Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
“His mind has remained sound.” Osiris goes on and I watch him closely, seeing his chest rise up and down as he breathes. “It’s a curious thing, perhaps the most curious thing I’ve witnessed in quite a while.” He strides forward, closing the distance between us. “You are curious as well.” Gently, he reaches out and touches my hair. “Curious enough I almost couldn’t place you. Not human, yet not quite something else.” He tips his head, looking me up and down, and then locks eyes with me. “You have both light and dark in you. It’s…it’s fascinating.”
“I’m a nephilim. You get the best of both worlds with me and if you don’t take me to Lucas in the next three seconds I swear to god I will just—just I’ll start singing the Hannah Montana theme song!” I finish. I’d laugh at myself if I weren’t feeling so frazzled.
Osiris steps back, amusement on his face. “Such threats! That theme song does have a way of getting stuck in your head. Very well then.”
“That’s it?” I blurt out, expecting him to put up some sort of fight. “You’re just going to take me to him?”
He looks at me curiously again. “Isn’t that what you want?”
“Yeah, I thought you’d say no.”
“I have no reason to keep you from him. Though, I do want to warn you,” he starts and my stomach drops. “He is in a suspended state, as all the Horsemen are.”
“Oh.” I slowly take in a breath, trying to keep it together. “Makes sense.”
Osiris sweeps his hand out, motioning for me to walk with him. My heart skips a beat and I focus on each and every step I’m taking. “The deal Julian made with you,” I start, turning to look at Osiris as we walk. “What were the terms?”
“He would deliver the Horsemen to a secure location on earth where I could procure them and then bring them here. His terms were to hold them for three hundred years and then I can use them as I see fit.”
That sounds like something Julian would do. Three hundred years isn’t long when it comes to immortal beings, but it could possibly be my lifetime. I’m still not sure how the whole aging thing is going to work since I’m technically half human.
“And what will you do with them when the three hundred years are up?” We’re going back the way I came, yet this time, more hallways appear off the one we’re walking down. I can tell now that we’re underground, and I can feel a river of hellfire below me. I hear the flesh crackling and melting and can smell the burning of souls damned for eternity.
“I’d like to destroy them.”
His words make me stop dead in my tracks. “Destroy?” I echo, wanting to make sure I heard him right. “Like kill them?”
“Yes.”
“You wouldn’t try to use them?”
Osiris stops as well, one brow going up. “Unlike their previous keeper, I do not wish to see the world destroyed.”
“Lucifer doesn’t anymore,” I say, unable to help myself but defend my uncle.
“He doesn’t currently,” Osiris corrects, and dammit, I can’t disagree. Lucifer is definitely a loose cannon and I’ve let my guard down around him. I feel sorry for him in a sense now that I see his perspective.
Lucifer was cast to Hell as a punishment, forced to rule over demons and dark souls instead of residing with the rest of his family. He made bad choices but wasn’t born evil. Lucifer was treated as a monster until that’s what he became.
And Osiris…I don’t know how he came to be here. He doesn’t have the same resentment towards his role as God of the Underworld. He just might be telling the truth.
“How are you going to destroy them?” I ask, all jittery inside. I’m already thinking ahead, and of course, Lucas won’t be on the back of any fucking demonic horse for long.
“That, I haven’t decided yet. I’m in the process of dissecting their nature. Do you know how the Horsemen were created?”
“No,” I say simply and wait for him to explain. Then I realize he’s actually asking me because he doesn’t know. “All I know is that they were in Hell before Lucifer got there, and we’ve been able to figure out that the power comes from the horse, not the rider.”
“I was able to see that when you used magic to break the connection between the demon and the human in control.”
“Human?”
“The riders have dark souls, leading me to believe they were human at one point.”
“Oh.” Panic starts to rise up inside of me as the desperation to have my husband back consumes me. “We didn’t know Julian made a deal. He…he died before he could tell me.”
“I know. And I am so sorry, Callie,” he says and puts his hand on my shoulder.