Biting Cold - By Chloe Neill Page 0,81

often the victims of that compulsion, didn’t appreciate it. They called them the Dark Ones, and they deemed them fallen. Demonic. Devilish. The source of evil.”

“And so humans began to distinguish between good and evil.”

Seth looked at me thoughtfully. “You remembered what we talked about when I was incarcerated.”

I nodded.

“Humans wanted the violence to stop, but the fallen angels were arrogant and refused to believe their actions were wrong. And so a war was waged between humans and messengers. Incensed by the humans’ conceit, the justice givers delivered redemption on their own terms, destroying human cities and salting the earth so nothing could grow again.”

“Carthage,” I quietly murmured.

“You said messengers, plural,” Lindsey said. “There are others of you?”

“There are many, although our roles are diminished. Our magic is old, and our ways are old. We aren’t part of this world, not in the way we once were.”

“And the Maleficium?” I asked.

“When humans grew sick of the destruction, they called their magicians, who separated evil from good and placed it into a vessel that would contain it. The Maleficium, the book, was created to hold the evil they’d separated out. But it wasn’t just a thing. A power.”

“What was it?” Lindsey quietly asked, transfixed by the story.

Suddenly, it all made sense. Well, most of it.

“It was them,” I said. “The fallen angels. The Maleficium was created to separate good and evil—they thought the fallen angels were evil. Which means the Maleficium was created to hold the fallen angels. Dominic and the others.”

“The magicians didn’t know how to kill them,” Seth said, “so they thought to lock them away for eternity. At least until Mallory came along. Mallory’s spell at the silo—what was she trying to do?”

“It was a conjuring spell,” Lindsey said. “It does seem like she conjured someone.”

But I shook my head. “The Maleficium didn’t release Dominic. He didn’t pop out of the book. He split off from Seth.”

“Is that why you look alike?” Lindsey asked.

Seth’s expression was sad. “No,” he said. “I’m afraid the answer is much simpler. Messengers of justice and of peace were always born to earth in pairs. It was an innate way of keeping the world in balance.”

The magical world was big on balance. Good and evil. Dark and light. The reason Mallory’s first attempt to unleash the Maleficium on the world caused so much havoc in Chicago was precisely because dark and light magic were thrown out of whack.

And humans thought magic was all about fairy tales and simple stories. Little did they know.

“You are twins,” Lindsey said. “Real-life twins.”

“We were. Are,” he corrected, his expression slinking toward despair. “Although he and I are very different creatures. We always have been.”

Before any of us could react to that, the door burst open. Ethan stood there, Juliet and Luc behind him. A perk of magic filled the air, and Ethan had the fire of a devil in his eyes.

He moved toward Seth, his strides long and determined. His hair had come loose from its tie, and it streamed around his face as he moved like he was a warrior moving into battle.

“Ethan,” I said, but he threw me a silencing look. The look of a Master vampire whose irritation at me was matched only by his irritation at the party crasher in his House.

He grabbed Seth’s cassock by the shoulders and pushed him backward. Seth stumbled but stayed on his feet, and stared back at Ethan with equal intensity, but much less hatred.

“Are you looking for a fight, Tate? Because I will show you a fight.”

Oh, God. Ethan didn’t know this wasn’t Dominic—the man who’d tried to kill me—and he was ready for war.

“You would have killed her, goddamn it. Do you understand that?”

Seth’s eyes went wide, and his gaze snapped to me. “Merit?”

“I’m fine,” I said, eyes shifting between him and Ethan. “Ethan, this is Seth. Not Dominic.”

“Merit can tell the difference between them,” Lindsey said.

But neither Ethan nor Seth was willing to listen; they were both too wrapped up in their own emotions. Ethan thought the man who’d tried to kill me was here again. Seth, who’d known me since I was a child, had only just learned his twin brother had tried to kill me.

“This will not stand,” Ethan said.

“He hurt you?” Seth asked.

“Dominic decided I’d interrupted his work. He put me in the sun. But I’m fine now.”

Seth looked horrified but turned back to Ethan. “I am sorry,” he said, and there was no mistaking the sincerity in his voice. “I