prologue

In the Beginning...

Six months before the first Extermination...

"And you are going to take Adam's word for this?" Lilith stared at Sera in disappointment. "Adam."

Sera looked back at Lilith across the fire burning between them. Symbolic.

Heaven's Embassy in Hell was little more than mud bricks and shuttered windows. Not that it would stay that way. Adam was already talking to Saint Thomas. Adam had plans.

For now, despite Heaven's infinite resources, the Court was stingy in allowing any of its riches down here. But the Queen of Hell shouldn't be sequestered in a room lit only by the halo of the angel who threw her and her husband into the pit.

"I am aware the man has a bias," Sera admitted. "That is why I am asking you. Has the demonic discontent become an uprising?"

Lilith stared. Like the question was idiotic. "How, exactly, are you imagining souls trapped in Hell would be able to hurt Heaven?"

"I..." Sera paused. It was the question she had asked herself. The sticking reason why she doubted Adam's warning. "I don't know. That is why I am asking you."

Lilith met that with exasperation. "Well, I suppose if enough of them got together, they could light themselves on fire and spell out nasty words that could be seen from Heaven. If anyone up there ever bothered to look down."

"So you are saying there is no threat?" Sera pressed. The options on the table were too drastic, and the consequences of inaction too horrific, to end with ambiguity.

The High Seraphim of Heaven watched as the Queen of Hell fell silent. And did not meet her gaze.

Sera felt her heart seize.

"You should come outside and look for yourself," Lilith answered. "Give me a day to ensure Luci is occupied, and I will give you a tour myself."

Now it was Sera's turn to glare. While they may be in Hell, this one place was sacred ground. This building was Heaven. And she was not going to leave Heaven. Never again.

Even these visits were a step farther than she was truly willing to go. If there had been a way to be in the Embassy without being down here, she would have gladly taken it.

Lilith looked up at her. "I am not going to give you what you need to ease your conscience if you won't even look at my people."

Sera took a deep breath. And asked again. "Is Hell becoming a threat to Heaven?"

Lilith closed her eyes and crossed her arms beneath her bosom. Her tail lashed with a single hard crack. "You do understand that if you take any of Adam's suggestions, this thing we have - this open communication between Hell and Heaven - is over."

Lilith's eyes opened, narrow and glowing with the intensity of an abyssal inferno. "I would not submit to Adam in bed; I will certainly not in a meeting. And you know he will make every one of them about that. So if you bring Adam into these meetings, you will need to start orbing my husband about them. I will not attend."

"Lilith!" Sera felt struck. That... that was... yes, that was reasonable. But after everything, she did not want to lose these meetings with Lilith. Especially not when she had practically no one in Heaven she could talk to.

Lilith glared a moment longer. Then closed her eyes and relented. "We can still meet like this, just you and I. Off the books. But officially, it will be you, Adam, and Lucifer. And you have to know, that will only turn into a massive pit of shit."

Sera flinched at Lilith's vocabulary. And the accuracy of the sentiment she expressed with it.

"That... I understand. And, thank you." It was, however, a relief. Meetings off the record made her feel uneasy. It seemed almost sinful. But that was a compromise she was willing to make. How many did Lilith make, after all?

"Now please, Lilith..." Sera asked one last time. Almost begged. "Do your people pose any threat to mine?"

Lilith stood. The arms that were folded now wrapped about herself in a brief embrace. Sera imagined the woman wished Lucifer was here to hold her. For Lilith's sake, Sera hardened her expression so she would not look like she wanted to vomit while banishing the image from her mind.

"I am losing control," Lilith said. Sera noted the lack of a plural, but it did not surprise her. Lucifer never had control to begin with. From their scant interactions, Sera knew the fallen Seraphim had practically shut down.

"Losing control how?" Sera asked, feeling worried not just for Heaven, but for the woman. She felt herself reaching out to her, and pulled her hand back to her side.

Lilith's arms shifted, now crossed beneath her bosom authoritatively. Her stance had no vulnerability. Her countenance brooked no challenge. Lilith was the Queen.

"We have a new problem in the Sinner's City. The rise of warlords who make soul-binding deals, becoming more powerful than any normal demon." Lilith's tail swayed. "They are petty and nothing that threatens Me or My Love, much less you. But..."

Sera listened.

"...The population of Hell increases every day. The more souls in Hell, the more Deals they can make. With, it would seem, no upper limit."

Sera felt alarm. This was not the threat Adam had portrayed. But it was a threat.

She also felt impressed. Lilith never failed to see the big picture. Losing control wasn't a statement of her situation now, but of inevitability.

"Eternity is a long time, Sera. And with no mitigation of Hell's population, one day these deal-making warlords will be able to challenge Lucifer and Myself." Lilith bit back on what she clearly wanted to say next.

Sera suspected, from the look, where this would go. Unless humanity ended, unless Creation was subjected to a Final Purge, the numbers in Hell would increase indefinitely. The power of these unusual Sinners would grow beyond challenge.

"These are My people, Sera. I empowered them. I will not butcher them - any of them - to stop a few from rising." Her stare hardened. "And I am not condoning you doing so either. Find. Another. Way."

"I see." Sera took that for the plea it was. "If I can find one, I will surely use it. But if I can't, I will do what is necessary. Before this threat can grow from its infancy."

Lilith nodded, scowling, hating every word of that. "Do what you believe you must." This was over. "And as always Sera, for the sake of your people and Mine..."

Sera finished. "We never had this conversation."