Dave closed his eyes. “He was never supposed to meet you. The bond was… unintended.”
Lucifer turned the page. In the center, a sigil glowed a soft gold, a stunning combination of the other four. He placed his palm over it. “This,” he whispered, “is the Fifth Seal.”
The page trembled. The ink writhed. The symbol flared a violent, aching red, and the energy hit me like a punch to the chest. I gasped, clutching the table as fire ripped through my ribcage. Indigo surged against my skin, pacing, snarling, clawing for release. “What the hell is that?”
Lucifer’s voice dropped into something terrifying and ancient. “Cora, you are the Fifth Seal.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
If fate is a sword, then choice is the hand that wields it.
The air hummed around us as the Fifth Seal symbol dimmed on the page. Fantastic.
My hand shook as I ran it through my hair. “What does it open?”
Lucifer rested his elbows on the table, his focus sharpening on me. “It doesn’t open anything. It awakens something.”
“I’m done with the guessing games, Uncle. Either speak clearly, or I’ll walk my ass down that hill, never to return.”
“The apocalypse,” he said.
My hand dropped.
Lucifer flicked the page back to the tree. The branches twisted themselves into a circle. Four sigils ringed the border—wing, flame, fang, claw. “In the beginning, before angels or demons had names, before shifters or vampires or elementals took their first breath, the world balanced on five Seals.” He tapped the angel symbol. “Creation.”
“As you’ve said.”
“Humor me. This is important.” His finger traced the elemental symbol. “Order.” Then the vampire symbol. “Life and death.” And last, the shifter symbol. “Instinct and war.”
“And the fifth?” I asked.
His gaze bored into my soul. “Choice.”
A chill slid down my back. “Choice to do what?”
“To bring these seals together or unleash them.”
Aira leaned forward. “Humans mistranslated the Seals and the Riders. They never served as omens of doom. They were guardians first, Riders who kept the world in check. War protected when nations rose. Famine balanced population. Death guided souls. Conquest led.”
Sophia nodded. “Every Seal carries an echo of the Rider tied to it.”
I blinked. “You are talking about the Four Horsemen?”
“Indeed,” Dave said.
“So you’re War?”
He grunted. “It chose me, not the other way around.”
“You rarely choose these things,” Harry stated.
I glanced at him. “Where do you fit in?”
Harry straightened his tie. “I am not a Seal, but more a representative of the veil that thins with each passing day.”
“Ignoring the spiritual population when they have become a substantial force is shortsighted and stupid,” Lucifer said. “So when the opportunity to bring Harry on board to the Serpents arose, we took it.”
“Famine?” I asked, with a nod at Aira.
