Terror at the Gates by Scarlett St Clair

Lilith Leviathan is the head of her family, and as such, her father is in charge of her magic. Her life is dictated by him and the archbishop of the church. She has always had very strict rules, and one day, she decided she doesn’t want that life anymore. She leaves, and her father lets her, but with stipulations. Lilith decides to move to Nineveh, the sin district ruled by another head of the house, Zahariev Zareth. He is to keep track of her and keep her safe, that way when Lilith feels ready, or her father says it is time, she will go back home. Lilith loves her new life, she uses her magic to be a thief, and then sell the objects to pawn shops. She wants a real job, one to dance at one of the many clubs owned by Zahariev, but he won’t let her. Lilith and Zahariev often have interactions, and while Lilith has always felt like something is there, Zahariev won’t give her a reaction, and Lilith decides to never linger on her feelings knowing she will never be allowed to have him.

One night, Lilith seduces a man and uses her magic to steal a knife from him. When she looks at the dagger she sees it is very fancy and uses her magic to have the man tell her where he got it. He confesses he killed a priest and stole it. Lilith leaves with the knife, but a guard gets to her first and tries to attack her. Zareth gets there in time, and tells the guard to go to his office. He then talks with Lilith, he took the knife and tells her to go lay low. Before he leaves, Lilith manages to steal the knife back. In order to pay rent she goes to sell the knife the next day. The pawn shop owner lowballs her for the dagger, but when he touches it, he goes pale, and blood starts dripping out of his eyes, and then he falls to the ground dead. Lilith calls her roommate and friend Coco to help, and Coco tells Zareth, who comes to help. Zareth cleans up the mess, takes the dagger back, and walks Lilith back to her crappy apartment. The whole time, Lilith complains that she needs to sell the knife for rent money. Zareth finally breaks down and says she has an audition to dance tomorrow, for him.

While things are fragile with her parents, she still does love her father (it’s her mother she doesn’t love). Every week she has a lunch with her father, mostly to appease him. By the end of the lunch he asks for a favor, to come to a gala that her mom is hosting; Lilith doesn’t say yes. After lunch she goes straight to her audition with Zahariev. She dances for him, and tries to provoke him, but he doesn’t budge. He offers her a job, and then they are interrupted by two officers, they are trying to find the man who confessed to murder and took the knife.

Meanwhile, in a Zahariev chapter, he and his brother are in a conversation. Zahariev is always in the background of Lilith’s life. He beat up the guard who attacked her, paid for some of her rent, and his brother hates that she has so much control over him and she doesn’t even know it.

Lilith then goes to dinner at her basically sister’s house, Esther and her husband Gabriel. They are expecting their first child, and so excited. Gabriel also works for Zareth. After dinner, Gabriel puts Lilith into a cab to get her home. Driver ends up hitting a man, and when he gets out to investigate, the driver’s throat is slit. Then Lilith and the other man start to have a fight, she realizes that the man is one of the officers who has been investigating the knife. Lilith shoots her gun at him, and he pleads to make it fast. She takes the dagger from the officer, and blacks out. Meanwhile Zareth is made aware that Lilith never made it home, and goes after her. Lilith wakes up and has a good concussion, and Zareth is there to help her. She asks about the knife but Zahariev says it is missing. As soon as he leaves, Lilith opens a drawer and the knife is in there.

The next morning, Lilith decides to investigate more about the knife. She thinks it is compelling people to do things, but for those who have magic it doesn’t affect them. She goes out to investigate, but ends up getting captured by the holy order. They take her to their boss, who is the archbishop. To Lilith, it is her abuser. She sits still, still afraid of him, especially knowing that he will be the one to determine her future. He tells her that her time is coming to an end, and not even Zahariev can save her. She slowly walks back to her house, and even stops to throw the dagger in the river, where Zareth is waiting for her. Zahariev had just come back from an autopsy done on the officers, they had a weird goo-like substance on them, they aren’t sure what that means. When Zahariev gets to Lilith, he is upset she left, but then goes to take care of her, seeing she is distraught. He holds her that night and promises that by the end of the week the four soldiers who took her will be killed.

Ever since Lilith got the dagger, she has had weird dreams, always the same, but a few things added here and there. Every time she has one it makes her feel uneasy. Later that day Zareth comes back for her with a new gun and phone, and reminds her about her mother’s gala. It turns into a fight, and ends with Zahariev saying that she needs to learn to let someone love her, before walking away. Zahariev walks straight back to an interrogation cell, where the first of the guards is at—he keeps his promise and kills the man for Lilith.

Lilith decides she wants to know more about the knife, and goes to dealers with a description of the knife. No one wants to work with her though, as now she has been seen around town with Zareth. But she does find one lady, but she won’t give her info until Lilith brings the drug Jade to her. Also with Lilith is her pet cat, who the lady at the shop says is not a normal cat, it is her familiar, or basically a demon as seen by the church.

Lilith goes along with her day until she gets a weird call from Esther. She goes to her house to find her in a pool of her own blood. When they take her to the hospital, they aren’t able to save her, but they are able to save her son. In her grief, Lilith runs away; not wanting to see the baby nor comfort Gabriel. She runs straight to Esther’s house, and Zareth follows. He tries to get her to talk about her feelings, it might be a better outlet for her, instead Lilith tries to make a move on Zahariev, but he pushes her away. He then promises to get her sister’s killer, and Lilith says she needs to be a part of it.

Lilith, knowing Zahariev, decides to start her own investigation. She buys a stun gun and goes monster hunting. She was attacked by a monster earlier, but didn’t tell anyone thinking that they would think she is crazy. She finds a monster, kills it, but it doesn’t give her any answers. Her dream still continues, always in the desert. Zahariev meanwhile, is still on his vendetta of finding the four men and killing them.

Lilith decides to get her hands on some jade, she steals it from Zahariev’s collection. He catches her via cameras, but she continues to steal it. Zahariev is confused and wants to know what she plans to do with it. Lilith goes straight to the lady, gives her the jade to get some answers. She confirms that it hasn’t killed her or Zareth because of their magic. She also says that there is a prophecy, and it has to do with Lilith. It will be her job to find six other daggers. If she gets them all she can release the true gods. She can also seal the gates, which is how monsters are getting in. Apparently, the order have at least three of the pieces. She goes back to her apartment where Zareth is already waiting for her. He wants to know what she learned, but she won’t tell him unless he kisses her; which he does. He refuses to do more though, claiming that if he falls for her, it will be so much harder to watch her marry someone else.

The next morning is Esther’s funeral. Lilith refuses to go, but goes to see the baby and Gabriel that morning in support. Zareth is also there. Instead of the funeral, Lilith goes to get ready for her mom’s gala, which she agrees to go to with Zareth. While at the gala, she makes a scene with her mom, and is also introduced to a man, who later tells her he will be her fiancé. Lilith goes straight for her father, and he says it’s time for her to grow up and get married. Lilith decides to let her secret loose, she tells her father that the archbishop and the church he loves raped her, that was the reason she left home, because her parents loved the church more than what happened to her. She left leaving her father stunned. She goes to the gardens to find Zahariev so they can go home. As they start to leave the whole house explodes. Everyone that was in the house is presumed dead. Zahariev confirms it, but does mention that her mother’s body is missing. They believe that the archbishop took her.

That night, Lilith and Zahariev finally confirm their feelings for each other, they kiss and have a heated night together at her apartment. They then decide to go spy on the archbishop to see if they can find anything. After a night of spying, they can’t find anything so they decide the next day to confront him, along with Cassius and Gabriel. Lilith is the first one to run into the archbishop, but before she can do much talking, he drops dead, her mother killed him. Her mother has been working with the order since before she was born. She heard a prophecy, and wanted to be part of it, so she offered to carry the child that would be sacrificed. That’s all she ever saw Lilith as, a sacrifice to kill at the right time. Her mother doesn’t get a chance to say much else, but drops dead, and Lilith feels immense pain, Zahariev looks at her and tells her it is okay, and that she is beautiful. She now has wings… Cassius meanwhile comes running in to tell them that there are archangels among them.