Nashriel had always been very sweet and doting with Eve. He had been as talented a craftsman as he was a swordsman and showered her with rings, necklaces, and other handmade gifts. When Adam had told her that He was going to take Nash as one of his soldiers, it had broken Eve's heart to think of one of her kindest sons committing atrocities at the orders of her husband.

The years had burned the sweetness out of Nash. And he definitely would not dote on Elise the way that he had doted on his mother.

It was difficult to wrap her mind around that, even when Nash drew his saber from his belt and ignited it. Flames licked along the sharp edge.

The cavern underneath New Eden's graveyard was dark enough that Elise could have turned to shadow if she wished. She could wrap herself around Nash, contract on his flesh, consume every last of inch of him.

But she held back. She hesitated.

Nash didn't.

He swung the saber at her with shocking speed. She had already been running at him to attack, too-only her reflexes made her drop in time to avoid decapitation. Elise hadn't felt the bite of ethereal steel in this form, and she didn't want to bet her life that she could heal such a wound.

Instantly, Nash redirected the blow, pivoting on one foot to aim for the back of Elise's knees. He was trying to hamstring her.

She threw herself to the ground and rolled.

Elise came up with Seth's Beretta in both hands, getting onto one knee to stabilize herself. Neuma's brief shooting lessons flashed through her mind. She let a breath out and squeezed the trigger.

The shot punched into Nash's left pectoral. His shoulder jerked backward. He didn't stop running.

His flaming saber swung toward her head.

Elise fired again, aiming for his hands. It was mostly luck that let her hit his wrist. Silvery blood sprayed, accompanied by the smell of charred meat and green apples.

His swing whistled harmlessly through the air an inch from her bicep. The momentum stirred her hair. A few locks fell to the ground, severed by the burning blade.

She shoved off the ground, launching herself at him. Her shoulder impacted with his gut.

They both fell, and Elise felt the heat of his sword behind her. She didn't give him room to maneuver it. An angel's saber was a frightening weapon even when it wasn't lit, huge and vicious and sharp, but the size of it also limited his movement. It wasn't a stabbing blade.

Nash threw his weight, rolling them. Hard stone pressed against Elise's back. He reared up and punched her across the face with the hilt of his saber.

Her mouth flooded with a woody taste that wasn't quite blood. More like tree sap. She spat it out. "You're going to try to kill me instead of letting me stop this abomination of a city?"

"This kind of war would be devastating." He struck her again, this time with an empty fist. She felt her canine loosen in her gums. "Millions could die. Billions."

"You people started it," she said, lisping around the damaged tooth.

She wrenched her arm out from underneath Nash's leg and fired the Beretta at point-blank range, unloading the clip right into his heart.

He slammed into the ground. Clutched at his heart. Blood bubbled from his mouth and spattered down his chin.

Elise stuffed the Beretta back into its holster and drew her falchion-but again, she hesitated. The sight of Nashriel wounded and bleeding made her heart feel like it was breaking all over again.

She brought the falchion down on his neck.

Her instant of hesitation had been too much. Nash rolled out of the way, and her blade connected with one of the spears jutting out of the ground instead. The female body to which it had been attached jerked, chest hitching. Ichor crept up her arm through the spike in her wrist.

Shit. Elise couldn't let the blade cut anything. Not unless she wanted to be responsible for the deaths of these mortals.

She needed a better plan.

Nash came to his feet with his wings blazing fire-bright. The light seared Elise's skin. She felt like she was blistering, melting, flaking away-because she was.

Her hands flickered. The falchion fell through her bones and clattered to the ground.

She threw herself behind one of the slabs, reaching around long enough to seize her sword. It took two tries for her to force her hand to be corporeal and close on the hilt. Elise pulled it to her, sheathed it.

Then she ran.

Nash's brilliance had the side effect of casting darkness behind the obstacles in the room, allowing her to phase from one to the other where the shadows touched. Within a minute, she was all the way across the cavern.

His voice echoed through the air. "Don't make me hunt you."

He didn't know where she was, but that wouldn't last long.

Elise pulled her body into itself. She became corporeal crouched behind an egg.

If Nash blasted her again with his wings, she wasn't going to be able to hold it together. She could already feel herself being sucked back to Hell. Not to Dis, but to some darker place-the same dizzying sensation of falling that she had experienced when Sallosa plunged the flamberge into her heart.

She was getting real fucking sick of people almost killing her. She was better than this. She was the Father. The Godslayer.

Elise sank her teeth into the meaty flesh of her hand, breaking the skin. The taste of amber blood flooded her mouth.

The churn of Nash's wings echoed around the cavern. He was still searching for her, and she couldn't tell where he was positioned because the entire room felt like it was filled with ethereal life. She had to act fast, before he found her.

She smeared the blood across the floor in a wide circle even as she reached out with her mind.

James. I need a warlock rune.

His consciousness fluttered against hers. He was on the move. Still in New Eden, and trying to reach her. You need what?

Warlock rune. Now. Needs to be big and mean.

To his credit, he didn't ask why. He simply formed the image of a warlock rune from Onoskelis's book in his mind. She could see the visualization as clearly as though it were written in front of her.

Elise smeared her blood quickly, drawing the sharp lines and jagged spikes.

I need the word, too, she thought at him.

The word filled her mind with a sense of pressure, as comforting as being wrapped tightly in warm blankets, as hot as standing on the brink of Dis's wasteland.

Elise whispered it as she continued to draw, suffusing the rune with magic.

It didn't come out right. She could tell immediately. The power wavered within her, uncertain and weak.

If she hadn't known any better, she might have prayed for the spell to work.

She splashed the last spot on the ground. The rune was completed.

Orange-red light exploded around her.

"Shit," she gasped as the rune blazed with fire, filling the cavern with a brilliant glow that Nash was sure to see. It painted all of the eggs around her in shades of gold. Her shadow was cast on the distant earthen roof a thousandfold-a beacon directing Nash to her position.

The wind beat around her. He was moving in.

Elise gathered the magic in her arms as she stood.

Nash descended. He held the flaming sword in one hand and one of the stone roots in the other, snapped off of a slab and uplifted like a spear.

His expression was drawn, regretful. He was prepared to kill her. Ready to send her spiraling to the darkest pits of Hell from which she might never return.

She shoved her magic at him.

A column of fire gushed into the air, thicker than the redwoods and so hot that its core was white. In the instant before it hit the angel, Elise almost regretted casting the spell-she had told James she wanted big and mean, but she wasn't sure she wanted it that mean.

The flames engulfed him.

Nash's wings caught instantly. They bent behind him, and he plummeted to the ground with a cry of pain, devoured by fire. Momentum carried him all the way to her. His body hurtled into hers.

And the stone spear plunged into her ribs.

The pain wasn't as shocking as the impact of it. Like being struck by a train. She staggered, back striking one of the slabs. Elise tasted her own blood when she gasped.

"Fuck!" she hissed, wrapping a hand around the spear near her body. Just the touch made the wound burn worse. It had punctured something important-a lung, maybe. She didn't dare remove it yet. She snapped it off so that only a few inches protruded from her side.

It had been a smart move on Nash's part. A wound from a piece of Heaven would slow her healing, make her weak, maybe allow him to kill her.

Too bad that her final move had been better than his.

He was devoured by flame on the ground. He screamed as he thrashed, beating at his arms and chest. Elise's heart ached at the sight of him burning. She was momentarily tempted to throw her jacket on him, smothering the flames, saving him from the fires.

But Nash had been prepared to kill her to preserve the secret of New Eden. He must have been prepared to die for it, too.

Elise ran to Benjamin Flynn and picked him up. He wasn't heavy, but he was much taller than her, and it made him difficult to carry. She rushed past Nash, still thrashing on the ground, with Benjamin dangling from her arms. Every step jolted the spike in her ribs. Her heart pounded, and blood dripped down her leg.

Elise thought she heard Nash shout at her, but she didn't stop to listen.

The sense of ethereal power was growing, pushing hard enough to make her head throb. The angels had realized that Benjamin Flynn was gone from the graveyard. They had probably sensed her casting warlock magic, too.

They were coming.

She phased to the wall with the portal back to Malebolge.

James, where are you? We have to leave. Now.

I'm coming for you, he replied.

Did you get everyone?

No. He sounded tense. Whatever had happened, it was bad news.

Elise opened herself to him. He was just a few hundred yards away. He must have been leading Abram-she couldn't see the younger man in his field of vision.

She moved to meet them at the mouth of the tunnel. James and Abram emerged as she approached them. She'd expected-or at least hoped-to find them guiding some of the pack back. But they were alone.

"What happened?" she asked.

James's gaze fixed on her bloody jacket. "I could ask you the same."

White-blue light flickered in the stairwell, and a cluster of angels entered. They blazed so brightly that they looked like a dozen burning stars.

"We'll catch up later," Elise said.

James took Benjamin from her. Without his weight, she was a little faster. They rushed toward the portal.

The newly-arrived angels closed in on Nash first. There was a good chance that they'd be able to save him if they acted quickly enough, and Elise was frustrated by how much relief she felt at that. She was even a little bit happy to see her children approaching, even after what they had done, and even though it meant potential death. Eve's love really was limitless. Dumb bitch.

"How do we get up there?" Abram asked, craning his neck to look up the portal.

"Elise?" James said.

She prepared to phase. "Hold your breath."

But then a trio of angels broke free of the others and shot toward them with shocking speed, bathing her in light. Her skin ached. Her head throbbed.

She couldn't phase.

"Elise?" James asked, edging to her side.

She lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the light. It took all of her strength not to cry out. "Can't," she said through gritted teeth.

Benjamin's eyes cracked open. His irises were warm and brown. He glanced around the room, taking in the approach of the angels, the eggs surrounding them, the portal on the wall high above them.

"Grab me," he croaked.

Elise didn't think twice. She seized his wrist, and then Abram's.

Reality distorted.

For a breathless minute, Elise felt like she was standing in two places at once. New Eden and the Dark Man's basement folded in on each other. She could see, smell, and hear both simultaneously. Darkness and light. Hell and Heaven.

The three angels approaching looked shocked and angry. It was Uriel, Azrael, and Sandaramet.

"They're leaving!" Azrael roared. "Stop them!"

Elise's view of the cavern snapped. It vanished.