Looking at Lilith acting smug—her chin raised, her crimson eyes half-lidded with satisfaction, her lips curled into that insufferable, adorable smirk—Gabriel was amused. He smiled, slow and easy, because he had no intention of losing anyway.
"Don't rejoice too early, babe," he said, his voice light but carrying an undercurrent of promise. "You know what I'm capable of."
Lilith's smirk widened into a full grin. Her fangs glinted in the artificial sunlight.
"Fufu! Bring it on!"
Just as the couple was bickering—trading barbs and challenges like two children arguing over a game—the ground rumbled.
At first, it was a low vibration, barely perceptible, like the distant shudder of an earthquake. Then it grew. The sand beneath their feet began to dance, small grains leaping into the air. Cracks spread across the baked clay, fissures that widened into crevices, crevices that deepened into chasms.
From those chasms, they came.
The sky darkened.
