me a little more hopeful. I still had doubts about me being some kind of messiah figure, but if it gave me sway over our fellow demons, I’d use it to my advantage.
I scanned the rest of their list and noticed a ton of medical supplies.
“What’s all this for?” I read off a couple of the items.
“In addition to blood, Lena will likely need medical attention,” Seneser said.
“Are you a doctor?” I asked him.
“No, but I am,” Lucian said arrogantly.
“More like a mad scientist,” you grumbled.
Lucian shot you a scathing look. “Someone had to transmute our mother when her bloodborn body was stolen from her.”
I didn’t need to ask because you anticipated my next question.
“Yes, it was Azrael,” you said. “Under the directive of the Thrones.”
“We’re going to need cat food,” I said and added Spooky’s preferred brand to the list. I glanced between the three of you, but no one argued with me about it. Now that she’d been identified as a familiar, her rank seemed to have risen.
It was decided then that you and Lucian would go collect our supplies while I stayed behind to babysit Seneser. You weren’t happy with that arrangement, but we didn’t have time to debate it. Seneser’s spirit would only be bound for about three days, which meant we had, at most, 60 hours to make sure his pledge to locate our mother came true.
Before leaving, you gagged Seneser and told me you didn’t want me conversing with him. When I asked why, you said, “Demons are notorious manipulators, and I don’t want him influencing you in my absence.”
Your explanation was vague and unconvincing, like so many others. I recalled that moment in the red room of Ruby Slippers when you tortured Maxwell to make Seneser surface.
“How’s Maxwell’s… you know?”
“Lucian treated the injury. It’ll leave a scar, but its function is perfectly fine.”
“Do you…” I tried to think of a gentler way to ask, but there really wasn’t one. “Do you torture people often?”
“I don’t take pleasure in hurting humans, but there are some instances when I feel I must. I try to do it sparingly and preserve life when I can.”
Well, that confirmed my suspicions. What else did I not know due to your selective truths?
“Do you expect me to do that sort of thing too?” I asked.
You cupped my face with your rough hands and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead. “Not if I can help it.”
I watched you leave, then decided to drink some bottled blood to pass the time. I wondered when the last time Seneser or his human host had eaten, so I ordered room service for the both of us. When the food arrived, I removed his gag, since it was the only way he could eat. Rather than cut the zip ties that bound his wrists behind his back, I offered to feed him myself.
While we ate, I asked him to tell me more about the prophecy.
“It’s an ancient and well-known prophecy among the Grigori elders, that a child of the bloodborn will rise up as the sovereign leader of a great empire in the earthen realm, one more powerful than any that has come before it. And under their rule, Nephilim will walk again as giants among men.”
“Giants among men,” I repeated, recalling Mater’s stories of our kind’s great feats of strength and valor in a time long ago. “Is that how it used to be?”
Seneser nodded. “Around the time of Andro—Henri’s imprisonment, Azrael convinced the Thrones that Nephilim were too many and too powerful, that under the direction of the Grigori, they would overtake the earthen realm. With their blessing, he systematically shrunk tribal territory, then instituted angelic law, trapping and enslaving those Nephilim who dared stray outside the boundaries of their ancestral lands. The Grigori were too divided to combat him. They didn’t know they were at war until it was too late.”
“And Mater really thinks I’m the one to lead this revolution?”
“To be fair, she once thought it was Henri. And then Lucian. But now? Yes, she believes it’s you.”
“Do you believe it?” I asked.
“If fates don’t align, prophecies are often reinterpreted or abandoned altogether, but this one has remained steadfast for thousands of years. If it were true, that you or one of your brothers might one day rule over a vast empire, then I’d certainly want to be at the head of that receiving line.”
I believed Seneser’s selfish motives. And if his past dealings with Azrael were true, he