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I should have confronted her and told her that what she was didn’t matter. I had hinted it to her on a few occasions, but I’d failed to get through to her. I should have known that a dark secret like that between us would erode our relationship. I should have helped her deal with it. And now she had taken her life because she hadn’t a sliver of hope that we’d accept her.
“I was a fucking moron,” I said. “We’re all fucking morons, blinded by our lust. We don’t deserve her.”
Zak punched his fist into a rock, and it sundered under his rage and strength.
“And now there’s no ‘eventually,’ asshole!” he roared at me in grief.
“She was terrified that if the rest of you knew the other half of her origin, you wouldn’t want her anymore,” Paxton said pathetically. “And I was trying to show her that I was better than any of you since I wanted her no matter what she was and offered her unconditional protection.”
“Unconditional?” Axel snarled. He looked like he wanted to kick Paxton in the head.
“We should have protected her better,” I said. “But we all failed her. We let her feel so alone and unsafe that she had to ask for an outsider’s help.”
“I’d love her just the same, a demon princess or not,” Axel said, weeping. “She’s our mate, for gods’ sakes.”
“She can’t know it anymore,” Zak said, clenching his bloody fist. “All that’s left is to avenge her. After that, I’ll follow where she’s gone. Death can’t stop me.” He shook his head in determination. “There’s nothing else on Earth for me.”
We were silent for a moment. Our mate had become everything to us. She was our sun, our moon, our light, our darkness, and our souls, and she’d never know that.
“Who’s her mother, Paxton?” Zak demanded.
“Does it matter?” Axel hissed.
“Lilith, Lucifer’s sister and queen,” Paxton said. “Legend has it she was even more powerful than him. Very few people even knew about her existence. She and Lucifer fell to Earth together and fought for power for a time, and then she wasn’t heard of anymore. If there’s anyone who could conceive and bear a Titan’s child, it’d be the Queen of Hell.”
How had Hell’s Queen even managed to get Marigold out of the Void when no one else could escape?
Didn’t matter. Forbidden truths and mysteries didn’t concern me.
Only thoughts of my lamb consumed me.
“We need a plan for revenge,” Zak said, his voice cold, dull, and lifeless.
Axel and Paxton silently agreed, summoning their weapons.
“Revenge has to take a backseat,” I said. “First, we need to make a trip to the Underworld to get our mate back.”
My cousins snapped their heads to me, hope arising in their eyes. The vigor of life pumped into their veins, and their powers charged the air.
The four of us no longer fought for dominance or territory. We now only fought for our mate.
“We haven’t lost her entirely,” I said, deceptively calm. I wouldn’t allow her to die. “Have you all forgotten that I’m the Demigod of Death?” I scanned them, all broken but ready to pick themselves up for my lamb. “I was cursed with death’s touch, but I’m also blessed with the ability to give back one life, just once in my existence.” My whisper fell like feathers from my outstretched black wings. “I’ve never used that blessing.”
There was only one catch, but I wouldn’t tell them that. I could only bring my lamb back from the dead at the cost of my immortality.
I would become mortal. I’d be stripped of my demigod powers. I’d eventually grow old and die, but my lamb would live, and my brothers would be there for her and take care of her throughout eternity.
“All we need is to find Buttercup,” said the Demigod of Sea as he rose to his feet, breathing out icy air.
“Let’s go get Cookie then,” Axel said, his wild wind seeming to reach the pale moon. That was how far he would go for her—and beyond.
“Let’s tear Heaven and Hell apart to find my Rosebud,” Zak said, his thunder and lightning lashing across the twilit sky.
Death light danced on my obsidian wings with eager, lethal hisses.
Our journey to the core of Hell to hunt for our mate had begun.
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