“Not starvation, but restraint. Balance.”
“Death?” I whispered.
Lucifer scowled. “It gives me a bad name. Creation demands that destruction and death go hand in hand with birth. You can’t have one without the other.”
“And Conquest?” I said, looking at Sophia.
“Elementals ruled alliances. Land. Territory. Peace. Conquest wasn’t a sword; it was direction led by the magic that forms the earth. We are the closest the mass population has to humanity.”
Lucifer turned his focus back to me. “The Fifth Seal wasn’t tied to any bloodline.”
I sighed, my mind whirling with the barrage of information. “Then what was it tied to?”
“You,” Lucifer said.
My throat tightened. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” Lucifer countered. “The Fifth Seal was never meant to be in a bloodline. It’s a soul, one soul born only when the world tilts too far toward destruction.”
I forced out a laugh. “I’m a cosmic emergency brake?”
“More like a fuse,” Dave muttered.
Lucifer tapped the page again. “Even if we tried to force this on another soul, it wouldn’t work. That soul has to be chosen from the get-go, and the universe feeds it everything it needs to gather the power of choice.”
My stomach rolled. “Like free will?”
Aira nodded. “The Fifth Seal. The anchor. The one who wakes the Riders.”
“Or stops them,” Sophia added. “If you die, the Seals break, and the Riders rise without direction. Chaos follows.”
I sucked in a breath. “So let me get this straight. You’re telling me my genetics, my trauma, and a string of cosmic accidents made me the Fifth Seal, and I woke something world-ending?”
Lucifer shook his head. “I’ve been the caretaker of the Serpents for an eternity, but the rest of them were brought into the fold when you were born. We tried to ward against your becoming the Fifth Seal, but when the universe has plans, you can’t stand against it. What we didn’t know was how big the threat was from Eloise and how she was gearing up to alter the course of the future.”
“Why me, and why now?” I whispered, my voice cracking.
Aira said, “Because the world is breaking, Cora. And you were born when the balance needed a counterweight.”
Indigo stirred under my skin, whispering truths I couldn’t understand. I swallowed the ache forming in my throat. “Okay. Tell me the rest.”
Lucifer closed the book, his hand lingering on the cover. “You are not the apocalypse.” He met my gaze, steady as stone. “You are the one who decides whether it happens.”
“How would I decide?” Was there like a book or a contract I squiggled my name on?I, Cora Roberts, choose peace and tranquility for the future. Please put your swords away.
“You’ve already chosen your path,” Dave said. “Not with words, but with actions. You broke the bonds of blood and did something to make Donn pull back his power.”
“Eloise is weakened,” Aira said. “Not enough to kill her, but the cracks are showing.”
I clenched my teeth. We had brought the meeting full circle—less world ending and more who I love. “I’m done lying to Hudson.”
Aira stiffened, and Sophia’s hook jerked mid-stitch. When had she even picked up her wool?
Dave cursed. Lucifer’s expression turned grim.
“He tells me everything, and I’m standing here hiding entire meetings and pieces of myself.”
Aira reached out. “Cora?—”
