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Ella cleared her throat. “Melody, how did you come to work for Adam?”
Melody settled in next to Ella and beamed. “Well, it all started with his son. Cain,” she waved her hand in the air, “Not Abel. Someone I’d crossed had put a marker out on me and Cain was the assassin sent to terminate me, but I guess he thought better of it and from then on out I’ve worked for the Patriarch and Adam at the Chalice ever since.”
Ella’s eye widened in sheer disbelief. “What did you just say?”
Melody gave her an odd look. “I said I had trouble at my last job, so one of Adam’s sons helped me out and got me a job working for Adam.”
Ella frantically tried to get out of bed, but instead fell with a thud on the floor. Melody leapt to her feet. “Oh my god, Ella, are you okay? What is wrong?”
The demoness reached out to help her, but Ella pulled away and scurried back until her back was against the wall. “Stay back. I don’t understand what is going on here, but that is not what you said the first time.”
Melody stepped back and raised her hands as if to show she wasn’t a threat to Ella, and shook her head. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. That’s what I told you.”
“No, no, no. You said something about crossing someone who put a hit or something out on you and that Adam’s son Cain, not Abel, was sent to kill you. But he didn’t, and now you work for the Patriarchy.”
Melody’s entire face drained of all color and her mouth hung open. Her blue-eyed human facade faded away to reveal the demoness she really was. “Oh, Ella… I certainly didn’t say that, but it is the truth.” She slowly kneeled to the floor and folded her legs under her, sitting at Ella’s level. “I’m sorry, I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I know I look frightening, but I would never hurt you.”
“You—You’re a demon?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how, but you started to see me last night, but this is the full me.” Melody sighed. “I promise you don’t have to be afraid of me, Ella.”
Ella slowly sat up straighter, took in the sight before her. “I’m not afraid of you. I’m afraid of what is happening to me.”
“Os and Adam are going to figure it out, they won’t give up on you.”
“There’s nothing they can do. I hear this voice in my head, and she said that none of you can stop what is coming.”
“Well, I’m sure the voice in your head doesn’t know who she’s dealing with when it comes to Os.”
Ella held Melody’s gaze and whispered, “Osiris.”
Melody blinked. “What? How? How could you possibly know that?”
“The voice in my head told me.” She shrugged, “Plus when he arrived I saw the entirety of Ancient Egypt sprawled out behind him and humans worshiping his statue. So it was a pretty big hint.”
“I hate to ask, but… What do you see when you look at Adam?”
“I just see him, his scars, the worry he carries on his shoulders. I see the rest of my life deep in his eyes.”
Melody moved to sit next to Ella on the floor and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling Ella against her. “I guess I inadvertently spilled the beans about him, huh?”
Ella laughed and laid her head on Melody’s shoulder. “No, I’d already started to figure it out. I mean, what man named Adam would have two ex-wives named Eve and Lilith? And he never said his son’s names, but I kinda figured that Cain and Abel would be hard to explain.” She paused and looked up at Melody. “Wait, I though Abel died. Cain murdered him, right?”
“Yeah, it’s a whole mess of a story, but the long and short of it is that they are family, they love each other, and no matter what they always stick together.”
“But he’s dead?”
“Not exactly. He was.” Melody stared up at the ceiling. “He was dead, he was resting in the Elysium Fields, met a girl who could come and go from the Underworld and accidentally got himself cursed by her father. Now, he’s alive but dead at the same time. Cain is an immortal, because of his mark, so he can come and go too.”
“The Underworld is real? Like some big afterlife for everybody?”
“Kind of. Different gods and goddesses have their own territories where their followers or souls they’ve claimed come to rest. For those of us who are able to leave, we generally have jobs and homes topside,” she paused. “Up here, and places we call home down there too.”
“And you work for the Patriarchy?” Ella asked with a confused look on her face.
Melody laughed. “Not the Patriarchy. Adam runs the Chalice, but the Chalice is also the Assassins’ guild of the Underworld, that part is run by the Patriarch.”
“And who is that?”
