abel’s buttons. “Why on Earth would we do your dirty work for you?”
“So you exist only to spite the rest of us?”
“I wouldn’t say that it’s the only reason. You’re not quite that important to us.”
“I disagree. At least when it comes to me, my father, and Saul.” Abel grinned, smug. “We are your jailers, after all.”
“I don’t know why you insist on believing that you’re all so very clever for caging us. In truth, letting us live was a monumentally stupid thing to do.”
“You think we fear that you’ll one day come for us?” Abel scoffed. “You will never be free.”
“Of course we won’t,” Cain agreed, a mocking note to his voice.
Abel clasped his hands in his lap, his knuckles white. “Things can get a lot worse for you, you know.”
“Can they?”
“Yes. I know of the conversation that you had with Lailah via Griff. You refused to give up the witch, despite the danger she represents to you and your land. Shall I assume that you have not changed your mind on that score?”
“You should,” replied Cain, keeping his tone neutral, careful not to let Abel sense that Wynter meant anything to him.
“Surely you see that releasing her into the custody of the Aeons would be the sensible thing to do.”
Cain arched a brow. “Do you think I fear the prospect of another battle?”
“No, actually, I don’t. Fear was never something you seemed to experience in any depth. Not even as a child.”
“Never met a person worth fearing.”
Abel’s lips flattened. “My gut feeling is that you would welcome another battle. It would alleviate the boredom that must be plaguing you after being confined for so very long. It would wear on anyone. A battle would also give you the opportunity to hurt those you hold grudges against.”
“I wouldn’t have thought you’d believe I stand any chance of avenging myself.”
Abel huffed. “You would not defeat me in battle, dear brother. But that is neither here nor there, because what you don’t understand is that I have no intention of declaring war. If you fail to hand over the witch, I will not attack your town. I will not seek to kill you. I will instead shrink your prison and make it a lot less comfortable.”
Surprise bubbled to life in Cain’s stomach, but he kept his expression blank. “Is that a fact?”
“Yes, it is.”
“I don’t think so. Maybe it could in fact be done if all four of the Aeons who created the cage worked together. But one of those Aeons is dead. Another is flirting with death by lingering near my home, and he stupidly thinks that it’s an inconvenience. On the contrary, he will just make it easier for me to kill him. At the moment, he holds both you and me partially responsible for Lailah’s demise, so he won’t be in any rush to help you do anything.”
