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“You guessed?” A
“Correctly,” Sylvie said. “Isn’t that what matters?”
A
“I get it already,” Sylvie said. Her ears burned. She set the little crystal down before she hurled it at something. Or someone.
“Let me be precise. Love made Du
“How about you shut up about me and start talking about Lily?” Sylvie said.
A
“Like my own evil twin,” Sylvie said, pushing away another touch of chill with empty rejoinder. She sat down on the coffee table, hunched into the jacket for warmth, and tried to enjoy the way A
“Tell me about her then, if you know so much. Tell me how I have anything to do with her, other than being the one sent to make her give back what she’s taken.”
A
“Start at the very begi
“I am not talking for my own edification, Ms. Lightner,” A
“I get it,” Sylvie said, when the silence continued, when she realized she was going to have to listen actively, like some remedial student. “So which creation myth are we talking?”
“Can’t you guess?”
“I don’t think you like it when I guess.”
“Her name’s not Lily,” A
“Lilith,” Sylvie said, thought she said, though no sound came from her mouth. Her lips felt cold. It wasn’t surprise; it felt like fate. After all, it was the succubi, Lilith’s daughters, that had brought Sylvie into awareness of the Magicus Mundi all that time ago, Lilith’s influence that had seen Sylvie’s i
“Your conflict was inevitable—”
“I made some of her daughters dead,” Sylvie said. “In retrospect, not the smartest move ever.” She picked up one of the little crystals and juggled it hand to hand. No wonder Demalion had taken to carrying one; they were as smoothly soothing as meditation balls minus the a
“She has other offspring,” A
“Fate’s just an easy word for not trying,” Sylvie said. “I make my own choices, make my own fate.”
“Perhaps fate was the wrong word,” A
“We were talking about Lilith,” Sylvie said.
“We still are,” A
“I always wanted green eyes,” Sylvie said.
“Do not be pert,” A
“Myself,” Sylvie said, intimidated despite herself. The Furies were always enraged; their sudden bursts of temper were expected. This feral distortion of an elegant woman just plain scared her. Kill it, the dark voice hissed again.
“Tell me,” A
Sylvie slipped out of the woman’s reach and rose. She leaned up against the cool glass and closed her eyes. “I know who I am,” she said. “Tell me about Lilith.”
She opened her eyes and watched A
“He told her to obey Adam.”
A
“You make her sound good,” Sylvie said. “Not a demon.”
“Lilith is as human as you, though considerably more long-lived,” A
“She watched as he brought Eve into existence, the serpent, the tree. Soon after that, he punished them both, casting them out.”
“Bluebeard,” Sylvie murmured. “A pla
“Lilith deciphered His plan. Eden was limited, even with his handmade followers. To that end, He sent Adam and Eve into exile, frightened, pathetic, hurting, so that their heartbroken, homesick wails could stir envy and longing in the hearts of other peoples. Stirring the desire to bow down, if only to earn a chance at the beautiful garden for themselves. After all, heaven is only a heaven in comparison to a hell.
“The more Lilith learned, the more she swore to depose Him. She created an army to storm his realm, an army she birthed herself. But her children were as earthbound as she, and so she turned to slaughtering men, in hopes of luring Him down to her level.
“Through every war she waged, every death she laid at His door, her God never responded, stayed remote and unconcerned with the world below. It drove her mad.”
“She kidnapped Bran to get a god’s power,” Sylvie said. “To confront God in His own realm.” She closed her eyes, finding a smile on her lips at the pure simplicity of the plan. If the mountain won’t come to you—she almost wished Lilith well. Except, of course, it was Du
“Such a god, too,” A
Justice? Sylvie thought, skeptical. Justice was a cold and abstract thing for most people, nothing to fire the blood.