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“But Khalon said there’s no cure.” I tried not to let hope carry me away. “You yourself said there was no cure.”

“I lied,” Ava said. “There is a cure for Bella’s curse, and I alone know it.”

I dared to hope.

“She’s lying,” Grace told me.

“How do you know?”

“I know my sister,” Grace said darkly. “And she’s playing on your desperation, your love for Bella. That’s all she’s ever done: manipulated those closest to her.”

Grace grabbed Faris’s sword and plunged it through her sister’s chest.

“What have you done?” I gasped, catching Ava as she fell. “She might have known something that could help Bella!”

“Trust me, Leda,” Grace said. “She doesn’t know anything. And I had to stop her before…”

“Before what?” I asked.

“Before she went after Sierra. Because that was her plan. She would not stop until she controlled your daughter.” Grace clenched her fists. “And I couldn’t let that happen.”

Ava’s laughter cut through the echoey room, like hot oil through an open wound. “You are a fool, Grace,” she choked out through bloody lips. “And you are the bigger fool for trusting her, Leda Pandora. If you think killing me will end this, you’re wrong. It’s so much bigger.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Grace told me.

But I couldn’t help it. I had to know. “What do you mean?” I asked Ava.

“My death…” Ava clutched her bleeding chest. “It’s the final piece. The final spell.” Her eyelids dropped.

“What spell? The final piece of what?” I shook her.

Ava’s eyes fluttered open. “The final piece of Bella’s curse. As long as I was alive…” She coughed. “…I could control her. I could keep her from killing people. But when I die, no one will be able to control her. No one will be able to stop her. Whenever the sun is up, she will just kill and kill and kill…until all the killing drives her mad.”

“No.” I shook my head. “There has to be a way to cure Bella.” I pressed my hands to Ava’s chest, trying to heal her wound. But the magic sizzled out on my fingers. “This has to work! Why isn’t it working!”

Nero came up behind me. His hands closed around my shoulders. “Leda, she’s gone.”

“But…” Choking down my tears, I looked up at him. “What about Bella?”

“We’ll find a way to cure her,” he promised me. “We always find a way.”

I let him help me to my feet, but I still felt so numb. We’d won today, but we’d also lost. And as Ava had said, this was far from over.

31

THE OFFER

Nero and I sat side-by-side on my favorite sofa in my office in Purgatory. Faris and Grace were on the sofa opposite ours. We’d invited my parents over for tea. In the aftermath of the battle, we had a lot to discuss.

“How is Sierra?” Grace asked.

And for once, the question didn’t make me suspicious. Since when had I started trusting Grace? I guess ever since she’d executed her own sister to protect Sierra.

Would she have killed Ava if she’d known it would make Bella’s curse worse? Probably. But would I have done the same? I didn’t know the answer to that question and, thankfully, I never would. Some choices were just too cruel.

“Sierra is happy,” I said. “When we went into battle, I got some very special bodyguards to protect her and her friends. A bunch of Legion soldiers did magic tricks for them. And so did my friends in Heaven’s Army.”

I dipped my head to Faris. He’d provided the godly soldiers.