Both males studied her intently, causing her stomach to churn uncomfortably.

Did she want to destroy Osiris? Absolutely. No question.

Did she want to destroy his abominations? Her lips flattened. Two months ago, it wouldn’t have been a thought. They shouldn’t exist. Osiris created them to spite the High Council of Seraph, and perhaps because he was bored. Or worse, to use as an army.

She met Sethios’s green eyes, his expression sheltered while she considered his fate and those, presumably, of his friends. He didn’t choose to be an abomination. Osiris did. To punish him for his father’s crimes seemed… wrong.

Further, to force her child to be the one to deliver that punishment to Osiris and his bloodline didn’t feel right.

It was her child’s destiny, according to the seers, just as it was Caro’s destiny to sleep with Sethios and produce their daughter. Someone should have warned Caro of her destiny and given her the choice to see it through. And that, truly, wasn’t all that much of a life-changing decision. Raising a child took time and care, and eighteen years wasn’t long for someone who lived for eternity.

Destroying a higher being and his entire bloodline, however, was a much bigger task and responsibility. One that could cost their daughter her life, or worse, her soul. The seers and Seraphim wouldn’t be bothered by that risk if it meant destroying Osiris. They would sacrifice several souls if that’s what it took to accomplish the task. Just as they had given away Caro’s body without blinking an eye.

Yet they couldn’t be bothered to handle Osiris before this.

So why now? Why her daughter? Because they couldn’t do it without her, or some other reason?

Everything the Seraphim did, specifically the seers, served some purpose. But who actually decided which purpose to pursue and which to ignore? The High Council? The seers?

Seraphim, by nature, were not meant to be biased. Yet, Caro couldn’t help feeling a bit of uncertainty after having been sent here under false pretenses to birth a child—something she may have agreed to willingly had they only asked.

And that was the point. They never did.

“She deserves a choice,” she said finally. “It’s not about what I want or believe but about her choice. If she’s raised with the Seraphim, she’ll never be allowed to decide for herself.” Her daughter must have agreed with her words because she chose that moment to shift again, this time in a somewhat painful somersault that expelled the air from Caro’s lungs.

Easy, please, she whispered. This is important.

“How would you feel if our daughter destroyed my father and his bloodline?” Sethios asked, his patient tone belied by the fire brewing in his alluring gaze.

“I… I don’t know,” she admitted.

“You don’t know,” he repeated slowly. “You would be okay with her committing a massacre and annihilating an entire population of beings?”

“They were never meant to be,” Caro said through her gritted teeth. Her abdomen felt abnormally tight. She tried to lean more against the bed, but it didn’t help loosen her at all. At Sethios’s cocked brow, she added, “Osiris created them against the natural order.”