The Devil's Daughter (Hidden Sins #1)(92)

Eden switched her aim to Beth once again, but the woman wasn’t looking at her. She shook her head, blonde hair swinging wildly. “No, no, no, you’re ruining everything.” She advanced on Eden. “You ruined everything. Why can’t you just die like you’re supposed to and stay in the ground where you belong?”

She pulled the trigger, knocking the woman back a step. Beth sank to the ground next to Chase, still shaking her head. “This isn’t how it ends.”

“Wrong.” She finally let the gun sink to her side. She let loose a hysterical laugh. “You stupid bitch. No one beats Persephone indefinitely. Not Demeter, not mankind, and sure as hell not Hades.”

“I should have been”—Beth slumped against Chase—“Persephone.”

“You don’t deserve the name.”

“Eden!” Strong arms came around her, pulling her to her feet as Zach seemed to touch every part of her. He glanced at the couple at their feet and then focused on her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Rachel—”

“Vic has her.”

Sure enough, her partner crouched next to the girl about a hundred yards away, not touching her but obviously comforting her all the same. She’d always been in awe of how he managed to do that, to turn off the hard-edged fed and turn on the human being full of empathy. Eden had never mastered that trick.

Zach touched her face gently. “Are you . . . did he . . . ?”

“I’m fine.” She hesitated. It felt too much like a lie to let stand between them. “I’m not fine. I might not be fine for a long time. But I’m alive and Rachel is alive and we got the people responsible. That’s about as positive an outcome as anyone can reasonably expect.”

His mouth thinned. “I could have done without you being in danger. I didn’t know if I hit him at first. I thought for sure it was too late.”

Zach had been the one to shoot Chase. She should have known. Eden hugged him, surrendering to the need to both give and receive comfort. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to be the one to do that.”

“I would do it again if it means you walk away from that fight.” He held her so tightly she could barely draw a breath. “Fuck, Eden, I’d set the world aflame for you.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR


The next few hours passed in a whirlwind of activity. The coroner showed up to deal with the bodies, the paramedics showed up to deal with Rachel and Eden and Vic, and it seemed like every cop east of the mountains showed up in response to Zach’s call. For her part, Eden wasn’t too keen on being fussed over, but it saved her from having to answer questions because everyone assumed she was in shock.

The truth was she didn’t want to face her mother.

Abram had come with Zach, and Martha hadn’t been far behind him. Eden wasn’t sure how Zach had figured out where she was so quickly, and she didn’t have the energy to ask, but she knew who was responsible for Beth’s death.

Her.

Martha sank down next to her with a sigh. “Are you okay, baby?”

“I was kidnapped by a pair of serial killers and almost murdered. What do you think?”

Martha twined Eden’s hair around a finger, a small smile on her lips. “I think you’re more torn up about the fact that you shot that girl before you bothered to notice she had a gun on her.”

Eden turned so fast she almost fell off the tailgate. “What did you say?”

“A mother always knows.”

That was bullshit, and they both knew it. She turned her glare at Abram where he stood just out of earshot. It was the closest he’d managed to come to subtle in all the time she’d known him. “She was going to kill me.”

“But you didn’t know that when you pulled the trigger.” Martha patted her hand, still not looking at her. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Eden jerked her hand away and instantly regretted the motion. She’d as good as verbally confirmed her mother’s belief. Well, she is right. She pulled the blanket the paramedics had given her more tightly around her shoulders. “I’m not back. There’s not a damn thing you can say or do to bring me back.”

“I’d settle for coffee once or twice a year.”

She almost said yes, almost gave in to this weird moment where it seemed like her mother might actually be a mother, instead of the devil incarnate. And then she remembered everything. “I didn’t expect it to be her. Not Beth.”

Martha was silent for a beat. “Did you know she had quite the following among my people?”

She looked at her mother, that single sentence making things click into place. Hadn’t she just recently considered how little Martha liked to share power? She wouldn’t have done it for her own daughter, let alone an upstart she’d half raised. Eden turned to watch the coroner take pictures of the bodies. “She was always well liked when we were kids.”

“That didn’t change as she grew into an adult.”

No, it wouldn’t have. And if Beth had decided to break from Elysia, she might have taken a considerable number of people with her. If she stayed, she might have even been able to wrest away Martha’s power for herself, given enough time. “You knew.”

“Knew what, baby?”