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“By all accounts, our granddaughter kept my soldiers very busy,” he told Grace. “She will make a fine soldier in the gods’ army someday.”

“Or the demons’ army,” countered Grace.

“No,” Faris said. “I would not subject Sierra to inferior training.”

“Nor would I,” replied Grace. “Which is why she will of course be training in the demons’ army.”

“In any case,” I said before my crazy parents went to war in my office, “as far as Sierra and the other kids are concerned, they just had the best sleepover ever. And now if I can just keep her safe for the rest of eternity...” I shook my head. “Regin stirred up a lot of bad blood, but he didn’t create anything that wasn’t already there. The gods and demons—all of us—let ourselves fall apart. We turned on each other, and we did it all by ourselves. How can we ever hope to defeat the Guardians if we can’t even stay united?”

“Someone needs to keep everyone united,” Nero told me. “You, Leda.”

“He’s right,” said Grace. “You are a child of two worlds, of two magics. You united demons and gods—and you are the best one to keep us united through the days to come.”

“But how?” I wondered.

“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about.” Faris exchanged glances with Grace. “The councils.”

“There’s been a lot of reshuffling on both councils,” Grace added. “In the aftermath of Alessandro’s death, my colleagues have voted me to be the new Queen Demon.”

“Even Sonja?” I asked.

“Sonja and I have not always seen eye-to-eye, but she doesn’t see eye-to-eye with anyone. As a result, she knew there was no chance of her being named Queen Demon. So she decided to cut her losses and vote for me.” Grace took a sip from her teacup. “Naturally, she later informed me that I now owe her a favor.”

I wasn’t surprised by that at all.

“Khalon has claimed his mother Ava’s place as the Demon of Dark Sirens and the Demon of Hell’s Army,” Grace continued.

“Khalon has been waiting for this for a very long time,” I commented.

“He might yet come to regret it,” said Grace. “Politics is not as straightforward as war.”

“I think he only ever collected power to protect Thea. And now he’ll be able to.” I grabbed a few cookies from the bowl on the table. “So, who is replacing Alessandro as the Demon of Dark Shifters?”

“His daughter Asteria,” Grace told me, then claimed a cookie for herself.

“The gods’ council has replaced Zarion with Eros,” Faris told me. “He is now the God of Vampires, God of Faith, and Lord of the Pilgrims.”

Eros. That was Saphira’s betrothed. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the new appointments to the councils. Eros seemed much more reasonable than Coralia, who’d tried to wrangle me into supporting her bid for the council.

And Khalon might have been a schemer, but he’d shown up when it had really counted. He’d helped us stop Ava. The question was whether he’d done it for Bella or for himself.

I didn’t know much about the demon Asteria, except that Damiel and Cadence knew her. And that she’d once helped us get into the demon councils’ meeting chamber, though she had also unleashed a sphinx on us in the process.

“Leda,” Grace said, setting down her teacup. It clinked lightly against the saucer. “Faris and I have put our two councils in order, but there’s still something missing: you. We want you to play a role in the new councils.”

“What sort of role?” I asked.

“We want you to join the councils,” she told me. “By becoming a member of both.”

“Wait, so you want me to be a member of the demons’ council and the gods’ council?” I frowned. “But I’m not a demon or a god.”

“No, you are both.”

Grace said the words so serenely. It felt weird. Just a couple of years ago, the idea of a god-demon hybrid would have been unthinkable. For many people, it still was.

“But what would be my role?” I asked. “It sounds like you’ve already filled all positions on the councils.”

“We have,” Faris said. “But Grace and I saw reason to create a new seat on each council. The God of Telepathy. And the Demon of Telepathy.”