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Prologue

Fate was not a word angels tossed around lightly But as Zachariel, First Angel of the Apocalypse, wrote the final chapter of Verrine/Harvester: An Unauthorized Biography, he couldn’t help but think about how fate had screwed her over

And so it was that, five thousand huel Yenrieth But Verrine, in her innocence, fled fro arms of another

Verrine finally realized her mistake, but it was too late She ca with the succubus Lilith

Unbeknownst to Yenrieth, Lilith becanancy and for reasons known only to her, she kept the knowledge from Yenrieth She did, however, swear an oath to find and watch over Yenrieth’s offspring

In tiirl: Reseph, Ares, Limos, and Thanatos

Afterin secret, Verrine finally located the boys, who had grown up with human families, placed there by Lilith

But the girl, Limos, had been betrothed to Satan and had ed froh she could finally tell Yenrieth about the existence of his children

But as fate would have it, Limos’s arrival in the human realm was disastrous

Yenrieth’s children, upon learning froel and half demon, started a war between the earthly and de destruction and chaos that bordered on Areddon

As punish were cursed to become the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, their fates to be determined by prophecy Should the Seals that bound them to the curse break, they would becoht on the side of good or evil had yet to be determined

No one knohat became of Yenrieth after this, but Verrine, in order to hold to her personal voatch over his children, approached three archangels with a plan—to infiltrate hell and use whatever ned one of Sheoul’s most coveted tasks: Sheoulic Watcher of the Horsemen She intended to act as a spy and manipulate events in order to prevent the demon bible’s version of apocalyptic prophecy

Three archangels, Metatron, Raphael, and Uriel, approved her request and, knowing she would never see Heaven again, Verrine becael Harvester

It took three thousand years of proving herself to her father, the fallen angel and lord of the underworld, Satan, before she was granted a position as Watcher For the next two thousand years she covertly helped the Horseainst each of the Horsemen’s Heavenly Watchers, Shiresta, Barabus, Gethel, and Reaver

And when, in the Year of our Lord 2010, a Seminus demon named Sin inadvertently broke Reseph’s Seal and turned hian in earnest The Daeun

Harvester, corrupted by thousands of years of evil, performed tasks that would eat at her soul and scour ahat little goodness was left in her heart But ultimately, her actions saved humankind, and the Apocalypse was averted All worked out according to plan… until Gethel, a traitor to Heaven, betrayed Harvester to Satan

And Harvester, unable to ask the very people she saved for help, was dragged to Sheoul to suffer an eternity of torment at Satan’s hands

Zachariel paused to dip his angel-feather pen into the sacred ink blended froels Crimson drops dripped from the nib as he lifted it from the crystal bottle, and he wondered how much more he should write Yenrieth had been scrubbed from the history books and from the memories of all but a select few, and Zachariel wasn’t sure how much he should reveal His own memories of Yenrieth had been returned just recently, and only so he could record Harvester’s story

Blood ink spattered on the desk, and Zachariel realized the finality of the situation Harvester was gone forever There was no more to write Thanks to Harvester’s sacrifice, humanity was safe, and so were Yenrieth’s children She, el in history, had shaped the future of all the realms

Harvester was a fallen angel And a fallen hero

Zachariel let the pen fall back into the bottle, and with a silent prayer for Harvester’s soul, he closed the book

One

In any other building in the world, the sight of a hellhound lying on the floor with a baby in itsfor weapons

In a castle belonging to one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, people didn’t bat an eye

Reaver ignored the shaggy black beast that bared its teeth at hiels, and the feeling was mutual

“Thanatos,” Reaver called out, “Cujo is slobbering on your son”

Thanatos poked his blond head out of the library doorway “That’s why Logan gets a lot of baths”

The hound, a puppy itself at around two hundred pounds, flopped onto its side and allowed Logan to tug on its fur and ears as the infant cliy, furry ot home

It had been ed The fire that burned practically year-round was going in the hearth, vampire servants bustled between the cavernous roo aroan had added personal touches here and there, replacing sos on the walls with tapestries and pictures of the local landscape Throw rugs now covered the hard, cold floors, and baby toys lay scattered like colorful land mines that squeaked in shrill protest when Reaver’s booted feet accidentally stomped on them

The keep’sa chilly blast of late spring Greenlandic wind through the entrance Ares, Reseph, and Limos came in with the breeze, Ares in shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops, Reseph in jeans and nothing else, and Lie rinned, and despite being five nant, she tackled him in a fierce embrace

He’d always loved her enthusiased her close He just wished he’d been able to give her s when she was a child Wished he could have been there for her first steps, her first words

If only he’d known about her And Ares And Thanatos And Reseph

“ ’Sup, Pops?” Li her tropical piña colada scent with her “Where have you been? We haven’t seen you in months”

Time ran differently in Heaven, so it felt like only days to Reaver And maybe he’d been a little hesitant to visit For years he’d been the Horsemen’s Heavenly Watcher, but the dynaed since he’d discovered they were his offspring He’d been fired as their Watcher, and more important, he wasn’t sure how to be a father to five-thousand-year-old legends