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He was convincing.

I noticed the
small man in the business suit standing to the side of the room, watching with great interest. He adjusted his spectacles and his eyes flitted between the three of us as if he suspected shenanigans.

Lilith looked on suspiciously as well.

‘Olivier was responsible for her,’ Lilith said.

Olivier stepped forward. ‘As I explained, we were attacked.’ He eyed Phoenix suggestively.

Lilith stood and walked towards Olivier, her hips swaying and her hair flowing like liquid gold. I wanted to rip her heart out.

Patience.

I spotted a low black sofa beside Lilith’s throne. Lincoln’s soul-less body was lying on it, a collar around his neck from which a single golden chain led into Lilith’s hand. He was breathing. I didn’t look for long. Didn’t react. Couldn’t.

Evelyn was there as well. She was chained around her waist to a pole. I let my dead gaze connect with her fire-blue eyes. I could see she, too, was trying to work out what was happening. She raised her eyebrows, questioningly. I gave her the smallest nod, letting her know I had a plan. It was a good thing such a gesture couldn’t also convey that she probably wouldn’t
like
said plan.

Lilith took her time, sauntering up to Olivier and circling him, before her hand caressed his chest. Even now, she didn’t consider me a threat, not bothering to have me searched or further restrained. Her ego would be her undoing.

‘You told me you were strong,’ she said to Olivier, tenderly.

‘I am,’ he hissed, failing to disguise his contempt for her. Despite what he may be willing to do to destroy the Grigori, he was still
once an angel of light and Lilith would always have been an angel of dark. They were not friends.

‘You told me you were the best of the light,’ she said.

‘I am.’

Lilith took a deep breath, closed her eyes briefly and began to walk away from him slowly. Without turning back, a breeze began to stir around her, lifting her long golden hair out into needlepoints. She paused and suddenly, as if working like an extra limb, her tresses flew backwards and whipped Olivier across the face. His body flinched at the contact, his face turning a ghostly shade and sinking in on itself, as if a hundred plagues had infiltrated him in a matter of seconds.

Lilith smiled at me, secretively. My stomach turned.

She spun round – arm out and fingers extended – and drove her bare hand straight into Olivier’s chest and out again, just as fast, clasping his heart. Seeing Lilith, the bringer of death and disease, in action at any other time would’ve scared the crap out of me.

Now? Not so much.

‘Phoenix, my son,’ she said, once Olivier’s body had disappeared and she had resumed her place on her throne. ‘You surprise me, again.’ She nodded in approval.

Phoenix moved away from me and bowed before Lilith. ‘My place is to stand by you, always.’

Lilith seemed happy with his answer and motioned for her son to take his place behind her. He did.

‘Violet, I confess you astonish me – for a mortal. Quite remarkable that you have found a way back to the living so quickly, but I am glad you have returned. I so wanted for you to see your love again.’ She tugged on the chain she held like a leash, connecting
her to Lincoln, yanking so hard that his head jerked up.

I didn’t move.

Lilith sighed, looking over his body appreciatively.

I gritted my teeth.

‘Alive. But not. The soul has more power than anything else. Wouldn’t you agree?’

I focused my attention on her and not on the man I loved more than life itself. ‘I would. Now I have a question for you.’

She laughed. ‘Yes?’

‘Did you really think you could beat me? Did you really think, even with all your power, that you could match the power of the Sole?’

‘I’m yet to see anything that proves to the contrary,’ she said, condescendingly.

I smiled, the action showed only the emptiness that filled me. Lilith flinched. Closing my eyes, I delved deeper into my well of power than I had ever done before. I called it forth. Then I used my Sight, knowing now that it was so much more than its name implied. I lifted my consciousness from my body and, for the first time, took my power with me.

Then I released it onto the room.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

‘Adam’s wife, his first. Beware of her. Her beauty’s one boast is her dangerous hair. When Lilith winds it tight around young men she doesn’t soon let go of them again.
’

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

D
ozens
of exiles were instantly trapped by my power. I felt a surge of energy; it was intoxicating to know that each one was rendered motionless under my command. Every exile was now at my mercy. All but two.

I deliberately left Phoenix untouched by my power, though he remained stock-still like the rest of them. Even if I hadn’t, I suspected he would be immune to it now, due to our new … relationship.

Lilith, on the other hand, revelled in proving I could not disable her with my abilities. She walked through my amethyst mist, chuckling. But despite her boldness, her steps were slower; she was not as invulnerable as her angelic ego would have me think.

‘Impressive,’ she said, looking at my physical form and then to the ceiling, tracking my incorporeal movement easily. ‘You are indeed of the Sole. But you and I both know you cannot hold
the room like this for long. You certainly cannot strip every unwilling exile of their powers.’

It was true. It took all of my concentration to hold so many at once. But just to make a point, I honed in on one exile – one of the ones who had been so keen to beat Lincoln earlier – and stripped him of his angelic power, reducing him to only-human status, against his will. He dropped to the floor, screaming hysterically. With a look of disgust, Lilith flicked her wrist and sent out a gust of wind so powerful he was thrown into a nearby wall. He stopped making any noise.

Reluctantly, I pulled away from my Sight and returned to my body, tugging at the tie around my wrists to release my hands. Keeping my hold on the surrounding exiles, I yelled, ‘Now!’

At the same time as my arm went up, the holder carrying my two katanas flew into my hand and I pulled them both free.

Thank you, Spence.

Lilith threw her head back and laughed as I began to move towards her. She took a step to the edge of her stage, completely unthreatened.

‘You cannot break my shields, little girl. Air protects me. It loves me and I wield and replenish it faster than you could ever comprehend.’

I took another step closer, feeling the crushing pressure of her force field. My grip tightened on the hilts of my swords.

Lilith was so wrong.

Thanks to Phoenix’s essence, I understood exactly how her shield worked – I could see the way the air solidified around her, becoming something entirely impenetrable.

I stepped into the zone of her power and felt my body tremble under its oppressive weight.

Lilith continued
to give me her amused attention. ‘You are powerful to stay on your feet. But
so
human.
So
stupid. Is
this
all you have to offer? Is
this
your big moment?’

I stared right into her eyes. I didn’t look beyond her. I didn’t give anything away.

‘No.’

She shook her head. ‘You’ll
never
break my shields.’

He struck.

She gasped.

Her chin jutted out, her mouth wide open as a blade sliced through her chest, from behind.

‘She knows,’ Phoenix said, at Lilith’s ear.

Only now did I look to where Phoenix had moved and thrust the hidden blade into his mother. At her back and within her field, he had been in a prime position. And Lilith hadn’t even considered that he could be a threat. Pride had seen to that.

Stunned, she stumbled forwards, turning shocked eyes on her son.

Phoenix returned her look, his sadness evident. ‘I was wrong to bring you back. I’m sorry for my mistake,’ he said.

Lilith reached behind herself and pulled out the blade, snarling at the pain. ‘You were
wrong
to try and betray me.’

I moved slowly. Silently. Pushing through what remained of her shields. Just as Phoenix had planned, the injury had caused enough damage to weaken her defences.

‘You of all people should know that blade is not enough to kill me!’ She lunged, Phoenix’s dagger now in her hand.

Frighteningly fast, she was in front of Phoenix, her fingernails digging into his neck, the dagger now in his stomach. She hissed
and twisted the blade before ripping it out of him again.

Phoenix fell to his knees, looking up at her with heart-wrenching understanding. And maybe it was true. Maybe there was a part in all of us that could not be denied. But Phoenix had already proved his nature was not set in stone and frankly, right then, I didn’t give a damn.

He shook his head. ‘I didn’t need to kill you, Mother, just weaken you.’ He sank to the floor.

Realising her error, Lilith spun, blade in hand. She lashed out towards my side.

But I was already through her shields, and I was fast, too.

I forced both katanas, imbued with shavings from Grigori weapons, through her chest and released my power, pushing it
all
into her, letting go of my hold over the other exiles as I did. Something burned above my hip but I ignored it.

She stumbled, grabbing at the blades, but the sheer force of my power weakened her so she could barely move. She finally managed to wrench the swords free, a clanking sound echoing through the hall as they fell. Even so, the arrogance in her eyes remained. She still believed she would kill me.

‘For my mother,’ I said.

I pulled my Grigori dagger from behind my back. The blade was fast across my wrist, the cut deep. I didn’t care.

‘For your son,’ I said.

Lilith watched as I let my angelic blood, marbled with silver, cover the blade.

Her eyes widened. I half smiled.

‘Impossible,’ she whispered, managing to move a couple of steps back.

I simply moved
with her. ‘For those children and the parents you stole them from.’

I took the final step and didn’t hesitate, thrusting the dagger, covered in my blood, straight into her heart.

‘For Lincoln.’

Lilith fell.

In that instant, before she could disappear, I felt the shift in reality. The air became thick and gravity’s hold seemed to falter. I closed my eyes and rode it out.

When I opened them again, Uri and Nox stood before me – the rest of the room still. Operating on autopilot I bent, lifted Lilith into my arms and walked towards them, willing us into this in-between place I still did not fully understand.

Uri nodded to me as I crossed the threshold and passed him Lilith, glancing at my bleeding wrist in the transfer. Even in this otherworldly place, the coldness came with me, eating away at me like defenceless prey.

Nox took in the scene curiously and turned to me. ‘Surprises to be had all round, it seems.’ He nodded with satisfaction. ‘All is as it should be. The tilt has now been corrected.’

‘What
tilt
?’ I asked.

Nox looked to Phoenix, who was barely breathing, then back to me. ‘It was never right that one as powerful as you should carry only the light. Now, you carry both light and dark. It is just.’

It took a moment for me to process his words in my sluggish mind. But eventually … Oh.

‘My angel maker is of the light,’ I said softly.

Nox snorted. ‘Did you think any self-respecting Angel Malign would embrace the image of the lion?’

More pieces
of the puzzle fell into place and fury raged within me. I spat blood at Nox’s feet, looking down and only now registering the wound in my side. Lilith must have done it. I vaguely remembered feeling something when I stabbed her.

‘This was your plan all along, wasn’t it? All of it! You wanted this to happen so Phoenix would give me his essence, because
what
? The Angels Malign were
jealous
?’ I was screaming. It wasn’t like anyone else could hear; we had stalled time around us.

‘It is as it must be. I neither wanted nor denied it.’

‘Nox,’ Uri interrupted, ‘we must go.’

‘And why is that?’ Nox sneered, challenging Uri. He wanted to stay and gloat.

‘Because we have shown her the tool to destroy any of us in physical form whenever she should so choose and right now she is not herself. It would not be wise to remain.’

Nox looked at me properly for the first time. ‘True.’ He tilted his head. ‘Though I do like this look. Feral works for you.’

Uri cast his emotionless eyes over me. For once, I felt I matched his gaze with my own blankness.

‘Extraordinariness will always carry great sacrifice. It must. But you must surrender, still.’

I ignored him, issuing a threat. ‘Make sure she doesn’t find a way back this time.’

He gave a small nod, looking beyond me to the dozens of exiles that would soon attack. ‘I’ll leave you to finish things here.’