Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Cassius

Ethan slams his hand against the table, nearly slicing it in half. “We have to do something.”

“No,” Horus answers before I can. “Trust me, I want to save Tarek, too, but even if we knew where they were taken, we can’t force our will on them—”

“Quite honestly,”—Timber grabs his mug of coffee and sits down on the counter—“if I hear one more time that you can’t force will onto people, I’m going to lose my mind. Can you force people to make choices? Oh, I don’t know…” he says mysteriously with a smirk that I’m not entirely comfortable with. “I mean, we can. There are just… consequences.”

Stephanie leans in. “What kind?”

He shrugs. “Well, in the Underworld, you need balance, same as up here.” He taps the table with his fingers. “In the old days, you had to bring in your gold to earn acceptance. We did away with that, and because Horus can more or less see souls or pull them from bodies the same as I can, we started to just check if they were pure.”

“So many were not,” Horus says and takes a sip of coffee. “Oh, sorry, my thoughts are all over the place. But we can’t save them because, apparently, the Earth still functions the same as it did before, just twisting on its axis and giving everyone air. I mean, until it resets again. Which…that shit gets rough.”

“Resets,” we all say in unison.

Timber sighs and leans back, coffee still in hand—a red cup that says Bite me , which would be amusing if I wasn’t so worried about Tarek and Lilith.

“Okay.” Timber stands. “I can check if they’re in the Underworld, but other than that…” He looks over at me, his jaw clenched. “They’re on their own. And my fear is…”

He doesn’t finish his sentence.

I squeeze my eyes shut.

“Creator,” I whisper. “Please, hear my cry. Hear me now. A friend—a family member—is in danger, and I don’t know what caused it. But we need…” I pause. “We need the stars. We need more power. I can save him, but I can’t go outside the visions I see. Tarek’s will is strong, but he can’t see his future. He can’t see anything…he’s blind. He’s probably being fed from, and I have no way to save him other than to pull a corpse from—”

“Stop,” a voice commands.

I look around, but nothing appears.

The tone is robotic in nature.

“Let,” it whispers.

The entire group looks around. We’re powerful enough to kill most things, but this has no body. It has nothing. And in all my years of existing, I’ve never experienced the power coming from it.

“Let,” it repeats. “Let him fulfill it.”

I shake my head. “He’s only a werewolf. He can’t.”

The voice sounds again. “Dear, sweet angel…he’s so much more than he can possibly know. Older than you. Smarter.” The voice chuckles. “No offense, sweet angel. Thank you for what you do. When the time is right, They’ll let you know.”

“Who are you?” I stand. I’m used to talking to the Heavens, I’m used to immortal creatures, but this is different.

Everything in the air feels hot and cold all at once. Sweat drips down my cheek and falls onto the table.

I raise my hands to freeze the room when a chuckle sounds again. “Oh, Cassius. What a great immortal you have become. I’ve watched for so long. After all, that’s what we do. We watch.” Chills run down my spine. “We watched then, and we watch now. If you need me, please use my name. I am Uriel, angel of repentance, guardian of Eden. They have the apple, but only Tarek can retrieve it and make things right. We do this for Lilith. We do it for humanity. We do it for the first. She’s suffered too long. Her journey has also been long—to find him. So now, we need you to sit and prepare yourselves.”

A chill runs down my spine again. “For?”

“Genesis.”